Dinner and a Show

Last night my friend Barbara and I met for dinner before going to the Landmark to see The Wedding Singer. We met at Bacchus around 6:00 for a nice, leisurely dinner. I had a glass of red wine, she had white as we decided on dinner. We were the only people in there when we first got there, but the place was filled by the time we left. Barbara got the spaghetti with butter and parm ($8), and a side of spinach with garlic and almonds ($8). I got the pan seared salmon with leeks and artichokes ($16) and broccolini with garlic and parm ($8). Barbara loved her very plain pasta (good parmesan can make or break the dish). My salmon was perfectly cooked with a very nice sauce of the leeks and artichokes with cream. We shared the sides and they were the hits though - very garlicky and the yummy parmesan on the broccolini melted on it perfectly! The almonds added a great nutty flavor to the spinach that I am going to try and copy next time I make sauteed spinach. We shared dessert - creme brulee - which is always yummy. They had other options with homemade ice cream, like apple crisp, and a peanut butter pie. Overall it was a very cozy, nice, decently priced dinner.

Now the Wedding Singer on the other hand, was not so enjoyable. First of all, there were hardly any people there, the entire row in front of us was empty. They played 80's music before the show started - and I was taken back to my high school years.....Beat It, Material Girl, etc. The show started and the opening song was horrible, the sound was bad, and I just didn't like the music. The story line closely followed the movie, but the people in the play did not have the charm of Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. I found myself nodding off in the middle of the first act. When intermission came, Barbara and I got up to see if it had started snowing yet, hoping for an excuse to leave, but no snow.....we looked at each other and said "let's go!) and snuck out the side door! As we crossed Main Street to the parking deck, we had a lot of company, one lady remarked - I think my high school put on better shows than that one! But at least we got a preview of where are seats are for Wicked - 6th row!! Yeah

Now we are snowed in - Bolognese for dinner.....yum!

West End Cheap Eats

Here are a few meal deals going on in the West End/short Pump area that you can take advantage of:

Maggiano’s
Buy one meal and get one to take home from a selection of favorite pastas. Also free Vera’s Lemon Cookies to take home.

Shaklefords
From Becky –

A group of friends and I went our for a "nice catch up with the girls" night out. We decided we would eat at Shaklefords. I use to avoid this place because if you graduated from Godwin High School - It always seems like a high school reunion. Sometimes I am in the mood for that but for the most part I am not. Anyway, It was Sunday and the special was half off snow crab legs. So I had to get them. They were delicious and they were only $10. Another great plus was they changed the bread - IT WAS WONDERFUL. I ate three pieces and the pieces are not slices. I cant wait to go back just to eat the "loaf" of bread I consumed while I was there.

Sal Cataldo’s

Wednesday night large $6.99 cheese pizza deals.

Restaurant.com
Has a lot of deals right now - $25 gift certificate’s for $2. They have everything from Lemaire, to El Paso. A really good deal!

Happy Eating!

Children's Birthday Parties - Worth it or not?

My daughter went to two birthday parties last weekend, that she had an absolute blast at….one at the SPCA and one at Richmond Olympiad. The one at SPCA had arts and crafts, a scavenger hunt, play with puppies, food and cake. The one at the Olympiad was based around learning gymnastics techniques and jumping on a trampoline. As an observer of these parties I was watching the young workers at these parties whose job was to corral the children and take them through the activities of the party without getting walloped or lost. I began to daydream about my birthday party memories…….

This harkened me back to my first job….yes at McDonald’s. My job on Saturdays and Sundays was the “Birthday Party Coordinator”. Remember these were the days when McDonalds was still a novelty. Kids WANTED to have their birthday at McDonalds. The party consisted of a happy meal per child, milk or a soda, some lame party games and favors and they had to supply the cake. We sang happy birthday to the child and they ate their lunch and cake. All of this for about $25! Cheap – but pretty lame……and believe me as a 16 year old (probably hung-over too) this was like being in hell!! The children screamed and spilled soda – you had to keep them contained to the corner of the restaurant. And I think I was paid top dollar $3.30 and hour!

