Restaurant Week:Piccolo Sogno

Our favorite restaurant week outing was Piccolo Sogno! 

Source: google.com via Emily on Pinterest

There were so many options on the menu.It was hard to choose but Mr. F let me pick for both of us! We had fun with the olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette while we waited for our first course. We split the following: INSALATA DI PERE

Roasted pears, baby arugula, lemon oil and Laurel Chenel goat cheese

SFORMATO DI SEDANO

Truffled celery root flan, parmesancra

 RAVIOLI “PICCOLO SOGNO”

Four cheese ravioli, pine nuts, butter, Marsala glaze and parmesan shavings

TAGLIATELLE DI CASTAGNA 

Chestnut flour ribbon pasta, spiced wild boar ragu

TORTA DI RICOTTA (basically dry cheesecake with powdered sugar and berries)

PANNA COTTA AL ZAFFERANO

Eggless vanilla, saffron and honey scented custard with caramel sauce and berries

If you're ever in Chicago or if you already live here, you must go to Piccolo Sogno. The food and the atmosphere is stellar.

Birthday Weekend in Boise

Mr. F and I celebrated our birthdays and our friend's birthday in Boise and McCall. After work last Friday, we flew to Idaho. On Saturday, we drove from Boise to McCall.It was a bright and brilliantly blue day. Shorty (the black lab, corgi mix) and Jax (the Pomeranian, corgi mix) were super excited to go too. Shorty was less excited when he found out he had to be in the back with all the luggage.Jax was the lucky one and wanted to sit on the driver's lap.We saw lots of gorgeous fields, cows, and the distant Sawtooth mountains, driving through Boise and its suburbs.We left Boise in the late afternoonand arrived in Cascade around sunset. It was a gorgeous drive to our friend's family cabin. We made dinner when we arrived and Shorty helped pick up the scraps.Chef Mr. F made egg noodles with cilantro sauce, peppers, tomatos, avocado and scallops.

Sunday morning, we woke up to another beautiful sunny day! We played with the puppies on the frozen lake. Shorty and Jax had so much fun racing back and forth on the snow.Yes, I had fun being a dork too.We did a little shopping in McCall, Sunday. I found some fun Patagonia button up shirts for Mr. F and a Lole tunic for me at a place called "Mountain Monkey Business"! 

Source: google.com via Emily on Pinterest

On President's Day, it was snowing and several inches accumulated overnight and that morning. The puppies really enjoyed us throwing snowballs to them!Jax loved eating the snow as it flew in his face!Doesn't he remind you of a little fox?Mr. F had fun with the icicles, and pretended to be a unicorn.Our drive back to Boise was pretty snowy. It was like driving through a winter wonderland! We even saw a giant muskie statue at the gas station.Jax had fun posing for pictures andhe danced along to a few songs too.On that last night in Boise, we went to Cosmic Pizza for some of the best pizza ever. We had the Galatic Fair with mini corn dogs, the amazing Mac and Cheese pizza,and last but not least the Pesto Margarita pizza! Happy Birthday us!

Chicago Restaurant Week:Carnivale

On Wednesday night, we went to Carnivale for restaurant week! It was a completely colorful and bright experience. It's also only a 15-20 minute walk from our house, in the Fulton Market district. The food is Latin fusion with tapas and some Asian influences.Check out the ceiling in the main dining room! We know people getting married here, this summer. I'm very curious to see what they do for a theme!

Mr. F got the black bean soup as the first courseand I got an arugula salad with goat cheese and satsumas. For the second course, I got the buttery vegetable paellaand Mr. F got the tasty pork shoulder with plantains, pickled cabbage, beans and rice.For dessert, we both got the caramel pecan cake with cinnamon ice cream and we were in heaven.

Chicago Restaurant Week:Elate

We love Chicago's restaurant week. We started our tour of restaurants on Tuesday, at Elate. Mr F and I decided to get one of each of the first courses, we both got the same second course, and then each got one of the desserts! 

COURSE 1

Parsnip bisque almond / curry / golden raisins   or 
Roasted Sunchoke Romaine hooks blue / rosemary / pumpernickel / kumquat 

COURSE 2

Quail Breast gnocchi / mustard green/ coco nibs / royal trumpet       or 

Skate Wing beluga lentils / onion soubise / thyme / capper [This was substituted for something else actually, after we looked it up and found out that a skate looks like a sting ray.]

COURSE 3

Pumpkin Semifreddo candied pecan crumble / pomegranate seeds / salted carmel      or 

Pumpkin Semifreddo samoa cookie pot de crème 

We really enjoyed the parsnip bisque. It was rich and creamy and perfect for a damp, windy winter night. The salad was also wonderful especially since the dressing was on the bottom and not saturating all the lettuce. The quail was delectable and the perfect amount. We practically died over our desserts. The pumpkin semifreddo was frozen custard, yumminess. The samoa cookie pot de creme had Girl Scout cookies on top!!!!

I highly recommend Elate. We liked the homey, yet trendy atmosphere and the amazing food. We will definitely be back, especially for the $1 oyster night (Wednesdays)!