This weekend was downright fabulous! I’m still not feeling quite 100% from my cold – you’ll notice that fruit and veggie consumption was still abysmal – but I felt well enough to have lots of fun. Having Adam home on break has been indescribably wonderful❤. And tomorrow my parents come to visit (and will be joined later in the week by two sets of aunts and uncles) for Thanksgiving and Hanukkah!
breakfast
Yogurt bowl.
TJ 0% honey Greek yogurt topped with two sliced kiwis.
Sunday breakfast.
We toasted the last of the garlic and cheddar beer bread in the oven with some Smart Balance Light.
With a sliced Cameo apple on the side.
And a cup of cafe con leche.
The coffee was part of a sample that Maison Camus sent me.
Please note – this product was sent to me free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for my this post. All opinions are my own.
I had not heard of Maison Camus before they reached out to me, but apparently they are an independent, family owned Cognac house. Their coffee is grown sustainably – no herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides, and they stick to a strict growing process to minimize environmental impact and preserve biodiversity. The beans are grown at high altitudes (primarily in Costa Rica and Guatemala) and they use small-scale farmers who they pay fair wages.
I haven’t opened the French Roast yet but we loved the Signature Blend. My first tasting thought was “smooth,” and it was fun to see that match the company’s description (the French Roast is described as bold and I’m quite looking forward to it). I did put a bit of SCM in my coffee but I took a few sips black and was thrilled with the lack of bitterness. I drank two big mugs. Adam, who drinks at least 3 cups of coffee a day and is a much more discerning drinker than I, was very impressed as well.
lunch
Breakfast for lunch but not brunch.
Seedy bread with Smart Balance Light,
and eggs scrambled with tons of corn (cooked with evoo, tons of Sriracha, and a bit of sugar).
Don’t turn your nose up at the sugar; I realize it’s something I’m not exactly short on in my die,t but with the chili sauce it makes the corn perfect.
On Saturday I took Adam on a date that ended up being one of our best days ever. We decided the last time we had such a good time was on our last trip to Toronto. We drove up through Long Island to Port Jefferson.
The town was gorgeous and quaint, and we even came across a fire pit offering free marshmallows for roasting!
After we licked all the burnt sugar off our fingers we headed over to C’est Cheese for lunch.
My girlfriend (who lives in Buffalo but grew up in LI) used to babysit for the owners and recommended it to us. We were grateful for the intel because we had an amazing meal.
Adam and I shared… A beer sampler.
{South Hampton Double White, Smuttynose Brown Dog, Frambois, Port Jeff Porter}
The Smuttynose was his favorite and the porter was mine, which was funny because we both didn’t care for the others selection. The frambois was enjoyed by all though and was an excellent palate cleaner.
A bowl of New England Clam Chowder.
Adam ate this all on his own but he said it was excellent.
The Somerset sandwich – Melted aged cheddar, sun-dried tomato pesto, black olive tapenade, and fresh basil.
The aged cheddar on our sandwich was actually our very favorite cheese of the day, though it had a lot of competition.
A cheese sampling.
{Truffle Tremor, Taleggio, Pecorino Toscano, Scharfe Maxx, Vlaskaas, 2 year Grafton, Harbourne Blue}
The sampling is a plate of seven assorted cheeses that changes each day. We loved our selection. And we came home with leftovers so the fun could continue the next day. The fun continued that day as well; we finished out our date with a trip to “Thor” and popcorn for dinner.
On Sunday we had leftovers to look forward to.
We chopped up the last of our cheese plate and put it on top of crockpot cranberry chicken (scroll down to dinner) and jasmine rice.
This was so good we both wished we had leftovers of our leftovers.
dinner
I only have one meal in this category! The other days we did big, late lunches and just snacked (popcorn and bananas foster!) for dinner. Thankfully this one meal was a winner, though not very photogenic.
Crockpot Cranberry Chicken = put 1 lb of boneless, skinless chicken breast into the crockpot and top with 14 oz fresh cranberries and bbq sauce (we used Whole Food’s Korean style) to cover, then cook 4 hours on “high.”
So simple, but so good. Adam raved about this meal and went back for both 2nds and 3rds. The green on the bottom was frozen spinach that I cooked with evoo, lemon juice, craisins, and smoked almonds.
drink & dessert
The gingerbread cookies from Cheryl’s (thanks again, Barb!) are perfectly soft and spicy.
I’ve already bought a whole slew of gingerbread flavored goodies and I’m excited to announce that I’ve decided tomorrow is the perfect time to start opening them.
Grande, non-fat, eggnog latte.
I got this with a 50% off coupon and I was glad because I didn’t love it this year. Somehow it wasn’t sweet at all, which was very strange with the eggnog flavor.
Another sample, Rave Review Original Culinary Spirits sent me a box of booze for cooking.
Please note – this product was sent to me free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.
We had a lot of fun setting up a bourbon tasting.
Bourbon isn’t my favorite kind of whiskey, and on first taste I preferred Rave Review to the competitor. I rarely give a bad review (I’m excitable and pretty easy please), but I have to say that after heating I hated it! The flavor was almost savory?! which we think was related to the blend of spices. That said, I could see how it could be good in a savory dish, and I do plan on cooking with it.
On the positive side, we made Bananas Foster with the Rum and I’m giving that two thumbs up.
I basically followed Alton Brown’s recipe, except I skipped the banana liquor and used cinnamon instead of all spice.
Served over vanilla ice cream, this was wonderful. I’m pretty sure we’ll be making another batch next weekend.
Finally, have you seen the new limited edition winter flavors from Polar?
Toasted coconut was good but champagne strawberry is out of this world. The flavor is great and the scent is just ridiculous. I will also be searching high and low for fudge cheesecake, obviously.
Do you ever cook with booze, or do you just drink booze while you cook?
I’ve been wanting to try that damn creamer for months and I ended up hating it so much that I threw out my whole coffee halfway though. Boo. But at least I can stop pestering Adam to walk to 7-11 with me.
An awesome sandwich of Applegate Farms Herb Turkey Breast, reduced fat cream cheese, and banana peppers on Pepperidge Farm Gingerbread Swirl Bread.
Plus sliced Sweet Tango apple.
And Gingerbread Twix.
These holiday Twix are sooooo good. I wouldn’t normally eat a Twix but the gingerbread spice is wonderful.
I’ve decided that the Western turkey burger (sans bun) is my favorite variety. The fried pickle on the side is too fun.
And despite the cold we wandered over to 16 Handles after dinner.
Sugar-free praline with chocolate pretzels, salty almonds, and peanut butter sauce.
That focaccia is great. As was the Tuscan salad my mom and I split.
Baby spinach with breaded artichoke hearts, roasted peppers, gorgonzola dolce, pine nuts, and balsamic vinaigrette.
I stuck with the cheese theme for dinner. Spinach, ricotta, and goat cheese ravioli (house-made!) in a champagne truffle cream sauce.
It was very rich but very good. The sauce was truffle heaven.
I was introduced to it as “the snickerdoodle shot” and that name is very apt. Adam and I both put some in our coffee too and decided that we’ll be doing that regularly.
Pacific Vegetable Lentil & Roasted Red Pepper Soup
Muller Pineapple Passion Fruit Greek Corner
Sam Adam’s Fat Jack Double Pumpkin
Alter Eco Dark Velvet Truffle
Wallaby low-fat maple yogurt
Ben and Jerry’s Vanilla Honey Caramel Greek Frozen Yogurt
Eating Chalk 