Fine dining with my kids

I didn't get anything done today except for making a memory.  The older I get, the more important I realize laying aside everything for memories is indeed the most important thing one can do.

Christopher called yesterday to tell me one of his classes had been canceled and asked if Wednesday would be good for him to take me out to lunch.  He'd given me a pretty candle for Christmas (I love candles) but my other gift was "lunch out" to a really nice restaurant Downtown.

I think you know how much I love eating at really nice restaurants and how seldom I get to these past years.  Although I had things to do today, everything was set aside for a mother-son lunch.

I picked him up on campus and later dropped him off just before his next class.. bravely making my way through the bumper car route they call campus streets.  It was the only way we could work our special lunch into his class load (which is brutal this semester).  We made our way Downtown and found a parking place in between two one way streets, behind the restaurant.

I'd never been to this place before, a very high end gourmet type establishment.  But we went to the part of it which was a little more casual (I had dressed up but not THAT much).  It is so much fun getting waited on by real waiters and while this section was casual, it was still beautiful and the prices very reasonable (which is why we agreed to "lunch out").

Christopher ordered his favorite three sushis and I ordered a shrimp stir fry... knowing we'd each share a little with the other.  We both love sushi and his father never acquired a taste.  Even when we'd bring home California sushi and assure him there was no raw fish in it.  But then again he also doesn't share our love of Indian food, either.  He is the poster child for old fashioned Midwestern cuisine.

As I've mentioned so many times, I love it when I eat at a very nice restaurant and take home an idea for my own kitchen.  That being from the shrimp stir fry where everything was chopped quite fine instead of in the usual larger "chunks".  They even served it with a tea spoon!

The sushi was excellent, Christopher and I tried to figure out which we liked best but each was so unique (spicy California sushi, cream cheese California sushi, and Boston sushi) that it was hard to choose.  I must admit sushi will not be something I try to make at home although I think Victoria would enjoy the Boston sushi.

It was quite amusing that while I was talking to Christopher, I checked my cell phone and I had four messages from Stephanie... all telling me about the new recipes she was trying for lunch.  :)

It was a few years ago, the last time Stephanie visited here, that she took me to a very nice French Bistro "Downtown" for a girls night out.  I'd wanted to try it for ages.  While I had a lot of fun with Christopher, there is something about going out to such a place with another cook that is an experience on its' own as we tried to figure out how the various dishes were made and what secret ingredients were being tasted.

Of course.... it was a recent (September) girls night out in Colonial Williamsburg when she gifted me with a gourmet dinner-cooking class.  We both agree that it was the nicest of evenings.

Not to mention the special Tea Time when "we girls" went to the tea room in a nearby town and I enjoyed champagne strawberry soup for the first time.  What fun it was seeing Faith and Elisabeth as they tasted each new tea sandwich and yummy dessert.  It won't be long when little Miss Anna will be old enough and there will be a Mother, a Grammie, and three little girls making Tea Time memories.

This evening I sit typing away on the laptop with dishes undone and a house rather cluttered.  But that is just fine.  Tomorrow I can clean and declutter and cook dinner and think about the garden and write e-mails and snail mail and all that needs to be accomplished.

Our family has gone through some dark times and desert experiences but when I look around now, I thank God for bringing us through it all so that our "boundary lines are in pleasant places".  I am so thankful my favorite people on earth are also called Family.

Picture:  Girlfriends Lunching; allposters.com (some posters are no longer available)