Showing posts with label Gastonia. Show all posts

A Birthday and Pumpkin Painting.

This weekend we celebrated my sweet husbands birthday. His birthday was Sunday but I started it off on Friday by making reservations at a new upscale restaurant in town. The name of this restaurant is Barristers at the Esquire.


Barristers is located in the center of our little town, inside one of the oldest and tallest buildings. This was the old Lawyers building. It had been empty for years until it found a buyer who has spent a couple years making something out of it. 

This is my favorite building and I have always had this goal to get to the roof of it. There is just something about the size and architect of this building that makes me want to visit the top.

Well, so far I have made it to the first floor. That is where the new restaurant is. The rest of the floors are still under construction. It will soon me an upscale hotel called the Esquire.


Walking in, I immediately got a 1940’s vibe.  I have never been inside this building in my life but could feel the history all around me. With the smell of new paint, chandeliers and oldies music, we took our seats. It was quiet and only a few other tables were occupied. After looking at the menu, I was ready to make my tastebuds smile and my pocketbook cry.

I ordered the Ranch Steak with fingerling potatoes, mushrooms, and horseradish ham crumbs in a Demi Glaze. 


Nick ordered the Carolina Coastal white fish. Maui Maui was the fish of the day. It came on a bed of glazed sweet potatoes and Carrots. 


It was all delicious and we had a wonderful evening. 

Saturday, My Daughter came home and we all went to my moms for a big birthday dinner with Country style steak and gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, pasta salad, biscuits and lots of desserts. Nicks request was pound cake. She never lets us down on a good meal and dessert. We left stuffed and it was a lot better and more satisfying than the fancy dinner the night before. 

Sunday after church, my daughter and I made cookies and painted pumpkins. 


She painted hers a Disney theme. I opt to paint a butternut squash instead of a pumpkin. 


Scary huh?


Poke Bowls

We always try to visit new eating places that come to town. The most recent is a place called Poke Bros . It is a franchise so there are other locations in different areas. I was excited to see one open up around here.


I have never had a Poke' Bowl so I was excited to try it.
I guess you wonder what it is. Right?
Well a Poke' Bowl is a Hawaiian Cuisine and basically Sushi in a bowl. If you like Sushi, you will like these. If you do not like Sushi then you still need to try it. What most non Sushi eaters do not understand is that Sushi is not always "raw" fish. I will not eat anything raw, not even cookie dough.

Poke' Bros. was a small "hole in the wall" place, located on the East side of town. The bright glowing sign hung above the entrance.


I could not help but think the sign pointed to the bakery next door.

As we entered, we walked up to the counter and placed our order. You can create your own bowl or pick from one of their signature bowls which is exactly what we did.



I chose from #3. The Hula (shrimp). Again. I stay away from the raw fish and stick with shrimp or crab meat. My bowl was loaded with meat and veggies. They added several sauces and toppings that I could not even pronounce. It was all perfectly layered on a mound of extra sticky, sticky rice.


The staff was super nice and offered us samples of sauces before they applied them to our bowls. They even let Nick sample a few pieces of raw fish that was cut into thick cubes. He liked it but I refused to even try it.

We were satisfied and amazed at how good the food was. We finished off our meal with some delicious Mochi Ice Cream


Mochi is ice cream wrapped in rice dough. They are fun to eat. I talked about them before on another post here.

We plan to visit Poke Bros again and try different varieties each time.

Have you ever tried Poke' Bowls?


Valentine Date

Hope everyone had a happy Valentines Day. My Valentine surprised me with some candy, wine and reservations at a fancy restaurant up town called Webbs Custom Kitchen. The reservations were for 6:00 so I took off work a little early to make time. This was our first visit to this restaurant but it was not the first time inside this building.

Webbs Custom Kitchen gets it name from it's history that dates back to 1920 when it was a popular movie house call none other than the "Webb Theatre" housing one screen and 826 seats. 

Here it is back in the 70’s

Here it is today

The streets were blocked in front of the restaurant because they were filming a Hallmark Movie. I was hoping to walk in the fake snow but unfortunately they had already taken it away.....here is a secret. It was only cotton and they just toss it in the trash cans afterwards. 

Walking into the restaurant brought back some memories. I remember daddy taking me to my first movie back in 1976 here. The movie we saw was King Kong. It frightened me and had me in tears at the end. Feels like just yesterday. I also remember daddy taking me to this same movie theater to see the first Star Wars Movie.


As we entered, it was like walking back in time. The original projector was on display and there were other preserved pieces of  history displayed through out. Even though the old building has had major renovations and a new modern look, you can see flashbacks of the rustic brick walls, arched ceiling and balcony that still remain. They had a movie screen showing old black and white (silent) movies during dinner. It themed well with the atmosphere like live art work.


We were seated on the lower section but the staff insisted we go to the balcony seating to get a good view of the movie screen and open view kitchen. They also encourage you to walk up to the kitchen window and take a look at the cooks preparing the meals.

We started off with an appetizer  of “Duck Cigars’”. (We call them duck egg rolls.)
Excuse the blurry photos but I tried to be discreet taking photos at the table. But I mean, A blogger has to do what a blogger has to do.


For our dinner course, we both chose the filet mignon medallions topped with blue cheese on bruschetta.  


I fell in love with the taste of this chocolate Martini. This was the first time I have ever had a Martini. I’'m sure they are not all this good. It was so sweet and creamy.........and small. 
But I just had too...Did I mention it was Godiva?
 

