National Tortellini Day ~ Dinner Menu for Monday 2/13/2023

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Kaneoh-that is a very pretty presentation!

B: fermented 9 grain flakes w/cranberry puree, bowl of mango
L: kidney bean green bean onion salad, pomelo, zucchini raisin bread
D: full meal salad: lettuce, tomatoes, apple, broccoli, wheat berries, red beans, mustard or tomato salad dressing
Snacks: bananas, apples, apricot energy balls, WW toast w/blackberry jam
 
Not sure what m having tonight yet , but years ago I was in Atlanta at a very fancy, expensive restaurant. I ordered the Tortelloni ( which I found out are large tortellini). I remember the waitress bringing the bowl / plate over to me. The plate was HUGE. It almost looked like an upside down sombrero, with a wide brim and a well in the center for the food. Judging by the size of the plate, I figured I had a feast in store for me. She put it down in front of me, and there were 4 tortelloni in the small center well. The rest of the plate vacant. Granted they were bigger than tortellini, but still relatively small, and definitely not a dinners worth. The plate to food ratio was like %95 plate to 5% food. The look of disappointment on my face must have been obvious because the guy next to me asked if I wanted to order another dish ( in addition to what was served). Not wanting to cause a scene, I said it was perfect , no need for another dish. It tasted great but man was I hungry afterwards.
 
We decided to have lunch at Brio today because I have been carrying around a gift card for years.

Started out with appys of a flatbread Margharita and beef carpaccio. The flatbread should have been called crackerbread but Craig said it was okay. The carpaccio is pictured below. The dark center is a red and green leaf lettuce salad, and the triangles are the same thing as the pizza crust, but actual crackers. They tasted much better as crispy crackers instead of a pizza crust that was a tiny bit soggy from the toppings. The carpaccio and the bread fresh from the oven in the center of the table were the best part of the meal. We've always loved their take on carpaccio and still do.

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Craig got spaghetti bolognase for his main. Again, he said it was okay. I ordered a small plate risotto with mushrooms and shrimp and got the below.

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Obviously not risotto and it had so much black pepper that it was spicy and was unpleasant to eat such that I took 2 small bites of the rice and pushed it away.

We have eaten at Brio previously and enjoyed it, but never at this location. I should have known there was going to be a problem because the waiter had to look at our menus when we ordered and we even had to point out the flatbread.

Also, Craig ordered a diet Coke and then I ordered a Coke, waiter said okay, and then I thought I heard him mumble something under his breath about Pepsi as he was writing down our orders. I stopped him and asked if they had Coke or Pepsi. I don't really care, but Craig does, so we ended up getting bottled mineral water.

He messed up our plates both times he brought them, giving me Craig's and him mine.

After he brought our main and came back to grate cheese on Craig's, he NEVER came back to check if our food was okay. He went to the other 2 tables he had besides us, but never even looked our way. Craig tried hand signaling him, then calling out to him twice, and finally 1 of the other 2 tables pointed out to him that we were trying to get our attention.

I ended up asking for manager because I was seriously ticked off by then. Told him all of the above. We ended up getting our whole meal comped even though I repeatedly told him multiple times we wanted to pay for the food we actually ate, just not for the risotto that wasn't. So, I still have the gift card to continue to carry around.
 
After making "Egg McGoddess Muffins"* for breakfast, we just grazed on leftover pizza and fruit.
* New name for them. :D
We decided to have lunch at Brio today because I have been carrying around a gift card for years...
...We ended up getting our whole meal comped even though I repeatedly told him multiple times we wanted to pay for the food we actually ate, just not for the risotto that wasn't. So, I still have the gift card to continue to carry around.
Hopefully the next time you go to use that card you have better service and all your meals are tasty. Probably a different location next time though, right?
 
I wasn't very inspired about supper tonight and we had a grocery delivery that just happened to include some Italian sausage. Since it's easier to use the meat that doesn't need to be defrosted (I had been vacillating between thawing some chicken or some ground pork), we decided that would be good for supper. I made a salad (greencrisp lettuce, Boston lettuce, carrot, nappa cabbage, red onion, scallion greens and dressed with my batch vinaigrette) to go with that and the cumin potatoes that @blissful recommended. We have had them before and they are really good. It all made for a very tasty supper.
 

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That's exactly the same as what I make, but we call it potatoes and hot dogs. :LOL: It's one of Loverly's favorites, so I made a huge pan of it when we were home for the holidays.
I thought I was the only one who ate it. When I was younger, and friends asked me what I had for dinner, I was embarrassed to say anything cause I figured I'd get made fun of. I always loved it ( and still do). Now, I make I with pride, especially knowing its a recipe passed down a few generations.
 
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