Rainy Days, Diet Changes and Illness

It's been awhile between postings.  I don't have much of an excuse except that I have had some major stuff going on in my life so haven't really been online.  I am, however, spending my days in the kitchen - more now than ever.  

Statguy had to make a radical diet change and being the supportive person I am I started it with him.  I am having problems from the new changes and soon will have to go back to my regular food but I wanted to get him up and running on his new eating plan.  

Prior to all this I made a beautiful sour cream sponge cake.  Here's a pic:

 And then there was the banana coconut loaf that I thought sounded bizarre but was the best banana bread I have ever eaten.  Seriously.  

 Since then it's been a whole lot of vegetable dishes and new things some good, some great.  This morning I made a batch of waffles with an outrageous blueberry sauce.  Just what I really needed on a dark, rainy day.  

Change is hard but necessary.  For me change has to include cake - luckily there is a flourless chocolate cake that scratches that itch for me.  

But I will always miss these...

Saturday Night and Dinner at Sel De La Terre

A beautiful spring evening this past Saturday and I was out for dinner with Statguy.  Even though the Red Sox were at Fenway I was still able to make it to Copley Square in about 40 minutes and therefore I was able to take a moment to enjoy the Tulips outside of Trinity Church.  

After seeing these glorious flowers I headed to The Westin to meet Statguy.  We had reservations to dine at Sel De La Terre using a Groupon that we had purchased and I know that we were both looking forward to the evening.  

We arrived about 15 minutes early for our reservation and after some tense moments with the hostess we were sat at a wonderful table with a great server named Ashley.  The menu has a nice selection and we spent some time picking our entrees, making plans to share everything with each other.  


We started out with two Arnold Palmers - that lovely concoction of half iced tea and half lemonade.  Boston is woefully remiss in not offering iced tea year round and finding an Arnold Palmer here is not easy.  Since neither of us were  drinking this evening these made us very happy as they were perfectly balanced, not too sweet and a good size.  

Our appetizer course began with the Duck Liver Mousse which was served on a board with pressed baguette slices, house made pickles, pickled onions and a spoonful of jam.  Here is a picture of my piece of baguette with the mousse, along side is a cucumber pickle and a piece of citrus.

  

After this we shared a house made burrata which came with a nice drizzle of honey on top and a crostini. I was unable to get a picture of it before Statguy began eating it so here is half of it...

We were pleasantly surprised when our server brought out the warm rolls.  Usually the bread is not the highlight of the meal but these rolls had a spectacular chewy texture and were served just out of the oven with a whipped honey butter that made them one of the best parts of the meal.  

Our entrees were next to arrive and I will be honest that at this point I was pretty much done with eating, full from the pate, burrata and rolls so I ate next to nothing of these next two dishes.  I was saving myself for dessert which I had no intention of skipping. 

Statguy ordered the Roast Chicken that was served with a Lemon Taleggio Risotto, Pinenuts, and Grilled Asparagus.  It had a lovely jus over the chicken as well.  I tried the risotto and while it had an intense lemon flavor when it was combined with the jus it was phenomenal.  

I ordered as my entree a starter called Pat's Clams.  I mainly ordered this for Statguy because he loves seafood and I knew that I would not be able to eat an entree.  The dish consisted of fresh littleneck clams, mussels, grilled baby octopus and chorizo in a saffron broth and served with a crouton on top.  It was a very nice portion and smelled fantastic.  

After all this food you would think that we'd be passing on dessert but no chance that is going to happen.  I have a sweet tooth that is legendary so we took some time to make sure we chose wisely, involved our wonderful server in the decision and chose her two favorite desserts.  I decided to have the Warm Chocolate Fondant Cake with homemade toasted marshmallow and graham cracker ice cream and Statguy went with the Milk Chocolate Brown Butter Ice Cream topped with a salted caramel sauce, chantilly cream and pecan crumbles.  Both were amazing.  

 A good cup of coffee - Sel De La Terre did not disappoint.  It was fresh, hot and served with a good quality cream.  Perfect.