Greek Cooking Class

Another successful date night!

September’s date night took us to Whole Foods, but not for grocery shopping… 

We were there for a Greek cooking class that featured a three-course dinner with appetizers to boot!

The class was only $10 a person. Who says a fun and delicious date night has to cost mucho dinero?

Ryan and I arrived and took our seats at a long table with the other class participants and were immediately served a glass of wine.

 

I love a good glass of white wine! I much prefer white wine to red because I like my wine to taste like juice and  that’s harder to come by when enjoying red wines.

Once everyone was happily sipping on their glasses of wine, the class began.

It started out on an interactive note with some hummus-making!

The homemade hummus contained chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice and tahini (sesame seed paste).

Guess who was our table’s designated chickpea crusher?

That is Ryan’s “I’m really into this chickpea crushing business” face. 

As he crushed away, I couldn’t help but quip “a food processor would be pretty great right about now.” The instructor said that a food processor would take all of the fun out of the hummus making process.

False.

It would take all of the lumps out of the hummus-making process. 😉

Once Ryan was done making the hummus, we enjoyed it spread on fresh pita bread.

Ryan and I thought the hummus was okay… but in some serious need of seasonings. Sue recommended adding roasted red peppers if we recreate the hummus at home which I think we would really enjoy. I think this less flavorful hummus would be delicious on a sandwich, but when enjoyed on a pita alone, it was a bit bland.

Luckily the other appetizer was very flavorful.

Grape leaves stuffed with rice and seasonings. So good! I had three while Sue prepared our salads with another Whole Foods team member.

It’s rare that I will say a salad is the best part of any meal, but in this particular situation it really was!

The salads were comprised of a very unusual combination of foods:

• Watermelon
• Olive
• Endive
• Feta cheese
• Mint
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar

We were all a little skeptical about how the flavors would taste together, but they were unbelievably delicious! My favorite bites were the ones with the watermelon, feta and mint. YUM.

We basically licked our salad plates clean.

Then it was time for the main course.

Chicken gyros were served with pita bread, cucumbers, tomato, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and a yogurt-based sauce known as raita sauce.

My favorite part of this dish was definitely the raita sauce. It was cool and creamy and I cannot wait to try to recreate it at home.

Dessert was also delicious.

We were served plates of stracciatella gelato, which is essentially an Italian sweet cream flavor of gelato with chocolate shavings. It was topped with mint leaves and orange blossom honey (so good!) and served with watermelon, cantaloupe and sliced, frozen grapes.

Ryan and I finished our respective desserts very quickly and were able to share a second scoop of the stracciatella.

Clearly the gelato sparked our sweet tooth, because once the class was over we headed to Whole Foods’ bakery and nabbed some chocolatey goodies.

I am seriously in love with Whole Foods’ bakery. Their oatmeal chocolate chip cookie is unreal. I could eat those bad boys all day every day. Ryan shares my love of these cookies and we spilt a big one between the two of us (it looks small in that bag, but it was the size of my hand).

I also nabbed a chocolate twist from the bakery which I planned to save for tomorrow.

It didn’t make it out of the parking lot. 😉

Good food + Good company = Great date night

The rest of our evening will be spent cuddled up on the couch with the dawg. My kinda night!

See ya in the mornin’, friends!

Our Date Night Tradition

Lunch was a simple one!

Open-Faced Chicken Sandwich

I made myself a BBQ chicken sandwich on a whole wheat sandwich thin with baby greens and gobs of mustard.

The Old Standby

For some added veggies, I also enjoyed a side of broccoli slaw with Italian dressing.

Broccoli Slaw

Friday Spread

Minimal effort was required to assemble this lunch, but it was still super satisfying and delicious.

My kinda meal! 😀

Date Night

As long-time PBF followers already know, Ryan and I take turns planning date nights for each other every other month. This is something we’ve been doing for years and is something we both look forward to every single time.

All Dressed Up

It’s fun to be the “date planner” and brainstorm creative date ideas you think the other person will enjoy and it’s obviously fun to be the one wined, dined and entertained!

Smile!

Our date nights don’t have any restrictions, limitations, budgets or minimums. A date night can be a simple picnic at a park or a fancy-schmancy four-course dinner.

Past date nights have included:

• Pottery painting
• Indoor skydiving
• Winter Park Boat Tour & Dinner at Luma
• Festival of Trees at the Orlando Museum of Art
• Dinner at the Capital Grille
• Straight No Chaser Concert
• Dinner at Season’s 52 (I know, I’m obsessed…)
• The Best One (Ryan’s scavenger hunt that ended in a proposal)

Cheeseballs

When blog reader Lindsey e-mailed me asking how I come up with date ideas, I started to think about the steps I take when planning a fun date night.  When it’s my turn to plan a date, I typically do a number of things:

• Think about local restaurants we’re dying to try
• Hop on Ticketmaster.com to see if any comedians or good concerts are coming to the area
• Check out Groupon.com for local deals and promotions
• Talk to friends and coworkers about fun things they’ve done recently
• Look at the city of Orlando’s calendar of events for fun festivals

As you may have guessed, tonight is DATE NIGHT!

It was my turn to plan a date this month and I’m excited for the activity we have planned.

It’s gonna be a fun (& yummy!) one! 😀

Question of the Afternoon

What is your ideal date?

Sweet Potato Wedges

When I got home from work, Ryan and I took Sadie on a walk around the neighborhood before heading to the grocery store to pick up some essentials for the week.

