Ice Cream Tales and Chinese Food Fails

 

A new pattern technique I am interested in learning how to do. 

This week began the challenge I signed up for last month. I'm collaborating with the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to crochet at least one project in the month of April to garner donations for the charity. During this time, I have wandered my way through many different roadblocks such as picking a pattern and choosing how I want to move forward with getting those important donations. Do I want to crochet and share the work I'm doing in hopes someone will feel like donating to such a worthy cause? Or am I going to make a project and then auction it off, giving all proceeds to St. Jude? Or do I choose to sell the project (s) in order to make money to donate? Well, it's the 8th of the month and I still have no clue. 

I chose an awfully cute kitty afghan pattern but while attempting to make it have found that those years of not crocheting made me forget how to really work some stuff in the pattern. It will just take time to bring back those techniques I learned so long ago. Along the way, I have also learned several new methods of keeping the afghan looking sharp, such as how to carry the yarn across the row, giving me the ability to change colors throughout the project without having to stop, cut yarn, and tie off those annoying ends that are so difficult to hide in the rows after the project is complete. 

One thing I am finding are a couple of other ways to craft awesome looking patterns. The lion afghan above is accomplished by using the mosaic technique. I have been watching a couple of videos to see exactly how to do this pattern and it's quite interesting really. Piquing my curiosity, yes. Accomplishing t? Not so much. I have yet to make an attempt to try it. We'll see how that goes! 

The beautiful cat afghan I have selected. Not sure if I'm selling it after the challenge is complete or keeping it. I may be making a couple of these, once I get the pattern down. I'm not used to carrying the yarn with me throughout the pattern and because it's a new method of working a pattern such as this, I have had to take it all apart several times. 

But this challenge isn't enough. I just signed up for another crochet challenge for the American Cancer Society during the month of May. This should make things exciting only one month away from our wedding date, because I just didn't have enough stuff to do. 

So that happened. The week ended with Terry's eye still looking as though I clocked him. It's terribly bloodshot around the retina and in the white part of the eye, where the surgeon had to lock the retina down with the laser. Even though it looks damaged, I am so glad he had this done to save his eyesight. My sweet man does look like he lost a fight though. We have joked about me being a bit gentler when I smack him next time. 

The family has decided to put together an Easter dinner at the last minute. We doled out the dishes to be made and planned to be at my daughter's house by 3:00. I love the fact that even as a large family, we can throw gatherings together so quickly. We typically don't do much of anything during this holiday, as we all have our own religious and spiritual beliefs. We respect each other's choices in what we do believe in and that's perfect. We have also not had small children to enjoy the holiday with. That has changed as well. Baby Zyrah will be having a blast with her Easter egg hunt. But dinner is on, with two spiral cut hams, mashed potatoes, au gratin potatoes, green bean casserole, fruit salad, baked beans, rolls, deviled eggs, veggie tray, stuffed mushrooms and of course, the best part, three different desserts. 

My daughter Marina bakes some of the most delicious meals and desserts, especially the sugar free ones. She is already putting together the strawberry cheesecake with fresh berries on top, the lemon cookies, and I can't recall what other dessert she had mentioned. My mind stopped at the lemon cookies and strawberry cheesecake! Jess (granddaughter) and daughter Dawn chose to bring a couple of pies to add to the fun, such as chocolate cream and banana cream. The dinner sounds awesome, but the idea that we are all gathering again as a family is joyful to me. As I have mentioned before, I love my family and can't wait for us to gather. Like other people from around the world, we had to squash the idea of gathering for the last three years, so we are craving it now! 

As dinner time rolled around last night, Terry and I chose to go out to eat rather than me driving to the store, purchasing ingredients to throw a meal together, and then waiting for it to cook. He looked up our go-to Chinese eatery and found it had closed permanently. I couldn't believe it! Not "our place!" Small businesses have taken such a hit from the pandemic and now not being able to recover from it all. Lee's Restaurant was a place Terry and I enjoyed because of its smaller size, nice staff, and good food. 

I am a creature of habit as they say. I hate change. Lee's was our choice for Chinese cuisine and now it is no longer an option. Terry searched for another joint to grab some Chinese food. He located another restaurant up the street from where Lee's was positioned, and we headed out. 

The parking lot was packed. Due to the size of the lot, I was quite surprised. I questioned Terry as to whether or not he wanted to eat at Chen's Family Dish because of the wait time we would have to endure most likely, by the looks of the cars parked outside. We did choose Chen's and I have to say, I don't regret it!

Chen's Family Dish restaurant turned out to be a great choice for Friday night cravings of Chinese food. We were served so much food that it definitely squashed any sort of cravings we had!

