Greetings from Sunny Miami!

Muffinface at camp - flirting with some boys. (The one on the right is now a Rabbi and the boy on the left became my cousin. )

I am back in the "homeland" playing shuffle board and soaking up the sun with my people. Can you believe there is no decent Chinese restaurant here? That was a shocker. Yesterday I arrived from Atlanta. I have many pics and stories to share already and I still have 6 more days left here. I will be blogging about family and food so stay tuned.

I wanted to say a quick thank you (and I will elaborate later) to everyone I saw on Friday night. My BFF and Robert threw me a Birthday party that was truly memorable and touching.

I must go back to the pool for now.

Oh yea, I am 40 now! WooHoo.

ONE MORE DAY!

This is a pic of me and my Sissy doing early research for our future food blogs.

And I will not be near a computer tomorrow so this is probably as close as I will come to telling myself Happy Birthday on this blog. Just as well, now that I read that last sentence it seems pretty narcissistic. I hope everyone has a great Holiday weekend. I will be seeing some of you very soon.

TWO MORE DAYS!

I am getting tired of this countdown y'all, so this will probably be my last day of it.

just kidding!!! I am so close now.

This is a pic of MuffinFace in Miami (or is it Maine?).
Seems like just yesterday.
No, I am kidding again. I have no recollection of this picture even being taken.

Countdown Continues -

and I am too busy to post anything else!

That's my Cousin Robin on the bottom and I am swinging like a monkey.......

3 More Days!!! That is 3 more sleeps until I am 40 years old!!!!

Countdown to 40

4 MORE DAYS!!!

Happy Birthday to my little Bother!

His Daughter, Caroline.

Jon and his son, Chip.

How I usually picture Jon

When I was in elementary school I was asked to write a story about my favorite family member (or something like that). I decided to write about my little brother Jon, except all through the paper I called him my little Bother instead.

My Brother Jon is very funny and smart, has great taste in music and survived growing up with two big sisters. If my sissy and I wanted to play with a toy that was on another floor in our house we would convince Jon to get it by saying "We'll time you!" and making a fun game out of it for him. Problem is I don't remember ever actually timing him. He would run in out of breath with the toy we asked for and we would either laugh at him or make something up and humor him. This went on for years.

Some of my best memories growing up are of me and my brother just laughing. We have similar senses of humor and would sit around and talk or watch TV and just laugh. I still remember watching an episode of the Newlywed Game (boy, does that date us or what) that put us in hysterics. Jon, do you remember why? All I remember is laughing so hard I thought I was gonna break something.

We don't live very close to each other and I miss him very much. Even though I am so proud of the life he has made for himself and his beautiful family part of me wishes he still lived across the hall from me and I could sneak into his room and we could talk about our days until one of us fell asleep. One time he fell asleep while hanging over the top of his bunk bed and he landed right on his head!

Writing that just made me cry a little so I have to end with a funny story about my brother. OK , it is really more about me. When my family moved from Portsmouth to Miami I was a toddler. I thought the plane was great and I remember thinking that it would be a nice thing for me to introduce myself to everyone. I went up and down the aisle saying to each person "Hello, my name is J'Bawi. I have a sister Jennifer and a brother with a floating penis."

Apparently we all bathed together.

I love to picture the look that must have been on my parents faces.

Anyway, I hope you have a great Birthday Jon. I miss you and I can't wait to see you next weekend. You are an awesome little Bother.

Way to go Roslyn and Meg!

I am about a week behind on this but a couple Fridays ago, First Friday, my Friend's Roslyn and Meg had an art opening at Uptown Gallery on Main Street. Roslyn paints with acrylic on canvas
and Meg is a photographer. If anyone is in the area I highly recommend seeing this show while it is up. It will be up through June. Uptown Gallery is located at 1305 West Main Street.

Meg and Roslyn posing in front of Roslyn's paintings.

More of Roslyn's work.

Meg's photographs.

Random friend sighting....Wendy and Co.!!!

Mark and Emmy discuss a painting.

Roslyn and Mark.

Barry and Roslyn outside the gallery.

Weekend round up...

This weekend was so jam packed I am not even sure where to begin.

