I’m currently writing this while sitting in starbucks, looking out the window at the blue sky in Baltimore. This week is going to be amazing weather and I am so excited to spend so much time outside. I already have plans to sit outside after my class today and have a picnic on the beach with friends for lunch tomorrow. Yesterday my friend, Sam, and I walked to Hampden, and on the way back we walked across the quad and noticed that the trees are starting to bloom. It is such a good feeling to know spring is coming.. and then summer! My spring break starts on Wednesday! I am going home first, so I hope the weather is nice in Pittsburgh too.
I love Pittsburgh, and this morning I was reading food blogs (per usual) and one of them was about a weekend trip to Pittsburgh. The blogger and her friends traveled to Pittsburgh (from Cleveland I think…. Very good decision ;) ) and they tried to find a good restaurant to eat at on Saturday night. What they found was a restaurant on Penn Ave, downtown called Salt of the Earth. The restaurant is a mix of great food and great architecture (my other love in life). The author of the blog is a vegan, and so she raved about what she ordered, and the atmosphere, but did not seem too obsessed with the entire menu and it's lack of vegan variety. I looked at the menu, and I thought that there seemed to be a fair amount of vegetarian options. Also on the restaurant website, it specifically states that they try to include many vegetarian options on the menu. I am going to try to get my mom and dad to go with me this weekend. I never go to eat downtown, but when I interviewed Don Reinhardt, the owner of the Sewickley Café, he told me that the restaurants downtown are getting much better in quality. Hopefully my parents will want to try out this restaurant!
I also am excited to cook for my parents while I am home. My mom and dad are doing a great job getting healthy and I love helping out by introducing them to new recipes. I love when my mom calls me to tell me shes is trying one of my recipes.
One of my mom's friends (who hopefully will be a feature of the week in the future) taught me to cook, and when she found out that I had really taken to it, she said it's because I am not afraid to try new recipes and I'm not discouraged when they fail, because sometimes they will. I think this is true, and I have to apologize to some of my friends for when that happens, as I try to experiment with different tastes and textures.
I tried a recipe for my friends last week that turned out really well. I used about a cup and a half of quinoa, cooked it the normal way, added about a cup of blistered tomatoes, which I sautéed in really hot olive oil, half a cup of walnuts (which pairs well with the quinoa’s natural flavor), and about half a cup of parmesean-reggiano cheese. I served it at a dinner party for my friends along with two salads made by two of my friends. Quinoa is a protein, so it’s filling and healthy! Perfect when substituting for a meat in a meal on meatless Monday!! Mixed with tomatoes and served with a salad makes it perfect for an early spring meal.
(My roommate took a picture of our dinner party so I'll post that when I get it from her)
Try it out :)
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