I was curious if they still offered this service – and sure enough they do! Here is a link that describes it if you have any interest…http://birthday-party-locations.com/index.php/birthday-articles/birthday-parties-at-mcdonalds/
Now they supply the cake, the ice cream, favors, and balloons. You still get happy meals – but your cost is now between $60-$100. Cheap by today’s standards.

Then I think back to my childhood – 40 some years ago…..I don’t think we have even had birthday parties anywhere except at our own house and then, it was probably one or two friends and family…….hmmm….makes me wonder how we got to this point where there are actually businesses that survive due to these $200 - $400 children’s parties.

But I have to say for my daughters last birthday, I forked out $250 or so to have her party at the Little Gym. No fuss, no muss, and I could sit back and smile and take pictures. Pretty darn convenient….and we won’t even discuss the time I ended up paying $75 for a freaking Dora cake from the Mixing Bowl….long story and another blog topic!

Anyway – the Pea’s birthday is in June and I am already looking for the spot to have her party…..maybe we will old school it this year and do it at our pool…..the nice thing about a summer birthday…..but then again I may end up splurging and do a bowling alley……makes me wonder though….Your thoughts?

Downtown Lunch/Dinner Spot

Had lunch with my friend Barb today at Tarrant's Cafe on Broad Street/Foushee Street. It had been awhile since I ate there, and I was happily reminded how much I enjoy it.

Our server was friendly and helpful and promptly brought us some yummy garlic rolls with olive oil. The menu is extensive with a number of sandwiches, soups, salads, and entree's. The daily special featured baramundi fish - which I LOVE, but at $16.95 was too steep for lunch.

Barb and I decided to share a greek salad and pizza. (the sister restaurant connected to the main one is called Tarrantino's and is basically a take-out pizza place. The kitchen split our salad for us, and it was very good with olives, garbanzo beans, feta, tomato's, onions, roasted red peppers, and lettuce. The dressing was good, though a bit sweet.

The pizza was fab - NY style - which I prefer, with just the right sauce and cheese. We ordered pepperoni - plain and simple. But perfect.

If you are looking for a new place to try downtown that isn't too expensive for lunch and dinner, check out Tarrant's Cafe!

Friday Evening Thing To Do

There is a thing at Whole Foods that they have on Friday nights that I am dying to try - it is called Five for $5 Fridays where you pay $5 and get a Whole Foods wine glass and you get to try 5 types of wine and 5 different appetizer/foodie type things. Has anyone tried it?
Info:

Every Friday
Five After Five
5:00-7:00 p.m. $5.00 Details
Join us each Friday to sample five delicious dishes and five varieties of wine. Admission is $5.00 at the door. Proceeds benefit the Autism Grant during the month of January. Plus, admission includes a souvenir Whole Foods Market wine glass. What a wonderful way to kick off your weekend! For more information about the Autism Grant visit their website www.autismgrant.org.


Has anyone been yet? I am thinking of checking it out next Friday the 5th - Anyone game?

The Bra Birthday Club

Last night was the debut of the "pink bra" birthday club. In solidarity with our sisters and in the spirit of embracing our 30's, 40's, and perhaps 50's, we decided to celebrate our womanhood by flaunting what we got! After Beck and Steph went crazy with the glue gun and bedazzler, we all proudly had our ages and glamourous bras to wear!

We went to to the James River Winery, for their Fridays Over the Patio, the winter version of the Fridays on the Patio. The cost is $14 per person (you need reservations) and includes a wine tasting, glass with their logo on it to keep, appetizers, and music. It was a lot of fun! We started our evening with the wine tasting and tasted all of the selection - about 5 whites, 5 reds, and a few dessert wines. I am personally not a big fan of VA wines, I find them too immature. But they had a Chenin Blanc white that was good and the Merlot was quite tasty. ML and I decided to split a bottle of their Rad Red - which is a blend of reds and part of the proceeds went to the Massey Cancer Center too. Most of the wines ran about $15 a bottle. Beck, Steph, and Kris got a the Chenin Blanc and another white to share. We mosied upstairs where the band and food were and found a table. They also encourage you to bring a picnic....and I did. I stopped by Trader Joe's earlier and stocked up on their pub cheese, sausage, jarlsberg cheese, and some crackers. The food they had was ok....chicken wings, typical cheese squares, costco meatballs, some sort of pasta, and veggies. I tried a bit of it and found it fine....nothing to write about honestly. I liked my spread better! The atmosphere was friendly, cozy, and very enjoyable. The band was a duo playing Sting, Steely Dan, etc. tunes. Apparently it was the "meet--up" designated spot for the Richmond 30-40 year old singles club....but it didn't seem like much interaction was going on....tables of ladies and tables of men....