Friday I got a call from my Mom letting me know she could come see me on Sunday (Mother's Day) I was so excited. And there is nothing like getting a call from your mother to put your ass in gear to clean and finish unpacking and - did I say clean already? Saturday I finally unpacked the kitchen - It still smells a bit like curry (in a bad way) and I am not sure I can ever see myself actually using the stove top - I think I can find a nicer oven on the side of the road - but at least I put in shelf paper and unpacked all the boxes. It was like being re-united with old friends - seeing all my kitchen stuff once again.
On Saturday morning I got a visit from the lovely Holly T. She brought us Chicken enchiladas, a salad, strawberry sorbet and chocolate cookies. I have not taken a pic of the chicken but below is a pic of some of the other goodies. I will write more specifics about the food later - it rocked!!!The Timberlines are great neighbors and now that my place is clean and straight I hope they can come over soon - (after Peter Pan closes, of course).

Much to my surprise my Mom liked the house a lot - except for the stove which she thinks should be replaced ASAP. I couldn't agree with her more but unfortunately it won't be happening. We had a great time catching up and we ate lunch / dinner (it was 3 something so I am not sure what to call it) at PF Chang's. - One of the only chain restaurants I will go to. That is not really true but I wish it were. It sounds good.
I am so thankful that Mom and I got a day alone together. I will try to see my Kitty Mom next weekend - you know I gotta share the love. Pop and Kitty Mom are off to Russia on the 20th so I hope to catch them before they go. I bet they will have some great food stories when they come back! Stay tuned folks.




as promised - an "after" pic of my living room.


Beautiful salad with fresh Lime-Cilantro dressing


world peace cookies


Basket of goodies from the Timberlines!

My Ma following a recipe. (this pic was taken a few years ago) :)

Thank you, again Lisa K.

Here is Lisa K.'s follow up response regarding the fried Pies - wish I had one right now!

"Okay, my friend, here are your pictures of the aforementioned fried pie. You must however use the correct pronunciation - frahed pah. My mom is a fantastic country cook, but she never really mastered the fried pie. So, occasionally, my daddy would get a sweet tooth, and ask one of his sisters to make a batch for him. The opportunity to spoil their brother, of course, thrilled them to no end, and they would go all out, sending various varieties - sweet potato, apple, peach. Peach was Daddy's favorite, and he was like a kid at Christmas - in fact, as I recall, my Aunt Polly always sent him home with a plate of them when we visited at Christmas. I found this link for a fried pie recipe on allrecipes.com: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Apricot-and-Peach-Fried-Pies/Detail.aspx It is now safe in my belly - mmmm"

It's a Cheenon Party Y'all!

Cheenon will be performing at The Bleu Bistro this Friday, May 9th.

This is their first time playing there.

Hope you all can make it!

9:30 PM

The Bleu Bistro

8982 Quioccasin Rd.Richmond, VA 23229

mapquest it!

Cheenon lurkz on the internetz
http://www.cheenon.com/

www.myspace.com/cheenon

Random friend sighting

Saturday Jay (Sparki) and Fred came in town!! My BFF joined us and the four of us went to B'Dale WL to see a matinee of Little Dog Laughed. A good time was had by all.

aside note to Laine and Susan - you guys totally rocked and should be very proud of your work on this play.

We ate dinner at Delux - a fairly new restaurant. The decor was beautiful and the food comforting. I had my first taste of Kobe beef. It was a hamburger and even though I asked for medium and it came out well done in my opinion, the taste was awesome. Huge difference in the taste of the high grade meat. We had an appetizer of shrimp coated in Captain Crunch. It tasted a lot like coconut shrimp - it was delish. The menu seemed very diverse, cheaply priced and I definitely want to go back and try more items - Like the lobster mac and cheese . Every one's food looked yummy. The past few times I have tried to eat at Delux I was unable to get a table. (clearly they didn't know who I was but I was surprised that Sparki was not even recognized)

It helped that we got there right at 5 PM on Saturday - otherwise I am sure we would have had to wait a couple hours to sit. At lease now I know a wait here is definitely worth it. Anyway - I would wait for hours as long as I had Sparki and Fred to keep me company. Thank you guys for spending so much time with me on Saturday and thanks for the perfect house warming sercie.

Thank you guest Blogger - Anastasia Beaverhousen

So a FRIEND of mine (not me) went out to dinner at the Waffle House last week, where according to my FRIEND (again, not me) you can get hash browns splattered, covered, peppered and chunked. I was intrigued so I have asked her to write a little something about her experience there.





