ARRGH! AM~Erica Needs to Sail Different TLAP Seas

So anyway...

I'm preparing for one of my favorite weird holiday celebrations: International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

ARRRRRRR!!!!!!

I already knew my celebrating was going to be a little bit different this year since I'm working AND it falls on a Tuesday, so I was trying to plan how a Krispy Kreme run was going to happen, and trying to work in some food from Long John Silver's.

To my sad pirate heart, Krispy Kreme backed out of the promo. I've said for a long time it was an odd pairing - but somehow Krispy Kreme & ITLAP Day just worked. The two became synonymous! Children everywhere knew they were gonna get doughnuts for playing dress up!

You know the scene in "A Christmas Story" where the dogs eat the turkey & older Ralphie starts narrating like reverse Bubba (al a "Forrest Gump" about shrimp) about all the turkey leftover dishes they would not be able have?

"No donuts for dessert! No donuts for breakfast in the morning! No donuts for snack time! No donuts to sneak to eat in the closet!..."

Krispy Kreme had decided to run a bigger promo on their pumpkin spice doughnuts & lattés. I would like to point out this is nothing new for them. They've had these for a few years now. If the TLAP promo was a financial strain, just be honest. And pumpkin spice isn't everyone's thing.

Long John Silver's has been giving away free food off & on the last few years: anywhere from free fish to a free meal, depending on if you were dressed like or ordered like a pirate. This year is also a step back for them. They ARE giving away free food - in the form of a fried Twinkie. A carnival attraction for ANYONE who is pirate-like. One Twinkie. Fried.

Look - many of our favorite places, who have been great contributors to the day, have kind of let us down in celebrating this ridiculously fun holiday, but it doesn't mean we can't celebrate!

You can still talk &/or dress like a pirate. Enjoy some of your own sea-worthy goodies. And you can still enter these establishments in full pirate garb & get doughnuts or food from former great celebrators. Be seen to remind them that they have been part of your celebrating so they can think about it.

Celebrate on, mateys!

Stay tuned...

God Bless, AM~Erica

AM~Erica Dress & Talks the Part for Loot

So anyway...

Life has been a bit crazy the past several days, so I'm a little behind in showing you how our Talk Like a Pirate Day went this year. (because I know you've been waiting impatiently for the breakdown)

After a disappointing outing last year (reminder HERE), I was sure hoping this time around would be much better!

First up for the day had to be the morning grog, so got the coffee brewing. It was a perfect fall-like morning, so the back door was opened & coffee was enjoyed by the deck.

In a lot of rushing around, plans for the day, and with some family stuff that came up, it's amazing the adventures that got worked in!

I got myself together, got into my best pirate attire, perched my sidekick for the day, Pipsquawk, on my shoulder, and readied the Sea-Sick Crocodile for sailing the course of this wonderfully weird holiday.

Out of needed 3 items from each list, I covered 8/12 items for Krispy Kreme
and 6/10 for Long John Silvers. I'm an overachiever in this department.

On my shoulder is Pipsquawk. A "parrot on the shoulder" made both, Krispy Kreme & Long John Silver's,
lists of items needed to get free loot - so Pipsquawk is my pet parrot brooch.

I set sail for Krispy Kreme, first.
Now then, I was really thinking about this:
Krispy Kreme has no business getting themselves into the TLAP Day holiday. It makes no sense!! However, they were smart enough to run such a great promo to get in on the fun, they are now nearly synonymous with the holiday!

A few days before that, I came across a t-shirt of Lil Guy's that I did up for him to wear on TLAP Day last year...

          Me: Hey! Wonder if you can still wear this shirt for Saturday.

          LG: Why? What's Saturday?

          Me: Ummm...Talk Like a Pirate Day!

          LG: *GASP* Doughnuts?!?!?

So there you have it. Krispy Kreme has successfully put their mark on the treasure map of TLAP Day.

Anyhoo...
I headed there, first. When I pulled the Sea-Sick Crocodile into their port, there was an adult male pirate leaving the port. I don't know what the front of him looked like, but the outfit from the back was amazing!! The long coat, the cut off pants the boots, the hat...it was fantastic.

So when I went in, things were hopping! A few people were in there to get their free dozen of glazed doughnuts with the minimum amount of work - 3 of the 12 things from the list. Which is fine...good for them. Glad they got in the fun. Plus, it was time for the "HOT NOW" to be happening...so everyone was getting a warm, glazed doughnut when they came in...mmmmm....

