A very special post

As this blog isn't just about food I cook but food in general. Hence I needed to share an experience at had last night with you. Graham and I did a date night (dinner and a movie, we went to see Bruno). Well I love love love sushi, so I try to find the different restaurants in the area. I'd seen a billboard on the highway in Hartford and it looked like a good restaurant in Manchester but I couldn't figure out where it was. Well last week when I was at Big Y I saw I finally found it! It's not just your run of the mill sushi restaurant. Oh no! It is Misaki Sushi and Seafood Buffet. All you can eat sushi? Sign me up.

So after overcoming Graham's good sense of self-preservation (he questioned the quality of buffet sushi) I wore him down and we headed on over. First awesome part: our hostess was 12 if that. I feel good supporting a family business, child labor laws be damned. We were brought to our seat, ordered our drinks and headed up to get some sushi. It was a fairly good, basic selection of sushi, surprisingly fresh. There were actually guys there making it in front of us. So main concern averted, it is not old sushi. On the way back from my first fill up I saw the second awesome thing: a guy with no arms eating sushi. My first thought was, why does that man have his foot resting on the table? Oh because he doesn't have any arms and eats with his feet. Clearly. I was very impressed.

So overall I would recommend this for the sushi fiends like myself. Better for lunch than dinner when I went. It's a lot less expensive that way and I'm pretty sure the selection would be the same. They had the basic sushi (salmon, tuna, eel etc) and those gimmicky spicy rolls and such that I normally don't eat because they're kind of pricey for what you get. But when it's all included, they delish! The non-sushi options were kind of blah, although I did not try the hibachi that they make to order, it looked pretty good. The only problem is that it's all you can eat, which is also why it's awesome. Normally I am given a plate of sushi, so when I'm full there's no more. This natural limit is not present at the buffet, so it took Herculean effort to stop eating sushi (also Graham pointing out that I was going to make myself sick). But in closing, I will defintely go there again when I want to scratch my sushi itch and only the want that basic hit.

Combo Father's Day/4th of July

So this is delayed due to moving, getting the flu and general procrastination. Upside: We're moved in to the apartment with all of our furniture. I even made a couch from Ikea, my most ambitious furniture building to date. Our guest room is complete if anyone wants to visit the tourist destination that is Manchester, CT. We have an awesome breakfast place you can walk to, the Landmark Cafe. I just ate the breakfast quesadilla, sooo good (basically scrambled eggs and cheese in a tortilla).

I've fallen off the vegan bandwagon, just lost the motivation. Although I did finish my run with a great salad. Spicy Boca Chik'n patty, fat free refried beans and salsa over lettuce. Pretty darn good, although I don't think it's all that healthy for you. Basically, it's better than fried chicken patties, but it's not good for you.

Going all the way back to Father's Day I got a very special treat (being the only Filkins sibling in town). I got to go to the Chicopee Meat Market. It's only the best place on earth. Any store that allows you to buy 10 lbs of hot dogs in a giant bag, displays it's macaroni products with a hand drawn sign in a grocery cart (this store doesn't have grocery carts) and just amazing polish food is a winner in my book. My dad and I got the aforementioned bag o' dogs and lazy pierogis. I really can't describe how nummy it was. It also reminded me that the Polish Festival is in West Warren next month and I want to get a Polish plate! Kielbasa, pierogis, golumpki, kapusta (which is the West Warren version is soup) and a slice of rye bread. AAHHH I CAN'T WAIT! I don't think you can come from Western Mass and not have healthy appreciation for Polish cuisine.

Graham and I enjoyed plenty of Americana over the 4th of July, complete with jello cake and Martha Stewart sparkler cupcake toppers. Lisa's dessert spread just proved to me that as much as I love to cook I don't think I'll ever reach that level of Susie homemaker. If Walmart runs out of red white and blue sprinkles my kids are getting regular rainbow, patriotism be damned. I know I'm going to be kicked out of the PTA. I made the corn salad in the previous post and I think it went over well. I know I enjoyed the leftovers along with some bbq chicken. I appreciated that it used the best bbq sauce, Sweet Baby Ray's.

Finally I had a successful boyfriend's parents dinner to thank the Rowes for hauling the giant couch up from Ikea. Salmon in a yogurt marinade (baked, not grilled), orzo with peppers, onions and feta cheese and a salad. I would really really recommend this menu for entertaining, easy and tasty. Especially the salmon, we ate it twice in a week, and I ate it at another meal for lunch. I was proud of the dinner for two reasons. 1) Donald said how lucky Graham is to be able to eat my food all the time (I'm awesome!) and 2) I finally used this pretty desert cups my grandma got at the church tag sale for ice cream and whipped cream.

I guess that's all for now, I'll try to update more frequently and come up with some new and exciting dish! Hope everyone is enjoying their summer.