Before I mention anything else, I just want to remind you guys that I shared a really awesome recipe for Ginger & Meyer Lemon Ice Cream over on Girl Gone Grits. Make sure to check that out, along with the other eleven meyer lemon recipes that were included in that series. It’s a lemon-o-rama over there.
I was on the road last week. Scott Bobleo and I trekked up to Connecticut to visit family, friends, and perhaps most importantly, carb-load. The Tri-State area, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, is the land of bread. Hard rolls, pizza, bagels, deli sandwiches and pasta rule. These were things that I grew up with, and had always taken for granted before moving to Texas. No matter how great an Italian restaurant or bakery might be down here, it’s just not the same. Little things, like the leathery bottom of a New York pizza, the alkaline flavor and soft chewy texture of a J.J. Cassone hard roll, and the magic of baked ziti on a red checkered tablecloth cannot be found anywhere else on Earth.
Of course, being preggers, I had to take it easy while sampling my favorites. Spanning a ten day period, I limited myself to one buttered hard roll for the week, two egg and cheese sandwiches (on hard rolls, of course), one hot grinder, and one helping of baked ziti. Other than pizza, which happened two glorious times, I stuck to my regimen of veggies and lean proteins for the rest of the week. Oh, and there was a minor indescretion with a slice of carrot cake. It was from an Italian bakery so I was pretty much powerless against it.
My mettle was tested further when I visited my culinary school. The Community Culinary School of Northwestern Connecticut is a very special place, run with the help of two of my favorite people, Dawn Hammacott and Chef Blythe Roberts. They are on their twenty third session, and I happened to stop in during soups and stocks. The kitchen smelled amazing, wafting out aromas of delicious things being roasted, simmered, and thickened with roux.
We found a spare afternoon between baby kissing and bromance reunions to stop by our all-time favorite Indian restaurant. There is a little place named Kolam on the border of Newtown and Monroe, Connecticut, that we have been obsessed with for close to a decade. Everything from their house-made pickles and chutneys to their fresh baked naan is a step above other restaurants. Though we love pretty much everything there, it’s their curries that keep us coming back. Served piping hot, with layer upon layer of pungent aroma and rich flavor, the food was just as good as we remembered. See you in two years, Kolam!
Back home in Austin, Bobleo and I are settling back in to our uber-healthy diet. While our hearts pine for hoagies and stromboli, our bellies are being fed roots, greens, and fiber. I’m consoling myself with rice bowls. Brown rice, quinoa, avocado, sweet potato, tempeh, and greens are getting doused in sriracha and Japanese mayo as often as possible.
Did I mention that my appetite has returned? I’m BACK, baby!