In my mind, 3-day weekends are pretty much food free days where you can eat whatever you want guilt free. Pal @jenmyronuk flew in on Sunday to come visit me and some other girl friends here in Phoenix, and zOMG! did we eat well. And yes, of course, in beautiful pictures, I shall share some of those eats with ya'll.
On Sunday for early, early dinner, like 5pm Senior citizen time kinda dinner, we ate at My Florist Cafe & Bar. Now Jen has the same cow milk and chicken egg allergy that I have so it's perfect when we eat out together. Even though the cow milk is off limits, goat milk is okay.
For appetizer, we started out with the Bruschetta which comes in 4 different toppings on top of a cheese. You can order different kinds of cheeses, but we just got goat cheese on all the bread. What was nice was that they spread a light coat of goat cheese on so the cheese didn't overpower the Bruschetta. The toppings we got were smoked salmon with capers, figs & pistachios, red peppers & artichoke, and prosciutto with figs. Fabulous!
For main course, I got the Salmon Salad on top of mixed greens and arugula with tomatoes, red onions, capers, and a lemon thyme dressing. The Wild Atlantic Salmon was tender and juicy. The salad came with a feta cheese, but instead of feta I asked for caramelized onions because I love them onions.
BTW, I took these pictures on my new 3GS iPhone, and with some Photoshop wizardry, voila! It's not Nikon fancy quality but again, I'm pretty impressed. I'm learning the key to good iPhone pictures is lighting. It's best to take pics in nice natural sun light.
Jen got the Baja Salad with chicken, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions, roma tomato with balsamic vinaigrette.
On Monday, Labor Day, we met Jen's friends Becky and Margaret and her son for brunch at the Breakfast Club in Scottsdale. I got the Turkey Club on 9 grain bread which had turkey breast, bacon, avocado, and spicy mustard.
The Club normally comes with pepper jack cheese and a chipotle mayo but I ixnayed those two things because of the dairy and eggs. The mustard was great on its own. And oh yeah, on the side there is sweet potato fries. Heavenly! I only ate half the sandwich, and got the other half to go.
I was craving Salmon & Lox but decided I craved bacon and turkey more. Jen however got the bagel delight. Instead of cream cheese, that's goat cheese, and ya know, it's just as tasty. Margaret got the Cinnamon Challah French Toast that comes with candied nuts, seasonal berries, and Vermont maple syrup. Sorry, I didn't get a snapshot of her dish or Becky's who got an egg & potato dishie.
After brunch, we walked around the Scottsdale Fashion Mall next door for a few hours. Then came time for Happy Hour at The Yard House for half priced appetizers and cocktails. Margaret took off, but then friend Dawn joined us for eats & drinks. I was craving a Cosmo so indulged in a couple. What the heck, it's kinda like vacation when visitors when come to town.
We kinda loaded up on appetizers thinking they would be small, but uh no, the portions were fairly large. Here's two of the appetizers we got. First is one of my favorite overall appetizers, chicken lettuce wraps.
Becky ordered this Spicy Tuna Roll which looked more like a pie than a roll packed with seared Ahi, avocado, edamame, cucumber, and wasabi soy sauce. Next time I go to the Yard House, I'm definitely getting this Spicy Tuna Roll because it was a fabulous light healthy Asian dish that doesn't make you feel heavy.
The other appetizers we got included, Beef sliders, buffalo wings, and a cheeseless Hawaiian pizza. And yeah, even between four hungry ladies, that was quite the feast, but it was dee-lish!
Of course, the weekend would not be complete without desserts, and in the next post, I'll share with you the vegan cookies, ice cream, and oh-my-frickin-goodness Sprinkles cupcakes which are so not vegan but ahem sometimes you just gotta indulge.
