Why is My Easter Posting Mostly About What I Ate?

I need you to all look, closely, at these Easter dresses. My Mom made the dress (and crazy ruffled bonnet :)) that Mary Aplin is wearing, as Pace's first Easter dress 2 years ago. Then, I smocked Pace one to match and my sweet Grandma put it together. Pace's dress is the reason that I have not read, or blogged much, or cleaned my house in the past couple of months. This was only my third smocking endeavour, and I am HORRIBLY slow. My friend Lauren and I started our dresses at the same time this year, and she completed 3 others before I got this one finished. Anyway, this was my first time to ever have my own set of matching outfits for my little girls.

Jeremiah, who normally tells me to calm down about preserving whatever little Sunday dresses the girls are wearing, has finally realized why I have acted neurotic in the past. He has been so frustrated with seeing the top of my head bent over these dresses in every spare moment the past couple of months, that he was snapping at poor Pace himself when she tried to plop down in the wet grass just before we took these pictures. When we loaded the girls in the car, he didn't even fight with me when I requested that we only buckle their chest straps, so that the dresses wouldn't wrinkle on the way to church. Beauty at all costs, right :) (We were in Dothan, Sunday traffic is very mild, and we didn't have far to go. Please don't judge too harshly.)

We had a great, long Easter weekend. Jeremiah was off Friday and Monday, so we were able to truly relax during our time in Dothan. Kendall cooked an amazing meal on Friday night (grilled pork chops, black-eyed peas, turnip greens, fried cornbread, and potato salad...she's only a senior in high school!), and Jeremiah got to "camp out" with his friends while I watched a movie with the sisters on Friday night. Saturday, the whole Clark clan walked to IHOP for breakfast, I took a run with Dad, and then we laid out on the Redneck Riviera--our driveway. To complete the white-trash scene for you all, I might add that Pace was running around butt-naked and playing in the water hose, and she copped a squat in the yard like it was the most natural thing in the world! That night we tried to switch back into normal people and got dressed up to go to Whitney's engagement party. We talked to lots of old friends, and I don't think they could tell how trashy we'd been a few short hours before :).
Sunday morning, the Easter bunny came to visit Pace and Mary Aplin and a sweet friend (Amy Buntin) arranged an Easter surprise outside the back door for our family. There were a dozen white roses and a Willow Tree figurine (that represented Mom) wrapped up for each of us. As I opened the card in the pre-dawn twilight and saw the the words "He is Risen!" I felt chills at the thought of how Mary and Martha must have felt as they approached the surprising sight of the empty tomb on that first Easter morning. He is risen indeed!

We had Sunday lunch and a mini-Easter Egg hunt with my extended family at Aunt Marty and Uncle Alan's. That afternoon I left a screaming Mary Aplin with poor Mrs. Linda while Jeremiah, Dr. Maddox, David Etheridge, PACE, and me took a long horseback ride around the farm. That night we had some good fellowship (and pizza!) with the Maddox's and Tommy, and completed the night by listening to Kendall's ever-entertaining love drama.
Of all these fun and relaxing activities, I have been most excited to tell you Dothan readers about what I did on Monday morning. Jeremiah and I both LOVE to go out for fun breakfast. While the chain restaurants will suffice in filling you up, what we most enjoy is the individuality and fresh food of small-business restaurants. One day we will move from Birmingham, and we'll have to say good-bye to V. Richards and Urban Standard...that's a day we've been dreading, until our discovery Monday morning. Tommy told us about a new place in historic downtown (on Foster St. in the old River Nile location) called The Bistro. It was phenomenal!

The walls are hung with over-sized black and white photos that the owners wife made in Europe. There is patio seating outside beside a fountain and surrounded by the individually shaped bricks and lopping mortar that makes old buildings so distinct. The owner himself is British and studied the culinary arts while he was growing up there. His gentle accent serves as a nice contrast to the deep-South rhetoric permeating the rest of the room. Our waitress was lovely, and made us feel like family--holding Mary Aplin and bringing Pace finger puppets and silly straws. While we waited for our food, we sipped coffee as we sampled a warm cinnamon roll, drizzled with icing. It was heavenly!

As Dad and Jeremiah talked politics and religion, I peeked my head around the side of our booth to observe our master chef preparing breakfast. He worked with deft skill, moving swiftly from one pan to the next--rolling pitas, sprinkling spices, spreading cheeses, and skimming cream off the top of a little silver pot. When the food came, I was surprised by how large the servings were at such a small price. Jeremiah had a grilled breakfast roll, filled with eggs, spinach, feta, ham, and a sun-dried tomato cream cheese spread. Dad had crepes (that can also be filled with fruit) stuffed with eggs, bacon, and cheese. I had eggs Florentine: poached eggs on a bed of butter-wilted spinach, topped with Swiss cheese and thin slices of ham (added at my request). All of our dishes were paired with home-diced potatoes, fried to a golden brown.

All of this in Dothan, Alabama and we were the ONLY people in the place!!!! I don't understand why we (Dothanites) cannot seem to support a fine-dining establishment. Its like we all (me included) say we'll just hop right over here to this convenient chain restaurant and pay 4 or 5 dollars less per plate to eat food that has been prepared somewhere like NY, shipped down here, and left in the freezer for the past few days! This restaurant I have described, The Bistro, is fabulous. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner (I am not sure what days they do serve which meal), and I cannot imagine you would not be delighted by what you discover there. I know I was.

Happy Easter!!! I have talked about food throughout this entire post and am now feeling a bit obese :)