A Full Plate

It's been a busy week.  Two birthday parties, eye exams, packing up to move, studying for my UK citizenship test, training for my half marathon in June, and keeping my title as Domestic Goddess and Mother Of The Year.  Phew.  I'm tired.

I did manage to fit in a trip to Jamie's Italian in Oxford.  I have to apologize now.  I get so excited when I go there and they put my plate down in front of me, I forget to take pictures.  It was fantastic.  Simple, good quality, real food.  I also love that I'm contributing to Jamie Oliver.   He is my food hero.

We started with Mushroom Bruchetta, and mixed olives.  The mushrooms were grilled with thyme, lemon and garlic and placed on top of a crusty piece of olive oil soaked, garlic rubbed, toasted ciabatta bread.  The olives blow me away every time.  I HATE olives.  These olives are amazing.  They are bright florescent green and apparently from Puglia, Italy.

For our main dishes, Carlos got the burger with truffle and Parmesan fries.  While we were looking for a place to park that night, we stopped the car next to the restaurant to give our friends a call to say we were there, and I saw these burgers through the window being delivered to various tables.  They looked amazing.  He said it was one of the best burgers he's ever had.

I had the Mushroom Panzerotti, which was like big mushroom and ricotta stuffed ravioli.  I also had simple green salad on the side with a buttermilk dressing.  Very fresh and super yummy.

 For dessert, Carlos got the special tiramisu.  It was flavored with an orange liqueur and chocolate.  I had an espresso and dark chocolate tart.  Extremely rich, and not very sweet.  I loved it.

It was also Super Bowl Sunday and even though I was gonna be in bed (11am -4am over here in the UK), I couldn't let the occasion pass without making something for  Carlos to take to his party that night.  I was really excited about this recipe.  It was one of those desserts that is so rich and sweet that after a couple of bites you know you should stop, but you can't.  I give you Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip  and homemade Football Cookies.  I made three flavors of the dip: Snickerdoodle, Double Chocolate Fudge Cookie Dough, and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  The cookies were perfect for dipping into this dip.  They weren't very sweet at all, so you had a nice balance with the dip.  My football shape turned out kind of goofy (they DID look like leaves), but hey, I cut them free hand.  You can't buy american football cookie cutters in the UK.  Just not gonna happen.

The cookie tray came home empty, so I'm guessing the guys like it.  I'm glad I sent it out of the house, 'cause I would have eaten most of it myself.