revisit to Modern Pantry

T's actual birthday was yesterday, so we celebrated by opening presents in bed with the Nom's. She lovada presents!! I sure as hell hope that T and I aren’t the only ones who have developed a weird language with their dog. Ours is a mixture of baby talk, high-pitched voices, and funny singsongs (uhm, T has created a mixtape of songs for our dog, YES!)

Opening a package from Uncle Omar

Gee, she was having a good ole' time!

I'm not sure who really worked harder to get this package open, T or Sonoma

 

the loot!

festive huh?

Afterwards came birthday blueberry oats:

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup oats
• handful of frozen blueberries
• sprinkle of cinnamon
• swirl of maple syrup
• Toppings: dark choco chips for me and sprinkles for T and I 

Lunch after class yesterday was some green thai chicken curry, brown rice, kim chi, seaweed, and sesame leaves. 

The Asian girl in me was gleefully eating every bite!

seasoned with EVOO and sea salt flakes

and some kale chips on the side. I might of overbaked them slightly (they taste more bitter this way), but I really wanted every leaf to be crispy!

Last night, we made an impromtu decision to go out to eat. Our birthday dinner celebration really wasn't supposed to be until today (Saturday night) since T had a birthday drinks thing last night for a friend. We went to Modern Pantry where we've been for brunch (which was really delicious!) but never for dinner. I didn't have the best eating experience, even though the food looked great in front of me, I just wasn't feeling "eating" at all!

I did munch on most of the bread platter though. I love when restaurants give you an assortment of house breads. The flat thin one reminded me of eating a cheez-it, which they don't sell here in the UK BTW!!

chorizo scotched quail egg with a green pepper relish. Sigh... this had so much potential to be good, and I'm sure it was but I just. couldn't. stomach. it!! Oh man, T thought it was great.. and I thought scotched eggs were the greatest British invention ever, but to add chorizo AND use a quail egg? Amazing! For those who don't know what a scotch egg is, it is a hard boiled egg (shell removed of course) covered in a sausage mixture, coated in bread crumbs, and DEEP FRIED! Oh boy..

cornish crab pancake with corn, red onions, avocados

beef laksa

side of buttery steamed green beams

I had the seabass with wilted spinach, a carrot mixture (not so good), and something reminiscent of potato gratin. The fish was cooked perfectly with a crispy skin on top and flaky inside. Yum! I left most of the carrot mash though. It had some weird spice to it that I couldn't identify.

T had the grilled miso onglet steak with polenta sticks and rocket. After dinner, I rushed home to lay on the couch while T went out to the birthday bash. I watched this movie, which was pretty good:

I studied for that??

**I wrote part of this blog last night, but couldn't upload it because seriously, our internet still sucks at life right now!!**
Anyone ever watch a scary movie while studying for a test? Well that is exactly what I'm doing right now while watching Friday the 13th Part 2. Ha! I have a weird obsession with scary movies even though I close my eyes through most of the gory parts. Definitely have seen this movie before though.

Anyway, lucky for me, my Biology test tomorrow will be based on the formative assessment questions we can do online as many times as we want. I’ve done all 3 test assessments about 20 times each and the questions are becoming repetitive so I think I’m pretty much all set for tomorrow!

Dinner a few nights ago..

I love sauteing peppers in just three ingredients: Delicious!

• olive oil
• salt
• pepper

We had some jambalaya, and oven baked salmon along with the peppers.

I can't seem to cook my salmon right. It always turns out a bit dry and tough even though I marinate it 30 minutes prior to cooking. The marinade I used was honey, soy sauce, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a bit of sesame oil.

and my Korean lunch streak continues. On the plate are some spicy Korean noodles, leftover spicy bulgogi, kim chi, spinach, seasoned seaweed, and brown rice. My plan for this Christmas is to have my mom come teach me how to cook Korean food. Little does she know; her coming here has more purpose than just wanting to see her, although I am very excited to have her for the Holidays.

The plate looks huge but I swear it was just a little bit of everything :-)

I finally made it to the gym this morning after not going for a couple weeks. I tried out a different Virgin active gym near my school. It was nice since there weren't as many people there and I could move around freely in the weight room. There's also a ladies room only, so when or if I start to feel self conscious, I can always go in there. It felt SOOOOO good to be back, even though I couldn't lift as heavy, I still felt very accomplished. *pats myself on shoulder* Today's lifting session was back and biceps. 3 sets, 8-10 reps.

• lat pulldown
• barbell bicep curl
• barbell row
• hammer curl
• dumbbell one arm row
• incline bicep curl

My test this afternoon was a total bust, but in a good way. There were only 20 questions and I finished in 5 minutes!! What a joke!! I seriously studied my ass off for that?! Oh well, lesson learned. At least I think I got 100%!

Time for a nap!

