Cheesecake Factory

A 'las!  After responding to countless heart and ego stimulating yummy-licious birthday greetings on my facebook wall, I can now concentrate on blogging of the fabulously divine birthday-DAY.  The day before I picked mom up at the airport shuttle drop off.  The kids were so excited to have her.  They greeted us jumping up and down by the drive way.  Cute.  In the morning Mike took the kids on to school.  How perfect that my birthday landed on his weekly day off [Wednesday] this year!  

I wanted my birthday morning coffee in my new fall mug I found at the dollar store....

Then Mike pointed out the warning label I so airheadedly missed before purchasing several days ago at el chipo-mart....

I'm guessing there's led in the paint that even the shimmering finish can't protect any drinker from.  But not to be too discouraged.  Mom had brought me a birthday mug she found in California....

Yes, I laughed with MUCH satisfaction!

Mike made the Filipino [birthday] breakfast of beef tapa, rice, and eggs fried just the way I like them...garnished with tomatoes....

After shopping with Kelly [Blackwell-station secretary] at Costco for my various lettuces [romain, mixed greens and some avocados] and being an ear for Trish Lewis (I REALLY like her!)....I picked the kids up from school and then Mike and I enjoyed the leisure drive down to Phoenix.  First we stopped at the Fry's electronics on Thunderbird.  That's one crazy tech happening place.  Good gravy!  We were looking for a blue ray movie player that can do several tasks: netflix, web, pandora...etc.  Happy to type that they had the better deal compared to Wal-mart.  Bad for Wal-mart, good for us.  I'm beginning to dislike Wal-mart as it is.  But oh, well...should there be found a need to dedicate a carping entry for that subject later....welp, I'll leave the rest of the comments for that.

We went to the Cheesecake Factory up from Thunderbird, off of 83rd.  There are TONS of eateries in that area.  Americans have it good as far as culinary entertainment goes.  Much to pick from in every major city...and yet, so many seem to stay bored.  They don't know how to just be still and enjoy some peace and quiet.  Oops, does that include me?  Great for the industry, though....and good for the currently declining economy, yah?    

The mango margarita.....deletably divine.  I asked for half the tequila.  It was still very good.....

Mike's appetizer: spinach dip.  Comes with chips and tomatoes....

I had the Thai lettuce wrap all to myself....

....and I couldn't finish it.....so do you think I could really dig into the luau luau salad?  The fried egg roll wrappers I knew would go soggy if I didn't eat them up.  And that's all I ate of the salad...the rest was a great lunch for today.  Do these pictures do the salad justice??   It was evening...so no daylight.  It was uncomfortable to be setting off the camera flash but difficult to be discrete. Maybe you can get an idea of just how BIG the salad is [just like every other CF dish] when clicking on the photo.  Hmmm.....

Mike's was a nice juicy medium cooked steak with country "flavored" mashed potatoes and fried asparagus....

the onions got tossed to the side.....

With a great cup of coffee, never leave the Cheesecake Factory without some lip lickin' cheesecake!  Mike couldn't finish the Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate cheesecake....

from the Cheesecake Factory website 

Yah.....lick those lips after hitting the picture for a bigger deletable view....!!!

....and I could only eat one bite of the red velvet cheesecake....

from the Cheesecake Factory website

...did you click on it for a bigger lip lickin' view?  I couldn't pass up something so stunningly vibrant!  They were both good to....

the last bite as the perfect after-"party" leftovers!

I've now been walking, breathing, eating, drinking, running and living on this earth for 38 years.  Definitely looking forward to new ventures God has in store for us!!!!

My Tongue's Hangin' Out and I Can't Get it Back In

When's the last time you've had one of these babies? For me, it was yesterday afternoon. This is one of the Cheesecake Factory's greatest inventions. Once you've had one, your taste buds throb for the disco combinations of oriental flavored grill chicken, and three tongue/lip slurping sauces wrapped in the rainbow of crisp/crunchy veggies......

One of my favorite things about Dori is that [like me] she is resourceful. Once something has struck her curious fancy she doesn't leave it to chance that maybe one day she'll figure it out. She knows that with a few finger strokes she could probably find out for herself how this and that works, the ugly scoop, the yummy scoop, the how-to scoop....etc. Whatever I haven't already researched and benefited from, she typically already has. Kindred spirits harmoniously jive that way. I like to re-invent a new culinary find from the latest outing. When it comes to something of an Asian flair, close doesn't cut it. Spot on does. I can be spot on with Dori's advise to go to recipe.com to find out how to make those tongue throbbing three sauces. This culinary disco dance can be lusted after and enjoyed in my kitchen anytime now!

After enjoying a couple hours of partaking in Brenda's Bridal shower, we hopped back into Dori's van and got back into deep conversation mode. [We'd already done that on the way down the mountain to Mesa. At arrival, Dori voiced the "change mode" alert. After all, after two hours of that we were getting together with a bunch of women (only one of whom we knew) and it would all be surface talk now]. I had her take us on a side trip to Lee Lee's Oriental food store where I wasn't the only one stocking up on a few items.

So, on that trip I learned Dori and I have one more thing in common....we BOTH are emotionally moved by scenery. Odd. When I find better words to describe...I'll describe.

The Gadiva chocolate and coconut cream cheesecakes I had ordered to take home for Mike and I withheld the spring temps on the way back home. That was another disco dance for my tastebuds.

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The peanut sauce....the recipe didn't exactly turn out as I remember it. So, I did a lot of adjustments to get the texture and flavor spot on. The chili oil is better used as the base ingredient of much greater proportion. We indulged in my homemade wrap this afternoon/evening. That was heaven.