Eating it up in the US of A

Now that I am settled in and getting adjusted to the time change it will soon be time to pack it all up and head back to the island.  I am about half way through my trip now.  I know it is a quick one, but I was determined to squeeze some family and friends time in with what I could fit in my schedule.

Day 2:

I am so happy that my parents have a Dolce Gusto.  Theirs is bigger than the one Ryan and I have and came with these fun mugs.

 

I had a bagel with cream cheese and lox.  My mom made sure to stock up.

I had to take a picture of this rug because when we were in Morocco I was not allowed to photograph in the showroom.  This is the rug my mom bought in the souks in Morocco.  I love it!

Lunch was at Cafe Fresh at the suggestion of my sister.  We both had the black bean wrap (hers without cheese of course).  It was really good.

She also had the detox juice: spinach, celery, carrots, and parsley.

We did a little shopping around there too.

Dinner was at Al Pacino Cafe/Cafe Isis which is where I worked on and off throughout high school and college.  It is a middle eastern/Egyptian restaurant.  I was shocked to hear the owner, my old boss, was in Egypt at the time of the revolution.  I am very glad to hear he is safe.  He just happened to be staying at his house there and then of course everything happened.

We started off by splitting the eggplant salad.  It was so good.

My sister and I split the Dahb pizza on whole wheat crust with soy cheese.  This pizza has eggplant, hot peppers, mushrooms and red peppers.

My mom and Joe split the Masr, which is a pizza with feta and falafel on it.  This is one of my favorite pizza combos of all time.

This was a great and relaxing day with my family.  I did some shopping and had some great eats.

Day 3:

This is what we woke up to.

You may think it is nice because I don’t get winter and I never see snow, but my Aunt was supposed to come visit and my mom called her around 6 am and let her know everything was shut down here.  I just decided I was awake at 6 am and did some work since I was going to be snowed in and I could nap later if I wanted.

   

I started off with Chobani.  We can’t get this on the island so I was happy when Joe stocked up on these.

Mid-day the snow was plowed and my mom gave me the SUV back (actually we traded, she gave me the car and I dropped her back off at work and took the car).  We decided to be like little red riding hood and get some lunch to take over to grandma’s house.  We stopped at a place called The Flying Avocado.  They offer healthy foods (some I would say are questionable, like the obese woman ordering a smoothie with what I would estimate at around 750 calories, but it seems healthy, right?  Healthy is great, but portions still matter) and some nice vegan and vegetarian options.

Ahhh, the darn snow is still all over the place. 

My mom suggested this berry chicken salad for my grandma.  Good choice by my mom because my grandma loved it.

My sister had the Dr. Ray’s Raw Rainbow Salad.  I must say it is quite pretty looking.  She said it was really good.

I went with a Powerhouse wrap.  I love spouts, which is a main component to the Powerhouse sandwich, so I could not resist having this at least once while in the States.

Now, I know what you are thinking.  All we have done is eat.  Nope, that is just all I took pictures of.  The rest of the time we were shopping and chatting with people and I did not take my camera out.

Which brings me to dinner.  We ate at a place that was new for me, not too far from my mom’s, in a cute area known as Mt. Washington.  This place is called The Falls.

 

Again, some seriously good looking food.  My mom’s neighbor, who is super sweet and good friends with my mom, came with us to dinner.  She had a Powerhouse sandwich (which I had as a wrap for lunch).

My sister and Joe both had a portabella flat bread with salad.  Of course my sister asked for no cheese and she took a bite and there was…cheese.  Oh well, at least she had a lactaid pill on her.  The server quickly took this away and had a new sandwich made.

My mom had a Chef’s salad.

Here is what I had.  Seriously, this was a crazy burger idea.  This is a crab melt burger, but I subbed in a veggie burger.  So it is a veggie burger, topped with lump crab meat, and then topped with melted cheddar, served with some Old Bay mayo and sweet potato fries.

A fantastically delicious 2 days of eating in the USA.

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever heard of a Powerhouse sandwich?  If you lived overseas, what is the one food dish you would miss the most that you would not be able to get overseas?  What would be the first food you would want to go get when you returned to the US after being away for a long time?

Sweetness, From Scratch

While we were busy making all of those great spreads and pita bread, we also had a craving for some homemade chocolate chip cookies.  We made these Saturday night, and they went fast!

Usually Ryan makes them using the Betty Crocker cookbook, but this time we decided to just go with the recipe on the package of the chocolate chips.  Either way, how can you go wrong with homemade chocolate chip cookies!

Um, so about these cookies, well we must have really REALLY wanted to get them made fast.  Niether of us actually read the directions and so we mixed everything together.  In reality, the flour was to be mixed in last after all the other ingredients were mixed together.  The good news is that everything did manage to come together into one ball and we had some cookie dough.  As long as it tastes good in the end, I guess it is OK to mess up a little on the instructions, right?

