Bleu Monkey

I was on the fence about Bleu Monkey, a newer restaurant in Hot Springs on Central Avenue down past the mall.  I'd heard and read both good and bad things, but decided this would be my next dining adventure in the Spa City.  It did not fail.

The staff was friendly but not overbearing.  There were two tables, each with over ten people, patronizing while I was there and they were all in good moods, so I'm guessing they were enjoying their service.  Our water was brought promptly and was kept refilled without asking, and without asking too much--that's key for me. With the water, out came a small loaf of bread and pesto-olive oil dip.  It was yummy!

I love the Cuban at EJ's in Little Rock so I wanted to see if Bleu Monkey's could hold up.  It did.  The ham wasn't fatty, you could taste the milder pork, and there were plenty, though not too many, pickles.  The bread could have been a but more hearty because the edges were soggy when it reached my table.  ($7.95 with fries or onion rings.)

My companion ordered the lunch portion of Fish and Chips. ($5.50) It had three good size fish fillets so I wonder how many must come with the dinner portion.  The fish was tender and flaky--not at all 'fishy.'

The fries, while probably of the frozen variety, were crisp on the outside and tender on the inside--a feat many restaurants can't seem to achieve.  As you can see, each meal came with a side of not-in-house-made coleslaw.

All-in-all it was great lunch experience.  From start to finish took about 45 minutes.  We arrived about 11:30  and we're paying the tab at 12:12. I particularly enjoy a lunch that doesn't feel rushed, yet isn't to 'leisurely.'  The next visit will be for dinner.  I saw a burger that looked fantastic but I want to try the pasta as well.  They also had "Salmon Ties" on the app list.  Salmon and spinach rolled up and fried.  That's can't be anything BUT good.

I'm gonna give Bleu Monkey 4 out of 5 forks.

Thanksgiving 2010

Welcome to Thanksgiving 2010!   

I just put the ham in the oven and I’m trying to take a few moments to myself before the hubbub that is Thanksgiving begins.  Later, I will cook the cheese-broccoli casserole and I’m doing a green recipe this year.  (Lemon zest and almonds!)  I did the cranberry sauce yesterday.  My mom did the pies yesterday and today she’ll do the turkey, dressing, hashbrown casserole (YUM!), rolls, deviled eggs, and I know there’s more but I’m still on cup of coffee number one.  Karen is bringing a dessert. 

   

If there’s one thing I LOVE LOVE LOVE about Thanksgiving, it’s the leftovers!  My mouth is already watering, not just at the prospect of lunch, but for dinner.  I’ll be home, alone.  And I will pull down a paper plate, load it up with hashbrown and cheese-broccoli casserole, (I may or may not eat any meat,) zap it, toss an egg or two on the side, pour a glass of wine, and ahhhhh………

My good friend Carol is forging into her first venture of preparing the Thanksgiving meal for her extended family.  Wow!  I cannot wait to hear about her success.  She’s very creative and I’m positive she will insert the proper amount of southern charm (and dishes) into her meal up north.  She’s going to this not only with in-laws as testers, but with 3 boys in the house as well.  Bless your heart Carol.  UPDATE:  Word on the street is Carol has Michael Buble crooning in her ear while the boys dance to the Spongebob soundtrack.  

I often think it’s funny that I’m 42 and I’ve never hosted a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.  Sure, I’m all over side dishes, but from top to bottom, start to finish, I’m out.  But it’s not for lack of want, mostly it’s lack of room and funds.  Only once have ever hosted Easter dinner.  It was for 4 adults and two children.  I made a ham, hashbrown casserole, green beans and I don’t know what else.  It was time consuming.  I thought it was a good ‘starter’ holiday meal and it was a success.

The older I get, the more Thanksgiving becomes my favorite holiday.  There’s no present buying (though I do love a good shopping trip), no stress of getting my hands on the latest must-have gadget so it can end up in the corner of a little someone’s bedroom in two days, and there’s no being good required.  But what there is, oh, what there is, there’s great food, there is wine, and there is football.  Oh, and family.  My family is there too.

This year, my favorite part of Thanksgiving 2010 has already happened.  Zachary texted me and said he was coming home for the night!  He lives in Conway, so it’s his normal routine to just drive home the day of the event.  To have him and his dog, Dooie, home…I just do not have words.  It was fantastic.  Even when he left at 10:30 to go meet up with friends, it was fantastic.  

