Sunday, July 3, 2011

A Taste Of Freedom (and some other good stuff)

I managed to escape the confines of my 10th floor prison yesterday, when my jailer (mom) suggested we go to Ruby Tuesdays for our evening meal. While only a brief furlough, it was good to get out amongst other human beings with my mom and sister, and enjoy a meal cooked and served by others. It gave mom a break from her routine too. She spends far too much time cooking and cleaning up. I try to help as much as possible, but we often just get in each other's way.

We all like Ruby Tuesdays. They have good food, and their prices are reasonable. Like the geriatrics that we have all become, we usually go out to eat between 5:00 and 5:30 PM, so we get there before the crowd arrives. This ensures a good seat, and a short wait for our food. Before we left mom's, it was suggested that we take sweaters, since sometimes the airconditioning in restaurants makes them too cold for short sleeves. When I heard that, I thought, well if I'm going to take a sweater, then I might as well change from shorts to long pants. No point in wearing a sweater, if I'm going to have my legs exposed. As it turned out, we were seated next to a sweltering west facing window. Fortunately the hostess had the good sense to closed the wooden venetian blinds, otherwise we would have felt like we were having supper in a hot house. Needless to say the sweater wasn't necessary, nor were the long pants. Next time I go, I will probably forgo the extra clothing, and then be seated directly below an airconditioning duct!

Did I say the food at Ruby Tuesdays is good? I had a half a rack of barbecued babyback ribs, a serving of grilled asparagus, and large portion of some of the best French fries I have ever eaten. They were nice and crispy, with the skins still on, and not overly salted. The grilled asparagus was delicious, and the pork was succulent and falling off the bone. The ribs were slathered in a thick coating of sweet smokey barbecue sauce, that required the use of two napkins and a lot of finger licking.

Because she is very finicky about what she likes and doesn't like, Mom chose the Asian babyback ribs instead. She despises anything with a smokey flavor. She also got French fries and a serving of their yummy mashed cauliflower. She took a couple of bites from the ribs, and refused to eat anymore of them. She said they tasted like smoke. I guess she was expecting the kind of sweet unsmoked ribs that Chinese restaurants serve when you get a Pu Pu Platter, but this wasn't a Chinese restaurant, and these ribs were cooked in the smoker along with the others. They had Asian spices applied, instead of barbecue sauce. No loss though. They were taken home in a doggy bag, and I will be eating them for lunch today. She did enjoy her fries and mashed cauliflower.

My sister had a turkey burger, French fries and broccoli. I never had a turkey burger before, so she gave me a little taste. It was nothing like a hamburger, but it was good nevertheless, and she liked it too. So other than mom, who is a notoriously finicky eater, we thoroughly enjoyed our meals and were too full for desert. I really enjoyed getting out, and would like to do it more often. Hopefully next time my niece can come too.

Oh, by the way.............we took my mothers car, but my sister drove (Thanks be to the gods!). Mom's car is ruby red and so are the bumpers. We noticed white streaks on both the left and right corners of her front bumper. I'm thinking we need to install rods on all four corners of her car, with red flags at the top, so she knows where her bumpers are!

Melissa XX

6 comments:

Kathryn Dumke said...

You need to and should have been a food writer. I always come away salivating. I am so glad you made it out of prison for a night. Does that mean you are in the half way house now?

Caroline said...

Always a good sign when your appetite returns.

Were you let out for good behaviour. Shame you don't have your camera to show us the view from your prison in the sky.

Take care.

Caroline xxx

Anonymous said...

I got a good chuckle out of your idea to put rods on all four corners and attach red flags.

What made me laugh was when you suggested that this would help her know where her bumpers are. As I read your idea, I figured you were going to install them so everyone else could see her coming and clear a path. :)Suzi

Calie said...

You know, after the first sentence of your post, I immediately thought..."Who drove?" I'm glad you cleared that up at the end. You have me worried, Melissa, when your mother drives!

I'm glad you got a chance to get out and I'm so glad your mother DID NOT drive!

Calie xxx

Halle said...

Whew! says I, dittoing the comments about mom's driving. Red flags; LOL

Your paragraph on your sister's turkey burger got me thinking. For most of my life, a hamburger was always something smothered in condiments to the point where I could hardly taste the meat anyway. The introduction of the turkey burger, then the chicken burger got me into leaving off most of the other stuff in order to taste the meat. These days, when we do get a beefburger, it gets a lot more respect and less camouflage.

Glad you got out, and even gladder to get to read about it!

Halle
xox

Kay & Sarah said...

Your description of your mother's driving reminds me of a story my mother used to tell. There was a man who lived in her hometown that gave her a ride one day. He drove waaaay to fast and was very reckless. My mother always said, "you could get closer to God with a short ride with Bill than you could in a week long revival.