Friday Equals Shopping and Dinner Out … Again

As you know we were up late last night and that meant we were rushed this morning. Dan had his favorite green smoothie for breakfast that contained all the usual items: raw kale, frozen banana, wheat germ, freshly ground flaxseeds, cinnamon, powdered ginger a pinch of stevia and a little water.

I had no idea what I wanted for breakfast because we had a big dinner last night, since we eat out. In the end I made myself a salad that consisted of: mesclun, carrots, celery, salsa, white bean cheeze and raw pumpkin seeds. When I made the white bean cheeze most recently I intentionally made it thinner (but adding more of the bean cooking liquid) because I wanted to use it as salad dressing and that worked our very well. You can expect to see that again in the future since I eat so many salads and I liked the way it worked out today.

I mentioned yesterday that Dan was going try to work a half day today and he actually did it. However before he came home he met Dan Jr. for lunch in Hunt Valley at Jesse Wong's. It will come as no surprise that Dan ordered the faux duck since that is something that we both love. He also got some extra veggies with the duck but forgot to ask for brown rice until lunch came. However he does better when ordering than most husband’s so I am not going to complain about his choices.

My lunch was quinoa, more of the bean cheeze, salsa, cucumbers with pickled onions and dill. As you can you probably noticed I really wasn’t in the mood to eat for some unknown reason. I also grabbed an orange and two Brazil nuts but forgot to photograph it.

Once Dan came home we decided to run out for a little while and run some errands. Since we were already out I thought a quick trip by Marshall’s was a good idea because you never know what you are going to find. As luck would have it I found organic dried fruit (mangoes, bananas, apples, apricots) with nothing else added. I grabbed 8 bags of that since plain dried fruit is so not easy to come by. They also had organic freeze dried strawberries which were a requirement. Sometimes I stop in and find only clothes and other times there are interesting food items like today.

On the way home we were debating stopping at the restaurant for dinner but of course we hadn’t planned or made reservations so we hesitated since they like advance notice. However I hadn’t made prepped anything for dinner so we opted to run with scissors and make reservations when we were 15 minutes away from the restaurant.

Of course I started the evening in the kitchen because I had to say my hellos, get my hugs and chat. We hadn’t seen Ian yesterday and I wanted to talk before he got too busy. We chatted for a few minutes and I offered to make up my own dishes but Will and Ian said they had everything under control so I let it go. Both Ian and Will commented that they didn’t know we were coming which was code for “why didn’t you warn us?”. They were both good sports about the lack of notice though.

When I came out of the kitchen Dan and Alan (one of the owners) were chatting. Alan had just read the NYT article about sugar so that was topic they were discussing when I arrived. We talked about food, nutrition and health…all my favorite topics. I am not kidding when I say we just fit right in. LOL

Jenn made us our usual green tea and hibiscus blend which we had hot tonight since it was just a bit cool. We started out in the sun on the patio but moved under the roof since rain was coming.

Ian actually brought our first course out of the kitchen. This may not sound like a big deal but Ian is a back office kind of guy so that is not his thing. He must really like us, LOL. ;-) We started with a very thin crispy flatbread with an achiote rub that was topped with a salad of radish, red pepper and cilantro. This was so good that Dan asked for a repeat of this for the forth course. It was reminiscent of a pizza but not which I know probably doesn’t help much. I guess you could say it was similar to a salad topped cracker. However you describe it was light yet flavorful and we both really liked it.

Not long after we were finished with the first course the rain rolled through. The wind picked up and the temperatures dropped and it was almost a little chilly. We sat under the roof and watched the rain fall. I really love the sound of the rain as it hits the pavement. For me the sound of rain is almost meditative.

The second course was inventive and right up our alley since it was a combination of flavors that we both love. The base of the plate was an avocado, miso and mirin puree which was topped with fresh strawberries, avocado and baby arugula.

The third course was spicy chickpea with wilted spinach and crispy whole wheat flat bread finished with my favorite thing (sriracha). You cannot go wrong with this combination.

During the evening we had a chance to chat a little with Alan, Corey, Ian, Will, Michael, David, Jenn, Shah, Ahmed, and Stephanie. Doug and Vaz were also working this evening but there were busy this evening. I did get a chance to say hello and good bye to them but not much else. Everyone at the restaurant is so nice. Corey and Ian have really put together a great group of people.

Book Giveaway:

I will be using a random number generator to pick the book give away winner before tomorrow’s post. If you haven’t entered yet you have a little while since I am turning in as soon as get this post up.

Happy thoughts:

Today was another one of those days when I have too many things to be happy about which means I needed to pare down my list. Really? Not such a bad problem to have is it?

• It was great to spend the afternoon and all evening with Dan. We had a good time goofing off, going shopping and having dinner out. We get along so well that I often forget that not everyone is as happily married as we are. However I know I am very lucky to be married to my best friend.

• It was a stroke of luck that I found the organic dried fruit (nothing added) today at Marshall’s. That type of product is never easy to come by. As soon as I crack into a bag if we like the brand I will let you know what it is.

• The rain held off most of the day and that was a very good day. Somehow rain is less of an annoyance when it happens overnight.

• Driving to the restaurant there was a nice moment when the sun was streaming through clouds. My picture doesn’t really do the view justice but it was very nice. It was a nice reminder that there is always sunshine on the other side of the storm which I thought was telling of life in general.

• Our three precious little fur children must really love their human parents since they all met us at the front door when we came home. Additionally they followed us around like little “cat puppies” for over a half an hour. We are very lucky to have them in our lives.

• Dinner out this evening was nice as always. We had a lovely meal and good company. It was also great to sit outside, listen to rain fall and sip tea. What a lovely way to wind down the day.

• We also have plans Saturday and Sunday that we are looking forward to. Of course I will tell you about that later.

• Tuesday we are going to hear Ottmar Liebert and may get to see Jose Andres. *fingers crossed* We will find out about Jose soon and if that happens hopefully I will be able to speak this time and make up for my complete inability to verbalize the last time. I need to redeem myself otherwise Dan will never let me live it down. ;-)

Signing Out:

See what I mean about having too many happy thoughts? This has been a very good week but also a busy one. I could use a little quiet time to wind down. Next week is also going to be a little busy but I am going to try to work in a little relaxing time if I can.

It is after midnight here which means it is time for me to wind down. I hope your week was as good as mine has been. Talk to you again tomorrow (Saturday).