Tag: cookies

I’m back …

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But not forever! My trip to Charlotte was perfect — as has been every trip to the “south” I have ever taken — and I am pretty confident that I’ll be heading in that direction again once I am done with grad school next year.

Wife and I woke up this morning to the sound of coffee beans grinding and pancake batter stirring! Kristin and Dustin were hard at work in the kitchen above us 🙂

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I topped my two blueberry pancakes with ICBINB and lite syrup:

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And while we’re on the topic of Kristin and Dustin’s aboveness and beyondness as hosts throughout this entire trip, there’s more! Wife’s car wouldn’t start yesterday when we were on the way to the wedding, so Dustin drove us the 30 minutes to the wedding and dropped us off so we wouldn’t be late. Later, he and Kristin drove back out with both of their cars so that they could leave one for us to use for the rest of the night!

While waiting for AAA to arrive this morning, we all relaxed in the kitchen with our tea (and coffee for the others), our pancakes, and the pretty birds right outside the balcony:

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Because Wife had to wait for the towtruck (and her car was out of commission, obviously), Kristin had to drive me to the airport. Add another star to the list of aboveness and beyondness!

I am so aware that I keep gushing about everyone on this trip … but between Kath‘s tour guiding and company on Friday, Wife’s willingness to drive up from GA and incur the wrath of the evil automobile spirits to go to the wedding with me, and Kristin and Dustin’s generous and fun hosting, I have never experienced such a hefty dose of hospitality in my life!

Once I got through security at the Charlotte airport, I finally got to enjoy some of the luxurious rocking and free wireless that I kept hearing about:

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As I rocked and blogged, I oranged with the orange that I had initially packed for Friday’s flight:

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And granola bar’d with this peanut butter granola bar that Kath and I scooped up from a free samples basket at Earth Fare on Friday:

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And chocolated with this Ferrero Rocher that Wife brought for me from GA, courtesy of Ted:

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An impressively well-rounded airport lunch if I do say so myself!

On the plane, I had a 1 oz. package of JetBlue cashews while I worked my way through Gastropolis:

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I’m a fan of the JetBlue unlimited airplane snacks deal (obviously). From the two flights, I collected four more bags of cashews and one mini-bag of chocolate chunk cookies:

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The other goodies that came back with me include a jar of PB2 from Kath and a belated Christmas present from Wife of a cupcake potholder (in the back), key lime jam (!!!) from her trip to Madison, and homemade black raspberry jam from Ted’s aunt. Thanks for the treats, ladies (and JetBlue)!

Due to the usual weekend subway delays, detours, and cancellations, I didn’t get home until about 6 and had to rush to unpack my suitcase, pack lunch/dinner for tomorrow, and make dinner for tonight. With no time to hit the grocery store, I had to rely on the freezer, a can, and a couple of promotional items I have received recently:

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While I sauteed the three grain tempeh in a pan with olive oil and minced garlic, I dumped the mushroom “agnolotti” that Foodbuzz sent into a saucepan with boiling water and half a box of frozen peas I found. I mixed everything together at the end (minus the pasta water) and then made a crazy sauce from 1/2 cup canned pumpkin, 2 tbsp sofrito, and a splash of unsweetened soymilk (for thinning). I saved most of it for the week’s lunches, but I had to sample a little scoop topped with homemade parm for dinner:

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The tempeh gave good texture and chew, and the wild mushroom flavor held its own. Plus, there’s pretty much no way to go wrong with pumpkin or sofrito separately, so why not put them together?

My main dinner event consisted of about 1 cup of fruit salad (mango, blood orange, strawberries, and blackberries), an overturned container of honey Oikos so that the honey took on an “icing” role (loved how this flavor was still plain yogurt with the honey on the bottom of the container), and a tbsp of ground flax with cinnamon:

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Now I have to race to get ready for bed. This is going to be a week for getting back on track — and it starts with getting eight full hours of sleep tonight!

What’s your goal for this week?

Southern hospitality

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I feel so spoiled!

Kath picked me up at the airport just after 1pm for our afternoon date, and we headed straight to Earth Fare. I was excited to sample the most famous salad bar in the world of food blogging:

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I got a little carried away (to the tune of $14.88, aka two pounds of salad) and filled my bowl to the brim. It involved a huge pile of spinach, mixed greens, and veggies on the bottom and several bites of exciting things on top: chickpea salad, wheatberry salad, marinated mushrooms, black beans, soy chicken salad, tropical tofu salad, tonnnnnnnnnns of feta, and probably way more that I can’t remember.

