Wine Country Getaway & Oyster Mushroom Fettuccine

Last night we arrived home from a mini getaway to the Finger Lakes in upstate New York. Our friends Chris & Karla have been going to Seneca Lake every November for years, which is known for its huge array of wineries, beautiful scenery, farms, and local cheeses, chocolates and organic produce. All the wineries and restaurants pride themselves on serving locally grown and produced foods. Totally my kind of place. We've never been able to join them, but this year Matt's family offered to watch our babies for 2 nights so we could head off for a couples-only weekend away, and it was amazing. Matt and a few other of the others in our group are teachers and had off on Thursday/Friday, so we left early Thursday  morning and spent the better part of two days eating, drinking, hiking, playing card games, laughing and relaxing. It was so nice to spend some time just the two of us as well as quality time with good friends.

Some of my favorite stops included Silver Springs Winery (incredibly enthusiastic and knowledgeable wine maker, amazing malbec, and everything is organic), Magnus Ridge Winery (nice reds, they pair all their wines with cheese, and the service is great), and Glenora Wine Cellars (amazing lunch with a nice view). Grist Iron Brewing also had good craft beers, even better pizzas, and a view that can't be beat, and Two Goats Brewing was a good spot for a very casual night cap with the locals.

We stayed at The Fox and the Grapes Bed & Breakfast, and I would highly recommend it. Their view of the lake was gorgeous, and there were plenty of gathering areas both in and outdoors, so in the morning before breakfast you could sit and read quietly drinking coffee while gazing at the lake (one of my favorite vacation things to do), or chat with other visitors while drinking coffee and eating banana bread in the sitting room; and at night you could either drink wine and play games loudly in one area (clearly our preference), while others watched movies without being bothered in another area. The homemade breakfasts and snacks were also fantastic.

On our way home we stopped at the Ithaca Farmers Market, which my mom had told me was a must-do before leaving the area. She was right. The market was beautiful, filled with all kinds of local organic fruits and veggies, cheese, meat, popcorn (yes, local popcorn!), honey and bread vendors, as well as artisans selling pottery, wools, wooden kitchen tools and more. Not to mention there were about a million delicious things to eat onsite, and live music to top it off. I am so jealous we don't have a market like this by us; I would be there every Saturday.

We picked up a few things for the week, and when we saw the locally grown oyster mushrooms we had to have them too. I used them to cook dinner last night, and when you have mushrooms this delicate and beautiful, there is really only one thing to do. Pasta. I mean, what's one more day of carbs and butter after a weekend wine & cheese bender?

We scarfed down the pasta bowls before I remembered to snap a picture, but here is the basic recipe I threw together - and trust me, it was fantastic.

Oyster Mushroom Fettuccini

Serves 4

Ingredients
3/4 pound fettuccini (about 3/4 of a box)
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp. olive oil
1 pound fresh oyster mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbsp. fresh herbs, chopped (use woodsy herbs - I used what I had in my garden: an assortment of sage, rosemary, oregano, and thyme)
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, plus extra for garnish
Extra herbs for garnish
Truffled sea salt, to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions, leaving it slightly al dente.

In the meantime, melt the butter and olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add the mushrooms and cook gently for about 10 minutes, until softened but not browned. Add the salt, pepper and herbs, and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Drain the pasta and add to the saucepan of butter. Toss to coat. Turn off the heat and add the parmesan cheese, then toss again. Pile the fettuccini into bowls, and top with a sprinkling of extra parmesan, herbs, pepper and truffled sea salt. Serve immediately.

Weekend Highlights 2

Time for another edition of Weekend Highlights! It was a busy but really fun one, especially with all the great weather we've had the last few days. The big item on the agenda was Matt's cousin James & his fiance Ali's wedding in Philly, which meant we spent the whole weekend with family out in PA.

But backing up, on Friday I skipped my usual work-at-home day and went into the city for a Social Change Summit at the United Nations. It was a neat little treat for a work day, and we got to hear case studies from some big guns like Dove and Invisible Children (the org. behind the Kony 2012 video campaign).

They also fed us a really nice lunch in a room overlooking the river. I had vegetables aplenty during the salad and entree course, so took down the chocolate mousse & mango cake with no guilt.

