Best Ever

by Emily

It’s a good thing I decided not to blog after dinner yesterday because we ended up staying out for drinks! It was a late, fun night.

We started our evening with dinner at Las Culebrinas, Adam’s favorite Cuban place on the planet. They have rolls with the best garlic butter.

We also ordered some appetizers to share.

Fried plantain with shrimp in red sauce and mozzarella sticks.

For dinner I got Mahi Mahi crusted in corn flakes and topped with a honey mustard sauce.

It was a little too fried for me but the sauce was so good.

And it came with a side salad with great dressing.

We did lots of sharing (though no one went near Adam’s beef because he was moaning so loudly – and whispering sweet nothings to his chocolate flan – and we were all a little afraid). I ended up eating the equivalent of 3/4 of my plate.

Afterwards we walked around Coconut Grove for some more people watching. And somehow ended up at Uncle Moe’s for drinks. Like the Cow Tipper.

Here’s a shot with my hand for size comparison.

My mom and I split this one, obviously. It was tasty, but not as strong as it sounds.

Which is good, because I was feeling good this morning. I decided to skip the hotel breakfast, which was lackluster yesterday, and get in a quick gym trip instead. 15 minutes on the treadmill for a bit over a mile.

I ate my stolen pear for breakfast.

Along with a NuGo Dark bar packed from home.

And we stopped by our old favorite Thai place for a bubble ~~tea~~ smoothie.

Strawberry coconut smoothie with bobba.

So freaking good!

Plus a few peppermints for freshness.

Amid the day’s exploration we also spent some time at the mall. I know shopping seems like a strange vacation activity, but my parents live on an island so it’s more exploratory for them than the beach. My dad shared a pretzel with me while we were there.

I ate about x2 what’s pictured. We were practically frozen so I also bought an earl grey with steamed skim milk.

A few stops later, and we were at my favorite place on the planet.

Where I made the biggest cup of froyo I’ve ever eaten.

Everything chocolate and caramel, smothered in marshmallow.

Heaven. Pure heaven.

And the evening only got better. The plan was to go to Joe’s Stone Crab, but a 2-hour wait scared us away. The disappointment was very serendipitous, because we ended up having a best ever dinner at Joe’s less formal take-away spot next door. You ordered your food at a counter and brought it to the booth yourself and it ended up being just perfect.

To start, Adam and I split a seafood bisque.

It was creamy and tangy with big chunks of fish.

Then the four of us split an order of stone crab.

Stone crab is like the best crab you’ve ever had, on steroids. It is meaty, yet tender and buttery.

I got most of two claws, dipped in butter and mustard.

I drank a spicy bloody Mary with my food but I was too excited about the crab to remember to photograph before a few sips in.

For the rest of the meal, my mom and I split two sandwiches.

The shrimp po boy and the lobster Reuben.

The po boy was good, though I mostly ate the shrimp out of the bun, dipped in remoulade.

The Reuben was out of this world. Everything that’s good about a Reuben but with the added amazingness of lobster.

Everyone kept laughing at me for chewing with my eyes closed but I just couldn’t help it. The big pieces of meat were absolutely perfect.

I thought I couldn’t be happier, but then Adam bought me this t-Rex juice container.

Best trip souvenir ever.

My favorite activity in any city is bike riding, and for the hour after dinner that’s just what we did.

It was so much fun, though our times in the sand basically left my thighs burning! Then we spent another hour walking down the club strip on South Beach for the ultimate people watching. It was the best vacation day ever. The best.

24Nov2011

Happy Thanksgiving

by Emily

We’re in Miami!

Can I just say, how little I did I manage to pack for two people for four days?

And that’s with the husband’s giant boy clothes taking up extra space.

Our day of travel went smoothly, minus my yogurt (in a perfect peanut butter jar!) getting tossed at security. We slept though the first flight and then spent three hours walking around the Chicago airport.

We got a strange 8am meal, splitting a Baja chicken burrito from Burrito Beach.

