We were at the Village Taphouse in The Village at Park Royal where NPY noticed the Specials card that advertised a dinner deal: $50 gets you a bottle of wine and unlimited Caesar salad and spaghetti for two people. He thought it was a nice deal but I, and any of you, could easily do better. What do you wanna bet that it’s at best a $17 bottle of wine at the liquor store marked up to $30 at the restaurant and the pasta meal is consequently “only” $10 per person?

Thus, I enthusiastically offered to create it for ourselves and it was a treat that went fantastically given we usually just guzzle water and eat a one-pot meal.

NPY tasked me to pick up a bottle of reisling since I have a “wine face”, according to Lil’ Sis, mildly grimacing after each sip of all but the least dry wines. I still didn’t really enjoy the one I picked up. It helped that we were having it at home and the refills were refrigerator-cold because I also take a long time to drink each glass.

I’d rather not buy a box mix but didn’t want Caesar salad leftovers so I “splurged” on a Caesar salad kit and have no dressing, croutons, or bacon bits leftovers. I would not have minded making more salad than I did and not have romaine leaves left over; I didn’t know the salad would shrink in my mixing bowl-come-salad bowl so much!

The linguine was, of course, the most fun to make and satisfying to eat. The ingredients and costs are listed below. I “got rid” of about a cup of the wine in the sauce which made the sauce oh so yummy. Yeah, we’re lightweights, drinking just a total of one cup of wine each and finding it to be more than enough!

Wine

• Bottle of Australian reisling-Gewurtztraminer blend, $13.25

Salad

• 2/3 romaine lettuce head, $0.66
• Caesar salad kit (I didn’t want leftovers), $3.49

Pasta — I “splurged” by using shallots, extra lean beef, oyster mushrooms, and edam cheese!

• 2 shallots, $0.27
• Package oyster mushrooms, $2.99
• 2 mushrooms, $0.64
• 300g extra lean ground beef, $3.00
• can stewed tomatoes, $1.99
• can tomato paste, $0.99
• 1/3 block of edam cheese, $1.50
• 1/2 package (~3 servings) Catelli linguine, $1.00
• Bottled minced garlic, bay leaves, dried basil and oregano

The ingredients I can calculate slide in nicely at $29.78! Take that, 2 for $50 dinners!

I wonder what my next “theme” night will be….

On this day..

• Coined a new term - 2014
• Busy like so - 2011
• So You Think You Can Dance Canada - Season 2 - 2009