Back to our regularly scheduled blogging…
I went to a bloggie outing tonight!
But first, re-wind.
Do you guys re-steep your tea bags? My family grew up getting 2-3 cups of tea out of a single tea bag, but I find the second never tastes as good. What do you think?
I had some nice exotic flavored tea today – a Christmas present!
Tea = awesome present!
I realized around 1:30pm that I hadn’t eaten lunch, and was too tired (lazy?) to go to the store. So, I whipped up one of those pre-marinated tempeh packages I got awhile back.
I thought this sesame garlic tempeh was much better than the curry flavired one I had awhile back. The flavor was much more subtle.
I ended up doing a quick noodle stir fry, which has become my go-to meal when I don’t have a lot of fresh groceries in the house.
I threw in:
- frozen, shelled edamame
- frozen peas
- frozen, chopped spinach
- udon noodles
- frozen, onion (I freeze extra chopped onions when I’m cooking)
I made a quick sauce using:
- tahini
- soy sauce
- water
- sesame oil
And I sprinkled crumbled pieces of the cooked tempeh on top. NOM!
I’ll have to draft a more formal recipe, but it was a really great Soy Tahini Noodle Stir Fry!
Soon enough, it was time to get dressed for a fun bloggie outing.
I used my Eat In Month cheat pass to enjoy restaurant week (where restaurants offer a multi-course meal for only $30) at Georges Brasserie.
The restaurant was really swanky inside and would make a great romantic date.
Chic Chandelier shot. 😉
Food bloggers in action!
We had a great group together tonight – Brittney, Jaclyn, Heather, Caitlin, Kelly and Brittany.
I ordered a glass of La Crema to go with my meal. The wine was very nice and light.
Yay carbs!
For my first course, I had the Cod Mitonnee – broth soup with swiss chard, white beans, and tomatoes topped with a crostini and cod.
It was so good! I never would have ordered this normally, but I love to play around with new selections on prix fixe menus.
More action shots…because I couldn’t resist.
For my second course, I had the Gruyere cheese crusted short rib with horseradish pommes puree and a caramelized onion jus.
Wow, this was reeeally tasty. The meat was so tender, and I really enjoyed dipping it in the warm, flavorful onion jus.
For a sweet ending, I chose the Rustic apple tart with chantilly cream. The tart dough was crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, like the way a slice of pie has a crunchy upper edge and doughy bottom. I really liked the crunchy bites with the large sugar pieces on the top. And each bite with a little drizzle of caramel sauce and dab of chantilly cream was extra heavenly.
It was pretty nice to be eating out again. I don’t know about the other Eat In Monthers, but I’m ready for it to be OVER!
In fact, I think I’m declaring February Eat OUT Month. Any one interested?
Hahahaha juuuuust kidding. 😉 But, I am looking forward to eating out more again. I definitely have learned that eating in pays off with healthier eats and saving money, but there are certain situations where eating out really is the best solution. I’ll be blogging more of my thoughts about the challenge later.
***
I cooked some cannelini beans in my slow cooker earlier today, so I think I’m going to make a quick cannellinni and kale soup for later this week. Plus I have some laundry to fold. Ahhh Sunday night. I think sipping some tea over The Real Housewives of Atlanta will be my down time.
How do you spend Sunday night? Getting ready for the week? Relaxing?
you look AMAZING!!!!!!! in your black dress!
what an awesome time you girls had! 🙂
Aww thanks sweetie! 🙂
bloggers dinners are such fun, its nice to not be that weird girl photographing the food .
Good call on the EIM cheat pass… that’s a helluva meal! 😉
THAT LOOKS AMAZING.
So weird!!! While we were waiting for a table at Terrace Cafe today, we walked over to Georges and almost did brunch there instead! LOL. AND– I totally went to a Zumbathon yesterday. WEIRD! We must be on the same frequency right now! Oh, and I never resteep tea! It never has as much flavor. 🙂
Ooh I love Terrace Cafe, too! 🙂
I’m so glad you guys had fun! By the way your photography is PHENOMENAL. I need to make myself a light box! 🙂
Thanks sweetie! I haven’t started using a light box yet. I have one, but I only used it awhile back when I was doing jewelry photography. 🙂
Your meal looks so good! I’m spending this Sunday night relaxing with my laptop and more Grey’s Anatomy reruns via Netflix.
I never thought steeping tea a second time tasted good either, so I don’t do it.
Your meal looks delicious! Such creative dishes.
I have done the eat-in month all month and haven’t eaten out at all 🙂 So glad it’s over tomorrow! haha.
What’s the first thing you’re going to eat out?? 🙂
Looks like you had a blast! As for tea bags, I never re-steep. Like Liz said, it just doesn’t have the same umph factor the second time around.
You look so chic in your purse and dress combo. Love it! As for spending Sunday night, it’s sort of a mix of both. I relax by blogging and watching Big Love, while I spend an earlier part of the day by shopping for groceries and household items while cramming in laundry where I can. I have a love/ hate relationship with Sundays. 🙂
Thanks girlie! 🙂
I never re-use tea bags as but Im tempted to give it a try now just to see…could be quite cost effective! lol
Love the side ponytail in the picture…tres chic 🙂
Mmmmm how fun!
