Food Friday - The Red Snapper

bread - Red Snapper

I don't know about y'all but Food Friday is one of my favorite features of my blog... but next week it's going away. From Friday. It's going to change from Friday to Wednesday, I mean. Marvin has taken on a new trivia show on Tuesday nights so our Tuesday night date night (and day and night and day) is changing to Wednesday Lunch date day (and night and day and night). We are planning lots of meals around Atlanta and I'm going to be blogging about them on Wednesday night so you get a same day review! And because we're two fat kids who love to eat, there will also be other posts of the places we eat for Thursday lunch... if we go out or cook something at home or whatever. Hopefully... writing the restaurant reviews while I'm still with Marvin, I can get his input on the place so you can get more than just my perspective. I'm really excited that our big date of the week is changing from Tuesday night to Wednesday lunch because I'm always just completely worn out by Tuesday night.

Changing the restaurant review to Wednesday means I'm going to have to come up with a new alliteration for the blog title. That was really my only hesitation with changing it... maybe, What I Ate Wednesday? I don't know. Make suggestions. I'm not as creative as I used to be. I'm over fifty now, you know.

seafood gumbo - Red Snapper

Side note/plug: If you want to check out Marvin's  new trivia show, he is going to be at the Mellow Mushroom in Sandy Springs (I think, if that's not right, I'll let you know before Tuesday) every Tuesday night at 7:30. Marvin will now be doing 4 shows a week. He's at El Real on Wednesday night and two different Johnny's Pizza locations on Thursday and Saturday. I think. If you're interested in going, let me know and I'll get the exact location and times for you. OR, if you want me to tag along, let me know. I mostly don't go because of my back. It's a long night. But also because he's working so I'd be playing alone and it's just not as much fun by yourself. There are a ton of  Team Trivia shows all over the country. Go to teamtrivia.com to find a location near you. If you go to one of Marvin's shows,  be sure to tell him you read the blog! He also reads here... mostly to see what I say about him (just kidding) (not kidding). Purple Michael does the same thing so if I want to make sure he is reading my blog I need to put Purple Michael in the blog title. I should do that every day for a week... tee hee. Just kidding. Not really.

crab en coquille - Red Snapper

Alright... my Food Friday post this week is kind of special because this was a restaurant that Marvin drives by every week on his way to his Saturday trivia show that he's always wanted to try. He read an article about how certain neighborhoods in Atlanta are changing and how so many special places get phased out by construction. Ever since Sherman came through here, Atlanta has been a city that isn't afraid to change. In some ways that's good but in other ways... we just don't preserve our heritage like we should. Marvin thought it was time for him to finally check out this place he's been past so many times and why not on date night?

The Red Snapper is on Cheshire Bridge Rd in Atlanta. Their website - you can click here to go to it - says that they opened in 1986. It's weird thinking of something established in 1986 as old because that's the year I graduated high school... and had my first kid... and started my first real job... and got married for the first time... not exactly in that same order. It's tucked away in a little strip mall shopping center in a building that has definitely been here for longer than 32 years. Obviously, snapper is their focus but they have a lot of other stuff on the menu.

salmon & scallops - Red Snapper

We were greeted and seated immediately. The atmosphere is definitely dated ... almost to the point of being funky / kitschy / trendy again. We couldn't decide if it fit more in the sixties or seventies - but it was clean and quiet. That's important to me. I hate when the music or conversation in the room is so loud that you can't have a conversation with your dinner partner. Especially on date night, which for us is the first time we've seen each other in several days. I would say that Marvin and I were probably the only people eating there without a senior discount. There were a lot of older folks there and some families that seemed to be having a special meal out. It's in an older neighborhood so I could definitely see it being a place to go to for special occasions.