I walked out of there with my 1 dozen FREE doughnuts. Which is great. But I was wanting to actually BUY a couple other things. However, they handed me my cardboard Talk Like a Pirate Day chest of golden-glazed rings along with a receipt for $0.00 (because...uh...FREE). They seemed to send me on my way, down the plank, without asking if there was anything else they could do for me, or if I would like anything else. Because I DID!! I was hoping to swing back by later, if there was time. So I'll get to that in a moment.

I brought home round 1 of treasure! The boys were very happy...until I told them we were saving it for dessert after dinner. Bwah-hahahaha!!!

Then my hubby had to run a few errands before some other adventures we had planned, so I got cleaned up (What? Pirates can get clean from time-to-time.) and threw my pirate garb back on. I planned on getting a free lunch on the way to a get-together...
The lunch thing didn't work out. By the time my hubby got back home, we were running a bit later than kind of hoped. Plus, he looked at me oddly. (Yeah! NOW he looks at me oddly.) He was waiting for ME to get ready and was filling time. When he, finally asked if I was going to get showered and ready, I looked at my attire, looked at him, and said, "But...I am ready."

He was confused. He thought I was only dressed like that to get doughnuts & not for our other endeavors of the day. D'oh! He was wrong.

Part of it was to get more free food. And I was told I could wear it to the 50th birthday party we were supposed to be attending...that was not pirate-themed...

*ahem*

During some of the downtime, I did enjoy one of our household staples: Pirate's Booty!!

So then we got ready to go, me still in my full-on-pirate gear, and headed to our good friend's 50th birthday party!

I was going to walk in like there was nothing out of the ordinary. I mean, c'mon: for me, this is not far out of the ordinary in my world. We were greeted at the door by a guy who just burst out laughing gleefully! No, I did not know this guy, but he obviously had to be there for my friend's day. He told us to come in, another lady joined him, plus a photographer that looked so much like our friend's mom, it was crazy!
The guy, thru this gleeful laughter, said he hoped I'd show up like that.
Wait...what?? And who are you, again??
But apparently our friend showed my earlier pics (above), and said he hoped I would still have it on for the party. Well, I guess I didn't disappoint then.
Then the photographer jumped right in to say she had to get a photo! Then she introduced herself as our friend's aunt. I totally believed it, too. She looks SO much like her sister!

Anyway...she took our pic as we came in:

See, my friend approached me to let me know the kiddos could come if we wanted them to. I informed him that I might be dressed like a pirate since it was being held on TLAP Day. He said he hoped I really would & that pictures may just happen. This is not a problem for me.

We went and looked at some amazing food laid out on the table. Then we went to track down our friend. He was in the backyard with a slew of other folks celebrating our awesome friend. And for some reason, no one else was dressed like a pirate. Hmmm....

It was a beautiful day to celebrate his 50th, and so glad I could be a moment of party entertainment.

See, honey? I told you I could go to the party dressed like a pirate!!

(Don't worry, people. We already had this conversation.)

We, sadly, couldn't stay very long - my hubby had another thing on his plate he had to get to. So, off we went...with some cake in hand.

*Wave to Presten, everyone! Wish him Happy Birthday (which is actually TODAY)*

(Presten's Aunt Cheryl [sp?] took these great pics)

When we got back home, we had a small bit of downtime, then my hubby was off for a couple of hours. I had some plans, myself...

I prepared the Sea-Sick Crocodile to set sail for some more piratey fun.

Still in my garb, I headed off to the port of Long John Silver's! I was so excited they were taking part again, finally! I went in a pre-dinner timeframe, so not many people were in there. No signage was up to say they were participating...but I thought I'd give it a shot anyway. I know one patron was overly-amused by my entrance. I was so glad he was so entertained. I stepped up, and the girl just looked at me, like any other day, and said, "Is this for here or to go?" So I semi-piratey, almost-defeatedly asked, "Arrrre ya doing the whole pirate promo thing?" She just looked at me & told me yes. I was SO relieved! I, then, joyfully got my free meal, to go, with 2 pieces of fish, 2 hushpuppies & some fries! A couple people were intrigued by my look, I was complimented on my outfit choice, and that one dude was still overly-tickled that he was seeing a pirate IN Long John Silver's!

I got my food & headed out to board the Sea-Sick Crocodile for another port: back to the Krispy Kreme!

Some of you may be disappointed to find out that I was a well-behaved pirate. I went in & told them I had already gotten my dozen doughnuts. I didn't want to tempt my kiddos with more! But I did tell the employees that I just wanted a drink (in the TLAP souvenir cup) & 2 of their fantastic pirate coffee mugs.