After we left there, we headed to Kona Grill for some sushi and one last drink. We ended up ordering the pot stickers, edamamme, and california roll. This was my 2nd time trying their sushi - and it sucked again. It was fake fishy smelling crab. The pot stickers were good and edamamme is edamamme! But it was a nice place to end the evening.

I have to say that our bra's were embraced (literally and metaphorically) by all! Both men and women seemed to enjoy our good natured fun. In fact, I had a man approach me saying that he and his wife were just having a conversation about how everybody was a conformist and how their wasn't any individuality anymore, and then we walked in and made their night.....that was a great comment to receive.

Stay tuned for more birthday adventures over the upcoming year!

Big Kids Clothing Sale Feb 4-7th

Check out this website:
http://www.kidslayne.com/upcoming-sales/richmond-va/

This is a big new and used clothing sale that will be at Willow Lawn in Richmond on February 4th-7th. They have clothes for kids 0-12 years of age. Check it out!

Old Italian Place but new to me......

Last night I had dinner with my book club at Angela's Restaurant on Ridge and Forest Road. We had read the book Heat, by Bill Buford which was a non-fiction book based upon a journalists pursuit of the roots of Italian cooking and included a stint in Mario Batali's restaurant, Babbo (eaten there - fabulous!) as well as an apprecticeship under a butcher in Tuscany. The book was interesting especially for foodies. So we had decided to have Italian food and someone had recommended trying Angela's. It has been around for years, but I had never eaten there or really heard much about it.

We arrived for our reservation for 12 and had two tables side by side - not really conducive to book club discusssion....but we ended up pushing the tables together and it worked fine. The place was PACKED on a Tuesday night. We found out there was a reservation for 45 people in the cozy restaurant.....the wine was all fairly priced in the $30-40 range and we chose a chianti and a pino grigio. The service was a little bit slow but...considering the large party seated before us...it was understandable. The menu had your typcial pasta dishes, but they seemed to specialize in seafood and veal. They had about 5 or 6 specials and I ended up ordering one - two giant ravioli's stuffed with 4 cheeses and spinach, with a gorgonzola cream sauce, topped by lump crab over fresh spinach. It was really, really good. A bit rich, but a ton of lump crab on top, the gorgonzola sauce was creamy but not overpowering like some can be. I really enjoyed it. One of my fellow diners got the rockfish special and really enjoyed it, the mussel appetizer someone got had about 2 dozen mussels in it and a fab broth. Also the folks who stuck with the straight up pasta (stuffed shells and meat ravioli) really enjoyed their meal as well. I definitely would like to go back and try it when it is less busy.

One thing that really impressed me was their ability to split two bottles of red wine among 5 people and to let us all pay separately. This always seems to be an issue when dining with large groups of people trying to each pay for their own dinner.

I suggest you try this local, family owned joint next time you want to have some Italian food.

Next month our book is the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo....I wonder what we can pair with that for dinner.....

Great Weekend Winter Dish

After spending the day shopping with BR on a rainy dreary Sunday, I was in the mood for some comfort food. And I was happy to find a recipe that fit the bill in the December, 2009 Cooking Light, Belgian Beef and Beer Stew. The recipe was fairly easy - the biggest work was the prep time to cut up the veggies and to brown the meat, but with some help from my prep cook husband, it went fairly fast. Happy to report that we all enjoyed the stew. Even my 5 year old. Recipe attached:

