questions for dessert » asheville

Bento: Curate-inspired style

krissie — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 11:36:01 +0000

Last weekend, I fell absolutely in love with our meal at Curate’s Tapas Bar. So much so that I decided to recreate a few items that we had. Some of our plates didn’t translate well into my Bento, so I checked out the menu and found a few things that would. What did my tapas lunch look like? Here you go.

on the menu:ensalada de verano: summer salad of watermelon and la serena cheese, heriloom tomatoes, drizzled in honey sherry viniagrette.in my bento:

tomato watermelon salad

1 bag little red tomaotes, halved

1/4 medium watermelon, chunked

3 oz swiss cheese, thin squares

1/4 sweet onion, very thinly sliced

salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients. Serve chilled.

*****

on the menu:

tortilla espanola: spanish potato and onion omlette

in my bento:

potato onion mini quiches

2 tbsp butter

1/2 onion, diced

1 lb. little yellow potatoes, quartered

4 oz. Meunster cheese, shredded

1 cup cottage cheese

10 eggs

salt and pepper

Heat butter in a skillet. Add onions and potatoes. Cook 10 minutes or until potatoes begin to soften.

Combine cheeses, eggs, and salt and pepper. Add veggies in. Grease muffin tin (I used muffin liners). Bake at 450 for 20 minutes.

*****

on the menu:

home cured olives

in my bento:

olives from a jar

*****

on the menu:

bocadillo gallego: roasted red bell pepper, onion, black olive spread, hard boiled egg, spanish bonito tuna

heldado de romero con almendras: rosemary ice cream with almond sponge cake and local blueberries

in my bento:

I wanted the memory of the rosemary, but since ice cream isn’t really lunch friendly I opted to use it in a spread

white bean rosemary dip

2 tbsp butter

1/4 sweet onion, diced

1 can cannelini beans, rinsed and drained

2 cloves garlic, chopped

3 springs fresh rosemary, chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

Heat butter in skillet. Add onions and cook until soft.

Add onions and all remaining ingredients to food processor. Pulse until at desired consistency.

Serve with toast, crackers, pretzels, pita chips, etc.

Not a bad little bento, huh? And it reminds me of Asheville…

Asheville Day 3: Mt. Pisgah and Nine Mile

krissie — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:19:05 +0000

I hate saying goodbye to Asheville. But we sure had a great Sunday.

This was our view from breakfast on the porch of the Crooked Oak Mountain Inn.

We packed up our things (sadness!), hopped on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and began our hike up Mt. Pisgah.

this was the wrong trail. but I liked the sign.

See that tower up there? That’s where we were headed.

It was steep and rocky and wet. Not usually the best combination for me, but I felt strangely secure on my feet. (Did I mention steep?)

The views were great even though there was a storm rolling in. We reached a clearing where we made a pretty sharp turn up the mountain. These were two pictures taken in the exact same spot…in one direction with the mountain view we had just came from:

And the ascent we were continuing to face:

(notice the rock steps behind us)

We climbed the observation deck with the sounds of thunder. There is a huge tv tower on the deck so we thought it would be best to snap a few pictures and head back down. I didn’t really want to be struck by lightning. And with the cloud cover, there wasn’t a lot to be seen. But what we could see was beautiful.

Then we began our climb back down. Thankfully it wasn’t as slick as it looks. North Carolina rocks are much less slippery than Kentucky rocks. I’m sure my geologist husband would have an explanation for that.

And then the fog rolled in.

We avoided the rain, thankfully. We got back to the car, surveyed the land, and were shocked that we had just been way up there where the tower was.

back to Asheville!

We headed to Nine Mile for lunch, another new restaurant for us. Caribbean food at phenomenal prices. Service was wonderful and personable. Definitely somewhere we will eat again.

North Carolina brews

Nate's "Soon Come" - you'll see this on the blog soon

my scallops with shredded veggies

amazing chocolate cake with cayenne syrup

As we left, we were greeted by the first rain since we arrived.

It was fun heading out of town and looking for the tv tower that identifies Mt. Pisgah. “We climbed that mountain!”

Such an awesome trip. I can’t wait to do it again, hopefully in the fall.

And maybe I’ll see you there?

asheville day 2: the downtown day

krissie — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 11:26:08 +0000

(I need to apologize in advance for some of these pictures – I just carried my point-and-shoot this trip. So it’s what I can get with a Sony Cybershot.)

