NYC At Last

I tried to go to NYC last weekend but the flights were too full. I've been wanting to get out of town, I've been jonesing for an NYC fix and I needed some catch up time with my buddy there so rather than hope Delta would cooperate I took matters in to my own hands and *gasp!* purchased a ticket.

I went out Friday night and flew home Monday early in the morning so I was at work by noon. Sounds a like a quick trip but three nights and two full days was just what I needed. After an hour of catching up on life with my buddy it was like always, like no time had passed since we last hung out. He had all sorts of things planned for us ranging from uber touristy to totally local. I have an art project in mind that requires lots of great shots of architecture and angles so that guided our travels ab it as well.

Saturday we walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, visited the newly opened 9/11 memorial, went to the Chelsea Market and had pizza at a new place he's been wanting to try. This is my favorite pic from the trip, taken from this elevated park they've built on an old railway platform.

Sunday we slept in a bit and braved the overcast, chilly day to wander Central Park, hitting some spots I hadn't been to yet, like Strawberry Field, then we went by Lincoln Center and did a little shopping for houseware goods (sounds boring but Bed Bath & Beyond NYC style is interesting!). For dinner Sunday we went to a Ramen place he'd been wanting to try but since they always have a killer long wait he just hadn't made it there yet. After an hour wait we only occupied our chairs for about 30 minutes, the soup was so good we slurped it down in record time. My wassabi veggie broth was so flavorful with these sweet bean curds on top - oh my. Then, as if that weren't enough of a treat for my belly we went to Milk, a place that specializes in wacky flavors of soft serve. I had Fried Apple Pie ice cream with Cornflake sprinkles. I kid you not, it tasted not only like apple pie but like FRIED apple pie. Yummy but bizarre.

It was the perfect blend of playing tourist, relaxing and catching up with a good friend. Paired with last weekend's beach trip I'm feeling quite content and loved :)

All of my photos are posted on Flickr here.

Another Manic Monday

Tonight we felt like being chefs. Earlier Chris went to a new local butcher shop and got some naturally raised and fed, local ground Chicken.  While I made red sauce Chris made us some meat balls.

I started with chopped onion and lots of garlic, added chili oil, salt, pepper and dried spices, once those flavors had mingled (and delightfully filled my house) I added a large can of pureed tomatoes and let the whole thing simmer for an hour.

Chris mixed the ground chicken with some spices and bread crumbs, then placed them in a pan and rolled them around until crispy. Then he covered the pan and left them on low for a bit to ensure the poultry had cooked all of the way through.

We added both of our masterpieces to a bed of linguine and topped it off with a side of garlic sunflower seed bread.

For dessert we made 'ice cream' again. In the afternoon Chris slided a ripe banana and a few strawberries, placed them on wax paper and in the freezer. After dinner we dumped them both into our blender and patiently pureed them into Strawberry Banana 'Ice Cream'. Yummy, though I will say that this combo did taste more like a smoothie. Next time we plan to try Banana Peach.

We paired the meal with the movie Larry Crowne which Chris rolled his eyes through but I thought was great. It was funny and cute, Tom Hanks is such an amazing actor though, it's hard for him to make a bad film...overall not a bad Monday.

Butternut

Guess what I made tonight... It has a kick this time! Recipe is here.

Banana Goodness

Tonight we tried Banana "Ice Cream", a recipe from the Esselstyn cook book.

• Take super ripe banana (we used 1.5 larger) and slice.
• Place slices on wax paper and freeze.
• Place frozen banana in a blender and blend.
• Result is Banana "Ice Cream".

We were quite dubious, as I'm sure you can imagine. It was AMAZING! Creamy and sweet, almost too sweet for me. We at it with sliced strawberries and it was devine. The 1.5 bananas made just enough for us to split.

Next time I'll freeze some peaches as well and try adding other fruit flavors in. Apparently any fruit that is softer (peaches, berries, mango etc) can be mixed in to add flavor.

I highly recommend trying this. It's awkward to blend, you'll want to add milk or water or something, but just stick with it - it's well worth the effort.

A Pilot's Diet for Him

I am so proud of Chris. Being a pilot eating well is an incredible challenge. He's constantly in airports and hotels which means eating at restaurants. But with on new commitment to a lifestyle change he's had to really step it up.

We committed to get meat out of the house, but he does still eat chicken while on the road occasionally. He's nixed the cheese all together though! For the most part he's been getting salads and veggies, wraps and he's even been taking fruit and trail mix with him when he leaves.

