Tag Archives: dining

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Earlier this month, we wanted to go shopping at one of our local antique shops, so Best Friend and I got ourselves together and first headed out for an early lunch.

We stopped by a little grille, nestled in a shopping mall between a seedy-looking thrift store and a storefront mission.  This grille has some of the best home cooked meals in our town, and we never had a bad meal there.

The lunch crowd was thinning out, and we were able to sit in a corner booth.  Best Friend ordered steak and eggs, and I chose a half tuna sandwich with broccoli soup.  We enjoyed our conversation about this and that, we ate our meals, and soon we were ready to head to the counter to pay our bill.

I caught a glimpse of a lady, perhaps in her late 40s-early 50s, who was at the counter paying her bill.  By the time we got there, she was gone.

Best Friend took out his debit card.

“It’s paid for,” said the cashier.

“I’m sorry,” replied Best Friend.  “What’s that?”

“Your bill is paid for by the lady who was just here.  You owe nothing.”

We both were speechless.  We were so surprised, so shocked at this, that we didn’t know what else to say, except for, “Wow.  You only read about this sort of thing in the newspapers.”

The cashier smiled.  We gave her a large tip (for she was our waitress, too), and we went on our merry way.

There are kind people in this world.

As ever,

Lady Susan Marie Molloy

✿●▬●✿ ©2023 The Oasis at Four Queen Palms ✿●▬●✿

Some Things I Miss – In the Restaurant Realm

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The other day, as Best Friend and I were eating at a local restaurant, I looked at my place setting:

Plastic plate, thin paper napkin, and lousy metal utensils.

These days, dining out is nothing to write home about insofar as the presentation of meals.  Even the waitstaff don’t wear nice uniforms anymore.  They look like slobs that just rolled in off the street after getting out of bed in a hurry.

Then I remembered dining in the Olden Days:

Chinaware, linen napkins, glassware, and real silverware.

Not so long ago, restaurant tables were set with cloth tablecloths and cloth napkins (or at least top quality, thick paper napkins).  The restaurants’ silverware was real – heavy, substantial, with sharp fork tines, and knife blades that could actually cut meat.  Some of the better restaurants even had their name engraved or embossed on all the utensils.  The china was anything but cheesy.  The glassware was real glass, not plastic made to look like glass.  The waiters and waitresses dressed nicely in uniforms.  Busboys – well, they were a standard, too.  And the waitstaff would stop by every so often to ask how everything was.  If you had leftovers, your meal was wrapped in tinfoil and placed in a cheerfully printed doggie bag – a picture of a happy dog looking forward to the meal inside.  Some restaurants even fashioned your leftovers in a tinfoil swan shape.

Nowadays, we get forks that can’t stab butter, knives that have no sharp cutting edge nor serrated edge, spoons with near-flat bowls that couldn’t hold an eighth of ounce of anything.  All the utensils of today are made with cheap, cheesy, thin stainless steel from China.  Drinkware is mostly plastic made to look like glass – Surprise!  Surprise!  The waitstaff are sloppy in their garb, with jeans and a T-shirt with the restaurant’s name printed on them.  They come by your table asking, “How’s it tastin’?” (I hear that more and more now), and it’s rare to see a busboy.  And your leftovers are no longer wrapped in tinfoil.  You get to take them home in a Styrofoam box that drips.

These are my general observations.  There are a few places where the tables are set with linen tablecloths today, and the place settings are top shelf.  But they are few and far between.  And to be more clear, I’m not talking about fast food places, like the national hamburger joints.  It’s expected to find paper napkins and plasticware there.  What I’m referring to are the sit-down restaurants that have more than not degenerated into shoddiness.  *Sigh.*

At home, I try my best to always have a pretty table set with our Fiestaware, our good silverware, and good quality napkins.

Well, at least somewhere, Best Friend and I have a place to eat where the experience is always classy.

If you want it done right, do it yourself.

As ever,

Lady Susan Marie Molloy

✿●▬▬▬●✿ ©2023 The Oasis at Four Queen Palms ✿●▬▬▬●✿

A DINING ROOM 2

Out on the Town.

dining, etiquette, grooming, manners, tips for gracious living, , , , , , , , ,

The morning air was brisk this morning as I headed down to the kitchen for a cup of hot coffee.  After pouring my cup and taking a sip, I turned to look out the window at the burgeoning dawn.  The sky, while a pale robin’s egg blue, it was the ribbon of yellows and oranges that caught my eye.  But it did not last.  Within the minute, it disappeared while the sun rose above the horizon.

