Tag: veggies

Buffeting around town

15 Comments

Wife and I arrived at the dinner reception location, Charlotte’s University Place Hilton, with about 45 minutes to spare, so we took a stroll along the boardwalk behind the hotel.

There were drummers, giant chess pieces, and lakefront perches:

img_82281

img_8232

img_82331

Just before 7, we wound our way back to the Lakeview Ballroom, collected our table assignment, and planted ourselves firmly at Table 7:

img_8235

Well, not all that firmly, since the hors d’oeuvres were calling us!

Crudites and grilled veggies:

img_8237

Crackers:

img_8238

CHEESE!

img_8239

Fruit (with an unpictured chocolate fountain!):

img_8243

Here’s my plate with grilled zucchini, yellow squash, and eggplant; carrots and tomatoes with spinach-artichoke dip; two crackers with green cheese triangles (it was herby and so delicious!), cheddar cheese sticks, and dill havarti cubes; and grapes and strawberries:

img_8244

Servers came around with a couple more goodies, so I also had a smoked salmon-wrapped broccolini:

img_8251

And an antipasti skewer with roasted red pepper, artichoke heart, fresh mozzarella, olive, and sundried tomato (and my sweet tea in the background, finally!):

img_8253

I also got a small appetizer dessert plate with fruit and chocolate:

img_8260

img_8263The champagne toast was next, but I don’t like champagne (I know, I know, how is that possible?), so I had sparkling white grape juice. The toast from Ilin’s dad is when the waterworks started again. I’m such a sap for father-daughter stories!

When the toasts were finished, it was time for the dinner buffet! I filled my plate with Mediterranean salad (spinach, sundried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, huge chunks of feta), caprese salad, asparagus with goat cheese and pinenuts, a mountain of sauteed veggies, and a small piece of salmon on a bed of spinach (there was also rice pilaf, beef, and chicken breast, but I passed on those because my goal was to leave the reception still able to walk on my own two feet):

img_8264

Everything was delicious, obviously.

For drool purposes:

img_8266img_8274

Dessert was more chocolate fountain!

img_8282

img_8284

img_8285

Our tablemate, Ilin’s friend Ivana, had the genius idea to fill a teacup with chocolate and use a roll from the dinner buffet to dunk!! I wish she had thought of that sooner because I was just on the cusp of overexpansion at this point and did not want to push it. I took a picture to document the brilliance:img_8287

With that, Wife and I said our goodbyes and went on our way back to Kristin’s house, stuffed but not overstuffed. Everything about the ceremony and the reception was so beautiful and perfect and sincere, and we had a lovely time. Congratulations, Ilin and Theo!

What’s your favorite item for chocolate fountain dipping? Mine is banana!

The cake … errr, the ceremony

17 Comments

So, yesterday was the wedding that brought me down to Charlotte in the first place! As I mentioned before, my old college roommate Ilin was getting married. There was lots of delicious food all afternoon/evening long, but first …

Ilin and I were placed together freshman year at NYU (in 2000!) as roommates, along with Coonoor. Here’s our very first day in the big city, awwwww:

roommatesbehind

Ilin and I continued to live together for our sophomore and junior years. Here we are junior year after the short walk from our dorm down to Battery Park to see the sights (i.e. Statue of Liberty in the background) because we thought we should:

statue

Here’s the bride in action yesterday with her daddy:

img_8171

Getting handed off:

img_8174

After the ceremony, we went through the receiving line:

img_8190

And then Wife (fyi, in case you missed this before, Wife’s real name is Laura — Wife is a nickname we have for each other left over from college!) and I headed downstairs to partake in the “light refreshments.”

img_8182

We couldn’t get over how much food there was, especially knowing that a full buffet dinner was also in the cards! I loaded up on produce and a little slice of turkey wrap:

img_8184

On monogrammed napkins!

img_8185

And fruit with a dollop of cream cheese dip:

img_8188

I had two plates of fruit, plus a few more grab-and-go-bites.

img_8186

I probably would have kept going on the fruit, but I had put Wife in charge of managing my food pace. She saw where I was headed and dragged me away from the food table, thank goodness!

We climbed back upstairs, and the cake soon made its big debut:

img_8198

img_8199

I couldn’t stop taking pictures.

weddingphotimg_8202

img_8213

I had one piece:

img_8218

This was honestly one of the best wedding cakes I’ve ever tasted! The cake itself was moist and very chocolate-y and only moderately sweet, and it combined perfectly with the strawberry filling and buttercream icing.

img_82221

It was so delicious, in fact, that I went back for another small piece. Wife tried to stop me, but I was unstoppable.

img_8223

After cake #2, Wife finally succeeded in dragging me out of this room as well so that we could make our way over to the second wedding event: the dinner reception! Coming soon …

Describe the best wedding (or other) cake you’ve ever tasted 😀

Southern hospitality, part 2

14 Comments

After Wife collected me from Kath‘s house yesterday, we made our way over to her friend Kristin’s house across town. So many things have worked out perfectly for this weekend: my JetBlue gift certificate that covered airfare, the last minute plans with Kath yesterday, Wife being able to drive up from GA, her friend Kristin (and her husband Dustin!) living here and offering to put us up — I think Charlotte is my lucky city 😀

Kristin had the guest room perfectly coiffed and ready for us:

img_8134

Don’t be jealous, Ted 😉 (That’s Wife’s boyfriend.)

We all spent much longer than we realized chatting and snacking on some very mature appetizers of mixed nuts and pimento olives:

img_8109

Then, we headed to a late dinner at 131 Main, an uptown Charlotte restaurant with a fire pit!

img_8121

I ordered the Crab Cake Salad with mixed greens, fresh corn, herb vinaigrette, and whole grain mustard sauce (I got the dressing/sauce on the side):

img_8118

Look at all the meat in that crab cake!! I felt like I had died and gone to Maryland.

img_8115

The salad spent some time warming its toes by the fire:

img_8120

(Speaking of corn and toes and fun food names like boat eggs and broccoli trees, my mom used to call my toes corn niblets when I was little because they were so teeny and short. Just thought I’d throw that out there.)

Wife couldn’t quite finish her cedar plank salmon with whole grain mustard butter and wild rice salad, so I took care of the rest for her:

img_8126

It was tough choke down, but I took one for the team and found a way somehow.

For dessert, the three of us split the homemade key lime pie with graham cracker crust. It was a huuuuuuge slice:

img_8128

Mmmm, look at that crust. It was so thick and crunchy — the best part!

img_8130

It was past 11 when we got back to Kristin’s house and fell right into bed (or blogged, as the case may be).

I’m not sure what the plan is for the rest of the morning; the afternoon/evening will be quite full with wedding events. Can’t wait!

What is your luckiest region of the US?

Southern hospitality

20 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:

img_8092

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:

img_80971

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:

img_8100

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

img_8101

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

img_8103

(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):

img_8104

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!

img_8105

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?

Busier off

18 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:

img_8024

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.

img_8027

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

img_8046

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.

img_8039

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.

img_8047

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

img_8053

Chicken it was! Delicious 🙂

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

img_8060

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!

img_8063I 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:

img_8062

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!