Since he's spending a lot of time in his crash pad, being on reserve, he's also been taking left overs from home, life the veggie chili I'm sending him off with this trip. Last trip he took a huge ziploc full of salad and the time before that a bag of curried cabbage.

Being surrounded by other pilots who eat poorly, and with things like a TGIFridays deal of a $5 to-go burger for pilots I know it's not at all easy to stay committed. But he has and it shows, he's pants are all hanging on him, he's out of belt notches and his collars all loose.

As for me, I'm quite annoyed at my body, I lost 20lbs in the first two weeks and nothing since. It's been nearly 3 months! BUT my pants are all loose, my shirts fit better and I can actually see the slight outline of my clavicle again so there's definitely some sort of shift going on. I just wish it would make itself apparent on our scale!

On another note, while Chris and I may be moving toward a healthier lifestyle, Roger has become quite the addict. He actually sleeps with his catnip filled Christmas mouse doll...he's licks it until it's a soggy mess, it's quite disturbing.

2012 - The Year of the Vegetarian?

Over the past few months Chris and I have managed to enact a lifestyle change.

It started the week after Thanksgiving when we both committed to a Raw Diet Cleanse. We agreed to eat only raw fruits and vegetables for as long as we could. After some research we decided that at least 7 days was required. We found some quick and easy raw recipes on about.com which got us started. For me I had a headache on day 4 but suddenly on day 5 I had tons of energy and felt amazing. After 7 days we decided to allow cooked fruits and vegetables, but still no meat dairy or really any carbs. After 14 days I had lost 20 lbs, I was more clear headed, I was sleeping better, waking up easier and felt great.

Some friends recommended that we check out the documentary Forks Over Knives. We always try to be subjective when watching documentaries, keeping in mind that they have a natural bias etc, however we found the studies and evidence presented to be very persuading. They suggest that consuming a 'whole foods plant based diet' is not only healthier but can prevent and even reverse heart disease and cancer. That combined with the dietary changes we'd already made led us to decide to give the whole foods diet a chance.

So for Christmas Chris bought me the book by one of the scientists featured in Forks over Knives, Dr. Esselstyn, in it they outline the dietary 'Rules' and about half the book is recipes that fall within the Rules. However, we believe strongly in the 'moderation' philosophy and the Rules are pretty darn extreme.

We've been watching other documentaries as well such as Food Inc and Ingredients. All of which also have us thinking about where food comes from and the amount of energy used to get it to us and the hormones and pesticides used on our foods.

My brother and his wife took on a food experiment about a year ago and started a blog - withrespectforfood.com - and I think over time we're growing more toward a slightly moderate version of their way of thinking. Stuff we've learned from them, combined with reading, documentaries and simply how we feel on our new diet has convinced us to make the following changes in our house going forward.

•  Meat has been rare in our house for years, ever since I went back to a vegetarian diet, however going forward our house will be entirely vegetarian. On rare special occasions I will get meat for Chris from local sources only.
• Carbs are now a treat, especially complex carbs like bread and pasta, when they make an appearance we stick to wheat or whole grain
• Whenever possible leave fruits and veggies raw
• No more milk or cream - we've both switched to Almond Milk
• Cheese is now a rare treat - we thought about no dairy but yogurt and cottage cheese have stuck around

Because we've cut back so drastically on carbs and meat is gone, most of our meats are completely vegetables. We keep trail mix around for snacks, and have experimented with lots of new recipes and spices.

It's been fun in some ways though it can be challenging when I've worked a 10 hour day and just want something easy. But we're learning new tricks and recipes to fill the gaps we find.

I got my parents to watch ForksOverKnives and they surprised everyone and decided to cut out all meat and dairy as well. John and Laura only eat local, happy meat so now the whole family is basically vegetarian which makes it even more fun since we're all on the same adventure together.

Lent Fast Food?

It's getting to be that season, where little girls where frilly dressers, little boys where bow ties and vests, purple and orage egg salad is found at lunch time and rabbits especially cute. Easter is coming.

I'm always reminded of this by the seafood commericals on TV, suddenly everyone from Wendy's (a burger joint) to Popeye's (a chicken joint) is pushing a seafood dish. It must be Lent season.

Last night, though, I got to thinking about this....Lent - "The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer—through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial—for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus." It is most common to give up red meat during lent, especially on Fridays, this satisfies the "self denial" part.

So around this time of year we see commercials for the juicy, delectible seafood options in fast food restaurants.

Isn't this a bit self defeating? I will deny myself the pleasure of red meat but then as a substitute I will eat this deep fried, yummy peice of fish? The fast food joints are making a killing off of successfully enticing devout, lent practicing Christians into enjoying a meal when they're supposed to be in self-denial.