What am I thankful for?  Am I supposed to say ‘my health’?  I don’t think so.  Not THIS year.  My Family?  That’s a given.  I’m thankful for so very many things.  (I am actually thankful for my health.)  I’m thankful I wasn’t born in Dufar, Ethiopia, China or anywhere that’s not the USA.  I’m thankful I have access to medical care (I won’t hop on my soap box, I’ll just say thank goodness for the single payer system.)  I’m thankful I have a nice car that doesn’t cause me problems at the most inopportune times.  I’m thankful my children are healthy.  I’m thankful I don’t go hungry.  I’m thankful I have heat and water and lights and I’m thankful that I don’t have to worry whether or not I’ll have them next month.  I’m thankful we have a Constitution though I do wish we’d use it more often.

I could go on and on, but you get my point.  What are YOU thankful for?

Let's start the weekend off right!

IT'S FRIDAY!  And do you know what's good what about today?  I'll tell you--I'm gonna show you how to do something that is gonna make you feel so good, you won't be able to help but to have a good weekend!  How's that sound ?

Here's the deal, as you may have seen on my FB page, Nick Moody was on his way home from Afghanistan and was arrested. He did nothing wrong.  Who is Nick Moody and why do we care?  Nick Moody is a mortar-man who served beside my brother.  What that means is that while my brother was running out to save someone, Nick was 'covering' him.  So, while my brother saved people, Nick saved my brother many times over.  Read about it here:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Help-Bring-Nick-Moody-Back-Home/111819705551575?v=info

So, I'm asking you to take 5 minutes and send a letter.  Use mine--it's right here below--I copied it and edited it from Nick's FB Info page. All you need to edit is the first and last sentence!  How easy is that?  Let's make some noise and get as many letters sent to the same inbox today that we can.

I sent my letter to the president this morning...

Send it to www.whitehouse.gov.contact

Dear Mr. President,


Nicholas Moody is a mortar-man who saved my brother's life many times in Afghanistan and now needs our immediate assistance. I need you to please look into this matter and ask questions.

On September 29th 2010, Nicholas Moody was returning from Iraq to the United States where he was working as a security guard with a private security company. Nicholas was arrested at the Abu Dhabi airport on charges of possession of accessories related to firearms. The items in his possession were pertinent to his job and not dangerous. This event occurred due to the layover time between flights. Mr. Moody had to stay overnight in Abu Dhabi in order to catch the connecting flight to the United States the following morning. When he went to catch his flight the next day he was arrested.

My concern is that this young man did nothing wrong. He is a veteran who is a corporal in the Nevada Army National Guard. Nicholas has served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has sacrificed for us and now desperately needs our support to get him out of this unfortunate situation.

It has come to my attention that the family has been informed that our government offers no assistance in regard to this situation. This is deplorable! Not just someone, but everyone involved in our global security should be concerned and asking questions about how this could have happened and how can we help resolve this situation and how we can keep this from happening again.

Our soldiers with our all-volunteer military deserve our support, whether they are on active duty or not. Nicholas Moody is an American citizen being detained in a foreign country due to a set of unfortunate events that he could not have foreseen or controlled. We need to get him home.

Nicholas has been sitting in Al Wathba Prison in Abu Dhabi for more than six weeks awaiting process of his case.

I am asking you as a taxpayer, as a voter and most importantly as a patriot of this great country, to involve yourself immediately. To ask questions and get answers about this case.

Nicholas Moody has an Abu Dhabi court date of November 29th. We have heard that his case will be greatly impacted by United States interest.

PLEASE Help the man who helped me and my family by making sure my brother could do his job and come home alive.

Thank you,
Kathy Louise Hall

Honor a hero and then enjoy your weekend!

Until next time--take care of yourself and take care of each other...

IN HONOR OF NICK MOODY.  THANKS NICK FOR YOUR SERVICE!

 

Here we go again...

Welp, I'm back from the doctor.  As I told some of you, the PET Scan showed a spot on my hip bone and some new spots on my liver.  The results of the bone scan and abdominal MRI are as follows:  (I always find it interesting to actually READ the reports.)

Bone Scan---no noted activity!!!  YAY!

MRI: This test picked up some lesions on my spine, hip, and pelvic area.  When read together with the bone scan, this means that while there are cancerous cells floating around, they haven't actually started attacking the bone yet.  So, I'm gonna do an infusion of Zometa to strengthen my bones.  This is the good news.  We are a step ahead of the cancer here.

The bad news is the rest of the MRI.  As suspected the lesions on my liver are indeed cancerous.  The largest one is 1.5 cm, which is only half as big as the largest lesion I had in March 2009.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that I can still utilize Abraxane and Gemzar.  Since I responded so well to those two chemos in the past, there is no reason why I can't eventually get back into full remission (again) using them a second time.

