Eating out and grilled veggies

My lack of recent posts can be tied directly to the amount we've been eating out recently.

A week and a half ago, we went to a dinner at Land's Sake in Weston, prepared by Tiffani Faison of Sweet Cheeks.  (She was also the runner up on the first season of Top Chef. And, yes, I've watched all of the seasons of Top Chef. Let's ignore how many hours that totals, focusing instead on the hours of culinary inspiration that the show has provided.)

 

The appetizer was Indian inspired and include beets prepared many ways.  The main course was a bi bim bap, and the dessert was a strawberry shortcake.

Three nights later, we had dinner at North in Providence.  A few hours before dinner, we also tried out their new bakery.  It was our second time at North, where we once again enjoyed the very imaginative small plates.

Just two days later, we were off to Chicago for more restaurants, where we ate at Alinea (our third time there).

At one point in the meal, a pile of charcoal was placed on the table, then lit.

On that pile of charcoal were a couple of charred parsnips.

I've charred parsnips recently too....

We also had dinner at Elizabeth. It was an excellent meal, with an emphasis on foraged and seasonal ingredients. Given that it was spring, there was a great deal of mushroom in the meal, which made me very happy.  In the owl mug, we had a tea infused with mushroom. (Isn't the owl mug adorable?)

The centerpiece included some sous vide carrot that was then dehydrated to make a carrot jerky and some breadstick twigs (plus some actual twigs). I suspected that part of the centerpiece would be edible as we sat down, based on our prior night's experience at Alinea, where a tomato jerky came hidden in a twig wreath.

We were served a green garlic soup.  I need to try to make this soup with the green garlic we've been getting, but I know it won't be the same.

We also ate at Girl and the Goat in Chicago, Stephanie Izard's restaurant, which had me declaring it "Top Chef week," despite the fact that we ate food from only two former Top Chef contestants (cheftestants, in Top Chef speak).  We also had breakfast (twice) at the Little Goat Diner, across the street from the Girl and the Goat.

It's acceptable to have pie for dessert at breakfast while traveling, right? (I have a tendency to eat less healthy breakfasts on the road.)

At the Girl and the Goat, we had a dish of grilled broccoli with Rogue Creamery blue cheese and a creamy sauce.  It was very, very good, marked by the husband's enjoyment of a vegetable that he usually does not like. Once home, we decided to try making it ourselves.  We grilled a small head of broccoli from last week's box, a couple of parsnips (still have a few in the fridge), and the beets from this week's box.

 Look how pretty the beets are.

I served the veggies with a greek yogurt sauce with dill, salt and pepper, as well as some Great Hill blue cheese. While not exactly what we had at Girl and the Goat, it was a pretty good approximation.

There were some veggies left over. I made them into a salad the next day, cutting them into cubes, adding radishes (purchased from Verrill Farm), the small head of red lettuce from this week's box, crumbled blue cheese, and pepitas.  I added a bit of olive oil to the leftover greek yogurt with dill to make a creamy dressing for the salad. No photo, but recommended.