Chen's Family Dish in Roseburg is quite large, with two sections to choose from. One section is complete with a bar and more of a nighttime feel to it. We chose the other section that had booths and tables for families. The place was clean, and the food smelled wonderful!     

We started out by ordering our meals and getting served with the accompaniment of egg flower soup. The typical serving of egg flower soup consists of broth, pieces of egg whites, and a rich chicken flavored base. This soup came with carrots, peas, and even a few pieces of corn thrown in for good measure. I thought it was wonderful and it was served up as hot as you can get soup. I am a stereotypical American though and added the crackers to complete the egg flower soup experience. Delicious beginnings. I couldn't wait for dinner!

Terry ordered a serving of chow mein. A large plate was placed in front of him, including a ton of veggies mixed into the enticing plate full of chow mein. Of course, this includes the crunchy noodles placed on the bottom of the entire pile. I don't use the word, "pile" loosely. The restaurant's portions were outstanding! 

Terry's chow mein order. Fresh veggies mixed with Chinese noodles and sauce, served on top of crunchy noodles. 

I ordered a combination meal, which included sweet and sour chicken, pork fried rice, chow mein on top of a bed of crunchy noodles, and the delightful dish of crab puffs. I had never tried a crab puff before, but they were little puffed pastry filled with a heavenly mixture of crab meat and cream cheese, seasoned with herbs for complete perfection. They had four puffs included in the meal. I ate all four without guilt and with sheer pleasure. My taste buds were treated on this trip. Sheer ecstasy.

On the right side of the plate were the crab puffs that left me wanting more. 

The sweet and sour chicken was amazing, with white chicken meat and an incredible sweet and sour combination on top. Fried rice was not greasy as I have experienced in some restaurants, but filled with pieces of egg, tiny strips of meat and vegetables thrown in to complete the traditional rice dish. The chow mein was incredibly delicious. All in all, the meal was great. We both made the decision to return when Chinese food is craved. 

What better way to top off an awesome Chinese meal than with the American tradition of a fortune cookie? The cookies were brought over with the check, as is typical. I grabbed one I thought was a good choice and left Terry with the other cookie. 

I popped mine open and read the "fortune" inside. 

Fortune cookies also give you "lucky" numbers to use in lottery drawings.

"You will soon find more adventure in your life". 

My fortune was awesome! Who can't do with a little more adventure in their lives? I think Terry and I are doing a pretty good job in going out, enjoying our lives, and of finding adventures to share. Even when we sit at home, we have a lot of fun in laughing at the same things, enjoying movies or shows that we both enjoy, or simply sitting and talking to each other. I feel close to my sweet man and love the fact that we have so much in common. 

Now Terry snapped open his fortune cookie to reveal the contents. To our surprise, his fit the upcoming event so well. 

"Soon wedding bells are in a family member's future" fit our life so well. We will be married on June 17 of this year. This fortune made us both giggle. 

The decision to try out the new restaurant was a good one. Meals served were delicious and hot. In fact, several times Terry and I took a bite and fanned our mouths. We had to give the food a bit of time to cool. The food didn't have the "overdone" taste, such as sitting under a heat lamp too long before served. The food was good, hot, and fresh. 

After such a wonderful meal, we thought we would run to the store and pick up "munchies" for the week. I grabbed a couple of ice cream flavors for us. Terry loves a brownie a la mode choice from the Carb Smart brand of ice cream, and I love the chocolate or the mint. But when I went to choose them, I noticed a new option of Neapolitan! 

Now Neapolitan may not sound like anything to be so happy about, but being diabetic, it's a choice we should celebrate! The Carb Smart option gives us fewer calories, lower carb count, and to top it all off, less sugar. Terry and I can safely eat some of this ice cream without going overboard on the sugar and carbs. Plus, it tastes good. I have tried many sugar free or reduced sugar ice creams and for the most part, you are left with a nasty chalky taste. Breyer's Carb Smart doesn't give you that sugar free fail. So yes, I was excited. I grabbed a tub of that for my choice. 

Friday night was a good night and a great way to start out our weekend together. Tomorrow (Saturday) is an unplanned day of taking it easy and choosing to do things if we wish. Other than that, nothing planned. I do have to prep a couple of dishes we are taking to the Easter dinner. 

Terry and I cannot wait for the family gathering! This month has Easter with the family, plus my sweet man's birthday on the 25th. We are definitely looking forward to both. In the meantime, we wish you and yours an amazing weekend. Be kind to yourselves and to one another. Our lives are often far too complex and entirely too crazy to not treat ourselves and those around us the best we can. Take time to relax and heal yourself. Enjoy life and your spouse, partner, family, or even time spent with yourself. Don't dwell on the difficulties we face in life. Stressing is not healthy. So do let the small things go. We have enough to worry about without adding small stuff to it. 

Take care everyone and enjoy the weekend.