First of all this is NOT Muffin face (can't stress that enough) lets call me Anastasia Beaverhousen. I went on a hot date to the Waffle House last week.

Upon entering I was met with an interesting bouquet of eggs and aqua velva. I was meeting a date there and as luck would have it I was the first to arrive. Eventually someone came out from behind the cooking counter and led me to a cozy corner booth. This must be where they put the celebrities when they wander in, I thought to myself, feeling pretty important. I ordered water and perused the menu. Oh look, it has pictures on it. What a great idea. I wonder why Morton's doesn't do that?

Finally my date arrived. I think he was in heaven because the older woman who took our order called him Darlin' a bunch of times. I consider jealously for a minute but then remembered that I really didn't care. I sure was hungry and the menu offered a feast of delights like, omelets and waffles and hash browns and grits and lots of other stuff too. I decided to order a couple eggs with hash browns. If memory serves I got them splattered covered and smothered.

I am glad to report that everything was excellent and I would definitely return to the Waffle House again - maybe next time I will actually order waffles. Maybe I can convince Muffin Face to join me. (since this is not her)

I miss cooking!

The Kitty Litter Cake
My Sissy found this recipe at Allrecipes.com

I think it might be the first thing I cook in my new kitchen!

INGREDIENTS
1 (18.25 ounce) package German chocolate cake mix
1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
1 (12 ounce) package vanilla sandwich cookies
3 drops green food coloring
1 (12 ounce) package tootsie rolls

DIRECTIONS
Prepare cake mixes and bake according to package directions (any size pan).
Prepare pudding according to package directions and chill until ready to assemble.
Crumble sandwich cookies in small batches in a food processor, scraping often. Set aside all but 1/4 cup. To the 1/4 cup add a few drops of green food coloring and mix.
When cakes are cooled to room temperature, crumble them into a large bowl. Toss with 1/2 of the remaining cookie crumbs, and the chilled pudding. You probably won't need all of the pudding, you want the cake to be just moist, not soggy.
Line kitty litter box with the kitty litter liner. Put cake mixture into box.
Put half of the unwrapped tootsie rolls in a microwave safe dish and heat until softened. Shape the ends so that they are no longer blunt, and curve the tootsie rolls slightly. Bury tootsie rolls randomly in the cake and sprinkle with half of the remaining cookie crumbs. Sprinkle a small amount of the green colored cookie crumbs lightly over the top.
Heat 3 or 4 of the tootsie rolls in the microwave until almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle lightly with some of the green cookie crumbs. Heat the remaining tootsie rolls until pliable and shape as before. Spread all but one randomly over top of cake mixture. Sprinkle with any remaining cookie crumbs. Hang the remaining tootsie roll over side of litter box and sprinkle with a few green cookie crumbs. Serve with the pooper scooper for a gross Halloween dessert.

Yellow House Police Auction Benefit

Last night one of my favorite organizations had a huge fundraiser. Yellow House is a great non-profit that supports and teaches the art of film making. They were hoping to raise enough money for a new editing computer to be used in a classroom setting. The turn out didn't start off strong but by the end of the evening it was definitely crowded.

They had some fun entertainment including Richmond's new long form Improv troup "Cousin Sheckie". I encourage everyone to catch one of their shows. Poster below.





Also gracing us with their presence last night were the smooth styles of Dick Butt Kiss and the Tight Ends. These guys write and sing sweet love songs in 4 part harmony and even though they have been around Richmond forever they are still in high demand. Well, they call them love songs, others call them perverted. I think they are hilarious, mad-geniuses. Guess which one I think is the cutest?












Another band playing last night was Special Ed and the Short Bus. These guys are a fantastic blue grass band with energy to spare.







It was a great night. I needed a break from the moving and cleaning that has been taking up all my fun time lately. I encourage everyone to get out of the house and do something fun this weekend. Here are just a few things you can choose from:

Once Upon a Mattress at Swift Creek Mill
Peter Pan at Theatre IV
Little Dog Laughed at Barksdale (Willow Lawn)
Greater Tuna at Barksdale (Hanover Tavern)
The Firehouse Cabaret
The First Fridays Art Walk
Cousin Sheckie at Comedy Sports Improv Theatre (info above)
Uptown Gallery Opening featuring Paintings by Roslyn Pruitt- (1305 W. Main)
Cheenon at Alley Katz Friday at 10 PM

Boy - let it never be said that things aren't happening in Richmond!