Weekly Wrap-Up: A weekend of firsts!

This weekend was really fun (and busy) since it was my last chance to celebrate my birthday until next year AND I had a bunch of online deals that we had to use before they expired!

I actually had planned to go to the horse races on Sunday, but we ended up having to postpone to go to a graduation party instead.  No biggie, because this was truly a weekend of firsts!  Just check out the precap.  :)


Precap:

• Eats: The Attic, Kamal Palace, Gendershe Cuisine (Somalian food), Baja Fish Tacos
• Activites: B-day presents!, Curling (yep, with the brooms)

Friday

We decided to kick off the weekend by having one last birthday dinner.  Yay!

My wonderful guy gave me my birthday present just before we ate, and it's...

A SERGER!!!

I CANNOT wait to use it, but for right now, I have lots of work to do and it'll have to wait for a bit...  :(

Anyways, I wasn't up for a long, fancy meal so we went to The Attic, which has some great comfort food.  We started off with some yummy appetizers: a delish Wedge Salad and Short Rib Sliders!

Our entrees were amazing, as expected.  Clockwise starting from the top left: the Wild Boar special, Chicken & Okra Gumbo, Buttermilk Fried Chicken, and the Shrimp Po Boy.  I don't eat fried chicken that often, but this one is sooo worth it!

I had a complimentary birthday dessert, but we couldn't help but get another one to split.  :)  There was a tie between both desserts as to which was better.  We couldn't agree!  Both the Peach Cobbler a la mode and the Bananas Foster Bread Pudding were delicious even though we were stuffed!

Saturday

My friend Mary (my Europe buddy) came over while I cooked up my meals for the week and she surprised me with some presents!!!

She knew that I was whipping up some ice cream, and got me this cute little ice cream maker!  The best part is that it's single serving (can't go TOO crazy!) and it doesn't need to pre-freeze overnight.  Uh oh, ice cream whenever I want...  AND it comes with this cute ice cream spoon!

I would have been excited enough with this present, but she gave me a set of the Ball Heritage jars.  Yay!  I won't have to dye more jars blue.  :)

We went to Kamal Palace, our favorite Indian restaurant, for a quick bite with some family.  I'm not a huge meat eater, so I've loved Indian food ever since I was a kid.  By the way, I started watching Next Food Network Star, and I love the "Meat on the Side" concept that one of the contestants is going with.  One of my faves!

Anyways, it was a lunch buffet, so we got to try a bunch of the entrees, naan (of course!), and an assortment of desserts.

And as I mentioned in the Precap above, we went curling!  Yes, that sport you only hear about during the Winter Olympics where they throw those heavy things and sweep furiously for some reason.

Well, it was actually a TON of fun!  There weren't any spaces earlier in the night, so we ended up learning how to curl from 9 to 11:30pm.  Yep, that's how I roll (and sweep).

It was so much fun!  The atmosphere is a little bit like adult dodgeball leagues.  Everyone in the league (not us because we were learning) is in costumes and cheering.  We learned how to throw the stone properly by curling it (you never throw it straight), how to push off correctly, how/when/why to sweep, and how to keep score.

Mine is the yellow rock here.  :)  I got a LOT closer to the house than a bunch of other people!

My guy was even considering joining the league, but they only play on Saturday nights.  We probably won't join, but we'll be back to play.  :)  Also, we have some monster bruises on our knees from pushing off.  Next time, knee pads!

Sunday

We woke up late and I still had to wrap a gift for the graduation party, finish up some cooking, do some work, and get a bite to eat for lunch.

We had another online deal to try Gendershe Cuisine and it was great!  Yelp warned me that the "ambiance" wasn't fancy, but that doesn't bother me and I'm not there to stare at wallpaper anyways!  I had never tried Somalian food before, and I definitely love it!  It is pretty similar to Indian food, down to the sambusas (like samosas), lassis, and sabaya (which is similar to naan).

The beef stew that we ordered (top right picture) was amazing!  We also ordered an Ethiopian Anjeera (bottom left), which I've had before at another restaurant and didn't love.  It was my second time trying Anjeera, and it's not my favorite, but at least I gave it a second shot!  But I'm definitely adding Somalian food to my book of favorites.  :)

Then, we finished up our work and headed to the graduation party for the rest of the night.  In a way, it's a good thing that we had to postpone our horse racing plans because it would have been new experience overload!

Busy, busy weekend!

Monday

I've decided to really up my healthy food intake even when I'm eating out.  Before, my philosophy was to eat healthy at home during the week and the one or two meals that you eat out during the weekend should be unlimited, without guilt.  The problem is that during the summer months, people are constantly inviting you out to eat, even during the workweek and for brunches.  Eek!  I still need to fit in my clothes!

Here's a salad that I ordered at Baja Fish Tacos on Monday.  Not bad, eh?  It was delicious and I didn't add the entire container of salad dressing or else it would have been one of those sneaky salads that the health magazines warn us about.  :)

I'm so excited for the next couple of weekends because I'll actually have plans!  The first few weeks after my trip were duds, just getting back into the swing of things.  Now that it's summer, it seems like the schedule is packed nonstop!  Woo wee!

By the way, has anyone ever been to the horse races?  Any general tips or strategies for betting?  Should I dare to wear an enormous hat?