Best. Bread. Basket. EVER!

Based on Amanda's research on Yelp, Barbara Jean's was selected as the site for the last family lunch together and it was the site of my favorite meal all weekend (followed closely by Clary's):



Can I say that I'm still dreaming about the bread basket? Due to our party's large size, we actually ended up being split into three separate tables which meant that Andrew, Amanda, their cousin Ilana and I shared a table. The reason I mention this is because our bread basket came with around 7 pieces of bread and we ate two baskets worth of bread between the four of us! The favorite by far was the pumpkin bread, but the jalapeno cornbread (complete corn kernels) and the wheat roll (sounds boring but incredibly good):



As you may have noted from Barbara Jean's sign, they are known for their crab cakes and so the whole table decided to order them. I was almost tempted by their menu option to have five sides as your meal (I often feel like I enjoy sides more than entrees sometime) but I was swayed by the fact that a simple crab cake meal came with two sides. Andrew and I ended up splitting our sides, so I got to taste four different things.


My 7 oz crab cake with squash salad and ambrosia salad (a heavenly combo of coconut, marshmallow, mandarin orange and pineapple):



Andrew went with the crab cake/shrimp combo with cheesy grits (the only grits that I actually liked from tasting them all weekend, as these were very savory and resembled potatoes) and spinach:


We were really too full for dessert, but yet again, couldn't pass up on the opportunity to indulge in some Southern specialties.

Amanda went with the key lime pie - very good but we both agreed that Clary's still holds the title as best:



Buried under all that whipped cream is peach cobbler - I was able to cajole the whole table into eating some with me:



Afterwards, we headed to a neighboring park to take a last set of family photos. Granddad was the one constant in all the pictures, so everyone took turns taking pictures with him.

This series of Amanda and Granddad was one of my favorites (taken by Tom):




A shot of the four of us (and the lovely green bag that Amanda and Adam got me for Christmas):



Finally, a group shot of everyone that made it out for lunch - Cousin Mason and his girlfriend Jaime; Tom, Amanda and Charlotte; Aunt Sue, Granddad, Uncle Doug; Cousins Ilana and Meredith and Meredith's fiance Adam: