Date night

This morning I was pleased to discover that we had enough pancakes leftover from yesterday that we could just have them for breakfast again.  Pancakes are never as good the second day though so I added some fruit to make my plate yummier.

Leftover pancakes, maple syrup/yogurt, raspberries, bananas, 2 pecans, scrambled egg with harissa paste

Then I dropped Emily at preschool and headed to my friend Carolyn's house to hang out for the morning.  We usually get together weekly but thanks to me traveling and the barfy-ness we brought home I haven't seen her in almost a month!

 On the way to her house I accidentally spurned my hostess' hospitality.  She was planning on making coffee but I didn't find that out until I called her from the Dunkin' Donuts drive-through line.  By then the dude was already asking me for my order so I kind of had to get something.  I noticed one of their sugar-free flavors was blueberry, so I was very interested to try it out.

Skim latte

 But I still don't know what their sugar-free blueberry latte tastes like because they forgot my blueberry syrup :-(  Oh well, it was healthier this way anyway, although they probably did charge me 50 cents for the absent shot.

I had a nice morning catching up with Carolyn...it's so nice of her to continue inviting us to/coming to playdates when Charlotte always beats up her daughter :-(  Charlotte is used to having a big sister around and sometimes treats Abigal the same way as Emily even though Abigail is less than 1/2 Emily's size.  I'm trying to work on it with her, and I hope it's just a phase she grows out of soon.

Somewhere along the way I had a Babybel light wheel, then picked Emily back up and arrived home with my fab-lee-us girls.

Lunch was a salad similar to all the other salads I've been having this week.

Greens, cauliflower, sun-dried tomatoes green pepper, cucumber, 1 oz Maytag Blue, 1/2 oz pumpkin seeds, 1 tsp olive oil, balsamic vinegar

Plus half a pickle

And another spoonful of avocado hummus

Will and I had a date planned tonight, and I'm finding that there's no better way to make me feel hungry and obsessive about food than to make my dinner "special" and move it back a couple hours.  I feel like I need to save up calories since my dinner will be bigger, but at the same time I am afraid I will get super-hungry waiting for it so I'm almost hyper-aware of my food and what I'm craving.  This resulted in a snacky afternoon for me but I tried desperately to stick to fruits and veggies as much as possible.

Banana with 1 Tbsp peanut butter

An orange

The bottom of a green pepper filled with salsa

1/2 apple

1/2 oz buffalo jerkey

Once we had dropped of the girls it was FINALLY dinnertime!  We headed to The Wine Kitchen to use our $30 gift card we won in their wine description contest a few months back.

I chose the local wine flight since it included some Black Ankle Vineyards wines and I've been hearing very good things about them recently.
 

Hey, these almost line up correctly!

 I actually didn't taste anything here that I loved.  The Elk Run Gewurztraminer was very fruity and floral but tasted kind of flat.  The Syrah Grenache blend was probably my favorite.

My evil wine-drinking companion

And just to be clear, regardless of who ordered what I ate half of everything else pictured at the restaurant.  Will and I always do it that way so we can both get a good feel for as many different dishes as possible.

I started with the Waldorf salad, which I realized once they placed it in front of me I had ordered last time I was there!  I loved the garlicky champagne vinegarette and it was applied very well so that it was light but still completely coating everything.  The rest of the salad was kind of just...there.  Yummy but not anything amazing.

Bibb lettuce with grapes, toasted hazelnuts and champagne vinegarette

Will ordered the "Ham and Eggs", which was very tasty.  I have no complaints about this whatsoever!

Creamy polenta, poached egg, watercress and pork belly (I think?)

For dinner we split the rockfish, which was yummy but a bit greasy.  The big chunks of mushrooms on top were way to vinegar-y for my taste, but they were described as "mushroom vinegarette"?  I was expecting a sauce or dressing of some sort but apparently in this case it meant "a mushroom that tastes more like vinegar than mushroom".

Rockfish, shitake mushrooms, black rice, radishes

 We were lucky because they were still offering their specials from Valentine's Day, so I took advantage and ordered the squab breast with parsnip puree, huckleberries and foie gras.  Everything on this plate was delicious, and practically none of it was anything I'd prepare at home so it was a perfect restaurant plate!  And it turns out I really like pigeon (I'll be looking at those filthy things through different eyes the next time I see them bobbing around me as I sit on a park bench).  Will did not enjoy the foie gras but I was a huge fan and it has been YEARS since I've had actual foie gras.  It took all of my restraint not to eat the whole thing.

We also ordered a side of butter with some roasted cauliflower on top.  Here is my half.

Actually it was roasted cauliflower but BOY was it buttery

I was really wanting some dessert wine...icewine or some nice port but they only offer 1 type of port (which is not on any of the menus) and no other dessert wines!  I was pretty shocked, to be honest.  A restaurant with "wine" in their name that doesn't offer dessert wines.  We opted instead for a ginger pear drink.

House-made pear juice, ginger, black walnut liquer and rum

 This was tasty, it reminded me of "Saba Spice", a drink we got when we visited Saba.  It wasn't as strong as I had thought it would be either, which was a good thing.

Overall things weren't quite as perfect as they were the last time we went here but we enjoyed ourselves and our meal anyway.  Maybe it was because we were there on a regular old Wednesday and not a weekend this time?

When we got home I made myself my favorite dessert.

2 Tbsp sunspire grain-sweetened chocolate chips, 2 Tbsp peanuts, 2 Tbsp raisins

I even managed to resist having a cup of milk afterward (mostly because we're just about out of milk).

Tomorrow is a ME day!  I am doing all sorts of fun things while my mom takes care of the kids.  I am beyond excited, and anxious to get to bed so I have plenty of energy for all the shopping I plan to squeeze in tomorrow!  

Goodnight!