I asked for chicken, red rice, black beans, corn, cheese, sour cream, and roasted veggies.

Supplemented with a tangerine packed from home.

I was pleased with the job I did packing food for this trip.

(Adam also had a downright gourmet salad in my backpack.)

I ate a sandwich – Applegate Farms Turkey Bologna, Crofter’s Grape Spread, everything Bagel Thin – on flight number two.

Plus Peanut M&Ms bought from the airport.

I also started reading the all time funniest book ever on the plane.

Clearly Webster liked it too. I laughed aloud so many times I’m sure our seatmates were thinking of muzzling me.

Before we knew it, we were on the ground and hugging my parents at the gate. We are so freaking excited to be with them (especially in Miami!).

Our first stop was a nice walking tour of our old haunt, the U!

So fun to see how the campus had changed in little ways. I will admit to becoming a bit nostalgic when we walked past the building where I took all of my English classes. Plus it’s fun that Adam and I got to date here for four years.

Our next stop made my heart sing.

Self-serve froyo is high on my list of things to be thankful for! I did keep the serving small though (we were about to head out to a nice Turkey Day dinner!); dolche de leche and taro froyo with fruit, a smidge of marshmallow, sprinkles, and lots of popping bobba.

If we manage to sneak in a froyo every day of the visit I think this will end up being the best vacation ever.

For dinner we headed to the Chart House.

The shirt that Adam has on here is actually the one he got married in!!!

I started my meal with a Blue Moon.

And a really great roll with butter.

And for dinner I went traditional.

Sliced roast turkey,

cornbread stuffing,

mashed potatoes,

cranberry relish,

and creamed spinach.

The spinach was soooo good, but overall I probably ordered the wrong thing since I actually hate most Thanksgiving foods. I only ate a 1/3 or so of my plate; but at least I won’t have regrets about “missing”anything, and Adam is thrilled with his plate of leftovers.

My meal came with pecan pie.

But there wasn’t a preference issue that kept me from eating this, the pie was just plain nasty. Store-bought (crappy store-bought) pie, Chart House? You can do better.

But what really matters on Thanksgiving is family, and I got to spend the day with my three favorite people. And I hope all of you, Americans or otherwise, got to spend the day with your nearest and dearest too.

21Nov2011

Delirious Dinner

by Emily

I’m going to go ahead and apologize in advance for the plethora of typos that will most likely pepper this post. Between my 4+ hour sleep deficit and wracking my brain all day for answers to two major tests, I’m a bit off my game. And the husband was on a 24-hour shift last night and he’s wrecked as well. Our joint delirium made for an interesting afternoon.

But first, lunch.

Despite appearances, that’s not a yogurt.

It’s also not a 6oz container but a big guy, stocked with last night’s roasted dinner leftovers.

These were still good cold, but I had to shovel them in at 10am which felt a little odd.

I want to think my tests went well, but honestly I’m not sure I even remember. Thanksgiving break is going to be all about catching up on sleep.

When I finished my make-up exam at 3, I picked up the husband so we could do a quick grocery restock. My gnawing hunger led me to the gingerbread men.

Such a good idea. Adam ate his buttons, and thought this was so funny he made me snap a picture.

I told you we’re tired.

Except that tired is the understatement of the century. Between bad luck, Adam’s distraction, and my complete and utter confusion at life, we went to three different grocery stores and somehow ended up with nothing more than a bag of pears to show for it. Frick.

Some complaining, more confusion, and lots of aimless driving later, and we managed to end up at a Chinese buffet for dinner.

We were totally drawn in by the bubble tea.

Adam and I split this Taro one.

The food wasn’t necessarily good, but it certainly wasn’t bad either. Not healthy at all and a miserable lack of vegetables, but overall we had a nice dinner.

Green beans, baked salmon, 2 stuffed mushrooms, and a crab rangoon.

