Friday recap

I met my friend M for lunch at Maria's in Peoria Heights on Friday.
I've never had a bad meal there, so I wasn't expecting to be disappointed, nor was I expecting to be bowled over. But I was.
I must have said "This is really good" about five times throughout my meal. I finally stopped for fear of sounding like a broken record.
I ordered the small quiche platter which included a slice of spinach, bacon and feta quiche, a muffin and a side for $7.99.
The quiche was hot and savory, filled with smoky flavor, my side of almond apple salad was wonderful with a creamy vanilla sauce, toasted almond slices, celery and apple chunks and my muffin looked to be an apple zucchini carrot muffin, soft and warm, topped with a bit of oats for garnish.
M had a half turkey sandwich and a side salad with balsamic vinaigrette.
It took a while for our server to stop by after M arrived, and the food also took a bit of time to arrive, but in my case, it was well worth it. Our server also thanked us for our patience, so she was aware of the delay.

For our evening enjoyment, we went back to Denhart's in Washington so StfRon could have the prime rib this time. We also went earlier, hoping they wouldn't be out, and it worked.
His sister and nephew joined us, and all three of them had prime rib.
My sister-in-law and nephew also ordered some breaded mushrooms to start with, which was my first time trying them. I thought they were better than the standard served a lot of places.
I saw that they had an additional dinner special for the night: corned beef and cabbage, so I went with that.
My corn beef and cabbage came with new potatoes, carrots and a side salad. The large serving of corned beef was good, not quite as tender as Mom's, and the cabbage had a nice flavor to it.
The prime rib was good, and our nephew packed up about half of his to take home, but had been eying the chocolate pie in the case. Our waitress packed up a large slice to go for him, and only half of the slice made it back to our house 10 minutes later, so I think it was a hit.