This past weekend we went to a friend's house for dinner. My friend Lori was having a "clear out my freezer" dinner party before she moved away the next morning and we were invited.
Let me tell you...that was actually a delicious and fun meal. Everything was pretty random but it ended up being a great idea to help her get rid of extra food (without tossing it) and an excuse to get together on her last night here!
Anyway. While I was there and she was finishing cooking, I caught a commercial for the Olive Garden. Their new four cheese sacchetti dishes had me drooling (and not just because I was starving, the house smelled delicious and dinner wasn't done yet)! These dishes looked AMAZING!
So...The Hubble and I decided to do a little shopping in "town" on Tuesday and while we were there we went to Olive Garden. I had trouble deciding between the shrimp dish or the one with chicken. I ended up going with the chicken dish because it offered a garlic cream sauce over the shrimp dish's Parmesan sauce. (I'm a sucker for garlic).
I would post a picture of it, but I ate it so fast I didn't think to take a picture and the website doesn't have one I can
This meal was delicious! I loved it so much!
We also tried their new mini desserts. Here's a picture!
Photo Courtesy of Olive Garden
Being that we aren't too into chocolate we got the 3 without chocolate. We all ended up liking different ones the best. The Hubble loved the tiramisu, I loved the lemon and Little Butt loved the strawberry. Win, win, win!
Anyway. As much as I would love to sit here and talk strictly about food, I try to save that for my other blog.
No. Today I want to talk about people.
When we were there we were seated in a narrow room with booths lining each wall. Some elderly folks sat across the aisle from us. There were 3 of them. 2 ladies and 1 gentleman. The 2 ladies were sisters and the gentleman was the husband of one lady. LOL! That sounds confusing.
Okay. I'll name them. Mason (the gentleman) and Mouse (the older sister) were married. Then there was Pistol sitting across the booth from her sister and brother in law.
These people had to have been mid to late 60's or early 70's.
We overhead them talking to their server about beers and wines. Well...The Hubble knows his beer and I tend to know my wines so I couldn't help but eavesdrop. We even tried to intervene to help answer the questions the server couldn't but they were focused and didn't hear us.
So we went about our meal. Until Pistol caught my attention to tell me how cute Little Butt was.
Somehow, we ended up talking to these people through the duration of both our meals. We learned a lot about them. These were some awesome older individuals!
We asked them questions...they asked us questions. They talked to Little Butt. We ended up covering everything from politics, military life (Mason is a 30 year retired Navy Captain) and believe it or not...tattoos and piercings (they brought up that topic).
This was one of the most awesome experiences I've had at a restaurant and I really feel the Olive Garden motto of "When you're here, you're family" is true. We definitely felt like we were meeting up with family members when we were there.
I guess I need to talk about this because early on I heard them toast. Pistol raised her glass and said that as long as she had beer, she didn't need hair. She even mentioned maybe having a head shaving party.
Pistol was here visiting her sister before she starts Chemotherapy.
I've been thinking about them for days. They really touched me. Especially Pistol.
She is a spitfire of a woman and I hope that she is able to beat this thing.
We will probably never see them again...but for one afternoon, one meal, they were family. They were so kind and accepting. They are special.
My thoughts are with you Pistol. Thanks for the great meal!
