the olive garden..

Merely 100 ft away from my door step, i always thought of olive garden as a more commercialized version of italian food so i would drive miles to go to Sals or across town for other more authentic looking family style nooks. yesterday was an exception cos i was home by 6pm, opened all windows and snuggled into bed for a nap.. only to be unwillingly woken up by dinner calls at 8:30pm. half asleep i was dragged into olive garden... the setting was very cozy with a italian wine theme running throughout the resto.

for appetizers, the server recommended their star dish: the bruschetta which was absolutely delightful!! it awoken my senses and made me change my mind about having plain ole spagetti with red sauce!! ithe bruschetta was simple but yet very flavorful. relatively inexpensive as well!!

(excuse the bad pictures.. it was really dark inside..)

and for entree, i picked the Stuffed Chicken Marsala. The roasted chicken breast was stuffed with Italian cheeses and sun-dried tomatoes, topped with mushrooms and a creamy marsala sauce.. absolutely delicious and very comforting on a rainy friday evening. Marcin had Pork Filletino which i had a taste of! the pork was very tender and well seasoned with rosemary and wine sauces. Only after the sumptious meal were we informed that these dishes were inspired by their Culinary School in Tuscany and came with food-wine pairing.. which obviously was too late!

yummys!! after dinner, i swore i was going to exercise and take a long walk.. but the storm was still raging so i had to settle with marching around my house & running to and fro the garage doing laundry. much to my cat's amusement. he lay in the picture windowpane and watched me thump around the place doing random sit ups and stretches around the house.

seriously, i need to consider inheriting someone's elliptical trainer in the house so i have not more excuses for post-dinner laziness.