Dinner with Outstanding in the Field

Tonight was amazing!  I am so sorry for another lame post, I truely truely am.  I get so excited about food but I have so much to say that it is too much and I’m exhausted.

Dinner was put on by Outstanding in the Field (a very locavore, farm to table, excited about sustainability organization) and was held at Greenleaf Warehouses.  The setting was legit a warehouse, I love industrial/fashionable settings.

DSC00708

DSC00709

DSC00715

You can just go ahead and multiply this glass of vino by 3.

DSC00710

And I had 1 shrimp crisp,

DSC00711

and a whipped tuna cracker.

DSC00712

Dinner was family style, so we got to serve ourselves.  First was a pickled veggie plate Ahi tonnato on pain de mie with gochukaura and parsley.

DSC00714

I loved how spicy everything was.

DSC00716

Next was soup Mushroom dashi, maitake, shimeji, enoki mushrooms.

DSC00717

It was very similar to a miso but the mushrooms had an insanely lemon taste.  This was the only thing I didn’t love.

Then they brought out udon noodles with fresh calamari Udon, grilled Monterey calamari in a browned butter ponzu reduction, cucumber, kaiware, frisee & yellow pear tomato with chojang & sesame vinaigrette.

DSC00718

I was very nervous about it but Jenna convinced me to try a taste.

DSC00719

So glad I did!  I actually really liked the calamari but the soba noodles were the best, very doughy and raw.  Plus the dish had a good spice kick.

Then came salmon and mushroom risotto Salmon baked with dashikombu, fried garlic and Japanesse curry powder / Mushroom risotto with koshihikari rice, crispy maitake mushrooms.

DSC00721

DSC00722

I don’t know why I took such a tiny serving, but it was delicious.  I love love loved the curry powder.

DSC00723

There was oxtail, but I obviously ignored it, and then came out a platter of brussels sprouts Roasted brussels sprouts, ponzu fried garlic, guanciale, bonito flakes.  Jenna told me there was short rib in them, so I resisted.  But brussels sprouts are in my top five all time food favorites, so I finally said f’ it and ate one.  Delish.  Then the waitress came by, and said “vegetarian.”  So I loaded up a plate.

DSC00724

So.Fricking.Fantastic.  They tasted like McDonald’s fries, which sounds awful but was just amazing.  However, apparently, so not vegetarian.  They definitly had pork in them.  Which makes me quite sad 😦 

Finally, dessert.  Ah dessert Koshihikari rice pudding, cookie crumble, and warren pear.

DSC00725

I love rice pudding, but  the pear, oh the pear!  I had a bite of pear at the farmer’s market this morning and I’ve been telling people all day that it was seriously the best thing I’ve eaten out here.  The dessert was from the same farm!!!  I was in heaven.

Before we headed out they did Foodbuzz awards which was a lot of fun.  I definitly congratualate some very deserving winners!

A bus ride later, Camile and I walked the mile back to our hotel for the last time.  On the way home I just might have seen a 7-11 and shrieked at the top of my lungs.  Bosenberry and cola, oh yeah.

DSC00726

Even more exciting?  Getting in bed now!  Tomorrow morning there is a goodbye breakfast and then I fly all day long and get back home at midnight!  I have a big test on Monday so I’m not sure what the posting situation will be.  I hope everyone else’s weekend ends well!!

Challenge Balance – $31.71

Saturday Evening – Monday Afternoon

Hello, hello, hello!  Merry Monday to everyone who is working.  I’m loving vacation but I actually am looking forward to having a “work” schedule again; not that I know where/if I’ll be working next year.

As predicted, Saturday night’s dinner was awesome.  The view from my seat was this –

HPIM3843

Even better, they sent out a complimentary amuse bouche.
This was a crostada with chutney and chicken if I remember correctly.

HPIM3844

Similarly, Adam ordered mushroom brushetta, which I ate a slice of, for his appetizer.

HPIM3846

I didn’t do an appetizer because I knew my dinner was going to be pretty rich.  I ordered the Blackened Mahi sauteed spinach, garlic mashed potatoes, chipotle red pepper lobster cream sauce, avocado crab salad.

HPIM3847

This was so good.  I gave the husband the avocado crab salad because he loves that sort of thing but I devoured the rest.

For dessert we split a plate of homemade truffles.

HPIM3848

Doing some knife gymnastics we got each candy cut into four pieces so we all could try everything.

