Piccolo's on Shrewsbury St

I tried to go to Mezcal on Friday night, but at 8:20 pm, the wait for a table was an hour and a half. There were only two of us, and we were too hungry to wait that long. The bar's pretty small, and it was really loud. We decided to try Piccolo's, right across the street.

I ordered the ginger ale, which was good, but probably only about 9 ounces, and didn't have free refills. I guess it cost about the same as the water I bought at the movie theater - $3.68! But I needed it, I was having a coughing fit. Ok, back to the restaurant review.

We shared the Insalate Bel Mondo, which was absolutely the best salad I've had in forever. Romaine, dried cranberries, gorgonzola, green apples, and the best dressing made with white balsamic vinegar. The salad was gigantic and could have easily been shared by 3 people.

This was the best part of the meal. We ordered two appetizers that I thought were kind of disappointing. The giant chicken and ricotta filled ravioli, topped with pink sauce. The pink sauce was great, there were fresh tomatoes in the sauce, but the ravioli filling was bland, and the ricotta seemed kind of grainy. The other appetizer was an eggplant, chopped up and mixed with some other things, (can't remember what) and then put back into the mini eggplant shell. It was okay, just not awesome. Next time I think I'll go for a pasta entree. They all looked delicious but I didn't have the appetite for a big pasta meal. I filled up on salad!

Service was great.

My New Coffe Maker

I got a Keurig one-cup coffeemaker for Christmas! This is by far one of the most frequently used and most useful appliances in my kitchen. It's awesome. In less than a minute, I have a fresh cup of coffee, and then, almost instantly, there's another 8 ounces of hot water ready to go. I think one of the things I like best about this machine is its slick black and stainless look. Yeah, it's all about style.

This machine makes coffee that comes in little plastic pods. They go into a little vessel and the hot water runs through them and makes a nice cup of coffee. This version also came with a reusable filter so if I run out of pods, or if I want to drink the tasty Starbucks ground coffee I bought when all I had was an old-fashioned drip coffeemaker, I can use this filter.

Another awesome thing about the Keurig is that you can get just hot water! Instantly! As you can see, I'm making some lovely mint herbal tea. This Bigelow collection is quite tasty. I like the Sleepytime, a mixture of chamomile and mint. I also use the hot water feature to make instant oatmeal. I wonder what else I can use it for.

The machine came with 90 pods. Mostly coffee, but a couple of tea and some cocoa. I'm enjoying the Newman's Own Extra Dark roast. The Green Mountain Nantucket Blend is useless... pretty watery. The Caribou Organic coffee is okay. You can buy more pods online (kind of pricey but sometimes they go on sale at Target). I've been told that the Green Mountain Breakfast Blend is good, so I'm keeping my out for that, and will probably buy more pods when I run low. There are a 190 varieties of K-Cups (that's what they're called).

My First Spanakopita

I was volunteered to make the spinach pie (aka spanakopita in Greek) for Christmas 2007. I'd never made one before, but I've seen it done so many times, I figured it was easy enough. Plus, my sister made one a few weeks before, her first one, and it came out great, and we were using the same recipe.

I'll admit, it was delicious. My ratio of phyllo was a little off; could have used more on the bottom. Plus, I ran out of olive oil and had to stretch it at the corners, which were pretty high due to all of the folding over.

The recipe I used is from an old Greek cookbook, slightly modified by adding a half cup of uncooked rice (to soak up the water from the spinach) and a diced onion. You can find a good recipe here at Foodtv.com. Follow the variation that refers to the 13 by 9 inch pan. Easier and just as tasty.

Here, sauteeing one diced onion and olive oil.

2 pounds of baby spinach, wilting. Be sure to mix the onions in so they don't burn.

Melting butter and olive oil. This is for brushing between the layers of phyllo.

Crumbling the feta. One pound of feta to two pounds of spinach. Crumble it into fairly large chunks so that it doesn't melt when you mix it in with the spinach.

Ready to go into the oven.

Spanakopita is served!