Sushi, chicken with broccoli, and some cheesy crab salad that blew my freaking mind. It was so rich I couldn’t even eat all of what’s shown but I was seriously in heaven.

Tiramisu, pineapple, glazed banana, pudding, coconut gelatin.

I had lost steam by dessert and shared .25 – .5 of this with Adam, but I did devour the coconut jell-o.

I love buffets because getting to try little bits of lots of things makes my soul happy. If I could find a buffet with actual healthy options I think my heart would explode with joy.

And sleep in 3, 2, 1 …

How do you feel about buffets? What dish do you always look for on the line?

12Nov2011

I’m Sure Immortals Was Great

by Emily

It feels good to be back! It will feel even better to actually have my computer back, but I’ll take what I can get. I will admit that it’s felt a little freeing not having a computer this past week. Sure, I still check my e-mail on my phone every 10 minutes, but not being tethered to a seat reminded me of how much the old me hated sitting in one place for hours, even in front of a computer. Something to think about.

I spent yesterday cooking and Adam spent the morning cleaning. I like having company because it makes us pretend to live like adults! While he worked, I munched on a simple but delicious sandwich.

Half a jalapeno cheddar bialey with 2 slices of Applegate Farms Honey Maple Turkey and a thick schmear of Crofter’s Organic Grape Spread.

I know I say it every time, but the spicy + sweet combo makes my world.

My brother-in-law got into town around noon so we took him to lunch at JP Bullfeathers. We were sat in the downstairs “wine cellar” area, which was fun.

It was in the 40’s at that point so I relished a warm lunch.

I got a cup of jalapeno corn chowder which I was thrilled to see contained lots of whole kernels of corn.

And an order of garlic bread which I was sad to see was topped with cheese. Who puts cheese on garlic bread? I ate three pieces nonetheless.

The lunch as a whole was very heavy and it left me feeling full but not satisfied, if that makes sense.

I had to leave the boys to head in to work. They went to Blue Monk while I was gone, a trip that required me to have to drive them to the movies later, ahem. I actually walked from school over to Blue Monk to pick them up on foot first. It was a nice walk, made even nicer by the purchasing of green juice from O3.

I made my own mix instead of ordering off of the menu, but I believe that what I ended up with was spinach, celery, cucumber, and carrot.

I had no desire to see “Immortals” so I stayed home and did some work. I knew the dinner plan was pizza so I made sure to eat a nice salad when I got home.

A spinach bed with chopped apple, crumbled blue cheese, groats, and Wegman’s Yogurt Casaer dressing on top.

I’m not sure the salad will make me any less hungry for pizza, but I’m glad I at least got in some produce first.

I also ate a serving of Lindt truffles.

And as soon as I pick up the movie-goers it will be pizza time! I’m not going to blog again today so the husband can have his computer, but assume I’ll have 1-3 slices of the good stuff.

I will see you all again (phew!) tomorrow.

6Nov2011

Tasty/Slow

by Emily

Hello there. Long time no see.

Between going to work on Friday night and eating an unphotographable lunch via food lab, it was just too difficult to blog yesterday. But apparently it was quite easy for me to stay up until 1:30 am watching tv with the husband. (Sidenote – how freaking off-the-charts fabulous was the newest “Bones” episode?!?!) I was the walking dead all day today.

My morning actually had an early start because I had an 8:30 am volunteering commitment. I had to pick up a friend on the way there, and shower before I faced the public, so my alarm felt super early. But I was done and picking the husband up for a fun lunch date before I knew it.

Necessary back story ahead: A classmate’s family owns a great local restaurant (Romeo and Juliet’s). Their restaurant generously provided the cookies and bread that we sold as sides during the Chili Sale. The bread was mini rolls made of panettone dough and it was completely fabulous. The taste was like a very elevated King’s Hawaiian Roll. Adam loves Hawaiian Rolls. After we all raved about the rolls, our classmate told us that R&J’s also makes them for a local restaurant that centers their sandwiches around that bread. There were leftovers after the sale and we all were thrilled to take some home. On Thursday I brought home 10 mini rolls. Adam got home around 4pm that day. By 5pm all 10 rolls were gone. Last night, when Adam picked me up from work he brought me a cannoli. “Because [he] knew [I] wanted to try one.” Upon further pressing, I found out that the cannoli was from R&J’s. Because he went to see if they had more rolls. (They did not.)

