Kinda Sorta Almost Vegetarian Reviews from a Pair of 25 Year Honeymooners

[LiteBrite]

Mr. LiteBrite and I just got back from a trip celebrating 25 years of happy marriage. :love: The good news is that we had a luverly time and some great meals which I’ll be happy to tell you all about. The bad news is that we really sucked at remembering to take photos of our food. I’ll include the pictures we did take, but there will be several meal descriptions without any photographic evidence to back them up. I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive us. :flower3:

Some background info – hubby and I are fairly recent empty nesters (our only child is at college and was taking finals to finish up her junior year while we were on this trip). We have also fairly recently started changing our eating habits to become something like vegetarians. I have a feeling we may become the real thing before it’s all said and done, but we’re not quite there yet. When we’re at home, we actually eat mostly vegan. I haven’t cooked any meat at home in about 5 months, and we limit our dairy products as well. When we’re out to eat we give ourselves a little more leeway, but if we order fish or chicken we usually split one portion between the two of us, and I can’t remember the last time we had red meat.

So, we decided that while we were on our trip, we would eat a little fish, chicken, eggs or dairy here or there if we felt like it, and just see how it went. To make things more complicated, we also try hard to avoid white flour, and since hubby is diabetic, we try to limit our sugar intake as well. Stay tuned to see how closely we stuck to the plan (hint – we were on vacation :rolleyes1).

We were staying in a lovely timeshare/condo offsite this time (Marriott Grande Vista on the south end of International Drive), and we made breakfast there every morning, along with dinners a couple of nights. We had a few table service meals planned that we ended up canceling at the last minute because we just didn’t feel like it when the time came. We also scored a couple of last minute ADRs when we changed our minds. All of our table service meals were lunches with the sole exception of a dinner at Raglan Road.

Reviews to come:
Table Service –
Tusker House lunch (twice)
Rose & Crown
50s Prime Time
Raglan Road
Chefs de France

Counter Service (meals) –
Sunshine Seasons
Pizzafari
Flame Tree
Backlot Express
Rosie’s All American Café
Starring Rolls
Backlot Express
Columbia Harbor House
Pecos Bills
Golden Oak Outpost
Cosmic Ray’s


Snacks -
Writer’s Stop
Sleepy Hollow
Ice Cream Carts
Main Street Bakery
Fruit Carts
Tangerine Café
Yak & Yeti counter service
Everything Pop

[oybolshoi]

It's my friend Litebrite! :goodvibes: :cool1:

congrats on the anniversary!!! :hug:

[LiteBrite]

It's my friend Litebrite! :goodvibes: :cool1:

congrats on the anniversary!!! :hug:

Ooh, I'm so excited - Brenda is my first reader! :yay:

[LiteBrite]

Just so you know what you're dealing with, here's a mug shot -

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/willageorge/wdw%20april%202009/P4200006-1-1.jpg

Hubby is a hottie, right? I totally married up. :love:

[oybolshoi]

I think you're both cutie-patooties! :cutie:

[LiteBrite]

We started our trip off with a few days at a conference in Orlando. During that time we stayed at a hotel up near Universal, and I won’t deal with any of the meals we ate during that time since they weren’t at WDW, and we weren’t on vacation (yet).

However, we did sneak onto property the night we arrived in town, going to the Studios for a bit to catch Fantasmic :wizard: before our conference began the next day. This was the last night that 2 shows in one evening were scheduled during our trip, and I wanted to go to the late show in hopes of seeing it when it wasn’t too crowded.

We had eaten a light dinner earlier that evening, but we were hungry again before time to go into the show, so we went to Rosie’s All American Café and got a veggie burger to split. We eat a lot of Boca burgers at home and we love them, but this was more like a garden burger. It was ok, but it was small and we wished we had gotten 2 of them. Hubby wanted to try the potato salad on the side instead of fries, so that’s what we did. Again, it was just ok. It had more of a vinegar dressing than a mayo-based one, which I didn’t love.

And that was the paltry little beginning of our Disney dining adventures for this trip. Hang in there, it gets better!

[LiteBrite]

After our 3 day banishment from Disney World to the wilds of North I-Drive, we arrived mid-day at Epcot, still working on throwing off the shackles of work-life and switching to a vacation mindset.

