Fridays are always tough.

You don’t really wanna get out of bed (similar to other mornings, but somewhat more intense), you really want to enjoy the gorgeous weather (which, after shlepping blocks and blocks on end seems more torturous than rewarding), and the idea of the upcoming season (in this case, autumn/fall, my most favoritest season of all) is nearly unbearable due to the anticipati0n …..

So what did we do?

We combatted it by hitting up some great Philly Happy Hours (okay, technically just one because I read the page wrong).

First, I had a glass of Prosecco, and John had the most delicious Douro (DOURO “ESTEVA,” CASA FERREIRINHA, ’09 [Douro, Portugal] ~ dried red currant fruit meets earth, spice and leather from old-school Douro pioneer) at Tria, a truly great wine and tapas bar in Philadelphia.

Then, we headed over to Sampan, Michael Schulson’s Philly hangout, which serves some of the best finger foods ever, in addition to having a rockstar happy hour.  I love going to Sampan because it’s always a good time.

To round things out, we hit up my restaurant, for whom I have a deep, deep love, and we enjoyed their special pizza (ps. who doesn’t LOVE pizza?!?).   I’m super proud of my whole staff for stepping up and making sure to get things done.  You guys are rockstars (and many of you are way better cooks than me!).

On the way home, while the man caught some zzzz’s, I listened to straight up girl music (Linda Perry & Four Non-Blonds singing “What’s Up?” doesn’t get much girlier … ’til Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” came on ….)

I promise a recipe soon.  I hope it’s a good one, because if it’s not, I’ll be disappointed. As John likes to say, his stomach hasn’t been happier since I started the blog, because it means new recipes and new food on a regular basis.  So far, we’ve had some great triumphs, and only a few failures (Angel food cake  … and from the box, nonetheless!).

Ce la vie, I say, and wish you as happy and content a Friday as I experienced.