Powerhouse Opening!

It's going to be a fun food day.

Breakfast:

Apples w/pb
(I was too lazy to make the ten minute trek to the dining hall.)

Lunch:

Roasted beets, goat cheese, dried cranberries & pumpkin seed salad
(I love me some roasted beets. This was a really delicious salad, although I would have preferred less cheese. I liked the salty creaminess of the cheese with the tart dried cranberries and juicy beets. Add in the crunch and slightly nuttiness of the pumpkin seeds and you've got the most subtle yet comforting farewell to summer.)

Carrots w/hummus

Tea w/a chocolate chip cookie (gave the other one to Catilin)
(Felt like a cookie today until I ate this cookie. It wasn't good.)

Snack:

Chocolate covered espresso beans
(Beating that mid-day slump.)

Powerhouse Opening Hor d'Oeuvres: 

Fruit skewers, summer rolls w/seasweed salad, roasted asparagus spears, baby carrots, cucumber slices, squash, veggie sushi roll
(I love, love it when Amherst has some kind of opening. The head chef knows his stuff and goes out with a bang. Just look at the little fruit skewers and rolls. Impeccable presentation - although I spilled the fruit bowl so it looks tipsy here. And mighy delicious to boot. I'll have dreams of those asparagus spears for the next several days.)

"Tiramisu"
(I don't know what this was exactly, but it had the basics flavours of tiramisu: cream, coffee and chocolate, so that's what I'm going to call it. Love the idea of tiramisu, but I don't fancy the richness and creamyness. I enjoyed the sprinkling of bitter coffee and chocolate on top, which cut down the rich sludge and mellowed out the dense mouthful of chocolate. Despite my rather negative comments, this could have easily been one of those romantic Italian dinner date desserts where the mocha powder somehow goes everywhere, the couple giggles as they try to salvage their appearances and debate between leaving or finishing their decadent treat. As for me, I found that I enjoyed the first bite, liked the second and was non-committal by the third. Any more than this tube and I would have begun disliking the dessert.)

Dulce de leche "panna cotta"
(Again, I don't really know what this was but it had the texture of panna cotta and flan. Kind of custard-esque, but a bit creamier and smoother. There's a thin layer of caramel at the bottom, but I found the majority to be sweet enough that the "flavour layer" was unnecessary. Similar to the previous dessert, I enjoyed the first bite - particularly because I thought it was flan - and was non-committal by the third. If I were someone who favoured rich, creamy desserts, this and the previous one would have been right up my tongue. Sadly, I am not and the weight of these desserts on my tongue induced the opposite reaction.)

Raspberry meringue
(The most disappointing dessert of the four and the single fruit-based one. I wanted this to be refreshing and light, I wanted this to be a last summer hurrah, and I desperately wanted to at least like this because it had a fresh raspberry. Perhaps my expectations were too high, for this little tube missed all three. I have nothing bad to say about the fresh raspberry, but the actual dessert? The meringue was melting, too sweet and at times too sour, like the acid wasn't beaten in properly. And the raspberry layer was sickly sweet yet tart, as if too much sugar was added to compensate for the tart raspberries.)

Chocolate mousse
(My favourite of the four and perhaps the most decadent of them all. I've been harping on how much I dislike rich, creamy desserts when this was probably just as rich and creamy, if not more so, than the others. I suppose the addition of chocolate made all the difference; I wasn't eating cream-flavoured cream-based layers but chocolate layers. The bitter dark chocolate, balanced milk chocolate and ultra sweet white chocolate layers complemented each other, yielding a dense mess of delectable spoonfuls.)

Snack:

Roasted asparagus spears, baby carrots, bell peppers, summer rolls w/seaweed salad

Late dinner:

Mixed greens salad (didn't eat), black bean quinoa chips w/pineapple salsa, plantain chips