More Favorite Things (aka Stuff I Like)

Every year, hubby and I try to find a day to go Christmas shopping, just the two of us. Last Friday we went to a local mall. We did a little shopping, then went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Cheesecake Factory is one of our favorite places, but the closest one was about an hour away.... until they put a new one in, just 20 minutes from us, about 6 months ago. Dangerous having it so close and convenient!!
I had the Bang Bang Chicken and Shrimp, which was a Thai thing, really yummy. And huge- I ate 1/3, then brought it home and got 2 more meals out of it.

Hubby got a creole pasta thing, also very good. Of course, at the Cheesecake Factory, you have to get cheesecake. It's the law. I got Chris's Outrageous Chocolate Cake (or something like that)- brownie base, chocolate cake, coconut cheesecake in the middle, topped with chocolate ganache. Heaven.

Hubby got Pineapple Upside Down cheesecake, which, as you can probably guess, was pineapple upside cake with cheesecake layer in the middle. Oh my....

For our last "date," a few weeks ago, we went to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania for the day. We happened upon an artists' studio tour, one of the artists was PJ Rankin Hults. I have admired her work for a long time- and then I got to actually see her studio and talk with her! PJ (Pam) cuts out paper by hand and then paints with watercolors, and her husband John makes the frames. If you like colonial style, or Pennsylvania German fraktur style, you will enjoy their work. Visit their website to see more of their work.

 Also, we went to the Central Market in downtown Lancaster. I had to get a few of these springerle cookies:

They are made in springerle molds- aren't they incredible?? Visit the website here to find out more about them.

We also visited Eldreth Pottery, which I have been collecting for years. I saw this basket and had to have it (hubby was so kind to oblige/humor me):

I filled the basket with an arrangement of greenery found in our yard and garden- more photos in a future post.