Opa!

Workout

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there were two workouts in a row for the first time in weeks for me!!  I went down to the tiny gym in my building with the plan of riding the upright bike for 60 minutes.  However, by the time I reached 45 minutes I was getting a lot of stink eye…because there is only ONE upright bike for our entire building!  So I cut the ride 15 minutes short, although that may have been smart to not push it too much with my knee, and covered 10.8 miles in that time.  Carrie Bradshaw’s witty humor kept me entertained almost the entire time.

I’m going to wrap up today’s workouts with some PT exercises, focusing on stretching my calves and piriformis muscles and strengthening my hips, abs, and gluteus medius muscles.  I’ll finish up with some proprioception work by trying to balance on one foot with my eyes closed.  Sounds riveting, right?

Kouzzina by Cat Cora

For our last night in Florida, Matt and I wanted to make dinner reservations at a fun but nicer restaurant in Disney World before we all left in the morning.  Since my mom had recently purchased points at the DVC Boardwalk property, we decided it’d be fun to eat in that area…and ultimately picked the restaurant Kouzzina.  Kouzzina is Cat Cora‘s only restaurant, and as big Iron Chef America fans, we figured it’d make for a really fun night out!

But before we could make it out the door, I demanded a mini-photo shoot complete with medals and brand new Sweaty Bands!

Once I finished making everyone pose for photos, and we stopped by the main building for toasted marshmallows, we jumped on the bus to Hollywood Studios and took the trail over to The Boardwalk.  After walking around and checking out everything to see, we made our way to Kouzzina just in time for our reservation.

After sitting down to dinner, I ordered a glass of the pinot noir from Chef Cora’s own wine label, and it was really flavorful.  They also offered a full flight of her 3 wines (1 white and 2 reds I think) but I’d consumed enough tequila poolside during the day that 1 glass of wine was plenty.

When it came to food, there were so many things on the menu that sounded wonderful we had a really hard time deciding what to order!  For appetizers, we picked the Kouzzina Spreads with 3 samples (chickpea hummus, whipped feta with red peppers, and tzatziki) as well as the Saganaki.

With the sampler of spreads, the pita was really good!  But the BEST part about that dish was the whipped feta with red peppers.  OMG if I went back, I would totally get this for all 3 options.  The hummus and tzatziki were pretty good but they had nothing on the whipped feta!  I also loved the saganaki, which is flamed Greek cheese with lemon, oregano, and capers.  It has a wonderful salty flavor that the lemon cuts through really nicely.  Perfect post-marathon food!

While we were working our way through our appetizers, we ended up running out of bread and asked for a few more slices of pita to finish everything off.  What we didn’t realize is that meant we were going to get an entire batch of pita!

So unnecessary.  Particularly since the next dish brought out to our table looked like this:

Why yes, I would like a pile of carbs upon my previous pile of carbs!  But seriously, this bread was brought out to taste two different types of olive oils.  I cannot remember a single thing about the difference between the two, but I do remember the one in the middle was really good and our server told us it wins A LOT of awards.

And then it was time for our entrees!  Melodie ordered the Oak-Fired Pork Tenderloin and my mom ordered the Slow-Cooked Lamb Shank, but substituted the smoked feta whipped mashed potatoes for beans.

The pork came with zucchini cornbread and was topped with a feta gremolata.  Because it was oak-fired, it was charred on the outside, which Melodie didn’t care for, but she did enjoy the meat once she cut it off.  My mom loved the lamb.  Usually she’ll be one of the last ones to finish a meal but I think her plate was the first to be cleared!  That is truly a sign of how good and tender the meat was.

Matt also ordered the pork, but instead of the zucchini cornbread, he asked for a side of the potatoes, as well.

And then because I couldn’t decide what I wanted (I seriously almost ordered something just to get the potatoes), I ordered the Pastitsio with a side of the potatoes.

The Pastitsio is basically a Greek lasagna.  It was a giant bowl of pasta with bechamel sauce and cinnamon-stewed meat sauce (the cinnamon flavor was very predominant) with a layer of baked cheese on top.  Go ahead and feel free to judge me on the lasagna/potato combination, but when I sheepishly ordered this, our server informed me that it’s a VERY popular combination!  What I can say, Americans love their carbs!

However, as ridiculous as this order was, the food was incredible!  I’ll start with the potatoes.  The cold-smoked feta added an incredible depth of flavor to these potatoes that I have NEVER had with a mashed potato before.  I seriously want to learn how to cold smoke just so I can try my hand at these.  The Pastitsio was really good, also.  The first bite or two feels overwhelmed by cinnamon and possibly nutmeg (I would expect there to be some in the bechamel), however, once you get a few bites in, all of the flavors really start to meld together and it’s wonderful!  I would highly recommend this dish if you’re going to Kouzzina.

After finishing our entrees, we were all way too full to order dessert.  Instead, I knew I needed to walk around a bit to help my stomach digest my ridiculously carb-filled heavenly meal.  We decided to take the bus to Downtown Disney to walk around and do a little shopping before heading to bed.  I found some really cute items, but of course, none of them were available in my size!  I did, however, run into a rather scary guy at the Lego’s store!

But I had Matt there to save me!

But maybe the coolest thing I saw the entire night was this beautiful dog that looked like a Great Dane/Dalmation mix that was one of the most gentle service dogs.  I seriously couldn’t stop looking at this guy:

Isn’t he beautiful??  His companion service dog was a poodle!  I’ve never seen either breed as a service dog before, have you?

Your Turn:  Are you a big fan of Greek food?  Who is your favorite Iron Chef?  What is the most unusual service dog you have ever seen?