hot humid home

Well, I am finally back in Florida after my month of travel. No More Backpack!!! just getting re set on the time zone [it was easier for me to transition from Rome to Texas than it seems to be to transition from Idaho to Florida, ugh] Yesterday was just a lazy day - i know, why would i need a lazy day when I`ve been on vacation? Vacation is hard work!

So yesterday was a late lazy morning before I headed out with Teresa for her family bbq...except it rained so not much bbq. We did however make a yummy Summer salad with lettuce, grapes, strawberries, walnuts, feta cheese, and a light raspberry vinaigrette. YUM!

Then I headed over to the momma bear's house. Watched some Harry Potter, went through my 1300 pictures from Europe, and cooked dinner. I'm seriously craving fruits and vegetables so I went to one of my favorite easy meals - spaghetti squash.

First I cut the spaghetti squash in half, placed it in a casserole dish and covered the bottom of the dish in water. I covered the halves in saran-wrap and popped them in the microwave for 15 minutes.

When they were finished I took the saran wrap off and used a spoon [fork works too] to scrape out the inside of the squash to get those deliciously sweet strands that give the squash its name. There is so much "meat" to the squash. One cup only has 41 calories!

While the squash was in the microwave I chopped up one sweet onion and about 3 cloves of garlic and put them in a pan with a tablespoon of olive oil and a shake of oregano and a shake of thyme on medium heat. While those cooked down I chopped up a small container of baby portabellos and added those to the mix.

While that kept-a-cookin I chopped up 3 tomatoes. I added about 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar to the veggies and a tablespoon of agave syrup [honey would be ok as well, or no sweetener] and then the tomatoes and I let it sit for about 10 minutes to get the juices of the tomatoes and let some of the acidity of the vinegar cook out.

Then I plated up!. Put about 1/4 of the squash into a bowl and then a huge spoonful or two of my veggie/sauce mixture with a sprinkle of feta cheese on top [asiago, fresh parm, or other cheeses would rock as well] [*side note, you could add the squash to the sauce in the pot to cook it up some more just like one would with wheat spaghetti if you wanted]

Delish? I think so!

Hello, Seattle .

So today we drove the 5 hours to Seattle . Gorgeous weather. First we went to the Plum Bistro on 12th street for some vegan fare. Finally. I had a corn-flour quinoa "crepe" which was kind of like a taco with a sloppy Joe type flavored quinoa mix. Yummy.

Then to Pikes Place Market. Such a cool place. Really pretty flowers and awesome looking vegetables. We saw the place where they all throw the fish and yell and all that jazz. Fun. It was cool walking around seeing all the vendors. We also saw the first ever starbucks. There are so many Starbucks all over the place! Like every 100ft or something!

Next stop, space needle. All the way to the top! It was such a clear sky that you could see mt rainier and mt baker from the top! I hadn't been up there before that I remember but it was nice.

Then we met up with the family over here to see everyone. That was really nice because it had been a long time! It's hard to catch up on four years in 40 minutes though.

A fine Texas time

So as soon as I get back to the states I slack on blogging! I know...

Let's see, I traveled for over 24 hours from Rome to my final destination of San Antonio, Texas. All in all it wasn't terrible, flights were fine and I even got gluten free meals on the plane that were actually quite edible! Surprised? Yah me too!
So I landed in San Antonio and my wonderful boyfriend greeted me with gluten free spinach and portabello quesadillas from The Cove restaurant that I love. I was so excited! But then I pretty much passed out. (after emptying my suitcase of all the wonderful souvenirs I bought him of course).

The next morning he took me to The Aussie Bakery which is this awesome 100% gluten free bakery and restaurant that he found in San Antonio! We shared a vegetarian pizza which he said was one of the top 3 pizzas he ever had. It was super yummy! Then we had a slice of tirimisu cake. Lol I get all the way back from Italy to have pizza and tirimisu cake. Then it was off to wine country. Yup, wine country in Texas. (I also left Italy to go to the wine country in Texas. Of the irony!) we headed towards Fredericksburg Texas with a stop at Sisterdale winery and vineyards. We took a little tour of their wine making facility and then sampled 6 of their wines. It was cute and we liked a couple of the wines but didn't want to make any purchases since we had just started the weekend! We arrived and checked into our adorable bed and breakfast at Das Garten Haus. Yah.. That's a German name... Because the town is German. I could not get away from Germany or Italy on this trip! Our room had it's own little kitchen and living room because in the 50s it had been turned into a rentable apartment room for the little lady who owned the house. The owners now had lived there 17 years and have two suite rooms and a cottage that they use for a max amount of 8 people at any one time.