We got to Philly around 8:00 that night and spent the evening catching up with my sister Amanda and her boyfriend Justyn. They live only about a mile from where the wedding was on Saturday night, and were watching Riker for us while we attended, so we figured we'd save the $ on a hotel room and just bunk with them instead. Plus, it gave us a chance to hang out all day Saturday as a family. Amanda found a great spring/Easter event a few minutes from her house (almost everything was free!) which was a perfect way to spend a sunny Saturday.

They had an Easter egg hunt, pony rides, petting zoo, face painting and all kinds of other stuff. We were hungry after all that, so headed into the cute town of Manayunk for an outdoor lunch at the local brewery.

I loved getting to sit outside and soak up all that sunshine! We split zucchini fries for an appetizer, and for my lunch I had a jumbo lump crab cake (I ditched the roll and just ate the crab cake with the salad).

A long uphill walk back to the car and then a cat nap back at home, and then it was time to get ready to watch James & Ali get married!

More on that in an upcoming post - too many details for one weekend roundup. :) It was a fun evening for sure, though.

***

Sunday started with morning tea at my sister's, followed by lox bagels and killer iced coffee at the cutest little coffee shop in Manayunk.

Lox = love. Bellies full, we met up with Matt's parents at the park where James & Ali got married (it's a huge park where Matt loves to go mountain biking) for a morning hike. This place is so beautiful. I'm not in prime hiking mode right now being over 7 months prego, so had to go fairly slowly, but it was some good exercise and fresh air nonetheless.

We got back home around 2:00, picked up Butters from the kennel and the rest of the afternoon included some digging for the new patio...(okay, actually me laying on a blanket and ordering groceries online while Matt dug)... 

...and takeout sushi (cooked for me) and summer rolls for dinner.

Such a perfect Sunday. Entire weekend, really. And I'll tell you, the taste of warm weather we had made me seriously ready for summer!

How was your weekend? Did you get to spend some time outdoors?

Homemade Weekend

Ah, Sunday afternoon. Sunshine, football and the house smelling of winter candles. I love these kind of days. Hope your weekend has been a good one so far!

In keeping with my goal of eating clean again after the holidays, we've been staying away from takeout and sweets and doing a bunch of cooking the last few days. Friday nights are always tough because neither Matt or I feel like cooking after a long work week, and pretty much always want to order dinner out and curl up on the couch. But I had some lox and arugula in the fridge I'd picked up for my favorite Norwegian Eggs Benedict, and who says you can't have breakfast for dinner?

I skipped the hollandaise sauce but served up whole wheat Vermont Organic English muffins topped with a spread of Organic Valley cream cheese, a pile of arugula, wild caught smoked salmon and a fried egg. I seriously never get sick of this. I could eat lox every single day.

Saturday morning started with Greek yogurt & berry bowls with dried fruits and walnuts on top.

I'm still on the lookout for a good organic Greek yogurt...I don't really like Cabot or Stonyfield Farms, and much prefer the texture of Fage or Chobani, which I've had to grudgingly ditch because of their GMO practices. If you have an organic Greek that you like, please share!

I had high hopes of going to Saturday morning yoga, but felt a little under the weather and my body was telling me to stay home and rest instead. So rest, I did. And then made some fantastic sandwiches for lunch.

I filled some whole wheat pita pockets with artichoke & kalamata olive hummus, carrots, cucumbers and wild caught salmon. I seared the salmon in my cast iron skillet and then flaked it up and squeezed on some fresh lemon. The warm salmon and cold, crunchy veggies were a great combo. 

It was also really filling. Matt had to help me eat my second half. Protein power!

Saturday afternoon included a couple errands and some kitchen time, all to prep for the big Pats game last night.

It's playoffs baby! We had a few friends over last night to watch the games with us, and fun snacks must be had when watching important football games with friends. 

For the 4:00 game we nibbled on some canapes our friend Forrest brought over, along with a batch of my buffalo blue cheese pierogies. I stowed a bag of them in the freezer the last time I made them, so yesterday I only had to cook them up and toss them with hot sauce and blue cheese. Yum. A little carb-heavy, I know, but they were completely scratch made (dough and all), so, you know - it's all good.

Next up was making pizza dough for a pizza bar dinner. I adore making homemade dough; there's just nothing like the smell of yeast and the process of mixing and kneading by hand. I didn't realize my dough recipe actually made two pies, so I accidentally made enough dough for 7 pizzas. Whoooops. At least we have plenty of dough in the freezer for Superbowl. ;)

Other snacks included a homemade hot spinach mascarpone dip, and an all-organic 7 layer dip made by Heather. Her dip was so, so good and got completely devoured.

