Stowe Getaway

Our first few days of the Vermont mini vacation have been eventful! Yesterday my mom took a half day off work to spend the afternoon with me, Matt and Riker. Our first stop after leaving the house was Cornerstone Pub & Kitchen for lunch. The pub recently opened and I've been dying to try it; it boasts a creative menu and bar fully stocked with craft beer, as well as a fireplace and cozy atmosphere. It's become the lifeblood of the (for lack of a better word, dull) Main Street in my small hometown. It's been getting rave reviews, and I can see why.

We ordered a few things to share, starting with the roasted golden & red beet salad with arugula, pine nuts, goat cheese and maple vinaigrette. It was perfect. We'd been told we had to try both the fish & chips and the mac & cheese, so we took the plunge.

The mac & cheese was technically for Riker, but we Matt and I had a hard time limiting ourselves to a few bites. It was probably the creamiest, cheesiest mac I've ever had. SO good.

The rest of the afternoon was spent running errands and hanging around at home. My grandmother joined us for dinner at my parents' house, and after eating a pretty rich lunch, we all wanted something light. My mom whipped up some baked lemon & lime shrimp with broccoli and couscous.

And then it was time to kiss my little boy goodnight and hit the road for our friends weekend in Stowe. My friend Lindsay and her husband Ryan invited 15 of us to stay at his parents house for the weekend (his parents are living out west right now), to ski, relax and have fun, and I couldn't wait for everyone to get there. Matt and I were the first to arrive at the house, so rather than sit home and get tired we decided to go out in town for a drink.

The Prohibition Pig (love that name!) is the only bar in the world that serves our favorite beer, The Alchemist Heady Topper, on tap. We'd already stocked up on a few 4-packs of the Vermont brew for the weekend, though, so I ordered a Hill Farmstead Earl, which is a locally brewed coffee stout and was quite delicious.

They also have an amazing menu with all foods (even hot sauces!) made in house, and all ingredients sourced from local farms, so you know we had to order a snack. The panko-encrusted pimento cheese balls with homemade red pepper jelly and curry aioli were amaaaaazing.

One by one our friends started to arrive, so after a couple more drinks at the bar with a few of the early arrivals, we all headed back up to the house for a really fun (and very late) night catching up. I've got to admit, it was kinda nice staying up as late as I wanted to know, knowing my mom was waking up with the baby in my place. ;-)

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This morning our troop split in half - 6 of us went to Stowe Mountain for a ski day while the rest of the group hung around town checking out some local eateries and doing some shopping. It was brisk at the mountain, but a gorgeous day.

Such a beautiful mountain. We had a really great day hitting the slopes.

My friend Heather made us all chocolate-peanut butter energy bites to take with us, and they turned out to be perfect pocket snacks. None of us wanted to waste time going inside for lunch so we could maximize our time skiing, so we popped these on the lift when we got hungry. They hit the spot and kept us full until we got home. It doesn't look like much after I chomped half of it, but it was really tasty.

We stayed on the slopes 'til dark and just got home, where a spread of local cheeses and coffee with Bailey's was waiting for us.

Nothing like coming home from a cold day outdoors to a hot shower and boozed-up coffee. :)

Hope you're having a great holiday weekend!

Pomelo Virgin

I woke up this morning to a 9 degree chill in the air and this beautiful site from the back porch of my parents' house.

Ah, the clean white canvas of a Vermont winter morning. There's nothing like it. After work yesterday Matt and I drove through the night to make it to my home town around midnight. We're leaving Riker with my parents for the weekend while we join a group of 15 of our closest friends for a ski weekend in Stowe, which is about a half hour from where I grew up. All our friends arrive tonight, but we wanted to get up here a day early to get Riker settled before leaving him for a few days. It's the longest we've ever left him, so I'm a little sad to kiss his cheeks goodbye for more than one night, but I know he'll have a great time with my family and I'll have a great time relaxing with friends.

Before I met up with Matt for the New England trek, I actually had a really great day at work. I was crazy busy in the morning, but we had a management seminar in the afternoon which concluded with High Tea at The Plaza hotel in New York. It was such a girly afternoon, I loved it!

