Outlawz Sketch/J&G/Jennifer

Today's post could be very short. I could just tell you about my latest card as a GD for The Outlawz Sketch group. But, you know me. If I can say it in 1000 words instead of 100, I will. Besides, I have to tell you about our trip to J&G Steakhouse at the Phoenician in Scottsdale on Saturday night. We had a group of 13, from our monthly dinner club, meet there for a wonderful meal at 6:00 p.m. There were supposed to be others, but they called at the last minute and cancelled. Believe me, it was their loss! Saturday night was the start of Restaurant Week again in the valley, and J&G's special menu is $40 for three courses. Drinks are extra, but they have a great half-price/bottle wine list. I had a glass each of three different ones, (Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Pinot Noir), and while they were all good, the Riesling was a star!

Gary and I have eaten at J&G three times before this meal. And each time, I got the steamed shrimp salad, which is so divine it should be illegal. The dressing is a champagne vinaigrette, and besides three big shrimp and scrumptious greens, there are enoki mushrooms and avocado slices. It's an OMG salad if you love sweet, tender, juicy, flavorful shrimp. And I do, boy howdy. Of course, for your first course, you also have the choice of tuna tartare with avocado, spicy radish, and a ginger marinade; or asparagus and goat cheese in a grilled shiitake vinaigrette. The tuna was pronounced delicious, but only one person had the asparagus; and he described it as "good". Not the best recommendation. So, if you go, stick with the shrimp or tuna, if you're not allergic to them. (As an aside, my spell-checker didn't like the word "enoki". It wanted me to use "nookie" instead. The very idea!)

For the second course, your choices are:  slowly cooked salmon in a sweet and sour carrot sauce with basil vinaigrette; Parmesan crusted chicken with white asparagus and basil lemon butter; or grilled beef tenderloin with pear-horseradish puree and comte fritters. Gary had the steak, which he loved. I have had steak there and really enjoyed it, but I wanted to try the salmon. OMG! Am I ever glad I did. Flavorful, tender, juicy. Soooooo good! I think most everyone ordered steaks. Their loss, IMHO! 

The dessert course was a choice of:  pear brown butter cake with spiced ice cream and pear sorbet; warm chocolate cake with caramel ice cream; or lemon-meringue tart with crushed raspberry and lemongrass ice cream. I opted for the pear cake, which was fantabulous, although I wasn't crazy about the ice cream or sorbet. Gary got the chocolate cake, which he loved. I took a bite of his, and, while it was delicious, it didn't hold a candle to the pear cake, which had a sweet, crusty top and melt-in-your-mouth creamy middle. Mmmm, mmmm, good!

It seemed everyone had a good time, although we couldn't all sit at the same table, so that was a little disappointing. But the view from the restaurant is spectacular, the service impeccable, and the food fantastic. What more could you ask for? Seconds, perhaps? Oh, and it was a leisurely meal--we weren't done until 8:30. Just the way I like it! If you are in the Phoenix area this week, try to get to J&G for the $40 special. You will not regret it!

Well, back to business. I just made myself hungry again. Hate when that happens!

Here is today's sketch:

I took a few liberties with the sketch, as I am often apt to do. But, I think, for the most part, it is still recognizable. Sort of. Kinda. Well, isn't it? Sandi, if it is not, my apologies.

Keeping in my Halloween theme this week, I decided to use Saturated Canary's My Bite image, which I find impossibly cute. Just had to use her this fall. Had to. And this Create with TLC sentiment seemed to be the perfect fit. I printed the image on MIC blending card and the sentiment on Stampin' Up CS. I used SU CS, (ooh, I just realized what that spells. My bad again!), for the card base and the die cuts. I love the DP I used: Bazzill All Hallows Eve. The chevron pattern is so cool, and I was able to use a SU Chevron Embossing folder on CS to repeat the pattern. I added a bit of SU ribbon to divide my DP paper. 

Never being described as "die-shy", I used plenty of them on this card. I accented the corners with the new La La Land corner die. I also used the Memory Box bats die, as well as Spellbinders classic circles, scalloped circles, and classic heart. 

After coloring my image with Copics, I accented it with a white gel pen, added Glossy Accents to her eyes, (which she said did not hurt), and used a clear Copic Spica pen on the dog's tag. The Copics used:  R20, BV00, BV01, BV02, BV04, E000, E00, E11, E41, E42, E43, E44, E47, E49, YR00, YR01, YR02, YG91, YG93, YG95, YG97, YG99, C2.

Do join us at The Outlawz Sketch this week. We'd love to see your creations!

Last, but definitely not least, I want to give a big shout-out to Jennifer Scull. I received a wonderful package from her last week. It seems she drew my name after Jen's Sunshine Blog Hop for her blog candy of breast cancer support and vintage items. How cool is that? And the package had so many wonderful goodies in it. I am going to enjoy using each and every one of them, from two darling Itty Bitty Unity Stamps to seam binding to buttons to lace to tags. So many things from such a big heart. So, Jen, thank you so very, very much--not just for the great blog candy, but for being you! You hang tough, Girlfriend. We need you in our blogland community. I am sending you the biggest hugs possible.