i’m sorry i don’t have a photo to go with this post, but i just wanted to tell you about the other yummy part of my day [my apologies to non-local readers.  this post may make you drool in frustration].

i alluded earlier to a long meeting that i was in this morning–i was also in charge of organizing the catering for the event.  there were about 16 people present and i was given a budget to work with.  there are so many places to choose from, but as soon as i thought about our meeting place and tried to think of nearby, not-chain restaurants, i knew exactly who to call–bunky’s!  they are one of my very favorite restaurants in town, but i don’t often get a chance to go for one reason or another, so i grabbed this opportunity in an instant.  i wasn’t sure if they catered, but they do!  and the owner, teresa, was so flexible and easy to work with.  they delivered the food to our meeting in hot-trays (or whatever those things with the canned fire are called) and even set up the buffet line with the plates we’d brought (to avoid having to use disposables–although apparently bunky’s provides very environmentally conscious disposable options!).  everyone loved the food–kafta brochettes with fragrant rice, cheese ravioli, homemade (amazing) hummus, pita breads, a delicious green salad and cute little cannoli and baklava for dessert.  in fact, everyone loved the food so much that i may have just volunteered to arrange the food for any future catered meetings!  if you’ve never dined at this restaurant, i highly recommend it and the next time you need a caterer, you’ll know who to call.

i took this picture today because i loved how the water droplets sparkled on the tips of each branch.  can you see the ones even in the back of the picture?

last night, i finally took mr. happy stuff out to eat for his birthday.  he’s been wanting to try the samba brazilian grill ever since he first heard about it.  apparently, when he had a business trip to las vegas a number of years ago, he ate at a restaurant with a similar concept and loved, loved, loved it.  it’s really hard to get a table on the weekend and mr. h-s was in chicago for work on his actual birthday, so we finally made it there on a monday night.  why don’t we eat out on weekdays more often?  the restaurant was so much more relaxed on a monday than it would have been on a saturday night!  and a restaurant like this needs to not be rushed.  let me explain.  this is not your typical eatery.  the concept is closer to an all-you-can-eat smörgÃ¥sbord (wow, my spell check gave me those cool, more correct letters!) but much, much nicer than most cafeterias.  there was no self-serve ice cream sundae bar.  instead, there was a “salad bar” that we were invited to visit for our first course.  more of a “saladpalooza,” it was full of different kinds of pasta salads, a curry chicken salad with grapes and apricots, some sort of veggie salad with squid and another one that i think was edamame and seaweed (but the sign was missing, so i’m not certain).  there were three kinds of lettuce if you really wanted a salad-y salad, along with hearts of palm (and not the kind from a can), asparagus, marinated artichokes (again, definitely not from a can), and some other veggies.  some super yummy almonds that i couldn’t get enough of.  some fancy cheeses (an awesome goat cheese), a multitude of olives…. the waitress had cautioned us (over and over) to please, please pace ourselves and not fill up with the first course, so i tried to stick to foods i don’t normally have a chance to eat (not very difficult to do, considering the variety).  when we got back to our table, in addition to our drinks, she’d brought us some of the most sinfully delicious little buttery, cheesy popover things.  oh man.  they were my downfall.

then it was time for the “second course.”  there’s this little wooden, hourglass-shaped thing on each table.  one end is painted red and the other is painted green.  when you’re ready for your second course, you turn it from red to green.  and then all these guys with skewers of meat begin coming around to your table and offering you either a chunk of meat, slid down to the bottom of the skewer and deposited onto your plate, or sliced off while you grab it with the tiny tongs provided to you.  last night, there were eight different meats. let’s see if i can remember.  there was an argentinean sausage, some duck, leg of lamb, rack of lamb (which was amazingly tender and flavorful),  parmesan-crusted pork, and three kinds of beef–flank steak, top sirloin and a bacon-wrapped beef tenderloin.  i tried seven of the eight (i skipped the flank steak) and took seconds (or at least bites of mr. happy stuff’s seconds) of the top sirloin, the tenderloin and the rack of lamb.  oh man, were they good.  i don’t think i’ve ever eaten that much meat in one meal.  definitely never that many different animals in one meal.  not a good place to take your vegetarian friends.  still, we somehow managed to heed our waitress’ warning and paced ourselves enough to have room for a shared piece of key lime cheesecake at the end of the meal.  what does it say that the cheesecake tasted light and refreshing at the end of that meal?

very happy birthday to you, mr. h-s!

p.s. tonight we ate a veggie stir-fry for dinner.  whew!