Feb 19, 2011

Fajitas, Pizza, Pasta, and Chocolate Cake

This past week has not been one that my "Biggest Loser Cookbook" would be proud of, but it was a week of some yummy food. Last Thursday night I hosted Girl's Night at my flat for the SO's of Newcastle. Mexican food is hard to come by here in the UK, and so we decided that "fajita night" might be a good way to curb those cravings. I provided the chicken for the fajitas and everyone else brought something to add to the spread. We had chicken fajitas, spanish rice, beans, guacamole, chips, chocolate chip cookies, and shortbread with whipped cream. It was all soooo delicious. But what was even greater than that was that we had 10 girls here, well 11 if you count newborn baby Penelope! Such a great showing for one of our first girl's nights here in the Spring Term. It was so fun to meet all the new girls and hear about where they are from, whether they have kids, how their husbands are doing so far in school, how they are adjusting to Newcastle life, etc. The night was spent "ooing" and "ahhing" over baby Penny and eating lots and lots of amazing food. I look forward to many more nights like this. Here are a couple of pictures from the night.
Sarah G., Amberlea, Yolanda, Michelle, Christine, Julie, Louise, Me, Sara W., Sarah C., and Penny

Sarah G. getting some cuddles from baby Penny.

Mummy Sarah C, showing Penny off to Julie and Sara W.


Sara W., and Penelope
Friday nights in the Scurlock household tend to be Josh's one night off from studying. Unless finals or midterms are looming, we usually do something together on Friday night. Since Valentine's Day didn't get to include a night out because of Josh's test, we decided to go out to dinner on Friday night. Our friends Julie and Kevin who live right around the corner from us joined us at Francesca's Italian Restaurant. The restaurant is literally about a 3 minute walk down the street from our house, and until very recently, I didn't even know it existed. It is across the street from houses, in the middle of the neighborhood. The inside looks exactly how I would picture a restuarant to look in the heart of Italy. It had a very old italian, romantic feel to it, complete with checkered table clothes and italian flags. This is what it looked like inside, although I don't think everyone was thrilled that I was taking their picture. Haha.
The crazy thing about this restaurant is that not only can you not make reservations, but you also can't put your name in when you get there.  You just wait in the "que," or line until it's your turn to be seated.  It's an interesting way of doing things and on top of that, it's crazy busy there all the time!  When we got there at 8:00pm the line was practically out the door.  We thought about leaving, but weren't sure where to go so we decided to stick it out in the que.  We had to wait about 40 minutes in line, however it's not half bad since you can buy drinks at the bar and sip your wine or beer in line while waiting. 
Josh and I in the que.

Julie and I
Let me just say that the "que" was worth the wait. Not only was the food amazing, but it was so inexpensive.  I couldn't choose between pizza or pasta but to my surprise, I could have both! They have a "half pizza, half pasta" option on their menu for those of you who are indecisive.  So I went with the margarita pizza and pesto pasta. 

My half pasta/half pizza dinner.

Hubby and I
And of course, no meal out is complete without some dessert.  Preferably chocolate cake!

After dinner, we headed back to Julie and Kevin's with a bottle of wine and just hung out for a couple hours. It was a really fun night and we certainly enjoyed ourselves. We will definitely be back to Francesca's soon!

A group shot at Kevin and Julie's flat.

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