P.F. Chang, Tulsa, OK

My 79 year old mother and one of her friends drove up to Tulsa this morning in her friend's big black Lincoln land yacht, and I've been out shopping with them since 11 a.m., serving as navigator, tour guide, and chaperone. :-) They have interesting shopping tastes. We ended up at Utica Square, so we happened upon P.F. Chang, and wandered in there for dinner. We each had different hot teas....me with my usual organic green....and then shared spring rolls and crab wontons for appetizers. Our entrees were sweet and sour pork, orange peel chicken, and lemon scallops, accompanied by brown rice. The scallops were especially good tonight, being large and meaty, and the lemon sauce added just the right amount of tart sweetness. For dessert, we all shared a banana spring roll with coconut-pineapple ice cream. As you know, Chang is a national chain, and while they are sort of high end for Chinese food and I always enjoy my food, I still find them to be appallingly expensive. With tax and tip, the three of us spent $72, and we didn't have any alcohol or multiple multiple courses or any extravagant foods like lobster. A $24 Chinese dinner just seems a little excessive to me. After all, it's *just* Chinese! ;-)

Greek's, Pawhuska, OK

While I was in Pawhuska today, I had an hour to kill and since it was the noon hour, I finally went to this little restaurant which has been there for years called "Greek's." It wasn't at all what I expected. There wasn't a single Greek item on the menu, not even baklava. I'd heard it had a Mexican menu, but there wasn't a single Mexican item on the menu, either. It's basically a diner with burgers, chicken fried steak, and fried chicken. I usually like diners, but this one wasn't my favorite. The chicken fried steak was okay, but I didn't like the gravy. It had an odd look to it, which made me think that they used water instead of milk to make it. The french fries were dipped and very good, though.

I still had some time to kill after lunch, so I went to the Osage Trading Post out on the highway and bought a pound of dried Indian corn for my Thanksgiving dinner and a two pound sack of blue corn meal. The corn meal price has gone **way** up....it used to cost me $5, but this one was $8. I may have to start cooking with mundane normal white corn meal in the future!

After Pawhuska, I went to Bartlesville to visit my parents, and my mother had cooked this huge lunch with a big roast beef and baked sweet potatoes and steamed cauliflower with cheese melted over it and baked apples and other stuff....so I had to not mention my lunch in Pawhuksa. No wonder I'm getting fat! She also sent me home with a bag full of homemade oatmeal cookies, which I'm busy devouring as we speak.