Author: the outside lane

Happy. That about covers it.
Uncategorized

Eating Out with Lane: Fadi’s

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Fadi’s Mediterranean Bistro
14902 Preston RD
Dallas, TX 75254
(972) 934-8500
http://www.fadiscuisine.com

My lunches are often short, so I am always looking for the healthiest, least expensive options available for a quick in and quick out. There isn’t always time for a sit down meal in a full service restaurant. On those days, I try to run in to a Souper Salad, or a Sweet Tomatoes, where I can fill up on my favorite vegetables and grab a bowl of soup, but healthy and filling isn’t always savory and satisfying. For savory and satisfying that is healthy and filling, I love Mediterranean food. I cannot tell you how excited I was to find out that a Salad Bar and a Mediterranean Restaurant had had a baby and named it Fadi’s Mediterranean Bistro. Even better, since I am very particular about cleanliness, Fadi’s serving line was meticulous.

The salads were delicious.

The salads looked very good. Nothing wilted, nothing browned, nothing I could turn my nose up at. I went for the hummus, Greek salad, Tabouli salad, and chick peas, then turned the corner to the serving station, where I chose clay oven baked chicken and rice, and some zucchini. All of that, plus pita bread and a drink, came to $12.75 with tax. Considering the portion sizes, it was a very good value.

A very generous portion of chicken.

While the zucchini was just all right, and the Tabouli was a little too sharp with lemon, everything else was fantastic. I was shocked at how good the salad was, especially since there was very little dressing. Just the combination of vegetables (including radish, carrots, peppers, and onions) with the olives and feta was quite good. And the veg were as crisp as they had looked to be. The hummus was one of the best blends I’ve tasted, having a warm, nutty appeal, and the chick peas were fantastic. I even liked the chicken, which was moist and tender.

songs to learn and sing

The Passenger

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This one is for Renae.

In 2000, Renae and I headed off to Europe for a coach tour (you can read about it here.) It was cramped, close quarters as we rolled through January in the frozen European countryside. Renae’s long legs were best seated in the aisle, and my motion sickness was best suited to the window, so we spent hour upon hour, riding and riding and riding, and riding some more, and then riding some more whenever the driver would get lost. I’m not sure how many times we circled St. Goar before finally landing in their gingerbread village, but it was long enough that I was bouncing my forehead against the window, hoping for the salvation of unconsciousness. There is a picture of me sprawled across the bed of our Inn there. It is an excellent representation of just how I felt by the time we arrived.

Frequently, we would spend six hours on the coach at a time. As you can imagine, those of us who could, would sleep. I would get into my toque, which was about two sizes too large for my head, and pull it down to my chin like the cover on a birdcage, and nod off. And, like everyone else who could sleep, I would lurch into wakefulness with a start every time Midgie-the-Tour-Guide would turn on Iggy Pop’s, The Passenger, at an ear-bleeding volume of 11. This was how Midgie liked to announce we were rolling to a stop. By the end of the tour, I wanted to find Iggy Pop, pick him up by his ankles, swing him like a bat and knock Midgie into the bleachers. I hated them both.

Now? Now, The Passenger numbers on my personal hit parade. I hear it and I remember how much fun Renae and I had together, and separately. I remember how we started a snowball fight in front of our hotel in Germany, then went inside when it was clear our Australian counterparts meant war, and watched from the window in our room as those same counterparts were rounded up by hotel security and reprimanded for the display. I remember how much fun it was to watch Charlie’s Angels in a Parisian theater, and the goofy things we did at the expense of fine art in the Louvre. And, I remember how passionately we both felt about strangling Midgie. Good times.

Nothing wrong with being the passenger.

Uncategorized

Hairy, Angry, and Loose

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I shave my armpits and legs, wear high heels and makeup, and love dresses, do my level best to cook dinner for my family and keep the house looking nice, work a full-time job, maintain something that might pass for a social life (even if 3/4s of it is conducted online), and love God and Country (The Country, not Country music. That I do not love.) I am what a feminist looks like.

In my early years, I was really confused about what constituted Feminism. Feminism, in my brain, was yelling at men, and burning your bra, and being a hippie of loose moral character. That’s what I saw on the news, anyway. I thought Feminism was about being angry and unattractive. I was wrong. I was also five, so I can be forgiven.

But thanks to those hairy, angry, loose women, I have never had to make a choice about whether to put on lipstick or march for legislation. I know that a Feminist can do both. Hillary Clinton looks mighty fine in her suits, and Libby Dole never looked too shabby either.

