Potato and Goat Cheese Gratin

Have I mentioned my  love of goat cheese to you before? I feel like I should have, since it's an embarrassingly large part of my identity. I'm the kind of person that, if I see it on a menu, I feel compelled to order it. (Usually this serves me well, but stay away from goat cheese served at chain restaurants. Trust.) Hence, this potato and goat cheese gratin I made last night. I found the recipe on Bon Appetit's website during my usual search of GOAT CHEESE RECIPES and was pleasantly surprised to find this gem from 2002. 

Since I had a couple of sweet potatoes lying around that needed to be used, I used them for the middle layer. I also had a log of Trader Joe's herb encrusted goat cheese in the fridge, so I just mixed that up instead of using fresh herbs, since I didn't have any anyway.

mmmm. Goaty.

Daytrippin' in Old Saybrook

Last week, I was complaining to James about how we never do anything. Lately, our weekends have been eaten up by family and friend obligations, which is fine, but when we've had time to ourselves we've been too worn out to really take advantage of it. When we finally found ourselves with a free Monday, I suggested we head down to the shore instead of sitting on the couch. We decided on Old Saybrook, which is about a 45 minute drive, and made our way there without much of a plan other than to wander around and grab lunch. It's nice to be spontaneous once in a while. It makes me feel aliiiiiiive.

Obviously, when we saw this place I had to go in there. Luckily, the food was great!

James enjoying his egg scramble while the girls in the background have the distinct honor of being the only people I have ever seen talk about the tv show Girls in real life.

This was called 'The Best Grilled Cheese You'll Ever Eat" or something like that. It lived up to the name.

After lunch we walked around Main Street for awhile and stopped in this little bookshop.

I have a thing for used bookstores. Lately I've tried to stay away because, well, I have a lot of books already, but I couldn't resist.

 I made out pretty good.

Old Saybrook's favorite daughter, Katharine Hepburn and her cultural center. Kate and I actually have a lot in common. We were both born in Hartford, enjoy the Connecticut sea shore, and were labeled box office poison at pivotal points in our movie careers.

Oh, you didn't know about my love of old timey soda fountains? I guess it doesn't come up a lot because WHERE ON EARTH DO YOU EVER SEE THEM?

 I was far too excited about this....peach soda with caramel cashew ice cream.

 

James enjoying a cone outside the James Soda Fountain. James.

Friday Cupcake Break

Today was pretty annoying--as annoying as working on a glorious summer Friday generally is. So, when I left work to go to the bank, I popped into Sugarbelle's West Hartford location on a whim in the hopes of improving my mood.  I'm guessing that since the display case was half empty, I wasn't the only one who needed a cupcake break on Friday.

The lady in front of me with the whiny kid (Seriously,  you're in a cupcake shop. Shut up.) asked how many flavors they make a day. 27. Impressive. Of course, by that time they were down to around 7 or 8, but I still had no trouble choosing. I got my old standby, red velvet, and key lime to remind myself of happier times. It's pretty hard to make a bad cupcake, but these are particularly good, and I'm happy to report that they did the trick. Happy Friday!

Soup Saturday

Its been a while since I've gotten to spend the day cooking, because I'm just sooooo popular, but I had some time today and decided to make soup. I asked James what he preferred and he said "No lentil." Ok, fine. That's the last time I ask for his input.

Then I saw this recipe for roasted carrot soup on Food52, a website I don't visit as much as I should, that had rave reviews. Normally the idea of carrot soup wouldn't catch my eye, but I love the flavor of roasted vegetables and thought this could be a nice twist. I made kale chips as a side/garnish, which is my favorite way to make kale.

All you do is tear the leaves into smaller pieces, toss in olive oil and salt, then bake in the oven on 300 for about 20 minutes. I turned the leaves over about half way through to make sure they baked evenly. Now I'm full of carrots and kale. My body better appreciate it, especially since I plan on eating this giant whoopie pie later.

Leftovers

In addition to some fun but exhausting weekends as of late, I've been working on a couple other projects, so my attention has been rather scattered, but there's always time for food.

This week I made a delicious dinner of chicken and artichokes, while accidentally stabbing myself repeatedly during the process. Though fresh ones are lovely to photograph, I think I'll stick with frozen artichokes from now on. 

I also attempted to make a version of Trader Joe's addictive edamame hummus. Next time I'll go easier on the tahini.

We then stuffed ourselves with gyros and souvalki at the Hartford Greek festival this weekend. I have no regrets.

Lastly, Hartford Restaurant Week runs now until the 9th. I think we're going to check out Dish tonight.