Pastini Pastaria
Have you heard of Pastini? It’s a Portland, Oregon Italian restaurant which offers more than 30 authentic pasta dishes using fresh and local ingredients. Some of their pasta dishes include Ziti with Winter Squash and Gorgonzola Sauce which has roasted butternut squash, gorgonzola cream sauce, leeks, garlic, nutmeg and thyme, over ziti pasta. Another one of their delicious pasta offering is a Chicken Cacciatore with Rigatoni dish. The chicken is simmered slow in the traditional cacciatore sauce, cremini, porcini mushrooms, carrots, red and yellow peppers and white wine. Besides the main entree of pasta, there are also antipasta, salad, soup, and authentic Italian desserts.
Pastini is also a place that offers gluten free Italian restaurant menu. And if you’re looking for a Portland Italian catering, it’s available at Pastini as well via the lunch specials catering. Their combos are only less than $10 each but they’d be happy to help you out in creating a menu for office parties, seminars, and other events
You can find Pastini if these following Portland locations: Northwest 23rd, downtown, Northeast Broadway, Southeast Division, Cedar Hills Crossings in Beaverton, Bridgeport Village in Tigard, The Old Mill in Bend, and NW 9th St in Corvallis.
Check out Pastini if you’re ever in those areas.
Lunch At Mi Casita’s
We went to lunch at Mi Casita yesterday over in Dunn. A perfect way to welcome the 81° weather to match our blue spring dresses. That was our first time to eat at Mi Casita. Our usual Mexican digs are La Cocina and Fiesta Mexicana. There’s another Mexican restaurant in Dunn that we went to months ago but it’s so terrible I can’t remember the name anymore. It’s either Las Brisas or El Charro. Maybe the acid reflux I got afterwards is contributing to my memory loss.
Anyhooo, the second we entered Mi Casita I knew I was going to like it. The ambiance is fresh, smooth, and quiet. The seating is booth style with tall back wall. Tall enough to keep kids away from the other booth. I’m sure you know what I mean. There’s a bar just like the aforementioned Mexican restaurants but it’s not that close to the booths. I like the open space going to the booths. Unlike at La Cocina or Fiesta Mexciana where there are added tables and chairs in the middles of the walking area. I can’t help but feel awkward when walking to my table at those places. I try to walk sideways to avoid accidentally hitting someone in the head with my huge and full purse. There’s also that awkward feeling not to look at a table while walking just in case a person is chowing down something and couldn’t help but have an open-mouth at that exact moment. Know what I mean?
Salmon & Penne Alfredo
This Salmon & Penne Alfredo was inspired by the seafood with pesto cream penne alfredo from Ragazzi’s Italian Restaurant. The seafood with pesto cream involves basil with walnut pesto blended into penne alfredo sauce with sauteed shrimp and fresh salmon. It’s $14.99 a plate which I’m telling you is sooooo worth it coz it’s soooo good and you get so much of it. I can only eaT half of the plate then save my leftovers for lunch the following day. Delicious creamy pesto with alfredo sauce, and large pieces of shrimp and chunks of salmon. If I could somehow name a kid from this dish, I would.
My own version of course is very much simplified. It doesn’t have the creamy pesto sauce coz I didn’t have the stuff to make it(basil, walnuts) and I also omitted the shrimp coz we just had shrimp last Sunday. It was delicious nonetheless. I just love creating my own version of restaurant dishes that I love even though I don’t create the exact same thing all the time. I just have fun working in my kitchen with a particular dish to copy in mind.
Next time I’ll make it the Ragazzi’s way, but for now, here’s my simplified version.
Dinner @ Two Dogs Pizza
Two Dogs Pizza is the only local owned pizza place where we live. Tonight was the second time we’ve eaten at the place in the year and 2 weeks that we’ve lived in this area. It’s a pretty decent sized local pizza restaurant with a buffet but we’ve discovered tonight only lasts until 2pm. The first time we went there last year we thought the prices were kinda high and the pizzas, although not that bad, are nothing extraordinary. Which explains why in a year and two weeks that we’ve been here, this is the only second time we’ve gone back.
Tonight we ordered from the menu since the buffet(salad and pizzas) was done. We ordered a large Bulldog Bonanza which has sausage, bacon, ham, pepperoni and cheese toppings. We also got a free order of bread sticks.
Hardee’s $5 Big Box Lunch
My husband discovered Hardee’s $5 Big Box Lunch yesterday. We like Hardee’s and we’ve eaten from their menu from time to time but I really didn’t know how long they’ve had this Big Box Lunch deal going on. So I Googled. BurgerBusiness.com wrote about it back in January so I guess it’s been around for a while this year.
In case you’ve never heard of Hardee’s $5 Big Box Lunch, here it is. 2 double cheese burgers, sm natural-cut fries, apple turnover, and 20oz soda.
TGI Friday’s Value Deals In 4 Places
You are a lucky one if you live in Indianapolis, Baltimore, Chicago, and West Palm Beach. TGI Friday’s is offering value deals in those places for dinner and pick combos.
Night At Dinner
Guest posted by William Wright
Last night myself and my family decided to go have dinner out. We set out ADT alarm systems and get in our car without any idea where to go. We ended up about a mile away from our house at a restaurant called El Tapatio. There we were met by a pleasant greeter who sat us immediately. The service from the waiter was also wonderful. He came to our table within a few minutes of us getting to our table and was polite the entire time we talked with him. He was friendly and helpful and continued to come to our table throughout the night to ask about our dinner.
The food we had was also cooked well and came faster than we expected. The enchiladas were perfectly cooked and had a bit of spice to them that made them taste a bit different from others. The sides were not as good as the enchiladas though. The beans tasted a bit like canned re-friend beans and the rice was a little bland. Overall I would recommend the restaurant. The service was very good and the food was better than many Mexican restaurants there are. I would have to rate the restaurant a 4 out of 5.
Pizza “Bruschetta”
My 3 yr old daughter is currently on a phase where she’s only eating the toppings off of her pizza. She picks the pepperoni or sausages, mushrooms, olives, etc off and then she’s done. Last Friday we had take-out pizza which also provided us lunch the following day since we also has antipasto, wings and garlic bread with the pizza so it was inevitable we’ll have leftovers.
Hibachi Grill : Sushi & Buffet : Octopus W/ Jalapeno, etc
We went to dine in one of my favorite Japanese Restaurant last weekend and here’s the second plate from the Hibachi Grill. My first plate consisted of all sushi and a bowl with jalapeno. YUMMY!
FOOTLONG SUB FROM WALMART FOODCOURT
We couldn’t figure out what to have for lunch one weekend ago so we decided to try for the second time, Wal-Mart’s Footlong Sub sandwich. This thing is huge and filled with deli goodies. Turkey, Ham and Roast Beef accompanied with lettuce, swiss cheese, colby jack cheese and American cheese. If there are no recalls on tomatoes these days, the latter would be on the sandwich too. It’s wrapped and you get to add your condiments of choice from your home before indulging. As big and thick as it is, after taxes it’s only about $6. I actually just ate half of that.