Our first dining stop was at Sunshine Seasons, where I chose the Vegetarian Entrée from the Asian counter. It comes with broccoli, mixed veggies, lo mein noodles, and white rice, but I asked to sub an extra portion of the mixed veggies for the rice. This was the result –

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/willageorge/wdw%20april%202009/P4230043.jpg

I quite enjoyed the mixed veggies and the noodles, but the broccoli left a lot to be desired. It was so hard that it seemed like it may have been briefly introduced to the pan, but the two of them really never got a chance to get to know one another. I understand that people
don’t want their veggies mushy, but this was ridiculous, and should I ever order this meal again, I will ask for double portions of both the noodles and the mixed veggies, which were very nicely cooked, thankyouverymuch.

Hubby picked up a fruit and cheese plate from the cooler, which he was very happy with.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/willageorge/P4230044.jpg

He gave me a couple of nibbles of cheese (the port wine cheese - the pinkish stuff), and it was good – nice and port wine-y.

Can you believe it – we passed up the dessert counter altogether! So far we were being very good indeed. :angel:

[MickeyNicki]

Great so far!

[LiteBrite]

Great so far!

I've got another big name from the dining review world onboard! Welcome, Nicki, and thanks!

[luvpooh]

sorry I am not in the dining board stratosphere like Brenda or Nicki but I just wanted to say I am enjoying your reviews and looking forward to the rest!

Also - when did the 2 of you get married, when you were 10??? You both look so young! :)

[LiteBrite]

sorry I am not in the dining board stratosphere like Brenda or Nicki but I just wanted to say I am enjoying your reviews and looking forward to the rest!

But you have the cutest avatar ever!

Also - when did the 2 of you get married, when you were 10??? You both look so young! :)

Ah, go on with you now - of course we weren't 10 when we got married! (We were 11 ;) ).

[natalielongstaff]

Also - when did the 2 of you get married, when you were 10??? You both look so young! :)

i agree !!!

great reviews so far :cool1:

[skellingtonfreak]

Great start to what I am sure will be a fantastic set of reviews. Those noodles...I have only eaten breakfast at SS...now I have a reason to go for lunch. Woohoo!

[LiteBrite]

i agree !!!

great reviews so far :cool1:

Welcome! :wave: and thanks!

Great start to what I am sure will be a fantastic set of reviews. Those noodles...I have only eaten breakfast at SS...now I have a reason to go for lunch. Woohoo!

The noodles were very tasty - I think you'll enjoy them. There are lots of other interesting choices at SS, too. Thanks for reading!

[LiteBrite]

Friday morning we woke up after the first night in our beautiful condo and everything was oh-so-right with the world. By the way, that’s exactly how we referred to it the whole trip – as “our beautiful condo”. This week at the timeshare was a gift from my parents, who own with Marriott but had a week they weren’t able to use this year. Although we were very grateful for their thoughtfulness, we had a little apprehension beforehand, concerning staying offsite and not being immersed in Disneyocity 24/7. We needn’t have worried. This place was gorgeous and wonderful and way too good for the likes of us!

All the mornings to follow we’d be enjoying our favorite breakfast of a peanut butter and jelly wrap with hot tea on the balcony of “our beautiful condo”, but this day we hadn’t been to the grocery store yet, so we did what we’d done all the mornings of our conference – we went to Starbucks for Americanos, oatmeal, and a little internet time.

Following this highly non-commando (and for us, very unusual) morning, we made it to the Animal Kingdom about 10. Shocking! We’ll do better later in the week, but for now we were still recovering from a few very stressful weeks at home followed by a few mildly stressful days at the conference, and we just took our time.

Lunch today was highly anticipated – our first time at Tusker House since the changeover from counter service to buffet. I’ve read lots of great things about TH for vegetarians, and we were looking forward to lots of interesting non-meat choices.

Our hostess and server both made lots of fuss over our anniversary (we were wearing our buttons, which we did the whole trip). We were shown around the buffet, had our drink orders taken (diet coke for me, light lemonade for the Mr.), and then we had at it.

This place did not disappoint – we were in seafood/veggie heaven!

The following is the only photo we managed to come away with somehow, and I have to apologize for the fact that I apparently could not control myself concerning the seafood stew and the salmon! The salmon was in the blank spot, and the seafood stew was where you see some traces of a red sauce. I must have just inhaled it before I remembered we were taking pictures.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/willageorge/P4240063.jpg

The salad plate has a cucumber and tomato salad (ok, nothing special), and hummus with pita crisps (outstanding). On the big plate, aside from the ghosts of the fish and the seafood stew (obviously both huge hits), you’ll see some roasted veggies (good), pearl couscous (good), curried basmati rice (very good), tandoori tofu (could take it or leave it), and orzo pasta (unbelievably flavorful).

