Free food doesn't mean you have room for it

The kids have off from school this week, like all other kids everywhere. This of course poses a challenge for a family that is not vacationing. Fortunately, my parents do not live too far away and they offered to take the kids for 2 days/1 night. Yay, thanks mom and dad! Now the boy is kicking mom's butt in Quoridor all day... sorry!

The husband and I took the opportunity to enjoy a new, ecologically aware restaurant here in NJ. I'd been there once before for lunch with a coworker, and experienced my third hotel or restaurant evacuation in two months (the story for another blog entry on another day...)

The food is very good... seasonal and local. We had gone to the grand opening where they had tastings of some of their appetizers, and I LOVED the mixed tomato bruschetta. And when I say LOVED, I mean I'm still drooling over it several months later. Unfortunately, there are no locally grown tomatoes in December, and that means no bruschetta today. Boo.

We had a $100 Amex gift card from my employer that I got as a gift several months ago. So of course, we thought that gave us the opportunity to order multiple courses and eat it all up. OMG there was so much food and we could barely make it through.

First Course: Big Eye Tuna Tartare for me, squash risotto for the husband. Both were yummy and we finished these completely. Of course, the menu had a much nicer name for the risotto, but I can't remember it. The portions were very big for appetizers.

Soup Course: Casalinga Onion Soup for me, Potato & Leek Soup for the husband. Both soups were really good, and HUGE portions. They each had a slice of toast in them that tasted very smoked. Lots of flavor. We got halfway through the soups and were full. We decided to take the rest home so we had room for dinner.

Which, it turns out, we didn't have room for. I had Hand Rolled Potato Gnocchi. With cauliflower, mascarpone cheese, pancetta and herbs. YUM. The husband had a sampling of sausages (Fresh Garlic, Smoked Chicken & Spiced Lamb), served with creamy polenta, green onions and mustard. I didn't even get to taste the sausage. We packed up all the food and took it home for another time.

Didn't even attempt dessert. Next time. Someone at the bar had ordered a rice pudding with some kind of brittle that looked freaking awesome.