the things you never expect

You have had those days, when something happens that you would never expect? Well, one of those happened to me today. A little background, we lost mom about 10 months ago and my dad has been doing pretty well and even found himself a companion. So this morning, I received a rather short email from my sister, telling me to call my father. So I did. He told me that the visit that he and his girlfriend were planning to come up here and see me, is off. I asked him why and he was a little reluctant to let me know. After a little probing, he finally told me that they had an argument and he stormed out of her house. And after one argument, it's over.

At this point, I don't necessarily feel like a pro in the dating scene arena but let's face it - I'm going on 20-years as a single (un-married, yet sometimes attached) adult. So here I am, on a Saturday morning, giving dating advice to my father. Yep, never expected that.

Given that it is Saturday - you guessed it - it's PANCAKE day :) The featured pancakes for today are coco-mango pancakes. Make your basic pancake mix and add diced mangos and shredded coconut. Top with more mangos and more coconut. Yum!

*k*

a long weekend ahead

After five months without a holiday, I am so looking forward to this weekend. It's not that I haven't taken a day off, far from it... but a holiday is always nice, no need to steal a day from that vacation time pool. So, as I sit here with the replay of Oprah in the background and watching the sun go down, I'm finally able to think about the trivial things like what time I'm going to sleep until tomorrow or what I might make for dinner tonight.

Speaking of dinner, I never really mentioned why or how my blog is the healthy foodie.... At some point a few years ago, I figured out that I love to cook. Shortly thereafter, I realized how much I also like to eat. So about a year ago, I started on this path to lose a few pounds. I wanted to be able to still enjoy the art of cooking and savory treats from time to time. For about three months, I kept everything pretty simple until I got to my happy weight. And now that I have stayed here and want to continue to stay here, I have adapted my cooking to healthier ways.

This weekend will be devoted to *me time* - something I think we all need to do more of. Since I can, I'm going to take that opportunity this weekend with some time spent on gardening, cooking and time outside. I love long weekends :)

So with that, here's to enjoying life ~cheers~

*k*

nyc restaurant scene goes west

bright lights, big city, Vegas is always exciting. We decided to splurge on a couple of nights and try out two of the more upscale dining establishments. Truely though, it seemed like most of the restaurants were on the higher end of upscale. I've only been to Vegas a couple of times (three to be exact), and in the previous two visits, I don't remember there being this much choice in restaurants.

The first one that we went to was called Aureole. You may be familar with this, since it's also a NY favorite. Its signature feature is the four-story wine tower centered in the dining area. It has a stash of several hundred wines and a boasts a fantastic sommelier, with which we had some interesting wine discussion and debate. After some discussion about our wine favorites, we were steered to a fantastic and *very* reasonably priced Spanish Malbec. We started with a composition of smoked salmon and caviar. The main course was a roasted chilean sea bass over couscous - fantastic!

The second place we went to was called L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. We did the tasting menu and it was a taste explosion. The restaurant consists of primarily counter seating, with a backdrop of the kitchen and chefs busily assembling the unique dishes. The tasting menu was a nine course meal which included

- blue fin tuna in a tomato infused olive oil
- Maine lobster custard with curry scent and fennel foam
- sea bass filet steamed with lemon-thyme butter and steamed vegetables

to name a few. The Maine lobster custard was incredible, like nothing that I have ever tasted. The curry flavor was very subtle. I don't normally enjoy fennel, but it was so fresh and mild tasting. It pulled the whole dish together. We were lucky enough to be in the company of Chef Robuchon himself! When we asked if we could pay our compliments to the chef, he gladly oblidged. Be prepared to dig deep though, I'm going to be paying this one off for the next two months. This chef also has a restaurant at the NYC Four Seasons Hotel.

*k*