The Mr. had most of what I had (minus the seafood, poor soul), but he also had some roasted potato wedges and a vegetable samosa. A bite of his convinced me to grab a couple on my second go-round, along with some fresh green beans from the children’s section (deee-licious!), and repeats of the salmon, the seafood stew, the orzo, and the hummus.

By this time I was getting uncomfortably full, so I did what any self-respecting Diser in the same spot would do. I headed for the dessert table!

If I’m remembering this right, I picked up a wee little lemon tart, a spot of bread pudding with warm vanilla sauce, a mini chocolate brownie, and one other tiny but deadly delight which is escaping me just now (which reminds me of a joke – why don’t 50 year old women have babies anymore? Because they keep forgetting where they put them down!)

The desserts were good enough, but to me they just didn’t live up to the fabulous food that preceded them. Blasphemy, I know, but there you have it. I had a nibble of each and actually left the remains on my plate and walked away! Can you believe it?

Conclusion – Tusker House is our new favorite WDW restaurant. A vegetarian or pescetarian’s delight. We liked it so much we immediately secured an ADR for another lunch later in the trip!

[skellingtonfreak]

Cool...TH is one of our favorites too. I will have to try that seafood stew one day. Their hummus is so good...I wish I had some right now.

[NorweJenNY]

I'm a bit more of a carnivore, but I'm still quite interested in seeing more! :goodvibes

I understand your feelings regarding your "beautiful condo," and I fear that we're beginning to get spoiled by a lot of on-property stays... we never want to be off property again because of it!

[BriarRosie]

Loved the seafood "aftermath" photo. :laughing:

I still haven't tried Tusker House as a buffet, but I will one of these days. :thumbsup2

[MariDisney]

Just so you know what you're dealing with, here's a mug shot -

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/willageorge/P4200006-1-1.jpg

Hubby is a hottie, right? I totally married up. :love:

Wait. You are saying you are married 25 years?? You were obviously a child bride. Looking forward to the reviews!

[LiteBrite]

Cool...TH is one of our favorites too. I will have to try that seafood stew one day. Their hummus is so good...I wish I had some right now.

Mmmmmmm - that hummus!

I'm a bit more of a carnivore, but I'm still quite interested in seeing more! :goodvibes

I understand your feelings regarding your "beautiful condo," and I fear that we're beginning to get spoiled by a lot of on-property stays... we never want to be off property again because of it!

I'm kind of afraid that we've now been spoiled the other direction - our beautiful condo was so gorgeous and relaxing that I'm not sure we'll love our onsite regular hotel room stays as much as we used to!

Loved the seafood "aftermath" photo. :laughing:

I still haven't tried Tusker House as a buffet, but I will one of these days. :thumbsup2

I really recommend it. So many interesting choices!

Wait. You are saying you are married 25 years?? You were obviously a child bride. Looking forward to the reviews!

Ok, I'll just get this out of the way - I was a child bride of 24! Go ahead and do the math - I aint askeert.

I think we just look young because we're so dang immature. :rotfl2:

[gardengirl628]

Enjoying your reviews!
-Another kinda sorta vegetarian :goodvibes

[LiteBrite]

Hi everyone. Sorry I’ve been MIA for a couple of days, but our very beloved 16yo doggie Rosie died, and I was feeling too sad to write.

Here she is –

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/willageorge/P1010093.jpg

She was the sweetest doggie EVER and I miss her very much. I also feel terrible that we were away from her for almost 2 weeks so close to the end of her life, but we couldn’t have known.

Anyway, I’m ready to start again now, and I’ll have an update for you soon.

[gardengirl628]

So sorry for your loss. Pets just don't live long enough. She was beautiful.:lovestruc

[ciera321]

I'm so sorry you lost Rosie. We recently lost our kitty we had for 18 1/2 years and I know how you must feel. :hug: She was a pretty girl!

[TigerKat]

I'm so sorry you lost your beloved Rosie, she was beautiful. :hug:

[oybolshoi]

Hi everyone. Sorry I’ve been MIA for a couple of days, but our very beloved 16yo doggie Rosie died, and I was feeling too sad to write.

