cupcakes and a lazy Sunday

This past Tuesday was Cat's 24th birthday and immediately a lunch date was planned. After venturing out to Northeast mall (in the pouring rain) we settled on a tiny French bakery called Vie a Paris! that Cat and her mom frequent.

Between the two of us and a tiny little table we munched on turkey and Swiss and chicken salad croissants with french onion soup, a fruit tart and a vanilla eclair- ooh la la!

Although we had dinner plans later that night at Taverna, we went to P.F. Changs for some pre-dinner drinks. While we sipped our Purple Haze hot sake with Chambord, we put our chopsticks to work on crunchy, chicken lettuce wraps and the lemongrass prawns with garlic noodles- my favorite entree!

For dinner #2, we finally arrived to Taverna and chatted amongst a bottle of Prosecco. The table choices were all tasty: risotto with Parmesan and truffle oil, seafood risotto with mussels, calamari and shrimp and a Gorgonzola and pear filled pasta with pears, arugula and walnuts. The seafood risotto was my favorite...great broth and the calamari was cooked perfectly.

Last night, my roommate and I headed to Winslow's for dinner. I've been a little under the weather all week, so I nursed a glass of Cava while Megan tried the Cava and a Merlot. We split the gambas al ajillo (shrimp in a spicy garlic butter sauce served atop grilled bread and fresh parsley) and cups of the roasted tomato soup with applewood-smoked bacon, creme fraiche and basil oil.

Finally, we split the gnocchi (due to my rave reviews), but it just wasn't as tasty last night. The gnocchi was a little heavier than usual and the pancetta made it too smoky...we still finished it. We skipped dessert because Megan had been on her weekly Cupcake Cottage trip earlier that morning. She had an assortment of mini cupcakes in a pretty, pink box- strawberry, chocolate, cookies and cream and my favorite... traditional white.

Today we grabbed a burger at Dutch's for a lazy, Sunday lunch. I ordered the Texana with avocado (of course) and Swiss...Megan always goes for the queso on her burger. The burgers are always good (a little over0cooked for my taste, but never greasy) and the rolls are always delicious (always fresh and slightly sweet). I'm now spending the rest of my lazy Sunday trying to decide what to cook for dinner tonight!