Oh speaking of desserts, we shared a piece of New York Cheese Cake to finish off the meal.


We took half of our meal and cake home with us because we did not want to leave feeling stuffed, but did leave feeling satisfied and now Nick has enough left overs for another meal while I resort back to Nutrisystem. 

This was a nice valentine treat from my love and we talked about doing it again soon. The food was delicious and the staff was pleasant.

We had a Hollywood night.




Fourth of July

Hope everyone had a wonderful fourth of July. How did you celebrate?

We celebrated by just spending the day together enjoying a day off. We got up early and went to the Farmers Market to get some veggies.


I think the whole town had the same idea. There were a lot of people shopping. We got a few veggies we need such as tomatoes and cucumbers but then we always grab a new veggie to try that we have never seen before. Today it was a purple Bell pepper.
 


They were really good and sweet just like the red or green ones but I thought the skin of the pepper was a little tough. However, I cant wait to put some on my salad today.

The day started out as being hazy and gloomy, then turn to a small shower that afternoon as we ventured out into the streets of Gastonia to enjoy the festivities that were going on up there.

 
The rain passed by quickly and the sun came out making it a beautiful day.


There were several vendors, rides for kids, crafts a games. We even saw a hot dog eating contest. That was painful.


I could not resist the temptation of the little bakery uptown as we sat outside and nibbled on a couple mini cupcakes. I said "mini".



Later that afternoon we met up with family for dinner then home for an evening walk. As we walked we could hear the bombs bursting in the air all around us from nearby thrill seekers and their fireworks. We decided not to go back uptown for the firework show because by the time we finished walking we were ready to call it a night.


We stood in our driveway and saw some fireworks in the horizon , under the stars and that was just enough for us to think "God Bless America".

Christmas Parade

Great Day for a parade! Not exactly! Our towns Christmas parade was this past weekend. It was so cold...wait....let me go back a day, Saturday it was 56 degrees. Sunday (parade day) it was 34 degrees. It was very cold with a misty rain. That did not stop us for going to the parade. I don't go every year but I was free, and hey, a parade is something you don't see every day.

It was a rather nice parade but I noticed a lot of the regulars were not participating and I'm sure it was due to the forecast.

After church, me and my daughter eat a bite of lunch and headed to the parade. We knew it would be cold so we piled on the jackets and scarves and then made hot chocolate to take with us. I'm fixing to get to  the parade but first let me tell you about the hot chocolate we made. We had just finished talking about peppermint mochas at a local coffee shop when the idea hit me to make our own. We used just regular packs of cocoa mix from the grocery store that you just add water to. We added the water but we also added a peppermint Hershey kiss and a spoon of cool whip to it. It tasted just like a creamy peppermint drink you would buy in a fancy coffee shop. It was delicious and just hit the spot while we waited on the parade to start.

Now, here are a few pictures I took of the Christmas parade. I did the best I could considering the rainy weather and frozen finger tips. Enjoy.

 waiting
 Our police department color guard always leads the parade.
 Our fire department loaded with children on top.
Its Frosty on a tractor! A tractor that was also on a tractor.


Gotta love the cotton candy man!

Hunter Huss High school marching band and the Huskey mascot


We all know who this is!!

"Who ya gonna call? Ghost busters!!"

Liberty Tax balloon.

Ronald McDonald. He was so funny.

The Grinch again.

The parade always ends with Santa. This Santa was hold a little baby. ???

After I got home and thawed my toes, I wrote Christmas cards to mail. I normally mail about 30 each year. I sometimes think I will not send any cards out, but then I do. We look forward to sending them out every year. We make it part of our tradition. So what if we don't get many back. Its sharing our Christmas cheer and love to everyone dear.




Garden Art

One Saturday, me and my husband took a little stroll down town to the famers market and then to a local garden shop.

Out side of the garden, I noticed these hand made sculpture things made out of plates, bowls, door knobs, etc.. They were rather pretty but I had no idea what they were.




I finally learned they were garden art or sun catchers.
The more I looked at them the prettier they got.


They were all fastened perfectly on a metal rod that sticks in the ground to add beauty to your garden.


To be honest, I did not even look at the price of these things. Why? because it would be a lot more fun to create my own with finds from the thrift store or yard sales. This will be one of my spring projects ill put on my calendar.

These sun catchers were found at Ford's Seed and Plant, Gastonia, North Carolina

A Visit to the Farmers Market

You always know its summer time here in the South when the farmers market opens.
























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I am ready for some fresh vegetables to throw on the grill, make some casseroles, or throw in a salad. So, this morning my daughter and I stopped in our local farmers market before heading to our workout. We thought we would never get in this place because the line of cars going in was crazy. But we managed to get a good parking place and get in and out in a jiffy.
As we began to walk in the first thing I saw was one of  my dance classmates selling her hens eggs. But that was only the beginning. While walking  through the metal building filled with vendors selling their products of labor, we saw a variety of many delicious  vegetables, homemade sweets, honey, flowers, birdhouses, fruit and more. 

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 I was actually on a mission to find some nice tomatoes and squash.

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There were no tomatoes that caught my eye but I did buy some squash and peaches.


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The peaches were so good. They were soft and just sweet enough. I would love to have spent more time looking around and plan to go again soon. Until then, I have a squash casserole to make.