Too Much Black Dirt and Another Restaurant Review

I made my husband build me 3) 8 x 4 x 1′ garden boxes out of landscaping timbers our first full summer in our house 2 years ago. Last year, due to the death of a neighbors tree, a better gardening spot opened up, so I had my nephew and his friends move my boxes. It took my husband, my brother in law, my sister and myself an afternoon to move the dirt. Instead of putting all of the original dirt back in the boxes, we built up a low area with most of it. We filled the garden boxes partially with this falls backyard leaves and put soil on top of that. Still, most of the volume was empty and we knew this spring we would need a nice garden mix delivered to the driveway.

Having never had dirt delivered to a driveway before, I miscalculated and ordered 4 cubic yards where 2 would have sufficed. My husband stared moving it Friday by wheelbarrowfull, about 100 feet from front yard to back. After working at it all day, the pile looked barely untouched. Saturday we managed to move the rest with the help of our neighbor. At one point we considered putting a sign on the pile that said “FREE”, hoping a passing motorist with a pickup truck who happened to be driving around looking for garden mix would take it off our hands. But, we finished. Garden boxes are full, huge pile of garden mix in an unplanted area in the yard and 3 extremely sore bodies. Mike said that if I ever had a notion to move the boxes again, he would douse them with gasoline and set them on fire. I think I’ll keep it to myself that I intend to have 3 or 4 yards of mulch delivered next week.

I got the best price by far from a nice lady who runs “Just A Hobby” 815-482-6530. It is a small business out of McHenry and I would have used an Elgin landscaper but her price was about $100.00 less than the next best quote, and the soil, a mix of black dirt, mushroom compost and sand, was perfect “like crumbled chocolate cake”….so…price wins out over devotion to supporting an Elgin business in this case.

Since Mike was such a good sport about moving the soil on Friday, I figured he needed a dinner out on the town so in our quest for the best Mexican food in Elgin, we tried our neighbors suggestion and went to La Puesta Del Sol at 165 E. Highland, downtown Elgin.

La Puesta Del Sol was a charming little restaurant filled with cute little knick knacks and the friendliest, folksy waitresses I have ever had the pleasure of being served by. The place was 3/4 full of dining patrons and lively conversation filled the air. I got the impression from the way the waitresses were interacting with the customers that it was the type of neiborhoody place that friends and neighbors returned to often. It seemed like the wait staff knew everyone. It was a fun and pleasant dining experience and the food was good, plenty and modestly priced. Mike got to have his tacos. I had a combination plate of a tostada, enchilada and flauta. This was the type of place with the traditional tortilla chips and salsa on the table and beans and rice on the side. I can’t say this restaurant was better than El Rincon de Pastigel….it was different. At La Puesta Del Sol, there was a livliness that the other lacked where El Rincon de Pastigel had a more authentic and richer taste of Mexico. I liked them both. Mike votes to go back to La Puesta Del Sol, someday when we are finished sampling the rest of what Elgin has to offer.