Another Sunny Sunday, we'll absolutely take it. This weekend flew by, zip zap, and now I've got sun rash and the weekend's just about over. Crazy.

It's been a weekend of eating food prepared by others - no complaints. Thursday lunch I dined a la Suz at Lucia's, aka The Perfect Lunch Spot. Romantic or girlie is lovely Lucia's, depending on your dining partner - not many spots can boast such versatility. Suz and I girled out, of course, ordering baked trout served with new potatoes and sauteed veggies. (Oh, a new potato-veggie-fish theme! More on that in a sec...) Deee-friggin-licious, as usual.

Thursday night, more girlie fun, this time at McCoy's with my dear friend Mary Pappas, where I ordered my old stand-by...the black bean burger, served with guacamole, onions, pickles, tomato, and lettuce. Eat it open-faced, with a salad on the side, and be very, very glad.

Friday lunch, even more girlie fun, this time at Via with my aunt Marge, cousin Kim, Stacey, and Cooper Cuteness (not a girl, The Coopst, but fun nonetheless). We raised a glass to toast my sister Etta's 24th Birthday - Happy Birthday It'll!!! This was my first meal at Via - the homemade potato chips were a big hit. They do homemade fries as well, always welcome in my world. I ordered their chopped salad, nothing to write home about, but Kim loved her burger, and Marge her chicken sandwich, and the service was excellent and setting quite pretty, so I'll give 'er another go.

Friday night, we invited Stu The Wine Genius and his wife Debbie out for dinner, but they countered with an invitation to their house instead, for salmon, new potatoes, and pea pods (therefore the theme), with Debbie's sister Michelle joining us as well. John and I very quickly accepted (we're no fools!) and bopped on over for delicious wine (always delicious wine with Stu and Debbie) and an opener of olive tapenade on crusty bread. Happy, happy, I love having dinner at the Williams' beautiful home. But wait! Poof, the electricity went out, and after a call to Xcel confirmed it might not return until 11:30 p.m., we packed up the food (and wine) and drove it over here, where potatoes were boiled (finished with butter and a shower of fresh parsley), salmon was baked (with fresh dill and lemon), salad was tossed, and pea pods were quickly sauteed (more butter, Hope Creamery, natch). With Lucia's peach cobbler to finish (to die for), I couldn't imagine a better start to the weekend.

Yesterday, John and I headed over to the US Women's Open Golf Tournament at Interlachen. We had a blast (as guests of Wells Fargo, thank you Jon), strolling the gorgeous course, people watching, sipping beer, and snacking. We ran into several neighbors and friends, took a crash course in who's who in the LPGA, and had ourselves a grand old time.

Tonight, shrimp curry coming up (once I get off the uh, computer), this time I found wild-caught Florida Key West shrimp shelled at Whole Foods. Yay! I predict goodness, I'll let you know if otherwise. LaFinca veggie share bok choy is going into the saute. And oh, this week's share also included a gorgeous bunch of icicle (white) radishes, which went into the salad I made on Friday, they're beautiful and of course crunchy with a peppery kick. I may do a side-salad of those babies, thinly sliced, tossed with minced scallions, rice vinegar, and bit of soy sauce.

Ka-pow! As long as the the sun shines, it's all good. G'night!

Moderate it: have several meals out coming up? As we all know, it's tough to be moderate when eating out - restaurants plot against us with their large portions and ridiculous over-use of fat (I'm not against fat, per se, but bathing food in it is pretty disgusting). One tasty trick is to order fish and veggies and ask them to not soak the dish in oil. A little olive oil or even butter is a good thing - a dousing of fry grease (blech) is quite another.