All that food looks great. Although the best thing is your stirfry! So green and colorful.
I spent my sunday night relaxing and going to bed early. I am still in school and live in a dorm! I live in a single room, which is actually pretty boring. Haha
Umm…I love that you said my little stir fry is the best! Thank you!! 🙂
This dinner was definitely worth the free pass! I love restaurant weeks so much! So nice that you got a chance to get out with friends and enjoy it. 😉
Your outfit was adorable! I have not been to that restaurant yet, but now I totally plan to go! I spent my Sunday enjoying the weather, grilling out, and watching a movie. 🙂
Thanks for using your cheat pass on us 🙂 Dinner was fun!
It was fun! Thanks so much for organizing! 🙂
I’m glad you had one free pass to come out to dinner- it was great seeing you again 🙂
Let us know about the zumba class- I’d love to try and make it!
It was so good seeing you too! I’ll definitely let you know when the class starts. 🙂
you look beautiful….what a fun night!
Thank you Brittany!
That meal looks absolutely phenom…and such great company too!
Yes! Dinner + Great Company = Awesomeness! lol 🙂
I love that you asked if we re-steep our tea bags because I ALWAYS do when I use tea bags and not loose leaf. Some bags re-steep well and others don’t, but generally I re-steep at least twice. hehe. Eric thinks I have a bit of a problem but I’m glad Im not alone.
Well now that I think about it, I re-steep loose leaf too. Ok I have a problem… 😉
If you’re drinking green, oolong, or white, then you’re just sensible. You can get multiple infusions out of the same leaves with no loss of quality, so throwing out tea leaves after one use is sort of like throwing out an apple after one bite. 🙂 In fact, I feel guilty if I throw out leaves that have been used more than once unless they’re black, which doesn’t do as well on a second infusion.
Good to know, thank you Brooke!
Hahahahaha, I think it’s totally normal. In fact, I tried re-steeping some loose leaf tea today. It wasn’t as strong, but it still worked! 🙂
oh man! That dinner looks amazing!!!
I’m not even doing Eat In Month, just reading about yours, and I was just thinking to myself, jeez, it feels like Eat in Month has been going on FOREVER. LOL Hang in there 🙂
Yay! It’s over!! 🙂
I’m totally interested in an “eat OUT” month! Because I am so totally food-conscious, sometimes I struggle to eat out (I actually gave myself a challenge in November to eat out every meal for a week – and it was WAY tougher than I thought I’d be)! I’d love a challenge like that – but maybe just for dinner/lunches! There are a ton of fun local restaurants that I would finally get around to try!
Hahaha, I would totally do that, but hubby would NOT be happy! lol Maybe you could make a recurring date w/ some girlfriends to go out every Friday? 😉
Aw, I just realized you had a side ponytail last night. I miss side ponytails. I can’t wait to have long hair again. So good to see you last night! And yes, I re-steep my tea bags too. 🙂
Are you growing your hair out!? It was so good seeing you, too! 🙂
I throw my tea bags away after each use. 🙂
Sunday nights are reserved for going through my little notebook that I carry around all the time to determine my to-do list for the week and to clear my head.
These are awesome pictures of you and your foodie blogger friends taking shots of the meal! I love it!!
I only use the tea bag once! The blogger dinner looks like great fun! As for Sunday night, it is some chill time relaxing, wathcing tv, and maybe laundry to prepare for the busy week that lies ahead.
my family always used the tea bag once but husband’s family uses it 2-3 times… the weirdest though is that they save cups/mugs over whole weekends. i found that out the first time they stayed with us after we got married. i was like, uhhh you can really get a new mug 🙂
lol 🙂
You look gorgeous! What a fun night out with the bloggies– the pics of all of you TAKING PICTURES cracked me up. I can just imagine the looks that the wait-staff gave you all with your big fancy cameras out at once. Hehee.
I always use my Sunday time to do church, grocery shopping, and then a ton of food-making and meal planning for the week! This Sunday I made applesauce bran muffins, trail mix, fruit & nut energy bars, and pumpkin turkey chili. I like to have my food prepped for the week! Thankfully, my amazing hubby does our laundry, so he takes care of all the folding. 😉
Hahaha Jaclyn (who organized the dinner) said she warned them before we got there. I used to do a really good Sunday Prep Day, but have slacked off as of late. lol That’s so awesome your hubby does the laundry!
The results of resteeping or reinfusing depend on the type of tea you use. Black tea is the most heavily oxidized and, as a result, when it’s brewed, it’s only good for one infusion because most of the good stuff goes into that first cup. It’s possible to play around with a reinfusion using a different water temperature or brewing time than suggested, but I’ve never done much of that. I do reinfuse Darjeeling once with no real change in flavor, but it’s only a borderline black tea, so I think it behaves more like an oolong.
As far as greens, whites, and oolongs go, they can be reinfused multiple times with no loss of quality of the tea….at least until the leaves lose their flavor. In fact, I think some teas are supposed to be better on the second infusion.
If it were just a black tea bag, though? I can’t imagine trying to get a second cup of out that.
“In fact, I think some teas are supposed to be better on the second infusion. ” That would be awesome! Thanks for the info Brooke. 🙂