They bring out some warm bread and butter with your drinks... always a nice touch. We decided to share an appetizer and an entree... this works well for us and allows us to go to places that might be a little too pricey for our budget.  Our appetizer was the crab en coquille... basically little eggrolls made out of phyllo dough, filled with spinach and crabmeat and served with a sauce that we couldn't quite identify. It was sort of a tartar sauce maybe... there was a hint of horseradish and maybe some dijon mustard but it also leaned a little towards ranch. I don't know. It was good. We chose the salmon and scallops for our entree. It came with some veggies and potatoes. The seafood was perfectly seasoned, cooked to perfection and a really nice portion. Even with splitting, it was enough food for us. I was stuffed and Marvin had to coax me into taking an extra bite or two.

Shrimp Fried Rice - Golden Phoenix

The service was perfectly timed, very attentive and friendly. We've had a streak of bad service lately when we go to restaurants that I am planning to review for the blog but I'm happy to say, that streak ended this week.

On Wednesday we went to our favorite little Chinese place by the Publix near Marvin's house. We get the same waitress every time - her name is Margaret. She's really good to us. The food is always good, always a large portion, even for lunch... and I always end up taking home leftovers. Their lunch menu is a good bargain... the bill, including tip, comes in under $20 and I had enough left for dinner Wednesday night.

Thursday we stayed in all day and Marvin heated up a little Bob Evans meal that I had brought for me... and some taquitos (I think) for him. My back has been so bad this week that I didn't want to move... plus, it's just too freaking hot out.

Since it's Food Friday (the last one!) I thought I'd share one of my favorite food bloggers with you today. Teri Turner does the No Crumbs Left blog which is packed with all kinds of recipes and cooking tips. She's big on Whole 30 so if you're on that eating plan or just want to eat a little healthier, she's a great resource but she also does "regular food". I love her Instagram stories - she's on there as nocrumbsleft if you want to check her out. But even if you care not one bit for food blogs or recipe info or that sort of thing, she's just good people. She is genuine and inspirational and I have never left a message or comment without getting a response from her - despite the fact that she has over 200,000 Instagram followers! She's based out of Chicago but travels and posts stuff from other wonderful places and always brings her followers along for the adventure. This is one lady that really brings a lot of positivity to the interwebs and I wanted to share her with you.

shrimp and black bean sauce

Tomorrow is Oliver's third birthday party and so Cosy and I will be heading down to Marvin's first thing in the morning. He has been kind enough to take the day off to drive us down and share Oliver's birthday with us. I will probably not blog about it until Sunday or maybe even Monday, depending on what kind of shape I'm in. The back is a real problem right now. I'm trying really hard not to pick up kids or carry anything at all and I'm resting and stretching and doing all the things but... right now I'm in bad shape. So... I fully anticipate needing a rest day on Sunday but I am SO looking forward to tomorrow! I'm sure I'll post photos on Instagram and Facebook and then I'll share more here when I can. Hope you have a great weekend! Love and hugs!

Tuesdays With Cosy

The new normal pain level is continuing... yesterday (Tuesday) was such a long day and although I've done a whole lot of nothing today, I'm absolutely wiped out. I feel flat... like it's hard to communicate or be sociable or even just function and I feel so bad for Marvin who is stuck with my blah self for company. I'm trying, y'all. It's just at a point where pain is robbing every ounce of energy from me. I want to cry. I want to sleep. I want to ... anything but this. I'm just so tired of feeling this intense pain. It's not just my spine, is the muscles in my back, the nerves shooting down to my toes. It's the aches and pains from moving in a different way to accommodate the sore parts. Anything that involves physical exertion leaves me completely out of breath and makes my heart race. I woke up this morning feeling like I couldn't take a good breath... my heart was racing, I was near panic and I just tried to lay as still as possible and focus on one breath at a time. Once I got up and started moving around it was better but... I'm nowhere near my normal self.