All of this seemed to be an issue with the afternoon employees. All I wanted was an iced PSL in the souvenir cup & 2 of their mugs. They could not seem to get a grasp of what was going on...

FINALLY, a manager came to help with the ICED pumpkin spice latte to put in the adorable cup, and then one of the employees was confused as whether or not he should "mess with the display" of cups so I could get a couple of mugs. *face palm*

Back at the Krispy Kreme hoping they get my stuff right

While I waited, a (non-pirate) couple were just staring at my outfit. I told them that if you're gonna do it, you gotta go all out. They just said, "Well, you went all out."

Awww! Thank you, nice non-pirate couple!

So I finally got my mugs when the guy figured out you can sell the mugs on the case...

Then I finally got my cup with the iced PSL...

After setting sail from this time at the port of Krispy Kreme, I needed to make one more stop - the port of Wally World.

See, a pirate really can't get thru the day properly without having at least a splash of rum. Well, we'd already finished the stash we had at the home port, so I did as any other pirate would do: Go to Walmart & get some more!

I may end up on People of Walmart, but I don't care! It got me free food & awesome stuff! So I just removed my tricorn & eyepatch (that I used as a loose choker) to semi-tone down my look. I still got a lot of looks, but I pretended this is nothing out of the ordinary...

Move along, people. Nothing to see here. Just another pirate stopping by the Wally World to get their rum. Like any other day.

Yet I was still getting the stares & stuff. I could feel them. But I just went about my business. I did wave at a couple of kids, though. You know...give THEM that experience of getting noticed by a pirate at Walmart. Amm-i-rite?

I took my stuff up to a speedy check out. I placed my items on the conveyor belt. There was an older gentleman who was that lane's cashier at this point. He never even flinched. He just ran my items over the scanner like any other customer was standing there. He's probably seen a lot at Walmart in his time, so I was probably not a shock for him. He scanned my coconut rum, glanced at me, decided to not ID me (pshhh - whatever) and bagged it without a question. However, when he came to my bottle of Captain, he mentioned, "Well, this is fitting." I laughed a bit, and said, "Well, that's by design."

He asked if I worked in a costume shop or something, so I explained TLAP Day & how I'd already gotten free food. He seemed impressed. And I went about my way.

So, back into the Sea-Sick Crocodile I went, with Pipsquawk still perched upon my shoulder, and it was off to the home port to prepare the evening grub. But not before I saw the overly-amused guy from Long John Silver's going into Wally World as I left...and he was, once again, overly amused. I waved at him.

As per the past couple of years, Cedar Planked Lemon Pepper TiLAPia was on the menu (with Chicken Planks for the kiddos), Golden Lemon Butter Potato Medallions, Pirate's Booty brand shells (aged white cheddar) & cheese with anchors & (aged white cheddar) cheese, plus some greens (for seaweed salad) with some citrus dressing.

Then, we had to have the rum. For pirate day. Amm-i-rite?

So I made a Captain Arnold Palmer! Mmmmmm.....

Then we finally finished off the night with some delicious Krispy Kremes. Mmmm.....

All in all - it was a great & successful day of loot, booty & treasure! SO worth being dressed all over-achiever-like for it.