So long story long, today we dined at the restaurant that centers its sandwiches around R&J’s epic buns.

SoHo Bar had this funky, industrial vibe to it that we loved.

I took Adam as a surprise and while he was excited to be getting a lunch date, he had no idea why we were there.

(e) Read the menu.

(a) The salads look good.

(e) Look at the burgers.

(a) The meat is provided by Johnny’s Meats?

Sometime I think it’s a good thing he’s so book smart! But once I pointed out the only sentence on the menu he had yet to read aloud, he was thrilled.

Adam went with a classic burger on an amazing bun, and I got a #4 combo so we could try multiple menu categories.

I had the turkey burger, with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and red onion.

Plus I requested some cranberry chutney to add on too.

The sour of the chutney and pickles went so well with the sweetness of the bun.

Adam and I split my fries, which came in an adorable mini fryer basket.

And finally we split a spiked shake (2/3 to 1/3, his favor).

We went with a Kentucky Caramel, Woodford Reserve Bourbon, vanilla ice cream, caramel ice cream, caramel sauce.

The bourbon-caramel combo was pairing perfection.

We continued our date with a long walk around the mall and it was the perfect afternoon. At 2:30 I had to go to work but it was a short 2-hour shift that flew by quickly. Plus, I was the ‘top earner’ yesterday and I went home today with a $5 gift card!

My $ was promptly spent on snacks for the husband. I carried a jumbo tub of movie-butter popcorn for many aisles through Target before I decided I’d probably ultimately be happier not consuming 5-bazillion calories before dinner. Instead I ate the 2nd serving of Chia “Rice” Pudding.

Still tasty, but calorically dwarfed by the popcorn and packed with omega-3 fatty acids.

It was delicious straight out of the fridge, topped with cinnamon, and I highly recommend trying it yourself.

I don’t recommend dinner.

Don’t get me wrong, the flavors were amazing.

But not 60+ minutes in the kitchen amazing.

for 2, quickly written but slowly cooked

Place 3 oz prepared whole-wheat spaghetti in the bottom of two bowls (6oz total, 3oz each).
In a large pan, working in three separate batches, use chicken broth to steam 6 oz fresh spinach, 1 small graffiti eggplant, and 22 large frozen shrimp. Split between bowls. Use the same pan for every step in the recipe to allow the flavors to build.
Cook 2 slices Applegate Farms Turkey Bacon. Chop and set aside.
Heat 2 tsp evoo in the pan over medium heat. Add 2 chopped shallots and 3 chopped cloves of garlic. Cook until translucent.
Add 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour and cook 1 minute.
Stir in 1/4 cup chicken broth. Add 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup light cream and continue to stir.
Return chopped bacon to pan. Add 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese and cook until melted. Pour sauce on top of veggies and pasta.

The sauce was fantasmic but I needed a bigger pan because cooking each layer separately took up waaaaay too much time. My favorite part was the bacon, which I stole a slice of during prep.

Yum.

And I must smell like bacon, because look at how the dog has insisted on sitting all evening –

It’s sort of making my life. Plus we watched “Crazy/Beautiful” while we ate and it’s one of my favorite movies so I’m pretty blissed out in general. Hope everyone else is having a good weekend!

30Oct2011

Too Busy For A Saturday

by Emily

Oh man. I’ve been “on” for 14 hours straight so please forgive me if this post is “off.” I spent several hours on campus this afternoon and I’ll spend most of tomorrow there as well so I’m warning you in advance that Sunday’s recap will be cranky!