What is Feminism about, aside from the trappings of fashion? Stealing from the best definition I’ve seen: It is about defining, establishing and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women.

We define equity in political, economic and social rights, and equity in opportunities for women through a guaranteed right to political process, the ability to earn equal wages for equal work, and guaranteed rights to conduct our lives with the same array of options and choices (including education, work, and lifestyle) as men, and we define equal opportunities as just that. If a man is allowed the chance to do it, a woman should be allowed the same opportunity.

We establish and defend these equities through legal or political process, as politicians ourselves, or as lobbyests, or as private citizens through our voices and our votes, and by demanding our equality–demanding our rights, even when the other side does not want to hear us.

I am a Feminist. I am about equal rights for all people. And the older I get, the more I want to talk about it, and the more I understand the anger, and the more I understand the importance of refusing to sit down and be quiet. And the older I get, the more I realize what mountains my forebears crushed into molehills.

My generation, and the generations of women after me didn’t fight those fights, we only reaped the benefits. Our job is to not only press forward while maintaining the status quo, but to protect and nurture womens’ rights to choose where they stand in life, and to ensure that the spirit of Feminism is shared throughout the world.

Women Worth Knowing

Women Worth Knowing: Where are they now? Irene, Kim, and Grace

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It’s about time for us to check in on some of our early Women Worth Knowing profilees, don’t you think? Look for these to pop up from time to time.

Checking in with Irene
1. What’s new in your life since we “met” you?
Nothing much. Same husband, same kid, same job, same ennui, same boobs. Yep, much the same.

2. What do you hope to accomplish in the next year?
I need to rewrite, and that means to actually sit my posterior down and WRITE, my novel. It’s too good to let it sit. Oh, and help my kid make it into an awesome college where she can blow stuff up for fun and get paid/make good grades for it.

3. What do you think makes a woman worth knowing?
I would think it’s a combination of many things: Wit, humor, intellect, humility, pride, self-awareness. We are all so much more than the sum of our parts (yes, trite and overdone, but still true) that there is no real equation or formula. It just is!

Checking in with Kim
1. What’s new in your life since we “met” you?
Nothing really, just one less kid at home. I think I already sent you the updated web url for the business last year. Other than that, I’m older and have decidely uncute hair. Deep stuff over here.

2. What do you hope to accomplish in the next year?
I hope to have really gone up in my business to where it is honestly a business, not a hobby. I hope to be debt free or close to it. I hope to be a better Mom.

3. What do you think makes a woman worth knowing?
Is she a decent person? Does her family respect her? Is she true to herself? Then she is worth knowing.

Checking in with Grace
1. What’s new in your life since we “met” you?
Since I was profiled I went from being a laid off, stay at home mom by force to the ranks of the employed. Both kids are in school now so the timing was perfect for me. I am in a totally new industry which was a big adjustment because after just shy of 20 years in the t-com industry where I was a go to for knowledge, I was on the bottom rung for a couple months. It was not a position I was very comfortable with but genius that I am, I caught on quick. =) Besides–and take note, corporate America–superior customer service can not be discounted in a competitive marketplace. Since July, I have racked up over a dozen customer letters saying what a wonderful experience it was do to business with us versus our various competitors. I am also very blessed to work with a ridiculously nice group of kind, caring, but delightfully snarky people. I have found my niche!

2. What do you hope to accomplish in the next year?
In the next year, I’m hoping I’ll get more of a renewed handle on working motherhood. I got rusty at the whole work 8 hours away, work another 8 hours when you get home thing, and being a few years older isn’t helping! I’m getting it all done, it’s just at the expense of me time of any kind. Much as I hate to quote a Real Housewife of New Jersey, “Happy wife, happy life” is a truism. Besides, “Staggering from one day to the next” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

3. What do you think makes a woman worth knowing?
No one formula makes up the right answer. I value different women in my life for different reasons. Some are funny, some are the still waters that run deep, some are brassy, some are bold, some are quietly brilliant and others just fabulous for any number of reasons. What they all have in common is being smart whether that means books or life experience and all bring value to my life.

Chef Lane, Video Post

Video Post: Cooking with Chef Lane…or something

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This is going to horrify Grace. It might actually make her cry and have nightmares.

Here is a video of me cooking dinner tonight. Baked chicken tenders (seasoned with McCormick’s lemon pepper), mashed potatoes (and gravy leftover from dinner at Babe’s), and ginger carrots.

It looks like there are holes in the stove because I was washing two of the eyes. I don’t really have counter space, so I just work where I can. And…yes, I wear latex gloves when I touch raw meat. Eugh!

Enjoy!