Good Day for Food.

It was a good day for food.  It was not as good of a day for photos, selling our house, or getting rid of this cold, BUT, this is a no whining zone, so back to the food!

We had to be out of the house so we decided to go out to brunch, something we used to do a lot but stopped for some reason...

Today's pick was Fire on the East Side, which is a nice walk from the house.  There was quite a wait, which was fine since we had to kill time anyway.  We chatted in the entry and waited for a table to open up.  Once it did, we cozied in, G ordered a martini of some sort and I had a mimosa.  Delish.

The brunch menu is really varied, and everything looked really good.  I ordered the Southwest Omelet (or something) and added chicken.  (Am I weird that I absolutely LOVE chicken and eggs together?)  It came with a small side salad and a small amount of french fries.  That is the ULTIMATE for me.  I always want a bit of of both.  Anyway...

There it is!  It was really fantastic, with chicken, salsa, guacamole, and fried tortilla strips on top.  I really enjoyed it.

We walked around a bit after that, and made our way slowly to Whole Foods to pick up supplies for dinner.

Tonight's dinner came from Bon Appetit magazine.  I read it last night and immediately decided that I had to fix it straight-away!  Dinner was Tortellini with Italian Sausage, Fennel, and Mushrooms.  I knew that in the past I had bought some awesome turkey italian sausage from Whole Foods, but wouldn't ya know it, but NOPE, no italian sausage other than the pork variety.  So I thought, hey, that's okay...I can make my own (because it had to be out of the casing anyway..).

I bought some ground turkey, and all the rest of the fixings... I mixed the turkey with paprika, pepper, salt, fennel seed, ground fennel, and crushed red pepper flakes.  It was FANTASTIC!

So here is the finished dish... two issues with this photo.  The first issue, I took it on my iPhone.  The second issue, it's total and complete crap and I have no ability to adjust it's crapiness.  But nevertheless, I persevere because it's just that important....

But gosh, this was so delicious.  And it features one of my new favourite things, FENNEL!  I have hated fennel all my life because of it's licorice flavour.  But a few weeks ago, I had roasted fennel on a sandwich and I just loved it.  So it made this recipe a double must try!

Anyway, I sauteed the sliced fennel with mushrooms and the sausage I made.  I added garlic, then whipping cream and chicken broth and let it cook.  Then some spinach.  Mix with the cooked tortellini.

Next time, and there absolutely WILL be a next time because it's freaking delicious, I will not make it with tortellini because ti's just way too much.  A nice orechiette would be fantastic and will be the likely choice next time because the cheese tortellini is just so heavy.  I highly recommend it, though, and it cooks super super fast so it would be a good weeknight dinner.  Go on, try it!!!