Three Course Thursday

Yesterday was a good day.  Actually, this whole week has been a good week.  You see, it’s restaurant week in Philadelphia, and it puts everyone in a good mood.  Our team had made lunch reservations for Mission Grill in Philadelphia yesterday, and everyone was so excited to go. 

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The restaurant week special is always three courses (or more, depending on the restauarant) for $20 for lunch and $35 for dinner.  Since I rarely eat dinner out in the city, we always make it a point to go out at least once for restaurant week – but this was my first time going out for lunch during restaurant week .  It was a blast!

My meal was very yummy.  We had a choice for appetizer – either butternut squash soup or roasted pear salad.  Since I was having butternut squash soup for dinner (recipe coming soon!), I chose the salad.  I’ve never really been a fan of fruit in my salad, but this changed my mind.  Beautiful glazed pears topped off a bed of arugula and romaine, drizzled with a light vinegarette dressing.  And [the best part] two goat cheese crostini.  I have been OBSESSED with goat cheese lately, and these were perfect.  I hope I can remake this salad again at home! 

My main course was salmon over a mix of spinach, radiccio, and butternut squash (of course!).  The salmon portion was HUGE so I jumped at the opportunity to save half for dinner.  The other half of the salmon and all of the vegetables were a perfect lunch portion, and it was delicious.  The salmon was moist and well seasoned, and the squash… well I could eat squash every day!

Dessert left something to be desired though.  In my opinion – dessert makes or breaks the restaurant week choice… and this is a choice I take very seriously.  (I may or may not have been known to make a color coded spreadsheet one year!)  Since I don’t eat dessert in restaurants frequently, I like to make it count!  There were two options for dessert: chocolate volcano cake, and a chocolate/banana bread pudding.  I feel like chocolate lava cake is a little played out, so i went with the latter.  I was a little disappointed though… the pudding wasn’t nearly warm or chocolatey enough, and it reminded me of breakfast.  It was for the best though - this way I didn’t gorge myself on indulgent sweets at 2pm!  A few bites of this treat was certainly enough for me.

Overall, restaurant week lunch was a success.  I got to spend time with some coworkers outside of our cubicles, and I got to know some of the new staff a little better (very important when you spend 55+ hours a week together!)  I was a little disappointed that my meal in a mexican restaurant didn’t have more of a mexican flair, but it was so delish that I couldn’t be upset!    It was a nice 2 hour (!) break from busy season, and since I didn’t overindulge, I never slipped into that dreaded food coma.  What a fantastic lunch!

p.s. I’m sorry for not sharing pictures of my beautiful meal with you all.  I’m still new to the whole blogging thing, and not yet ready to bust out the camera in front of my co-workers!  I promise to start including pictures soon!

A new blog!

Rejoice friends! 

Here I am, having found myself a blog for the umpteenth time.  This time I am going to devote more time and effort to sharing my thoughts with all of you.  Please come along on my journey as I try to survive in public accounting, train for my first running race, and plan a wedding.  It should be quite an exciting year, and I’m glad you’re coming along for the ride.

<3

-cassie