While there, we also nabbed a couple of sweet potatoes to incorporate into our dinner this evening.

I started by slicing the sweet potato before tossing the wedges in canola oil and salt.

I then spread them out on a cookie sheet and baked them at 415 degrees for approximately 20 minutes, flipping them halfway through.

We enjoyed the wedges along with muenster cheese and Morningstar Farms veggie bacon sandwiches.

It was a pretty random dinner, but it was also exactly what I was craving!

The rest of the night will be spent curled up on the couch with a movie.

In the DVD player this evening:

Ryan and I wanted to see it when it was in theaters, but never got around to it. We’ve heard great things, so let’s hope it’s a funny one!

June Date Night

Ryan and I take turns planning an extra special once a month for the other person. 

This month was Ryan’s month to plan our special date and he made reservations for a fun and romantic dinner at my favorite restaurant, Season’s 52. (You may see a recap of the date I planned last month here.) 

Date Night!

I absolutely love this restaurant because they use fresh, seasonal ingredients and keep the options healthy since they do not use butter and limit the calories in every dish to 475. They rely on seasonings, herbs and spices to flavor their dishes. 

I’ve never had a meal at Season’s 52 that I haven’t loved and tonight was no different. 

Ryan and I started our meal with sushi and ordered a spicy tuna roll to share. 

Spicy Tuna Roll

It was a little too spicy for me, but I am a spice wimp. I still ate several pieces and thought it was very tasty. 

Ryan then ordered a bowl of buffalo chili which we ended up sharing as well since it was fairly large and quite filling. 

Buffalo Chili

I know it looks pretty nasty in the picture above, but that’s only because we stirred the sour cream into the mix and were nearly done eating it when I snapped the pic. The chili was served with four squares of polenta which were my favorite part about the dish. Polenta is delicious! 

Then it was time for our entrees! It took quite a while for our entrees to come out, but we really didn’t mind and enjoyed hanging out and talking together. The restaurant actually ended up comping our appetizer because of the wait which was a nice surprise. 

For my entree, I ordered the reuben flat bread, which is actually a large appetizer, but definitely enough for a meal for one person. 

Reuben Flat Bread

My Dinner

 I absolutely adore corned beef and jumped at the opportunity to order a flatbread topped with corned beef and sauerkraut. It was fantastic! The flat bread was crisp and thin, and the corned beef was perfectly salty and moist. 

Dessert 

Of course we saved room for dessert! 

Ryan and I each selected a “mini indulgence” to enjoy. 

Peanut butter and chocolate mousse for me, pecan pie for him. 

His & Hers

PB & Choc Mousse

In the time that it took you to scroll past the above two pictures, our dessert was g-o-n-e. 

All Gone!

 

When we arrived home from our date, Sadie wanted some attention, so we took her on a 20 minute walk. Concluding date night with a nice walk with our little lady was the perfect ending. 🙂

I hope you guys are enjoying the weekend so far. See ya in the morning!

Three Desserts

Put me and Ryan together and you get one deadly dessert duo.

Sweet Teeth

Date night started out innocently enough.

We headed to Park Avenue in Winter Park for dinner at 310 Park South.

Park Avenue

R + J

(Yes, I’m actually wearing shorts! Eek.)

After this morning’s crampy run, I was determined to keep myself hydrated today, and ordered water to drink immediately when we sat down.

Water with Cucumber

The addition of the cucumber slice to my ice water was so neat. Drinking a lot of water is actually pretty hard for me, but I think sprucing it up with cucumber, lemon, lime or orange slices might make it more appealing.

For my entree I ordered a vegetable sandwich with fresh mozzarella on a whole wheat kaiser roll.

My Entree

310 Park South Vegetable Sandwich

I ordered my sandwich strictly for the fresh mozzarella and it didn’t disappoint.

Ryan opted for the New York strip steak, which came with purple mashed potatoes!

Ryan's Entree

We both cleared our plates. We’re tough like that. 😉

Dessert

After dinner, our dessert extravaganza began.

At 310 Park South, we ordered Tollhouse pie, which was essentially a chocolate chip cookie pie with Haagen-Daz vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and a ribbon of fudge.

Dessert Numero Uno

I need to replicate this chocolate chip cookie pie! So good.

For dessert number two, we headed to Jeremiah’s Italian Ice.

Jeremiah's

We were both relatively full by this point, but since we were out near Jeremiah’s which is a bit of a drive from our apartment, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to stop by for a cold treat.

We shared a small cookies ‘n’ cream + scoop froggy frog (aka mint chocolate chip) gelati.

Jeremiah's Gelati

On our way back to our apartment, we saw that Raphsodic Cooperative Company, a local vegan bakery, was open.

According to their website, all of Raphsodic’s products “are rigorously researched to be guaranteed vegan and cruelty and animal testing free.”

When we stepped inside, we were greeted by friendly faces and the most amazing smell of cinnamon and freshly baked cookies. We stopped in just to check the place out and didn’t intend to buy anything, but that completely changed when we saw the “cookie sammies,” which were to cookies sandwiched together with creamy icing.

Ryan selected a kitchen sink cookie sammie for us to share.

Raphsodic Vegan Kitchen Sink Cookie

This cookie sandwich was demolished before we pulled into our driveway! 🙂

1 date night + 2 people + 3 desserts = 2 veeeery full bellies

We’re finishing up date night with a movie and cuddle time with Miss Sadie.

See ya in the morning!