The Friday Five 1.4.13

1. What I’m Reading: I haven’t read a novel in a while. Book club girls: what are we doing?! For a refresher, I picked up The Elements of Style, an American English style guide on grammar and writing. Classic.

2. What I’m Eating: Roti Rolls came to Daniel Island on Thursday. Cory let me know ahead of time, so I was able to whip up a batch of cookies for them the night before. I love those guys and they deserve some homemade treats from one of their biggest fans.

In return, I got a Funky Farmer: a roti roll filled with curried local sweet potato, parsnip, carrot, rutabaga and ginger with braised greens and pickled beets. On the side I had a beet and arugula salad.

So worth standing in the rain!

Later that night, my friend Eric was at The Green Door, their sister restaurant, where he received some of the chocolately goodness. They knew we were friends and handed him a cookie. Charleston is so small and this made me smile.

3. Recipes I’m Bookmarking: Best Ever Beet and Bean Burgers. Say that 5 times fast. Then make them. 

4. What I’m Watching: Even if just one of you readers is a Parks & Recreation fan, then I will make someone laugh with this video. I cry laughing every.single.time.

5. GIFs I’m Loving:

PRETENDING TO LIKE A PRESENT

DRUNK FLIRTING

EXPECTATION

REALITY

WHEN I REALIZE IT’S FRIDAY!!!

Happy Friday! Have a wonderful weekend!

The Friday Five 12.28.12

Hello!! Long time no chat. Er, blog? I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and nice time off of work. I’ve been off for a while and I feel like all I’ve done is cook, run, spend time with family, and bake. It’s been wonderful.

1. What I’m Reading: The Plant-Powered Diet. This past year I’ve been eating more vegetables than ever and want to continue nourishing myself with them as much as possible. It just makes sense. Or does it just it acceptable to eat cookies for lunch like I did on Monday? Anyway, this book discusses the benefits of vegetables, fruits, and grains and some great recipes.

2. What I’m Eating: Now watch me contradict myself. I mean…balance out all the veggies…with THESE. Thanks to Erica’s recommendation, I picked up a bag of Hershey’s Mint Truffle Kisses. If you’re a fan of mint + chocolate, grab a bag. Because they’re individually wrapped, I find I eat fewer than when I rip open a bag of M&Ms. Agree?

3. Recipes I’m Bookmarking: Auntie Kelly gave me a juicer (yippee!) so I’ve been saving some juice recipes. This recipe for Beet-le juice sounds delicious.

4. What I’m Listening to: Scream & Shout by will.i.am and Britney Spears. Britney’s back, woohoo!

5. GIFs I’m Loving:

WHEN I FIND A GUY I LIKE THAT IS AS WEIRD AS I AM

MY BEST FRIEND AND ME

MY BEST FRIEND AND ME WHEN WE SHARE SECRETS AFTER TOO MANY COCKTAILS

Happy Friday! Have a wonderful weekend!

The Friday Five 12.6.12

1. What I’m Reading: The Conscious Cook. My sweet coworker let me borrow this cookbook that’s full of  delicious meatless recipes.

2. What I’m Eating: I’m on Day 5 of no candy/sweets. I still can’t believe I haven’t freaked out. At work yesterday, someone kept talking about cake and I wanted to shush her so badly. Thankfully, the one thing my mother taught me was manners. A new purchase for me is these Lightlife Kick'n Black Bean Burgers.

They’re a lot heftier than Morningstar’s and have good flavor, but are pretty dry. What’s your favorite black bean burger?

3. Recipes I’m Bookmarking: Kale and Roasted Beet Salad with Maple Balsamic Dressing. 

4. What I’m Listening to: Oh, you want a little love song? This is fun but not too sappy.

5. GIFs I’m Loving:

WHEN I MIX VODKA AND HIGH HEELS

WHEN I BREAK OUT THE TEQUILA

WHEN I GET OLD

 

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Happy Friday! Have a wonderful weekend!

What I’m Loving Wednesday 12.5.12

1. Danielle and I eat lunch together every Monday. For the past month, we’ve gone to Mi Xao each week, at least once. This week, we went back for our favorite items on the menu. Mine is the Tom Yum Kung, extra spicy.

See the coconut shrimp? The owner was being nice and brought us some samples. Naturally, I threw one back and then bam! It hit me. They were fried and I just got a damn strike for The NYE Challenge.

Boding said it counts. I say it doesn’t because it wasn’t a conscious decision. Ugh!! I immediately confessed when I got home, so he then asked Kaye how she was doing.

