In The Mind of A Thirtysomething Mom

VBS Date Night Day 3

On Monday I mentioned that on one day of VBS week, Mr. Frog and I go to a place we've eaten at before.  It's the only exception we make to our quest of trying new restaurants.  On Wednesday we ate at the Honey Bee Diner on Route 2 in Glen Burnie.

I grew up in the South, and down there we have Waffle House.  If you've ever eaten at a Waffle House before, you know that it's an experience not duplicated by any other diner.  Now the Honey Bee Diner is in no way a Waffle House, but it's the closest we have here since there's not a Waffle House anywhere near here.

We first ate at the Honey Bee about 3 years ago.  Each time we go back, I order the same thing, a Meaty Cheesy Omelet.  Mr. Frog has ordered something different each time we've been, but this time he actually ordered the same thing I did.

I will admit that we were a little disappointed in the taste of the food this time.  It wasn't as good as what we've had there in the past.  Does that mean we won't eat there again?  Absolutely not.

The Honey Bee Diner is our place.  We've not taken the tadpoles there and have no plans to do so.  Other restaurants that we find and enjoy we have no problem making a place we go to as a family, but the Honey Bee will always be just for me and Mr. Frog.  Sometimes you've just gotta have something you only share with your spouse.

Stop by again tomorrow for a new place to get Mexican food!  :)

VBS Date Night Day 2

Continuing our quest to find yummy new restaurants in our area while our girls are at VBS, last night we went to Adam's Ribs off of Route 2 in Severna Park.

Adam's Ribs is a BBQ restaurant that has 6 locations throughout Maryland, with the original restaurant being in Edgewater.  The location we ate at had a bar side, and family seating side, and a carry out section.  As it was just Mr. Frog and myself, we were seated in the bar area.

Taking advantage of our virgin customer status, we asked our server, Cindy, for her recommendation on what to order.  She seriously suggested "Anything as it's all good".  We finally decided on what to order.  We chose the BBQ Chicken and Ribs platter for Mr. Frog and the Grilled Chicken Breast Sandwich with BBQ sauce, grilled ham & swiss for myself.  We also chose to share a Boston Creme Pie slice for dessert.

Example of a rib plate courtesy of the Adam's Ribs website

Each of our plates came with the most delicious cole slaw I've had in awhile.  Mr. Frog's plate also came with potato salad while my sandwich was paired with fries.  Of course we shared bites of our meals with each other, and let me tell you that the ribs were freaking delish!  We're talking fall off the bone and loaded with flavor.  Mr. Frog's platter came with 1/2 a chicken that was so moist it almost melted in my mouth.  Normally breast meat is really dry once it's cooked, but not at Adam's Ribs!  It was so moist and flavorful that it was unreal.  My sandwich was a smidge dry, so I added the liquid from the cole slaw and it totally kicked the sandwich into another dimension.  So yummy!  The pie was ridiculous.  It was literally tonguegasmic! (Credit to Rachel for that word.)

The atmosphere in the bar area was extremely family friendly as there were some larger tables surrounding the high tops in the inner bar area that families were sitting at.  There prices were pretty excellent for the amount of food you received.  It was well worth the price we paid.

Just for the record, our waitress, Cindy, was awesome!  This was a 10 times better experience than what we had Monday night.  Adam's Ribs has gained some new customers for life.

If you're ever in Maryland, make sure to stop at one of the 6 locations in the state.  You'll be one happy fat panda if you do, trust me.

VBS Date Night Day 1

This week, the girls are in VBS at our church.  Mr. Frog and I have a tradition where while the girls are in VBS, the boys are at home and we go on a date.  We look forward to this every year as it's the only time we get to spend time as a couple working on our relationship and enjoy dinner together sans children.

One of the things we insist on doing each year is to try a new restaurant in the local area.  We do our best to hit places we've never eaten at before, either on date nights or as a family.  This affords us the opportunity to try new places without worrying about whether or the tadpoles will enjoy it or not.  If the restaurants are found to be family and budget friendly, we will return at a later date with the whole Frog crew.  (There is one exception to this "rule" and that's our special Wednesday night dinner restaurant.  I'll cover that in more detail then.)

On Monday, we drove around a bit after dropping the girls off and decided to eat at the Greenhouse Grill on Route 2 in Glen Burnie.

Okay, I decided and Mr. Frog went along for the ride.

As you can see in the picture, the Greenhouse Grill is labeled as a casual family dining restaurant.  I thought it would be a good place to possibly return to at a later date with the tadpoles.  Meh, not so much.

Evidentally, on Monday's if you don't have a coupon to use, you get to spin the wheel located by the hostess stand and win a prize.  We were treated to a free gelati dessert.  Spinning the wheel was about the best part of the experience.

