It's just another meatless Monday...

Ohhhhh... what did I make? My first all-vegetable Lasagna!  I saw a recipe for one yesterday while I was trolling through food blogs and it looked really tasty except DH hates mushrooms (I know, right?!?)  and I am no fan of red bell peppers (roasted or not) and the recipe included both.  I gave it some thought and decided that I was always liked the combination of cauliflower, yellow squash and shredded carrots and thought that might make a nice filler for the dish.  DH suggested artichoke hearts which might have worked but I was all out of frozen ones, the flavor of the canned ones is always metallic and therefore: YUCK! and I had absolutely no gumption to head on over to the grocery store to buy some.  
Preheat the oven to 350.  Start with some onion (a whole medium one) and garlic to taste.

Chop up the yellow squash.

Shred a couple of big carrots, or if your store offers shredded carrot packs go with that and this is about half a big cauliflower.

Add the cauliflower to the pan first and then the squash - let those two hang out for a little bit in the pan and then let the carrots join the party.  This is a good time to add salt and pepper to taste and I also added crushed red pepper flakes for a little extra kick, you choose how much.  When it looks like they are all melding together and having a good time, add a couple of cans of tomatoes (I used fire-roasted diced ones).

I added two eggs to the ricotta cheese below, salt and pepper to taste and then mixed it all up.

And then... Put a little sauce in the dish before adding the noodles.  Place a layer of noodles, a layer of ricotta cheese mixture, and then sprinkle some shredded mozzarella cheese and then the veg.  Repeat until you run out of ingredients or room in the dish.

Ready to be placed in the oven - just cover it with foil first.  Let it cook for 20 minutes, take the foil off and then let it cook for about 15 minutes longer to melt the cheese on top.

Why is it that I can never serve a perfect slice of lasagna?  Some of it always tries to escape as I scoop it out of the dish... Ta-da! Serve with a side salad (and maybe some garlic bread?) and enjoy!

Salad that Rocks!

To my knowledge, not many people think to themselves: hmmmm, salad.  But more and more, I certainly do.  Let me walk you through my process:

Start with the greens, I love using pre-washed mixes (especially if they include shredded carrots) but also regular greens like spinach, romaine and the likes. For tonight I used leaf lettuce

Then you can build upon that with anything your heart desires in this case I have strawberries, green onions, avocado and tomato - don't forget to add a little salt to the tomato and avocado to really bring out their flavors!

See, doesn't this look pretty already?

It doesn't end there for me, I also add some dried cranberries, walnuts (but any nut you like will do), goat cheese and blueberries.

 Pre-goat cheese... don't you just LOVE the colors in this?

For dressing I have been using balsamic vinegar and lemon olive oil (that I find at Whole Foods) I love the citric flavor that it brings to the salad, but again whatever your heart desires is what you should add.

Ta-da! Dinner (or part of it if you share it with others) is served! Yum!!

An Adventure in Costa Rica

Okay, so when I mention to people that I have to go to Costa Rica for work they think it comes along with a "wink, wink" and a "nudge nudge" kind of deal but it really doesn't.  Do I get to extend my trips by two to three days to enjoy it? Yes.  But most of the time we are getting stuff done and not for a normal work day of 8 hours but for 10 to 12 hours a day, we work hard and then we totally play hard.  Also, I didn't just luck into getting to do this project.  It took a lot of phone calls, emails, meetings and when finally in the country driving around like mad (which as you know is not hard for me), more meetings and lots of selling to get it pieced together.  We lucked out that we had a great supporter on our side pushing for it every minute and helping with the networking: my mom.  

But I digress (what else is new?), this last trip came with a bunch of stuff loaded into it.  First, we were busy for the past 4 months putting together a 9Health Fair which is a ton of work, coordination and logistics - then a team of 4 Costa Ricans came to observe and participate in the fair and not even 24hours after the fair was over a team of 5 of us plus a spouse made our way to the airport for a week at the XXV International Congress on Psychiatry to present - see why this is a crazy post?