Intense torrential downpour canceled all of our bar plans, but we did manage to have another great evening playing games.  I had another iced coffee with skim milk,

HPIM3849

and a big bowl of air-popped corn that I didn’t snap a picture of.

Sunday – no sun day

The rain continued but we didn’t let it get us down!  My mom made beer bread so I ate both end pieces for breakfast with a slice of swiss cheese.

HPIM3850

Beer bread is so tasty, I think it might be time for me to get the frickin’ recipe from her!

Next Adam and I accompanied my parents on a trip to the grocery store.  We were pretty impressed by the variety of produce at The Fruit Bowl.  When I grew up here as a kid there were not a whole lot of choices.  To this day when I go to gas stations in the states I stand in front of the drink fridge and just stare at all the choices.

For lunch my mom semi-homade’d some super tasty pizza.  She sauteed onion, spinach, green olives and red pepper and then put them on top of frozen cheese pizza before she baked it.

HPIM3851

This was so yummy I ended up going back for a 2nd, unphotographed, slice.  I also had some juicy watermelon.

HPIM3852

And more iced coffee.

HPIM3853

I enjoyed my coffee but I immensely enjoyed tucking into a stack of Archies in the middle of the day.  Mid-afternoon we headed out to the movies to see “I Love You, Beth Cooper.”  Terrible.  It was too teenagey for us, which is fine, clearly we were not the intended age group, but I was disgusted by the fact that they made it “cool” to drive like a maniac.  I’ve known way too many people who’ve gotten killed or seriously injured in a car accident so I don’t think it’s ever funny to be a bad driver.  In fact, my new favorite PSA is the one where a game show host pops into the back seat and reminds a kid to tell his friend to slow down.  My movie snack did not suck at least, I only ever eat Jordan Almonds from the movie theatre in St. Thomas.

HPIM3854

After more relaxation it was time for dinner.  My mom cooked Adam and my dad chicken and dumplings, which I hate, so I rustled up dinner on my own.

HPIM3857

I think I ended up with a pretty good spread!  Beer bread,

HPIM3859

ants on a log,

HPIM3860

and a salad – iceberg, Parmesan, cashews, red pepper, cucumber.

HPIM3858

I semi-homemade’d myself some dressing by shaking together these two things:

HPIM3856

The evening fun was, you guessed it, more games.  And I’m not going to say I didn’t eat 1 or 2 unphotographed chocolate chip cookies.

Monday

I woke up this morning in a total funk.  I was hot, hungry, and just plain aggravated.  I think a lot of it is that I’m getting nervous about our upcoming move and going (or especially Not going) back to school.  My cold shower helped and so did stopping at Subway on the way to my mom’s library.

HPIM3862

6″ tuna subs are good but I was especially cheered up by the two cookies.

HPIM3861

I played BattleShipwith the husband for a bit and after I am done with this post we are going to do some online consumer report comparing for my birthday gift.  He surprised me the other day by insisting that I get a heart rate moniter for my b-day; I’ve wanted one forever but haven’t been able to justify spending the money on myself.  We agreed to look for cheapish one and my parents offered to pay 1/2 as my birthday gift from them so I’m pretty excited.

P.S. don’t forget to enter this sweet Soap & Chocolate giveaway.

Friday Afternoon – Saturday Afternoon

Well, I am still enjoying my vacation.  How are you enjoying your weekend?  After my last post the husband and I headed to a local favorite for some lunch.

HPIM3814

If you ever visit St. Thomas, Shipwreck is actually a bit overpriced, but we had a coupon.  I ordered the Buffalo Chicken Sub, which came with fries.

HPIM3815

Spicy buffalo chicken tenders with pepperjack cheese and blue cheese dressing, count me in!

HPIM3816

I let Adam eat 90% of my fries but I demolished my sandwich.  I have a serious weakness for buffalo chicken sandwiches (good thing I’m moving to Buffalo NY, eh?).  In general I am able to make healthy choices at restaurants, except when I am choosing to indulge, but no matter what my intentions I am powerless when I see this option!  The annoying thing is that it doesn’t even have to be so unhealthy – I would probably like it better with grilled chicken!  My problem in recreating them is that I’ve yet to find a sauce that tastes like “buffalo” to me.  Any suggestions?

After lunch we headed home for some showers.  Adam spent the rest of the afternoon playing chess with my dad but I drove back to school to do some work.  I spent 4 – 5:30 doing chemistry studying.

