.. when we woke up and faced a landscape ripe with snow. Suddenly, the trees were heavy and budding branches looked like delicate lace carvings. As I told J, it was rather like living inside an Ansel Adams photograph for a day.
It's been a busy week at work, so Friday night J and I fetched some groceries (hot date night!) in preparation for Saturday A.M. because ...
... my mom arrived on the scene, up to visit for the first time since January. The last time she saw me I was about 48 hours out of the hospital, post-pulmonary emboli, so I'm pleased to report that she thought I looked a great deal better. I was even able to show her how I "walk" (and again, I use only the loosest definition of the term here) with my little old-lady walker and Das Boot. Very sexy, no?
We trolled along Saturday afternoon, visited my great-aunt Anna (more on this in a separate, later post) and then met the fab K & D for my first real dinner out at Ristorante Lucano. It was ... magnificent. For those unfamiliar, Lucano is a little Italian restaurant that lives in a tiny strip mall at the corner of East and Winton. From the outside it looks like nothing -- literally, a hole in the wall, perched near a dry cleaner's and a Subway restaurant. But inside? There are three small rooms and perhaps 18-20 tables, total. It's homey, intimate, a little upscale and oh, lord. Real Italian food: SO GOOD. I had this amazing creamy potato garlic soup, followed by osso buco (a house speciality) and then some ice-cold limoncello. And to finish? A piece of the homemade tirimisu. I learned later from the owner that her mother was the one to make the tirimisu, and it showed. Yes, it was gorgeous, but you could see that this dish was not all about the flash and the sauce swirls and the little pretty embellishments placed just so, but was about the FLAVOR: liquor-soaked lady fingers, marscapone, sweet whipped cream, bitter cocoa powder. And knowing some wonderful little Italian grandmother made it, that this was real and wonderful and amazing? Made it all that much more sweet.
We decided the night was young and so, post-dinner, made our way to Barnes and Noble to close the place out and then finally crashed for the night. The next AM we were up bright and early and at it again, this time heading to James Brown's Place for breakfast. In addition to the standard breakfast of eggs and toast (over-medium and Italian, respectively), I also had the JB Porridge. It changed my life in meaningful ways, and I usually don't even like this stuff! But it was thick with cinnamon and granola and nuts and dried fruit, and it came in a lovely little cup with a tiny pitcher of cream, a little dish of brown sugar, and another little dish of nuts and dried fruit. There are no words for how damn good that was, and I strenuously recommend it to anyone and everyone. And also, I plan to go back for more as soon as I can talk J into it.
And then, to finish out my mom's visit, we made one trip to every good Italian's mecca, as it were:
Savoia Pastry Shoppe is just a killer bakery. You can smell the sugar from a block away, and as soon as you enter you are just seduced by the smells and the sights of Italian cookies and breads and pastry, lined up in glass-fronted displays and stacked on wire racks. We scored some St. Joseph's bread (for tomorrow, you know) and a multitude of other yumminess, including my favorite petit fours.
And then we finally staggered home, clutching white paper bakery bags, tummies full to bursting, so Mom could get on her way home and J and I could mainline some Pepto and recover. Vivia la weekend!
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