My doc asked me when I wanted to start treatment and of course my response was, "Tomorrow."  So, tomorrow at 11:15 I will begin my 3rd Bi-Annual Breast Cancer Ass Kicking. (Someone should make a poster!)  I will have treatment for two weeks in a row and then take a week off.  I'll do that for 9 weeks and have another PET scan in January to see how well it's working. 

So, it is what it is.  Here are my initial thoughts:

-I have never been bald in the dead of winter.  I'm usually bald in the summer. (Can you say toboggan?)

-I had a fabulous 2010--Puerto Rico with Zachary, Hawaii with my Mom and Christian, and Honduras with Karen.

-After this bout, I will have spent half of Christian's life bald....seeing me like that is normal for him, so that's good.

-The way my schedule is, I will be feeling REALLY good on NYE so I wonder if I should have a party to ring in 2011.  Thoughts?

-Cancer still sucks and I'm really tired of the color pink.

-I should probably get my flu shot.

-I still need tickets to the ARK-LSU game Thanksgiving weekend.

So, here we go again...

 

Joe's Italian Bistro, Bryant

DINNER!  From the Top Center:  'standard' bread, marinara sauce, foccia bread, child's spaghetti and meat balls, cheese manicotti, and side salad,  Oh, and the receipt for $17.33

The salad was standard ice-berg-from-a-bag, but the house dressing, a tomato vinaigrette, ROCKED! The dressing was stout and a little went a long way, but it was full of flavor!  Next up, the foccia bread.  It was not what I was expecting, but it was pretty darn good nonetheless.  I could've made that very same bread at home, but for $3.95, I'd order it again.  I'm on the fence as to whether or not I think the standard bread rolls are made fresh...I suspect they are not.  They are topped with a good garlic butter and they are tasty--and they are free with each meal, so why complain?

I enjoyed the marinara sauce.  I could taste the garlic and I liked the chunky texture of the tomatoes.  The cheese manicotti ($7.95) was simply put--WONDERFUL!  As you can see from the picture above, it is covered in sauce and mozzarella cheese....YUMMY!  The cheese was creamy and the pasta roll was not over, nor under, done.  I only ate one after having some salad and half of the foccia bread.  (Yes, I mean half of the entore order of bread.) I will be eating a seriously good lunch tomorrow. 

I didn't try Christian's kid's meal ($4).  If there's any left, I'll snag a bite of the meatball and follow up. Joe's also serves pizza so that's next on my list.  A Large 16" starts at $9.95 with only cheese.  Dine in Monday thru Friday from 11-3 and enjoy one of the 8 lunch specials for $6.95.  I got my order to go and the take away menu doesn't give the drink list or price.  Also, I didn't notice any alcohol. 

The interior was dim it seemed, even at 4:00.  But it is tastefully decorated.  Tablecloths, glass plates for your bread...no paper stuff anywhere in sight, which was nice.

I'm not sure how long Joe's has been open, but with Saline County only offering Liugi's for Italian food (that I can think of right now), I welcome Joe's and hope they stay in business for a very very long time.  I'm always for eating at locally and family owned places and we'll be back to Joe's.  I want to try the eggplant parmigiana, linuini with clams (w/ red or white sauce, so I'll have to try both), and the fettuccini, and the rest of the menu...

I give Joe's Italian Bistro 4 out of 5 forks.

5311 Highway 5

Bryant, Arkansas

(501) 847-1254

Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Kaleidoscope was the column I wrote for the UALR Forum while in college and my first year of law school.  As it was then, I hope this blog ends up being representative of it's title--a kaleidoscope----a little of this and a little of that--a hodge podge of sorts. I hope it's funny, thought provoking, enlightening, funny, and funny.


First--about me:


Yep--I'm one of those people who actually thinks that people really care about what I have to say or what I do. Yet I'm not sure why I decided to start a blog after so many years of not actively writing for the public.  I'm sure most everyone gets enough of me on Facebook.  So, I guess I am writing this blog for myself.
I want to have a place I can come back to so I can remember things whether they are funny things my kids have said or a feeling I have about some important issue, like sports.  Oh, and I want to make you laugh, a lot!

I am mother to Zachary, who is 21 and a Senior at the University of Central Arkansas, and to Christian who is 5 and in Kindergarten. I'm not sure why I decided to start this blog other than to give me one more thing to do each day (or week, or month, whatever the case may be.)

I think I'm sick....again....I'll know more next week (at which point, I'll update this paragraph). If I am sick, this'll be Round 3 with Breast Cancer and Round 4 with cancer in general. As always, I plan on winning....again. And again and again and again for as long as it takes.


Cheers!