Even Teen Girl got into the act - we had matching shirts & near-matching boots. The Sea-Sick Crocodile wench is pretty much my mini-me.

~~~~~~~~~~

Leading up to this, I knew that Long John Silver's was up to great things this year when I flagged people down on twitter to get ready for TLAP Day. Then, this went down:

That's right - they were fighting to give me a pirate name! How awesome is this??

Of course, I was sharing my adventures on social media...and I forgot that LJS actually had a social media contest going. Well imagine my shock when they flagged me down on Instagram with this photo...

...to tell me that I could get a voucher for more free food since they picked me as one of their winners!!! (If you follow me on Instagram, you can go see it!)

** By the way, since dinner was covered, I enjoyed the free fish & hushpuppies the next day, while my boys enjoyed the fries - the kiddos aren't seafood fans & my hubby hadn't been feeling too well.

This year definitely made up for a disappointing TLAP Day last year. And I was SO happy to see LJS back on board, along with the fun liquid holders from Krispy Kreme!

I certainly hope more businesses & brands really hop on the promotion board next year. People get the free food...they post it all over social media AND while they are out & about, so it's free advertising for the day.

And you know I have ideas....

So...tell me - how was your TLAP Day?

Stay tuned...

God Bless, AM~Erica

AM~Erica Be Preparin' Ye Thar, Yet Again

So anyway...

One of my favorite weird holidays is fastly approaching!

The countdown is on to September 19th, and I'm readying my ship, The Sea-Sick Crocodile, to be set for a course of adventure for International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Since I'm preparin', I figured I'd flag you all down to try to do it, too.

First, I want to let you know that, as always anymore, Krispy Kreme is now synonymous with Int'l TLAP Day. This brand should not work on this day...yet it does. They made it work, and now you know you can get free doughnuts for talking and/or dressing like a pirate!! Now then, they do have a list of things that will work for them to consider giving you loot of a dozen glazed doughnuts when dressing like a pirate:

Got it? Good! Or get a better look, HERE!

Also, you can order a nifty 24 oz. drink & get it served in a souvenir TLAP cup!!

You can even get an awesome pirate mug from Krispy Kreme to enjoy your morning grog in, too!

But now the question is whether or not you can take in other great offers from other brands & businesses. Last year, it seemed like only Krispy Kreme was going to celebrate. But now there's a couple more on board!

As it turns out, Long John Silvers appears to be back on board with the day! YAY! After a couple of years of giving free fish to those who ordered like a pirate, they walked the plank last year. My guess is that they got some backlash from backing out of the day, so they came back in strong participatory manner this year! And, they took note from Krispy Kreme.

Check out what more Long John Silver's has on their TLAP page, HERE!

So that's exciting! As far as I can tell, Captain D's is not doing anything. Which is a disappointment. I hope they learn a lesson from this & climb aboard next year!

I haven't seen anything from Joe's Crab Shack or Red Lobster, either. They are missing a great opportunity, for sure, too!

However, one of my favorite brands right now is Pirates Brands. I've talked about them before, but I'm super excited that they are in on the TLAP Day fun! YAY!

Check out their TLAP Day portion of their website, HERE! And make sure to grab some Pirate's Booty!
**NOTE: Not grabbing a pirate's booty. That's something totally different.

Or you can get inspired from what I've done in past years by checking out what I've done before, HERE.

So...who's ready for International Talk Like a Pirate Day? Aye-yam!

Stay tuned...

God Bless, AM~Erica

Cap'n AM~Erica Be Talkin' Like a Pirate

So anyway...land lubbers...

If ye haven't heard yet...it be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, mateys!!

How have ye been participatin'?

As ye know...this pirate can bee seen dressin', eatin', an' you be knowin' I be speakin' like one. Arrrr...

~~~~~~~~~~

OK, OK...I started this post last night, but there were so many distractions that I couldn't finish it! We had some company & had to watch the Chiefs go 3-0 against the Eagles (which may be a whole post by itself)! And...I wanted to get a recipe on the food blog while it was in my head. More on that in a moment...

So, did any of you celebrate TLAP Day?

If you haven't figured out, I certainly had to dress the part...but there was a hitch in my original plan on how to dress. You see, a I mentioned, the Chiefs were playing! I had to work in my red & gold...

And since my hubby took the day off, due to the insanity this week became, we treated it like our usual Friday date day. So we went out to breakfast...at...Cracker Barrel. We wanted to look at the adorable country store to see what fall & Halloween stuff then might have out. But...e,at first!

As we were seated, we were told that Uncle Herschel's Breakfast was on special. Then hubby & I began to scan & investigate the menu to see what might sound good after ordering our coffee, of course. I began to look over the highlighted special & there was an option on there that led me to choose the breakfast of Uncle Herschel...
Not only did my grits & the biscuits with gravy, I could choose apple butter, too! (Duh! Fall!) I got my eggs over hard, got the fried apples (Duh! Fall!)...and my meat of choice was...wait for it...catfish. No, really!

YUM! Grits & fried catfish for breakfast!

I think my hubby thought I was crazy...but did he totally miss how I was dressed sitting across the table from him? *snort*

After our bellies were filled, we looked around the store...at...mostly Christmas items! About a quarter of the store was Christmas! I think there were about 4 trees up & decorated! It was crazy. Oh...there was a little bit of fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving stuff in there, too.

Then we needed food for the week & for what I planned for the TLAP dinner. So we made our weekly run, just a day early, and it threw off our regular cashier. hehe

Once we got home & put away the groceries, we loaded up to set a course to take the Sea-Sick Crocodile (yeah...that's what I named my ship last year...and I love it) to sail over to finish up our shopping to pick up a few things we couldn't get on the 1st run.

