Weekend Getaway!

Hi everyone!  I'm just getting back into the groove of work and blogging after a long weekend in Winston-Salem, NC visiting Chris' sister, Andrea, and one of my best friends, Coco!  We had a wonderful trip, the weather was great, saw lots of neat spots and had fun with our hostesses!

In typical foodie fashion I managed to mostly take pictures of food rather than the great scenery or fun times we had.  Although Winston-Salem is in the south and they cook up some great southern comforts it doesn't feel like an overwhelmingly "southern" city.  Sparse "ya'll" usage, the occasional accent but nothing as noticeable as other southern states.

Our first morning there we went to a restaurant called Breakfast Of Course.  With our new wedding slimdown challenge I tried to err on the side of healthy with a egg white scramble with spinach, goat cheese and mushrooms. As a little splurge got the side of grits.  These were pretty yummy especially when I spiced them up with a little Sriracha!

Later that night we went to Foothills Brewing for dinner and watched the first NCAA basketball game.  Then we went to a bar called Old Winston Social Club.  They have board games, shuffle board and other tabletop games to play which made it pretty fun!  We ended our evening at a great craft cocktails bar called Tates.  I got a Tom Collins that was perfect; warm weather cocktails are here!  (I know, I live in Ohio and in-climate weather is part of the deal but 40 degrees in April has come close to killing me.)    

Sunday morning we went to Old Salem for brunch at The Tavern in Old Salem.  Old Salem is a cute historic part of town where Salem College for Women is located.  After brunch we walked around town enjoying the weather and the history.  At brunch Chris and Andrea decided to try a Southern favorite, Chicken and Waffles.  I've always wanted to try so I snagged a bite of Chris' and boy does it live up to the hype!  Chris has now decided that he wants this for breakfast every day of his life.  I happily reminded him of our wedding weight loss challenge and that although Chicken and Waffles are delicious and a lovely travel treat there is no room in our waistlines for it as everyday fare.  I imagine we'll be on the hunt for a place here that masters the dish.

For Sunday dinner we went to a nice restaurant called Village Tavern.  They actually have multiple locations, we went to the one at Reynolda Village which we had previously walked and shopped around on Saturday.  We sat outside under a tent that was nicely decorated with twinkle lights for ambiance.  (So romantical for Chris, being on a date with four crazy women, talk about a dream come true!)

In between our meals we walked around Winston-Salem in different parts of town.  Stopped in some vintage shops and stumbled upon a chocolate shop called Haute Chocolate.  Even though we were pretty full from breakfast we found a smidge of room to try these gourmet chocolates.  Chris and I split a Chamborsin and The Dude.  The Chamborsin is made with wine and The Dude is Big Lebowski inspired to taste like a White Russian and was made to look like a little bowling ball!

Chocolates upon chocolates!

Well it's off to catch up on all the things we've avoided (mainly housework!) and get another week of spring under our belts!  We are hosting a sushi night this weekend where I'm testing out a new sushi maker, we will see if it rivals the Sushezi!  I'm also giving a few new recipes a try over the weekend so I'll be sure to share!

Cheers!
Steph

Brunch Chilaquiles

Happy April everyone!  Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!  Saturday morning we had some time on our hands so I got a head start on spring cleaning.  But before I kicked off my cleaning spree I wanted to try a new brunch recipe!  It is called Brunch Chilaquiles, I found it on Kraft.com, I made some modifications to it based on our tastes and what I had on hand.  I also made some yummy brunch cocktails for us to have.  I had an abundance of juices so we thought "hey it's Saturday, why not?!"

Brunch Chilaquiles
(This makes 3 to 4 servings)

 Ingredients:
- 1 Tbsp. butter
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp. olive oil
- 4 c. tortilla chips
- 1/4 c. yellow onion, chopped
- 1 can (10 oz.) red enchilada sauce of your preferred heat, I used mild
- 1 c. mexican style shredded cheese, divided in half
- 1 jalepeno, thinly sliced, seeds and inner membrane removed
- 1 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped
- salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
- Melt butter in a large ovenproof skillet over medium heat.
- Add eggs 1 at a time, season with s&p.  Either keep the eggs separated or separate them after they start cooking. (Mine all ran together so I just divided them up once the white was more cooked.)

