My Favorite Past Times

I've decided that my favorite past times are gourmet cooking and eating.

MTH and I went on our date on Friday night. We went to this wonderful restaurant called Restaurant Eve. There are 2 parts to the restaurant: the tasting room (prix fixe starting at $85/person!!) and the bistro (more normal restaurant feel and price). We started with cocktails. I had one called Eve's Temptation. It was a sour apple martini made with real apples! It was the best cocktail I've ever had. MTH also had a cocktail but it was made with whisky and much too strong for me. Then, we moved on to appetizers. I ordered salt cod fritters (reminded me of Barcelona) and MTH had the bacon, egg and cheese salad. The cod fritters, of course, were good since they're fried! MTH's salad was very interesting. It was a lettuce salad with bacon, cheese and poached eggs on top. For the entrees, I ordered the Muscovy duck breast with boudin noir and foie gras. MTH ordered the "Irish Stew". It was lamb chops with roasted root vegetables in a very thick sauce. And, if you can imagine, we were able to finish with a cheese plate. Our dinner was accompanied by a nice bottle of wine from Spain. So, not on purpose, we had things that reminded us of our honeymoon :)

Then, yesterday evening, we decided to check out the new Whole Foods that finally opened in our neighborhood. Yes, I know, ETK thinks it's for hippie yuppies but MTH and I like going there. Plus, it's the only grocery stores in our neighborhood besides Giant and Safeway (yuck!). We picked up some potatoes for roasting, a bunch of asparagus for steaming, a nice New York strip for grilling, some fresh baked bread and Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam cheese (had it in SF last weekend and had to have MTH try it too). I also got some strawberries to marinate in balsamic vinegar (those are just for me since MTH doesn't like strawberries!). The dinner was great. There were some leftovers so I had the idea this morning to make a scrambled egg with potatoes, asparagus, shallots, olives and the Mt. Tam's cheese. That was an awesome breakfast! I wish that MTH could have tried it as well. Unfortunately, he headed to work this morning at 6:50am. He's still there and just sent me an email saying it's going to be a long day!

He and I are supposed to watch the Steelers game together but it may just be me :( I'm looking forward to the day when MTH is not as busy at work. It's been crazy lately.