Listy Eyed

I have no less than 3 lists going at any given time.  Most important are my long-term goals, wishlist, and short term To Do list.  I also have grocery lists, future vacation lists, party idea lists and so on.  Once it's on paper, it's out of my head!

Today's list:

• Business meeting via phone call
• 5K Training (I'm now running a 2 mile stretch with almost no walking)
• Weights at Golds
• Goodwill drop off
• Mt. Pleasant shopping (I'm finally hitting Trader Joe's tonight!  Has the chaos died down?  I was actually scared to go in there the couple times I attempted.  Mob mentality freaks me out!!)

Weekend list:

•  Hallowine preparation re: cooking, cleaning, which leads to...
• Saturday's party! Halloween celebrations!
• Watch game AND burgers on the grill with homemade sweet potato chips! Also see below.
• Workout with K
• Sunday Brunch

Regarding our cookout Saturday night I really want this:

 Has anyone seen the new seasonal anywhere yet (in Charleston in particular)?
Also, do you keep multiple running lists to keep you sane?
TGIFFFFF

I'll have my cake, And eat it too.

I must admit I've never gotten that cliche.  If I have cake, by golly I'm going to eat it.  Why is that special?  That's what you do with cake?  Maybe something like "I'll have my cake, and ICE CREAM TOO"...
Now that's over the top!
Ok, next. 
The other night I decided I wanted Carrot Cake!  While I rarely choose a "light" version of a dessert (oxymoron), I did find this recipe in my Gracious Goodness Cookbook:

Yes, super blurry recipe but I just can't type it all right now.  This version cuts the calories in half ( a little more than half actually!) and is just as tasty.  

Also, currently reading:

It's got a lot of social commentary on the money/status hungry living in New York City.  I'm breezing right through it.
Happy Tuesday everyone!
What do you have going on?
I'm off to Kick Chick to catch up with a former colleague!

Burger Baby!

Has anyone been to Burger Babies yet on King Street?  Now, come on y'all, you could have come up with a better name that that!  I will avoid this place solely for the fact that I never want to have to answer "Where are you?" with "Burger Babies!".

But, I love love love me a cheeseburger.  It's probably up there with pizza for me.  That's why I was so excited when I found a recipe for Chicken Parm Burgers!!

Ok, it's super easy!  Start with ground chicken (normally right next to ground turkey in the meat section).   Season this with garlic salt and parmesan (and salt & pepper of course).  I've added Italian seasoning to mine before.  Grill (or fry) these burgers, well done of course!  Rare chicken=NO.
What excited me about this recipe was the presentation.  You serve on garlic bread, topped with marinara and mozzarella!  I would imagine spinach and mushrooms would also be a tasty addition. 
Burgers are the best!
How do you like yours?

A Perfect Farewell Summer Weekend

Friday night my great friend Cyd celebrated her 26th birthday down at her family's beach house on Folly.  This house holds so many memories for all of us and never fails to induce complete relaxation to those who enter.  The house is located on the narrow strip of Folly (down at the washout) where houses can be both Front beach property, and back up to the intercoastal waterway.  So our Friday night resulted in one of two views:   

  

  Definitely one of the best ways to wind down the summer!

Saturday we enjoyed the morning walking all around JICP with Alf.  It was the second college gameday of the season for us, so I tried out a new recipe.  I knew I wanted to keep things simple and was craving something pizza-ish.  I decided to use my bundt pan and make what is essentially Italian herb monkey bread.  Instead of sugar and cinnamon, you use italian seasoning and parmesan, with a side of marinara for dipping.

It turned out great!  I will definitely be adding turkey pep and mozzarella to my recipe on my next go around.
I also made quick and easy southern banana pudding.  Few things are as simple and delicious as banana pudding.
We had peppered pork loin as well and watched the game over at K's parents.





We are taking today to relax and remember this day 10 years ago.  I'm trying to stay away from tv and the images of the events of September 11, they make me cry cry cry.  My heart goes out to all affected.

Day&Night

What a nice holiday weekend!  Fall, here we come!
Saturday was definitely our busiest day of the weekend and I'll recap it for ya.

I wanted to wear my favorite summery dress for the last time this year. 


blurry phone photo



We decided to stay close and visit the Charleston Museum.

Neither K nor I had been since we were very young and it was fun to see the museum with mature eyes. 

Highlights:  There was an old stone mile marker that was located on Mathis Ferry way back in the 1800's.  There is also a recreation of an old Charleston pharmacy with so many bottles like ours!

And there was a jewelry exhibition with some sweetgrass earrings that I fell in love with...

Some might say I have a mild sweetgrass obsession.

After this we went over to Whole Foods to grab some shish kebabs for the grill (I like the general tso's chicken) and beer. 