- Cook until whites and yolks are set (4 to 5 minutes), remove from skillet and set aside.
- Heat oil in skillet, add tortilla chips and cook until golden brown (5 to 8 minutes).  Be sure to stir frequently so as not to burn any chips.

- Add onions and cook a few minutes, continue to stir.
- Add enchilada sauce and 1/2 c. cheese, mix lightly until chips are covered with sauce.

- Top with eggs and remaining cheese.
- Turn on broiler and place skillet under it for 2 to 3 minutes, until cheese is melted (if your skillet has a rubber handle or anything just cover it in aluminum foil before sticking it in the oven).

- Top with jalepeno and cilantro.
- Serve and enjoy!

This was a very tasty dish!  Chris and I both liked it and Chris voted to make it again.  We ended up eating all the eggs and leaving some of the cooked chips but the flavors were great and it was a good way to switch things up for brunch.  This is a good recipe if you have an already opened bag of tortilla chips lying around.  The chips don't necessarily have to be fresh since you end up cooking them down till they are soft anyways.  You could easily make smaller batches of this for a smaller crowd.  We paired it with a Screwdriver for Chris and a Sparkling Grapefruit Cocktail for me.  Here is the recipe for the Sparkling Grapefruit Cocktail.

Sparkling Grapefruit Cocktail

 Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 oz. vodka
- 1 oz. grapefruit juice
- splash soda water

Instructions:
- Mix vodka and juice over ice in a shaker, strain over ice in a rocks glass.
- Fill the rest of the glass with soda water.
- Enjoy!

This was nice and light, I may have a new brunch favorite!  I suppose with the Chilaquiles making it with tequila would be better but I'm not the biggest tequila fan.


This week we've got a busy week then its off to Winston-Salem, NC to visit Chris' sister and one of my best friends, Coco!

Cheers!
Steph

LFDs : Tomato Soup Mac and Cheesey Quinoa

So here is the last of my Lent Friendly features since Lent is coming to a close this week.  We've got Tomato Soup Mac and Cheese and Cheesey Quinoa and Asparagus Bake!  Both of these can be served as sides or main entrees but given their richness I would suggest them as a side.

Tomato Soup Mac and Cheese
(This makes 3 to 4 large side servings)

 Ingredients:
- 1/2 lb. pasta (I used penne)
- 2/3 c. ricotta cheese
- 2/3 c. aged cheddar, shredded
- 1 (10 oz.) can condensed tomato soup
- 10 oz. (about one soup can) skim milk

Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350.  Divide aged cheddar so you have a couple tablespoons left to sprinkle on top.
- Cook pasta until just barely al dente (1/2 the cooking time listed on the box), drain pasta, do not rinse, you want the noodles still hot.
- In a large mixing bowl mix pasta and ricotta.  Stir in the shredded cheddar then the tomato soup and milk until well combined.
- Pour into a greased baking dish (preferably 8x8 or individual ramekins) and bake for 25 minutes.
- Sprinkle reserved cheddar on top, place under the broiler for 2-3 minutes until cheese starts browning and bubbling.

- Remove from oven, let cool a couple minutes and serve.

This was very tasty!  Chris and I had some raised eyebrows at the name but were very pleased with the end result.  The original recipe I found uses harder to find dairy ingredients like Ludlow and Quark so I did my best to simplify.  Again, this is rather rich with the cheese so it's probably best as a side.

