I had somewhat of a disaster this past week – when searching for photos for a new magazine food writing assignment, I discovered that when migrating to my new iMac, I accidentally wiped completely clean and reformatted the external drive with the most current backup of all of my food photos. The net result? I lost about 18 months of my most current photos. I cannot tell you how bummed I was, but what’s a girl to do? Get cooking and start photographing again, I guess. In the meantime, I happened to have a few shots from recent meals out that I thought you might like to hear about.First up is McLoughlin’s, an Irish Restaurant and Bar down near Platte Park (right by Zengo). When driving back from visiting our little puppy Lucy back in December, we stopped here for a quick Sunday brunch one day. Good omelet and home fries, nice mimosa, decent service, not too expensive. Definitely worth a pop in if you’re in the area.Perhaps my most favorite new find is The Wooden Table, just south of Denver in Greenwood Village. They serve up seasonal Italian fare, and since it was snowing the night I went in with friends, a big old bowl of linguine with amatriciana sauce seemed perfect. What seemed even better – and felt very seasonal – was the huge slab of pork belly on top. Instead of dicing up pancetta and cooking it like a traditional amatriciana sauce, this was layered over the top, perfectly crisp and tender, and frankly was so generous that I enjoyed another full meal of it the next day. If you find yourself south in the ‘burbs, be sure to check this place out.The last place I ate where I happened to snap a few photos was Earl’s in Cherry Creek. I’m not really one to frequent and write about chain restaurants like this, but I had such a nice lunch that I decided to share. We went in here because my husband wanted to be sure to catch the football game – and you can see from the screens that this place would appeal to the sports fans among us. In fact, Coach John Fox of the Broncos came in while we were there to sit at the bar for lunch.What I found surprising for this kind of a place was how delicate and delicious the food could be, like these fish tacos……or the Caesar salad. Notice how light the dressing is, not a thick creamy mess in a bowl. Like I said, chains aren’t usually on my list, but the sunny booth, the nice service, and the decent lunch – all while my husband was blissfully watching the game – added up to a lunch spot I’m quite likely to visit again.