Thursday... Sunshine

Absolutely gorgeous day...... not a raindrop in sight. Yee-haaaw! We're back to Texas weather!

My husband and I drove to Pearland this afternoon, to try an Italian restaurant recommended to us by our friend J. It's called Santa Barbara -- do they think they're in California?

My husband ordered chicken stuffed with spinach and feta (do they think they're in Greece?). It was served with noodles (boxed) with pesto sauce. Very good, a huge piece of meat... my husband ate just a third of it and took the rest home for dinner.

I ordered seafood risotto-- very creamy, filled with crabmeat and topped with grilled shrimp. (Kroger-type shrimp, not fresh Galveston Bay shrimp.) I also have a to-go box in the fridge, ready for dinner tonight or lunch tomorrow. The salad was fine, but the dressings were standard out-of-the-bottle flavors. The bread was Wonder Bread, shaped like an Italian loaf. But it was warm, so I guess that's something.

We also shared a slice of their homemade carrot cake, which was excellent. It was huge.... we didn't even eat half of it..... brought the rest home. We usually don't order dessert at lunch-time, but we drove all that way, so I figured we might as well see what their desserts were like. (The dessert was the best part of the whole meal, just because it was entirely homemade.)

Bottom line..... it was a nice place to go, if you want to drive over half an hour for an okay meal and a great dessert. In no way does it surpass our favorite Babbo Bruno. Stefano's menu just can't be topped. All of his pasta and breads are homemade, the ingredients in his kitchen are fresh and his seafood hasn't ever seen the inside of a freezer.

Going to Babbo Bruno's is like going to your best friend's home for dinner...... they welcome you with a hug when you walk into the door and they fuss over you so you really feel like you're "out." If you want a lunch or dinner that gets you in and out in 33 minutes, then don't go to Babbo Bruno. Go someplace else for an "okay" meal because that's what you're probably used to settling on. Babbo Bruno's is the place to go for fine dining, not quick eating.

This is sounding like the food page of The Houston Chronicle.

I got a call today from one of Frankie's writer-friends. She wanted to remind me that tonight is the get-together to "honor Frankie's life" at the little pub in Bacliff. I thanked her, but told her we wouldn't be there. I know that Frankie went there all the time, but she liked that place because it was convenient for a quick martini and a fast order of fish and chips. The rest of the menu wasn't all that great, according to Frankie, and the place filled up with smoke quickly because of all the smokers who kept cigarettes lit during dinner.

Somehow, going to a smoke-filled restaurant to honor Frankie's life, which ended because of her smoking, just doesn't make sense to me. Does it? I can honor Frankie every day by taking notice of the sky, the trees, the flowers, the birds, and by loving my cats unconditionally. All of which I do. And Frankie taught me how to find the bird nests in the trees, so I don't ever forget to do that.

I'd like to take all the people I know who smoke and shake them by the shoulders and tell them that their last days on this planet will most likely be spent trying to inhale fresh air into their blackened and collapsed lungs.

On that somber note, I bid you all a good day.