Cafe Goodfellas

Last night our little gang arrived in Connecticut around 8:30, ready for a great weekend with my family. Since I now live in NJ, my sister Amanda lives in New Haven and my dad still lives up in Vermont, every once in a while we all meet up at Amanda's for the weekend since it's central for everyone.

Last night marked the end of Restaurant Week in New Haven, and while we were pretty tired, we weren't about to let a long drive deter us from taking advantage of a great meal at Cafe Goodfellas. A late reservation actually ended being perfect since Riker was able to just fall asleep for the night when we got there. What a cutie.

Amanda has been raving about this little Italian place for a long time, so we were excited to have a chance to go, especially during Restaurant Week! The atmosphere was cozy and upbeat, the service was fantastic and the food was top notch. We started out with a bottle of Cabernet, which was smooth and just the ticket after a long day.

Usually Restaurant Week menus are fairly short and offer only 2-3 options for each course, but Goodfellas did it up. There were at least 10 options for appetizers alone.

Amanda and I both opted to start with the Eggplant Napoleon, which was layered with crispy eggplant, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil and drizzled with a balsamic reduction. This was probably my favorite part of the whole meal. The eggplant was really thin, lightly breaded and crispy without being oily; it was also piping hot, so the mozzarella started to melt just a tad on the edges, making it stringy and delicious. I'll be having dreams about this! I definitely want to recreate it at some point.

Next up we had garden salads with house made dressing. Classic but good.

For my entree, I ordered Goodfellas' version of beggars' purses. They were little pouches of homemade pasta dough stuffed with pears and ricotta cheese, surrounded by a brown butter sage broth. This was seriously amazing. What I really loved was that this dish wasn't even on the Restaurant Week menu! It's my sister's favorite meal from there, so even though it wasn't on the menu she asked if they could make it for us as part of the special and they gladly obliged. Talk about service!

Matt ordered the filet mignon topped with mushrooms, lobster and blue cheese. He was obsessed with his "perfect bite" - steak, lobster and blue cheese with a spoonful of mashed potatoes.

We certainly weren't hungry by the time we finished our meals, but since dessert comes with the package, we felt it our duty to try one of their sweet treats. Matt and I both ordered the Goodfellas Cupcake, which was a mini chocolate & vanilla layer cake filled with cannoli cream and raspberry sauce and covered with chocolate ganache. It was served up with vanilla ice cream and fresh whipped cream. It was delicious but very rich, so I only ate about half.

I also had a bite of Amanda's raspberry sorbet. So refreshing!

After dessert, the server brought us complimentary glasses of champagne to sip on while we chatted and let our full bellies digest the big meal. Such a treat!

What a great ending to a long week! 

Food and Travels

Check it out!

My Tomato Mac & Cheese was listed in the Daily Buzz Healthy Living Top 9 for mac & cheese recipes yesterday! There are a couple other great looking recipes in the mix as well -  check 'em out if you're in the mood for a new spin on an old classic.

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The last few days have been pretty busy with work and travel. Yesterday I had a work retreat in the Catskills, and from there I drove straight to Connecticut for the weekend to visit my sister, so I haven't had a chance to share much with you. Let's quickly catch up, shall we? Here's what's been goin' on around here since Thursday night...

Whole wheat rotini with garlic broccoli rabe and grilled shrimp. Awesome one-pot meal! I'll share a recipe for this at some point soon.

Whole wheat rigatoni with cherry tomatoes, wilted arugula and fat-free feta cheese leftover from the quinoa salad I made the other day - another one-pot pasta bowl to use up some stuff in the fridge before we left for the weekend, and it was a good one.

A work retreat at a gorgeous estate in the mountains of New York yesterday, complete with a beautiful hike, paddle boating, and afternoon tea on rocking chairs overlooking the lake...

Capped off with a late dinner in Connecticut last night with Matt and my sister. More on this later,  it was a fantastic night!

Now we're headed out for the day to meet up with my dad for a little shopping and some lunch. Hope you're having a great Saturday so far! 

Cereal Writer's Block

Cereal was for breakfast around these parts this morning. Before getting started on the day, I fueled up with a bowl of "Golden Flakes with Flax", a sliced banana and skim milk.

I don't think ShopRite put much effort into naming their Kashi-knock off cereals...they went with things like "Fiber Flakes," "Fiber Puffs," and my personal favorite, "Twigs and Sticks." I can picture the product marketing guy sitting at his desk trying to come up with catchy names, and then finally throwing up his hands and saying "Whatever! Let's just call them what they really are - twigs and sticks." Ha! They're always cheaper than Kashi, though, and most of them taste pretty similar, so I'll give that guy a break.

After breakfast, I made some seriously strong coffee that required a bit too much milk to tone it down, but I'm sipping on it anyway.

Earth Day Giveaways

I have a big to-do list to get cracking on this morning, but before I sign off I wanted to share some fun  giveaways that landed in my inbox this morning. Giveaways are much more fun than Earth Day tips.

In celebration of Earth Day, Kellogg's is giving away a 2012 Chevy Cruze Eco, which gets about 42 miles per gallon. Fuel efficiency is good stuff. If you'd like to enter the drawing, just click here for the entry page.

Source

Kellogg's is also offering a free reusable shopping bag to anyone who buys 2 boxes of Kellogg's cereals. If you already buy their cereals, why not get a free bag? We have a ton of reusable bags and use them for pretty much everything, not just groceries. These days, a lot of grocery stores are also taking a couple cents off your order for every reusable bag you bring in. To get your free bag, just click here for the order form.

Catch ya later for dinner!