Healthy Pantry Burrito

I'm at it again. I wanted to make something from scratch, but really haven't done much grocery shopping. I came home from the gym late tonight and wanted something quick. Eggs are quick.

Omelet? Boring. Need more substance.

We also had some whole wheat tortillas that have been sitting in the refrigerator for months. Yet oddly enough, they're still good. Burrrritto [rolls 'r' like Alex Tribec]!! What to add, what do we have...

-ham

-spinach

-can of pigeon peas

-onion and garlic

-adobo powder

-chili powder

-Worcestershire

-Cumin

So I scrambled the eggs,

Sauteed the ham onions, garlic, and spinach in a pat of butter



Added the pigeon peas, stirred a bit, added the Worcestershire, chili, adobo, and cumin.




Heated the tortilla and wrapped it around the egg and spinach mixture and added some Uncle Brutha's No 9 green sauce (a local favorite--they used to have a shop near Eastern Market, but not sure if they still do. Anyone know?). I think it took about 15 minutes to make.
G "plating" his burrito.

Yum! Not exactly fine dining, but pretty tasty as well as healthy (I'm being a little more conscious of it for the wedding)!!!

I celebrated Presidents day by eating in Leesburg

We went out to G's parents' today. We brought his mom some belated birthday flowers and then drove to Leesburg for lunch.

Me, selecting three bunches of tulips and reminding G that single-flower bouquets are better than mixed when you get them from the flower guy on the street.

We ate at Lightfoot, a casual but nice-ish restaurant in the historic downtown area. It's housed in a large and majestic old bank building. The cafe menu includes a daily grilled cheese special (which G's dad got--I forget the type of cheese but raisin bread was used) and little tweaks on American comfort food. G had a spicey meatloaf sandwich and his mother got the fish tacos, which were apparently good. I had this decent fish and chips. The fish was battered and deep fried, puffy and firm. Almost too firm. The chips were rounds of potatos, also deep fried. Not bad. We had a bottle of Grand Beck, a South African sparkling wine (good and reasonably priced--and we're serving it at our wedding bar).

We finished it off with a nice vanilla ice cream cone:





Also, I came home and re-arranged my Valentine's flowers:





Happy Presidents day! What did you do?

A tasteful potluck dinner

The cute table

I haven't been to a potluck in...well, ever. But we were invited to one for Valentine's. And it was pretty great, I must say. Four couples all food loving and wine lusting. Francoise, our hostess is French. She supplied the meats (beef roast and duck confit with the most delicious tomato and orange peel sauce) for our main course. Tim, her husband, is a wine connoisseur in every sense of the term, and has the cellar in his basement to prove it. He supplied us with three Burgundies (specifically Volnay-Santenot) from the same plot of land/grape grower, but the difference was the wine makers. And they (the differences) were fairly obvious. All very good.

Duck confit, beef roast, lentil salad and scalloped potatoes



Decanters previously full of Burgandies (sorry forgot to take a picture until after he poured).

John #1 and Allison made scalloped potatoes and a delicious lentil salad. John #2 and Kate made an amazing dark chocolate fleur de sel cake with creme anglaise sauce and brought a nice Framboise liqueur (all of which I forgot to take a picture, dammit). But we also had a nice cheese course and this Brandy that basically set my nose hairs on fire. It's a man's drink...kind of like a French version of Grappa.

And we contributed Champagne and this:

Salmon plate

They said "Bring finger food for the appetizer." We didn't know what the audience would be like, but we knew we wouldn't be bringing meatballs or anything with cream cheese. Because, well, who eats that? We don't. So we went to Whole Foods yesterday (as I mentioned in my last post) and picked up all the goodies for our salmon plate. Though not an exceptionally original idea, it's easy and everyone loved it. We served it with yogurt dill sauce. By the way, it's all in the plating. Shallots (instead of red onion), cornishons, capers, chopped boiled egg, dill sprigs, mini rye bread and lemon slices.

[If you dare use cream cheese with this plate, get out of here. I detest cream cheese as much as I detest grilled salmon and chicken. It's complicated.... I have a feeling this year is going to be a good one, since I'm returning with such a positive attitude.]

Everything at this potluck was extremely simple, but sooooo well conceived and it went surprisingly well. Great food, wine and conversation. How can you ask for more? Speaking of conversation, here's Tim and Francoise's parrot, Verdi:

Verdi, fixing to bite me.

Bye-bye.

Happy Valentines! I'm Back with Baguettes, Butter, and Blackberry jam

I've been on hiatus for a little while, working on my wedding blog (don't judge me). Anyway, I miss this place.

So, hi! Hope you are having a nice day full of good food if not hearts and bunnies.

Mine started very simply. Woke up to these sitting on a table in the bedroom:

Went to the gym.

Went to Whole Paycheck to get a large side of Gravlox and its acoutrements (dill, shallots, boiled egg, capers, yogurt dill sauce, cornishons, and mini rye bread)--our appetizer contribution for a potluck dinner we're going to tonight. We also picked up a mini baguette for breakfast.

Then came back home and cut up the loaf, spread on some butter and jam while G made coffee in his new press.