Anna Skamarakas

A long time ago, Sid Grauman - the Chinese theater guy - walked in late one night to that Hollywood legend The Brown Derby.  He wanted a snack before heading home after a long day and a late evening, something different, something satisfying, something filling, but something that would be easy to eat, because Grauman was suffering from a toothache.  Robert Cobb, owner of the legendary restaurant walked into the kitchen - already shut down for the evening - and started rooting through the refrigerator to see what he could rustle up that would fit the bill.  He pulled out hard boiled eggs and crispy bacon.  He found some left over cooked chicken and a ripe avocado.  There was roquefort cheese and tomatoes.  Then there was a selection of various lettuces.  Cobb chopped all of these ingredients finely, laid them all out decoratively on a platter, whipped up a salad dressing, and served it to Sid Grauman.  The dish was a hit, and Grauman came back frequently to order the Cobb Salad.

(more…)

Elements Cafe

517 Station Avenue

Haddon Heights, NJ

(856)546-8840

On an quaint little street in an adorable old town sits the charming little cafe called Elements.  Simple is probably the best way to describe the restaurant.  Two rows of tables, seating at each table for four people, simply decorated, and simply wonderful! 

(more…)

Eilis’ class had a field trip today into Philadelphia.  The first stop on the trip was at the Mummers’ Museum, followed by a tour of Termini Brothers Bakery, then a visit to Betsy Ross’ house.  I’ll tell you first about the Mummers’ Museum and Betsy’s house, and then I will ramble on and on seemingly endlessly on how much I love Terminis and why.

(more…)

Jim likes to take the family to Cooper River when he’s home on the weekends.  It’s kind of an exercise thing we can all do together.  We usually leave Brighid and Eilis at the playground, and Jim and I take Granuaile in her stroller around the river.  It’s a 3 mile walk from start to finish, and we just thought it would be too much for Eilis.  Well, this past weekend, there was a regatta on the river, and you couldn’t park where the playground was.  We had to park on the other side of the river, and if the kids wanted to go to the playground, they had to walk a mile and a half to get to it.  We figured we’d try the walk, and if it became necessary, Jim would finish the walk and get the car in the event that the kids couldn’t do the whole trip.

(more…)

The Club Diner 20 North Black Horse Pike, Bellmawr, NJ  

If you live in Jersey, you have a diner.  Come on, you know what I’m talking about.  You don’t OWN a diner, but you HAVE a diner.  It’s the place you go to after Mass on Sunday for breakfast and after bowling on Thursday night for a snack.  It’s the place you go grab a bite before a PTA meeting or after a funeral.  If you walk into a room full of your family right now and said, “Let’s go, we’re going to the diner”, there’s no mistaking which diner you are talking about.  It’s YOUR diner.

(more…)

Ah, Mother’s Day.  The day your kids get up at the crack of dawn and destroy your kitchen to make you an inedible breakfast of burnt toast, raw eggs, and freshly squeezed orange juice, made with sweet potatoes because we don’t have any oranges, and after all, the sweet potatoes are orange, right?

(more…)

The Lobster Trap

5300 North Park Drive

Pennsauken, NJ

For three years, I have driven by the Lobster Trap Restaurant on the banks of the Cooper River in Pennsauken nearly every day.  I have parked in the parking lot they share with the playground so many times, I have lost count.  But I have never had a desire to stop in and eat there.  The outside of the restaurant is a little shack looking - like a snack bar on the beach kind of feel.  It really looks like you could walk out of Cooper River, all Creature from the Black Lagoon looking, and walk right up to the restaurant and eat.  And who wants to eat next to the Creature from the Black Lagoon? 

(more…)

McCormick & Schmick’s

941 Haddonfield Road

Cherry Hill, NJ 

Ya gotta love the new Garden State Park shopping area in Cherry Hill.  It has brought to the area a group of restaurants that you always hear about in other markets, such as the Cheesecake Factory, Brio, and McCormick & Schmick’s.  We were determined to try them all, so when we found McCormick & Schmick’s open recently on our way to Brio (one of our new favorites), we decided to head in and try the place out.

(more…)

We travel often, and most of the time, if we are stopping somewhere overnight, we are stopping late at night, and don’t need to get anything to eat.  If we have stopped at a hotel at dinner time, we usually just order pizza, since it’s readily available wherever we stop and easy to eat.

(more…)

This was one of our favorite places to go for a casual, cheap family meal on the weekends before my gastric bypass surgery.  It probably was a big part of the reason I NEEDED gastric bypass surgery.  Ming Kui Lau is in the same parking lot as our bank, and I have to admit, when we pulled into the bank last week to make a deposit, and Jim suggested we go in and have dinner, I was nervous.  I was afraid that I wouldn’t find anything pouch-worthy to eat, and I was really nervous that I would find too much that I could eat and fall into old patterns and bad habits that would affect my current weight.  How this affects my habits from this time forward remains to be seen, but I did find a few things I could eat.  And I enjoyed my meal.

(more…)