Next the family headed out for a fun dinner at Enkai, a new sushi spot.  It was right on the water so husband and I posed for some pictures.

HPIM3817

HPIM3819

I love my hometown (duh, it’s an island!) but I had to do some Brooklyn representing!

HPIM3821

The restaurant was super cute,

HPIM3823

I love it when tablescapes are mismatched.  But the lighting was really dim so my pictures are all terrible.  I also have zero description because I couldn’t take my usual close-ups of the menu descriptions.  We started with some edame,

HPIM3825

which I pretty much polished off by myself, sorry guys!

My parents don’t really eat real sushi, as raw as they get is smoked salmon (because they are used to lox and bagels) so we stuck to tempora shrimp, lobster, crab sticks, and smoked salmon.  My mom dad and I split 4 rolls,

HPIM3827

here are my pieces –

HPIM3828

HPIM3829

HPIM3830

HPIM3831

Everything was delicious!  When I looked at my camera later I realized I only ate 11pieces (aka 1.5rolls), no wonder I was still a little hungry.

After sushi fun we came home for more games 🙂 We are definitely trying to rope my parents into playing at least one game a day while we are here.  I made my mommy and I frozen coffees (4C cold, strong, coffee; 1tray ice cubes; 1/2C skim milk; 3/4C coffee chip ice-cream) while we played.

HPIM3832

They weren’t all that sweet, but they were super icy – perfection.  I also ate 3 more chocolate chip cookies.

HPIM3833

I’ve decided I’m done with the cookies, I physically cannot stick to just one.

After game time Adam and I headed out to meet up with some high school friends at Mojos, a new bar.  They had some good drink specials so I got a $2 strawberry mojito.

HPIM3835

I was driving so after that I stuck with small sips of the husband’s Cruzan Dark with Cokes.  We stayed out past 2 though so by the end of the night not drinking I had eaten most of this pack of Newman’s Own Organic mints.

HPIM3834

Peppermint tummyache was more than worth the good time we had with our friends though.

Saturday – dining delight

Our late homecoming only slightly effected our wake up this morning, we made it out the door before 8:30.  We had plans to meet some friends for lunch and I wanted to get some studying done so we decided to park ourselves at my favorite spot on earth – Barefoot Buddha Cafe.  We timed it so we could have both breakfast and lunch there, it is that good!

For breakfast I ordered the Bigfoot Bagel.

HPIM3836

HPIM3837

Holy frick, I cannot even describe how good this is!  It has turkey bacon, egg whites, tomato coulis, spinach, aioli…..drool

We ate breakfast around 8:45 and then I spent 9 – 12 deep in chemistry.  When it was time to come up for air our lunch date had arrived.

I was in the mood for hot coffee so I ordered a vodoo latte; it has espresso and coconut milk.

HPIM3838

It was gorgeous, look at the heart –

HPIM3839

And for food I got a sweet potato wrap.

HPIM3840

It had sweet potato, chipotle sauce, goat cheese, and was pretty fantastic.  Not as good as my breakfast but pretty damn close!

After lunch we ran some errands with my mommy and at some point it seemed like a good idea to go to Wendy’s for a cookie dough twisted frosty.  {for which I magically seem to have no picture} This put me over the edge fullnesswise.  Looking back on this post there has been a lot of indulging in the last two days (I feel like that’s been the norm these last few months, that is good for fun times but not as a norm!).  I want to assume that it’s time for some leafy greens and light choices but being realistic we are headed to a fancy French spot tonight and I don’t see that happening.  Tomorrow (maybe!).

We will probably meet up with friends again after our French dinner but I’m not sure what the plan for tomorrow is.  Just in case anyone is wondering about the lack of beach time I wanted to address that: even though I grew up on an island I do love the beach, it is gorgeous even if you’ve seen it a billion times.  However, I am very careful with my skin – growing up on an island means even without tanning I’ve already had way too much sun exposure – so I don’t tend to calmor for the beach.  And right before this trip my husband had an abnormal mole removed from his back so for now I’d mostly rather keep him out of the sun.  How do you take care of your skin?