Clean plate club:

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When we finished our salads, we wandered through the store collecting samples (including a cheese cube, a cracker, a vanilla cream wafer and maybe more?) and salad ingredients for Kath’s party tonight.

From Earth Fare, we headed to Great Harvest, Charlotte hotspot #2, where Matt was hard at work. Here’s the bread display in action:

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I sampled two kinds of scuffin. Perhaps they were lemon poppyseed and chive? Flavor didn’t matter — they were delicious!

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And then Matt hooked us up with some more excitement. We shared (as in, I ate most of) this piece of ambrosia bread:

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(It tasted like an iced cinnamon bun, but better because it was packed with those bits of dried fruit, mmmm.)

And about half of this giant butterscotch cookie loaded with butterscotch chips (Kath had a couple bites, and I saved the last quarter to share with Wife later):

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We were standing outside the bakery when Matt came running out to ask if we’d like to sample some of the pizza the staff had made earlier in the day for themselves just by throwing scraps together. I was not hungry, but I couldn’t resist!

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They were deeeelicious — bursting with sundried tomato flavor and lots of spice. I had some right then and then saved the rest for later in the afternoon until I could polish them off completely (minus one bite for Kath and one for Wife).

After the feast, Kath and I took off for a lovely walk on the greenway. I want a greenway! All of the trees and grasses were vibrantly green and alive, especially against the clear sky — such a change from the dull greyness of New York! In a burst of spontaneity, we stopped by Kate and Nate‘s (who, incidentally, deemed my blog title porn-appropriate last week) house. Prep for Nate’s big SpongeBob birthday shindig was well underway so, after a quick visit, Kath and I ended up taking their adorable dog Gilbert for a walk further down the greenway. Gilbert definitely did not poop on the greenway while we were walking him, so there was no need for us to worry about cleaning up after him around mile 0.5. Ummmmmmmm …

After about an hour and a half of walking and chatting, we made our way back to Kath’s car and headed to her house to relax for a few minutes until Wife’s imminent arrival. Kelsey stopped by to work on a special project for Nate’s party, and I got to blog on Kath’s famous chair 🙂

img_8107And now, I must take a moment here to appreciate Kath appropriately. I sent her a message Thursday asking for suggestions about what I should do during my five hours of downtime in Charlotte before Wife arrived. The next thing I knew, she was offering to pick me up at the airport, take me for lunch, samples, and a walk, and let me relax at her house! On top of that, Kath, Kate, and Nate invited us all to Nate’s birthday party later. It sounded so fun and I would have loved to go, but we had other plans already. Not only was Kath completely generous with her time and hostessing abilities, she was great company, and we passed a lovely afternoon together. Thank you, Kath!

Wife came around to collect me a little after 5, and the southern hospitality just kept flowing. But now I’m tired and it’s late, so I’ll have to recap hospitality part 2 tomorrow!

What geographical personality characteristics have you noticed? That’s a confusing question. Let me try to clarify. I’ve always heard that people from the south are hospitable, and obviously I’ve found that to be true. Same thing with people in Ireland being gabby. Can you add others to the list?

Magical properties

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While I had my new coffee bean grinder out last night, I obviously needed to use it to grind some of my Bob’s Red Mill flax seeds! Feeling inspired by Sarah’s flaxseed pudding (fyi, I’m talking about the hilariously entertaining Sarah and not me!), I ground three tbsp of the seeds. Half I kept aside to use for tomorrow’s breakfast, and half became part of my dinsert:

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In a small saucepan, I immersion blended the 1.5 tbsp ground flax seeds with 1/4 cup silken tofu, 1/4 cup unsweetened soymilk, 1/4 cup water, cinnamon, vanilla, and 1 chopped gooey Medjool date. Once blended, I brought the mix to a low boil for a few and then poured it into a ramekin that went into the fridge for a couple hours.

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While the pudding was setting, I snacked on three jasmine tea biscotti bites.

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Before chilling, the pudding was already pretty thick because of the tofu (I wanted to use it up before I left for the weekend), but after — wow! The flaxseeds definitely changed the consistency so that it actually set kind of like regular pudding would.

