The Recap That Wasn’t

It’s been a long time; I shouldn’t have left you.

One week completely removed from el mundo de los blogs has felt like an eternity. I know that sounds a bit dramatic—but I feel SO out of the loop. Needless to say, estoy muy feliz to be back. I kid you not; opening Windows Live Writer—despite our precarious past—just gave me the butterflies.

(Edit: Those quickly dissipated when WLW decided to pull the ‘error’ card for the past nueve horas.)

So, here’s where we catch up, right?

Incorrecto. Despite spending seis días doused in deliciousness, I documented close to nada. No, really. I returned to NYC with six pictures—of two meals—on mi cámara. When I get into vacation mode, I have a tendency to abandon el Blackberry y la Canon. The only reason why I have my fotos of those dos meals is because my friend suggested that they were extraordinarily blogworthy. They are—so I figure I’ll give you a quick recap of Monday’s munchies, and then share those two gems.

Monday mañana kicked off with an early flight from Orlando to NYC.

YO ODIO airport food, so I made sure that I was well stocked on the breakfast/I’m-bored-in-the-airport-so-I-guess-I’ll-just-eat front.

I packed a nut mix, a Mountain Mix Mojo bar and an undocumented (because, you know, that’s my new thing?) bag of Publix pretzel rods. (I firmly believe that Publix’s generic pretzel rods taste better than any other brand I’ve ever tried. Much to my dismay, no hay Publix anywhere near NYC.)

But my star breakfast component was this amazing trail mix.

 

Cinnamon toast crunch, dried cherries, dark chocolate espresso beans and Flipsides.

FLIPSIDES. Half pretzel. Half cracker. FULL ADDICTION.

I enjoyed that Ziploc o’ goodness alongside a monster Starbucks iced coffee. I always go for the venti with iced coffee because I’d kill a tall in .5 seconds—but this iced coffee monster was a venti on ‘roids. The airport Starbucks ran out of venti cups, so—until they got more in—they borrowed 36 oz. slushie cups from the neighboring smoothie stand. I had no problemo with this.

Terminado in approximately cinco minutos. Two random chicos came up to me and told me they bet $20 on whether or not I’d finish the giant coffee before my flight; winning chico was grateful for and impressed by my tank-like talent for chugging.

I flew Delta—which is a big deal because I’d say I fly JetBlue (EL MEJOR!) 99.9% of the time. I booked my flight with Delta for this trip because it was so last minute, and JetBlue was uncharacteristically pricey.

JetBlue SO MUCH > Delta.

HOWEVER, Delta has a leg-up on one cosa…

BISCOFF.

I’m obsessed. I ate one straight-up, and the other dunked in coffee (for soggifying pleasure).

I returned home to the blissful lingering scent of, uh, polyurethane. I guess we’re at the floor-finishing point of kitchen/dining room renovation. Bueno because this means kitchen-access is nearing. Malo because this means several days of a very chemical-scented casa.

I was starving, which was slightly problematic since I couldn’t breathe downstairs long enough to even throw together a sandwich. I quickly scoped out the fridge situation to see if there was anything ready-made that I could eat.

Leftover sesame chicken to the rescue.

There’s really no way to make that look pretty; but it was delicious.

When the “if I breathe this in for more than 30 seconds, I’m going to die” smell grew fainter, I microwaved a bowl of Banana Nut Bear Naked granola in almond milk and then topped it with dried raisins, cranberries and cherries, banana slices and cinnamon.

Bueno pero it occurred to me that a nut buttah spoon would take bueno to buenismo—always a good thing.

I opened the jar of cashew butter that la hermana so graciously bestowed upon me last weekend.

I’ve been fantasizing about my first spoonful of cashew butter since I found out such a wonder existed, as el cashew is my numero uno nut.

I believe any taste test should commence with a straight-up sampling (in this case, spoonful) to ensure an uninfluenced-by-other-flavors verdict.

I was underwhelmed. It was good, but not great. I’d enthusiastically opt for almond or peanut butter over cashew any day—which is loco because I’d attack a bag of cashews over almonds or peanuts, no deliberation necessary.

I’ll definitely try a different brand because I want to love cashew butter. What are your thoughts if you’ve tried it? Any brand recommendations?

Nevertheless, it delivered in the way of making my already delicious granola bowl even more so.