Mmm, cookie dough!  Yes, I admit to eating some raw.  Yes, as someone with a degree in public health, and someone very concerned with food-borne illness, I do take my own risk at eating the occasional dough containing raw egg.

Ready for the oven...

Look how perfect they came out.

These wire racks for cooling are the best.

I love that they are stackable and all the cookies fit nicely on them and can cooly before being packaged up to eat later.

I also have some pictures from last week that I still didn't post yet, so I though before this week was over, I should just get these posted.

First up is this granola.  I mentioned Michele's Granola before in a post because I picked this up in Baltimore.  My sister actually bought this for me.  It is locally made in Baltimore.  She picked the chocolate cherry flavor because, well, I like chocolate and cherry together. 

The good news is that this made it all the way back to the island safely and Ryan and I opened it the other night.  Look at that.  It is weird, but there was a lot of granola in the bag and I have no idea why the bag looks so long and empty.  I mean I ate some, but not all of it!

Here you can see the nice chunks and the cherries, which are a good size.  It was great with the chocolate and cherry combination.

I was actually eating the granola because I was hungry and my dinner was still cooking.  I got the strangest craving for matzo ball soup, and I have tons of boxes of the mix here, so I made some.  I love matzo ball soup.  I was also cold and this helped to warm me up.

QUESTIONS:  What is your favorite kind of cookie to make from scratch?  Have you ever made granola?

Last day stateside, next stop Azores

I started the morning of my last full day by catching up on some important eats.  I had purchased this hummus and veggie sandwich the day before in NYC from Amy's Bread.

But, I wasn't so hungry, and there was no way I could eat the whole thing.  Instead, I went with a piece of this delicious looking sandwich.

Gotta love sprouts!

I also had a challah roll from Amy's, and I couldn't let this go to waste.  I ate half as I was heading out the door...to go eat lunch.

I also noticed someone, I think Joe (accroding to my mom at least), brought these goodies home.

Before Rachel and I headed to lunch, we had to stop at Goldberg's Bagels so I could once again take a dozen back for me and Ryan to enjoy.  When Marie came to visit, she brought us a dozen, and I think we were holding on to one just so we were'nt completley out of them.  Now our stash is replenished.

They look so good!

Next stop: Fell's Point in Baltimore

Lunch was at Liquid Earth becaue you can never get too much vegan/vegetarian food while visiting the States.

Rachel and I both started with the miso soup, which had delicious mushrooms in it, and was served with very tasty bread.

Then we split the Philly Cheese Phake.  Yes, you heard me right, this is a cheese phake, complete with thinly sliced tofu and also some soy cheese.  It was fantastic, but a big mess to eat.  Despite the mess, I would order this again.

After walking around, we stopped by Pitango Gelato for dessert.  Actually, we had no intention of eating dessert because we were stuffed, but the samples were so good that we decided to get a small and split it.  As my sister does not do dairy, we stuck with the sorbet that they served.  No worries, the sorbet tasted just as good as the gelato.

Super shiny containers.

Look at that gelato.  So creamy!

We selected the chocolate orange and then the strawberry.  Both flavors were really good.

Now that we were stuffed, it was time to get back to mom's house before heading to our aunt and uncle's for our cousin's 17th birthday dinner.  Yep, oh yes, another meal, barely hours after lunch and dessert.

My aunt had picked us up some vegan burgers, but I had bought some items from Trader Joe's that I never finished, so I took them over and prepared those for my dinner.  For some reason, and I tried three times, this picture will not post any other way than this.  Whatever!  This was my chickenless cutlet.

It was really good.  I liked the flavor of the sauce.

My aunt and uncle did a BBQ and they were serving beans.  I was very impressed that they made vegetarian baked beans to go along with the meal.  I almost never get to enjoy baked beans, so this was a total treat.

Here was the birthday cake, but I had to head out before dessert time.

If you are wondering how I could ever skip out of a party before dessert, it was because I had to attend my second dinner of the evening.  My friend Marie had asked about Mexican food in Baltimore, so I suggested Mari Luna.  She said I was not the first person who suggested this, and I offered to take her there.  Since this was my last night and the only time we could fit it in, I decided to take her, but only get dessert since I was coming from dinner.  Last week, you may remember, we went to the Mari Luna Latin Grill, so this time we went to the smaller, less pricey (same owners, only blocks from each other) Mexican Grill.

Salsa

and chips to start.

Marie ordered the very massive seafood paella.  Let's just say she will be eating rice for the next week.  She said this was fantastic.

As promised, I ordered dessert.  Who can resist sopapillas?  Certainly not me when I am in a Mexican restaurant.  These were really good.

Well, that was it for my very busy, jam packed with excitement, 2 weeks in the United States.  I am back on the island now and getting ready to relax a little.  I hope everyone is having a great weekend.

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever overbooked your schedule and wound up going to dinner (or lunch) twice in one day?  What is your favorite Mexican food?