Last night, my sister hosted a potluck at our apartment in honor of a friend of hers who is moving out of the city.
There is something wonderful about coming home after a Monday of work to an apartment full of good people, good smells, and good tastes. I’ve always been of the opinion that the work week should begin quietly, but I may have to reconsider that stance. Last night we had eight girls [women? ladies? What exactly are we twentysomethings?], an overabundance of appetizers, entrees, and desserts, and a little bit of Monday evening wine. Not a bad kickoff to a work week.
 the first of my sides: cumin-scented roasted fennel, red onion, bosc pears
The group in attendance was not made of everyday chefs [excluding myself, of course]. But they each got out their oven mitts, cookbooks, and casserole dishes, and I found it a little bit fascinating to observe the types of dishes that arrived. It’s occasions like these that remind me of the way “real” people eat.
Several of my sister’s friends are on Weight Watchers, and they were sure to mention that their recipes were WW-friendly – egg whites here, sugar-free there. I have to say that my dishes were definitely the odd ones out.
 my other cooking contribution: indian-spiced okra and tomatoes [there is an indian name for this that is escaping me]. click for my recipe.
Unsurprisingly, I took it upon myself to do up some vegetables. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that people in the real world almost never think to prepare vegetables, aside from the basic crudité hors d’oeuvres. While I am happy to try others’ dishes, I am never content nor satisfied without plants. I added to the eclectic mix [some brought Mexican food, some Italian, some Mediterranean, some traditional American] by adding something Indian to the table.
 my sister’s dish was a rachael ray recipe that is actually delicious: basil shrimp with feta and orzo.
My sister is an accidental vegetarian most of the time, simply because of the type of food I keep in stock. She may not have developed a love for kitchen time, but she has acquired a taste for an ever-widening array of fruits and vegetables, and her microwave-preparations are typically a blend of pure and whole foods. The pescetarian entree she chose to prepare was perfectly natural and perfectly delicious.
 a potluck dish: taco salad
Differences in philosophies definitely make the world go round. I know most people think of food in a completely different manner than I do – most aren’t vegetarian, don’t think to eat vegetables, and don’t worry about ingredients lists. Most think of food in terms of splurges and saves, as something to watch or counteract. I think, for some, that works, and though I’ll never agree with eating chemicals, non-organic meat and dairy, or a lack of plants, I don’t try to push my beliefs on anyone.
 another potluck dish: corn pudding
When it comes down to it, I think everyone in life just wants to eat well and taste good flavor. Our preferences and outlooks might differ, but that’s the beauty of a potluck like this one: our mix of styles all came together on top of one dining room table.
In my dish, I used vegetables, olive oil, and spice; my sister used fresh herbs, shrimp, and full fat cheese. I don’t need to count a thing, because I know the food we use is as healthy and natural as can be. That’s my strong belief, and as we live by it every day, we both put it out on the table.
 magnolia bakery banana pudding. omg delicious.
It’s nice to be at a point where I can enjoy a party, eat a plateful of food, a plateful of dessert, and a glass of wine, wake up the next morning, cook my normal big breakfast, and continue on with life.
How do your friends eat? Are they health-conscious? Waistline-conscious? Standard American? Something else?
There is a restaurant in the East Village that I’ve posted about a couple times: its name is Counter.
I’m kind of obsessed with it.
I love variety, and I like to try new cuisines and new dining destinations. But somehow, I can never get enough of this place. I went there for my 24th birthday. I went there for New Year’s. I went there to celebrate getting my job. I’ve been there for no reason at all inbetween.
While making Sunday brunch plans last week, a friend and I made the promise to try somewhere new. We wracked our brains for a good spot in Tribeca, but after sadly coming up short, I thought, “You know, Counter has a brunch.” I’ve never tried their brunch, so it’s sort of new…right?
Why is it that Counter is so spectacular? Well, for starters, the food and wine are nearly 100% organic, local, and sustainable. Most restaurants of this mantra also come with the tags of whitewashing their walls, not serving liquor, and generally being a little bit hippie-ish. But not Counter.
I support organic, local, sustainable food with my heart and soul, but I am also a twentysomething Manhattan gal who used to work in fashion and occasionally watches The Millionaire Matchmaker. While I’ll visit the hippie-cafés if the food is good, when it comes to the atmosphere for me, Counter has it down. Sleek, chic, sophisticated. The lights are dim, the walls are dark, the food is presented with a bit of art. A much better fit.
