Saturday and Sunday More Food and More Food!

The weekend was a blur.  Saturday, my husband and I went to an opera "Carmen" It was fantastic! I really enjoyed the show and the wine at the bar during intermissions.

My mother-in-law watched the baby and my cousin had my 5 year old over for a sleepover.  Which meant that my husband and I had the evening to our selves.  So after the opera, we splurged and went to a pub (Scruffy Murphy's). Sounds elegant right?  Not!!! But the place was clean and the service staff was friendly and efficient. 

I ordered the Irish Spring Rolls.  I kept thinking, it should be interesting.  What could an Irish spring roll have wrapped up inside, cabbage?  Nope.  Potatoes, cheese and green onion with a creamy curry dip on the side.  I'm not much of a potato person, especially if you are trying to hide it in a spring roll wrapper.  But let me say for the record,  IT WAS AMAZING!!!! I licked the dip bowl clean and tried to trick the waitress into getting the recipe from the cooks.  No such luck. My husband wanted me to save him half of one of my spring rolls.  It took everything I had in my soul not to eat it.

I also had a Grilled Shrimp Salad.  Trying to keep things light....ya who am I kidding LOL.  I ate everything on my plate, and held myself back from licking the plate.  The shrimps were a bit over cooked, but the taste was there.  It's all in the taste I say.  Mark, ordered wings, they were well cooked.  They should have been marinated prior to cooking, but the sauce made up for any missing flavor.

For a pub, this place is great even with if a name Scruffy Murphy's sounds a bit dingy, because it's not.

Today, I had a good friend over for dinner.  We both love cooking and food and she's taught me a great deal about Italian cooking.  You guessed right.  She's Italian.  One thing about her is she's introduced me to easy ways to make a dozen Italian home cooked meals, without having to live in the kitchen all day.  Best of all, shes given me the in on the best Italian products to use when cooking. Boy I love her.

Needless to say, I wanted to make her a nice meal.  I repeated the Duck Breast with Cherries & Roasted Fingerling Potatoes I made awhile back.  For an appetizer, I made Wild Mushrooms and Asparagus in a Puff Pastry with a Madeira Sauce.  When I make this sauce I have to hold myself back from drinking all the sauce before I serve the dish.  I tell you....my self control is tested every minute I'm in the kitchen.

For dessert, I kept it simple.  I just served the Key Lime Sorbet I made the other day.  It's a very rich dessert, and my friend is always watching her weight, so I didn't expect her to finish it, but she shocked me when she ate the complete dessert.  She said she really loved it.  No kidding.  I was pretty happy about it.

So after driving from one end of town to the other to pick my five year old up, shopping for groceries, cleaning the house and cooking, I have to say it was a well spent Sunday.  The company and the food were pretty great.  If I do say so myself.


The Cookbook Addict