Eventually I set sail on a solo cruise to Krispy Kreme to score some loot of a dozen doughnuts for being dressed like a pirate. Now, in my last post about it (HERE), I showed you what their guidelines were to score some free doughnuts. So I changed my outfit up a little bit to try to cover my bases:

I added a hat, and skirt so I could wear
my striped knickers to flash if needed.
My Broadway Babies peeps might remember these! hehe

As a waltzed into the Krispy Kreme destination, I was prepared to have them try to keep up with what I was wearing to see if I would get to do this:

But, alas...I think if you put effort into your outfit, you got the loot. All I did was walk in there & they gave me a dozen from under the counter...either that, or they were terrified of me. Let's pretend that was the deal, OK? Thanks.

However, since a peg leg & a costume hook is on their list of items to have, I thought about walking in with a plunger & telling them that I plundered it from Pee-Wee while using the poop deck so I could come get some doughnut loot. Maybe next year...

I wanted to take in the free fish from Long John Silvers, but hubby & I were so full!!! And our time was really short. Plus, I couldn't wait to try what I had in store our pirate dinner!!

Eventually we got ourselves together, I got changed back into my 1st outfit, and we began to prep for dinner!!

Let me give you a rundown of our menu:

Planked TiLAPia (recipe HERE)
Fish Planks
Chicken Planks
"Seaweed" Salad
Golden Potato Quarters
Goldfish Mac & "Cheese"
Sea Salt Rice Crisps
Lemon & Black Pepper Rice Crisps
Pirate's Booty Puffed Snacks

Because of how my brain works, I eventually came around to thinking up have grilled fish on a plank. And, since it was for TLAP Day...my brain jumped to the pun of TiLAPia. *SNORT* Yeah...I went there! So...that's what we did! So I had my hubby grill up the tilapia with some lemon & rosemary. It was SOOOO good!!! He'd never grilled fish...and definitely never used planks. He did researching, I did researching...and we came up with this winner, winner, plank-fish dinner!

We also made sure to serve up some store-bought battered fish in case the grilling didn't go so well. And we had the chicken planks (tenders) for the kiddos who sadly don't like seafood.

To get some greens in there, I found a mix of baby spinach & baby kale. It was very reminiscent of seaweed, so I was sold. I tossed it in a splash of lemon juice & some sea salt. Plus, leftovers are going to be just wilted enough to put into an omelet the next morning!

I also fixed up some golden potatoes, cut into quarters & delightfully boiled in butter, sea salt & a splash of lemon juice to keep their golden color & to give 'em a good flavor. Any leftovers can be smashed/mashed or fried up...maybe with that omelet with the wilted greens!

I came across some Goldfish (yes, like the crackers) brand Mac & Cheese. I didn't have any, it was more for the kiddos. They were very unsure about it. Only one of them was really fine with it. So...not doing that anymore. So, just FYI...just stick with the Goldfish crackers.

I also needed some kind of bread. I didn't have time to make hard tack (but I will next time), so I dealt with crackers! Cuz we all know that Polly would want some, amm-i-rite? So I found these rice crisps that would work really well: one of them was sea salt flavored, and the others were lemon & black pepper flavored. They were perfect!!

And of course, I had to get some Pirate's Booty puffed corn snacks. Not only because of the brand, but they always make me think of my friend RENEE. I miss her. And I think she would've gotten a kick out of all of this. Even better? My youngest ate half of one of the bags. I think we have a winner!

Did you notice that there's a lot of sea salt & citrus (mostly lemon) involved? Yeah, that was on purpose. Sea salt should be self-explanatory; the citrus is to keep the scurvy at bay. Amm-i-rite? *snort*

We followed up the meal with the free doughnuts, of course.

To drink, we just served some semi-sweet iced tea & some lemonade. Yes, we probably needed rum...but have you seen how expensive that stuff is? But I worked up a drink for myself that sufficed a bit:

I call it "Cap'n Arnold Palmer's Grog"! Remember when I played with the Arnold Palmer drink before? (recipe HERE) This time, I added a splash of rum flavoring, poured the lemonade about half-way up the glass, then topped it off with the tea.

And we finished off the night with storms-a-brewin' & a crazy football game that resulted in a KC Chiefs' win taking them to 3-0!

What was a crazy-adventurous day was actually a really great one.

Looking forward to setting sail on the Sea-Sick Crocodile again...

I'm sorry...I missed it. What did you do? I would really love to hear!!

Stay tuned...

God Bless, AM~Erica