Back to Reality + WIAW

July 24, 2013 By Laura

A smart blogger would have posted a “What I Ate on Vacation” today.

I got too excited and posted my favorites on Monday.

There are a few things I didn’t yet share from Napa (besides the wine – that post is coming!).

The thing that earned me the strangest look from Lisa was probably my extreme excitement over seeing GT’s Classic in the CalMart (not to be confused with Wal-Mart). The Classic is the version GT’s was forced to quit selling at many major markets due to the alcohol content. This is silly. Kombucha is fermented tea… but there’s not even enough booze for a buzz! I chose the Gingerberry and didn’t get drunk in the least.

This next item DID pack a punch. A Maple Bacon Manhattan from JoLe. It was bacon-infused rye, Carpano Antica, and maple syrup… with a side of candied bacon.

I was only going to have a taste… but holy yum.

Lunch somehow was missed in my Monday food post. Our driver in Napa recommended that we try a new concept called R+D Kitchen. It’s owned by Hillstone, which makes it a chain (I’m morally opposed to eating at chains)… but we bit the bullet and tried it out. So very glad we did!

As with Houston’s, the food and service were top-notch. We shared toasts to start – one with hummus and one with goat cheese and figs. The hummus was very good – heavy on the tahini, which is ideal in my book!

For my meal I ordered a omelette with spinach and goat cheese. It may look funny, but the omelette was fantastic. It was done french-style. It’s difficult to find a good one, but they executed it flawlessly!

It also came with roasted tomatoes and a side salad. Those tomatoes made the meal!

I know this is getting long… but one more!!! Remember the “scenic” walk to dinner I took my friends on? I think this view at Sol Bar was worth it:

Most of the meal was too dark to take pics of and we were in such a night place I felt wrong using a flash (*gasp* I do have some shame). The entire meal was mind-blowingly delcious, and our server couldn’t have been more fabulous.

I did get one decent shot of my birthday dessert. Chocolate Decadence with Ortiz Farms raspberries, soft cream, and cocoa nib dentelle. Words cannot describe. It’s the last (30th) birthday cake I’ll have, I swear.

________________________________________________________________________________________

This day of WIAW eats was fun for me! Monday morning I woke up to find that my fridge and freezer were not working. After a brief panic, I managed to get a handyman out and have the thing fixed for less than $150. It was also the perfect excuse to clean out my food stash and restock! Restocking is the best – the farmer’s market didn’t know what hit it! I was SO excited that I got home and did my food prep right then. Snapper, cod, gazpacho, roasted kabocha, and bison burgers. At 9pm. 🙂

Read on for my fresh fridge eats, and then check out Jenn’s link up for everyone else’s delicious days.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Breakfast:

My morning cocktail (apple cider vinegar, water, Glutamine, and Fitmixer Aminos) is still going strong. I am now so addicted that I brough the Fitmixer to Napa and purchased a bottle of ACV from the market there.

Something lit a fire under my butt, because I woke up in the mood to run sprints. I can’t explain it. Anyway, after the humid 30 minute run I couldn’t think of anything but a smoothie bowl. Cold and now chewing required. Does anyone else have a hard time chewing foods after workout?

In my smoothie:

Vanilla protein powder
Wheatgrass
Spinach
Cinnamon
Fresh ginger
Lemon liquid Stevia
Cardamom
Toppings: plum and raw oats

Lunch:

I was so excited for this meal that I didn’t bother with my usual mid-morning snack. During my Monday night food prep I roasted snapper with cilantro, fresh ginger, lime juice, pepper, and cherry tomatoes. That was eaten for lunch along side a cup of gazpacho and a bag of veggie Pirate’s Booty.

Afternoon Snack:

Despite having had a hearty lunch, I was still unnaturally excited for my afternoon snack. Bison burgers! I’ve been craving them for a long time. This burger was so easy – I just mixed each patty with steak sauce and added red pepper flakes before cooking them in a pan.

I don’t use pre-made sauces often, but I did find this Robbie’s Naturals brand a Whole Foods that I love. It’s low-sodium, low-sugar steak sauce. (I also dig their BBQ sauce.)

The side salad was also delish – red spinach, zucchini, asparagus (it’s been long enough to bring it back), shiitake mushrooms, thyme, lemon juice, and black pepper.

Dinner:

I’d been thinking of this all day long. Sea Bass. I think it’s passed swordfish as my favorite fish. I ran home from my workout, coated it in thyme, rosemary, garlic, black pepper, and lemon juice before putting it in the oven for 12 mins (400 degrees on convection roast).