This beer deserves a background story.  About a year ago now we discovered Heavy Seas Loose Cannon.  We fell in love with it and would order it anytime we could find it on a menu (very few places in Chas).  Unfortunately the beer distributor that handles Loose Cannon sales was apparently flaky and thus Loose Cannon is no more.  If you ever see this on a menu, ORDER IT! and if you ever see it on a menu in Charleston, e-mail me and I will come join you STAT.  Anyway, after much research (hard work) we discovered that Mojo is the next best thing. 

From there we came home to relax before the game.  I whipped up a few "heart attack" apps and threw on a little team pride. We grilled up the kebabs, which K calls "Make Your Neighbors Jealous" kebabs.   They smell SO good.

Ah! Even more blurry



I was in bed pretty early after the game ended. 
Tell me about your weekend!

Gameday Treats (lazy girl edition)

I love cooking for my family and friends, but there are definitely days where I'm just too busy to spend the time in the kitchen!

No time to cook but still feeling festive?  Check out my grocery store finds.

While home cooking is ideal, these store bought treats can help you in a bind!


GO COCKS!
I did whip up a quick spread for our mini-gameday celebration:

A chili con queso dip, little pigs in a blanket, and a strawberry banana cool whip dip.
Hope everyone is enjoying their LONG weekend!

Weekend Weight Gain

This weekend I made:

Chex Puppy Chow

Crock Pot Mac-n-Cheese

(for a cookout) and ate WAY too much of it!!!

We also had dinner over at James Island's finest hidden gem, Mondo's Delite!

I worked as a hostess at Mondo's one summer, and gained about 10 lbs.  But it wasn't my fault!  They make fresh foccacia daily.  I highly reccomend this place, if you can find it.. ;)

Also went to see The Help at my favorite theatre:

K wouldn't go see it with me, so I took my girl Chels.

All in all, weekend success.

What did YOU do??

Here we go!

Last night we cooked some chicken on the grill and K made my favorite marinade:

+
That's buffayaki y'all.

My friend Brittany and I fell in love with Buffayaki at Gene's. (Has anyone heard that Wocka Flocka song? Well, we changed it to say Buffayaka Flocka. It's amazing how many laughs we still get out of singing our little buffayaki song. Wow, Am I really rambling about this right now?)

Before the meal we had sesame crackers with Tomato basil cheddar.

I bought a bottle of my favorite wine:

I really am more of a beer girl, but I love this! New Zealand wine country is one of my top dream vacations, I would definitely make a stop by this vineyard.

This is sort of an awkward post.

No, no, I'll show you awkward:

Dang! You'd think she'd just say "I don't want to do any meet and greets" and spare these poor people!

Anyway, Here we go!

No one gets left on the bench!

I know that I mentioned before that I run the annual United Way Campaign at my company, and I know I mentioned it's my favorite part of my job!

This year I've decided to run the campaign with a football theme and it's been a lot of fun. Check out the bulletin board I created:

Oh, and you know I'll be making these chocolate covered strawberries come September 3rd!



Thursday thank goodness!

Amen to that!

I'm having a rough morning and would like to rewind back to Friday night.
I posted about my Fleet Landing plans last week and wanted to follow up with that.
Sometimes I forget that my hometown is also a huge tourist attraction and I'm blown away by the number of people lined up outside of restaurants. That being said, I was in no mood to wait an hour to get a table and we decided to head elsewhere. K suggested 'Amen Street'. I had never been before and I can now say I'm glad we went! The best part of the meal was the fried calamari app (bacon corn succotash!) and also the decor.
Check out these oyster chandeliers.

I also really liked the historical memorabilia on the walls, things like old newspaper clippings and black and white photos of old Charleston.
We tried an IPA by a new local brewery.

Holy City Brewing. Very good!
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, now I've got to get to work...

Hushpuppy Love

For a few weeks now I've been craving some serious hushpuppy action. I'm shocked (SHOCKED I TELL YOU!) to see the lack of hushpuppy on menus in seafood restaraunts around town. All I can say is we must have a bunch of northern chefs up in this town because no southern soul knows seafood without hushpuppy. I've been mourning the loss of Charleston's best down home seafood spot for a few years now.


RIP Anchor Line



I can remember going to Anchor Line as a little Laura. The only drink options: sweet tea and pink lemonade. Every seafood plate=2 hushpuppies. I think I'm starting to cry.

Now, I've been over to The Wreck and while yummy, there is no comparison.

Ok, so back to my craving. I've been annoying K I'm sure with my latest fried seafood rants, but I put my foot down and we are heading to Fleet Landing this weekend. Fleet Landing has some damn good seafood, and on the menu "Stuffed Hushpuppies". Honestly, I just need my hushpuppy stuffed with cornmeal, but at this point I'll take what I can get!


As you can probably tell, I'm one of these girls who likes to pick what I'll be eating before I even get to the restaraunt. I leave the drink list as the mystery. I just get so excited about food!