This past weekend held a flurry of activity here at The Oasis at Four Queen Palms.

Best Friend and I were, in a way, held captive at home Friday while we waited and waited for the cable man to come and replace the DVR black box that burned out.  It turns out that the fan inside it died out, and the entire box needed to be swapped out with a new one.  The funny thing is that the box was only three years and two weeks old.

So much for technology.

We spent the next morning putting away our Christmas decorations.  We are traditionalists, and our decorations come down on Three Kings Day (Epiphany – January 6), or at the most, the next day.  This year, the dismantling was fairly easy, since we only decorated the main house.  I am questioning the point of decorating to the full extent anymore, but time will tell when the calendar turns to November later this year.  Stay tuned.

That same evening, Best Friend wanted to treat us to a very nice dinner out, and I thought it was a grand idea.  It’s something we don’t do very often.  He mentioned that he wanted to go somewhere where the booths are very comfortable, so I recommended the nice restaurant across the road.  We don’t usually go there except for once in a great while.  So, once we got our usual Saturday housework and business done, we got ready to go out.

We both dressed up since the restaurant is somewhat fancy (for this area).  Best Friend wore a French cuff shirt with cuff links; I wore an all-black dress and carried a silver clutch purse.

We sat at our usual quiet corner table in the bar section of the restaurant.  I had a clear view of the outside, and Best Friend had a good view of the bar.  This made for a pleasant atmosphere.  One of the things I like about this restaurant is the roomy couch-like chairs that are so comfortable. I have mentioned in the passing conversation that they would make a great addition to our dining room, if we were so inclined to replace the table suite at home.

We placed our orders – rib eye, a Peroni, and a pinot noir – and the two of us carried on light conversation.  That is, until a couple of patrons entered with a bit of bluster.

They spoke loudly, which made it difficult to concentrate on our private table conversation for the time being.  The two women who entered recognized two other women at the bar, and we all in the room knew it for the rest of the evening!  Moreover, it was aggravating to be forced to hear gossip (for they spoke loudly during their meal) about a neighbor.  Always remember, I thought, when someone gossips about one person, you can be sure they will gossip about you!

It also appeared that some of the men patrons at the bar live in our neighborhood, so that told me that the bar in our neighborhood isn’t always the go-to place.

One other point that both Best Friend and I observed that night is that although this restaurant is one that conveys some class (it is not a fast-food joint by any means), the patrons’ mode of dress did not reflect that.  We saw people dressed in loungewear, shorts, T-shirts, and one wore black leggings and a faux leopard fur quasi-bolero jacket that emphasized her ample rear end and squat legs.  In fact, Best Friend stated that it seemed that the evening crowd dressed very sloppily as compared to the daytime lunch crowd.  He is right.

This is something I – we – notice when we are out in the world.  For some reason, people don’t dress nicely nor neatly anymore, nor do they comb their hair.  Parts in the hair are all over the place, like a winding road in the mountains of Monaco.  Overall, it’s a look of sloppy fashion that seems to deteriorate as every season passes.  It is as if people don’t have respect for themselves, let alone for anyone around them.

As ever,

Lady Susan Marie Molloy

✿●▬▬▬●✿ ©2023 The Oasis at Four Queen Palms ✿●▬▬▬●✿

Dining out should be an elegant experience.

Festivities 2022 – Part IV.

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The early dawn hours held little more than grey clouds and a lone hawk flying far above the field as I peered out the rear window.  The air was decidedly cool for January, and the day would promise little more than a rise of five degrees in temperature by midday.  The 2022 holiday season is winding down – for us here at The Oasis of Four Queen Palms, it ends on January 6 – and this season proved to be festive for Best Friend and me.  For us, the holidays are an eventful time of year, yet busy in its own way than the rest of the year.

As we decorated The Oasis of Four Queen Palms this season, I couldn’t help but remember the one year we went all out with the decorations.  That year, we meticulously wrapped the staircase banister with pine garland and added gold velvet bows to each point where we fastened the garland to the railing – up the staircase and around the loft’s railing.  We attached many variously sized ornaments on the garland – globes, teardrops, sparkling snowflakes, starbursts, and candy canes.  And nestled within the green pine needles were those tiny twinkling clear lights of which we are fond.  We decorated the tree with our souvenir ornaments we collect from our travels, sentimental ornaments from my family, and a few new ones I created.  Heirloom tchotchke glittered and sparkled as they sat peppered around the house – those miniature sleighs, reindeer, and fireplace stockings.  The house was a holiday wonderland.