Surprise 30th

My computer and internet sucks at life right now so these are the only pictures I can put up of T's surprise 30th Birthday party. I led T into thinking we were going to the Albion for a friend's husbands birthday dinner, and lo and behold, I manged to keep a surprise until the very end (or so he says!). Everyone gathered at the pub at 6:00ish and I brought him by at 6:30. I was pleasantly surprised that the group managed to get together and yell surprise as soon as he walked in. Props to whoever coordinated the group!

I was really happy with the turnout. Kudos to planning a month or so in advanced!

I ordered the roast pig for T since he had mentioned wanting to do that with friends. The event planner said it would be feed 15, but I knew it would feed more!

We ended up with a huge bag full of leftovers- ha!

Umm....

my plate with all the delicious sides.

they gave T the head to play with, and somehow it ended up being the star of the party for a while.

On Sunday afternoon, we went over to T's moms house for some home cookin. She always makes the most amazing spread of food. Drool...

T made us dinner last night with the beef I bought from the Korean grocery store.

spicy Korean marinated beef with bean sprouts and spinach.

Yum! It was so good and hit the spot for my craving for Korean food. Here's to hoping the next 2 weeks go by fast. I'm anticipating some good news next Thursday. Time to get my study on. Quiz in Chemistry tomorrow!

Bread Street Kitchen

stone bass filet

We went to Bread Street Kitchen last night, Gordon Ramsey's new restaurant in the city. We were really anticipating a wonderful dining experience, based on the decor and the amount of people working there, one could reasonable think this! Unfortunately, our night was dampened with mediocre food and pretty inattentive service.

We ordered the oven baked burrata and expected to get a big portion of delicious cheese but was given this pathetic portion of with an overwhelming onion tart underneath. The flavors were good but I just wanted more burrata.

king crab and apple cocktail pink peppercorns

 The crab appetizer was my favorite. It was similar to a prawn mayonaise cocktail but with generous, delicious portions of crab instead. Every bite was perfect!

the platter of cured meats, pickles and chili. The meats were good, but nothing mind blowing.

parmesan string beans and mac and cheese with garlic roasted crumbs,

 

hand cooked chips and spiced glazed carrots

for my entree, I ordered the short rib burger with a tomato relish and haloumi cheese. It was juicy, cooked to perfection, and mighty delicious. Everything I could have wanted in a burger, except I was super full and could only eat half!! Bummer.

Somehow the three of us still managed to have room for 2 desserts. This was a chocolate tart with salted caramel ice cream with honeycomb on top. I wasn't in the mood for chocolate but I had a few bites of the ammaaazing salty caramel ice cream. The boys couldn't get enough!

bread pudding, a bit too liquefied (didn't cook long enough), but the flavor was good! I was a bit petrified by the service at the restaurant. There were a TON of servers and hosts around but there seemed to lack any communication between them. I also witnessed a line cook accidentally touching a hot plate and proceeding to throw it back on to the counter, whereby splashing sauce everywhere and making a loud noise. That would have been the end of it, but he instantly became very angry and hostile to the other wait staff. I understand he must have been in pain and angry at not knowing the plate was hot, but it's one thing to briefly get upset but another to snap at your co-workers, especially in front of diners. It was like a bad accident, I couldn’t help but watch!

So all in all, it was an okay dining experience. The food didn't bowl me over but I would come back if friends wanted to try it.

Blogroll

Some recent eats! and my blog roll I currently have on rotate:

I've been on a bagel kick lately. Just some scrambled eggs and 1/2 a toasted sesame bagel with garlic and herb spread- YUM! Perfect pre-class breakfast.

I've been doing A LOT better this week about eating inside the home. The past couple of weeks were horrendous on my diet; it consisted of lots of junk food, chips, and takeaways. Greens never tasted so good!!

piri piri chicken, brown rice, and steamed kale and spinach seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

sauteed balsamic shrooms to compliment the lamb shanks for dinner.

pop this bad boy in the oven for an hour

and you get a delicious, tender lamb shanks and roasted veggie dinner in no time!

I also made some wild brown rice on the side. This was so delicious!

leftover piri chicken for lunch

check out how green my kale is! What a lovely color.

chicken in tarragon and white wine sauce, spaghetti carbonara, and kale on the side for dinner.

I used Bobby Flay's kale recipe. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/sauteed-kale-recipe/index.html

cinnamon and all spiced eggs for breakfast

salad and spaghetti for lunch before taking my usual afternoon "power nap".

the blob O' meat doesn't look very good but oh.. looks can be deceiving. This was very tasty.

sprinkled with some gluten free cheese and chili flakes. I had some cheese flakes left over from my gluten free diet experiment so I decided to use it. It tasted like regular parm cheese sprinkled on top! Mmm!

Time to get my study on. I have a chemistry AND biology test next week. Blergh. I made it to the gym on Tuesday but haven't been inside since so no workout updates :(

Blog roll:
http://www.healthytippingpoint.com/http://www.katheats.com/
http://fitnessista.com/
http://rhodeygirltests.com/
http://sarahfit.com/
http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/