No one could accuse me of being a gold-digger. I started dating Adam when we were still in high school. I will stay with him through countless years of undergrad, Teach for America, medical school, residency, and grunt work before he becomes a wealthy doctor (my Jewish grandma would be so proud!). But sometimes, like when he calls me in a tizzy, shouting “the radio says there’s a BOGO special at Medieval Times!,” I close my eyes and think “he’s going to be rich someday.”
And then I open them, and get busy buying tickets to Medieval Times and mapping out the drive to Toronto. And I feel so lucky to get to spend 4 hours in the car with my funny, handsome husband, who also happens to be a total dork.
Seriously though, Adam has wanted to go to Medieval Times since he watched “Cable Guy,” and I was thrilled to help his dream come true.
First though, we had to clean up from the poker party and get in a grocery trip. While we were at Wegman’s we picked up hot bar for the road.
I grabbed a random spread, including several veggies plucked from their meat dish counterparts (think chicken and mushrooms, not beef and broccoli).
In total, I ended up with kale, carrots, mushrooms, celery, broccoli, butternut squash, and green beans.
I don’t have any pictures of the show (the mood lighting was a little rough on my food photos as well), but I did take a few shots around the castle.
We had a great time walking around, although the blatant commercialism was a little frustrating; it would have been nice to see an exhibit that wasn’t trying to sell us something.
The show was a lot of fun though, packing with jousting and ceremony. The best part was definitely the horses though. And dinner was surprisingly good. No silverware, metal plates, and huge pieces of meat –
None for me though, I actually pre-ordered the vegetarian meal (which p.s., was even tastier!). We started with tomato bisque,
and garlic bread,
both of which were only ok.
And then my meal blew me out of the water.
Hummus with pita chips, rice pilaf, and a grilled veggie skewer (I got a fork!), all of which were delicious.
Dessert was an apple tart.
It was good, but I only took a few bites because I knew Adam and I were going to share some Canada candy on the car ride home.
Smarties make the drive go so much faster!
We were served dinner at 5, so unsurprisingly I was ready for a snack when we got home. I snacked on spinach and artichoke dip with a serving of chips while I blogged.
I don’t think we’d ever go back (holy price tag, Batman!!), but it was a pretty fabulous day!
I’m not bluffing, the recipe in this post is a Full House!
That’s a winning hand in poker, right?!? Can you tell I wasn’t invited to the party living room?
No, it’s been a good evening, the boys are all having fun and my cooking got good reviews. I may not have played poker, but I sat in the office and banged out some important school work, so I feel like the real winner.
I’m not going to do a full recap of the evening; I took lots of little unphotographed bites and it’s likely I’ll nibble on the dip leftovers when the party winds down. Besides, you guys don’t really give a flip what I ate, you want to know about the pie!
10 sheets graham crackers (4 rectangles = 1 sheet)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut
5 egg yolks, beaten
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup light coconut milk
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup butterscotch chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
Place butter into a 9-inch pie pan and melt. I simply put the pan into the preheating oven.
Place walnuts into the bowl of a medium food processor* and pulse several times until uniformly ground. And graham crackers to bowl and continue to pulse until the mixture has the texture of sand. Add sugar and pulse once or twice to incorporate. *If you don’t have a food processor this can be done fairly easily by placing walnuts, graham crackers, and sugar into a large baggie (tightly sealed, being careful that all the air is removed) and pulverizing with a rolling-pin.
Pour crust mixture into the pie pan and use a wooden spoon to mix it with the melted butter. Press the crust into the pan, spreading to make a uniform layer on the bottom and up the sides. This step is easiest with your finger tips but if you’re afraid of the heat the wooden spoon will also work.
Bake crust for 10-15minutes, until starting to take on a darker shade of brown. The crust will feel firm and dry when it’s ready. Set aside to cool for at least 5minutes.
Spread coconut in a thin even layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees Farenheit for 5-10minutes, stirring occasionally. The coconut will just start to brown and develop a toasty smell when it’s ready. Set aside to cool. Note – the coconut can be prepared at the same time as the pie crust since they bake at the same temperature.
Raise the oven temperature to 375 degrees Farenheit.
In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, and light coconut milk.
Fold in semi-sweet and butterscotch chips.
Carefully pour filling into the prepared pie crust. You will have 1/4 – 1/2 cups filling leftover; do not overfill.
Bake pie at 375 degrees Farenheit for 15-20minutes, until top has set.
Top pie with toasted coconut after removing from the oven.
Allow pie to cool 5-10minutes before serving. Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator.
I’ve been a busy bee this afternoon; a busy baking bee!
Lunch was simple but good.
A Thai chicken Lean Cuisine,
with 1.5 slices of beer bread with Smart Balance Light.
I made the loaf I beer bread for the husband’s lunches next week.
I followed my usual beer bread recipe, though I did skip the butter drizzle this time. Adam said not to skip it again, but I didn’t think it made too much of a difference. Don’t skip it if you’re making the recipe for the first time though, you’ve got to fall in love with the original first.
