Restaurant Review: Convivium Osteria

Poked around on yelp to find this restaurant.
Mix of Spanish and Italian?
Yes, please!

Since it's in nearby Park Slope I thought it might make the perfect place for a date with B.
After a long-ish wait (with a reservation!) I ended up feeling rather torn about the review!

Food:
B's cinnamon and apple ravioli w/ duck ragu was incredibly good.
My pork ribs with polenta was also very tasty.I noticed that a few people on yelp complained about the polenta being watery, but I found that it was light and delicious. True, the polenta wasn't loaded down with cream and butter like it is at some places but that just makes for a different and equally delicious eating experience!We also shared the grilled octopus salad as an appetizer. I thought it was beautifully grilled, but a little bland.


So why the internal debate and ultimate 3 stars?
THE SERVICE WAS REALLY BAD.
They were paradoxically slow and rushed.
Slow to get to us for anything (order, meal, drinks, check) but rushing around like maniacs at a full but not overly so restaurant.
We felt kind of abandoned our entire meal..and we didn't even order dessert (my FAVORITE course!) because we simply did not want to wait another 30 minutes for it to arrive. I'd be willing to overlook the rustic overload for the food if the service weren't so darn bad!

Overall: 3 stars

Monday Night Menu: The Recipes

Despite the fact that I read a lot of food blogs and own a nice stack of cookbooks..I rarely ever follow all of the steps in a recipe! Since I tend to add/remove/change quantities like crazy, I'm not sure of anyone else will be able to follow..but figured it was worth a post!

Here's what I ended up making last night (see previous post for recipe inspiration).

Salmon w/ Honey Mustard and Herb Crust
Preheat oven to 450

1. Pat 2 salmon fillets dry
2.Lightly blend (I used a mini food processor):
olive oil, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, and fresh parsley.
3. Pulse and add enough oil so that mixture looks wet but not liquid-y.
4. Smear honey mustard on salmon
5. Spoon the breadcrumb mixture onto the salmon, and create a nice top coat.
6. Cook for 15 minutes (uncovered)

Watermelon & Feta Salad
1. Chop into large bowl:
--Approx. 2 cups watermelon
--A few handfuls of bell pepper (I used yellow)
--6-7 fresh mint leaves
--A small handful of green onion
--2 medium sized tomatoes

2. Stir in:
--Approx. 1 cup feta cheese
--Enough olive oil to coat

Monday night dinner deliciousness (I hope!)

Tonight's menu:

1. Mustard and herb encrusted salmon
2. Watermelon, feta, and tomato salad
3. Veggies slices

I'm going to start posting more of my dinner menus! I try to cook 4-5 nights a week and am always looking for new recipes.

Tonight I'm trying a salmon recipe from tastykitchen and the watermelon & feta dish from smittenkitchen.

Tasty kitchen in the cooking brainchild of Ree from Pioneer Woman &
Deb writes smittenkitchen here in NYC.

I want to be friends with both of them.

Anyway, they both post great recipes (and awesome) pictures!

So here's my try.
Hope it turns out ok!

Perhaps I'll follow up with reactions from B post-meal.

Yet another reason to hate BOA

I know I ranted and raved about Bank of America a few weeks.

I swore that as soon as I paid off my credit card I would close all of my accounts.

Well, the credit card is now paid off and I'm switching this week.

Which makes the $4 finance charge on my account so..ironic? funny? expected?

No idea why it appeared.

When I close my account later this week and switch I'll be asking them to remove it completely.
I refuse to pay them one more dollar.
Especially a magically appearing finance charge on a now totally paid-off credit card.


Ahh.

Cake decorating class 1!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just returned from a weekend at the beach!

Guess I'll have to update my summer adventure list sometime soon..

Anyway, also just had my 1st cake decorating class!

I've been baking for ages but I've always wanted to really learn how to decorate!

The Brooklyn Kitchen offers these great 1 night classes, so I thought it might be fun to learn more about buttercream and all of the piping techniques.

I had a ton of fun, and wish that I could take a longer class.

We also did not get to fondant, which is another medium I'd like to learn more about.

I know the basic idea and have played with it once or twice..but I think I need at least a few class sessions or a really good tutorial.

Unfortunately most of the longer cake decorating classes are also REALLY expensive.

For some reason most of them also have weekday class hours only.

When am I ever going to be able to take a cake decorating class from 9-2 for a week??

Maybe when I'm retired??

In any case, I'm still trying to figure that part out..because I definitely enjoyed all the decorating!

We were kind of forced to go in the leaves/flower route for the top of the cake but I think it still turned out pretty nicely!