Pizza. Really, Kaye?!? That evening, Carter admitted to eating chips and I had to explain to Boding that chips are fried. Hahahah. WE SUCK!

2. To me, this is heaven.

(The cookbook section of The Coastal Cupboard)

3. Rachel found a tutorial on how to make monogram Iphone wallpapers here. Pretty, pretty.

4. I finally got my hair colored last Friday. It’s my natural color in the back, with gold lowlights…

…then gold & blonde in the front.

Don’t ask me how I am standing in that picture, or how the tree didn’t get knocked over. Christmas miracles!

5. Low-key arm parties. This is one of my bracelets from Peppermint Lollipops.

6. On Saturday, I went to a food truck rodeo at Whole Foods. Of course I had Roti Rolls.

Here’s the Funky Farmer: curried local butternut squash, carrots, red potatoes, and totsoi, pickled local beets, and an egg.

The Roti Roll kids are opening a restaurant downtown called The Green Door. It’ll focus on local goodies and have a similar concept to Roti Rolls. We’re going to the Friends & Family Dinner on Thursday and I’m so excited! I will tell you all about it. : )

The Weekend Update

Hi friends! Here are some highlights from the past few days.

We celebrated my cousin Gabrielle’s twelfth birthday. This sweet girl is 12 going on 22; she’s almost as tall as me and probably smarter and more mature. And quite the beauty!

She’s into the mustache trend, so one of my presents to her was this pair of gloves.

Thursday night, Amanda and I went to the early showing of Breaking Dawn Part 2. I mentioned this on Friday, but let me say it again: the movie is so good! It is definitely my favorite of the saga. I want to know what you all think!

This past weekend I went to my grandparents’ house in North Carolina. It’s always so nice to visit them. Our weekend was full of shopping, wine and eats. Their house is in a really pretty neighborhood on a mountain and driving up always freaks me out. The curves and bends, yikes!

When I got there, I found some presents on my bed: a chocolate advent calendar, a Chick-fil-A cow from a race my grandfather had run, socks my grandma made, and a recipe they thought I’d like. Bonus: a crossword puzzle book, not shown.

Onto the eats! On Saturday, we went to 131 Main while we were out shopping at Biltmore Park Town Square. Sarah insisted I go there for the beet burger that she always gets. Right up my alley!

Look at how red it is. You’d almost think it was meat, right? Ha. It was really, really good and I’ve got to remake this at home. Sarah, let’s do this!

Saturday night, we made Ina Garten’s recipe for Roasted Shrimp with Feta. Changes we made: we nixed the Pernod and used artichokes instead of fennel.

We wanted to make spanakopita (inspired by you, Sierra!) but the phyllo dough we bought had dried out. We improvised by placing the spinach mixture in a baking dish and making a crustless pie. This was originally another Ina Garten recipe too.

On Sunday morning, we made a frittata with red pepper, spinach, onion, and basil. This would be great to make for a week long of breakfasts. Just grab a slice, reheat, and go! I don’t have the recipe right now, but if you’re interested, shoot me an email and I’ll find it.

My 4-hour drive back was a bit slower than my ride up. On the way there, as soon as I hit North Carolina, I got pulled for speeding. Boo!! The way back I watched my heavy foot, listened to the Breaking Dawn 2 soundtrack, and fueled with coffee and candy.

What was the best thing you ate all weekend?

What are your road trip essentials?

The Friday Five 11.9.12

1. What I’m Reading: The Runner's Rule Book by by Mark Remy.

2. What I’m Eating: Holy crud, listen to me right now. Go to Whole Foods immediately and pick up a jar of this Earth Balance Coconut & Peanut Spread. Whether you decide on crunchy or creamy is up to you, as I can only attest that the former is quite delectable. It’s a jar of natural peanut butter with the addition of coconut oil. The coconut flavor is definitely there, but isn’t overpowering. I’ve been eating this by the spoonful every day. I’m going to pick up the jar of creamy next so I can use it for baking. Seriously, go buy this! 

3. Recipes I’m Bookmarking: Barley and Kale Salad with Golden Beets and Feta.

4. What I’m Listening to: Stardust by Lena. Sorry, the official video isn’t out yet, but it’s worth a listen.

5. GIFs I’m Loving:

WHEN MY FRIEND STARTS TELLING ME HOW FAST YOU CAN MEET SOMEONE, FALL IN LOVE, AND GET MARRIED

WHEN I GET A FREE BABY MAGAZINE IN THE MAIL

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Happy Friday! Have a wonderful weekend!