This last week has been one of adventure, fun, new friends and old ones, great weather, and a lot of hope for the future.
First allow me to say how grateful I am to have so many readers that follow my crazy little blog for so long now. Thanks. It’s an honor, a treat and lots of fun for me. Then, moving on quickly, I am so grateful for my health. I have gone two years without any significant change in status. This is all I could have hoped for after walking into Dr. Kathrine Helgen’s office at the Northfield Family Clinic, on the verge of death not too long ago. I thought I was allergic to a new lotion. Haha. NOT! Anyway, I am here, and glad of it.
I am super grateful for the lovely Thanksgiving we spent with new friends at their excellent 7,000 sq. ft. mansion in Minneapolis. The home, the company and the food were some of the best we have experienced and we want to say Thanks! to the family and others who made our day so happy.
Continuing the breaking out part, dh and I decided to try out Butler’s Steak and Ale. We saw someone go in the door of Butler’s on a Saturday afternoon around 1 PM. So, we went in and then were promptly shown the door. Seems they were having a staff meeting and weren’t opened until 3PM. We were too hungry to wait two hours, so we hightailed it down to Monte’s in Faribault. We were looking to celebrate a little that day.
Dh had the gorgonzola pizza which he loved. Way too cheesy for me, but that’s me trying to keep my girlish figure. Right. I had the Pasta Carbonara which was super, but I couldn’t eat more than 1/3 of it. It was great nuked for breakfast the next two mornings. Monte’s always serves a lovely bread stick basket with delicously light and smooth olive oil with aged vinegar with each meal. So good! The service was just what I like. On time, little fuss, polite and accurate. That’s all. If a server does just that, we tip extra.
Anyway, last Monday around 4 PM, we tried Butler’s again. This time a man named Gabriel served our food and was a delightful and refreshing change to service as we know it. Gabriel actually likes to do a nice job and has the personality that lets him get away with not doing a good job, too. Haha. I gather that a lot of Norm’s regular customers know Gabriel, who was also tending bar while he was serving us. Another lady joined in to actually bring the food to the table. She had nice earrings and good overall appearance and also likable.
We had a nice time at Butlers’, however, after being opened two months, there are still some apparent growing pains. The food was served on cold dishes, which I asked to be warmed up so I could eat slowly as I like and not meet up with frozen carrots and icy grilled chicken. Dumb me, I thought that dishes could be warmed up in the microwave. Turns out they cannot be warmed up unless they have something in them. So, it took awhile to bake them in the oven. Fortunately for me, I gave half my chicken to Dh so I had no problem. Let it be said a “not cold dish” was brought to me before too long. Gabriel explained that the next dish would be hotter, but it came too late for me. Also, in the growing pain category, is or was the fact that the chef was newer than the restaurant, as in recently hired, and so was still learning the ins and outs, the colds and hots.
We both enjoyed our teas, mine served hot with two tea bags and honey, and dh had the cold stuff.
About the food itself…the house salad was quite delicious, but that the choice of salad dressings was lacking severely. My grilled chicken tasted quite good and was actually surprisingly unsalty. Our root vegetables were unevenly cooked, but good to taste, and the garlic potatoes were served in an unattractive heap. I think the presentation was really lacking on my plate. The English don’t seem to do much with fancy reductions, fussy little bits of color, or even a bit of colorful parsley to make a dull food look exciting and worth the extra dollars customers plunk down for a nice meal out. As you can see, I am still resentful of the cutbacks of all the little goodies that restaurants used to give that set the restaurant dish apart from the home dish.
Dh’s BBQ ribs were very tasty and looked good, though. But, holy cow, and I mean no offense to the pig, but the fat on those pork ribs could kill a cow. They did taste good though, I reiterate, and a little fat never hurt anyone, but split those ribs with another couple and you might make it out of Butlers’ on your own two feets. 
Listen, I realize that this time of year those pigs pig out and put on the pig pounds. That doesn’t mean you can undo all the work I have done keeping my love-to-eat-all-the-things-that-are-bad-for-you-and-after-10PM-to-boot husband under 175 in one sitting!
Oh, I am cranky today, but I am having a blast! There’s more, but I’ll put that in a separate blog. Until then, stay tuned!
And now moving forward, we had the raspberry bread pudding for dessert, which tasted good, but I think was too mushy for me. Bread pudding should have a little heft to it so you know you just consumed a million calories.
We liked that Norm came by and asked how the food tasted and we said it was good and would be better on warm plates. Norm apologized for that and for kicking us out the Saturday before. You’re forgiven, Norm.