It’s a rainy and chilly Saturday here, but we’re having a lovely, relaxing day at home decorating and getting ready to meet my sister at Ikea for dinner and race packet picket for tomorrow’s CIM relay. Yesterday was a chaotic day at work with last minute issues popping up constantly, so I’m glad to relax today. I did manage a nice lunch yesterday of leftover salad dressed with zucchini hummus and topped with nutritional yeast and sunflower seeds.
It’s strange that even on cold, rainy winter days I never mind a cold, raw lunch. But, by the end of the day, I’m craving something hot for dinner.
To wrap up such an insane week, hubby and I went out to a fun little place called The Chef’s Table that we haven’t been to in awhile because it’s hard to get into. By some miracle, they had an open table on Friday that I booked on OpenTable as soon as I saw it. It’s a tiny, hole-in-the-wall place that reminds me of a San Francisco cafe with a relaxed, casual atmosphere where guests can sit around a bar, sip wine and watch the chefs in action. Sip on wine we did opting to try a new zin.
Thumbs up, it had a nice spice to it with no bite.
The place has a constantly rotating small menu with crazy items on it that come in small, inexpensive portions for lots of sampling. But, not too much for a vegan on the menu, usually just one or two items. So we started sharing gorgeous goat cheese, olive and nut plate with wonderful local olives, seasoned almonds and fresh flat bread.
The only total vegan-friendly dish I absolutely adored, kale sauteed in malt vinegar, oil and garlic.
Simple, tangy and tasty!
Usually my little Canon PowerShot SD1100 never fails me for decent close-up food shots in digital macro mode, but it took me about 42 tries to get a decent picture of this dish. The rest look something like this.
I’m thinking of blowing this one up for abstract art, what do you think? Something about the lighting and glare being just right that the auto-focus was absolutely freaking out and delaying with every shot. My hubby explained that most point-and-shoot digital cameras auto focus feature just can’t handle some lighting situations and the focus of a digital SLR would be needed in this situation. Hmmm, maybe down the road. Then again, not sure I’d lug such a huge camera to a restaurant like this.
I had fun throwing together quick wraps for lunch today using hummus I picked up from Trader Joe’s and collard green leaves that came in our CSA box.
Yeah, they’re a little ghetto looking, but delicious.
Then I snacked on popcorn seasoned with garlic olive oil, sea salt and nutritional yeast.
I’ve always been a fan of popcorn and nutritional yeast, but for some reason never thought of trying them together until I saw Errign do it. Now I’m a huge fan! Nooch adds a wonderful, cheesy flavor to popcorn.
ive been a popcorn + nooch fan for awhile now..I have about 17 versions on my site of it. Not as many tho as it sounds like camera outtakes. Some food truly doesnt photograph well. I hear that! I would never take a dslr to a restaurant…wait, I dont have a dslr so that wont be a problem. lol
Your tableside experience sounds…..wonderful!!!!!!!
Yes, I’ve seen your protein popcorn recipes and need to try those next. Again, I’ve never thought of using Sun Warrior powder with popcorn, but it sounds wonderful.