Even before we started looking at CSA shares and committed to eating more locally grown food, we loved visiting farm-to-table restaurants (before they were called that). Since I had to work in Philadelphia on my birthday weekend, I found a great restaurant to enjoy with my co-workers. I was excited to try the White Dog Cafe in the University City neigborhood in Philly. The menu looked delicious and the restaurant is in a charming brownstone.

Last night’s meal was one of the best ones I have ever enjoyed. My colleagues and I spent a few minutes making our decisions. For the first course, I had a cheese plate. All of the cheeses were local and paired with interesting items. The bleu cheese was paired with strawberry jam. When I read this description, I figured I would eat the cheese and ignore the jam. That would have been a serious mistake. I now want this for breakfast every weekend. The combo was unique and mouth watering. The pungent cheese was tempered by the sweet jam. The next pairing was a sharp, white cheddar with a slightly sweet slow roasted pecan. The pecan worried me since I am not really a pecan person but after almost missing out on the strawberry heaven, I ate the cheese with a pecan. Another wonderful surprise. The final cheese of the trio was goat cheese with honey. Even though honey is not my favorite, it was another pleasant taste.

The side dishes were so tempting that I almost crafted a dinner from a few of them. Since I had suffered through an awful steak the night before (eating a grand total of 6 bites), I could not resist the filet mignon. Before we get to that, I decided to swap out my potatoes (fries are always good but seemed like waste here) for smoked cheddar cheese grits. We had a strategy session and made sure all of us ordered a side to share. The table also ordered asparagus bacon risotto and baby vegetable with black pepper gnocchi. The filet was cooked to a perfect medium rare topped with zinfandel red onion jam, fresh tomato, arugula and (more) bleu cheese. I also had steamed asparagus and the aforementioned cheese grits. The grits were so cheesy, every bite had it own cheese contrail.

The asparagus risotto was masterful and managed to be just the right texture without having bacon that either too crispy or too mushy. The asparagus tasted like it grew in the courtyard and had been harvested 30 minutes earlier. The baby vegetables and gnocchi were delicious and the black pepper offered a nice contrast to the sweetness of the veggies. The still crunchy veggies and the pillows of gnocchi had a great mouthfeel.

We shared a pumpkin cheesecake with a chocolate crust to end the night. This was served with a salted caramel sauce. The Cafe did an excellent job with balancing flavors. I splurged and drank some peach sangria to start the evening. For a birthday that started with a 5:00 a.m. supervision of tent set up in the rain, progressed to managing another Undy 5000 in the rain and then the inevitable clean up in the rain (see a theme here), it was a perfect redemptive moment. Funny how a great meal can help erase the challenging day that came before it.

Like millions of other American families, we are paying close attention to our grocery budget. I have always been a frugal shopper but with this year’s price increases, I am trying to be extra careful at the grocery store. Imagine my surprise when my beloved Publix store brand pasta was the same price as fancier name brand pasta. I knew this could not be right, so upon investigation I realized that the box of name brand pasta contained 25% less pasta than the store brand. Coincidentally, I read an article in Time Magazine about this very trend the next day. The gist of the article is that companies are hesitant to raise prices again right now, so instead package size is being reduced.

Do food makers think we are idiots? I am insulted that someone has decided I will pay the same price for less food and not notice. Ice cream cartons have been shrinking for years. (If you don’t believe me, go to the freezer right now and see if your ice cream contains an actual half gallon.) The moral of the story is read the label to see if you are buying the same amount of food as you did last year.

It has been a nice food week here in the House of Clay. Braised short ribs were enjoyed by all (except the youngest princess) on Thursday night with rice to soak up the juices and green vegetables of some sort that escape me at the moment. In preparation for today’s race (kids did a 2K and CancerMan did a 5k), Friday night penne pasta was baked with tomato sauce and a duo of cheeses of top. Tonight, in an attempt to relive the heady days of sage we enjoy during the holidays, I devised a one dish meal (doesn’t that sounds SO much better than casserole?) consisting of sage pork sausage, cubed bread stuffing mix, mushrooms and garlic browned in the sage sausage drippings, real Parmesan Reggiano cheese moistened with a beaten egg mixed with chicken broth. Bake for 35 minutes covered, 10 minutes uncovered and you have an easy and tasty meal. So, that sets the bar high for next week. It looks like far more reasonable weather is coming our way, so perhaps we’ll fire up the grill this week. Nothing says end of January more than chicken grilled over hardwood lump charcoal, right?

Not our family, apparently.  We live in a great, ethnically diverse neighborhood and have decided to eat our way around the world.  Last night–Canton House for dim sum and Chinese.  If you order at least $15 worth of food, they throw in a lobster for $5.  After pondering that for 2-3 seconds, we ordered a lobster with garlic butter.  It was great and I think it tasted even better knowing it cost a paltry $5.  Our oldest daugther eagerly picked meat out of a lobster claw while our other daughter and her father watched with curious disgust.  Luckily, that left more for me.  We also tried a couple of shrimp items off the dim sum cart which were winners.  Overall, a successful dinner before dashing off to a PTO meeting.