Oh, Asheville. You are too good to us. Saturday was just awesome.

We started out with breakfast at the Crooked Oak Mountain Inn.

If you hear of anyone stealing this mirror, it wasn’t me.

As always, Asheville was beautiful. Weather was a little warm but not humid. Asheville treats us well.

I usually get unsweetened lattes, but I opted for the salted caramel today at Malaprop’s (our favorite bookstore). It was so good.

Today’s lunch is our only meal out at a restaurant we have visited before. We were excited about the Ploughman’s Lunch at Jack of the Wood. I thought we should add a big salad too.

Nate reading our new Asheville Trail Running book

Nathan needed a break.

We found my anniversary present. I’ve become allergic to my wedding rings and haven’t been able to wear them since early spring. We found a new tiny band that I absolutely love.

Dinner was absolutely out of this world. If you are in driving distance of Asheville, call and get reservations for Curate. Seriously. It was that good.

my Spanish martini

Nate's cider Grand Marnier concoction

watermelon/tomato/onion/melted cheese

chorizo and potato puree

Moorish lamb

first dessert: melon four ways

second dessert: rosemary ice cream

And just so you can see… this where I started writing this blogpost last night:

and this became the view after the bugs started feasting on me.

Man, that was a good Saturday.

Asheville Day 1: the junction, laurel river trail, storm

krissie — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 12:00:43 +0000

I feel like you all might not believe me when I tell you how awesome our day was. That’s how awesome it was.

The owners of the bed and breakfast raved about the Junction on facebook the other day, so how could we not try it out? It totally lived up to the hype.

heirloom cucumbers, Hendrick's, mint

pesto, pork belly, pimento cheese (with grilled peach and watermelon salad not pictured)

We headed about half an hour out of town to the Laurel River Trail. When we got to the head of the trail, we were greeted by this.

It didn’t last long, though. And we knocked out about 6ish miles. (Not real sure since I don’t think we followed the actual Laurel River Trail. But I calculated based on our brisk pace back. I think 6 is the minimum.)

We never just check in to the Crooked Oak Mountain Inn. We catch up. We talk about races and food. And always end up with amazing dinner recommendations. Tonight was no exception.

Welcome to Storm Rhum Bar.

scallops with asparagus and lentils

I really feel like a thief after this meal. Amazing food. Amazing drinks. Amazing prices. This restaurant will be in heavy rotation. I can’t wait to try the lunch menu next time.

We finished our evening right down the street at the French Broad Chocolate Lounge.

We had decided to split something and this cake definitely fit the bill.

We really had the perfect first day of a long weekend. We left an 110* heat index for a breezy 79* evening.

I feel so lucky that our favorite place is only a little over a 4 hour drive. I really couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.

And our weekend is just starting!

plant your hope with good seeds

krissie — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 23:21:28 +0000

We spent the weekend in Asheville. Our home away from home. It was just beautiful. Sunny and warm in the days, chilly in the evenings. A little bit of Christmas, still a nice chunk of fall.

We went to the Biltmore on Friday. It was beautiful, as always.

We had the greatest lunch at Cedric’s. Parsnip apple curry soup and the ploughman’s lunch. Oh. And a Highland’s Black Mocha Stout. Yumm.

This man loves Christmas.

Three nights of vacation. Three nights we were in bed before 10pm. Early to bed and early to rise, right?

I had a Melted Goat sandwich at the City Bakery. Goat cheese, roasted grapes and spinach all grilled up. Awesome. Such a neat little cafe.

We absolutely love our bed and breakfast. Seriously, folks. Go to Asheville. Go to the Crooked Oak Mountain Inn. And tell Bear and Patti we went you.

And now we’re safe and warm, back at home. Catching up on DVR.

Hope you had a great weekend too!

drinks are on me next week

krissie — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 14:34:15 +0000

It absolutely blows my mind that I took these pictures over a week ago. And that these pictures have been uploaded and sitting in my draft folder since then. Unbelievable.

So let’s talk about our Saturday in Asheville last weekend.

We started with a trip to the Visitor’s Center because the lovely @Foodtopia had left us a present.

There are SO MANY goodies in this bag. Goodies that we didn’t have time to take full advantage of this weekend. But, never fear, we’ll be all over them on our trip in November.

I don’t know why we never visited the Visitor’s Center before. It was beautiful and user-friendly and well organized. We especially liked the Relocation section. Hey, we can dream, right?

