It’s 417 Restaurant Month so Women of Substance chose Farmer’s Gastropub for our $20 3-course dinner tonight. We had tried to have lunch there a few months ago but they are closed at noon on Mondays so we were really looking forward to our meal. Unfortunately it fell under the “did not meet expectations” category! Vickie and I chose the salad with shaved vegetables which featured a lemon vinaigrette and it was excellent – for the same course, Robin got the chilled corn chowder and loved it – even mentioned she thought it would be good either hot or cold.
I opted for an appetizer instead of dessert so I shared my mozarella-stuffed fried rice balls with red pepper sauce with my friends. It was an unusual dish and the sauce was excellent but it just didn’t WOW any of us. For the entrée, the others chose the Chimichura steak with smashed yams and fresh veggies – the both mentioned the steak was a bit tough and just so-so and the yams lacked flavor. My entrée was braised short ribs with rice and I was totally underwhelmed. Most of the meat was either overdone or fat – what little I did get was quite tasty but the white rice was pretty plain and only spiffed up with a few green peas. Even I can improve on that and I’m no Betty Crocker.
Robin’s dessert was a stout ice cream with an Askinosie chocolate brownie and fried bacon – she never did find the fried bacon and wasn’t too impressed with the ice cream and brownie. Vickie’s selection of vanilla pound cake with blueberries was okay – I personally thought the pound cake was a bit dry.
Looks like we can mark that place off our list of repeat dinners! However, we did enjoy scintillating conversation as always and here’s what is fit to share with our adoring public:
- Vickie bought a new red wallet because it reminded her of me.
- Robin looked HOT in a new sleeveless silk top from Marshall’s – black with bright red flowers and a cool flounce at the shoulder. She had on a new pair of killer shoes – peep toe heels in faux snake-skin with black patent heels – very chic. Great way to jazz up a black suit – fashionably professional.
- Vickie heard a rumor that Metro Grill is closing – hard to believe since their parking lot is always packed.
- Vickie brought us gifts from Yellowstone on their vacation but she forgot to bring them tonight.
- While on vacation, Chaz took over 750 photos and keeps wanting Vickie to watch them with him. She put 15 of them on Facebook – I love the one of her holding hands with Hannah and also the one of Hannah on the beach.
- Last year, Chaz took a picture of buffalo balls and a few years earlier, he captured moose balls on camera – Robin wants to know if the buffalo balls were huge, how big was his “package”!
- Vickie wanted our thoughts on the argument between Jennifer Anniston and Bill O’Reilly – according to Jennifer, “women are realizing they don’t have to settle, they don’t have to fiddle with a man to have that child….They are realizing if it’s that time in their life and they want this part they can do it with or without that.” O’Reilly claims her attitude is destructive to our society and diminishes the role of a father. Vickie agrees with Bill – Robin and I think there are certain circumstances where a woman may have a chile without the father being involved but if that’s the case, the child still needs a strong role model in their life.
- We were surprised by the outcome of the 7th district congressional race – and wonder if Scott Eckersley really will turn into an Independent if elected.
- Vickie thinks the diapers shaped like blue jeans are stupid – I haven’t seen them.
- I decided to drop out of the Leadership Springfield Alum group – just don’t get my money’s worth with my dues since we are gone so much – and all agreed the educational offerings have not been that great lately.
- Vickie said her mom is so cheap that she re-uses her coffee grinds – just runs more water through them and drinks weaker coffee.
- We always dislike the things in other people who remind us of ourselves.
- Lili’s Diner downtown has closed – and none of us ever ate there. Heard it was good.
- The owner of Farmer’s Gastropub stopped by our table and introduced himself. He said the 417 restaurant month is not bringing him a lot of business. Vickie mentioned her meat was tough and he claimed it was because the beef he serves is grain fed.
- I called Social Security today about an issue – I pressed “1″ for English and was connected to an agent who spoke very poor English – I kept having to ask him to repeat what he said. I suspect his first language is Spanish.
- When Robin was a kid, her mom let her eat ice cream for breakfast.
- Vickie doesn’t have a blender so can’t make smoothies – every time she’s in Wal-Mart she tells herself she needs to buy one but doesn’t.
- I didn’t renew my Newsweek subscription last month and so far I’ve gotten 5 issues since it expired.
- We made homemade ice cream yesterday using Junket tablets. Robin and Vickie had never heard of them. Turns out Junket is a brand name for rennet – still don’t have a clue what that is but the ice cream was sure tasty.
- Hannah set a goal to kiss five boys this summer – so far she’s kissed four. She said it’s good to set goals.
- Robin loves “Dancing With The Stars” and wants to take dance lessons with Jim this fall.
- Vickie took season #1 of “The X Files” on vacation but the remote in their cabin was bad so they could only watch the first episode on each DVD.
- Robin’s favorite show is “Big Bang Theory” and Vickie has the first two seasons. There’s a new show for fall called “Outsourced” that Robin thinks she’ll like.
- Robin is ready for all the flowers to die – she’s tired of watering them.
- In high school, a long-term relationship is one that lasts a month.
- Do teen-aged girls have a misperception about romance because of the movies they watch?
- Robin wants to meet the people who are having sex 2.5 times a week.
That’s it for August – tune in next month when we’ll come to you live from HuHot!