Yesterday I had Austin go pick Cosy up from her mom's. That's normally my favorite thing. I take her to Dunkin' Donuts and we pick up a coffee for me and a pink donut with sprinkles for her. I love those first minutes of the day with her and I feel like she's more cooperative with me if I start the day fresh with her. Instead I had Austin get her and do the donut run. She was definitely happy to see me once they got back to the house. She climbed right up in bed with me and I got lots of great cuddles. We played with slime for a little while but she was afraid to touch it because she doesn't like to get her hands dirty. Then she hung out in the bathroom with me while I tidied up and got my shower. This picture is where she wanted to stay with Nana in the bathroom and play in the sink and her dad wanted her to get dressed... "save me Nana!". I know it's naughty and I try to never lead the grandbabies astray. I tell them all the time that their mommies and daddies are the boss and nana is NOT in charge but... I have to confess, her hanging on to me for dear life was pretty cute.

Austin took her outside to play in the pool and I had a few minutes to try to finish getting dressed for the day. I could hear her happy squeals all the way back in the house! They came back upstairs and got out of her wet swimsuit. She was playing and walked past the bedroom door and smacked her foot on it really hard. She immediately started screaming, that kind of scream where they hold their breath. Although my back is wrecked, I picked her up and started blowing in her face to get her to breathe. It's reflex. Then I laid her on the bed to check out her foot. It was already turning blue. I told Austin, "I think we're heading to the ER...this foot is definitely broken" so he ran over and flipped on the overhead light and said, "that's sidewalk chalk from where we were playing outside." I was relieved, of course, but... my word! She asked for a "bambage" (bandage) so I wrapped her with medical tape and she was perfectly fine.

We had to get Austin's van insured and registered yesterday but on Monday, the insurance quote he got was way beyond what he could afford. I wasn't really up to dealing with it then so I told him to shop online and I'd see what I could do to help him in the morning. So Tuesday I emailed a former co-worker at State Farm and started brainstorming with her about how to lower his insurance cost. To make a long story short, because my dad is a long time customer with State Farm, Austin qualified for State Farm's Mutual company, which has much lower rates. It took the cost of his insurance from $154 a month to $44 a month.

While I was making the arrangements for the insurance I sent Austin to town to find out how much his tag was going to be and to get a fax number so we could send his proof of insurance over. I was emailing back and forth with my friend at State Farm and all of a sudden I noticed that Cosy had dumped out the bucket of slime and was covered in it. That stuff is of the devil. It is an ooey gooey mess. You cannot get it off. I would get one little appendage cleaned off and she'd stick it right back in... so of course I was bent over, stretching my back all kind of ways and basically in tears thinking, "why me?" but also laughing at the predicament because she was just freaking hilarious! I finally got the bulk of it off her but she needed a bath to get the rest off. I couldn't let her walk because she would leave footprints of slime all over the carpet so I picked her up and carried her to the bathtub... and once again, my back was just screaming at me.

At any rate... Austin got home about then and he bathed her so I didn't have to bend over. She had a great time in the bubble bath! It was all just a great adventure for her. I posted several pictures of this on Facebook yesterday. After her bath, Austin took her home and finished up all the details on his van so he is now all set and independent. He can drive, he has his own vehicle and I can do whatever the heck I want, whenever I want and not have to worry about anyone else's schedule and that feels really, really weird. It's the first time in my whole life I've been this ... carefree... and all I feel like doing is sleeping.

I came down to Marvin's last night for date night (and day and night and day). We went out to a restaurant in Atlanta that he had always wanted to try, The Red Snapper. It was amazing and I'll post a review about it on Friday. Then we went out for ice cream and then came home and I went to bed. Today we slept late, went out for lunch, went to Publix to pick up a few things and I'm in for the rest of the night while he is hosting trivia. I'm about to get in the bathtub and then catch up on Better Call Saul, it's what we're watching right now. I'm a few episodes behind him.

Tomorrow will be a stay in the house and chill day, probably. I've got a post ready to go up in the morning so be sure to check that out and I'll be back for Food Friday to talk about what we've been eating this week. Hope your week is going well! Love and hugs, y'all!