If Memory Serves Me Right.....

well, I said it would happen. I would update at least 2 times a week. I've failed my faithful reader(s), since I don't really know how many of you there are yet.

I won't go into the reasons, but there are some - mainly time.

On to brighter things - we went out to dinner on Friday night, Sarah and myself. The place that we went to is called Twelve O'One (www.1201state.com) and it's a restaurant/wine bar. I was warned before hand to have money to stop at McDonald's afterwards as the portions were small and pricey. Pricey, yes, but the portions were very generous and we walked out being very satisfied with the food and our stomaches!

As it was a wine bar, we had a very good Riesling from Ironstone Vineyards in California. I'm looking at the markup on the bottle now - ouch! Anyway, you're paying for the ambiance.



The place is very nicely decorated, and everything there is top notch as far as craftsmanship and materials go - there was no skimping anywhere. The view in from the large windows is very nice. Very nice to look over a knife fight on the corner of 12th and State. Just kidding. It was a cold night, so there were your typical Erieites walking around, stumbling around, mumbling around in waist deep snow. Always a nice view.

We're still trying to figure out if the appetizers were better than the meal - well, in my case, I know that the meal was better. Sarah had a really good warm potato salad with chunks of lobster - and by chunks, we're talking chunks - whole claws. I had lump crab fritters that were sensational. On a side note, we had these wonderful little stuffed dates with cheese and lemon. They tasted almost like candy they were so good. Sarah was scared, but not me. I jumped right in. Wish I had saved a bite it was that good!

Dinner was what I was looking forward to - since the previous weekend, we were going up to Buffalo to see Alton Brown fell through - I was going to go for the kobe beef up there. That was what my focus was. I'd been gearing up for this all week. Sarah ended up hemming and hawing like she usually does and settled on the pan seared scallops with the yummiest little pancakes and an arugula salad. The scallops were done perfectly - done just right.

I should have taken a picture of my dinner, to remember it always it was that good. When people say that kobe beef is so good, they are not kidding - as long as it is done right. On this instance, it was done perfect. Melted like butter - hmmm... maybe it was butter painted brown it was that good.

So we called it a night and hit up our absolute favorite little restaurant Matthew's Trattoria. Mainly for drinks but we did grab a bite to eat.

Top it all off with some great basketball action on Saturday morning and it was a good weekend.





So, were does that leave us this week - short week - but it will be one of the most action packed ones yet!

Battle - North East is taking place.

Details and the secret ingredient forthcoming.

-m