After checking in, we decided to check out the town. We parked at one end and began to walk. We made it about 15 feet before stopping at our next little winery. D'vine wine. This one we just shared a tasting and it was 8$ for 6tastings and we got to keep the glass! (we collected 4 glasses this weekend). It was a nice little start and then we started our way down the street. There were a lot of cute clothing boutiques to my suprise and the boyfriend's chagrin. Lol. We just walked around till everything closed at 630 and then headed to dinner at the Cabernet Grill. Very cute restaurant with a delicious menu, if not a tad expensive. I had the pork tenderloin and we shared a caprese style salad for an appetizer, except with Texas goat cheese instead of Italian mozzarella.

On Saturday we woke up to have the "prompt 830" breakfast at the bed and breakfast.
The owner had a fresh bowl of fruit with a gran marnier infused yogurt to start. Then we had a baked ham and egg that she cooks in a casserole with some dijan mustard and mozzarella cheese. She also made a potato and onion hash brown. We thought we would head to the ww2 reenactment that was at 1030 but when we got there a little after ten it was sold out! Who would have thought ?! So then we decided to wander around the town since we agreed 1030/11 may be a bit early to start drinking wine. We went to an olive store and I bought a fig balsalmic vinegar and a lemon olive oil and my t-38 pilot bought the garlic olive oil. Yum! I cannot wait to cook with them. Unfortunately I didn't have enough room in my suitcase so I had to leave my purchases with him but I will get them back soon! Then he wanted some German food so we went to one of the many german restaurants. I was not in the mood so I ordered a meringue and cappuccino. It was the worst cappuccino of my life. In fact, it wasn't cappuccino at all! It was that stupid powder mix you buy at the supermarket with whipped cream on top instead of foam. I refused to drink that. Ridiculous. He had the sausage plate with sauerkraut and potatoes. I have to say, it looked pretty authentic, even if it did seem like an American size portion.

Then it was finally time for wine! First we headed to Becker Vineyards which was one of the top recommended around, just outside in Stonewall, Texas. They make all of their wine from their own grapes and they even have a lavender farm as well! We each had 6 tastings and got to keep the glasses. They were nice glasses too! The wines were super yummy and we both picked different ones so we could try 12 different varietals. I particularly enjoyed the Claret which is a blend and there was even a couple whites that we liked, one of which has been served at the white house ( I'm going to assumed it was when one Bush or another was in power ). Most of the reds rocked and even the port was good. We left with two bottles each. We decided to sit down on the porch after that to relax and give us some time and then we headed back towards the bed and breakfast.

About 5 minutes or less in we went to the Torre de Pietra vineyard. They also use their own grapes which is something we like. We had two tastings here as well but I don't think the lady liked us sharing so she kind of directed our tasting and picked them for us but that turned out to be ok. We really liked two reds, the Amore and the Red Flirt. We bought a bottle of the red flirt. I bought a little box of cheese and crackers with hummus and chocolate to share as well to help keep the flavors apart. Then we sat outside in a gazebo and listened to some live music and relaxed. Very nice.

Then about a 100m drive and we turned into Grapecreek vineyards. You could literally see the other vineyard from here. We decided to just split one tasting and kept the glass here as well. The wines here were decent but not our favorite and so this was one of our shortest trips to a winery. It was cute but we were ready to move on, plus my t-38 pilot wanted some homemade peach ice cream!

So next stop, a street vendor with all sorts of peaches and tomatoes and jams and butters and salsas and most importantly, home made peach ice cream. It was very tasty. Not like gelato at all of course but with little peaches of ice cream, it tasted...American. I bought some peaches and tomatoes for us to have and him to take home as well.

By the time we got back to the b&b we thought we would take a nap before dinner (well, after he played lots of "angry birds" which was a recent addiction) but that nap turned into a 930pm wake up...when all t he restaurants are closed. That wine got to us more than we thought ! So we just hopped over to the H E B grocery store and picked up some prosciutto, cantaloupe, cheese with blueberries (yes, in the cheese. He didn't think he would like it but ended up loving it) and some sushi. Interesting combo, I know, but very good. He had his German beer and I had my raspberry cider and all was good.

Then today we woke up for our 830 prompt breakfast. This time we had baked pears with cinnamon, oats, and creme to start followed by a Brie, egg, and sausage bake with home fry potatoes, tomatoes for me and blueberries muffins for everyone else. It was delicious but a bit heavy for me so I couldn't finish the egg bake and had the rest of cantaloupe back in the room. It was that awkward amount of time before I needed to be at the airport that we couldn't really do anything but that there was still more time than take me right to the airport so we just relaxed for an hour or so after breakfast and packed all up and headed to San Antonio. We grabbed a to go lunch at My Fit Foods which is a whole fridge store of ready made meals to heat up in a microwave. Really cool idea and healthy too. I got a quinoa and kidney bean salad for the airport and then off we went.

Now I am off to Spokane to see my Idaho and Washington family!
xoxo