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i took this picture today because i loved how the water droplets sparkled on the tips of each branch.\u00c2\u00a0 can you see the ones even in the back of the picture?<\/p>\n
last night, i finally took mr. happy stuff out to eat for his birthday.\u00c2\u00a0 he’s been wanting to try the samba brazilian grill<\/a> ever since he first heard about it.\u00c2\u00a0 apparently, when he had a business trip to las vegas a number of years ago, he ate at a restaurant with a similar concept and loved, loved, loved it.\u00c2\u00a0 it’s really hard to get a table on the weekend and mr. h-s was in chicago for work on his actual birthday, so we finally made it there on a monday night.\u00c2\u00a0 why don’t we eat out on weekdays more often?\u00c2\u00a0 the restaurant was so much more relaxed on a monday than it would have been on a saturday night!\u00c2\u00a0 and a restaurant like this needs to not be rushed.\u00c2\u00a0 let me explain.\u00c2\u00a0 this is not your typical eatery.\u00c2\u00a0 the concept is closer to an all-you-can-eat sm\u00c3\u00b6rg\u00c3\u00a5sbord (wow, my spell check gave me those cool, more correct letters!) but much, much nicer than most cafeterias.\u00c2\u00a0 there was no self-serve ice cream sundae bar.\u00c2\u00a0 instead, there was a “salad bar” that we were invited to visit for our first course.\u00c2\u00a0 more of a “saladpalooza,” it was full of different kinds of pasta salads, a curry chicken salad with grapes and apricots, some sort of veggie salad with squid and another one that i think was edamame and seaweed (but the sign was missing, so i’m not certain).\u00c2\u00a0 there were three kinds of lettuce if you really wanted a salad-y salad, along with hearts of palm (and not the kind from a can), asparagus, marinated artichokes (again, definitely not from a can), and some other veggies.\u00c2\u00a0 some super yummy almonds that i couldn’t get enough of.\u00c2\u00a0 some fancy cheeses (an awesome goat cheese), a multitude of olives…. the waitress had cautioned us (over and over) to please, please pace ourselves and not fill up with the first course, so i tried to stick to foods i don’t normally have a chance to eat (not very difficult to do, considering the variety).\u00c2\u00a0 when we got back to our table, in addition to our drinks, she’d brought us some of the most sinfully delicious little buttery, cheesy popover things.\u00c2\u00a0 oh man.\u00c2\u00a0 they were my downfall.<\/p>\n then it was time for the “second course.”\u00c2\u00a0 there’s this little wooden, hourglass-shaped thing on each table.\u00c2\u00a0 one end is painted red and the other is painted green.\u00c2\u00a0 when you’re ready for your second course, you turn it from red to green.\u00c2\u00a0 and then all these guys with skewers of meat begin coming around to your table and offering you either a chunk of meat, slid down to the bottom of the skewer and deposited onto your plate, or sliced off while you grab it with the tiny tongs provided to you.\u00c2\u00a0 last night, there were eight different meats. let’s see if i can remember.\u00c2\u00a0 there was an argentinean sausage, some duck, leg of lamb, rack of lamb (which was amazingly tender and flavorful),\u00c2\u00a0 parmesan-crusted pork, and three kinds of beef–flank steak, top sirloin and a bacon-wrapped beef tenderloin.\u00c2\u00a0 i tried seven of the eight (i skipped the flank steak) and took seconds (or at least bites of mr. happy stuff’s seconds) of the top sirloin, the tenderloin and the rack of lamb.\u00c2\u00a0 oh man, were they good.\u00c2\u00a0 i don’t think i’ve ever eaten that much meat in one meal.\u00c2\u00a0 definitely never that many different animals in one meal.\u00c2\u00a0 not a good place to take your vegetarian friends.\u00c2\u00a0 still, we somehow managed to heed our waitress’ warning and paced ourselves enough to have room for a shared piece of key lime cheesecake at the end of the meal.\u00c2\u00a0 what does it say that the cheesecake tasted light and refreshing at the end of that meal?<\/p>\n very happy birthday to you, mr. h-s!<\/p>\n p.s. tonight we ate a veggie stir-fry for dinner.\u00c2\u00a0 whew!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" i took this picture today because i loved how the water droplets sparkled on the tips of each branch.\u00c2\u00a0 can you see the ones even in the back of the picture? last night, i finally took mr. happy stuff out … Continue reading ![](\"http:\/\/lh6.google.com\/carissaabc\/R9_Nx3M3KKI\/AAAAAAAAE64\/tfUYtUsR9e4\/IMG_9824.JPG?imgmax=512\")
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