We were in Manhattan and thirsty, so we stopped at a Rite Aid to buy some water.  But the cheapest water bottle they sold was $1.59, and this behemoth was also $1.59, so … we bought it!  And drank from it freely.  And lugged it around the city.  And brought it all the way back to DC

Here’s lunch from last week:

Ok, that’s a lie – we don’t really have any readers, or at least not any that contact us (in that sense they take after their mother).  But if we did, they’d probably be saying things like that.

In response to our imaginary readers, I give you today’s lunch:

Ingredients:

Kiwis

Redleaf lettuce

Havarti with dill

Avocado

Pomegranate seeds

Roasted acorn squash (with butter and sugar, leftover from last night)

Bosc pear

Slivered almonds (sauteed with kosher salt, olive oil, butter, dillweed, and ground mustard seed)

Whole almonds (Tamari roasted, sauteed along with the slivered ones above)

You might think this would conflict with Sarah’s penchant for salads … but you would be wrong.

I was ready to eat Sunday night, and Sarah cooked up a fantastic melange of chicken, sausage, onions, and spices to go over the lettuce (and next to the equally delicious acorn squash).

That one is Sarah’s plate.  The orange-ish stuff in the upper left-hand corner is mashed carrots-and-potatoes-and-onions.

And that’s my plate.  I am clearly a better eater than Sarah, if only in terms of quantity.  On the quality front, Sarah probably still wins, though.  Exhibit A: the pomegranate we had for dessert ended up on my sleeve (despite the valiant efforts of a Williams and Sonoma apron).

In other news, it turns out that an overnight soak in cold detergent water will completely remove pomegranate stains from a white dress shirt.  Don’t rub it, do get it wet quickly and thoroughly.

Dominos Pizza Salad!

You can’t tell from the picture, but Sarah had been cutting up her pizza in order to make sure it was well integrated with the lettuce.  Just goes to show you can feel better about eating anything when it is a salad.

Admittedly this was a stretch of our only eat out once a week rule, even if we did bring the pizza home.  The pizza was pretty good, and lasted until Monday lunch (skipping over Sunday and Monday breakfast, so three meals total).

We put in a special request for a side of lettuce (as we usually do), and they brought it out with no questions asked and no additional fee (as they usually do).  Which led to …

Panang Curry Salad!

Yet another example of the anything-can-be-a-salad principle, which is especially important to remember when eating out, since restaurant salads are so often a disappointing afterthought at best.

And for the locals, Neramitra Thai turned out to be not so impressive.  A strange color scheme (strangely copied on the plates) combined with a selection of loud Kenny G music in the background, violet walls, unusual light fixtures and an abortive attempt at a sports bar to create a sad sort of ambiance.  And the food was pretty much all disappointing – the curry was watery, the pad thai noodles were mashy and the taste of everything wasn’t quite right (which was sad for Liz – we made her promise to try thai at a good restaurant before giving up on it altogether).  On the bright side, the $25 discount from the restaurant.com coupon (which only cost $2 after 80% off, and was easy to use since the $35 minimum goes quickly with four mouths to feed) helped take the edge off the disappointment.  But I wouldn’t recommend the place even when using the coupon.

For example, last night’s dinner started out as stuffed shells (bartered from a roommate using the remainder of the barbecue pork). Tear up and wash the rest of a head of Romaine, add some otherwise-sad-looking Roma tomatoes and canned green beans, and voilà!

Sarah, of course, made a fantastic salad.

Look at those tongs

I, of course, brought a barbecue pork shoulder. But everyone loved the salad.

The recipe:

Starfruit
Blackberries
Oranges
Candied pecans (honey, kosher salt, a little candied ginger)
White Stilton with candied lemon
Avocado
Romaine lettuce

Salad is ALSO awesome, it turns out.

What could be awesomer, I asked myself, than a blog about Sarah’s salads?

So I started one.  Bon appétit!