Looking forward to Date Night.

I don’t know if it is Royce’s schedule or what but I feel as though I never get to see my husband.  Part of the problem is that whenever we get the opportunity to do stuff we typically invite others along which is fun, but sometimes you just need to have dinner for two.  So that is exactly what we are doing on Friday night.  We have reservations at one of our favorite places…Mon Ami Gabi, this great French place in Bethesda that serves a mean Steak Au Poivre with awesome frites.  I’m looking forward to a dinner that isn’t interrupted by Charlie chewing on his latest obsession which tends to be any shoe thats within his reach.

Tonight Royce is working, but I’m meeting up with some colleagues for happy hour and then Amanda is meeting me in Downtown Silver Spring for dinner so I’ll keep myself occupied.  

We are having our Relator over on Sunday so she can see the puppy and the house.  In addition two of our friends + baby who she also worked with will be joining us.  Initially I had planned on serving Penne with Vodka Cream Sauce because it is easy and I’m working at CVS for 10 hours on Saturday so I needed something easy.  However, our friends don’t do dairy so I’m torn…do I just serve them the Vodka Sauce without the cream or do I scrap the idea and just make a tomato based pasta?  Ugh.  Maybe I’ll just make both and let people pick their own poison.  I don’t know why it was so hard to come up with a menu for this party.  Menu’s typically come to me pretty quickly…maybe I’m just bored with all our dinner choices and need to try some new recipes.

Speaking of new recipes we had a pretty darn good dinner last night (that maybe served again this Sunday actually!).  I had some left over veggies (mushrooms, asparagus and zucchini) kicking around in the fridge so I sauteed them with some olive oil, s&p, and Italian seasoning then threw in some jarred Tomato Basil Marinara sauce and let it simmer for a while.  I cooked some gnocchi and then tossed them with the sauce and if I say so myself it turned out pretty darn good for a left over veggie meal.