Yet, this year we toned it down a bit and decorated only the main house for a change of pace.  Instead of our usual three trees, we chose just one.  I immersed myself in more baking than ever, and that included those special cookies from my family’s recipes, the fresh homemade fruitcake, and a loaf of traditional date nut bread.  I worked on the dinner menus, mostly to ensure I had all the ingredients for something special.  Best Friend and I decided upon which restaurants to visit, and I prepared all those appetizing homemade hors d’oeurves that I enjoy creating during this season.

We celebrated Chanukah, particularly as an homage to our ancestors and to augment our spiritual lives.  Christmas Eve dinner was simple – a glass of Mogen David wine and a simple fare of Shrimp Scampi on vermicelli with a side of roasted Brussels sprouts and carrots.  Our special dessert was sliced homemade fruitcake.  On Christmas Day, we enjoyed cocktails and presented our fresh homemade hors d’oeurves.

Part of our festivities this year included writing out our Christmas cards and including short notes with them, as appropriate.  This year was a little bit daunting, only in that we decided to send cards and notes to just about everyone we know.  Therefore, instead of working only one evening on them near the warm and crackling fireplace and a glass of bourbon eggnog sprinkled with nutmeg on the table, we instead spread out the writing project over several evenings.

Festivities don’t always need to be something spectacular at the coliseum that costs an arm and a leg, so to speak.  Best Friend and I attended the tree lighting in our town.  We went to the boat parade where we saw a lone boat where Santa rang his bell.  We attended a music concert in a nearby town.  On the Homefront at The Oasis, we are watching those extraordinary (and some corny) old Christmas movies and listen to great old Christmas carols.  During this season, I also focused my reading to include old holiday-themed stories and poems.  We didn’t do as much as we normally do this season, since I was under the weather for several days.

It might seem like a lot of activity, nonetheless, but for us, it is a welcomed fact of our life, and we adjust everything accordingly, if needed.  Every day during the Christmas-Chanukah-New Year’s season can be – and should be – festive, fun, and peaceful.

Now that the religious holidays of the season are past, we are now focusing on celebrating the incoming new year.  We both have traditions we follow from our younger years, and in my next essay on our festivities, I will outline them for your reading enjoyment.

For New Year’s Eve, we opted out of celebrating at our neighborhood diner.  At a cost of $65 per person, and their menu quality greatly lacking (we discovered none is freshly made but rather, processed frozen ready-made meals from a large food production corporation) and last year’s fiasco, we are turned off forever from their faux five-star greasy spoon approach.

Sigh.

For our New Year’s Eve cocktail party, we prepared an assortment of hors d’oeurves, canapés, spreads, dips, and desserts.  Some of our creations included recreating my sister’s hot artichoke dip, simple cream cheese and pickle pinwheels, my spicy frijoles con jalapeño dip with corn tortilla chips, celery and cream cheese sprinkled with paprika, olives, cherry tomatoes, deviled eggs, and homemade cookies.  We enjoyed wine from our local winery that has become a favorite of ours.  We played classic and calming music in the background as we enjoyed the evening’s festivities.

At midnight, we greeted the new year with all the hope and positivity that we all deserve.

NEW YEAR 1C

The next day, we partook in our yearly traditions of welcoming the new year by setting the stages for good prosperity and luck.  Best Friend enjoyed a hot bowl of fresh black-eyed peas with bacon and onion pieces.  I savored a few pieces of cold pickled śledź – that’s herring!

Insofar as resolutions for the new year go, yes, I made a few, and they are ones that I can reach.  I believe that if one is inclined towards making resolutions, they should be realistic, with just the right amount of struggle to make the goals worthwhile when they’re reached.

This new year holds many promises for Best Friend and me.  We have many activities already planned, and I will be sharing them periodically as essays here on this site.

Make your holiday season, your life, and the new year festive, with consideration and respect towards others, for that all helps for a better world.

Wishing you prosperity, good health, and true peace within.

Make your holiday season and new year festive.

As ever,

Lady Susan Marie Molloy

©2022 The Oasis at Four Queen Palms

BELLS NEW YEAR 1A

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Festivities – Part III.

dining, etiquette, festivity, holidays, respect, tips for gracious living, , , ,

Our weekend festivities turned out well, and though we experienced the icy blast of winter weather that blanketed the North American continent, we stayed warm.

