Kingston Station

A few hours before meeting John downtown for dinner with his colleague and her fiance, I snacked on a bowl of honeydew melon. During the winter months, I always forget how absolutely divine in-season melons are! Watch out, apples – a bigger spherical fruit is going to take your place in the fridge.

John and I arrived at Kingston Station a bit before our dining mates, so we saddled up the bar. I ordered a glass of Canaletto Pinot Noir, which was served in this cute little stemless wine glass:

Now, I am a fan of room-temp red wine, but this wine was served on the warm side. The taste was good, the temperature was not.

Once all four of us were seated, we ordered the Truffle Fries: House cut french fries topped with melted gruyere cheese, truffle oil, & sliced scallion. As you can probably surmise from my daily eats, fries don’t often make their way into my mouth – but with a description like that, how could I not sample a few?

Of course, they tasted amazing. Crispy fries + melty cheese = comfort food to the max. I cut myself off after a few tastes, because I had my order to look forward to.

Instead of ordering one entree, I ordered two appetizers. I expected the waitress to bring them separately, but I ended up with two plates in front of me… worse things have happened.

Appetizer choice #1: Stuffed Brie: Stuffed with mascarpone, dried figs, cranberries, & apricot filling. Served with crostini & frisee walnut salad.

Talk about melty cheese – brie is one of my all-time favorite cheeses! It reminds me of the breakfasts we’d have in high school French class… I think I learned more about French cuisine than about the actual language The filling of this brie was creamy, flavorful, and decadent – I loved the dried fruit addition. I ate two or three of the crostini (what’s up with that huge pile of bread?) smeared with the soft, warm, fruit-studded filling. Then I switched over to my fork to scrape the gooey filling from the rind – I know it’s edible, but I prefer the interior.

The frisee and walnut mini-salad was also tasty! The delicate frisee was a lovely bed for the candied walnuts.

Appetizer #2: Pear Salad: Mixed greens & sliced pear topped w/goat cheese, toasted hazelnut &  lemon vinaigrette.

If there’s a salad with goat cheese, nuts, and fruit on a restaurant menu, chances are I’ll order it. I was not disappointed in the slightest with this choice. Check out the hunk of candied hazelnuts over to the right – it was like hazelnut brittle! The vinaigrette was nice and light, and didn’t compete with the crumbled goat cheese. There weren’t many pear slices, but the ones I found were yummy.

I’m a little cheesed-out at the moment (didn’t think that was possible), but I thoroughly enjoyed tonight’s meal. It’s fun to order two small dishes rather than one large one; it goes back to the discussion I raised in this post.

It was a fun night of good food and delightful company!

A Happy Herbivore Recipe

I was scrolling through my vast list of bookmarked recipes, and stopped at Lindsay’s Curried Chickpea Pitawich. I had all of the ingredients on hand, and it seemed like the ideal post-workout lunch (a balance of protein & carbs).

I made a few substitutions and one omission (yellow mustard), and scaled the recipe down for 1 serving:

• 1/2 cup chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 Tbsp Indian curry powder
• 1/2 Tbsp water
• squeeze of fresh lemon juice
• pinch each of garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, ground ginger, garam masala, cayenne, and salt
• 1/2 of a large TJ’s whole wheat pita
• baby spinach
• 3 heaping Tbsp plain non fat yogurt mixed with about 1/2 Tbsp of the jalapeno-cilantro pesto I made last night

I followed Lindsay’s directions for cooking the chickpeas and then I “built” my pitawich.

This is an AWESOME recipe! The combination of spices was delicious on the warm chickpeas. This is going to be a repeat meal. Thanks, Lindsay!

Side note: Lindsay’s gorgeous photos from her recent trip to Yosemite are getting me excited for my and John’s honeymoon to Jackson Hole, Wyoming! We’re staying at the Four Seasons at the base of the Grand Teton Mountains. I can’t wait

I blended up a smoothie to satisfy my sweet tooth after lunch.

This yummy concoction included:

• ripe & sweet honeydew chunks
• unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• my [semi] homemade wild berry frozen yogurt, which I pulled out from the back of our freezer

Perfectly sweet, with a hint of richness from the light coconut milk. Yum!

Ooooh, That Smell!

I started this gorgeous Tuesday morning off with 2 cups of coffee brewed with pumpkin pie spice. The warm autumnal flavors and aroma pair so well with coffee!

To go with my pumpkin pie coffee, I made pumpkin pie oats:

Stovetop:

• 1/4 cup each rolled oats, oat bran, skim milk & pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 banana
• 2 smallish medjool dates (I like to save the big, plump ones for stuffing with nut butter )

Mix-ins/Add-ons:

• 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed
• pure maple extract
• pumpkin pie spice
• 1 Tbsp PB & Co Mighty Maple peanut butter

The aroma of the maple extract and pumpkin pie spice hitting the hot oats was absolute heaven. I think the way food smells has a lot to do with the overall eating experience.

Is there a food whose smell you…

• a) can’t stand?
• b) can’t resist?