Weekend Eats, Appliances and a Winner!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Mine was great, although busy as usual. My birthday festivities continued with dinner and drinks with some great friends on Saturday night. We ate at Buca on King West, located in the same alley as Cheval. Buca has a very cool subterranean design, all exposed brick, distressed heritage tables and low lighting. The menu is extensive and is supposed to change daily, but I understand that many of the mainstay items remain the same. We were five couples so a lot of food was ordered and shared (and I really need to get better at bringing my camera so I can take photos of all the dishes).

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I had a three cheese tasting platter with preserves (very good mozzarella di bufala, ricotta di bufala and parmeggiano reggiano) and tiny garlic knots (don't try to eat with a fork and knife) to start and then the pizza with mozzarella di buffalo and prosciutto. The pizza was good, but not the best I've had in the city, and I ended up picking all the prosciutto off. I had bites of some of the other stuff and thought the ravioli with peas and gnocchi were both good. Lots of raves at the table for the sausage stuffed olives as well, although I'm not a fan of olives so I can't vouch for myself. Overall I thought Buca had a really great atmosphere and good food, but not the best around.

I'm also super happy to report that M and I finally decided on appliances for our new home yesterday. I've been kind of stressing because there are so many different options to choose from and I didn't want to make the wrong choice. I also wanted good, quality appliances that didn't break the bank. So the search was on and I'm pretty happy with what we came up with.

We debated getting a cooktop of built in ovens, but decided to go with the range instead. I really like the one we chose, although I was kind of into the idea of having a double oven. I'm also pleased with the size of the fridge and freezer. The only drawback is that there's no water dispenser, which I've been finding is typical in these types of industrial styles. We also went with an LG SteamWasher and Dryer, a Bosch dishwasher and a stainless steel range hood. I'm hoping we made good choices and can't wait to see them when our kitchen is finally ready!

After our purchases we stopped for some food at Kelsey's where we found out they are having two-for-one appetizers throughout the summer. I love appetizers, so I felt like it was my birthday all over again. Needless to say I didn't order an entree.

And now the important stuff...

The winner of the Primele Personalized Stamp giveaway is

AZ in August

Congratulations!

Thank you to all of you who entered and
to Primele for supplying this fabulous prize!

Please contact me at sogni-e-sorrisi[at]hotmail[dot]com
with your shipping info.