Eggspansion

April 22, 2009February 6, 201539 Comments

Last night, I attended a Foodbuzz event spotlighting Eggland’s Best eggs at Beacon Restaurant. Interestingly enough (or not), the PR agency that spearheaded the egg event last night, Weber Shandwick, was the same one that organized the Electrolux ICON event (remember the chocolate lava cakes? mmm, I do!) a couple weeks back.

Anyway, here’s the table I chose, complete with EB table decor (and my bellini, of which I drank half):

Joining me at the table were Kerry of French Revolution (her egg recipe won the recipe contest last night!), Missy of Missy Maintains (the most competent product reviewer around), Megan of Runner’s Kitchen (she had JUST run the Boston Marathon the day before!!), Maya of My Feasts (and her husband), Jennifer of The Mama Chronicles (she is a Twitter whiz), and Bart of EB’s quality control team.

The theme of the event was breakfast for dinner (and eggs, obv), so there was a very well-stocked omelet station:

With a number of possible toppings:

I ordered my omelet with tomato, spinach, mushrooms, onions, asparagus, chicken, parmesan, and gruyere:

There was also quite an array of breakfast extras:

Here’s my plate:

Omelet and bacon slice:

Smoked salmon salad with capers and lemon juice:

Chocolate croissant and almond-roll:

Fruit!

Scrambled eggs (I thought it was going to be polenta when I scooped it up — why would there be more eggs at the buffet station if the main course was already an omelet?!):

I ate it all and then went back for more (obviously). Seconds on salmon salad:

As well as a strawberry jam croissant and seconds on fruit:

Probably didn’t need that third pastry but it was deliciously flaky and jammy:

I ate all of the second plate. It left me teetering on the edge of uncomfortably full … but not quite there yet. I liked the feeling and was satisfied enough to stop nibbling with no qualms 🙂

Charlie (since we go way back and are on a first-name basis and all) gave a presentation about how EB chickens are fed food that is healthy for them and free of animal by-products:

He asked for volunteers. I raised my hand (I thought there might be extra food in it for me!). He told me to crack an egg on my plate and then use my hands to lift the yoke out of it to show how strong and healthy the EB eggs are:

Mission accomplished.

I also learned that the smaller the egg, the higher the quality. Actually, I learned more about eggs than I ever thought possible, but that’s the one fact that stood out.

At the end, I asked if I could take home the eggcelent centerpieces and got approval. Twenty-two eggs later, I was contemplating renaming my blog Tales of Eggspansion.

What came home with me: 22 fresh eggs, 2 bags (1 dozen) of hard-boiled eggs, coupons for 2 dozen free EB eggs, a cup of salmon salad, a cup of fruit salad, a tote bag, an umbrella, a stuffed “animal” egg, a spatula, a folder full of egg facts, a 2 GB external drive (!!!!!), and a coupon for a complimentary cocktail next time I am at Beacon.

To fuel me through that labor intensive photo shoot, I had a couple pieces (maybe what’s pictured times 3) of chocolate-caramel-nut Easter candy and then called it a night.

Tell me your favorite thing to do with eggs. Please?

Throw it away

April 21, 2009February 6, 201518 Comments

Eek!! Just kidding. You know I’d never ever recommend that you throw anything away. Except for maybe this post. I’m just going to slap down everything I ate today so that I can hurry and get to the main event: my eggcelent dinner! (That was a hint.)

Morning snack was a cup of pumpkin pie flax pudding:

I heated it today — still yummy, but I think I like it better cold. It really tastes/feels just like pumpkin pie filling. I guess that makes sense since flax is a known substitute for eggs, and the only thing I’d do differently to make pumpkin pie would be to add eggs and bake …

Lunch was a cup of mushroom agnoblahblah with tempeh and pumpkin-sofrito sauce:

Green salad from Inginia:

Fruit salad (mango, blood orange, orange, strawberries, blackberries) from me:

And a sponge bob santa claus lemon chewy attached to a lemon candy cane:

And a mini blue raspberry candy cane:

And two gooey strawberry-filled candies:

Eeek, what happened today?! Back on the candy wagon! (Not to mention four Newman’s ginger mints.)

I got hungry in the afternoon again and had two kitchen sink mini-muffins heated with just under 1 tbsp homemade sunflower seed butter:

And two small handfuls of Jessica’s pita chips:

And a spoonful of office pb just before I left:

And then I was off to Free Cone Day. Just kidding! I got to the B&J at Rockefeller, but the line was way too long for me to make it through in the 10 minutes I had before my eggstatic dinner event, so I had to skip the ice cream. Tear.

Did you get a free cone today? If yes, what flavor? If no, what flavor would you have liked to get?

