The weather is gorgeous. I’m so glad we planned a little picnic and afternoon at the Lake today. I have a feeling that after such a horrible hot summer that this weekend is one of the very few nice weather weekends we’ll have this year. I cheated a little on the picnic – Publix had cold friend chicken on sale for just $3.99 for 8 pieces. The chicken and my homemade macaroni salad and a small seedless watermelon were GOOD EATING!

We had such a nice relaxing day – best Labor Day that I can remember!

Just saw a commercial for Krispy Kreme doughnuts. They are having a summer special of lemon icing, lemon filling and all things lemon. I love lemons and the lemon filled sounds really yummy. I think I will leave a little early for work one morning next week and pick up a couple dozen doughnuts to share with everyone at the office.

This morning I ended up giving a friend a ride to work. I was in a different part of town and wanted to get something to eat before going into the office. I found a Hardees just down the street from her office, so I pulled in and ordered breakfast. They have a special menu item called a loaded breakfast biscuit.Wow! it sure tasted good.I can’t do that very often because it has got to be bad for the diet. But once in a while it is good to try something totally different. And this was really good!

The best part of Sunday morning is getting the Sunday newspaper and reading all the ads, cutting coupons and reading the comics. This week’s paper had some really good coupons and I’ve already used one of them. The Hardee’s coupons were BOGO (buy one – get one free) and it was the perfect chance to taste one of their sandwiches, the bacon double cheeseburger on sourdough. I rarely go to a Hardees, but thought this would be a nice change. So we drove through the Hardees and took our lunch to the park for a little picnic this afternoon. It was really nice to get outside and enjoy the sunshine and a nice lunch together.

I told the kids that I have Cabin Fever and they had no idea what I was talking about. So I explained that I was sick of being stuck in the house and really needed a break. So we decided to get in the car and drive to Murfreesboro, just to get out of the house and look at some different scenery besides the interstate. We took the back road from Lebanon and saw a lot of farms and farm animals.

After we got to Murfreesboro, we found a Zaxby’s Chicken and got some really tasty chicken nuggets and crinkle cut fries. That was a nice change. I wish there was a Zaxby’s close to the house – driving 30 miles for chicken nuggets doesn’t make a lot of sense when there are 2 dozen other places between here and there.

Tomorrow we want to have a girls day out. Three of us are going to skip work or already have the week off!) and go to the movies and then go out for dinner. Or maybe we will go for lunch and then go to the movies. I don’t know yet. But I am definitely not staying home and cleaning house.

My friend Alexa is coming from down in Franklin and my girlfriend Shannon is coming from Bellevue and since I’m out East by the airport, we want to find a place that lets us meet in the middle. That’s hard to do, but I’m working on it.

My first thought was to find a restaurant that would be great for lunch and if it was close to the theater then we could all eat first. Otherwise, we’ll have to meet at the theater and then go to dinner.

I’ve been checking the Local.com directory for an idea of restaurants in either the Opry Mills area or the Hundred Oaks area. Those two theaters are just off an interstate and easy to get to from all three directions.

I don’t even keep a printed local yellowpages, naymore since I can use the internet version of directories. Using the internet lets me search for a category without having to look through a lot of ads that don’t meet my needs or interest.

The Local.com is a great local search tool, especially for restaurant ideas. I’ve not been eating out much since the kids moved back East with me. We like to eat at home and have family time at night after school. And eating at home lets them get their baths and head to bed early so they get a good night’s sleep. But Mom needs a day out with girlfriends. So tomorrow is Mom’s day out!

I found a list of about 30 local restaurants and picked out the three that looked good to me. So I’ll send my picks to Alexa and Shannon by email with links to the search results, and let them vote on which one we’ll meet at tomorrow. I can’t wait!

Tonight was a strange one as far as trying to plan for a dinner and get everyone fed. My 7 year old was STARVING at 6:00 and I admit that he had not had much to eat all day because we have been on the go since 7:00 this morning.

So I fed him at McD’s – it was fast, easy and cheap. But when we got home it was decided to go to O’Charley’s for a proper dinner. Of course, DS was not the least bit hungry, so I promised him that he could eat an ice cream sundae while the rest of us ate our dinner.

Guess what? The new menu does not have ice cream as a dessert option. Just chocolate cake, caramel pie and key lime pie. No ice cream. They advertise themselves as a family place but have no ice cream. Next time we’ll have to skip O’Charley’s and go to a family restaurant that DOES have ice cream.

We have not been going out to dinner as much lately as I would like to. The cost of everything is going up and I have to cut back somewhere, so not eating out as often is one of the least painful ways for me to save money each week.

Tonight I just did not want to cook dinner again, so I decided to splurge and go out for dinner. We headed out to the Hermitage “restaurant row” and thought we could find a table at O’Charley’s or Outback. Or Chili’s or Appleby’s. Or Dave’s or the new Japanese place.

OMG! The hordes of people at all of these restaurants made the wait to get a table over an hour at every restaurant we went to. Even Appleby’s! I could not bear the thought of going to Golden Corral for my treat of a dinner out, so we were stuck with no place to go without at least an hour long wait. So we went home and I cooked up a pan of Hamburger Helper instead. It only took 20 minutes and it filled us up without much effort in the kitchen.

Sigh.

Every Friday I end up with a dozen or so fresh, ripe bananas. I like bananas, but I usually only eat 1 or 2 in a week’s time. Having a dozen to do something with has become quite a challenge. I have made banana pudding, banana bread, banana breakfast muffins, and sandwiches made with peanut butter and bananas.

Now I hope to start making banana milkshakes and banana smoothies. I don’t have a blender, so I have started looking on the internet for information on the different blenders and shopping for a good price on the blender model that I choose.

One of the first sites I turn to when shopping online is the ShopWiki. I like the information articles and the huge number of retailers or sellers that offer products on ShopWiki. The last time I searched ShopWiki I was looking in their kitchen and dining section for small appliances to take into work. I like to cook like meals at the office rather than go out to fast food places. So I bought a toaster oven and some extra kitchen supplies, like plastic wrap and glass bowls.

Church’s Chicken has bought all 23 Mrs. Winner’s stores in Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. The new owners plan full conversion of all the former Mrs. Winner’s to the church’s chicken brand by the end of September. all of the Mrs. Winner’s in my area have been repainted and new signs put up already.

It makes me sad to see the end of Mrs. Winner’s. It was really good chicken and the best biscuits of any fast food place.