world's greatest sinners, portobello mushrooms, and a tenderloin

I know, quite a mix of things to talk about but I've been lagging in posts so they're just gonna have to be clumped together.

I was feeling quite down last Friday night after a dermatologist appointment and discovering that I'm allergic to just about every preservative known to mankind, so Tony took me out to cheer me up. We had delicious sushi at Yoki in Medford (seriously, some of the BEST sushi out there!), and then ice cream across the street at Coldstone Creamery. Afterwards, we drove out to Davis Square and had a couple of drinks at Orleans while watching an awesome singer and guitarist, Greg Luttrell. Then we walked over to Johnny D's to watch the World's Greatest Sinners. Tony's friends Andrew Hickman and Tony Savarino play the alto sax and electric guitar, and Tony has filled in for their drummer a couple of times in the past. FUN show! I took these little videos of them. I love Jordan's voice!

Okay so that was Friday night. Wow. Fun. I felt 200% better afterwards.

Then on Saturday night I made us pasta for dinner. Tony had good ol' fashioned red sauce and I had my usual butter sauce, but I bought a roasted chicken at Shaw's and chopped it up for us. And added some grilled portobello mushroom slices to mine. Yum!

But wait, to back up a little bit, last Tuesday night we put the reliable crock pot to work and cooked up a pork tenderloin. Gotta love crock pots. And Tony snapped this photo of what he considered a culinary masterpiece of brussel sprouts and fingerling potatoes. Thank God I'm not allergic to those things.

amelia's trattoria in cambridge, ma

We took Tony's brother to Amelia's Trattoria in Cambridge while he was visiting for the weekend. Luckily, they were open late on a Friday night. We like going to Amelia's even though Tony calls it "shee-shee" (read: fancy) for Italian because of the atmosphere and of course, the yummy food.

Joe got the ravioli of the day dish which was ricotta cheese raviolis in with prosciutto in a bolognese sauce.

Tony had the brasato dish which was really delicious (yes, I had a tiny taste even though I wasn't supposed to!).

And I had the potato gnocchi with roasted butternut squash, brown butter, and sage.

We enjoyed a bottle of Prosecco wine and at the end of the night, shared a delicious whoopie pie dessert. Yum-o!