 $3.50 brunch mimosa – a must, clearly.
Then, there’s the wine. Counter is half “vegetable bistro” [we'll get to the wonderfulness of that in a minute], half “wine bar.” Their wine list is extensive and includes many organic bottles. Flights include generous pours of local, New York wines, which are always fun to taste. And though I’m usually distracted by vino, the cocktail menu is also creative and delicious.
And of course, there is the food. Counter doesn’t bill itself as a vegetarian restaurant; instead, it is a “vegetable bar” with a menu that, quite simply, celebrates an unabashed love of vegetables. It is rare to see tofu, for instance, on offer, as the dishes are all about the plants. Preparations are sometimes intricate, sometimes not – but they are always creative. And while the menu leans towards veganism, it never commits 100%. Kind of like me.
 vegan roasted pepper and leek “frittata,” mesclun greens, hash browns, toast, chocolate-walnut spread.
Perhaps I’ve never gotten bored because the menu is always changing. A list of twenty or so small plates to share is constantly updated with the freshest produce of the season [even in this bleak dead of winter]. The brunch menu is separate yet just as exciting, with more individual complete entrees than tapas-like plates.
My friend [also a vegetable aficionado] and I left, after two hours of dining yesterday, on a wave of brunch heaven. The only way I can phrase it is that this restaurant simply gets me. It celebrates produce of all kinds at their peak periods of flavor, along with just the right amount of surrounding style. The menu doesn’t tout its health benefits; they are a natural perk of the most basic concept: eating from the ground.
And, perhaps most importantly, dinner is always accompanied by wine.
Do you have a favorite restaurant that you’re always happy to return to?
You may or may not know that this week was National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. I wanted to do a post in honor of it, but I’ve been struggling to figure out exactly what I want to say.
This past weekend, I visited my grandmother at a rehab center in Connecticut. Two months ago, she had her second hip surgery of her lifetime, after breaking her pelvis due mostly to complete loss of bone. She no longer has a hip and will walk with a walker for the rest of her life.
I also saw my other grandmother, who has had more than a couple hospital stays in the past year.
More and more, I notice how much effort it now takes both of them simply to move from a seated position to standing on their feet. Walking down the hallway expels enormous effort for them both. Whether it be their hearts, their bones, their muscles – simple movements we take for granted are a constant struggle.
 a baked egg experiment, pre-oven. i seem to be posting eggs every other day, but i promise i’ve been eating a much wider variety].
I brought my lunch with me to visit my grandmother. I cobbled it together from the contents of my mom’s kitchen: a salad of any vegetable in the fridge, avocado, and hummus; a Greek yogurt with many spoonfuls from the bag of granola I keep stashed in her pantry.
While I chatted with my grandma in the dining room, she asked me all about my lunch. And she told my dad, “I’m going to learn how to eat like Leslie.” She didn’t say she wanted to imitate my habits to mimic my appearance. It wasn’t about being thin.
She said, “I want to learn from Leslie so I can be healthy and strong.”
I want that too.
 a whole foods and vegetable filled meal.
It’s unfortunate (to make an understatement) that there is so much nonchalance about real, actual health until later in life, while such emphasis is placed on our outer appearance from our pre-teenage years. Society has ingrained in us such backwards thinking. It took me over two decades to realize that the real reflection of my health can’t be seen by the naked eye: it exists inside me – in my bones, my heart, my blood.
I hate seeing so many women [and men] punishing their bodies – out of fear, out of self-consciousness, out of comparison, out of depression, out of pressure. We have to take care of ourselves while we can, because when we’re fifty, sixty, seventy – we can’t undo the damage that’s been done.
I’m a woman who loves style, so I’ll never deny that I care about my appearance. But as time goes on, the way I live has become about so much more. It’s a lifestyle – one that protects my potentially weak bones, keeps my muscles strong and stretched, keeps my heart pumping when I know heart disease runs throughout my entire family history. It’s about living in a way that doesn’t run me into the ground in a search for perfection, but instead, as my grandma wisely said, keeps me healthy and keeps me strong.