FIREPLACE WHITE

We began our weekend by dining out on Friday at one of our favorite Italian restaurants.  It was crowded, yet we were able to secure a table in a good spot.  Though it wasn’t the usual private booth we prefer, the table was nevertheless in a cozy setting.

We started with a glass of Peroni – an Italian beer favored by Best Friend – and a glass of pinot noir – my go-to wine at this Italian restaurant.

As I glanced around the dining room, it was good to see that the restaurant was as busy as it was, for it told me that the restaurant is managing to stay viable, and that people are still enjoying themselves, making the best of whatever their situations are.

My attention returned to our menu, which we perused, and then ordered.  Our waiter, Gerardo, brought a bowl of pasta e fagioli soup and a cup of Italian wedding soup to our table.  We immediately noticed that the amount of soup in the bowl was more like a cup’s worth, and the cup of soup was only halfway filled.

So much for keeping costs down, but it’s understandable.

Our meals arrived just as we conversed about our observations of the other patrons – Gerardo was attentive, and he did a swell job keeping up with everyone despite the crowd.  Best Friend enjoyed his beef ravioli, and I enjoyed my chicken picatta with the ginormous capers (they were the size of Queen olives), though I could have done without the slick lemony-oily spaghetti.

Yet, our conversation is something I wish to touch upon in this essay.  It was somewhat difficult to carry on a low-volume conversation at our tale.  The patrons who sat in the booth behind us spoke so loudly that I, for one, felt I was sitting with them, rather than with Best Friend.  At one point, I said to Best Friend, “I’ll be back in a few minutes.  It seems I am sitting at the booth being forced to listen to their conversations.”  And with great aplomb, Best Friend smiled and understood.

I trust that when people are dining in a restaurant, many do not know their voices easily carry to the other tables and booths.  Occasionally, it is the design of the room’s acoustics that help to project loud talkers’ voices to all corners.  Sometimes it is just the unaware loudness of people’s voices; they are used to yelling everywhere.  No matter the reason, being forced to hear strangers’ conversations is discourteous.

With that in mind, Best Friend and I find it easy to modulate our voices to a low volume, and we still understand one another without shouting across the table.  Sometimes, the yelling from other tables is so distracting that we don’t talk with each other during our meal.  Instead, we wait until we are out of the restaurant to continue our conversation.

ITALIAN DINING IA

It is most considerate to keep your conversations to your own table and nix the booming “look at me” volume so prevalent these days.  No one really wants to hear your political leanings or vulgar language or how perfect your children and grandchildren are.

This is a season in which to sparkle and revel in your own considerate style.

Make your holiday season festive.

As ever,

Lady Susan Marie Molloy

✿●▬▬▬●✿ ©2022 The Oasis at Four Queen Palms ✿●▬▬▬●✿

Festivities 2022 – Part II.

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Being the holiday season, Best Friend and I decided to attend an evening at the philharmonia orchestra, where the playlist promised holiday songs from classic to popular.  It was that, and so much more.

We dressed warmly since the weather was chilly, and that called for something hot to eat.  We began our evening with a hot meal of barbecue at an establishment near the performing arts center.  As Best Friend noshed on beef brisket and I on pulled pork, we noticed a trio of old houses across the field.

BBQ 1

After eating, we drove past the houses, I grabbed the addresses, where further research revealed that they were built in 1924.  Two of the houses have one bedroom and one bath, with a whopping 620 square feet of living space.  The third house is a two-bedroom, one bath with 727 square feet of space.  The houses need quite a bit of work to return them to their original glory, and I wished that my research had a glimpse of their interiors, but sadly, there was none.

1924 HOUSE 203 OSCEOLA

We arrived at the performing arts center and took our places in the orchestra left center seating.  The auditorium was packed; I didn’t see an empty seat, but then, I wasn’t inspecting every row.  I was entertained with the visuals of the incoming patrons before the concert began.

DEC 22 PHILHARMONIA

There appeared to be a favoritism of red sweaters and vests throughout; so much so that when I spotted a woman wearing a sparkling forest green pantsuit, it was a feast for my eyes.  Unfortunately, I was unable to snap a photograph of her fashion statement.

And speaking of fashion, we saw everything from ripped jeans to three-piece suits to sequined blouses to ugly sweaters over yoga pants.  There were so many different fashions that it would fill a book – which might be a thing to do for me, one day.

