They said they needed a keyboardist, and I said, "I'm your man-tis."

Before I dive into the insane food adventures of the day I'd like to give a shout out to my buddy, Zorak. He made a guest appearance at breakfast.

He returned to his blackberry bush.

Holly and her Pops made some excellent crepes. We filled them with fresh blackberries and whipped cream.

I took a picture of Holly's because it looked cooler then my sans-chocolate crepe.

After a morning of laughing at nothing and frantically cleaning I drove to this restaurant to meet my friend Erika for lunch. I thought the hanging pieces of wood in the entryway were pretty fun, until one of the them fell on a girl walking in.

I kid, I kid.

As a starter, Erika and I ordered the seasoned edamame and we were MORE than pleasantly surprised.

I would go as far as to say that I enjoyed this more than anything else we ordered.

Erika thought the edamame was scary good too! Unfortunately, the only pic I got of her was when we were both geeking out about it.

We also helped ourselves to a couple cajun fries. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

(Sadly, that is the extent of my french comprehension.)

I enjoyed the Asian Chicken Noodles, although, the noodles themselves were a little thick and American for my Asian palette.

Erika went for the sandwich. I couldn't really tell you what was in it but she said it was good and I trust her judgement.

After lunch we had a stroll through the mall and ended up at this store (a.k.a. Erika's jorb)

After an extensive dose of the mall and cruisin' on the 23 N, I hit up Trader Joe's to buy some affordably delectable groceries. I planned to prepare a nice dinny din for the Schultz familia before they left for CO dark and early the next morning.

Dinner started with a toasted walnut and cilantro pesto ravioli with pink lady apples and spinach & feta chicken sausage. Initially you heat some olive oil over medium and throw in some diced walnuts, once the walnuts become aromatic toss in your matchstick apple slices. Just as the apple begins to soften throw in your sliced sausage and cilantro pesto. (For the pesto just blend a fistful of cilantro leaves and 2 tablespoons of pine nuts with a little olive oil and feta cheese)

You should boil the ravioli simultaneously and add them to the pan of toasted goodness and mix just before serving.

Total time including prep: 20 minutes. That's the beauty of it.

To accompany the main dish I made a pesto, butternut squash soup topped with scallions.

To prepare, just throw some diced onion into some canola oil (I choose canola for soups because it has a higher heating point than olive oil and is less likely to burn). I also throw in a few mustard seeds and paprika before adding my oil and onion just to let the heat release more of those rich flavors. Probably about 2 teaspoons of each spice. Once your onions are soft add some of your cilantro pesto (to taste) and stir for about 20 seconds. I tend to add some sort of bean to this soup to give it a little more substance, garbanzo are always a nice choice. After stirring the pesto into the onion add some puree butternut squash and stock and let it come to a simmer and you're ready to serve.

Let's not forget the fiber, placed conveniently at the end of the meal to "aid the digestion".

This was a light salad of spinach and wasabi arugula tossed with ripe nectarines, tomato and basil feta (also used in the cilantro pesto), white onion, walnuts, and toasted sesame dressing, surprisingly brought to you by this good lookin' actor.

We ended the night with some ginger thins in french vanilla ice cream, some polaroid pictures and this movie.

Oh, how I love this movie and Peter Sellers' brilliance.

Life would only get more exciting and adventurous the next day. Anaphylaxis included. No purchase necessary. See label for details. Or just read my next post.