To Be Recreated At Home

I’m sooooo glad it is finally Saturday.  This week has been a complete whirlwind!  I planned on posting a lot more during my travels but I only had my work computer with me.  And that thing takes a million years to boot up and log in through all the security screens to finally get connected to the internet.  I just couldn’t bring myself to fight with it.

I got home after midnight on Wednesday night and went straight to bed.  Then Thursday I was back at the office in the morning.  In the afternoon my department was actually hosting another conference here in Kansas City!  So I headed out to a hotel to attend meetings all afternoon.  Then we had a big group dinner immediately afterwards.  I didn’t get home until 10pm Thursday night.  Exhausted, I went straight to bed again.  On Friday we had more meetings in the morning, followed by a lunch after which my boss said we didn’t have to go back to the office for the afternoon.  SCORE!  I was so tired and the afternoon off was just what I needed.

Last night Benzo and I went out on a date since we hadn’t seen each other all week.  We went to a matinee of Iron Man 2 and then to dinner at Ingredient, followed by some shopping.  We ended the evening with some gelato.  The gelato place was at an outdoor shopping center and on a grassy little area they were showing Back to the Future on a big screen.  We enjoyed watching the movie for a bit and then headed home.

So this whole week I’ve been eating out at every single meal.  Among those meals I’ve come across several dishes I would like to recreate at home.

Falafel – I’ve heard of falafel before but I don’t think I’ve ever had it until this week.  Falafel is a fried ball or patty made from smashed up chickpeas.  At the Atlanta airport I had a falafel wrap, which was delicious.  Last night at Ingredient I had falafel on a pita which was even more delicious.  I must make my own falafel at home now.

Lentil Burger – Yesterday at our department lunch we went to a upscale burger joint.  Luckily they had a couple of vegetarian items and I opted for the spiced lentil burger.  It came with avocado, cucumber salad and radish sprouts on the burger.  It was very tasty.  I’ve made black bean burgers at home before, but a lentil burger would be nice to try for a change.

Chocolate Sorbet – I really wanted to try the gelato place we went to last night because they offer non-dairy items.  I had a small cup with Amaretto soy gelato and chocolate sorbet.  I didn’t have my camera so I couldn’t take a picture, but the chocolate sorbet looked like deep, dark chocolate ice cream!  It was fantastic.  I’ve heard of fruit sorbets and coconut sorbets but never chocolate sorbet.  I must make this at home now.

I’m so happy to be at home today.  Traveling always makes me appreciate my home.  Benzo and FIL are working on the kitchen floor again today so I am on my own.  It’s raining so I can’t work in the garden unfortunately.  Which is very frustrating because my tomato plants are literally dying to be transplanted.

I’ll leave you with some pictures of the pools at my hotel in Miami.  I stayed at The Four Seasons.  It was an amazing hotel.  Very nice and the service was outstanding.  It’s pretty expensive though so I don’t know if I could ever afford it on my own!

Have a wonderful Saturday!