There’s something about the weekend that makes me feel like I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want. And I usually do. Unfortunately, I never find myself saying “I think I’ll eat a bowlful of carrot sticks.” No, it’s always crap – potato chips, nachos, and stuff with lots and lots of butter. This past weekend was no different.
The weekend started out innocently enough. I met my friend Jen for dinner in Burlington, MA. The last time I was in Burlington (let me count the years…), the dining choices were limited to your standard chain fare – Rainforest Café, Macaroni Grill, Uno’s, and if you wanted to dig a little deeper, Legal Seafood. But Jen suggested a restaurant I had never heard of – L’Andana, right off of 95 on route 3A (www.landanagrill.com). L’Andana is a very elegant, yet not overly pretentious, Tuscan-style Italian restaurant (with free valet parking!). We grabbed two seats at the bar, and enjoyed a couple of cocktails before digging into some calamari and wood grilled pizzas. Jen ordered the margherita and I got the sopressata pizza. Both pizzas were perfectly sized for one person. The margherita was perfect – it’s the classic pizza in my opinion. Perfectly sauced, and deliciously cheesy with the unmistakable aroma of fresh basil. Yum. The sopressata was great too – in addition to the classic Italian cold cut, it included pepperoncini. Normally, I wouldn’t be drawn to a sopressata pizza, but I was sold on the pepperoncini. I have loved pepperoncini since I was a young kid and my parents told me not to eat one because I wouldn’t like it. (Incidentally, 30-some odd years later, they still haven’t figured out that I will always be driven to do the opposite of what they tell me.) The pizza was delicious! And, the service we received at the bar also needs to be recognized. If you read my post on bar service from a couple of weeks ago, you’ll know how happy I am for this to be redeemed. I wish I caught the bartender’s name, because she was great. She was attentive when we needed her to be, and left us alone to chat and catch up the rest of the time.
It’s a good thing that L’Andana was so great, because the rest of the weekend was not so inspired.
After a strong start at the farmer’s market on Saturday morning (in the pouring rain, nonetheless), armed with loads of fresh vegetables, I stocked up on snacks at the grocery store for an evening snack-a-palooza. The vegetables would have to wait (as well as my skinny jeans). Potato chips & clam dip, pretzels, pepperoncini (see?), and cheese & crackers. It was at the same time a very good and a very bad decision. Hey, what’s one day, right?
Snack-a-palooza part two was held on Sunday. Well, not quite that bad. There was some clam dip left over from snack-a-palooza one, and rather than waste it by pouring it down the garbage disposal (the smart thing to do), I chose to finish it off (the wrong thing to do). Let’s just call it lunch, and be done with it.
Sunday wasn’t a total wash, though. I did make – from scratch – a tarte tatin. That’s French for upside down apple tart. The biggest success of this dish was the pastry dough. It came together perfectly; unfortunately it didn’t roll out with the same success. Actually, it rolled out fine – a perfect 14” circle to top the apples and what was supposed to eventually turn into caramel but never did. It was the transfer from the counter to the pan that proved to be difficult. I did my best to patch the tears and re-attach the pieces that just fell off. I was thankful that the crust ends up on the bottom where my “handi-work” could be concealed. When the tart finally came out of the oven, and was turned over onto a serving dish, it looked ridiculous. The caramel didn’t caramelize, and the apples, while tasty, looked awfully unappetizing. I’m trying really hard to describe how it looked, but every sentence I type is not capturing the visual. Fortunately, my sister assured me it tasted good. So, I’ll call it a semi-successful effort. At least I know I can make pastry dough – it’s the utilizing it that I have to work on.
The best part was the vanilla bean mascarpone ice cream I made to serve with the tarte tatin. I don’t know why it’s called ice cream, since it’s neither frozen nor does it contain cream. It’s basically mascarpone cheese, confectioners sugar, vanilla extract, and the seeds from one half of a vanilla bean – mixed together and refrigerated for a half hour before serving. Truly my proudest moment was splitting the vanilla bean and scraping out the seeds with a paring knife… without cutting myself!!! I know I sound overly proud, but I am not so good with the knife. Accidents have been known to happen.
My time this weekend was split between being a wannabe foodie and being a binge eater, and therefore I’m spending the week eating all those vegetables I bought at the farmer’s market. With any luck, I’ll be back in my skinny jeans by Friday and I can start the cycle all over again.
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