Lumpy's Diner

Yesterday I went to Lumpy's Diner in Antioch (as seen on the food network.) I went with Fuchsia and Jasmin. http://www.gotlumpys.com/

The restaurant was decorated like what I would picture as a Hell's Angels club house. Therefore, I liked it. The restaurant was full of blue collar and tattooed men. Single ladies who are looking for a bad boy, this is the place to go.

The menu was huge and I had a hard time deciding what I wanted. Lumpy's boost about having 15 different styles of fries and milk shakes. The cake batter milk shake sounds kinda good to me.

Lumpy's also has the Big food challenge that cost $35.00. If you eat it all in 15 minutes or less you get the meal for free. This menu inclueds a 6 pound omelet, a 4 pound hamburger and the the Intimidater (basically a biscuit & gravy breakfast)

Did I want breakfast or lunch??? So I decided on Brunch. I had a peanut butter and chocolate milk shake and a jalapeno bacon breakfast burrito. The shake was not mixed up all the way, but it was good.  The jalapeno bacon breakfast burrito was delicious. The burrito had jalapeno bacon, eggs hash browns wrapped up in a tortilla. It had just a little kick. It was simple but it was perfect. It came with salsa.

The biggest complaint I have was the waitress was rude.
If I had to describe Lumpy's Diner in one word it would be FUN!

Jasmin or Fuchsia do you want to write about what you had? 

I want to go back again and take photos.

Mangi Bene Review #1

So far on my "eater" vacation, I have hung out with many of my foodie friends. Karna, Page, Dixie, Jasmin and Fuchsia. I hope to catch up with Dahlia at some point. I have been to 3 different restaurants.

The first restaurant I went to was Mangi Bene. http://www.mangiabenerestaurant.com/ . With RCSC.

I used to love this place. I was disappointed by my meal. I like the carbonated water they served with oranges in it. I always hope they wash the oranges before they plop them in the water. Karna was kind enough to buy us an appetizer deep fried calamari. It was rubbery. It felt like I was chewing on a car tire, but I have to say the fry batter was light and bubbly. The owner was very personable.  He was flirting with Dixie. He did not charge for the calamari. I could see why. Really I think he was trying to impress Dixie.  My dinner was Ok. I had the Turtei di zucca. Home made ravioli  filled with roasted butternut squash & ricotta cheese.  I had half and half topping. Cream sauce on one half (3 raviolis) and browned butter and sage with Parmesan cheese on the other half. When my plate arrived the food was slightly warm. Karna said the butternut squarish was mushy. I agreed. So the texture was ok. The sauce was bland. The Parmesan cheese seemed as if  it was from a plastic green jar you buy at Safeway. For dessert I had Torta della Nonna - "a slice of pie with short pastry and lemon flavored cream, decorated with pine nuts and almonds. Served with zabaglione souse. This was the best and worst of my meal. The lemon pie filling tasted like cake flour. It was the worst dessert I have had in a long time. There were no pine nuts or almonds. The zbaglone sause was good. I should of poured that over my raviolis. If I had to review this restaurant in one word it would be "uneventful."
As usual I had a blast with my friends. Karna had me laughing so hard I embarrassed myself. 

I think Karna, Page and Dixie should comment below and write there own review, to balance mine because I am very picky.

On The Menu

For tomorrow nights dinner we are having


Homemade spring cream of asparagus soup
Ham and Swiss cheese sandwiches with just picked romaine lettuce on a french roll
Farmers market fresh strawberry
Concluded with a very special dessert not yet announced.

HE

Happy Easter! Soli Deo Gloria!

Bad Friday, Good Sunday

First of all for those people who say Jesus was not crucified on a Friday and resurrected on a Sunday in April, so what? Who cares what day it really happened? Sometimes me and m gig a low's anniversary falls on a Tuesday. We celebrate it on Saturday. Or we may we wait to celebrate our anniversary for a month so we can take vacation. We are still celebrating our anniversary even though it is not really the right day.

"Good" Friday is the tradition to remind us of what happened to Jesus. For those who say Jesus did not rise again I am sorry for you, because for me it lets me know there is hope. That there is restoration, and reconciliation. 

I did not grow up in a Christian home, so I don't have any "good" Friday memories. But I have always wondered what was so good about being hung on a cross? I still don't think the day should be called "good" because Jesus was not having fun first being beating and humiliated, having nails impaled in his hands and feet so he could die a slow painful death.

So I guess the answer why is it called "good" Friday? If Jesus was not hung on the cross, there would be no resurrection. Without a resurrection we would have no hope.

Happy Easter - HE has risen!

Facebook

This is my observation on facebook.

Sometimes I feel like face book is a popularity contest.
I have 300 friends, but some of my friends have 3000 friends. My question is out of those 3000 (or 300) friends who will be there for you when your world is falling apart? Or what if you only get 4 Happy Birthdays on FB? Do you feel bad? Have you ever been UN friended? No loss I already have 299 more friends. (just kidding)

Have you seen those people who write every last detail of their life? "I am in the bathroom at the airport." Tell you the truth I don't care if your in the bathroom in the airport.

The gamers that drive many people I know crazy with the constant posting trying to get other people to join the game or help them advance in the game. I "hide" those people.

Or what about the people who hang their dirty laundry out to dry, word for word on FB? Although it makes for good reading, come on people battle it out in private. It surprises me how many middle aged adults do this. What ever happened to talking out a problem face to face? Grow Up.

Or the people who post the detail of their sex lives.. humm did you ever think your kids may be reading your post?

I have a friend (who truly is a friend) that leaves vague half messages, so you have to figure out what she is trying to say or who she is trying to say them to...

I must drive people nuts with the radical save the animal posts. You can hide or unfriend me, I am ok with that. 