Cheesey Quinoa and Asparagus Bake
(This makes 5 to 6 side servings)

Ingredients:
- 4 Tbsp. light butter
- 6 Tbsp. all purpose flour
- 2 c. skim milk
- 2 c. low fat cheese, shredded, I used a blend of what I had in the house, I would recommend a more flavorful cheese in the future such as Asiago or Aged Cheddar
- 1 c. quinoa
- 1 1/2 c. water
- 8 spears asparagus, washed and thinly sliced


- 4 Tbsp. seasoned panko breadcrumbs
- 1 tsp. olive oil
- Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Rinse quinoa in a fine strainer until water runs clear.  Add to a pot with the water and bring to a boil.  Cover and reduce the heat to medium low.  Cook quinoa for 12 minutes, turn off heat and set aside covered for 5 more minutes.
- Melt butter in a large skillet then whisk in the flour.  Turn heat to medium low.

- Slowly whisk in milk until there are no lumps.
- Stir in cheese then add asparagus then quinoa.  Add s&p to taste.

- Pour mixture into a large (lightly greased) baking dish or into individual ramekins.
- In a small bowl combine Panko (add seasoning if you don't have seasoned ones, pepper, oregano and basil should suffice, I had to do that because I buy my Panko plain) and olive oil, stir to combine.
- Top quinoa mixture with Panko.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until breadcrumbs are golden brown.  If the breadcrumbs aren't browning up stick it under the broiler for a few minutes.

I suppose this recipe proves Paula Deen's old philosophy correct "you can make anything taste good with butter and cheese".  Although I retrieved this from a "healthy blog" I'm not sure the use of quinoa and asparagus cancels out the butter, cheese and milk.  I made this when my dad and brother were over for dinner (hence the larger recipe, you can easily halve this to make for two).  Chris and my brother weren't quite sold, Daddy on the other hand really liked it.  But he and my mom have been eating quinoa for awhile so he's a little more used to it than the other critics.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend!  See you in April!

Cheers!
Steph

Lent Friendly Dishes : Veggie Quinoa Skillet

Here is another meatless meal for the Lent observers out there.  It is a Veggie Quinoa skillet that could serve as a meal or a side.  It was rather filling with the cheese, quinoa and veggies and had good flavor but next time I'll probably leave out some of the lemon honey vinaigrette because it was a tad overpowering.

Veggie Quinoa Skillet
(This makes 2 to 3 dinner servings)

 Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 c. chicken broth
- 1 c. quinoa, rinsed and drained
- 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 small zucchini, quartered and sliced
- 1 small yellow squash, quartered and sliced
- 1 can corn
- 2 green onions
- salt and pepper to taste
- handful cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half
- 1/2 c. feta cheese
- 2 Tbsp. chopped basil

For vinaigrette:
- 1 Tbsp. lemon zest
- 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. honey
- 1 garlic clove finely minced
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper

Instructions:
- Rinse quinoa in a fine strainer until water runs clear.
- Bring chicken broth to a boil, add quinoa, turn down heat to medium low, cover and cook until broth is absorbed and quinoa is tender.  When quinoa is cooked, fluff with a fork and set aside to cool.

- Whisk lemon zest and juice, honey, garlic, salt and pepper together, set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium high heat.  Saute garlic until it starts to turn brown around the edges, add zucchini, corn and onions, season with s&p and saute about 4 minutes until just tender.

- Add quinoa and half of the vinaigrette, stir and cook for about a minute.
- Add tomatoes, feta, basil and rest of vinaigrette.  Stir and add s&p to taste.  (you can leave out the rest of the vinaigrette for a less powerful taste)

- Let cool a few minutes and serve.

Chris wasn't a huge fan because of the overpowering lemon flavor.  To be honest, I wasn't the biggest fan either, (for the first time ever I will say this) too much lemon!   I'd like to see what it was like sans vinaigrette.  But it was definitely good with the feta and for having quinoa for the first time it wasn't bad!  Chris wasn't totally sold on the quinoa part but maybe it just takes some getting used to.  Quinoa is a great replacement for starches like rice or pasta in our diet so we'll have to see if we can find some other dishes to try!

Next up I've got a couple more LFDs (Lent Friendly Dishes) to share before Lent is over!

Cheers!
Steph