Burger #4...and other things

I got my linen closet and drawer cleaned out today. Two bags of linens went to the donation centre, as well as a bag of clothes that I'd been holding on to for a while. I thought I might want some of the clothes in the bag but since I hadn't even looked at the bag since I got my snow tires on. So the bag went in the back of the car with the other things and off to the donation centre they went.

Over near the donation centre is another restaurant that is participating in Burger Love. After checking it out online I decided it was one I wanted to try. I'll admit there are some that I have no interest in trying, but this one looked good. It's called the Ciao Bella and it is at Papa Joe's restaurant. Papa Joe's has one Burger Love in the past. I'm not sure if this one will win this year, but it was a good burger.

First, the patty - it is 7 oz and was juicy and not too dense. It was topped with crispy fried onions which were crispy! I'm not a big fan of onions, but these were good. It also had bacon, aged white cheddar and goat cheese on it. I didn't like the garlic goat cheese on the Sucker Punch but it worked on the Ciao Bella because of the other things on the burger. There was a sundried and Roma tomato chutney on it which went really well with the goat cheese. Adding to the flavour (not competing with it) was arugula tossed in housemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The goat cheese, the chutney, and the arugula all worked together to give it an Italian/Mediterranean taste. 

The bun, a toasted onion poppy seed bun, was hearty enough to handle all these ingredients. It was nice and fresh and the bottom bun was cut thick enough to support the burger, which was nice since the chutney was a bit drippy. The bun was garnished with a spicy pickled red onion (zingy!), a gerkin (tasty, and I don't like gerkins), a dried roma tomato slice (crispy), and a piece of candied bacon (delicious). All in all, I liked this one. I'd rank it in third place out of the four I've tried so far. Here's what it looks like:

I have to say, I'm loving Burger Love month but I am glad it is only for 30 days. Any more than that and I'd start to have burger overload. I know there are some people who have tried 10, even 20 burgers. Not me! I can only handle one every few days. My next one will probably be on Sunday.

Oh, I took a picture of the apron I won. I think it's cute. I'll have to wear it the next time I make potatoes. :-)

Tomorrow morning I am off to the dentist but it should be an easy appointment. They are doing my cleaning. Of course they will reschedule my fillings that I was suppose to have today. I kind of wanted to get that appointment over with but the dentist couldn't make it for some reason. Maybe they will combine the fillings with the extraction next week. I'll find out tomorrow.

New yarn arrived today for a MKAL that doesn't start until May. I didn't expect the yarn to arrive already but it did. The colour is Casterly Rock and I believe this will be a shawl or possibly a cowl. It's thicker yarn than I've been working with so it will be a nice change. I'll take a picture of it tomorrow when the light is better. I'm still working on my Solar Flare shawl - I'm on skein 3 now - as well as the Outlander shawl. The next clue for both KALs will be coming out this weekend, so I better get knitting if I'm going to be ready for them!

I'm A Winner!

As part of the whole Burger Love month, the people running it give away prizes each week. Some of the winners are randomly chosen from the people who rate their burger on the Burger Love website. Those people have a chance of winning gift cards for restaurants or gift packs from a beer company that has glasses, a t-shirt, and coasters. It would have been cool to win one of those, but that's not what I won.

On Fridays, if you tweet a picture of a burger with fries and tag it with #fryday, you get entered into a drawing for prizes. I've been tweeting pictures of my burgers, so I made sure last Friday to include the hashtag. It was a lucky burger I guess, because last night I received a direct message on twitter letting me know that I was a Fryday winner. Once I contacted them I found out that I won an I heart PEI Potatoes apron and a potato peeler. It's silly and fun and I typically don't win things so I was a little excited. I was worried for a bit that I had won the 50 lbs of potatoes. What I would do with 50 lbs of potatoes, I don't know. I'd probably start going to different neighbours and just leaving them potatoes on their doorstep.

That was my big excitement for the day. The rest of the day was pretty typical. I am on a quest for new silverware so I went to our Bed, Bath, and Beyond store. They had some nice sets but I'm persnickety about my silverware so nothing was quite right. I'm not sure what other places on the island sell nice silverware - possibly Sears. I'm sure Walmart sells silverware, but I don't have high hopes of finding something I like there. I might have to make a trip over to the closest city off island or possibly even take a trip down to Halifax. I'm sure I'll find more places there where I can look.

I also bought a new tablecloth and placemats. I like my table to reflect the seasons - darker colours for fall/winter and lighter colours for spring/summer. I was brave (or possibly crazy) and bought a white everyday tablecloth. With two messy kids. But it is the kind of tablecloth that is suppose to be stain resistant. My kids will put that to the test I'm sure. The placemats are different shades of blue with white stripes. When I saw them they had a summer, beachy look.

Of course, buying new linens for my table means I do need to clean some stuff out. My linen closet and the drawer where I keep the table linens have gotten out of control. I have things in them that I don't use anymore. Since my dentist appointment for tomorrow morning got canceled (not by me, by the dentist!), I will use that time to clean out and clean up that closet and drawer. With spring coming I'm feeling the urge to do some spring cleaning. Time to move out the things that haven't been used in a while and let someone else use them. There is a donation center in town that I will be paying a visit to soon, I think.

Since it was Wednesday, S had her Girl Guides meeting tonight and J had spring hockey. I took S to her meeting, which was at the library. The librarian read them a story and gave them a quick tour of the library. Then they moved into the activity room and did an art project with the resident art teacher. It was a very cute project - they made a fox - but to me it seemed a bit over their heads. They ended up needed a lot of parent help. I was one of the only parents that stayed tonight besides the group leaders so I ended up helping a bunch of kids. One of the girls was getting very impatient with me because I wasn't helping her fast enough. I did have to speak to her a little sternly when she started getting snippy with me about not getting her fox done first. But the foxes turned out nicely and the girls had fun but I am tired now!

C said that J is doing exceptionally well at hockey. He said that J is working very hard on the ice, harder than he did during his winter season. Maybe it's the new program and/or the new coaches or maybe it's the 'C' on his jersey for the spring, but he's really playing very well. They have a game on Saturday and I hope I can get over to watch it. S is invited to a birthday party and the game falls right in the middle of the party. Hopefully it's a drop-off party so I can zip over and watch his game. If not, I'm sure I'll have other chances to see him this spring season. Either way, I'm glad he's having fun with this team.