Gracias a mi amiga, Little J, for giving me the idea to warm granola in milk. SO splendidly soggy; I’m not sure I’m interested in dry/cold granola any longer.

Dinner was delayed by some muy importante kitchen appliance shopping. I am so excited for la cocina nueva! It should be finished just before Thanksgiving, and NO PUEDO ESPERAR.

Kitchen shopping made me hambre; or maybe it was just the fact that it was dinner time. Either or, I wanted cena, and I wanted it quickly.

UNA ENSALADA MONSTRUO from an amazing salad bar.

I really can’t recount everything that was in there, but I know it involved wheatberry raisin salad, couscous, garbanzos, black beans, banana peppers, olives, hummus, wasabi peas, egg, corn, sun-dried tomatoes, Asian crunchies and lots of uninteresting raw veggies beneath it all.

This was amazing, and such a salad monstruo that I almost couldn’t finish it.

Almost doesn’t count.

I may have made room for some cinnamon raisin bread—and a second baby plate of pasta ensalada.

 

And maybe some dessert.

I can’t be blamed for this one; I opened my fridge to find a mysterious bakery box of tarta de queso.

Naturally, I went for it.

What’s that hiding behind the cheesecake?

Oh, just a monster pile of chocolate whipped cream.

 

Since cheesecake clearly isn’t indulgent enough on its own.

Now, I suppose I’ll share those two coveted Floridian meals.

But not before I mentally scold myself once more for neglecting to document some of the amazing things I ate. It’s possible that I attended a Food & Wine festival—and essentially did a dessert crawl involving gingerbread strawberry ice cream sandwiches, peanut butter fudge honey cinnamon ice cream, red velvet cupcakes and delicacies of the like. A.K.A. un grande LO SIENTO for flaking on what would’ve been some X-rated food porn.

I hope these dos comidas gain me some bonus points.

Stuffed Butternut Squash and Stuffed Pollo

Stuffed with what, you may wonder?

Well…

Cheesy Veggie Oat Bran & Hummus Stuffed Bnut

Butternut squash halved, scooped and baked at 350 for 1 hour.

While that was in the oven, I cooked 1/2 cup oat bran in 1 cup water. As it was almost at its desired consistency, I added 2 Laughing Cow wedges, garlic, spinach, sauteed onion and olives.

Once the squash was almost done, I split the oat bran mixture (which was really hard not to polish off while waiting for the baked bnut) into the two scooped out areas and added a big dollop of hummus on top. I broiled the halves for an additional 5-8 minutes.

OOOOOOOOOHMYGAH.

El pollo was stuffed with LC, garlic, sauteed onions, artichokes and sun-dried tomatoes.

Otro más OOOOHMYGAH.

Stuffed Bnut + Stuffed Pollo = STUFFED Sarah.

Next up…

Pretzel Sandwich

My friend was inspired by a pretzel sandwich that Bennigan’s used to offer—and suggested we recreate it after taking note of my newfound obsession with Publix pretzel rods.

If you could only grasp my amor of pretzels, you’d understand how I fell in love with this masterpiece.

This is quite possibly the only eating premise under which I equally enjoyed the outards and innards. I never want to eat a sandwich on regular bread again.

Since I know you want to see the innards…

One soft baked pretzel was baked with salt, pepper, seasoned salt and garlic. The other was baked with a layer of cream cheese and the same seasonings. After four minutes, layers of honey maple turkey, sun-dried tomatoes and jalapeno havarti cheese were added to each side and baked for another two minutes. Final addition was stone dijon mustard.

I really don’t have any words.

Just a final plea: If you love pretzels and sandwiches, por favor make this!

Again, lo siento for the lack of a recap. And otro lo siento for this abnormally late post; delay brought to you by the hot ‘n cold WLW.

I’m off to make a dent in my Publix pretzel stash.

Hasta mañana,

Sarah

Uncategorized

airport food, banana nut, bear naked, bennigans, biscoff, cashew butter, cheesecake, chocolate whipped cream, cinnamon toast crunch, coffee, dark chocolate espresso bites, delta, dessert, dried cherries, dried fruit, enormous salad, flipsides, florida, food and wine festival, jet blue, leftover chinese, mojo mountain mix, nature's promise, nut mix, nyc, pack snacks, pretzel sandwich, pretzels, salad bar, sesame chicken, starbucks, stuffed butternut squash, stuffed chicken, trail mix, vacation recap, warm granola, weekend recap

November 17, 2009

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