all that's past is prologue...

Ok, yes, I know, I write a lot about food. Going out to eat, with or without Beatrix, is one of our remaining pastimes from the halcyon pre-baby/toddler days, and it's an important part of our lives. And speaking of kids, I don't know how I would exist in our current lifestyle without Punch Pizza. The pizza is cheap but incredibly flavorful, and feels like you are eating something special. We can get lightning fast takeaway, or eat there with Beatrix. They have a sense of humor, and wonderful specials. Tonight they tweeted about a free salad with pizza order, so we bought 2 pizzas, got 2 free salads, and they tossed in some rosemary foccacia. Yum!

It's always the everyday things. My friend Meghan says one of her most commented FB statuses was about the annoying "headband headache." For me, I brag about how much I did last night, but all anyone wants to know is "Tell me about the cupcakes!" So without further ado... My friend Rebecca, who clears the path for me in culinary exploration, had mentioned chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes and I was curious. She made them gluten-free, with vanilla bean batter and icing, but I decided that was too much work and stuck more closely to the original recipe. Make a batch of cupcakes from yellow cake mix. Follow the recipe on the box, but also add 1/2 cup applesauce (sugar-free if possible). Next time I do this, I'm going to use the regular yellow cake mix — for this I used the "butter recipe" and it was a little too buttery. Mix in 1/2 cup chocolate chips. For me, these all sank to the bottom as they were baked. Not a tragedy, but a little annoy...

See, I'm not so hard to please, give me a good restaurant experience and I'm over the moon! For my birthday last night we went to Faces (formerly LoTo) on Mears Park. David Fhima has purchased and re-opened his former restaurant, and though it does not *look* much different than LoTo, it really shines. The menu is simple and locally sourced. We each ordered, of all things, sandwiches, a chicken Monte Cristo for me and a Croque Madame for Patrick. Both were huge, came with excellent sea salt fries, and were delicious. We also had a lovely flourless chocolate cake (on the house since it was my birthday!) Though the food was delicious, it was the wonderful service that really set it apart. Our server was friendly, knowledgeable, and treated us like royalty. The host checked in on us. Fhima himself was working the room, and though I've only met him a few times before, he was wonderfully gracious and claimed to remember me, "it's nice to see a friendly, familiar...

Well, Al Vento was a lovely Restaurant Week meal. Fresh caprese salad, gnocchi, olive oil cake — very flavorful, nice service, very pleased! Then I went with two friends to the patio at Salut. We shared a bottle of Viognier, and J accidentally knocked over her glass of wine while reaching for the bread (and yummy salty butter). The waitress insisted on immediately bringing over a replacement glass, though it was in no way the restaurant's fault — very nice!

I'm hoping to break the restaurant curse by going to Al Vento next week. Where are you going for Restaurant Week?

The other night, we ate at Pei Wei, which I tend to like (for a chain). It was their 10-year anniversary, and everyone there had the same thing we did — a coupon for 2 entrees for $10. They were moving people through pretty fast, and then we did the restaurant equivalent of crashing their server. All of a sudden, things just stopped, and the people before us, us, and the 5 parties after us all had to wait over an hour for our food. Nothing was coming out of the kitchen; they stopped the line of people waiting to order; time just stopped. Then suddenly we all got served and things picked back up. I don't fault them for being overwhelmed, but along the lines of my previous post, it would have been a much more enjoyable experience if they had done something about it. Come around to talk to us and update us. Offered coupons or free apps. Given Beatrix (who was a trooper, but starting to freak out) a tour of the kitchen. Anything. So another opportunity missed. Pei Wei, if y...

Don't get me wrong; I love eating out. I bear a deep respect for the food industry, which is a hard, hard business. But really, folks, there are a lot of restaurants out there and the economy is The Suck right now — in general, you just have to try a little harder. Some case in point from my last few days: Sunday night (before Swell Season, which was awesome!), we went out to the Uptown Cafeteria . I had heard mixed things, but was very happy with our meal. Though our reservation put us at an interior booth (and I really wanted a window), our cocktails were lovely, our food rich but good, and our waiter excellent. Score one for the home team! Our server gave us each a stamped "Parasole Passport," explaining that if we ate at the Cafeteria, Il Gatto, and Chino Latino we would each get a stamp at each and then we would get a free cocktail. We were still a little snacky, so decided to get dessert at Il Gatto , where the host and hostess were very friendly and encoura...