This gave me time to prep my salad: red spinach (nothing like spinach – it has a thick stem and is a little spicy), cherry tomatoes, and Persian cucumber.

Obviously I needed carbs after leg day, but I saved it for a little dessert…

Kabocha squash! I roasted it as instructed in Friday’s #strangebutgood post and topped it with Peanut Butter Cannoli.

Dessert:

Nothing wrong with two desserts! I almost had more roasted squash but decided to aim for variety. And #strangebutgood-ness.

Shredded carrot, no salt cottage cheese, cinnamon, stevia, ginger, and vanilla topped with chocolate protein fluff made from vanilla protein powder, cocoa, beet powder, and stevia. Topped with massive blackberries and cacao nibs. Just trust me. It’s good.

***

Sorry for the picture-heavy post. This was a lot… but I’m so excited about ALL the foods! #lovemyinnerfatkid

Are there restaurants so nice you won’t take pictures?

If you could try anything in this post, what would it be? I don’t think anything was terribly odd…

Work It Out On Vacation

July 23, 2013 By Laura

Vacation is a time for relaxation.

I would say rest and relaxation, but I’m not good at being still.

Taking a break from your exercise routine doesn’t have to mean being sedentary. Being active away from home is one of the best ways to explore a city! Today’s Work It Out is dedicated to a few of the ways Lisa, Heather, and I stayed active in Napa* last week.

*Raising a wine glass doesn’t count as lifting. But not for lack for trying.

________________________________________________________________________________________

The cottage we stayed in had bicycles available to guests, so on day 1 of our trip Lisa and I decided to cycle from winery to winery. There was plenty of entertainment, as neither of us bicycle. As we were pulling out of the cottage area, a couple stopped to tell us we needed to take a few practice laps before we got on the road. Haha!

It was a blast – we went up and down some hilly roads on the cruiser bikes (read: no gears or handle breaks). Talk about a killer quad workout! The unexpected value add was that it kept us from buying too much wine – you can buy more than you can fit in the basket on the front of the bike! That is, until we discovered a winery that offered to deliver to our cottages. Tee hee.

Photo courtesy Lisa

On day 2 we’d planned to ~~take a break from wine gluttony~~ enjoy the town. We set out on a 7 mile hike up Oat Hill Mine Trail. The trail was filled with flora and fauna I’d never seen before.

This tree’s red bark fascinated me:

We were rewarded for our hard work up the winding trial with a stunning view:

Then we were rewarded again with a mud bath that afternoon. No pics of that (it was a nude area), but it was certainly a fun experience (if not a teensy claustrophobic).

Heather arrived the next day. She is doing the Live Fit program right now and needed to run 30 mins of sprints. I tagged along and pointed us down the Silverado Trail. I hadn’t been in that direction on the bike, and it was fun to watch the fog lift from the valley in the cool morning air.

I don’t normally run with other people, so it was also a nice change to have Heather there. I definitely wouldn’t have done 30 sprints without her encouragement!

Photo courtesy Heather

Added bonus: after being so fit you can feel good about flexing in front of a giant bottle of wine from Del Dotto Vineyards called “The Beast.”

Nevermind the fact that the winery owner was looking at me like I was nuts. #shameless

Finally, we took one long, long walk to dinner. I thought we could cut down a side street to get to dinner… it ended up making a 3/4 mile walk more like a 3 mile walk. I don’t recommend this method of exercise unless you have very patient friends.

The upside was seeing a gorgeous sunset over the vineyards.

The downside was walking the last mile in the dark… rockstar Heather ran the last mile to get them to hold our reservations.

***

Exercising without knowing you’re exercising is a blast. So is getting home and back to a routine… vacation wears me out!

How do you stay active on vacation?

Have you ever taken the long way on accident? I’ve gotten lost on runs more times than I would like to admit.

Marvelous Memorable Meals in Napa

July 22, 2013 By Laura

Food is a significant part of any trip for me.

Sometimes it’s the whole reason for the trip…

This past week’s trip to California was no exception. There was plenty of wine in wine-country, but the food was equally important.

After a looooong day of travel, all Lisa and I could think of when we hit the valley was ~~wine~~ food. We’d already scoped out our dinner destination: Farmstead. Farmstead is a farm (named Long Meadow Ranch) and a restaurant. They have their own vineyards, gardens, and chicken. Quite literally, it is a farm-to-table restaurant.