Upon being seated, we quickly received our drinks.  We noticed another table of diners that had a HUGE plate of Spaghetti and Meatballs.  Seeing as this was our first time eating there, we politely asked our waitress if that meal size was indicitive of the portions served.  She confirmed it was.  No really, this plate was HUGE. 

Our waitress seemed almost bothered by the fact that we had a few questions before we placed our orders.  We didn't ask anything difficult but simple ones such as the one about serving sizes and what the soup of the day was (Chicken Dumpling - keep that in mind as it comes back later in this story).  After thinking about it for a few, we placed our orders; an appetizer sampler (with wings, nachos, and bacon cheese fries) to share, a Greek sandwich for Mr. Frog, and a soup and salad combo for myself (with the aforementioned soup of the day). 

When the appetizer plate arrived, it looked pretty good.  I wish I had taken a picture, but I didn't so you'll have to pretend.  The nachos were delish!  The wings were really good too.  The fries weren't much to write home about, though.  About 10 minutes later, our food arrived...sort of.  See, Mr. Frog's food arrived as he ordered.  I got a plate of lettuce with one cucumber, 3 croutons, 2 tomato slices, and a wad of onions.   I also got Tomato Basil Soup.

Wait, what?

Yes, Tomato Basil Soup.

As she's putting the bowl of soup in front of me, our waitress says that they're out of Chicken Dumpling soup, and she just decided to bring me the Tomato Basil Soup.  (Just for the record, I HATE tomatoes.)  I ask what other soups there are, just in case I'd like something different (notice here, I asked - she didn't volunteer the information).  The only other kinds of soup were Crab and French Onion.  (Again for the record, I HATE seafood and onions!)  She begins insisting that the soup is really good and that I'll like it, she swears.  Uh huh, right.  I ate the salad, after I picked the onions and tomatoes off of it, and barely ate half the soup.  It wasn't that it was that bad, but when you've got you're heart set on Chicken Dumpling, Tomato Basil just doesn't cut it.  (Not to mention that it had big tomato chunks in it.  It wasn't even pureed smoothly.  Blech!)

As we're finishing our food, our waitress brings out dessert.  Yes, she just brings it out.  We asked her what it was.  She brought us Cheesecake gelati  (I HATE cheesecake!).  This chick was seriously batting 1000.  We ask what other flavors they have, you know, in case we'd like something else.  We decided on the Melon flavor, as the only other one they had was Strawberry which yes, you guessed it, I don't like strawberries either.  Once we got something we actually wanted, we did enjoy it.

Aside from the nincompoop waitress, the Greenhouse Grill isn't a place I'd willingly take the tadpoles to for dinner.  The food was extremely overpriced for what I'd consider a family restaurant.  Burgers were priced between $7-$10.  The least expensive meal was about $12.99 and if you wanted steak or seafood you were looking at over $20 a plate.

The atmosphere wasn't much better.  It was good for a couple dinner date, but I don't think children would enjoy it much.  Of course I'm failing to mention the Keno and Lotto games playing on the TV while we were eating or the Lotto machine by the front entrance.  Family friendly?  I don't think so.

If you're looking for a great family restaurant, the Greenhouse Grill on Route 2 in Glen Burnie is not the place you want to go.  Try Applebee's or Chili's, or better yet, come back tomorrow to read about the AWESOME place we ate at on Tuesday!  Now that is a place worth talking about!

5479...

That's how many days we've been married as of today.

(for y'all that don't do math, that's 15 years)

I love you more today than I did in 1995.

Look at all we've achieved since we've been together.

Happy Anniversary baby!

Maybe I Should Have Gone With Strawberry

I recently bought some new shampoo and body wash to try out a new scent.  I went with Lavender/Lilac for the shampoo and Lavender/Vanilla for the body wash.  Saturday was the first time I used these new products and I totally loved the scent.  

Mr. Smoochiefrog and I were hanging out that night and I was telling him about the new stuff.  When I mentioned the body wash he got real excited as he loves the smell of vanilla, then he got dejected when he discovered that the lavender overpowered the vanilla scent.  He asked why I didn't get the one that was just vanilla.  I told him I didn't want to walk around and have people thinking I was a cake or something.  :)

Cut to Monday.

I had just finished doing some chores and there was a strong vanilla scent in the air.  I went to Mr. Frog and asked him to smell me and tell me if it was me.  He did and said he just smelled lavender.  The rest of the conversation went like this:

Me:  "No. I smell vanilla."  Sniffs arm.  "Here, smell my arm right here." (the bicep area of my arm)

Mr. Frog:  Sniffs.  "Yeah, that's totally vanilla right there."

Me:  "See, told you I smelled vanilla!"

Mr. Frog:  Sniffs again.  "You smell like a pancake."

Me:  "And that right there is why I didn't buy the plain vanilla scented body wash."