Random Acts of Kindness: Day 3 ~ Compliments to the Server

With one kiddo in a full leg cast, Spring Break looked a little glum around here. Hubby and I decided to take the kiddos out to eat at BJ's Brewery to kick off what would be a low key Spring Break.

I had been but the family had not. Well...I must just say, it was an amazing time! I cannot begin to brag enough about our evening. The food was great, the timing was excellent, and the service was a 10 out of 10! I'm really not exaggerating. The first dozen jobs I had, were in full service restaurants. It is not brain surgery but I will say our town is really laking on great service.

It was so amazing that I asked our server to get her manager and come back with the manager. She looked really scared. When we first sat down I ordered a drink I dislike and sent it back to get something different. I think she thought I was going to raise hell about it.

When the manager came over, I seriously just gushed on our service. I told the manager I was really impressed and though I had brought my family to try their wonderful pizza, it was our server that would have us coming again and again. They just created regular customers and I could not think of one single thing our sever could have done differently to make it any better. I watched our server's face go from complete worry to absolutely beaming.

He thanked me for sharing the praise. I said I'm sure he was used to only talking to customers when things go wrong and people were unhappy. He asked that I never stop doing that because it really made their night and he planned on bragging about our server at the close of shift.

My kiddos and hubby were really excited to see how happy it made them. It made our night too. It's expensive to go out to eat and we've almost given up going out to eat because it's such as waste of money to get mediocre food and poor service. This night was amazing and I hope it was an encouragement to them.

We'll definitely be going back and we'll be asking to sit in Christina's section!

New Recipe: Number 13 ~ Corn Beef & Cabbage Egg Rolls

We celebrated St. Patty's day at my parents' house, therefore I had a corn beef brisket in my fridge and needed a fun recipe to make it. When I asked my hubby if I should throw it in the freezer or make it (so we would have corn beef twice in one week) the Irish in him leapt out and said, "Make it."

Corn Beef & Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients Roll:
-Corn Beef
-Cabbage
-Onions
-Egg Roll Wrappers
-Egg (beaten for egg wash, can substitute water).

If you've never purchased Egg Roll Wrappers before, you can find them in a couple different places in the store, but always in a cooler section. They will either be near the produce or the yogurt but is almost always be the tofu. Most Egg Roll Wrappers are made of tofu.

Cook Corn Beef:
Cook the corn beef in the crock pot on low for about 6 hours. Pull the corn beef from the crock pot and let is rest on a cutting board for about 15 minutes. Shred corn beef and put into a dish and refrigerate (for about an hour till the meat is cool).

Sautee Onions & Cabbage:
Sautee about one sliced white onion in a frying pan with a little butter (butter not oil...very important). After the onion becomes clear, add in sliced cabbage (try to make the onion and cabbage slices about the same width). Add some more butter (at this point I think I used a total of 4 tbsp). Saute onions and cabbage until cabbage shrinks down stirring to make sure all the cabbage gets cooked evenly. When the cabbage is all withered down, stop stirring regularly and allow the onions and cabbage to caramelize. Allow the onions and cabbage to remain in the same place in the pan for 5-10 minutes before moving things around and letting it sit for 5-10 minutes. Continue to do this until the cabbage and the onions brown and may even blacken in some areas (though you do not want it all black). Remove from heat and place in a dish and refrigerate for at least one hour (I try to put it in around the same time as the corn beef so they will both be ready to use at the same time.)

After both the cabbage and onion mixture and the corn beef have cooled, it's time to roll.

Rolling egg rolls may seem hard, but it's really quite easy. Lay down an egg roll like a diamond with points up and down and side to side.

Place Corn Beef in the bottom 1/3 of the Roll. 

Place Cabbage on top of beef.

Fold up bottom corner.

Roll part way.

Fold in one side to the center.

Fold other side to the center.

Egg wash the top and fold over the middle.

Viola...beautiful rolls.

 After the rolls are complete, I used my deep fryer set at 375˚ and fried until golden brown (or fry them in a frying pan turning them often to ensure every side gets crispy). They can also be baked in the oven at 350˚ for about 15 minutes with egg wash on the entire roll but they do not get very crispy this way.

Served over sauteed cabbage & onions...and believe it or not ~ soy sauce.

Reading: Book 4 ~ Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants

By Sara Gruen

I loved this book and would recommend it but with caution. This is not a book for young readers. There are some very adult scenes in this book (of sexual and explicit nature). 

The main character in this book is an elderly man (in his 90s) and goes back and forth from him in present in the nursing home in which he now resides and back to his youth when he unknowingly became part of a traveling circus.

This book definitely kept my interest and was not only easy to read but I could set it down to get things done around the house (unlike "Hunger Games"). This book was made into a movie that came out just about a year ago and I have yet to see the movie. In the notes from the author, it seems this book was semi based on several different recorded circus stories from this time period. Throughout the book there are several pictures of circuses from this time period. It was definitely a different world.

I enjoyed this and recommend it (to adult readers).