I addition to switching from Chai to green tea, I also used half the amount of nuts and skipped the drizzle.
My substitutions worked out well; I split a muffin with Adam (topped with maple jelly) and it was delicious.
Bakers eat a lot of bread, but they also take a lot of nibbles. I’ve done my fair share of “tastes” while getting the food ready for Adam and his friends tonight. On the menu for the poker game:
Good morning! I know I don’t usually blog weekend mornings, but I was up so I figured why the heck not?
I also usually don’t eat breakfast on the weekends, but I had to get out of bed at 7:30 to make Adam a smoothie so why the heck not?
I’ve never made buttermilk pancakes before (I doubt I’ve ever eaten them either), but there was a half used container of buttermilk in our fridge that was speaking to me. Buttermilk as a muse, why the heck not?
It took me a while to get the hang of the flipping, and I ended up with one of Kath’s pancake tacos –
It was actually delicious. P.S. My serving today was also topped with a drizzle of maple syrup and a sprinkle of extra chia seeds, why the heck not?
AllRecipes lets you scale the recipes (amazing!) so I could have just made one serving but instead I made four, why the heck not?
I’ve got them individually wrapped – use wax paper to separate the individual pancakes within the serving – so they can be easily reheated for breakfasts throughout the week.
We’ve got a busy day around here, Adam has a clincal test this morning (hence the 7am smoothie) and we have to prep for the poker party he’s hosting here tonight.
“Honey, it’s my turn to host the poker game this weekend. You can’t come, it’s just boys, but can you make the food for us please? Oh, and baby, all the other wives made really good food, so please don’t make anything that sucks.” Why the heck not?
…to think that “Your Highness” was funny. My goodness, can I have those two hours of my life back?!? My fun evening plans ended up being mostly tedious and only a little bit funny.
Actually what was funny is the back story – I’ve been excited about “Your Highness” for months; I saw previews and thought it looked a lot like “Year One,” which I loved. Sidenote – I saw “Year One” twice in theatres, I’m all about raunchy comedies. Well, we saw “Your Highness” tonight and it was awful; pretty much the only redeeming quality was the gratuitous naughty language <– which I’m all about. On the drive home something strange occurred to me, Summer Glau (one of the main reasons I was excited about the movie – “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” and “Firefly” both rocked my world) didn’t appear to have been in it. After some quick Googling I found the problem – I’m an idiot! The movie I’m excited about is “The Knights of Badassdom.” I saw the previews at the same time and must have melded them together in my head! Well, now at least I can be excited for that movie 😀
Prior to the movie I made a quick dinner of this Smart Ones Pasta with Ricotta and Spinach.
And during laughs that we few and far between, I snacked on an apple,
and a bag of random candies I got at a kiosk in the mall.
At least the snacks were good?!
Did you see “Your Highness?” What’d you think? Any plans to see “Knights of Badassdom?”
Minus starting any homework yet, my afternoon has gone according to plan. Class – gym – nachos – Missing. Once you add a shower and doing the dishes into that list I don’t feel too bad that I’m a bit behind schedule.
I’m not sure that pushing the gym back to after class will be a regular thing; when we got there today all of the ellipticals were occupied. Not a big deal, but I don’t like to run two days in a row. I still ended up having a good workout –
20(+ish) minutes jogging on the treadmill. I didn’t take any breaks this time and I covered 2.5miles, booyah!
20minutes on the elliptical, level 6 random. I did a mix of backwards, forwards, sprint intervals (and dying).
quick session of abs work and stretching
By the time I got home and got myself and the dishes clean, it was after 3o’clock and I was just sitting down for lunch. Good thing I made a lunch worth waiting for –
2 oz of corn chips + 2 oz of extra sharp cheddar + a big handful of arugula + black beans + jalopenos
+ tomatillo salsa stolen from Moes + Oikos 0% plain Greek yogurt
Oh baby!
I swear I can’t taste the difference in the 50% reduced cheese when eaten on salads (so why not eat one with a little less fat?!), but for melting full fat is the way to go. This dish blew the other day’s baked nachos out of the water.
If things go according to plan again, we’ve got a fun(ish) evening planned. Hope everyone has a great afternoon!
What are your nacho topping must-haves? I always go with black beans and jalopenos are essential.
Good morning! Did everyone get enough beauty sleep? We did not have any sense of urgency at bedtime so I decided to push my workout to after class and sleep in a bit instead. Wouldn’t you know it though, at 7:30 my brain woke up and just wouldn’t quit! At least I got a few extra minutes.
Plus, the earlier I woke up, the earlier I got to eat breakfast.
Chocolate covered strawberries for breakfast? Yes please!
The texture wasn’t perfect (Siggi is a little thick for mixing), but the flavor was a perfect breakfast play on the original.
I have one class today and then it’s time to hit the gym. My hopes for the afternoon include homework, reruns of “1-800 Missing” on Netflix Instant Watch, and more homemade nachos!
Tell me what you like, multiple choice – My favorite dipped in chocolate is:
Eating Chalk 