I know, a bit extreme, but I still found it ironic. If I ate fast food I'd be in heaven, this is prime pescatarian (vegetarian + seafood) season in that market!

PS - while I do not participate in any of these religious traditions, I respect those who do, so please don't take this offensively, it's the fast food industry I hold at fault, not the un-suspecting lenter.

Vegetarian Adventure

Meg and I got together at my new place tonight to try some new Vegetarian dishes. We both prefer Vegetarian cuisine but neither of us really know anyone else to experiment with so it was a treat for us both.

After perusing my Vegetarian Times colllection we decided on Jamaican Curried Tempeh Tacos (only 4 WW points!) as our main course and then we make Glazed Chocolate-Avocado Cupcakes for desert (6 WW points, which isn't terrible for a sweet splurge).

Neither of us had tried Tempeh before so we were a little dubious but it was actually really good. Better than Tofu, good consistency. The lime juice was a little overpowering though. We decided that next time we might switch out the pineapple juice for coconut milk and serve it over rice...yum.

The cupcaks - oh my gosh - SO good! You would never know they had avocado instead of butter/eggs either. I was sad that I couldn't find the recipe over at the VegTimes website, but I did find it here, which was nice. It was also nice to seee someone else trying out new Veg recipes.

Anyhow - it was a nice night of catching up and digging in. I think those cupcakes will be made again soon too.

New Recipe

Traveling as much as I do I tend to make a lot of "snack sized" friends on flights. During the flight from Rome to Cinci I sat next to a gentleman named Howard. He was a very pleasant seat-mate. We chatted through meals and aside from that he was politely quiet.

One of the things we discussed was cooking and he shared a recipe that is a favorite in his family. He called it Salsa Chicken. Well, I tried it and added a few twists of my own and is yummy! I did the math and the dish is a bout 9 WW points and the salad I made to accompany it was another 3 points - still not bad for a hearty dinner! Click here to see the recipe.

Several years ago Chris made me this awesome cook book - Sara's Food Network. It has all of our favorite family recipes in the same format with little cards to give away etc. Well since then we've been stockpiling recipes to try and favorites, but I have not been diligent about adding them to the book. I've been trying to get caught up. As I go I have been putting my all time favorites here - so if you're interested....

Mango Pizza

I discovered a California Pizza Kitch (CPK) near my hotel in Ann Arbor. I hadn't been there in 4 or 5 years. I forgot how yummy they are! They seem like they might have raised their prices but who hasn't?

Tonight I had a Mango Tandoori Pizza (sans chicken of course) and half a Field Green Salad.

Just thought I'd share.

Restaurant Hoppers

I grew up in College Park where the main strip is Edgewater Drive. My Best Bud Megan too has spent most of her life living near this strip. Edgewater seems to have an endless stream of shops and restaurants opening and closing, though over the past couple of years the movements seems to have settled.



It recently dawned on Megan and I that we haven't eaten at most of the places along the strip in our own 'hood. As our Christmas gifts to each other, Megan and I decided to do somthing new. We went Restaurant Hopping down the strip.



We started around 7pm with the plan to have a four or five course meal, stopping at a new restaurant for each course. Groovy idea huh? We originally joked about pretending to be food critics in order to lessen the blow to the servers that we weren't ordering much. We went so far as to joke about bringing pens and paper and creating alter egos for ourselves. In the end however we went as our boring old selves. The funny part is tha in the end, we didn't need to falsify the facts to get great service and have a blast.



All prices are after tax and tip. Total spent each on the night, $41.



First Course - Appetizers
Location - Taste
Server - Lisa
Ordered - Herbed Goat Cheese Spread with Crackers & Ahi Tuna Tartar
History - Taste has been in College Park for years so we were both really looking forward to trying it out. The interior was nice, but while we weren't shunned, we weren't made to feel especially welcomed. Taste serves tappas (mini dishes) so we figured it would be the perfect place for appetizers and because the menu is set up for it we decided not to tell the server about our plans to hop around.
Menu - After looking over the menu we weren't overly impressed with their creativity. We felt like most of the combinations offered were typical and actually had trouble finding things we really wanted to try. In the end we settled on two dishes.
Food - Both dishes lived up to the restaurant's name and were tastey, but we felt they didn't live up to our expectations. The goat cheese was creamy but a bit bland and there wasn't enough to go around to the small handful of crackers we received. The Tartar was decent but again, not a very large portion and rather bland. In the end we did tell the server about our hopping and she mentioned Julianna's down the street had nice cooks...hmmm, we were hoping for good food but we'll see.
Total Cost - $19
Conclusion - 2.5 Stars

