A Good Food Weekend

We haven't eaten out very much for quite a few months, mainly because we've been so busy but also because when you start tracking your expenses, it is easier to say no to eating out.  This, combined with the fact that I love to cook and weekends are the only time I really get to relax in the kitchen, means that eating out has fallen down on my list of priorities.  This weekend however, we have gone out twice.  Since joining Groupon's coupon service, I've purchased a few coupons for restaurants in the area.  Last night's Groupon was for West Plains Bistro in Burlington.  It is a small, cozy restaurant with very good food.  We only had one thing off the menu, Moroccan Shrimp, and they were very tasty.  Our main courses were the night's specials.  I enjoyed mushroom ravioli with a light cream sauce and I could have licked the plate. The other half had a stuffed pork chop that looked really good but I was enjoying my pasta so much that I didn't even taste it.  This is highly unusual.  We'll definitely go back.

Today we were out running errands and looking for a nice birthday present for me and stopped in at Oliver Bonacini in Oakville Place mall.   Continuing my mushroom themed weekend, I had a pizzetta with pancetta and mushrooms and a bitter greens side salad.  Very nice.  And they had a promotion for the 3 Chefs Cookbook - a $20 gift card for brunch with purchase.  Since the book has the really yummy, cream free, mushroom soup that I have enjoyed at Jump a couple of times, I decided that alone was an excellent excuse to buy the book.  Instead of giving me a gift card, the waiter took the $20 off right away.  While not the best use of a promotional opportunity since a gift card would mean that I had to go back, I was quite happy about the immediate discount.  I will go back here but the gift card would have meant that I had to.

Finally, for dinner, I had taken some shrimp out of the freezer in a renewed effort to reduce the amount of food I am stocking in there.  The other half thought that noodles seemed like an excellent idea so I browsed the cookbook collection for something Asian-inspired and found a nice spicy noodle recipe from Thai Cooking Class, a book recommended by Bonnie Stern School of Cooking when I took a Thai class there about 20 years ago - when you still had to go to Chinatown to buy Lemon Grass and curry paste.  It was excellent.  Lots of onions and garlic and just enough spice.  A Riesling from Thirty Bench worked really well alongside.

I only hope tomorrow can live up to the Friday and Saturday culinary goodness.