Belgian Beef and Beer Stew
Worthy of a Special Occasion
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An amber Belgian beer is ideal in this dish, though most amber beers or brown ales—such as Newcastle—would work just fine. Garnish with fresh thyme.
Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 cup)
Ingredients
3 center-cut bacon slices, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 1/2 pounds boneless chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
2 cups chopped onion (about 2 medium)
5 cups sliced cremini mushrooms (about 12 ounces)
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 (12-ounce) bottle amber beer
2 cups (1/2-inch-thick) slices carrot (about 1/2 pound)
1 3/4 cups (1/2-inch-thick) slices parsnip (about 1/2 pound)
1 cup fat-free, less-sodium beef broth
2 tablespoons country-style Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
Preparation
1. Cook bacon in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving drippings; set aside. Add half of beef to drippings in pan; cook 5 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove beef from pan. Repeat procedure with remaining beef.
2. Add onion to pan; sauté 4 minutes. Stir in mushrooms and garlic; sauté 4 minutes or until half of liquid evaporates. Stir in flour; cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in beer, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add bacon, beef, carrot, and remaining ingredients to pan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 2 hours or until beef is tender. Discard bay leaf.
Beer note: With Belgian Beef and Beer Stew, focus on Belgian beers in the style of Dubbel or Brune. These words indicate a dark-colored, malty beer that goes well with braised beef. Moinette Brune ($9/750 ml) offers fruity sweetness that works with caramelized vegetables and a bready quality that matches any stew, while the beer's lively effervescence and surprisingly light body won't weigh down a winter meal. --Jeffery Lindenmuth
Nutritional Information
Calories:
373
Fat:
12.2g (sat 5g,mono 3.2g,poly 0.4g)
Protein:
40.4g
Carbohydrate:
18.4g
Fiber:
3.9g
Cholesterol:
118mg
Iron:
5.1mg
Sodium:
780mg
Calcium:
56mg


Tasty and good for you!

BTW - when shopping a couple of deals BR and I found.....Lands End Store at Sears -40% off of everything, in fact whole store was 40% off - BR got the deal of the day - a winter coat for her daughter for 74 cents!!!! The Book Room down by Willow Lawn - a used book store is having their annual sale, 75% off of all used books - great time to stock up. And for those of you who have Gymbucks - it is redemption time until the 24th......

Tonight I am going to Angela's Restaurant with my book club.....review to follow....

Later!

Second Time Was NOT the Charm.....

Well as promised, I went back to the Wine Loft for my Ladies Happy Hour. The evening started iffy, GFM and I arrived at 4:30 our reservation time, and the door was locked for a staff meeting and we were told it would be another 15 minutes. Luckily it was warm yesterday and not the arctic temps we have been having. Well in reality, we waited 5 minutes and the owner came out to apologize and offered us a free glass of wine for our trouble...definitely worth 5 minutes of my time! There were 10 of us meeting for happy hour and we were given our choice of areas to claim as our own. We chose the upstairs because of the ability to have 10 people facing each other instead of spread horizontally across a space. We got our wine (I picked the Fairview Pinotage that I liked so much last weekend) and within 30 minutes all 10 of us were there. We ordered the cheese plate, chartucerie plate, and the backed brie again. When all of our items arrived they also delivered a marinated monchego cheese plate that they promptly realized they brought to the wrong table, but we begged to keep it and they agreed. It all sounds good so far right? Well it went downhill after that....the service was extremely slow....they give you about 10 baguette slices of bread with the cheeses, which is definitely not enough for 10 people! One each??? We had to ask for more cheese a few times and when we finally got it - it was two small platters with 10 pieces on each. Oh well, we made do. The area upstairs was extremely dark, it was hard to see each other, I could live with that, but sometime ambience gets in the way of functionality. The food was good, the manchego cheese was great, the balsamic vinegar they used to drizzle over it was top shelf, AND would have been fab to dip bread into if we would have had any!!! Then it came time for the check. That took about 25 minutes. One of my pet peeves. When I am done at a restaurant, I am done. I don't want to wait around for another 1/2 hour! We got our check and GFM and I were charged for our free glasses of wine! Not a good thing, and after we mentioned it, gave her our credit cards, and they were rung up, it was still not taken off. So the good will in which the freebie was given was lost in the shuffle! Now with two other wine/cafe places within spitting distance of each other, Cafe Caturra and the Barrel Thief, I would suggest that this place needs to pick it up a notch in service. Cafe Caturra has an awesome happy hour: from 3-6 daily you can get $5 glasses of wine and $4 appetizers. The only issue with that is it is hard to get there before 5:00 so you have to drink really fast!! ha I for one, am very partial to the Barrel Thief. I love the people that run it, have had wonderful evenings there and the music, food, and wine are all great. So I have to say I will give the Wine Loft one more try and we will see if the 3rd time is the charm......