Second Course - Salad

Location - Harmoni Bistro
Server - Kelly

Ordered - Spring Mix Salad with almonds, goat cheese, manderine oranges topped with tahini, honey and orange juice dressing
History - Harmoni is a bit controversial around College Park. You see it sits on the ground level of a new condoplex that was recently built right on the main strip in the small quaint College Park district. The condos are large, imposing and required the destruction of some neat old buildings. For this reason the locals have been a bit hesitant to explore. Meg and I decided to check it out and were extremely imperssed. Ther is a market adjacent that provides and ecclectic and fun selection of food and affordable wines. The Bistro had a really nice vibe with a high ceiling and gorgeous stained wood beams exposed. The somehow managed to keep in intimate and not too loud though. In trying to decribe the atmosphere we could only come up with 'The new College Park' which should be taken as a huge compliment.

Menu - The menu was full of delectible choices. In fact we had to remind ourselves that we were there for salad and even then we had to really work to narrow it down to one. We told the server up front that we were hopping and she was very excited for us and even offered to split our dish in two.

Food - The salad was perfect. The goat cheese nice and fresh, the salad dressing really made the whole thing work though. So creamy and sweet. We found ourselves developing a whole menu around the salad dressing alone, pizza, ahi tuna, yogurt popsicles...yum! We told our sever of our addiction to the dressing and inquired about buying a supply to take home. She returned with the news that it's not currently for sale but as a consolation prize she had two take home tubs of the dressing all bagged up for us - free of charge. I was able to make five more salads with my dressing alone!

Total Cost - $10

Conclusion - 5 Stars

Third Course - Entree

Location - Julianna's

Server - Mike

Ordered - Shrimp, spinach and three cheese tortellini in a portofino sauce
History - Julianna's used to be a tea room and neither of us had paid it much attention until it was commended at both Taste and Harmoni. The atmosphere was cozy though our server was awkward and lacked personality.
Menu -We struggled with our choice to have our entree at Julianna's because of their lack of vegetarian friendly dishes. We found a few options though and narrowed it down to one. We told the server of our evening of hopping and while he seemed a bit miffed he did split our dish into two plates without our asking.

Food - While they made our pasta we received compimentary bread and hummus which suprised us. The hummus was tastey though we agreed probably best in small portions due to the heavy garlic. We're sad to say that we really weren't impressed with our main dish. For starters the portion was very small for an $18 dish. We each received three shrimp and less than ten small tortellini. We agreed that the tortellini tasted like it could easily have been the kind you can get frozen in bulk at Costco. The saving grace was that the owner came out as we finished our dish to ask how his place compared to the rest of our hops. We were honest and told him that the salad was the best so far. He proclaimed "ahh, that is because you didn't have my salad dressing! I will bring you a sample of my home made dressing." And he did. I tried it later and again, wasn't too impressed - sorry :( We do want to give this one another chance though.

Total Cost - $22
Conclusion - 2 Stars

Fourth Course - Dessert and Drinks
Location - K

Server - TJ

Ordered - Apple Pi a'la mode, Lava Cake & Alliance Australian Shiraz '05

History - Megan had heard of K before and had tried their sister restaurant, Nonna before. There have been many eateries located on the corner where K now sits, all of which I had found to be over priced and unimpressive so I was a hard sell from the start. We knew though going in that K was going to be pricey, Nonna is a bit cheaper and seems to be where the owner experiements on ideas for K.

Menu - The dessert selection was actually very tempting. A nice mix of fruit, excellent chocolates and other various sweets. We followed the servers recommendation though and went with a classic and of course chocolate. We briefly browsed the rest of the menu and both saw several things we would like to be able to afford to try.
Food - The applie pit was yummy, not too many apple chunks, lots of gooeyness. Though we agreed the chef was a bit heavy on the crust to filling ratio. The lava cake was the real gem though. Chocolate cake with a gooey hot sauce center, served with raspberries and mint it was irresistable. We agreed it was a close contender with my Mom's brownie pudding. We also ordered a glass of Shiraz (what girl can have chocolate without some red wine!?)
Total Cost - $31

Conclusion - 4 Stars

Megan and I always have a good time, no matter what we're doing. But this night was an especially memorable event, at least for me. I'd love to go back and try all of the places again to see how they rate the second time around. We've already discussed making a habit out of Restaurant Hopping - if we do I'll be sure to let you know. Thanks for the great gift Meg!