A Weekend Away

I spent the weekend in Columbus with my show and got one of those reminders about how much easier it is for a vegetarian to have food options in a bigger city than going out here. Last Monday we moved the show down and stopped in the "North Market" before heading home for a late lunch... oh, the options I do not get here. Our director is vegetarian too and we both seemed to embrace the options that do not exist here.

Thursday Night, we had brush up rehearsal and wanted food afterwards so we asked a local. He sent us to a restaurant call "Tip Top Restaurant and Cocktails" that met the specifications of our group... beer and food options for both me (the lone vegetarian) and the meat eaters alike. The corn chowder was almost as good as my own.

Friday night, we headed back down for our show. We headed to High Street Friday after the show in search of amusement and I embraced a falafel sandwhich before the bar and a big slice of new york style pizza after the bar. We decided sometime in here to stay away from things we could have here.

Saturday, we slept in and then headed to Easton in search of food (four of us from the show stayed in a hotel together). We had a late lunch on the Mongolian Grill (my brother's favorite), where they had no problems making sure my meat free food was cooked seperate from the meat-laden entrees of my friends. We headed to a midnight show and caught a bit of Waffle house before heading back to the hotel to catch a little bit of sleep before our Sunday show.

Sunday, we slept in as late as we could (something to do with lack of sleep) and got up only as early as we did for check out After a phone call or two we made plans to meet up with someone else from the show and head back to "North Market" for lunch and to kill time before we had to be back to the theater. I had a somewhat messy, but satisfying sandwhich of mushrooms, artichokes, roasted red peppers, cheese, lettuce, and some italian dressing on a nice long peice of bread. It made me happy. When I got home after the show and after strike i made one of my rich favorites of tortellini with mushrooms, spinach, and oilive oil. (I sneak frozen spinach in where-ever I can.)

Still peaking from the high of have food options I made stuffed portabella mushrooms (stuffed with a mixture of woody basmati rice, frozen spinach, corn, diced mushroom, and italian cheese), and served beside roasted carrots.

Trying Something New with Old Fav's

I had rehearsal tonight and went early to work on some costume things (that I have managed to get myself put in charge of). I knew I went be there awhile and when I made lunch I went ahead and packed myself a dinner. Now anyone who knows me, probably knows that I love food and enjoy eating. I love flavor and trying new things. I made a mushroom rice (with little pieces of sliced mushroom stems in it) then lighted sauteed some a garlic clove. I added a little balsamic vinaigrette I had in the refrigerator to the garlic and oil and let it all mix and warm. I cleaned and removed the stems from a couple small portabella mushrooms (about 2 inches in diameter) and placed in a small baking dish with the bottoms up. Then poured over the garlic/balsamic mixture. I roasted the mushrooms for about 20 minutes at 450 degrees. Then sliced a few carrot sticks and another small glove of garlic (its great for the immune system) and sauteed them. It was yummy even reheated at the theater. I packed some olives, a bottle of water, and some mini cookies to go with it. Definitely made the evening go easier. Oven roasting the mushrooms like that may also have become a new favorite (I use a lot of mushrooms at times). Sometimes its entertaining to me how non-veggies will look at what I am eating (or smell in cooking or reheating in the microwave) and look and comment and sometimes even drool a little. It's great to try something new and LOVE it. It makes me kind of want to experiment with preparing vegetables in all sorts of ways that I may not yet have tried. In the meantime I think I may curl up with a nice steaming bowl of homemade French onion soup (leftovers form the other night). Yummy yummy in my tummy.