There was a young woman who sat in front of me.  Her fashion statement was interesting.  Her long hair was a bright turquoise blue, save for the black roots, and she was heavily made up, right down to the tarantula-like false eyelashes.  She wore a beige velour top that barely covered her tuchus, and her black suede high heeled boots came well above her knees.  I could only whisper to Best Friend at this sight, “Hi, G. I. Joe.  I love you long time.”  To which Best Friend replied, “Five dollah.”

I LOVE YOU LONG TIME

The music was good, as was the singing, to an extent.  This philharmonia orchestra (as they call it) is a group of volunteers who do not necessarily sing and play musical instruments as their full-time employment.  For example, one of the singers is a preacher who has his own congregation in an adjacent county.  Best Friend nicknamed him “Country Jesus Elvis.”  I will leave the idea here for you to picture him in your own imagination.  I silently panicked when he started going up and down the aisles singing his tunes, and I dearly hoped that he wouldn’t get as far as our row.  After all, if he was going to encourage patrons to sing, too, I don’t do that for free, and I knew that wasn’t coming.  Thankfully, he never got as far as our row.

The music in the second act was jolly in its own way, but it did not follow what was printed on the playbill, for there was a bit of juggling around to add several more songs.  I wondered if the singers were becoming tired, for the usually peppy songs and the more religious ones were sung almost at a dirge-like tempo.

DEC 22 PROGRAM

All in all, it was a pleasant evening for the both of us, with a few visual curiosities not on stage thrown in for good measure.  Though the orchestra was not what we thought it to be – we anticipated a more reverent experience that a philharmonic orchestra brings – we got sort of a cruise ship-Disney feel to the entertainment.  With that in mind, the entertainment was still worthwhile.  We’ll just know for the next time we are looking for philharmonic rather than Disney.

We have several more festive avenues to experience before the arrival of Three Kings Day.  I will be sharing some of them with you over the next several weeks.

In the meantime, keep your holiday season festive.

As ever,

Lady Susan Marie Molloy

©2022 The Oasis at Four Queen Palms

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Gracious Holiday Living – Part II.

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One of the things that I enjoy doing is homemaking.  Yes, honest-to-goodness homemaking.  And that includes preparing and presenting meals at home.

I always held the belief that eating at home should be just as elegant as dining out at a nice restaurant.  For that reason, most of the meals at home are on a properly set table, with our good china and silverware, nice napkins, crystal wine glasses, lit candles in crystal holders, and perhaps a flower centerpiece.  This arrangement goes for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners.  Sometimes we’ll tune into a Mantovani or a Tony Bennett CD for some mood music.  It’s all covered.

Now, sometimes when Best Friend and I are eating light and having only a simple thrown-together sandwich, we might eat it off of paper plates, although those paper plates are invariably good quality and the seasonally decorated ones (not the flimsy boring white ones), with matching paper napkins.

Yes, the two of us eat at home with all the class and decorum of hosting a dinner with invited guests.

We generally put aside our technological devices at the table.  I admit that sometimes I will have mine nearby out of horrific habit, but I am getting better at not using it as some awful crutch.  We might quickly use a device to clarify a fact of some sort with the conversational topic we are having, but other than that – no devices at the table.

This set-up of eating at home in an elegant manner is a year-round tradition in our home, not just for those special occasions and holidays.  Each day is extraordinarily special in our book.  Think about some of the characters on the program, The Office, who ate lunch together at work once a month, eating off of good plates, using good silverware, and holding intelligent conversation.  It’s easy to do if you try it, and you will find that you will feel good about eating like a civilized person.

A DINING ROOM 2

I do recommend it for everyone, even for the singles who live alone.  For the time I lived by myself, I ate my meals at my dinette table with good dishes and well-made and well-presented meals.  If I stopped on the way home from work for an Italian beef sandwich, when I got home that sandwich found itself on a real plate on my dinette table, along with a good napkin and silverware.  If I also brought home something to drink, I poured that drink in a good glass – no drinking directly from the bottle or can!  (Would you drink straight from the milk jug in the refrigerator?  Hmmmmm?)  And I did not eat while watching television.  One enjoys the taste of the meal better when fully engaged.  (I did not, in fact, watch television for years, and the only time I turned it on was to watch an old movie on TCM, and that waiting until I was done eating.)

I cannot imagine dining at home in a helter-skelter and sloppy manner, when it is so easy to eat like a civilized person.

Make your holiday season classy.

As ever,

Lady Susan Marie Molloy

©2022 The Oasis at Four Queen Palms

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