I was born and raised in St. Thomas, here are some fun facts about my island childhood

  1. Down here we drive typical American cars (steering wheel on the left side) but we drive on the left side of the road.  The first time I had to drive on the right in the states it was pretty scary for me!
  2. I graduated from a private prep school in a class of 40.  I was very fortunate to be at private school (my mom is a teacher so we had tuition credits) because the year I graduated all of the local public schools were deemed non-accredited.
  3. I am a US citizen, but I can never run for president.  People born in commonwealths or US military bases outside of the US can, but people born in territories can not.
  4. Similarly, I could not vote in a presidential election until I established residency in the continental US.
  5. (Partly due to the lack of voting rights and partly because of the lack of highways) Even though we are a part of the US the drinking age here is 18 years old!!!

What are some fun facts about your hometown?

Wednesday Morning – Friday Morning

Hello, vacation-style!  I hope everyone is having a good week, the vacay has been nice and relaxing so far.  I’m in a bit of a time crunch today so I’ll try to keep this recap pretty brief.  Just fyi – I only have internet when I go to work with my mommy so I’ll be doing a recap every few days until I get back home.

Wednesday – travel day

Our flight was at 8:15am so we had to get up nice and early.  We had to leave our car in long-term parking so we actually drove to the airport.  Thankfully, Mapquestgot us there in time to get breakfast, of sorts.  There were not many restaurants and those that were there didn’t have full menus.  I ended up with a Wendy’s Maple Baked Frescuit with egg and cheese.

HPIM3777

It actually tasted pretty good; I love the sweet-savory combo so cheese with maple syrup was nice.  And when I looked up the nutritional information online this morning I learned that it only had 390calories.

Being at airports always makes me think about having kids (not that it isn’t on my mind anyways!).  Adam and I have always discussed how important it is to make exercise fun for kids – the more you make movement into a game the better.  Even now, when we come to a moving walkway one of us will ride and the other will walk alongside and we will race!

We had a straight flight, which meant we were at my house before 2pm!  My mom always has a gift waiting for me on the bed.

HPIM3778

I wanted to get right into reading but Adam needed to go to his old doctor to do some forms for medical school so off we went.  I ate a baggie of baby carrots during the ride.

HPIM3779

The husband took forever so my father and I ended up taking a long walk on the boat docks.  I drank a Ting.

HPIM3780

My parents cooked us a great dinner.

HPIM3781

WW pasta with parmesan cheese,

HPIM3782

spinach and tomatoes cooked in toasted sesame oil,

HPIM3783

and broiled salmon.

HPIM3784

I also ate a slice of dry sourdough toast.

HPIM3785

They did a great job, everything was delicious.  Also good was my snack.

HPIM3786

Huge cup of coffee with skim milk,

HPIM3787

and homemade chocolate chip cookies.

HPIM3788

We played Pictionary and cards and by the time we were done I had actually eaten 4 cookies!  My cookie control was down a bit because of booze 🙂

HPIM3789

My favorite drink on earth is oj with cinnamon Stoli.  They actually stopped making this Stoli, my mom and I have 2 of the last bottles available, but it is equally good with Goldschlager. We each had one, yum.

HPIM3790

Thursday – “it’s so hot!”

In spite of not staying up all that late playing games (my dad is pretty intense about bedtime, he is my sleep role model) we could not get going Thursday morning.  I was supposed to get up and work out but that did not happen.  I woke up 3hours later than planned, ate breakfast, and went back to sleep for the rest of the day.  The husband and I think it’s because it was so hot.  At least I did have a great breakfast.

HPIM3791

A small chopped nectarine, half a banana, and ground flax seed.

HPIM3792

Plus a Low Fat Pineapple Chiobani.

HPIM3793

This was the first time I ever saw this flavor and it was awesome, I hope this comes to NY!

After my intense napping session I managed to drag myself to the shower and get gussied.  We ended up eating at the restaurant right near where we got married so Adam and I had to take some pictures!  This spot is exactly where we said our wedding vows –

HPIM3796

HPIM3800

HPIM3801

We had a fun time, it is hard to believe it’s been so long since December 28th, 2007.  1.5years, we are not even newlyweds anymore!

After some rememberings we headed to dinner, I slept through lunch so I was pretty starving.  I started with a beyond fabulous passionfruit colada,

HPIM3804

and my dad and I split a sandwich and salad for dinner.

HPIM3805

Fire roasted chicken paninni sliced chicken breast, roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, goat cheese, and a garlic and basil ailoi.

HPIM3807

Key Lime Caesar Salad.