Today’s plan included three main objectives –

Attend a training at school.
Get all the shopping for Chili Sale cooking completed.
Bake amazing muffins to help thank classmates for coming into school on a Sunday.

The training was actually for a job, thank goodness. A short-term one though; I’m going to spend the next month working as a caller for the Buffalo State College alumni donation effort. 10 – 2pm today was spent in training sessions for the upcoming first week of work.

I didn’t have much time in the morning (I was trying to maximize sleep!) so I packed this NuGo Organic Double Dark Chocolate Bar for breakfast.

The NuGo people knew what they were doing when they stuck these samples in our HLS bags; every bar of theirs I’ve tried I plan on buying for myself! This wasn’t as good as Balance Bar Cookie Dough (what is?!), but I liked the crunch and chewiness of the inside and the chocolate coating was sweet without being too sweet for breakfast.

I bought a sandwich for lunch on our break.

This was a book store cafe paninni with pesto, roasted tomatoes, and mozzarella.

Plus an Earl Grey with skim milk.

When I left campus at 2 I headed straight to the store to meet up with some classmates in the Chili Sale group. We had to go to Wegmans, then BJs, then back to Wegmans again, but I think we are ready for tomorrow.

I bought a coffee with skim milk while we shopped.

And very happily accepted this chocolate sample with my beverage.

Guylian shells are my favorite chocolate candy of all time and they are pretty pricy so this 2-piece freebie put a huge smile on my face.

That smile was promptly wiped off as our hunt for dinner turned into an epic journey. I got the first half of my work schedule for the week and it required some meal plan switching so we decided to go out. But we don’t have much (any?!) money right now so we agonize over how we spend it. Nothing is good enough to justify the expense and the dining options in Buffalo just aren’t that good to begin with. Adam and I wasted a good hour driving around from vetoed, to closed, to 40 minute wait-listed. We finally ended up at JP Bullfeathers and decided just to split two of the cheaper options.

I ate 2/3 of the Julius Caesar;

a salad with sun-dried tomato Caesar dressing topped with crab and rock shrimp salad.

Plus 1 triangle of Adam’s grilled avocado quesadilla,

which had cheddar, jack cheese, and roasted poblanos.

Mine was better 😉

Dinner wasn’t as filling as I would have hoped though. I did a few nibbles whilst baking, plus I noshed on this bag of Combos.

These weren’t bad but I think my thing is finally over.

When we got home around 9, we finally got to baking.

I don’t have the time (or energy) to tell you about these muffins now, but I promise to blog the recipe soon because it’s a good ‘un!

Thank you to my amazing husband for playing medical intern to my lead surgeon (ie holding bowls, laying out supplies, and wiping my brow); without whom my baking project would probably still be underway.

22Oct2011

Quick Trip To Canada

by Emily

I went to Canada today!

We didn’t really do any exciting abroad things, but we did snap pictures as we drove past the falls. We were just making a quick trip up to the International Marathon Expo. I offered to drive up so that blog friends Katy and Holly could pick up their packets.

I actually was planning on running the half marathon with them until not too long ago, but that’s another story for another time.

Prior to our drive, Adam and I hit up the farmers’ market in search of eggplants. We had success. We also found breakfast.

The husband and I split this locally made cheddar-rosemary scone.

It was crumbly and delicious. I need to put “make scones” on my life to-do list.

Then after Canada we headed to the grocery store. Adam and I both got totally sucked in by this register line purchase.

We split the box 60:40 (his favor), but both took at least a nibble of all four flavors.

When we got home I made myself a plate of grilled cheese epicness for lunch.

2 mini sandwiches (that’s a small plate) of sourdough bread with cheddar, 2% mozzarella, and pickled jalapeno slices.

I cooked the sandwiches in a skillet with another smaller skillet pressed on top and they turned out so crispy.

Plus melty, cheesy, and spicy.

With a cookie for dessert.

We had dinner planned but Adam was absolutely desperate to get back to India Gate. We compromised by eating some veggies at home first. In the form of salads.

