Dinner At Home And Another Great January Rose

So after Mondays movie, wine and cocktails at Cheesecake Factory…now I know lots of people love this place but I’m sorry, I think it’s dreadful….just dreadful. While I found the calamari passable the rest of the snacks we ordered were just plain awful, no seasoning, over done, over breaded and flat lacking in any real flavor, pa-two-we, so going to avoid that place at all lengths. So as I was saying, after a long day of heart wrenching movie watching, (Revolutionary Road) sipping on wine and then way too many drinks at the afore mentioned yucky restaurant I woke Tuesday morning feeling pretty foul, worked a 9 hour shift where I forgot to bring anything to eat, crawled home only to eat Rubio’s Fish Tacos, drink less than a half bottle of wine and fell into bed for a much needed night of sleep.

I woke up this morning feeling so much better, lots of sleep and no groggy morning after feeling, got to work to put in another 9 hours but this time I was a fire ball, cleaning the restroom, (only the ladies, I’ve been in the boys once or twice….don’t know what goes on in there but I am so not cleaning up after that little potty party) scrubbing out the sinks in the kitchen and helping customers left and right…even got a little post up when it was really slow. I felt good and part of the reason was I was going to making dinner, in my home…no more “out” food, hooray!


Tonight was big salad, kind of The Outback knock off with my blue cheese dressing and homemade croutons that I managed to make before passing out last night and a quick pizza with homemade pizza sauce, two cheeses, pepperoni, (only after my hubby said he was suffering muscle loss at the idea of having a meatless dinner….I did mention that if he was feeling anything in his muscles it was likely atrophy) and sliced from the can black olives, simple but perfectly fresh tasting and easy enough after a long day at the shop.

Dashed through the door and got to making the blue cheese and pizza sauce, both easy but sadly they both need the blender so there would be washing in between but still easy. Got the dressing chilling and the sauce reducing the whole time popping back and forth from the kitchen to the living room watching Top Chef and stirring the sauce.



Tomatoes are out of season so my little trick for making them taste better is to slice them, toss them with salt and squeeze some fresh lemon juice over them, just let them sit for about 10 minutes, really makes a world of difference. Tossed the marinated tomatoes in a big bowl with sliced cucumber, raisins, the croutons, sliced red onions. topped that with romaine and let them just hang out sans dressing for a bit, I like the tomatoes to soften the croutons a bit before tossing them all together with the dressing.



Assembled the pizza, tossed it in the oven for 30 minutes and glopped the dressing on the salad, gave it a good toss and popped a bottle of 2007 Chateau La Canorgue Rose, ($15.99)….spicy dressing, crunchy salty croutons and gooey cheese pizza all washed down with this bone dry, mineral driven, mouth puckering palate teasing Rose and this has turned out to be one lovely little evening…..oh and the guy I wanted tossed got booted on Top Chef….yeah!