Birthday weekend...part two

Saturday of our birthday weekend was spent doing one of the things the Rissers and I love to do...SHOPPING! We went to the Castleton Square Mall on the North side of Indy. It was a great mall and we found some fantastic deals on the clearance racks. I bought 3 new shirts for a total of less than $20.00!

When we got done at the mall we drove around the area near the mall looking at all the strip malls nearby. I saw a sign that got me excited...Trader Joe's! For those of you who have never been to a Trader Joe's, you are missing out! It's a very reasonably priced organic food store. It's kind of like an organic Aldis for those of you who know what an Aldis store is. We don't have any stores near us - they are mainly in urban areas - but I have been to them several times while visiting my friends in St. Louis. The Rissers had never been to one before, so it was fun to share this new shopping experience with them. I bought food - which I hadn't planned on doing during my weekend away, but I couldn't pass up some of the great deal on non perishable items. Here's a link to Trader Joe's if you want to find out more about these amazing stores. http://www.traderjoes.com/

Deanna, me, and Denise at dinner.

After shopping we went back to the hotel and rested for a bit. We then walked downtown to Buca di Beppos. This is one of my favorite Italian restaurants. The food is served family style and is simply incredible! We shared an appetizer of bruschetta, three dishes - the manicotti, the lasagna, and the penne campofiore, and a VERY large piece of chocolate cake! It was SO delicious. The food there is truly amazing.

This is the lasagna and manicotti. The red sauce on both of these dishes was light and flavorful - indicative of the fresh herbs and garlic that were in it. The manicotti pasta was made fresh and the mozzarella cheese was also fresh - very moist, light, and extremely flavorful!

This is the penne campofiore. It was a vegetarian penne pasta dish featuring zucchini, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, garlic and Romano cheese in a light vegetable broth. I think this was my favorite thing of the entire meal! It was rich in flavor, yet not as heavy as the other two dishes that had cheese in them. I let the Rissers take home the other leftovers and I took these.

Me with the HUGE piece of cake that we shared!

Me acting like a goofball by a statue at Buca's!

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and spent the rest of the evening reading, playing cards, and talking. Such a wonderful day! :)