In her wonderful note to me, Foodtopia suggested that we check out one of the farmers markets in town. We knew we had a lot of on-foot exploring to do, so we chose the market closest to where we park downtown. Although it wasn’t a farmers market exactly, it was one of the neatest shopping experiences I’ve seen. Again, somewhere we’d never been before.

Say hello to the Downtown Market.

This is where Nathan and I would shop if we lived there. Think of it as a kind of scratch and dent grocery store. The produce was awesome. The groceries were very cheap and may have had smashed corners on the boxes of pasta or the expiration date may be rapidly approaching. Reminded me of the Oprah show I saw on repeat a while back about Freeganism. I really wonder how much of this food would just end up in the trash if it weren’t for stores like this. And why there aren’t more stores like this. And the brands I saw on the shelves? I felt like I was looking through the cabinets of Jaime or Kath. So many organic and clean-eating brands. I loved it. I would shop here. And have a much smaller grocery bill.

In the other half of the market was a very weird community store. It was a cross between a flea market and the community art spaces I’m going to show you later in the week (note to self: put artist links in that post!). They really did have a little bit of everything. See what I mean?

We moved on to the main section of downtown to find that the Chocolate Fetish had gotten quite the makeover. The space was twice as large as we were used to.

But the sweets were just as fantastic. Fantastic looking, anyway. Because we went with the Bluth stand-by and ended up with choclate covered bananas.

Even though we had to google a location (what did we ever do before we had smartphones?) we ended up at L.O.F.T. It kinda reminds me of Third Street Stuff. Over the top. Awesome. And also great mirrors for picture taking.

And then my absolute favorite store in town: Asheville Spice and Tea Exchange. I could really spend hours and hours and hundreds of dollars in here. We are encouraged to take the lids off the jars and smell. They’ll measure packages out for anything you want. Spices, teas, sugars, spice mixes. Hmmm. I only came out with Applewood Smoked Salt, Lavender, and some Mulling Spices for Nathan.

We headed across the street to Malaprop’s. We are definitely bookstore people, and this is probably our ultimate favorite. Great selection. Odd selection. Regional section is my favorite.

Speaking of favorites, I’ve gotten several pieces of my favorite jewelry from Dolce Vita. I almost bought a few gifts for the Niece in here, but I kept it together. I don’t want to spoil her that bad. Yet.

We see a lot of pro-Asheville stickers and such here, but this is my absolute favorite. I so wish I could have found one (or ten) for purchase.

Because truer words nave never been spoken.

it feels so much lighter now that I’ve met you

krissie — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:00:59 +0000

We’re home!

And while I’m sorting through the 500 pictures I took this weekend (no joke!), here are a few of my favorites. Before today. Those are still on the camera. Sheesh.

I miss Asheville already.

you’re the one that I wanted to find

krissie — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 01:43:11 +0000

I took almost 200 pictures today. And I like a lot of them. So y’all are gonna see a lot of Asheville the next few days.

But first…today’s eats.

This is where we had breakfast. Really.

And there’s no better way to start the day than with some Trivial Pursuit. (New Coke!)

My selections from the fruit and pastry table.

This was our view. Sigh.

This is my happy pancake face.

After breakfast, we headed to a neat little market and became even more caffeinated.

Well, hello Iced Latte. Nice to make your acquaintance.

After walking around downtown for hours, we headed to a standard for lunch: Jack of the Wood.

I love it here. Lots of fans. Exposed brick. Cozy.

I had the porter and Nathan had the IPA. Both locally brewed. So nice.

We split 2 appetizers: Parsnip fries with curry ketchup.

And the Ploughman’s Lunch. Bread, raisin chutney, pickled onions and some kind of mustardy-cheese block.

Lots more walking. We had to stop at the Chocolate Fetish. So many options…

But we both settled on chocolate bananas. ‘Cause there’s always money in the banana stand.

We had dinner at what is probably my favorite no-reservations-required restaurant in Asheville: Chorizo.

Nathan had the coffee-roasted pork burrito.

And I had lamb.

I didn’t even come close to finishing mine…

But Nathan scraped his plate clean. He’s showing me where his burrito is sitting in his stomach. When the waitress came and cleared our plates, she looked at his and said, “Good job!” He’s an eating machine!

We ended up at a local ice cream shop because we knew we’d get hungry later…

…and took two scoops of mango balsamic back for the evening.

