maR.D. to be: A Dose of Home

This weekend, Jennifer, Bill, Mike and I, headed back home to celebrate my brother, Jared's birthday and to visit with my parents. In case you are wondering about who the above peeps are: my sister, sister's boyfriend, and my boyfriend. We arrived home to upstate NY on Friday night and enjoyed some pumpkin beers while catching up with my Mom. It's always nice to have everyone together in the same room. Without fail, the conversation flows from one topic to the next and we always end up laughing and sharing fun stories.

We woke up on Saturday, had a leisurely breakfast, hung around, and then headed over to my Dad's house. We spent a couple of hours over there catching up (and playing catch with his doggy), before leaving so Jared could head to a friend's BBQ. For his birthday dinner, we went to Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (hmm, I guess that was a lot of bbq'ing for Jared).

Dinosaur was a really cool place. We were surprised to learn that it is a big biker bar. Leather chaps and tattoos everywhere! When we got seated, we decided that wings were in order. We got one order of honey bbq and one order of wango tango.

We hated them.

I would have been perfectly satisfied with my Blue Moon and wings, but alas, when you're at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, it only seems right to eat bbq like a dinosaur. I ended up ordering the 1/4 rack of ribs with pulled pork. For my two sides, I got the maple whipped sweet potatoes and simmered greens.

Deliciousness. The sweet potatoes tasted like pumpkin pie. They were easily my favorite part. The pulled pork was really tasty too, and the ribs were so tender that they practically fell off the bone. Plus, they gave you cornbread. I heart cornbread. We had a great time celebrating Jared's birthday and eating delicious food!

This morning, my Mom made a lovely brunch for everyone. The spread included a veggie frittata, a ginormous fruit salad, bacon, and an assortment of breads (pumpkin, banana, and blueberry). Mmm mmm good!