This was an amazing salad too. A Romaine lettuce base topped with groats, roasted zucchini, goat cheese, and champagne dressing.

The cheese was more of the world’s best goat cheese from First Light Farm and Creamery.

This time a double cream chevre with garlic and dill.

And the dressing was a Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program sample from Marzetti’s Simply Dressed Line.

Nutrition –

From the accompanying literature – “Marzetti Simply Dressed is made with a minimal number of all-natural ingredients, such as extra virgin olive oil, canola oil (a source of Omega-3 ALA) and sea salt, and does not contain any preservatives, trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, or artificial flavors or colors.”

After all that it’s ironic, but my only complaint was with one of the ingredients! The dressing contained xantham gum (which I’m not opposed to in principle and do use occasionally in smoothies) and it made it way to viscous. The thick, goopy, snotty (sorry) texture is not what I’m looking for in a dressing. But the flavor was nice without being overpowering. And I only needed 1.5 Tbsp (less than 80 calories) to feel like my whole salad was properly dressed.

‘Twas good all together.

But we hung out a bit too long between our salad course and the rest of our meal because we definitely had room for dessert, drink, and appetizer!

We started with Paneer Pakora, hhome-made cheese dipped in chickpea batter and deep-fried.

This was like the Indian spin on fried mozzarella sticks. Here’s my serving –

We also ordered a fig lassi.

It was creamy with nice back hints of fig and these great little pieces of chewiness at the bottom.

We meant to share this 50:50 but I took a much larger portion because my meal was hot-hot-hot.

It’s not on the menu, but they were happy to hook me up with Tofu Vindaloo.

Vindaloo is a spicy, tomato based sauce that I’ve been dying to try because it’s notorious for melting your face off. I ordered mine “hot” hot and while this was spicy it still wasn’t quite the heat level I was hoping for. I’ve found outside of Thai food other types of heat just feel a little flat to me.

Adam repeated his order from last time, Chicken Makhani, boneless skinless tandori chicken breast prepared in tomato, butter, cream sauce and garnished with cashews and raisins.

My meals have all been good but I think there is really no way to beat this dish! The cashews and raisins are little bits of chew embedded in every bite.

The bits of chew theme continued with fantastic rice.

I told Adam during this meal that chewiness is my favorite texture sensation.

Here was plate number 1 –

Rice, tofu, plus a taste of the Makhani sauce. I ended up also topping my vindaloo liberally with raita to help cool things down.

For plate number 2 I ended up just layering all of the components into a pile.

It was a great combination of flavors. And we came home with leftovers so we’ll have happy taste buds for lunch tomorrow too.

We didn’t want to kill the date-night vibe so we ended with dessert.

Gulab Jamun, deep-fried milk balls in a sweet syrup.

These were like little donuts with the slightest flavor of milk, like tres leches light. The syrup had some sort of spice in it and lent another nice layer of flavor. It was a fun end to a fun meal.

Which Indian dish should I check out next?

21Oct2011

Good Marital Advice

by Emily

First things first.

Q – Which has more caffeine (no looking it up!) a grande coffee from Starbucks or a Red Bull energy drink?

A – The Starbucks. 330 mg versus 80 mg. (source)

Also, I have no photos of my mid-day meal. Lunch was consumed via food lab samples and I didn’t have time to photograph. The lack of pictures stinks, but the meal was gooood. Today was the fat/fat substitute group’s lab and we made regular and reduced versions of ranch dressing, buffalo chicken dip, french toast, red velvet cupcakes, and grilled cheese sandwiches. In total I consumed about 3-4 big bites of each. The cupcakes were beyond nasty (both varieties) but the dip was ridiculous good and we all stood around taking bites long after we were done tasting! Plus I ate several pieces of sourdough while I was slicing bread for the sandwiches.

I had dinner all planned out but the husband arrived home from the hospital at 6pm and confidently declared that we were going out. A good wife never contradicts her husband.