My favorite holiday of the year has arrived! Happy Restaurant Week!

Oh Restaurant Week! How long I have waited for you? What is that? It's only been 4 months? Logistics friends, it has been too long since I have felt your sweet embrace.

Who doesn't love a good deal? Well that is what Restaurant Week is if you plan your meal strategically. I know I have stated the rules before but I think they should be repeated.

1. When looking at the list of participating restaurant on OpenTable sort that list by price and stick to the $$$$-$$$. The point is to go try a restaurant that you can't go to often, that is a splurge, an where you get the most bang for your $35.10.

2. Go check if the restaurant has a theatre or daily prefixe menu. If they do, pick someplace else. Having a prefixe menu all year makes it, well, readily available so go someplace where this is a special event.

3. Check out DCFoodies.com. They have past restaurant week menus online and great feedback on participating restaurants.

4. Most restaurants post Restaurant Week menus online so go check them out. If the restaurant pares down their menu then it is best to look elsewhere. I also like to check out the prices so I see what items I get the most out of. (people my life is on a budget! I want the most bang for my buck)

Now that that is out of the way let's talk about some food. I know that I am constantly extolling the virtues of DC and what a great city it is, but I am not completely against our neighbor suburbs: Silver Spring, Bethesda, Alexandria, and Arlington. So this time around we ventured into the dangerous land of NOVA into the area called "Ballston" to partake in a gastronomic adventure at Willow restaurant.

Willow describes itself as modern continental with major influences from French and Italian cuisine. One could definitely feel these influences in the food offerings preparation. Butter Poached Lobster Agnolotti were ravioli-like pillows stuffed with rich lobster swimming in a decadent pink sauce. What was amazing was to have such sizable pieces of lobster in each of the 3 agnolotti so you could truly taste and enjoy it. The dish was finished with Parmesan "chips" which were delicious. (see picture below)

As you can tell from the picture below, I did not enjoy this appetizer at all!

My friend had the mushroom bisque. A rich, creamy soup that was finished with creme fraiche and basil oil. I am afraid my pics are not doing the food justice but trust me, it was wonderful.

For my main course I had the crispy leg of duck with cassoulet. Anyone who knows me that I love duck and this fulfilled all of my ducky desires. The skin was crisp and rich, while the meat just fell off the bone and melted in your mouth. The cassoulet had sausage that is made in-house and was a little bowl of meat heaven. I thought the pile of greenery put on top was a bit much, but hey I understand the desire to add color to your presentation. I think that it was the only thing, beside the bone, left on my plate.

Finally, to round things off you must have dessert. Yes you are stuffed and could stop, but what would be the fun in that! Besides, we all know that the dessert part of our stomachs is always open and ready to accept sweet treats. And when your dessert is sticky toffee pudding with peppermint ice cream, well you would just be crazy to pass this up.

I wish you could see the fleck of green in the ice cream, but you'll just have to believe me. At this point I am in a food coma and nothing makes sense anymore. Everything has been so freakin' good that I am just content and warm with happy thoughts. It could also have been that wine pairing we did as well, which I would totally suggest. $15 for 3 glasses, that is seriously a steal and worth the extra splurge.

Willow Restaurant

4301 North Fairfax Drive

Arlington, VA 22203

Next up.....Venison Chili!

It's 2010 bitches!

I have just come home from partying friends. I did not even go to a bar and yet somehow lost my purse and wallet in the process of getting home. Did I mention that I have flight tomorrow? And did I mention that the car that I left my purse in is my friends, God love her, who is constantly 5 hours late to everything. Not exactly the place you want to leave it when you have a flight to catch. Especially when a Nigerian would-be bomber causes such a ruckus that I need to get to the airport at least 2-3 hours early,

But before my drunken stupidity I was having a great NYE celebration with my friends. New Years Eve is one of those celebrations that is so hit or miss. If you plan too much it is going to blow, but if you plan too little you will end up at home sitting around and watching Lifetime Movie Network. There really is nothing better than just going to a friends house and just hanging out.. Forget the expensive bars and cover charges, just be with your people and call it a freakin day.

That is what I did and i had a great time. Of course any place where food and booze is involved I am a very happy girl. Can you say mini meatballs? Can you say candy sushi and cheese cream cupcakes? Can you also say fattie? I wish I could say I had will power but that would be just kidding ourselves. Do you remember that 50 Cent song where he states "I love you like a fat kid love cake", well I am that fat kid that loves cake. I currently have nothing to exert my love on so I just love cake and matter of fact I love all baked goods, anything involving bacon, if there is hummus involved I'm there, sour gummi worms...done, did you say cheese, well then I can't say no.

Can you sense my New Year's resolution?

Hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's and here's to an eventful 2010!

Johnny Appleseed has nothing on me!

Saturday was rainy and seriously cold, but plans had been made and there was no way that I or my friends were going to back out of them.  So off into the Virginia countryside we went. By 10:30 am we had found the pick your own apple farm and let me tell you the proprietors were quite surprised to see city girls willing to brave the rain and pick some apples.  Despite the cold it was so much fin.  I have never gone apple picking as it is not a very common thing to do in SoCal, so I was amped up.  Rome, golden delicious, and red delicious were scattered all over the place and their colors were so vivid under the grey sky.  I honestly hadn't really thought about how one apple picked, but I had imagined ladders and reaching up into the branches.  Yesterday I found myself crawling on hand and knee to get under all the branches and checking out what was strewn on the ground.  Although there were some great apples still hanging above, I was not feeling the climbing tree idea as I envisioned my ungraceful self falling down.

I wish it had been less dreary as I would have loved to enjoy all the other produce they had at this little farm.  30 minutes picking enough apples to last 2 weeks was enough and we went on to do some wine tasting.  Yummmm......

And boozing did happen and the rest of my day consisted of cheese and wine and I would not have had it any other way.  But today I woke up determined to put these apples to use.  I mean there is no way I would be apple to eat all these bad boys in a week.  As I do not have pie plates, which is probably a good thing, and I wanted to do more than a few baked apples I decided to try my hand at apple sauce.  The recipe has cranberries, apples, maple syrup, sugar, water, and cinnamon and it tuned out awesome.  So now I am swimming in apple sauce heaven over here and am super excited to have a new snack for my lunch bag.  Yeah, you should be jealous.

Okay I know it doesn't look super appetizing, but you have to trust me.  It tastes awesome and I feel like I am making some headway in this whole "learning how to cook things besides grilled chicken on a George Foreman".  

Hope everyone has a wonderful week and I will try to think of other fun things to talk about.