Do you have a friend who post youtube music videos to tell the drama of their life? Or to get revenge on someone?

The good part of facebook is reconnecting with old friends or staying connected with current friends. That just happened to me with Orchid. We had not talked in 10 years. I love looking at my friends photos. Sometimes I wish my true friends would post more. I like keeping up with my true friends and what they are doing.

Paint it Black

From the great Theologians The Rolling Stones:

"I see my red door and it has been painted black
Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black "

Quote from an internet website on worship in church:

"1. Darkness.

Younger folk don't like boomer "bright light worship." They prefer covering up all the windows with black cloth and turning off most of the lights-leaving a dimly lit room. In this muted atmosphere you can't see the faces of the leaders or most other worshipers. It's a private atmosphere. (Let me interject here, what this person is really saying -It's ALL ABOUT ME) And there will be candles. Lots of them. They'll light as many as 50 candles spreading them all over the sanctuary providing a flickering almost-spooky light for worship. Aghast, boomers say, "Why it's like a séance in there-it's too much like Devil-worship."

I am still really bugged that our church has blacken the windows and turned down the lights. At least we don't have the candle thing YET. To me sitting in a dimly lit sanctuary is like sitting in a funeral home.  I lived in darkness for many years. I am ready to be in the light. In my ever so humble opinion church should be a group experience. We are in this experience together. If I want a to have private time with God, I will do it at home or go on a silent retreat by myself.

When I ask about the darkness, I get the response that blacking the windows is the new trend of our denomination. I want to say Didn't your momma ever say "if your friends were all jumping off the bridge would you?" The next response is well, have you been to this church or that? They are way darker then ours! SO WHAT, have a mind of your own.

I am convinced another reason to darken the windows is a method to control. If I cannot look out the window at the sky or notice the beauty of the trees, if there is only one bright light shining at the preacher, I must look at him right? WRONG. I refuse to be controlled in this manor. When I am at church, I look at the floor, the ceiling, my bulletin, other people. I look for cobwebs, I notice other peoples clothes, hairdos, who is holding whose hand. Out of pure rebellion I do everything I can not to look at the preacher. 

(Off the subject: I must say I love the fact our preacher is preaching out of the bible. Not topical.  I listen, I just don't look.)

I am very disenchanted with the "church" in general. I still love the Lord and my relationship with Jesus is not broken. I am sick of the man made trends some churches are following trying to pursue young people in. Most would argue that young people are the future of the church. While the church is trying so hard to reach out to young people they will lose out on a whole group of boomers. Why do boomers have to conform to the way young people want everything?  Because young people are use to getting everything that they want.


Am I just an arm chair quarter back? no. I have a strategic plan. One service for boomers one for young people. I know some churches are doing this already.

Stupid things I have said this month

I asked the waitress in a Mexican restaurant How do you say jalapeno in spanish?

Today at work someone said "I like cheeze-its," I thought they said Jesus, so I said I like Jesus too.

The month is not even half over yet. I am kind of worried about myself.

Orchid's Visit

Orchid and I had a wonderful whirlwind visit.  It was like a vacation from my everyday hum drum life. The very first thing we did was go to my favorite dive Mexican restaurant in Gun Point. Orchid said it was very tasty. We seemed to pick right up were we left off, not as if 10 years had passed.

Next thing we decided to do was get a pedicure! I had not had one since September. I am going to start swimming soon, so I had been thinking I needed to get my toe nails done. It was so fun just to hang out and catch up while we were getting our toes painted. My toe nails are painted electric blue with little white flowers. Orchid said blue toe nails? I told her I wear them well. When my toe nails were done she agreed I can pull it off.


I was really scared about cooking dinner being Orchid is a famous chef. So I thought I would make a  "A" list dinner, hot dogs and baked beans. My brother made the hot dogs so they were homemade and very yummy. Orchid got canned baked beans. She was very gracious about it all.


On Sunday we went to church. After church we were talking to a friend of a friend of a friend who's family makes homemade papusas (paa-poo-sa-s) They gave us directions to an undisclosed location.

The El Salvadorian family had set up a little restaurant in their garage. The family was warm and personable. They made us feel welcome. As far as seating they had two plastic picnic tables, with fold up chairs. Each table had salsa and curtido (a pickled cole slaw). The woman made the papusas, and put them on the grilloven. It was so fun to watch the woman make the traditional dish in the traditional manor. Orchid and I had great seats that looked out of the open garage door to the city street, where the sun was shining brightly. We watched the cars pass, the guys across the street play basketball, and the woman turn the papusas on the grilloven. Our papusas were served hot off the grilloven on paper plates with plastic forks and knifes. Our lunch included soda or water. Oh man, it was great! I loved the atmosphere, the good company and the food.

Orchid offered to make dinner for us, so I quickly excepted her offer.  SO it was off to grocery shop. First item on the list was lobster. We went to the Asian market were they pluck it out of the fish take and steamed it right there. Yummy. See photos below. Dinner was spectacular! Wow! My gig a low and GG-GP loved the dinner as well!

First Coarse:

Spring Salad tossed with flowers and caramelized rosemary pecans, with a Dijon vinaigrette accompanied by tomatoes

Homemade chicken pate' with sauteed pears

 French Bread

Main Coarse
This photo does not do the food justice.  We had fresh lobster in hollandaise sauce, roasted asparagus potatoes with garlic. Marinated TriTip with Bearnaise sauce. The eggs were farm fresh from my brother's chickens. That is why the hollandaise sauce is so sunny yellow.

 

For Dessert

A "rustic" Asian fruit torte. Dragon Fruit, Star fruit and blueberries. I made homemade whipped cream to top it off.

 

Orchid and I finished off our dinner with a cup of tea, she had Jasmin and I had Chrysanthemum.  

I hope it won't be another 10 years before we see each other again!