Weekend = Delightful

I went to visit my sister in Atlanta this weekend. I love visiting her and Atlanta is a great town, but I would never want to live there.  It is just too sprawling.  Regardless, I had a delightful time.  Love you sis!

Some of the highlights:

1.  We had pedicures at this AMAZING place where you sat in a big puffy leather chair that reclined (no awful kneading chair).  You kind of lay there suspended.  I almost dozed off.  To increase the pleasure of the experience, my sis had a coupon, so the pedicure was a mere $23.  SCORE

2.  We went to possibly my favorite Italian restaurant on earth.  It is wonderful.  I rarely find a restaurant that never disappoints me (I have high standards).  I have been there three times now and it is delightful every time.  Its name is La Tavola http://www.latavolatrattoria.com/ and is in the Highlands neighborhood of Atlanta.  The Highlands would translate to the CWE in St. Louis terms.  We were able to get a reservation at 9:30 PM (the place is always packed).  We sat outside on their amazing deck, surrounded by fresh, growing basil in the planters.  Normally when here, I order the specials.  They are fresh and fabulous.  My sis loves the bruschetta, so we opted for the appetizer special of fresh burrata with cucumbers, basil and chili oil, and the bruschetta.  The burrata appetizer was amazing although the chili oil was a little overwhelming.  This was literally a dish of cheese, cucumber, basil and oil.  Easy to replicate at home.  If I were going to make it at home, I would include all of the ingredients except the chili oil and instead I would either take a little cayenne, mix it with olive oil and dress the plate with that (so you can control the heat) or take some sliced calabrese peppers and place those on the plate and drizzle the plate in olive oil, that way if you want heat, you can eat the pepper, if you don't, you don't :)  You can get fresh burrata at DiGregorio's market, the Wine & Cheese place and the Wine Merchant.  Not sure about Whole Foods, but I imagine it is worth a try. I typed up the recipe for this salad at the bottom of the blog, in case you want to replicate.

The bruschetta was amazing Italian bread rubbed with garlic and olive oil, grilled and topped with a spread of salt and peppered ricotta and dressed with arugula and cherry tomatoes.  Very fresh and great.  For dinner I ordered the special of pasta with a veal ragu.  It was amazing.  So simple.  The veal was fresh and tender.  I could advise on how to mimic the dish, but I need to do a little recon.  Stay tuned.  My sister had a half order of the risotto which she devoured and loved.  I didn't finish my pasta, so I took it home, to be consumed later in the weekend.

3.  We went shopping.  I love shopping in Atlanta and with the sister.  They have a lot of great boutiques and an amazing high end thrift store.  We only shopped one day, so by the time we hit all of the stores, I looked at my sister and just said, "Uncle.".  Unfortunately, the shopping kind of sucked this time and I only ended up with two shirts and some perfume.  I did find a delightful necklace with a bird on it that I expect to receive for my birthday.  :)

Menu at "The Nook" in Atlanta

4.  They know how to fry things in Atlanta and be obnoxiously unhealthy.  Take for example, this cute little bar my sister and I went to for a drink (it was after the 'Uncle' comment.  I needed beer and a chair).  The place is called the Nook ( www.thenookatlanta.com/) and is a very short walk from my sister's apartment.  We arrived and I wasn't hungry, but they had tater tots covered in BBQ Pork and Cheese sauce.  How could one possibly pass that up?  So I ordered them.  They weren't quite as good as they sound, mostly because the tots were frozen and when you slather them in cheese sauce and bbq they become soggy. I kept perusing the menu for other oddities.  They were voted best burger in ATL last year.  I wondered what delightful, grass fed, cow heaven they might have, only to find that the best burger was best because it was stuffed with fried bacon mac & cheese.  Huh?  They also had a burger stuffed with shrimp and grits.  This sounded nauseating to me, but was definitely worth filing in the archives.

There were many other enjoyable parts of the trip and I found out my sister is now drinking dirty martinis, which pleased me immensely.  I look forward to going back. 

Simple Burrata Salad

8 oz Fresh Burrata

Kosher Salt

3-4 medium to large fresh basil leaves

Good Olive Oil-4 tablespoons

1/4 of a Large Cucumber peeled

Small pinch of Cayenne Pepper or 1 Calabrese pepper in olive oil

On a plate, place the fresh burrata broken into small chunks (a little bigger than bite size)

Take the cucumber, cut it in half length wise and scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon discarding the seeds

Then cut each half into 1/2 half moons.  Place cucumber in a one to one ratio with the cheese chunks.

Salt the cheese and cucumber to taste with the kosher salt

If using the Cayenne, take the olive oil and place it in a small bowl add the small pinch of Cayenne (by small pinch I mean barely a dusting) and wisk together using a fork.  Drizzle this mixture over the cheese and Cucumber.

If using the pepper, slice the pepper into 1/8 thick disks and place with the cucumber and cheese. Drizzle the non-cayenne'd olive oil over the cucumber, cheese and pepper.

After the olive oil take the basil leaves and tear them into 2-3 pieces per leaf.  Drop on top of the cheese and cucumber.  

Serve immediately.