HPIM3806

I ate half of everything.  The sandwich was good but a little greasy and I loved the salad, the lime cut through the usual creaminess wonderfully.

After dinner we went home for more board games and cards – Monopoly and Gin Rummy – we are serious nerds about game night!  I drank an iced coffee with skim milk, along with some desserts.

HPIM3808

First, two homemade chocolate chip cookies,

HPIM3811

and even better – Greek Gods Honey Greek Yogurt,

HPIM3809

frozen,

HPIM3810

oh yeah, this was so good!  Freezing Greek Yogurt (I’ve only tried it with flavored but I imagine that plain would be a lot like Pinkberry) turns it into slushy, granita-like goodness, I highly recommend it.

Friday– wake up!

Today, I managed to get my butt out of bed!  I went with my mom to an 8am spin class so we had to get up by 7.  We left extra early because we dropped Adam off at the beach, with a bucket of beer!  I ate this Luna Bar in the car for breakfast.

HPIM3812

The class was 60minutes of spin and floor work.  I don’t know if it was the sugary breakfast, that I was feeling sick yesterday, or that I’m out of shape, but my butt was kicked!  I felt so sick I actually had to sick down and skip the lunges.  I chugged some water and I’ve been sitting so I’m feeling a little better but it sucked at the time.

Now I’m hanging out at my mom’s library, hopefully headed towards some studying.  The husband and I are getting lunch soon so we’ll see what happens.  I will most likely be doing another post on Sunday, hope everyone has a great weekend!

For now, I will leave you with a list of the songs I played while I typed, found on my mom’s i-pod!!!

  • Viva la Vida – Coldplay
  • Single Ladies – Beyonce
  • Boom Boom Pow – Black Eyed Peas
  • Low – Flo Rida
  • Blame It – Jamie Foxx
  • That’s Not My Name – The Ting Tings

I Didn’t Have to Go to School Today

The title doesn’t really relate to anything, I’m just still excited about it 🙂

My parents really wore us out, we stayed in bed until 11am getting our sleep on!  When I did finally wake up I had a killer headache that knocked me back into bed for most of the day.  When I did finally get up we had no food so breakfast/lunch was this –

HPIM3625

I ate one row of this Riter Sport bar.

HPIM3626

I took care of some business and did some cleaning and then Adam and I headed to Trader Joe’s to fix the food situation.  I needed to eat something so I made a cup of this before I left.

HPIM3627

Vanilla hempmilk and No Sugar Added Strawberry CIB are a bad combo, lesson learned.

HPIM3628

I choked it down (with a fish oil pill) but I did not enjoy it.

We had a great time at Trader Joe’s but it took forever.  We went to Staples first so I could redeem a coupon and then we did some serious aisle wandering.  I was starving by the time we got home.  I ate this Yoplait Light Thick and Creamy Yogurt in cherry cobbler.

HPIM3629

Yums!  This is a 100calorie product that I am 100% behind.  I found this on a big sale the other day so expect to see a lot of them!  I also ate a serving of this TJ’s sliced Asiago cheese.

HPIM3630

Next we headed out for an easy run.  We did 2miles around the ‘hood.  My goal for June is to get back into running.  Here is my training schedule – I will do 3-4 runs per week

  • week 1 – 2miles
  • week2 – 3miles
  • week3 – 3.5miles
  • week4 – 4miles
  • week5 – 4.5miles

I have really bad joints so I’m forcing myself to really take it easy and be careful with them.

When we got home we got right down to dinner.  I ate a serving of these Newman’s Own Organics Spelt Pretzels.

HPIM3632

These are so tasty, they are my favorite type of pretzel.

Dinner was quick, easy, and delicious.  We threw together these ingredients in under 15minutes.

HPIM3631

We cooked the mac following the box directions and added 1.5C of frozen artichoke hearts in the last 3minutes.  After draining the pasta we stirred in the cheese powder and 1can of boneless skinless tuna.  I ignored the directions at that point, skipping the milk entirely and subbing evoo for butter. 

HPIM3635

Finally I topped my serving with 1.5T seasoned bread crumbs, 1T goat cheese, and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes.

HPIM3634

This was so satisfying and delicious, I even made a recipe page for it!

HPIM3636

After a much-needed shower, it will be time for bed.  I have an early morning planned for tomorrow so I’ll see you then 🙂

What is your favorite thing to add to mac and cheese?  We always do canned tuna or salmon and some sort of veggie.