Here she is –

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/willageorge/P1010093.jpg

She was the sweetest doggie EVER and I miss her very much. I also feel terrible that we were away from her for almost 2 weeks so close to the end of her life, but we couldn’t have known.

Anyway, I’m ready to start again now, and I’ll have an update for you soon.


I'm so sorry ... she was a beautiful dog. :hug:

[MariDisney]

I'm so sorry about the loss of your dog. She was gorgeous.

[luvpooh]

I'm so sorry for your loss:hug:

[LiteBrite]

After stuffing ourselves silly at Tusker House, we made our way to the Magic Kingdom, where we eventually ended up at Pecos Bills. I had been looking forward to trying one of their veggie burgers so I could load it up at the legendary toppings bar.

When we finally got there, we were in a hurry for some food, because hubby’s blood sugar was dropping (remember, he’s diabetic). This situation doesn’t always lend itself to the best dining situation, because he’s loopy and I tend to be a little tense about his well being until he’s feeling better, so that neither one of us can relax and enjoy what we’re eating, at least not for the first little bit. We also were too distracted to take any photos, not that they’d be all that interesting, anyway.

We each got a veggie burger with fries, with a Diet Coke for me and a Minute Maid Light Lemonade for hubby. We did hit up the toppings bar – I got lots of lettuce and tomatoes, tons of pickle slices, and my condiments of choice, ketchup and mayo. Both of us also love the ketchup and mayo combo for dipping our fries in, so we got several little cups of it, along with some liquid cheese, also for the dipping of fries.

So, this meal didn’t quite live up the hype my own imagination had built up for it. I don’t know if it was because we were too full from lunch, or because I was too tense about hubby to enjoy, or because it just wasn’t that great a veggie burger, but I’m going with a combination of all these things. The fries were without question the best part of the meal, especially dipped in the liquid cheese.

So much for Pecos Bills. Afterwards we watched Wishes (which I lurve :love:) and stopped by Publix for some supplies on our way back to “our beautiful condo” for the night.

[LiteBrite]

Enjoying your reviews!
-Another kinda sorta vegetarian :goodvibes

Thanks, and welcome!

So sorry for your loss. Pets just don't live long enough. She was beautiful.:lovestruc

I'm so sorry you lost Rosie. We recently lost our kitty we had for 18 1/2 years and I know how you must feel. :hug: She was a pretty girl!

I'm so sorry you lost your beloved Rosie, she was beautiful. :hug:

I'm so sorry ... she was a beautiful dog. :hug:

I'm so sorry about the loss of your dog. She was gorgeous.

I'm so sorry for your loss:hug:

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness.

[LiteBrite]

The next morning found us at the Studios, where apparently (according to the pile of receipts I’m basing my precarious memory on) we lost our minds and stopped by Starring Rolls for some Disney “coffee”. What the heck were we thinking? Trust me, we know better.

Lunch today was scheduled for the 50s Prime Time Café, a long time favorite of ours. It was almost going to be like eating there for the first time, though, since it was our first time as kinda sorta almost vegetarians.

Like the good, semi-obsessed Diser that I am, I had been studying the menu for a while, trying to figure out what to order. I knew I wanted some onion rings, because I just love their horseradish sauce for dipping. Again, I apparently cast off restraint when they arrived because most of them seem to be gone in the picture, but look! A hidden Mickey!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/willageorge/wdw%20april%202009/P4250101.jpg

The onion rings were, as usual, dee-licious.

Now, I just had to figure out what other kinda sorta vegetarian stuff I was going to order!

I’ve ready many good reviews of the stuffed pepper here (really good reviews, raves actually), but I didn’t feel confident ordering it, because it’s a stuffed green pepper, and I only like the red or yellow or orange ones. So in the end, I just made hubby order it. Ok, I encouraged hubby to order it, and lo and behold, he did! He grew up loving his mom’s stuffed green peppers, so it wasn’t too hard to convince him (although I’m sure his mom stuffed hers with some sort of hamburger and rice mixture rather than whole grains and ratatouille!)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/willageorge/wdw%20april%202009/P4250099.jpg]

He liked it, but he didn’t love it. His pepper wasn’t really cooked enough. I’ve seen other people’s photos where the pepper was sort of falling apart, and that would have been much better, but his was still very firm. It was more warmed up than roasted. The filling, however, was very good, and he enjoyed that part much more.