Southern hospitality

April 18, 2009February 6, 201520 Comments

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:

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:

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:

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

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

(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):

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!

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 🙂

And 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?

Busier off

April 16, 2009February 6, 201518 Comments

Ack, it’s pretty late for me to be getting around to this! I always expect to have so much extra time on my days off, and the opposite always ends up being true.

Anyway, I had today off since it’s my class day and Hunter is closed for spring break 🙂 I had lots to get done because I’m leaving for the weekend tomorrow — my old college roommate is getting married in North Carolina! I woke up around 8, got my laundry started at the laundromat, and then came back for breakfast:

That’s right, exactly the same as yesterday: tofu oat bran with prune groatmeal topping! Such a pleasant-sounding name, right?

I topped it with cashew-almond butter and unsweetened coconut again today, but
I decided to go wild and throw on a sprinkle of cinnamon as well.

Lunch, even though it was my day off from work, was the usual group effort.

I had a salad made with rescued brown and leaky roommate lettuce and Heather’s leftover lunch lettuce from work yesterday; half of an abandoned zucchini that I found on the conference room table yesterday (I think it was Inginia’s?) sauteed with olive oil, garlic, and a few thawed pieces of seared tuna from the Electrolux event a couple weeks ago; peanut roasted chickpeas; Newman’s dried berry blend; grated homemade parmesan; and the rest of my sundried tomato dressing from last night’s salad.

On the side, I had one of Myrna and Mildred’s empanadas from Heather’s baby shower and Heather’s leftover guacamole from her lunch yesterday.

I didn’t know whether the empanada was chicken or cheese until I took a bite.

Chicken it was! Delicious 🙂

Lunch dessert was another tbsp of peanut roasted chickpeas and the rest of the Newman’s berries:

After laundry and lunch, I went out on a mission of many errands. I walked down to Brooklyn’s poor excuse for a mall, Atlantic Center, and picked up a new pair of sneakers (in the white/berry/storm color) from DSW on sale for $60. More money than I’m really free to spend, but the health of my knees is worth it!

I also hit up Target hoping to find a cheap dress for the wedding that suits my new, ahem, “curvier” figure (thanks to the injury-induced reduction in running). No luck, though, so I’m going to have to raid my closet! I did, however, pick up a coffee bean grinder. I don’t like coffee, but my mini-food processor bit the dust after three batches of nut butter, and I thought (rather, I called my mom and she thought) the grinder might be a good and cheap ($15!) interim solution until I can get my hands on a powerful processor. Mom was right, and I made some sunflower seed butter when I got home. Sure, it took three batches (and I had to stop the grinder after every pulse to scrape the sides) to make 1/2 cup’s worth, but I now have delicious sunflower seed butter!

I also stopped into several grocery stores on the way back to try to put a dent in my stockpile of coupons. In addition to heavily discounted produce, I also picked up a free kashi meal, free tempeh, free cereal, and free yogurt 😀 The checkout people kept doing double-takes as they rang up my coupons.

By the time I got home, I had been gone for three hours and 3.5 miles of walking. I had a quick snack of a date with my last tsp of cashew-almond butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon:

And then I went out for an inaugural run with the new sneakers! I could definitely feel the difference in my knees. I felt like I was running on clouds, sigh. I made it about 22 minutes until the muscles started giving me grief, so I took a 20-minute walk/run/stretch pain-break. Once things had calmed down, I resumed a solid run for the last 10 minutes. I think I usually run by wildly throwing my legs out in front of me (yeah, I’m sure that’s part of why I’m injured, too) but I noticed today that I felt a lot less pain when I focused on lifting my knees UP instead. I’ll have to make a point of this on future runs. Anyhoo, stats: 55 minutes, 421 calories, 144 average heart rate, 168 max. It was probably around 4 miles total. After the run, I did most of the 20-minute Yoga for Runners — sometimes I just can’t keep my attention on it long enough to finish!

Now I’m off to go finish dyeing my hair, do a little wedding fashion show so I can figure out what to pack, and then start packing! I will hopefully be back soon — I should have a good amount of airport downtime perfectly suited to blogging tomorrow 🙂

Are your days off busier than your days on?

Erin at I Walk In This World is going to be hosting a bake sale/auction next week to raise money for the Jimmy Fund. Go check it out!

Leftover desserts and a cautionary tale

April 16, 2009February 6, 201518 Comments

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:

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).

And Tiramisu.

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:

The cookies hit the spot and left me perfectly satisfied 😀

What is your cautionary food tale?

Tales of Expansion: Baby Butternut Edition

A Natural(ish) Parenting & Food Blog

Tag: Leftovers

Eggspansion

Throw it away

Southern hospitality

Busier off

Leftover desserts and a cautionary tale

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