After a long, long day of presenting the 4 women on the team (my friend K, la Jefa, Betsy and myself) decided to go out to dinner.  Betsy said that she found this place called Park Cafe in her library-owned Frommer's Guide that was right around the corner from the hotel, and the staff at the reception confirmed that it was really close by.

We had a hard time finding it had to finally stop and ask for directions, the answer we got was: "You see that house that you passed way over there on the other side of the street with an Antiques sign hanging out front? That's it." Huh? Yeah, the restaurant is housed in the middle of an Antiques store... so we walk back to the place and there are two men standing outside.  One dressed like a waiter looks very friendly, the other is wearing a winter jacket on a warm night with his hand stuck into it in a Napoleon Bonaparte-like stance, wonder what he is holding in that hand... but don't ask.  We ask the waiter guy if this is the restaurant and if we can come in, reservations you say? Nope, we don't have those.  So he asks us to wait for a minute while he checks.  

Out comes a dude dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, hair totally messed up and scruffy looking instead of the waiter - this is the chef and owner who starts rambling in a British accent about not having reservations and this is why all the restaurants in Costa Rica are going out of business and serving awful frozen food because no one makes reservations and if they do they don't keep them and he is waiting for a party of 16 people and they aren't here and he is hesitant to let us in but he will and we will just get the lovely food he has set aside to prepare for the large party that hasn't arrived on time (can we say "take it easy on the coke as in cocaine" class?)... and by this point the 4 of us are looking at each other like we really don't want to go in and yet WE FOLLOW HIM INTO THE RESTAURANT.

As he continues rambling, we walk past beautiful looking antiques to the center of the house where they have an inner courtyard with a water fountain and a few four-people tables.  We get seated in one corner of the courtyard, the chef gives us his suggestions for what to order and when the staff gives us our menus and leave for us to consider our options in whispers we start to discuss what the H we have gotten into and how we might be slightly terrified with what is going on but looking at the menu it all sounds so GOOD so we do the most logical thing: we order.  Two appetizers to share to start with and although we exercised restrain I think we would have all been more than happy to lick the plates clean: the food was phenomenal. 

We are feeling really happy with deliciousness in our bellies and the chef comes back to help clear the table (slight terror feeling coming back), we starting telling him how awesome the apps were and he's all: I'm not fishing for compliments, sorry about earlier I'm just a little stressed, more ramblings (Did he coke-it up some more?!? And did he maybe add something "extra" to our dishes?!?)... and off he goes back to the kitchen - phew!

Our main dishes arrive and are mostly wonderful (my duck was not the best ever but still good), this is turning into a total roller coaster of emotions, from happy/blissful to terrorized/worried and back to happy.  We discuss how it is quite possible that our food is spiked, that tomorrow we will wake up and this will have been a dream OR we will come by the restaurant and find that it's gone and was never here... can you tell we were a wee bit out of it?  And mind you, alcohol was not involved in this situation at all.

The dessert was a flight of the most flavorful things I have ever tasted, the souffle was nicknamed "chocolate flavored air that melts in your mouth", the pear tart was divine and the bread pudding was something that I could happily eat at every meal, every day of the week.

The quality of these pics is terrible since they were taken on my phone's camera - but you get the gist of it.

Ravioli of Crab with Curry Sauce and Spicy Mango Salad, Zucchini Tempura

Roasted Scallops wrapped in Prosciutto with Risotto of Wild Mushrooms and fresh Parmesan

Red Snapper on a bed of Asparagus served with Salmon Gnocchi 

After....

A Dessert Flight includes: Strawberry Shortcake, Bread Pudding and a Chocolate Souffle, not pictured: Passion Fruit Creme Brulee and the best Pear Tart in the world!

Yeah, it's not like we liked it or anything...

As we were taking off the chef asked: "are you sure you'll be okay and safe walking to the hotel"? We just ate at your restaurant sitting on the edge of our seats in apprehension, unease and alarm - yeah, I think we can handle the walk back to the hotel.  And the craziest part of all? I can't wait to go back...