In the end I decided to go with 2 appetizers as my entrée. I got a house salad and the Blue Claw Crab Cake.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/willageorge/wdw%20april%202009/P4250104.jpg

The salad was fine, just a regular salad. I have to admit I shoved the mandarin orange slices to the side and ignored them. I was a little bit afraid that our server was going to give me trouble about that, but he pretty much ignored it.

Speaking of our server, on the fun meter, I’d give him about a 5.5 out of 10. He did play a little bit, but he was a lot more focused on the large table of teens sitting next to us than he was on us. We had been seated at a tiny little 2 top sort of crammed back in a corner where he couldn’t really even reach us. He had to stand behind hubby’s back and pass things over hubby’s shoulder to even reach our table, so that might have put a damper on things as well. I was hoping for a little more “25th anniversary” attention, but he barely acknowledged that. He got into whether our plates were clean enough or not, but just a tad.

Any way, back to the food. Here’s the second half of my “entrée”, the crab cake.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/willageorge/wdw%20april%202009/P4250103.jpg

This was really, really good. The menu description from allearsnet describes it as “lump crab cake served in Succotash with chili sauce and crispy onions”. True pescetarians, this is not going to be for you, because there were some little bits of ham or bacon or something in the succotash (which is a corn and lima bean mixture). I enjoyed this very much, and along with my salad, it was plenty for me.

I debated getting a Dad’s Brownie Sundae (cause I love me some brownie sundae, now!) but in the end I decided against it. I knew hubby wouldn’t give me enough help with it, and it would make me way too full, so I skipped it.

Later that afternoon, we decided to give the amazingly cheap espresso drinks at The Writer’s Stop a try. We both got iced decaf Americanos, and we weren’t too impressed. They were a little on the weak side, I’m sorry to say. If you’re making an iced coffee drink from hot coffee, you need to make it really strong to counteract the melting ice, and that didn’t happen with these. However, it was still better than the swill we’d gotten earlier in the day at Starring Rolls!

[mrsturtle]

nice reviews!! excited to have found reviewers eating just what i like. i don't call myself a vegetarian bc i eat eggs and seafood. keep 'em comin!!

sorry about your doggie. lost my golden retriever unexpectedly when he was 8. all doggies go straight to heaven :angel:

[LiteBrite]

nice reviews!! excited to have found reviewers eating just what i like. i don't call myself a vegetarian bc i eat eggs and seafood. keep 'em comin!!

sorry about your doggie. lost my golden retriever unexpectedly when he was 8. all doggies go straight to heaven :angel:

Thanks, MrsT., and welcome! I'm glad to know there are others with weird half-way eating habits like ours! :rotfl2:

[LiteBrite]

Dinner that evening ended up being back at our beautiful condo. We stopped by Publix on our way home and picked up a whole wheat pizza crust, some sauce, cheese, some stuff for salad and a nice bottle of wine. We had a fantastic time relaxing and eating pizza while we watched a movie.

The next day found us at Epcot with a lunch scheduled at the Rose and Crown. We’ve had some wonderful meals there in the past, and I was really looking forward to it.

Mid-morning we found ourselves interested in a “little smackerel” as our friend Pooh would say, so we stopped into Sunshine Season and picked up a no sugar added brownie to share. These things are surprisingly good, even though they’re prepackaged and sugar free. They’re really moist and chocolaty, and made for a perfect little something to get us by till lunch when we split one.

After our snack, we used the Soarin fastpasses we had grabbed first thing that morning, and made our way over to the UK a few minutes before noon, which was when our ADR was for. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we found a spot on a shady bench and enjoyed the last few minutes of the World Showcase players doing King Arthur and the Holy Grail – hilarious, as always. Before we knew it, our beeper was going off and we were escorted to a nice table on the patio.

I briefly considered ordering a Strongbow Cider with lunch. I’m pretty much of a lightweight when it comes to alcoholic beverages, both in terms of what it takes to make me tipsy (not much!) and how strong of an alcohol flavor I enjoy (again, not much). I am not a fan of any beer, and of very few wines, but I do enjoy a hard cider now and again. In the end, though, I didn’t get one with this meal.