Our sights were set on a runny farm-fresh egg atop a steak tartar with capers, cornichons, tabasco, and toast. It was fantastic. The meat was also directly from the farm – the freshness of it made all the difference in the world. It’s amazing neither of us licked the plate.

We split a couple of other dishes as well.

The first was a grilled peach salad with speck (a cured meat similar to prosciutto), arugula, and house made ricotta. It was good… but the peach to salty stuff was a bit off (the peaches were in too big of pieces). That purple basil made the dish. Wil be remebering that in the future!

The second was a grilled artichoke with gribiche (like an aioli) and lemon. Simple and yet so good. This preparation always makes me wish I had a grill!

As fabulous as all of that was, the crowning jewel was dessert. My first birthday cake of the trip was a Scharffenberger chocolate cream pie with graham cracker crust. It was so fantastically fresh and delicious!

The crust actually tasted like it may have had some coconut, but we were assured it was just a good, old-fashioned homemade graham crust. We talked about it lovingly for the rest of the trip.

The other food we went on a mission for was a burger from Goose & Gander. From the moment we walked in I knew we couldn’t have made a better choice. The outdoor seating area alone was worth the trip. There were lights strung across the courtyard, quaint iron tables, and tall fence “walls” covered with vines and gorgeous colorful flowers.

First thing’s first though. A craft cocktail. Apparently the mixologist is something of a cocktail rockstar, so we were excited to try some creative concoctions. I went with the “Scarlet Gander.” It was Hanger One Buddha’s Hand Citron Vodka, ginger, shiso, galangal, lemon, and rhubarb. Not like anything I would typically order, but the flavors were so unique I couldn’t pass it up. It did not disappoint – these flavors were strange but good. 😉

We begin the meal with a salad. Our waiter recommended we try the watermelon and Rock Shrimp salad. The melons they used were the traditional pink AND a yellow melon. It made for a gorgeous plating!

It was served roasted peanuts and a Thai chili dressing that he swore would be a 9 on the heat scale. It wasn’t even close to a 9, but the salad was still delicious.

Now for the reason we came: the burger. Multiple people told us that the burger here was the best burger around, and that it shouldn’t be missed. It isn’t the #1 burger I’ve ever eaten, but it’s certainly top 3. I was really glad we decided to split it… it was massive and that much indulgence would be a stomach ache waiting to happen.

The bun (from Model Bakery) was perfection It kind of looks soggy in the pic, but it really wasn’t. It held up to the fantastically juicy grass-fed beef burger, which was topped with bone marrow (meat butter), Gruyere cheese, house smoked bacon, and pickles. Served with a side of duck fat fries (duck fat = crispier fries).

Between the craft cocktails, “famous” burger, and duck fat fries, Goose & Gander reminded me a lot of Atlanta’s Holeman & Finch (highly recommended if you are ever here).

We ate a lot more than this, but memories of these meals in particular (and the amazing company) are making my Monday Marvelous.

***

Moral of the story: always ask the locals what they eat. You’ll find the coolest places and the must-try dishes.

Have you ever been to the Napa area?

Are you adamant about researching the must-try restaurants when you travel?

What I Ate On My 30th Birthday

July 17, 2013 By Laura

Birthdays should be drawn out.

I’m celebrating mine for a solid week.

Today I leave for a fabulous birthday trip with two of my best ~~wine-os~~ friend: Lisa and Heather. At 21 we celebrated with cheap shots and beer, at 30 we spend too much money on fine wine and taking mud baths. I choose 30.

The celebration have been on going though! Later in the post are some birthday eats, but I wanted to share my favorite treats first. My actual birth DAY was fabulous – I was totally overwhelmed by the comments on this post and on Instagram. If you get a chance, look back at everyone’s “lessons learned” in the post comments. So much wisdom!

I had a wonderful dinner with my family, including my best friend who is basically my sister. We missed my Portland sister though!

Mallory, me, Mom, and Madison

Mom nailed the gift department – I told her not to buy clothes or anything. There’s not much I need… but I wouldn’t turn down a little Napa spending money. She made that happen in a rockstar way.

Nothing says “I love you” like ~~cash~~ credit!

Just when I thought the night couldn’t get better, I received this gem from Lauren. Lauren’s fur babies, to be more precise.

Does it get any cuter?!

________________________________________________________________________________________

This WIAW is actually what I ate on my birthday. I had some favorites, and some indulgences. It was exactly as it should be on one’s 30th birthday.

Read on for my celebration eats, and then check out Jenn’s link up for everyone else’s delicious days.

________________________________________________________________________________________