When the 8:00 game came on, it was pizza time!

We made a plain one for the kids, a mushroom one, a green olive one, and then a specialty pie with paleo crust, goat cheese, Brussels sprouts and balsamic drizzle. That last one was a gamble but came out tasting really good. Recipe coming soon! 

***

This morning thankfully Riker let us sleep in until 8 am, which I was praying he would do since I stayed up late watching the game last night. It's a sad, sad day when you consider 11:30 "late." Oy.

To kick off the day I made us breakfast plates of Nature's Path waffles with peanut butter, bananas and Vermont maple syrup. On the side I had two slices of Lightlife non-GMO soy "bacon." This is the first time I've bought the bacon and I'm really not a fan. It's just too much of a stretch for me.

Next up on the list was switching gyms. This has been on my to-do list for a long time. Matt and I actually hate our current (now old) gym; it feels dark and dingy and half the machines are always broken. We finally did something about it today and canceled the dungeon gym in favor of another spot, which is much bigger, cleaner and brighter. While there I got in a treadmill + light weights workout and can already tell I'll like this place much better. And hopefully that means I'll go more often too.

When we got home, Riker went down for a nap and Matt and I got to work on making lunch. I made big salads while Matt made a homemade Caesar dressing from my Eat Clean cookbook. It's made with yogurt, dijon mustard, real anchovies (which, if I'm being honest is the reason I made Matt make the dressing - I like the taste of anchovies, but definitely not the look of them) and a bunch of seasonings.

It was so good! We made a triple batch so we have it in the fridge for the week. I ate my salad with a leftover piece of olive pizza on the side. Perfect little Sunday lunch. 

And with that, Riker just woke up so we're going to head out for a family walk and take advantage of the warm weather today. Then it's back for the Broncos game (rooting for the Chargers here...not really feeling a Broncos vs. Pats Championship next weekend...), and putting together a seafood gratin for dinner.

How's your weekend going? Hope you enjoy the last few hours of it!

Friday Off

It's day 2 of our three-day-weekend-at-home, and it's been great so far. Yesterday started with breakfast smoothies, some play time at home with Riker, and then a trip to the gym. I haven't been to the gym in SO long because my work schedule prohibits it most of the time; the gym daycare doesn't open until 8:30 am, which is when I'm already dropping Riker off at daycare. Most of my workouts the last few months have been living room circuits or videos, walk/jogs around the neighborhood or yoga at the studio on the weekends, so I was excited to finally get back on a treadmill.

I completed 30 minutes on the treadmill alternating between 5 minutes of high incline walking and 5 minutes of low incline jogging. I finished up with some arms strength training and a couple sets of ab exercises. It felt great to finally get a workout in at the real gym.

Matt's sister Missy took Riker for a few hours so we could go run some errands, including picking out Riker's birthday present and stopping by HomeGoods for some bedroom spruce-up fun.

The white summer quilt I bought in the spring was starting to be too thin for the chilly fall weather, so it was time for some new winter bedding. Normally I go with tans and browns, but I felt like we needed a  pop of color for once - red it is! I have a few small red accents throughout the room already, so the new bedspread matches perfectly. I love it!

After our shopping was done we met up with Missy, Riker and MomMom for lunch at Atlanta Bread. Matt and I split a large Greek salad and then each got bowls of soup.

There were surprisingly quite a few vegetarian options, but the carrot ginger really piqued my interest. It wasn't as ginger-y as I'd hoped, but it was still good, and really pretty.

A few more errands and tasks around the house later, and then we were off to spend the evening at our friends' Chris & Karla's house for dinner. Kevin, Heather and their girls came too. Between all three families we had 5 kids running around, and it was honestly really fun watching the kids play together and entertain themselves happily while us adults hung out and caught up. Not a bad day to spend a Friday off. :)

***

Not much is on the agenda today besides yoga with the girls this morning and maybe a little bundled up beach action later today. Oh and this.

We're taking the plunge and starting to potty train Riker since he's been showing signs of being ready. Today's the first day of wearing real underpants, and he's really proud of it. Ha! I'm sure it'll be a bit crazy staying on top of him all day today, but at least the morning started out peacefully with a quiet breakfast in the kitchen while Riker slept in nice and late till 8:00 am.

The third book in the Divergent series is finally out, Allegiant, and I've been reading it ferociously for the past 3 days. I plan to finish it this weekend, squeezing in a chapter every chance I get. Addicted!

Enjoy your weekend!