One other quick note, after we left there some of us were still hungry and opted to check out Anohka the new Indian place. GFM, KC, and VG and and went and had a great dinner! We ordered the palek paneer, lamb tikka masala, and a very spicy chicken dish (can't remember the name). Plus garlic naan and papadum. It was all great and we were almost licking our plates to get the last drops of the yummy tikka masala sauce. Check it out!

BR and a few other ladies went to Patina Grill instead, we will have to get the scoop from her later........

Free food for your kiddies

So on those nights that you don't feel like cooking, can't face a Ukrops Rotisserie chicken (they really do kind of suck don't they??). Here are a few place you can go and not pay $5+ dollars for food that your child probably won't even eat. These are courtesy of my PIC (partner in crime) BR:
Sunday Nights Seafire Grill and Qdoba Mexican Grill
Monday Nights Fast Eddie's Jukebox Cafe and Red Robin
Tuesday Nights Champps and Moe's Southwestern Grill

There are a ton of places that have cheap nights for kids too...coming soon. Also some 1/2 price bottle of wine or dinner nights for adults when you happen to be lucky and have a babysitter or are out with your girls!

The Yin and the Yang of a Saturday night out in Short Pump….

The Yin and the Yang of a Saturday night out in Short Pump….

My husband recently had a birthday and wanted to go somewhere casual with friends. We ventured out to Dave and Busters, his choice, not mine. I gamely went with him, it was his birthday after all.

We get there and the place was packed. My friend ML and I bravely got our pager for a table and bellied up to the bar for beers while the guys checked out the games. After standing there for 15-20 minutes with no acknowledgement from the bartenders, and no beers…I finally got the attention of the bartender, who said…just a minute babe. BABE?? HE called me BABE?? Right there I knew I was in a high class joint.

We went into the game room which was reminiscent of a Las Vegas casino, except it has children running all over, but the noise and the lights were the same. Two out of the four machines to get cards to play the games were out of order and 20 minutes later, we finally had a card to play. Now, none of us are really big video players so we scoped out the skee-ball, but ended up playing trivia – strictly old-school all the way. The trivia was fun and the competition among us fierce, but it got old fairly quick. So we headed back to the bar, where my husband was promptly insulted by the same bartender. We all looked at each other and said lets get the H out of here!!! We are paying for a babysitter for our children – why would we want to be in a restaurant with screaming children everywhere, bad service and more sensory overload than I could personally handle…….


Now for the Yang….

We walked down the “block” of West Broad Village to the Wine Loft which was having a soft opening that night. What a difference….the owners warmly greeted us and helped us to find a spot to camp out at the bar while we waited for a table. I ordered their featured wine a pinotage (insert name here)…excellent wine for $8 a glass. We were introduced to all of the 4 bartenders who were very friendly; the one who was helping us was Corey. He took our order for appetizers: lamb-pops, baked brie, cheese plate, and a chartucerie plate. When we found a comfy couch with a table to sit at, he offered to just bring the food directly to us when it was ready. We were starving by this point so the food was very welcome when it came, the cheese plate was pretty standard, but good. The chartucerie plate was very good with a pate, prosciutto, and sausage. The baked brie was excellent with a balsamic drizzle on it. I wasn’t crazy about the lamb – it tasted very gamey to me. But the husband and ML enjoyed it.

The Wine Loft has a full bar – liquor and beer for those who don’t appreciate a good glass of wine like the husbands. It also has a larger menu. The service we received all night was excellent – when we wanted another drink we just caught the attention of anyone walking by and they were happy to help us. In fact, ML and I liked it so much we made a reservation for next week and our ladies happy hour…we were their first official reservation. So we will update you on if the service and the experience was as enjoyable the second time around…..