Where Am I? Well, Let Me Tell You!

It appears I fell off the radar for about ten days.  They flew by so quickly, I didn't even notice I was gone. :-)

I baked, I cooked, I helped address graduation announcements, received an award from our school board, went to son's Awards Ceremony helped the teen prepare for his first and last Prom, madly cleaned house while he was gone to a Senior Trip to Six Flags Fiesta Texas and couldn't yell at me for being in his room, had final graduation ARD, tried to get wrinkles out of a non-washable nor dry-cleanable gown (the gown part of cap and gown - they are all disposable these days).  I didn't have time to take pictures of food or write about food...BUT, we did have a lovely dinner out.

You know the teen doesn't like to be identified in my blog.  However, he's so happy about his prom experience he seems to be loosening the reins a bit.

You've gathered through my many posts that the teen is autistic and hearing impaired.  He has Asperger's Syndrome, was diagnosed profoundly deaf at 15 months of age, and received a cochlear implant to assist him with hearing when he was 28 months old.  It doesn't "fix" the hearing, but it sure does make life easier!  He has a boat load of other "issues" that I won't go into, but the two major ones are enough to cause social problems...and he'd never successfully had a date.  That makes a problem for Prom!

He has been main streamed since early elementary years so this is a long-term struggle.  He has been friends with a group of hearing impaired kids since he was 18 months of age...two of them travelled over 460 miles on Saturday to be the teen's prom dates.  They had a grand time and then the girls and one of the moms drove the 460 miles back to their home on Sunday because one of the girls had school on Monday!

Now, to wind this long road around to FOOD - let me tell you about our dinner at Sea Ranch Marina Restaurant....one of the few fine dining opportunities on South Padre Island.  It is frequently our "special occasion" venue of choice.

The rarely shown teen with his two "friend dates"
for his Senior Prom!
Friends for Life!

We took the opportunity to take photos in front of Sea Ranch while we waited for about 45 minutes (no reservations are available anywhere on the island that I know of).  We were seated in the upstairs dining area overlooking the marina and the girls oohed and aahhed over the view.  We all enjoyed our meals and, while it is not normal for the parents to go out with the kids on Prom night, we've all been friends for so long, the kids were fine with it.  The girls have boyfriends so it was a "friend date", not a romantic date.  That made it nice for us!

Everyone had seafood!  Everyone said it was excellent.  The choices at our table ended up being:
Fried Shrimp and Broiled Flounder with side salad and steamed vegetables
Fried Shrimp and Blackened Flounder with a vinegary Cole Slaw and steamed vegetables
Blackened Flounder with side salad and waffle fries
Seafood Fettuccine Alfredo (with scallops, shrimp, and crab mounded on top) with steamed vegetables
Grilled Red Snapper with a cup of Seafood Soup - brothy, I don't know what it was called, and waffle fries.

No one could eat all of the wonderful food - but it was excellent! 

I also baked, for my friends, a tasty pan of cookies for them to snack on in their hotel and on the long drive home the next day (are these friends great or what?).  I made them my Black and White Chocolate Chip Cookies...but in a pan.  The only changes I made to the linked recipe were that I used 4 cups total of chips (and no nuts) - used Ghirardelli brand chips - 1/2 were white chocolate and 1/2 were milk chocolate.  Then I also upped the vanilla to 2 teaspoons instead of 1 1/2...just "cause".  Claire sent me a message saying she had to have the recipe, so I assume they were a hit! (I know they tasted good because I baked off 6 cookies for us to sample at home...they were yummy.)

No photos of that baking production - because it was done on the cleaning frenzy day, in a disposable pan...no pretty photographs!

Well, I'm letting you know right now...Blogging is kind of low on the priority list as we move through these next two weeks towards graduation.  I haven't disappeared, and I WILL be back to sharing when I have something worth sharing.

Don't give up on me.  (Using an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice) "I'll be back!"

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!