I've been to High Tea a few times, but never at The Plaza (actually, I've never even seen The Plaza except for on Home Alone 2, and don't judge me for being excited to actually see the inside!). After settling down to cups of hot tea served with traditional silver service, our server brought out the towers of goodies.

I'm always a bigger fan of savory than sweet, so loved the cucumber, pesto and salmon tea sandwiches. My favorite was the blue cheese whip & green grape sandwich.

So pretty! I also indulged in two small scones with lemon curd, which were warm, flaky and delicious. I try to stay away from sugary treats in the afternoon since they often give me a headache and make me sluggish, so for the most part I stayed away from the top tier of sweets, but I did allow myself one little fruit tart.

Adorable. And delicious.

I was exhausted by the time we got home last night, but it was definitely worth making the trip the night before to have the whole day here. Riker let us sleep in until 8:30 AM (amazing!!), and while I awoke an hour earlier than that, it was great to just lay around in bed all cozy reading for a while. Once everyone was up, I made us all a simple breakfast of Ezekiel sprouted wheat cinnamon toast with peanut butter, and an enormous piece of citrus fruit.

Seriously, how huge is that thing? It took up my whole plate! I found these Pomelos at ShopRite the other day and had to try them. Apparently they're grown in Asia and are similar to the grapefruit. Matt and I split one since they were so large. They smelled like grapefruits, but were sweeter and had a really unique flavor - hard to describe.

It was quite tasty, but a whole lotta work. The pith on this thing was no joke - it was about 2 inches thick and really tough, so took forever to peel. I'm not sure I have the stamina to deal with that on a regular basis, but it was fun to try it.

We're headed out now for some exercise in the brisk air, then off to run some errands (definitely need to baby proof my parents' house) before meeting my mom for lunch. Excited for this weekend to start!

Dinner Bowls

So far, this week has been all about long work days and dinners that can fit into a bowl.

I had planned to make quinoa veggie bowls this week, but after digging through my cabinets I realized I only had a tiny bit of the grain left, so I had to improvise. I found a forgotten jar of wheatberries, and they did the trick. My grandmother actually got me into wheatberries last year, and I love their firm, chewy texture. So different from most of the grains we eat on a regular basis! Wheatberries are actually the entire wheat kernel - bran, germ and all - so they are full of health benefits. I also love that they're nearly impossible to overcook - you can simmer away for as long as you want, but those little grain buds will never become mushy.

I made "Greek Wheatberries"by sautéing red onion, garlic, zucchini, cauliflower, mushrooms and green pepper together (okay, not entirely Greek here, but I needed to use up some veggies) in a little olive oil and tossing them together with a cup of wheatberries I had cooked with vegetable broth. Then I added oregano, crushed red pepper flakes, s&p, low fat feta cheese, a few kalamata olives I had lying around, a sprinkling of toasted walnuts, and a handful of freshly chopped basil (also needed to get used up).

Matt and I both agreed, this was one delicious bowl. The feta cheese melted into the vegetables and made the dish a little creamy, and the olives gave it a nice salty bite. One of the better hodge podges of vegetables I've thrown together!

Last night gnocchi was on the menu - whole wheat gnocchi with ricotta, lemon and peas, that is.

That looks like a whole lotta white, but it was much more flavorful than it looks. I've been making this dish for 5 or 6 years now - I originally saw a recipe for it on Food Network (theirs of course was filled with olive oil and parmesan cheese), and now I always make it when I have leftover ricotta cheese that I need to use up. Into the pan went:

(Gnocchi for two people)

- 2 cups of cooked gnocchi (I used frozen here)
- 1/2 cup skim ricotta cheese
- 1 cup frozen peas
- Zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon
- Salt and pepper

Voila - Italian in 10 minutes. And it's sooo good. The lemon really gives it a nice fresh flavor. We ate our gnocchi alongside green salads before watching (I know) another episode of Sons of Anarchy. We're into season 2 now, and it just keeps getting better. I'm just going to plow through this show until I've watched everything Netflix has to give me.

Off to start that work thing - happy Wednesday!