This body is all I’ve got, and I’m sorry I ever pushed it too hard, denied it enough, questioned what it told me. But now, I am committed to spending the many decades I have ahead treating it the very best that I know how. I’m devoted to my health, my happiness, and most of all: to my life.
Tell me something you do to treat your body well.
 stovetop oats pre-mixing: oats, soy milk, banana, frozen blueberries, coconut oil, cinnamon, flax, later topped with almond butter
The stronger my coffee, the better my bowl of oatmeal tastes. I adore that duo of sweet banana and black bitterness.
 brown rice pasta, broccoli, kale, scallops, butternut squash and sage sauce [butternut puree, hemp milk, sage, lemon juice, salt]
I really do love fish. I don’t need to eat it all the time, but I always enjoy it immensely when I do.
What is it that makes granola so delicious?
Avocado, butternut squash, and chili powder make a surprisingly delicious sandwich. Also, while sandwiches are ideal when you have to eat dinner at your desk before leaving for a post-work event, I do miss my greens.
 spinach, quinoa, parsnip, carrot, beet, sunflower seeds, raisins, lemon-coconut dressing
My favorite lunches come in bowls – soups, big salads, bowls of grains. Sometimes all three.
A lot of people eat on the subway. Not a lot of people eat raw cashews on the go like I do, but I have recently spotted at least four Snicker’s bars.
 warmed up: bosc pear, raspberry jam, dark chocolate chips
I am so happy that I eat dessert every day. I think everyone would be a lot happier if they had a sweet snack after dinner.
Anything you’ve noticed while eating lately?
So, it’s February 24th; it’s raining with a chance of snow. When I arrived home in a downpour late last night, I didn’t manage to shake that raw winter chill from my bones until several minutes after I had climbed underneath my covers. I’ve definitely reached my winter breaking point.
It happens every year, sometime in the midst of my least favorite month. I’ll make it through Valentine’s and President’s Days, and then, I’ll realize the groundhog has given us at least four more weeks of this bleak season. We were teased this past weekend with balmy weather, and now we’ve been slapped back into reality. It’s at this point that I usually begin to complain on a daily basis.
 warm summer colors in today’s lunch: golden beets, celery, and carrots, later mixed into a blend with quinoa, sunflower seeds, and a mustard-oregano vinaigrette.
Some recent gripes:
- I would like to wear a pair of shoes that aren’t boots. My shoe collection is suffering from neglect.
- While my puffy parka was by far the best purchase I made this winter, I am tired of walking around inside a bubble.
- I have been dreaming up so many recipes for zucchini, cucumber, and asparagus, but I don’t like buying them out of season. [I now have a perpetual craving for a cucumber-coconut-basil smoothie].
- I’m struggling to be creative with the cruciferous vegetables in season. [Ideas are always welcome!]
- I have a piece of furniture that I want to paint, and it has to wait until I can hang out on my rooftop while the paint dries. I’m not a fan of the currently mismatched colors of my bedroom furniture.
- I’m cold.
Rather than wallow in my winter grievances, I’m trying to bring in some summertime warmth. My parents recently took a snowy trip to our August paradise, and hearing their weekend tales instantly took me away to sun and sand.
 thanks for the flavorful trip to summer, amanda.
Then, a few days ago, I made an easy dinner that I had spotted on – where else? – a blog. As I took my first bites, I felt immediately transported to summer. Perhaps it is possible to surround ourselves with the aromas and the seasonings of July, simply by sacrificing just a bit of freshness. In summer, I would have made this recipe with fresh tomatoes [oh, fresh heirlooms, I miss them!] crafted into homemade marinara. But as I have actually been known to gag on February tomatoes, I used – gasp – a jar of pasta sauce, courtesy of the low prices in the aisles of Trader Joe’s.
I also added some canned diced tomatoes that were leftover from one of my sister’s dinners, and I subbed kale for spinach, because I do adore that wintertime green. It was the perfect amount of Italian flavor [not to mention color] cooked up in a recipe ideal for we vegetable devotees.
Ok, I have another complaint: I wish the sun would set later so I could have some natural light for late evening photography.
What are your winter complaints?
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about. my name is leslie, and i'm navigating twentysomething life one meal at a time. the whole plate chronicles my love for fresh foods, a positive body image, and a balanced life. thanks for stopping by!
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