Our cutie patootie server from Manchester, Rhys, brought us a basket of cheesy bread and Spaceship Earth butter balls, which we nibbled on a bit – yummy.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/willageorge/wdw%20april%202009/P4260005.jpg

I decided on the vegetarian entrée – vegetable curry.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/willageorge/wdw%20april%202009/P4260007.jpg

Doesn’t that look pretty? It tasted nice, too. Lots of roasted veggies in a nice curry sauce, with a scoop of something only described in the menu as “grains”, and some Indian bread alongside. This had a strong enough flavor to keep me interested, but not so strong that I got tired of it too quickly. I would totally order this again.

Hubby decided on a soup and salad – the potato leek soup and the mixed greens salad with a warm bacon vinagrette.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/willageorge/wdw%20april%202009/P4260008.jpg

I had a little taste of the soup –

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/willageorge/wdw%20april%202009/P4260010.jpg

It had a velvety texture and a nice flavor and I would have loved a bowl of my own!

The salad looked good, but it was a little cheaty with the bacon vinagrette and some little bacon pieces included, along with some roasted onion and Irish cheddar.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/willageorge/wdw%20april%202009/P4260009.jpg

Hubby enjoyed his lunch a lot.

We decided to share a dessert, and after briefly considering the Bailey’s Irish Coffee Trifle, we went with our old favorite, the Sticky Toffee Pudding. I’m sad to have to tell you that we apparently forgot to take a photo of this little beauty, so I’ll try to paint a word picture of it for you.

Imagine a single little cake, shaped like it was baked in a miniature Bundt pan, dark brown and luscious. It’s surrounded by a lake of custard, with a touch of caramel sauce adorning the whole lovely arrangement. This is a wonderful, wonderful dessert, and totally worth the extra insulin hubby had to take in order to enjoy it with me.

We also each had a cup of hot tea with our pudding, and we were offered a box of assorted Twinings teas to choose from. I picked English Afternoon, and hubby went with a Green Jasmine.

Our experience at the Rose and Crown was really good, start to finish. Good service, a beautiful day on the patio, wonderful food, and a nice cuppa to finish up. Couldn’t have asked for anything better.

[gardengirl628]

Rose & Crown looks yummy, especially that soup!

[BriarRosie]

I'm a bit behind. I'll take a page from The Rusty Scupper handbook and number my responses. :laughing:

1) Rosie. Looks like the dog my family had from 1983 - 1997. She could have been his sister. :hug:

2) 50's Prime Time. The crab cake looked great! I'm a big fan of having appetizers as a meal. And I like mandarin oranges in salad, as long as there's Asian dressing of some sort with it. ;) The stuffed pepper being too hard...what a bummer.

3) Rose and Crown: The soup looked delish, but I'm a soup person. :thumbsup2 So did DH's salad! But I shy away from anything "curry", so the jury's out on your dish. And as I've had that sticky toffee pudding years ago during the food and wine festival, at a beer pairing dinner at Rose and Crown...it was incredibly good. Sounds like it's still good after all these years.

[LiteBrite]

Rose & Crown looks yummy, especially that soup!

It was yummy, and very pleasant surroundings as well. One of my favorite meals from the trip.

I'm a bit behind. I'll take a page from The Rusty Scupper handbook and number my responses. :laughing:

1) Rosie. Looks like the dog my family had from 1983 - 1997. She could have been his sister. :hug:

Do you know what kind of dog he was? We got Rosie from the Humane Association when she was a puppy, and she had been dropped over the fence there at night, so they didn't know anything about her, and we always wondered what her parentage had been. We think there may have been some sheltie in there, and her coloring was like a beagle. Who knows what else!

2) 50's Prime Time. The crab cake looked great! I'm a big fan of having appetizers as a meal. And I like mandarin oranges in salad, as long as there's Asian dressing of some sort with it. ;) The stuffed pepper being too hard...what a bummer.

That salad was supposed to come with some sort of citrus vinagrette, which I'm sure would have been more appropriate, but I don't care for sweet salad dressings, so I went with the ranch. I'm not sure why, actually - I usually prefer blue cheese dressing.

3) Rose and Crown: The soup looked delish, but I'm a soup person. :thumbsup2 So did DH's salad! But I shy away from anything "curry", so the jury's out on your dish. And as I've had that sticky toffee pudding years ago during the food and wine festival, at a beer pairing dinner at Rose and Crown...it was incredibly good. Sounds like it's still good after all these years.

The sticky toffee pudding was totally the highlight of a very good meal. Actually, a bowl of that soup followed by a sticky toffee pudding of one's own just might make the perfect lunch! (Assuming the cuppa to go with, of course.) :thumbsup2