Last night, Mom took Kendrick and I out for dinner after her weekly piano lesson (my dad is out of town, so it was just the three of us). We went to L’Allegria, on 9th Avenue, which is a place we used to frequent when I was in elementary school. It’s where I first tasted caprese – one of my favorite dishes in the world – and I distinctly remember that experience, because I felt very posh and grown-up eating it, and it sort of marked the first stirrings of my interest in being (relatively) adventurous when it comes to food (not that eating mozzarella, tomatoes and basil constitutes being adventurous…it just is when you’re nine and have never heard of the stuff).

L’Allegria has undergone a dramatic renovation since we last went – it used to be kind of cheesy and boisterous, and now looks like a Crate & Barrel showroom – but the food (I had squid ink pasta with salmon, and Mom tried the meat lasagna) is well-priced and reliable. No surprises, but sometimes a heaping portion of tomato sauce-drenched pasta is what I’m looking for in an Italian restaurant.

(By the way, I arrived at my parents’ place looking much cuter than this, in a sparkly top and leopard cardigan, but I was cold and grumpy from my epic shopping excursion and stole Kendrick’s ancient, coziest-thing-ever sweater.)