So quite obviously I stink at keeping up with my blog. Food blog wonders such as
My Baking Addiction,
Teenie Cakes, and
Chocolate & Zucchini put me to shame (not to mention all their GORGEOUS photos!) However, I still like to talk endlessly about food, so I will continue on, no matter how intermittently.
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| Varanese Caprese Salad |
July is the month of my birthday, and I got to have some wonderful eating adventures in celebration of said birthday. The best perhaps being my birthday night meal with the hubby at Varanese. Yes, I already wrote about them, but it was so good, I snatched the LivingSocial deal that came up after Supper Club’s outing and dragged him to it.
We have a convert people!
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| Beef Tips and Tortellini |
I started with their special salad, a twist on a caprese. Mixed greens, thinly sliced tomatoes, and a cheese that was smoky, sweet, and unbelievably dense, all drizzled with a balsamic glaze. Absolutely delish! For our entrees, I ordered the Beef Tips & Tortellini (tossed in a gorgonzola cream sauce, with baby spinach, grape tomatoes, and toasted pine nuts, topped with crispy prosciutto) and he ordered the “V” Burger (char-grilled grass-fed beef topped with smoked mozzarella, crispy prosciutto, and Chef John’s V-12 sauce). We both loved them! Mine was the perfect balance of the gorgonzola with the steak and pasta, and the pine nuts added a great crunch. He absolutely raved about his burger, quickly devouring it and sopping up the rest of the V-12 sauce with his fries.
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| Small Bites Dessert |
Soon after, the jazz duo played “Happy Birthday” for me, and our server brought out their Small Bites dessert, which had (clockwise from left) a chocolate bar with the Varanese logo, a small cup of what we were told was blueberry waffle ice cream (kinda tasted like a mild cookie dough), and a dense peanut butter caramel brownie. While they were all good, they didn’t knock my socks off. One of their dessert specials that night was a grilled peach with vanilla bean ice cream and blueberries…so we ordered that! When it came out, we saw two peach halves with a gooey scoop of rich ice cream, all swimming in a caramel sauce. It was out of this world! We ate every bite and loved it.
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| Grilled Peaches with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream |
Afterwards, a stroll on the waterfront to watch the sun set was in order to burn just a few of the calories we had consumed, and then home to drop into a deep food coma. Absolutely perfect evening.
