Skip to main content

Happy New Year!


Tonight, we walked up to one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants called Circa for dinner for a special New Year's outing. We get too tired to stay up until midnight these days so going out for dinner is a special enough occasion for us.   It was just a last minute idea since we didn't have any other plans for the evening.  If we do stay up until midnight, we can see the fireworks at the Space Needle from our house, although it is far away so it's not that spectacular for us.  If we want to walk to dinner, there are several places we can walk to but Circa is our favorite.  It was very festive in the restaurant tonight. 


They even had a special New Year's menu tonight.  


I ordered the Absinthe Bubbly to start off.  Absinthe is an anise-flavoured distilled, highly alcoholic spirit similar to gin.  It is one of the alcohols in a Sazerac (along with whiskey) that is a New Orleans classic, where it originated.  Since I've been to New Orleans a few times, I'm very familiar with the Sazerac, one of the best whiskey cocktails you can order, however, it's not for the faint of heart because it is strong. The owners of Circa are from New Orleans so they always have some of their favorites on the menu and the Absinthe Bubbly was one of their choices. And it was not for the faint of heart either, a very strong bubbly drink.  I like anise-flavored and the combination with this sparkling wine from the southwest region of France was very refreshing. I actually drank it faster than Bruce drank his wine.  (ha ha ha)  One of our favorite items on their menu at Circa is their gumbo, again from New Orleans.  Bruce ordered a cup of the gumbo and we shared it.  (Portions are large at Circa)  We had eaten half of it before I remembered to get a photo. Oops.


Their gumbo is very meaty and spicy but not too spicy.  It's also not real salty, just very flavorful.  We love it.  Bruce also ordered a special off their New Year's menu, the Winter Vegetable Lasagna that came with a nice side salad with vinaigrette.


It was very rich but substantial enough that you wouldn't notice there wasn't any meat in it.   I got a meat dish, a favorite of Korean Barbecued Short Ribs.


 One short rib is enough for me, I just love slurping up the sauce mixed with the rice and vegetables.  It is so sweet and delicious. We both got boxes of leftovers and walked home highly satisfied with our meal.  Not bad for a neighborhood joint.

 Happy 2018!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meatloaf by Mark Bittman

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of  meatloaf .  This must be meatloaf season.  It was surprisingly similar to the  Pioneer Woman's version  who was also recently on.   I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book,  Food Matters .  His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese!  I must be doing something wrong.  The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life.    If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health.  He tells his story in Food Matters and provides ...
4 comments
Read more

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free.  But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one.  My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations  and we all loved them. My friend lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends.  We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop.  She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots.  We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.)   The views are always quite lovely, too.  Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception.  I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, t...
2 comments
Read more

Waking Up in Vegas

and just like that...we were Waking Up in Vegas.   Just like the Katy Perry song. We went to her 78th performance which was her second-to-last Las Vegas residency show entitled "Play".  That was perfect for us because we went to Vegas simply to play.  Her concert was a great finale for us because it was high energy and full of silliness, just the way Katy Perry is.  And we were feeling it after three nights in Las Vegas. "Get up, and shake the gutter off your clothes now, That's what you get for waking up in Vegas".    Here's what she said about her show: "I created this show after the birth of my daughter, Daisy Dove. When I met her, it was like all the love I was ever searching for finally showed up. This show is for everyone’s inner child and for the hope that maybe if we could all see life through the eyes of a child, we would be free. Because never forget, love is and will always be the key,” she said. We went to Vegas spur of the moment because Br...
Post a Comment
Read more