Autumn Dinner

I'll spare you the excuses for not posting. Especially since I don't have any. However, The Pedant and I are back with a vengeance! Mwahaha!!

Starting off with a weekend of eating well. We, like oh so many, have decided to pinch some pennies and try eating out less. Our goal is to go to fewer restaurants but when we do go out, we'll eat only at top notch establishments and spend wisely. No shlock for us!! So, Friday I happened to be off from work and decided to make a nice meal for TP. (I also made bran muffins, ala Mark Bittman. Quite tasty!). Speaking of Bittman, I took a hint from his menus for "Autumn Dinners" and made a 3-course meal for us (oo-la-la! But also: leftovers!)

The Menu:

French Potato and Leek Soup
Spicy Autumn Burgers
Caramelized Onion Chutney
Whole Wheat Couscous
Apple Crumble

The soup was a Weight Watchers recipe that I'd made before and was nice and thick and warm and tasty. I slipped with the fake chicken soup and it's a bit salty for my tastes, but it's so good I don't mind too much.

The burgers, made with kale, white beans, sweet potatoes, panko and spices, were lightly (like a total of 2 tablespoons EVOO for 8 patties) fried and really good. It was a Bittman recipe and he suggested (in the menu, from which I stole the soup and apple crumble from too) to serve it with the caramelized onion chutney and millet mash (hence couscous) and was really great. It was sweet and spicy.

The chutney was super easy to make and the perfect opportunity to try out our new food processor. It gave a lot of extra flavor to the burgers.

The dessert, a WW recipe for apple crumble, was good but not fantastic. First, you are to bake the apples with some splenda and cinnamon in the oven for like 10 minutes. Then, you take some rolled oats, egg whites, splenda, and cinnamon and roll it out thinly on a baking sheet and "toast" for 2 minutes in a hot oven. The apple part was tasty - very autumn-y and soft, but I didn't roll out the crumble topping enough and it was clumpy and hard. However, very low calorie and really good. We even ate on our balcony - perfect for DC fall weather!

Tapas Success!

The party went well.

The best tortilla española recipe is the one with the cheese and spinach in it. It was super-tasty.

Also, the Sherbs is the new household queen of patatas bravas. She makes great spicy potatoes.

As for me, let me share my recipe for sangria:

• 1 ½ bottles red wine,
• ½ bottle cherry wine,
• 2 shots triple sec,
• 2 shots brandy,
• 2 cups lemon-lime soda,
• assorted fruit.

Everyone thought it was pretty awesome.

Fresh?!?

We are having a tapas party today. Part of that party is tortilla Española and patatas bravas, both of which involve potatoes. We got a big ol' bag of potatoes, and were surprised to find that the large logo on the bag read "Jersey Fresh."

Yes, Jersey fresh.

Evidently the Garden State, trying to reclaim its former glory as tomato supplier to America, is promoting the equivalence that Jersey = Fresh. Despite the fact that, on our trips through Jersey, this is the image of freshness we get:

(stolen from this blogger's site)

That's some quality, Blade Runner freshness for you.

The potatoes are actually fine, but the packaging is hilarious.

Cheerios Mix

The Cheerios Cheddar Snack Mix is not as good as Chex Mix.

Cheerios just do not work well in a savory snack mix.  They're too sweet n' oaty.  I think I do not want oats with my "cheez"-covered pretzels.

Dinner Possible!

After finally getting back into the swing of things (but missing Spain oh-so-much!) The Pedant and I have begun cooking again.

salad. The Sunday we had an excellent dinner. It was a really simple and tasty light dinner: a tortellini salad. The recipe came from a low-fat vegetarian cook book. Basically, cook refrigerated tortellini. Make a salad with mixed greens, a pepper and some mushrooms. Make a dressing out of white wine vinegar, sugar, EVOO and water. Put some crutons in (which TP made himself from a mini baguette). Toss. Enjoy.

And we did.

Last night for dinner we made a chick pea tagine from this months' Vegetarian Times. It came out well. Although we didn't realize it until today's lunch since our sink was leaking. In order to avoid a large smelly pile of dishes, we went out to the local Greek place. Only problem: the food was sooooo tasty (not the problem) I ate it all and got a belly ache in the middle of the night (problem). Oh well.

Spain!

So as The Pedant said, we're married and Spain was amazing.

Here were my highlights:

1) CHEESE: The breakfast buffet had like 8 different kinds of cheeses and they were perfectly divine. I did eat my weight in cheese one morning and it was amazing. So much cheese.

2) PASTRIES: Every day should be a vacation where calories only matter slightly, so that I can eat a croissant and a pastry at each breakfast buffet. Good thing I was only there for a week. Plus, I went back to my exercise class last night and I worked super hard so it's like nothing happened...oh but those croissants and nutella were so, so tasty...

3) VEGETARIAN PAELLA: We had it twice and it was great both times. So delicious and well done. The first time was saltier and with a bit more good stuff to scrape off the bottom, but the second time was with perfectly cooked veggies. TP and I made a paella recipe from Vegetarian Times but we have to work on ours to make it better.

4) THE SCENERY: The coast was just great. So pretty and serene. The water was just so clear. The weather was also perfect - not too hot or humid. The Alhambra castle was divine. As was Ronda and Malaga.

5) ROOM SERVICE: Yes, for the first time in my life, I ordered room service. It was super cool. They even called me "Mrs. Pedant" (even if I'm keeping my maiden name it's still cool). We got a vegetarian pizza with leeks, mushrooms, artichoke (a new favorite veggie!!) and eggplant. Super tasty. Also...

6) TORTILLA ESPANOLA/SPANISH OMELETTE: The potatoes and the eggs - prefect combination. Just so tasty. Plus, every time they used mushrooms it was great. So good. TP and I received a mini omelette pan for our wedding and are so happy to make our own!

7) THE HOTEL: AMAZING. Super swanky and just os much fun. They treated us so nicely.

Next trip is totally to Iceland.

Like MacArthur...

We have returned. There will be more posts about Spain. But not until we get our bearings.

Paella was fantastic.