We just ate it. It was phenomenal.

I promise we did more than eat today! It’ll just be spread out over a few themed posts.

when stars were still just the holes to heaven

krissie — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 02:46:05 +0000

Nathan picked me up early from work today and we headed down 75 to my favorite place on earth: Asheville. So thankful it’s only a little over four hours away.

We decided to stop by Biltmore Village on the way into town. With the art fair going on this weekend, we thought it might be a little crazy on Saturday. It was a good decision.

The Corner Kitchen has always been one of our favorite places to eat in town. (Although, in all fairness, I don’t know that we’ve ever eaten anywhere here that I wouldn’t call “one of our favorites”, but that’s neither here nor there.) We hadn’t eaten dinner here before so we decided to give it a shot.

Okay. So it is a Friday night. And it is summer tourist season. We were expecting a wait. Imagine our surprise when we were given two options: wait 45 minutes for a table or sit here without a wait.

I loved our seating arrangements. It was like Take the Cake but a busier kitchen. They gave us the disclaimer that language may get “colorful” in the kitchen. We laughed and we got right to work with the menus.

The drinks:

I went for the Lavender Lemon Drop. Let me just tell you, friends. This drink is dangerous. Amazing. I could have drank all night. But I only had one.

The choice for dinner was a hard one to make. I loved that we had the view of the kitchen to see things as they were coming out. I decided on the shrimp curry and Nate ordered the pork.

First things first, though. These little crab salad bites. Wow. I could have eaten about a million of these.

And if I’d have brought my Go-Go-Gadget arm, I might have done just that.

I got really excited here. I knew that was my curry in the back and Nathan’s pork up front.

Hello pork for Nathan! I had a bite of the pork and it was perfectly cooked. The sauce was sweet and spicy. Really really good.

And shrimp curry for me. This dish was amazing. Flavorful but not too much heat. The textures of the avocado and the cashews were really nice. Just a really really good dish.

We intended to save room for dessert, but that just didn’t happen.

I took a few more pictures while they were processing our check.

The guy on the left is Matt, our server. He was fantastic as well. Lots of love to the Matt-ster.

I love that we have mastered the arms-length shot.

We meandered around for a little while and decided it was time for dessert after all.

Yum gelato from Gianni Panini. I had half a scoop each of coffee and double chocolate. Perfect on a steamy evening.

Nathan was very full. He decided that he could see his pork chop protruding from his belly. He pointed this out to me.

Then it was time to check into our favorite bed and breakfast.

The Dogwood room was waiting to welcome us back. (Which we got on an awesome special that we knew about because of Facebook. See, it’s good for something!)

Also waiting to welcome us back? The porch. And Bear and Patti. And some wine.

How can you not relax when this is your view?

And you’ve got this in your hand?

Four hours in Asheville and I feel like I’ve escaped from everything. I like this. I like it here.

And we’ve still got the rest of the weekend.

the only place i ever will belong

krissie — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 23:54:23 +0000

When I got home from work yesterday, Nathan told me that our favorite bed and breakfast had posted a special on facebook. Two nights for the price of one. For this weekend.

So before we had a chance to talk ourselves out of it, we made reservations. And I am a happy girl. The day after tomorrow, I’ll be heading to my favorite place in the whole wide world.

I mean, the books…the coffee…the food…the mojitos…

I am incredibly excited. I need this. We need this.

But I’m also a little nervous. I will not let this trip derail me.

Do you hear me, Internets? I will NOT let this trip derail me.

I’ve already found myself slipping into that mindset.

“Why do I need to Shred tonight? I won’t do it while we’re on vacation.” Vacation is two nights. I can Shred before work on Friday and then when we get home on Sunday. All I’ll miss is Sunday.

“Maybe I’ll eat a few handfuls of chips. I’ll be eating tons of crap in Asheville anyway.” Um, no. We eat well in Asheville, but we don’t eat crap. This is a short trip. I will keep eating in the front of my mind, both before and through the trip.

I will NOT let this trip derail me.

I will enjoy the trip. I will enjoy my husband. I will enjoy all that Asheville has to offer. But I will not sacrifice the momentum I’ve gotten. I’m tracking. I’m working out. I’m on it. I will not lose that again.

I will not start over. Again.

That’s permission to keep me accountable, guys. Especially you, Nathan.

I will NOT let this trip derail me.

Amen.