Oklahoma Love

We paid another visit to my mother-in-law, Lillie, in Oklahoma recently. Our first day in town, we took her to lunch at the always-awesome Pepe Delgado's.

They changed their salsas! Pepe's has had the same trio of salsas for as long as I can remember. But now, two are different. Of course I'm biased toward the old salsas, so I will have to give it time to see if these grow on me. The veggie plate, aside from being a little heavy on the cheese, was tasty as usual.

That night, we heard that tornadoes were moving in. Since the terrible tornado in Moore had happened just one week before, this put us on alert. We set up the kids in the spare room with popcorn and a movie, and we turned on the local weather to see if we needed to take cover.

Bad things were happening west of OKC. The tornado was moving right along I-40, hitting cars that were stuck on the highway. Several people lost their lives. We knew we always had the option to take cover in my uncle's storm shelter, but it was hard to hear about the ones who had nowhere to take shelter. Luckily for us, the tornado lost its power before reaching Shawnee. All we got was a thunderstorm and heavy winds. Here is the damage to a tree in Lillie's backyard.

The next day, it was almost eerie how nice the weather was. My mother-in-law suggested that Tony and I have a date night in the city.

On our way to our destination, we passed one of my favorite buildings in OKC. Yes, that's a giant milk bottle. 

We had a cozy dinner-for-two at Sushi Neko, where we celebrated many a birthday and anniversary before we moved to Texas. Nothing's changed, and that includes the warm hand towels they serve along with the edamame.

Asahi goes perfectly with sushi.

I love their ginger-miso dressing. I need to learn to make this stuff.

Avocado rolls, always.

How classy is Sushi Neko? Here is the entire bowlful of Andes mints we received along with our check.

Thank you, Lillie!

Also thanks to Aunt Emma and cousin Karen, who always come visit us when we're in town and help Lillie watch Jackson and Olivia.

On our way out of town, we stopped at Alfredo's for Tex-Mex, Oklahoma style...which means bowl after bowl of free salsa, queso, and hot pickled veggies.

I had an avocado enchilada with mashed potatoes and spicy creamed corn on the side. My enchi was a little soggy, so I ended up scraping the filling out and wrapping it up in a fresh tortilla.

Free sopapillas for dessert, mmm.

Jackson approves.