Food Stuffs

So this weeekend, we had some company from Plattsburgh come down. Our 1st house guests! I know, I know, I'm a big nerd.

We started tossing around ideas for dinner. I'll call her Blondie, said she wanted soup. Yes, that's right, soup for dinner. OK short of a homeless shelter, you can't have soup for dinner. Her sister, Hot Mama, said she wanted pasta fagioli and her husband, Fluff, said whatevskies. Sexybeast and I thought. "hmmmmm pasta fagioli pasta fagioli. Where can we get good pasta fagioli?" AHA! Petta's in the ghetto in Schenectady.

I have some personal history w/ Petta's. That is the place where my parents met 40 some odd years ago. At that time, it was just a pizza and beer joint. And my underage mother and her bad fake ID quaffed cheap ale and stole my father's cradle robbing heart. To be fair, she turned 18 a few weeks after they met.

Fast forward to Nov. 2009 and boy oh boy is Petta's everything a great Italian eatery should be. Fresh bread, home made pastas and BIG portions. I got the special, for $20 I got a 14 oz prime rib (BLOODY!) w/ a choice of soup or salad (salad w/ Italian dressing on the side) pasta or potato (baked sans sour cream and I ate the skin for extra iron) and a veggie. (greens) The beef was cooked perfectly and tasted even better the next day. And the greens were extra garlicy, nom nom nom. And I got dessert to go, home made cheesecake w/ cherries. The perfect thing to eat at 1 am when you've been drinking for a few hours. Trust me! Sexybeast and Fluff had chicken Michael, breaded and sauteed GIGANTIC chicken breast coated in roasted red peppers and mozzarella. It smelled divine. I had that dish 2 years ago, perfection. Hot Mama had scallops, to which she said "mmmmmmhhhhhgoodscallopshhhhhhhmmmmm". And Blondie had her a trough of pasta fagioli.

Sexybeast felt uncharacteristically bouncy and energetic on Sunday. I hate Sundays w/ a passion. The whole day I lament that I have to go to work on Monday and that makes me feel very blue. We headed over to the Schenectady Winter Market. The parking was free. This is something I think a lot about as I headed deeper into my 30's. Parking and cleaning supplies. We purchased fresh carrots, HUGE stalk of brussel sprouts, hard cider from a winery in Chatham, muesli from a hippie that bought our electric stove (she knocked 50 cents off the price as the stove has been doing a great job toasting her almonds), cheesy garlic bread, the world's largest apples (they're called Muzos and they are gooooood!) and cheese from the guy from Palatine Bridge (horseradish pub cheese and bacon/onion cheddar).

As a side note, we also went Sal's on Saturday, our local butcher. The prices are reasonable and the selection is great. I felt like I was in Europe. Instead of going to the lame ass supermarket, I went to the green grocer for my produce and the butcher for my meat. It makes me sad to think I missed out doing this all the time before the supermarket giants took over.

Sigh : (