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I loved it alone but, this being dinsert and all, I needed it to be a bit more substantial. So I threw on chopped mango (Myrna gave me a whole mango at work the other day!), blood orange, strawberries, and blackberries along with the rest of the peanut roasteed chickpeas and some of my frozen Easter chocolate-caramel-nut candy.

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Mmmmmm, I am so excited about this flax seed “gelling” discovery. I never knew it had these properties, and I have a pretty full bag of them left so I can keep experimenting!

I used the other 1.5 tbsp of ground flax seeds for my breakfast this morning. I enjoyed my tofu oat bran with prune groatmeal topping for the third day in a row … with two (hmm, three four) key differences. First, I added the flax to the saucepan while stovetopping the bran last night. Second, I cooked the bran and assembled it with the groatmeal in an ovensafe bowl last night to allow for easy oven-reheating while getting ready this morning. Third, I topped it with homemade sunflower seed butter in place of my completely devoured cashew-almond butter. And fourth, I ate it in a takeout container on the subway 🙂

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In case I haven’t mentioned it yet, I’m loving the tofu oat bran! I think I could even eat it plain without any of the toppings. The fat from the tofu and soymilk add such a rich flavor to the already creamy oat bran. And the addition of ground flax made it even thicker! Such a satisfying combination.

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Despite the satisfaction, however, I got somehow hungry at 9 am while waiting for the plane in JFK (probably because I didn’t have any water to drink!) and whipped out this baby sweet batata that I baked last night:

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I’m now in the Charlotte airport awaiting the arrival of my super special local tour guide who offered to help me fill the afternoon until I meet Wife (who went wild for scones here) who’s driving up from GA this afternoon!

Have you made any magical food discoveries lately?

Leftover desserts and a cautionary tale

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Gina sent Kate and me an urgent message Tuesday that she needed help with desserts left from a family event this weekend. Kate and I are loyal friends, so we came to the rescue last night after salads 😀 We each had a slice of tiramisu and a slice of chocolate chocolate cake:

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These desserts came with a story from Gina (as does pretty much everything when it comes to Gina!). In fact, because these desserts sent Gina into such an extreme state of expansion on Saturday night, her husband dictated that her punishment should be to confess the gluttony here for everyone to see. Since I’m clearly not one to censor tales of expansion and I’m completely in favor of using indulgence-induced discomfort as a learning experience rather than as a source of guilt, I agreed to assist. Without further ado, here’s Gina’s cautionary tale:

I arrived in downtown Philadelphia late Saturday afternoon with Chris’s whole family. We had plans to go to dinner with my brother and my parents at Maggiano’s at 7pm. Here’s how the restuarant describes their style on the website:

“It’s true that we’re not exactly shy with our portions here at Maggiano’s Little Italy®. But that’s because we love for people to share a taste here and there. However, if you really want to experience an Italian-American tradition, order from our dedicated family style menu. Everything is priced per person, and the plates won’t stop coming until you’re done. There’ll be plenty to go around and everyone gets to sample a variety of delicious, Chef-prepared dishes.”

I was feeling a bit hungry around 5pm, but I knew that a big dinner was in store so I didn’t eat anything. We went to our hotel happy hour around 5:30 pm, and they had a little booklet of all kinds of fun sounding drinks, all for only $5! I picked out a Raspberry Mojito and proceeded to have two before we left for the restaurant. That was mistake #1: two Raspberry Mojitos on an almost empty stomach!

Once at the restaurant, we opted for family-style dining and got to pick out two appetizers, two salads, two pastas, two main entrees, and two desserts! My dad and I were the designated food selectors, making me even more excited. Of course, I selected all things I would like: mistake #2 … although there’s not much I don’t like! We picked fried calamari and mozzarella marinara for appetizers, Caesar salad and Maggiano’s salad (Iceberg and romaine lettuce, crumbled bleu cheese, crispy Prosciutto, red onions, tossed in our signature House Dressing) for the two salads, Rigatoni D (Rigatoni pasta, herb roasted boneless chicken, mushrooms and onions, tossed in a light Marsala cream sauce) and Baked Ziti and Sausage for the pastas, and Chicken Parm and Chicken Francese for the entrees (anything besides chicken cost extra per person).

