Where have all the manners gone?

R and I left M and Jim today for a girl's day out in Walnut Creek. First up was Bing Crosby's for lunch, which R has been wanting to try for years now. I was a little disappointed with the place because of the lack of vegetarian-friendly items. When I checked it out online, the menu didn't list specific vegetarian entrees, but it did state that they were available. So when I asked our server about it, he offered a pasta primavera or a plate of roasted vegetables. Nice. Ordinarily, I'd have gotten the pasta and been fine, but we had been planning on pasta for dinner tonight, so I wasn't going to do it for two meals in a row. He did get my hopes up when he said the soup of the day was vegetarian. I originally ordered the soup and salad, but then he came back very apologetic, saying that it was chicken stock based. Go figure. So I just stuck with a salad, which was quite good. It was mixed greens with parmesan shavings on top and the dressing was a pistachio vinaigrette, something very unusual but also very tasty. It was such an interesting combination between the richness of the pistachios, the tartness of the vinegar, and the sweetness of what I'm guessing to be honey. It was a little weird that there were actual pistachio nuts, but it was fine.

In contrast to my experience, R's meal looked amazing. She got the soup and sandwich combo and she raved about both. What she didn't get to try were the homemade chips, which looked like waffle fries. To redeem the meal, I decided to order dessert, which may have been a first over lunch for me. I tried to keep in mind that we'd be eating a scat dessert tonight, so I chose the yogurt sorbet and was very pleasantly surprised. It came in a little sundae cup with a tangerine gratinata on bottom, topped with two small scoops of coconut yogurt sorbet and a few thin slices of blood oranges. And it came with a delicate wafer. I don't like coconut, but there was so little of the flavor that I really enjoyed the entire thing. R ordered the apple tatin, which looked so beautiful. What I really wanted to get was the creme brulee sampler, but I knew I wouldn't be able to finish. There were several other choices that looked equally delectable, to the point that I would consider coming back simply for dessert.

Afterwards, we hit up Macy's. I found another pair of 7 jeans, this time on sale. Granted, even on sale they're still ridiculously expensive, but they fit so nicely and these were pretty cute. They're a lighter wash and very casual looking, almost carpenter style. I was picturing how cute they'd be with a plain white T. I also got a very trendy Calvin Klein coat, which I love to pieces and was 50% off. I'm hoping it won't look completely out of date by next season, but I'll have to wear it every day for the rest of this one just in case. The sleeves are puffy from the elbow to the cuff, which is fitted. And it's belted. So adorable! I also bought a couple of Nike workout tops which were dirt cheap. I fell in love with this burnout brown velvet BCBG Max Azria top, but ultimately passed on it because it was $106 even on sale, and there's no way I'd get $100 of wear out of it. It did fit me beautifully and was totally my style, though. If I wasn't trying to budget, I'd have gotten it in a heartbeat.

We moved onto Nordstrom's thereafter for the special Clinique thing that R had gotten an invite to. It turned out to be a private skin consultation/makeup deal thing in their back area. I ended up with foundation, powder, blush, and eyeliner. The green eye shadow she tried on me actually looked not scary, and again, if money weren't an issue right now, I'd probably have gotten it in a heartbeat. But I have the colors written down, so in a couple of months I can come back. So now I own my first bottle of foundation! Very exciting stuff. I've never found a shade that blends into my skin to my satisfaction, but this stuff looks great. I'm hoping it won't dry out my skin, but we'll see. I can always take it back if it doesn't work for me. After the event, we shopped around a bit and I got an Adidas long sleeved top and an Under Armour zip up long sleeved mock turtleneck shirt that will be perfect for snowboarding.

Part of me wanted to shop more, but other than a quick tour of Davidson jewelers, we headed back home to get dinner in order. All that was left for me to do was top my pasta with parmesan and get the dessert set up. I actually ended up adding more sauce to the pasta, since it was looking a little dry. Dessert was an instant one, where all I had to do was open up the can of apples in sauce and mix the packet of topping with water before crumbling it over the apple mixture. Yay for Betty Crocker. I hate baking instant things, but this was a dessert Jim had insisted on buying a while ago and it really did need to get eaten up. Since R & M have a love for all things packaged/processed/instant, it was sure to be a hit. I was, however, secretly ashamed for bringing it.

When we got over to R & M's house, R had started her contribution, which was angel hair pasta, jarred pasta sauce, and frozen meatballs. We've been talking about setting up regular dinners, but I'm a little apprehensive, since this is our second one and they have yet to actually cook anything. Maybe I'm a total snob, but I do NOT consider opening up a jar of sauce and boiling some pasta cooking. I've been cooking for Jim for over two years now and I have yet to feed him that. I may have made some very simple quick dishes that relied on convenience foods, but I outgrew making the whole sauce/pasta thing when I was about 7. I remember when my mom was teaching me to cook, she said I couldn't count spaghetti as a mastered dish since it didn't involve any real cooking. Twenty-odd years later, and I still agree with her. Last time we were over there, it was packaged tortellini and jarred pasta sauce. A pattern seems to be emerging, and it ain't pretty. Oh, and just because the stuff was heated up in All-Clad doesn't make it gourmet.

I know I'm being snarky here, but it's mostly because I was offended and a little hurt that they didn't even bother to try what I made. I mean, doesn't politeness dictate that you at least sample what someone else cooked? I took a small serving of spaghetti, even though it's something Jim's 6 year old nephew could "make." Certainly my dish wasn't super fancy, but at least it was homemade and required some skills other than opening jars and boiling water. That should count for something, right? Well, I guess I should be happy that they ate the bag of salad I brought over. Go figure. As long as it comes out of a bag, jar, or box, it's good to eat. Besides the pasta and salad, there was some pretty good bread and canned green beans, which I didn't eat.

I guess I shouldn't really knock the whole convenience meal thing. I know lots of people rely on them. Jim grew up with Hamburger Helper, canned vegetables, and instant everything. I think maybe it's a white American thing. Don't get me wrong. My mom uses some canned foods, but for the most part, it's from scratch. And even then it gets dressed up a bit. For example, we occasionally did eat boxed Mac n' cheese, but my mom would add real cheese to it. Things like that. And we never ate microwave meals. So it's pretty foreign to me. And then R's dad is supposed to be a chef and she's super picky about her food. It's a total contradiction and I just don't get it. Oh well.

But I digress (yet again). I personally thought my pasta dish turned out quite well, and Jim liked it, too. There's something special about smoked mozzarella. It adds so much flavor, and then with roasted vegetables? You just can't go wrong. Seriously! I love the sweet rich flavor of roasted veggies. There is such a depth to them that way. R's spaghetti tasted like spaghetti. I can't say anything else about it. Jim said the meatballs were okay. I wouldn't know, but I'm guessing frozen meatballs are frozen meatballs. Barefoot Contessa and Giada both have meatball recipes that I vow to try someday. The apple dessert wasn't very good. You could totally tell it was instant. The apples were too artificially sweet, which they had to be to cover up the canned-ness. At least the topping was good.





Really though, despite the questionable food served, it was a fun evening shared with friends. And when I stop being snarky, I have to admit that that is what truly matters.