Back on Thursday night TBC and I joined his brother at Liberty Tavern in Clarendon. Downstairs is a pretty typical Arlington bar scene, but it's in a restored historic building with a dining room upstairs. First off, the solid service we received all around was a pleasant surprise- from the host stand to our waiter, as well as a manager (who came by to apologize for the long wait for our entrees). The bread basket was nothing special, but I did like the whipped ricotta spread and herbed honey butter accompaniments. I had the apple & endive salad (with candied pecans & bacon) to start. It was not quite what I was expecting, as it reminded me of a Waldorf salad - and was a little over-dressed. I also would have liked more bacon to balance the tartness of the apples. However, I was very pleased with my pasta- especially that it came with the option to order it in a half-portion. Linguine with cockles, shrimp, fennel pollen, mint and heirloom tear drop tomatoes. I'd definitely order it again and can anticipate craving it in the near future. I would NOT order the pizza- I tried a bite of TBC's and the crust was tasteless. I had pizza from Costco on Saturday with a much better crust, and that's just sad. TBC and his brother ordered desserts as well. Of the two that I sampled, I think the common element is overkill. TBC's was a chocolate tart with a banana topping (and a little monkey shaped cookie). That would have been fine on its own, but it also came with a tiny chocolate milkshake. Bizarre. Similarly, his brother's piece of red velvet cake was encased in a merengue dome. I think the cream cheese frosting was more than enough.
On Saturday morning I made my first farmer's market trip of the summer and I went a little overboard with my purchases:
cauliflower
basil
green tomatoes
squash blossoms
patty pan squash
beets
radishes
walnut raisin sourdough bread
cherries & strawberries.
Woo hoo! So much good stuff- I can't wait for the peaches, corn & tomatoes later this summer. Unfortunately, I had a full day ahead of me on Saturday and wouldn't be able to use any of my purchases until today. Last night, after helping TBC's brother move, we had dinner with his family at Mike's American Grill in Springfield- part of the Great American chain of restaurants. My dinner was fine- nothing great, except for maybe the ozzie rolls (buttery fried dough balls that are more like doughnuts than bread). I had the lobster bisque, which was too salty and a little pasty and then a green salad with roasted chicken. That makes the salad sounds healthier than it was- it also had dates, dried cranberries, pine nuts & goat cheese.
See? so much eating this weekend and I haven't even written about today. For breakfast I toasted some of the raisin walnut bread- we also had strawberries & cherries. To continue my fried green tomato theme for the week, we had them topped with a little bit of honey ham, an egg over easy and a basil chiffonade. I really wished I had some diced fresh tomato as well because I really like the combination of green tomatoes and ripe tomatoes.
Tonight I had the opportunity to play around with a little more of my farmer's market bounty. I stuffed the squash blossoms with basil & goat cheese and fried them (yay, healthy) and then had seared scallops over whole wheat pasta tossed with lots of garlic, basil, parsley & scallions.
I need to rein it in a over this next week. However, I really want to start my "cheese of the week" experiment. One of my New Year's resolutions was to learn more about cheese. TBC gave me "Cheese- A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Best" that he picked up at Cowgirl Creamery. Maybe I'll head over to Cowgirl Creamery tomorrow at lunch and pick up something new?
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