When the food came out, OH MY! I really should have taken pictures. They brought out HUGE portions of the salads and appetizers first. I had some of everything. The pastas and entrees came out shortly after we were done with the appetizers. I, of course, took some of everything! I think more time in between courses also would have helped me. Again, there were two platters of each chicken and I think one big bowl of each pasta. The Rigatoni D was my favorite so I had second helpings of that: mistake #3! By the way, they gave us so much, we couldn’t eat it all, but if you do finish one thing, they happily bring out more!

We waited to pick the desserts until after we were finished everything else, but again, the dessert selector was me! I was so full from all that food, but who can pass up dessert when it comes with the meal? I selected Chocolate Zuccotto Cake (chocolate cake layered with Sambucca chocolate mousse; iced with chocolate frosting and dusted with cocoa powder).

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And Tiramisu.

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You should have seen the size of the pieces of cake! They brought out two plates of each dessert! I had a pretty large hunk of chocolate cake and some tiramisu.

Almost immediately after I finished dessert, the trouble started! My stomach was WAY OVEREXPANDED and started to hurt really badly. I had to get up and move around! I started making those overexpanded groans and told everyone I needed to head back to the hotel immediately. Luckily, the hotel was only a block away.

I was in so much over-expansion pain — I literally made myself sick from this meal! I do believe those Raspberry Mojitos played a part in this overexpansion tale … along with the three to four glasses of wine I drank during dinner. Alcohol plus overabundance of food led to a sick Gina! I had to stay in the room for about an hour while everyone else was downstairs in the hotel bar again, having drinks and socializing. UGH, What a mess I made of myself!

Lessons learned:

1.) Do not drink Raspberry Mojitos on an empty stomach.

2.) Do not let me pick out all the food at a family style restaurant.

3.) Ask for a smaller plate so I don’t eat such large portions of the family-style meal. Or at least exhibit more self-control over the portions I serve myself!

My brother would not stop making fun of me for the rest of the weekend! I recovered by Sunday morning, thank goodness. Anyway, that’s my cautionary tale of expansion. Hope that it never happens to you!

OK, I’m back!

Gina, thanks for sharing your tale and your lessons! I love Gina’s tale because it is such an honest account of her evening and how she felt. We all sometimes eat to the point of discomfort and, rather than responding to the expansion by making deals with herself to “run it all off” or “eat only vegetables for a week,” Gina reflected on what she could realistically do differently next time to (1) continue enjoying special food events while (2) maintaining physical comfort! In my opinion, Gina’s approach is the healthiest way to recover from extreme expansion, and it will have more significant and long-term benefits than a pity party or a crash diet. Gina, congratulations on a successful expansion recovery!

P.S. Unlike Gina, I was not yet desserted out last night when I got home and was desperately craving more chocolate. I heated the rest of the morning’s almond sunset tea and pulled two cookies out of the freezer for dunking:

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The cookies hit the spot and left me perfectly satisfied 😀

What is your cautionary food tale?

Todo lo demás

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Because there was nothing all that special about the rest of the day in between cupcakes this morning and dessert tonight (and because I’m running behind on everything in the world … except eating dessert!), I’m just going to do a quick rundown.

Another cup (the last one) of mama’s chicken, kielbasa, and root vegetable casserole:

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Three tomato slices left from Myrna’s tacos:

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Three inches of Mildred’s ham and cheese wheat Subway sub:

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Which I subsquently deconstructed into a ham and cheese half and a plain bread to dip in avocado salsa half (to get rid of the mayo):

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And 1/4 of Mildred’s white chocolate macademia Subway cookie:

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The last cup of my fruit salad with a sprinkling of golean crunch:

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And one final cupcake from Jessica:
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Afternoon snacks were two heated kitchen sink mini-muffins from mom with cashew-almond butter:

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And a blood orange:

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After work, I headed down to Brooklyn to meet Gina and Kate for salads at Chop Chop, a pay-too-much-to-make-your-own-salad takeout restaurant/gourmet deli. I have to admit that the salad was delicious, though!

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I ordered an arugula salad with beets, carrots, cucumber, red onions, sundried tomatoes, avocado, feta cheese, and sun-dried tomato dressing on the side:

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Mmmmmmmm, it was SO good. And then we headed over to Kate’s apartment to house some special desserts Gina scored for us 😀 Details to come! And when did my life become one nonstop dessert, seriously???