Saturday Lunch Review: Pickle Barrel Cafe

We have started running out of places to go for lunch in our town.  There are, however, a few places left, one of which is in the mall.  It's a little cafe called the Pickle Barrel Cafe, it hasn't been there for very long.  The staff was polite and we did not have to wait long for our meal.  I had a turkey club that was very good and Ronnie had an egg salad sub which he said was good.  We both had their potato salad and we agreed that it was a little spicier than we preferred.  The atmosphere was very quaint and quiet.  The decor was a little interesting, there were large pickles all over the walls depicted doing various actions.  I would go back again if I was in the mall and hungry but I would not go out of my way to go there again. 

Saturday Lunch Review: Shady Maple Smorgasbord

I know this is later than intended but with it being Memorial Day weekend I was a little busy.  Anyway, this past Saturday my boyfriend, Ronnie, ended up picking our lunch venue.  He chose Shady Maple Smorgasbord in Blue Ball, Pennsylvania, a very Amish town.  Shady Maple was huge the building for dining in was enormous on it's own.  It was a self-serve style buffet and there was plenty of food!  We arrived at about 10:00 so we had brunch.  Their breakfast foods were fantastic, and they had such a variety!  There were three different kinds of bacon alone.  They also had four different grill stations that you could get your own omelet made.  My personal favorites however, were the cheesy hashbrowns, the sausage gravy, and the bacon might have been some of the best bacon I have ever tasted!  We also had some of the lunch food as well, but we were less impressed with those options, the crab cakes were a little too spicy, however the mashed potatoes were good.

There are additional attractions to Shady Maple besides the food.  There was an enormous gift shop underneath the dining area.  There were so many different things; adorable knick-knacks, sports paraphenalia, and handmade quilts, along with so much more.  There was also a wonderful farmer's market in the building beside the buffet.  It was huge and smelled simply delicious.  They were giving out so many free samples, but unfortunately we were too stuffed to try anything.  Going to Shady Maple, even though it was a bit of a drive was a greast experience, the food was very good and there were other attractions that made the trip even more worth while. 


Here is the website for Shady Maple if you'd like to try it out:
http://www.shady-maple.com/

Saturday Lunches

At the beginning of this year my boyfriend had the idea for us to start a little tradition.  So, every Saturday he and I go out for lunch, and every single week we pick a new place to eat at so we never repeat places during the whole year.  Each week we alternate who picks where we are going.  Here is a list of the places we have gone for the first 20 weeks:

1. Olive Garden
2. Red Lobster
3. Starlite Diner
4. Little's Diner
5. Cracker Barrel
6. Chili's
7. Grand Eats and Sweets
8. Jimmy John's
9. Baltimore Street Family Restaurant
10. Lucky Spot Family Restaurant
11. Perkins
12. Dutch Country
13. Famous Hot Wiener
14. Texas Roadhouse
15. Baugher's
16. Panera Bread
17. Buffalo Wild Wings
18. Roger's Grillin'
19. TGI Friday's
20. Grandview Diner

We've gone to every one of these places over the past 20 weeks.  So I have decided that from this coming weekend on, I will be writing a short review of the place we eat at each week.  I've been meaning to write this for a while and finally got around to it.  So, sometime between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning I will write a review of where we eat this Saturday, so make sure to check it out!  It's my week to pick and I just can't decide where to pick yet. 

Review: Neighbors

Neighbors came out on May 9th.  This movie takes a brand new family and pits them against a high standing Frat in a battle of whit and humor.  If you enjoy drunken, weed, and sexual humor, this is a movie for you.  The theatre was in fits of hysterics during portions of this film.  It was a very good movie, a few twists, and up until the end you are stilling guessing at who will win this fight.  And I must say that little baby is simply adorable.  Seth Rogen does a great job of portraying a young and not quite ready father trying to make ends meet and still be the wild child from his youth.  Zac Efron also portrays a party obsessed, not sure what's after college frat guy effortlessly.  Also ladies, the sculpted body and great butt that Efron has are very pleasing to the eye.  So if you enjoy a good laugh and some weed jokes, along with a few penises thrown in, you should definitely go see Neighbors.  

The Preakness

On May 17th I attended the Preakness with my boyfriend.  It was a new experience for us as neither of us have ever been to a horse race before, much less one of such magnitude.  We were on the infield, so there was a lot to see.  There were many food vendors, some souvenir tents, a few gambling tents, and a plethora of beer vendors.  I would be willing to bet that over two-thirds of the people there were at least tipsy and probably one-third were drunk.  We got to see a couple of fights as well, but there was security everywhere so they were quickly disbanded.  The last third of the overall group were very well dressed and looked very classy, which is to be expected.  There were so many well dress women with great hats on!  I really appreciate a good hat.  There are a few good ones picture below.

There were several vocal artists that performed on the infield as well.  We got to see Switchfoot perform.  They were very good, I only knew a few of their songs but they were very involved in the crowd and were very interactive.  They had the crowd very excited, they had everyone screaming and singing along.  Then we also saw Lorde perform.  Her performance was a little different.  She was not exactly what I expected.  Her performance was darker than I had expected, but it was still very good, her voice continues to amaze me, especially for how young she is.  She is very talented. 




Then of course, there was the main event, the race.  It was amazing, everyone was so excited!  It was kind of hard to see because of all of the tents in the around and there were so many people, but it was very exciting nonetheless.  As you probably already know it was California Chrome who won the Preakness, in case you are not aware, he was also the one that won the Kentucky Derby.  However, there has been a small hitch going into the Belmont.  California Chrome wears a nasal strip while racing.  However, there has been information stated that the nasal strip may not be allowed to be worn during the third jewel of the Triple Crown.  The Gaming Commission Spokesman said that if there is a request to wear the nasal strip, the request will be reviewed and a decision will be made.  Until then we will just have to wait and see what the fate of California Chrome will be.