1. What's your favorite seafood spot in Charleston?

2. Do you like to pick out you order before even getting there?

Saturday Recap

This past Saturday was a great day, from start to finish.
I woke up to K carrying in a plate of homemade Eggs Benedict and orange-mango juice for breakfast in bed! Except I took it to the table as hollandaise sauce can be a little messy, for me at least. I eat like it's my first birthday party.

After my yummy breakfast I hopped back in bed for a snooze. Now, I should probably have prefaced my Saturday story with my Friday night story, as it became somewhat of a blur for me. Let me explain. Things started out mild enough, went for dinner at Opal, a new restaurant in Mt. P. K got the Flounder and I the Duck Ragu. Good food. Things took a turn when I ordered "Death in the Afternoon" at Club Havana for my night cap. This was a $12 drink and I was lit up like a lightbulb after forcing it down. I had to chase each sip with a swig of beer, that's how strong it was. My buzz led me downstairs into the Tinder Box where I bought a pack of Lucky Strikes and pretended to be in the trenches of World War I for the remainder of the night. Ok, so back to my Saturday snooze, yes I was a bit hungover.

Once I got up I made Pistachio Cake for a birthday dinner that night, and K and I headed over to the pool for about an hour (too hot), and then it was time to head to dinner.

K grilled yummy pork marinated in teriyaki and rosemary, and we had asparagus and scalloped potatoes, pistachio cake for dessert. After dinner we went to Blockbuster (aka ghost town) and rented The River Runs Through It. Ok, this is starting to ramble on...

All I want to say is how much I love my boyfriend and that I can't explain how special I felt when he gave me this, late Saturday night, for no occasion at all:

This was his grandmother's ring and it's the most wonderful gift I've ever recieved. It's dainty and beautiful and it makes me think of K everytime I look at it. I'm so in love.
Gag, I know.

So what's the best gift you've ever been given??

Foooood

Please excuse my lack of post yesterday! I was off-site at United Way Campaign training (my favorite part of my job). Today I am sharing a couple yummy thoughts.
This weekend I caved and bought the sweet cereal. I have a weakness for cinnamon toast crunch, what can I say? It's really good. This is a rare indulgence because 1.) I normally just have yogurt for breakfast and 2.) If I do buy cereal it's normally shredded wheat or cheerios.

So, I just added blueberries to make it healthy :)

Also, a recipe for you:
I love a spicy meal y'all. Cajun spice is a regular in my dishes.
Here is one of my favorite easy pasta sauce recipes. Now, I make this different every time and follow no recipe, just as an FYI. But here's the gist.

Laura's Cajun Cream Pasta
First I saute some shrimp in garlic and butter. I like to add chicken sausage as well.

Once this is nice and cooked I'll set it aside and make my sauce. The sauce is a mixture of milk, cajun spice, parmesan cheese, and lemon juice. I'll also add a dash or two of flour if it needs thickening. Last I'll throw the sausage and shrimp back in and simmer for a few.
Yum Yum Yum.
Meanwhile I'm boiling my water for the pasta. Once the pasta is just about done, I'll throw in my frozen green peas to cook for about 4 minutes.

Strain the water out of this and top with sauce!
This meal is very delicious and easy to make with just a few ingredients on hand.

Hot Hot Hot

Today's post is dedicated to the heat index.

A couple of things:
Last night I made chicken parm, one of my favorites. I really just dip a boneless, skinless breast in egg whites and then into a mix of panko and parm, for a light crunch on the outside. Then bake at 375' for around 25 min, until golden brown. I like to put a slice of mozzarella and some marinara on top of the breasts about 3-5 minutes before I take them out of the oven. I'll put this over pasta with marinara. Most often I pair this with a side salad, but I've also put chopped spinach in my marinara which is a great way to bring in something green. I'm a sucker for carbs of all kinds so I did make myself a single slice of garlic bread. It was worth it.
The most exciting part of the meal was that I used wagon wheel pasta! So cute :)

Oh and lastly, remember that ring I've been lusting over? Well I haven't bought it. BUT I did find a cute ring with both silver and gold metal this weekend with a smaller pricetag. What do you think??

I'm wearing one of my favorite summer work dresses today. Anyone remember when Isaac Mizrahi was head designer at Liz Claiborne?? My wardrobe does! I think I alone kept the line in business here in Charleston! Unfortunately I wasn't enough and now JCPenney has taken Liz into the ground.
Anyway, Happy Tuesday!

Dedication: Bagel Nation

A weekend is not complete without a trip to the James Island Bagel Nation.
I know, it's just a bagel shop. But it blows my mind. And now, a poem:

Everything Bagel with bacon, egg, and cheese,
a side of hashbrowns and a coffee, please.
There's no better way to start the day
than to wake up the Bagel Nation way.

Ok, I'm done. Please go. Fast. So I can say I told ya so.