Weekend Highlights

Aziz!!! Oh  my gosh, he was funny. My face still hurts from smiling so much.

Sunday’s weather was glorious. There was absolutely no reason to stay indoors. Well, except for brunch. Rewind to Saturday night. After the Aziz show, Boding and I went to The Macintosh  for drinks. I go in there pretty regularly and last night got to hang out with Jacob, one of the chefs. It was really cool to talk to someone who is so passionate about food, being a chef, and the Indigo Road restaurant group. We were quickly convinced to come back the next day for brunch, but I told him I would be ordering “the healthiest thing he could come up with.”

The bartender was a little puzzled by me requesting “the healthiest thing he can come up with” but Jacob did an excellent job of coming up with just that. I had an incredibly delicious plate of  butternut squash, brussels sprouts, onions, mushrooms, micro greens, and quinoa with a parsnip puree. Ahhhhh, everything needs to be dipped in this puree. Everything.

Guess who ate the mushrooms! This girl. Unbelievable.

My beverage of choice at The Macintosh is something one of the bartenders came up with for me a while back. He named it The Xtina: Corazon tequila, ghost pepper-infused St. Germain, lime juice, and agave. It’s like a spicy margarita.

Boding had the Chicken and Waffles. At first I was skeptical of waffles that aren’t served with maple syrup but then I tried a bite. They do not need a single drop of anything. They are perfect, as was the chicken.

Jacob later sent out a gift to be funny. Fried dough. Quite comical after my healthy veggie plate. He’s got jokes.

I almost forgot! I had a side of their homemade pickles again. Mmmm!

After brunch settled, we poked around random stores downtown and played tourists. I met the dog of my dreams at Seeking Indigo. Meet Stella, the labradoodle.

Broad Street.

Later on, we went to Mt. Pleasant Waterfront Memorial Park.

For a little bit, I reverted from 27 years old to 7 years old. Swings! (I think that kid next to me might have been dying.)

Monkey bars!

And then I went from 7 all the way to 77. Reading a book with a giant blanket in a rocking chair is fiiiiiiiine.

Happy Monday! Have a great week!

Mellow Mushroom Beer Kitchen

Typically, when one thinks of Mellow Mushroom, they think of giant, freshly-made, gourmet pizzas. Little did I know, Mellow Mushroom has an extensive beer selection with two dozen specialty beers on tap and a hundred more in bottles. I have been trying to hone my beer-tasting palate, so I jumped on the opportunity to go to a four-course beer fusion dinner last Wednesday.

I met my friend Boomer, who helped promote the event, for Happy Hour at the downtown Mellow Mushroom. One of the perks of this restaurant is their beer club, in which members of said club are encouraged to drink every single beer they serve. (Not all at once – you will die.) After accomplishing this feat, members are rewarded with an engraved mug, their name on a plaque, and discounted beers – 20 oz. beers for the price of a 16oz. It may take me 6 years to complete this mission, but I figured I might as well start. Choosing from such a huge list is not easy – I can barely decide when I have 2 options.

Lucky for me, I didn’t have to choose the beers during dinner. Each course, prepared by Chef Mark Yoder, was accompanied with a different beer that was infused in the dish.

Course 1

Beer: La Chouffe Petite-Belgian light wheat

Dish: Crostini with goat cheese topped with marcona almonds, dates and a honey-beer reduction

This was, by far, my favorite course. Not only did I love the beer, but goat cheese + honey? Yesssssss. Perfect appetizer.

Course 2

Beer: St. Peters English Ale

Dish: Lasagna-with béchamel and sautéed mushroom filling. Mushrooms were deglazed with beer.

I am scared of mushrooms. Really scared. But I did try one tiny one and it was full of flavor. This was my first time trying béchamel sauce too.

Course 3

Beer: Highland Clawhammer-marzen style oktobefest

Dish: Beer-braised short rib, lentils, a potato cake, and collard greens. Greens were cooked down with beer and balsamic vin.

I am a huge sucker for lentils so I dug right in. The potato cake was essentially a Spanish tortilla, which is one of my favorite things to make (and eat!).

Course 4

Beer: Framboise Lambic

Dish: Pumpkin bread pudding-with Framboise and cinnamon whipped cream.

Yay for fall flavors. I was in love with the very fresh cinnamon whipped cream. Please admire all the beer glasses around my dish. Beer Heaven.

After all that food, Boomer declared that he had a food baby. He so obviously has not read this post where I describe my hatred for that term. Cringe. He’s cute enough to be forgiven.

For more information on Mellow Mushroom of Charleston, visit their

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What’s your favorite beer?

What’s your favorite beer-infused food?

Mustard Seed Dinner with Lucy & Mum, Work Update

I was exhausted after work today, but when my English roomie asked if I’d like to go to Mustard Seed with her  and “mum”, I instantly perked up.

Chef Jonathan sent out 3 mugs of the soup of the day: Mushroom Ginger with carrots and seared tuna. It was loaded with mushrooms!

As usual, the seafood specials were hard to resist. Lucy ordered the sesame crusted tuna salad with ginger-soy glazed carrot ribbons and cashews.

I had wasabi pea crusted salmon in a Thai peanut sauce, ginger-soy glazed carrot ribbons, and roasted pepper couscous. Um helloooooooo delicious food. Nice to see you again.

…

After two full weeks at Blackbaud, I am in love. I am surrounded by very intelligent, wonderful people and look forward to working with all of them. It’s a great atmosphere and I feel right at home.

My “home” in the office is next to my coworker and mentor, Bess. Here’s a small world story for you: Bess used to live next door to my ex-boyfriend a few years back. I briefly met her over 3 years ago, and we have now reunited! We didn’t even realize it during my interview either. Thanks to facebook’s mutual friend finder, we figured out how we knew each other.

Two silly reasons why I already love this place:

1) The cafeteria has had beets on the salad bar for the past three days. Even though I brought my lunch on Wednesday, I couldn’t resist getting a plate! I can’t tell you how many random people walked by and asked, “Beets? Really?”

2) Bess put this sticker on our wall today. At that moment I knew we were meant to be.

:)

Braised Pork Loin with Sage, Parsnips & Sweet Potatoes, and Spinach & Mushrooms

Tonight we decided to make the pork recipe that I had at my aunt's a couple weeks ago. I loved it so much, and knew Brandon would too. It's a really simple Williams-Sonoma recipe. You can find it online here.

First, you have to sear the pork loin on all sides to seal in the juices in before braising.

Then you braise it in a mixture of white wine, balsamic vinegar, garlic, sage, and a bay leaf. For 1lb, it took around 40 minutes.

While Brandon was slicing it with his big man knife, I made a rue with the leftover wine sauce.

Holy moly it was sooooo tasty...Here it is in a super fancy gravy boat. Haha.

As a side, I roasted these monsters with olive oil, rosemary, balsamic vinegar, and brown sugar:

Finished product:

Brandon also sauteed spinach & mushrooms in olive oil:

The sides were perfect with the pork loin. Here it all is on B's plate:

And then my camera died! Grrrrr...

Monday is NOT a Fun Day...Looks like I peed and a Blackberry seizure

Mondays make me want to cry. Mondays also make me want to exaggerate. This morning I was sitting on the floor (this is normal) discussing oat bran with Victoria when an extremely unsexy thing happened. My child, excuse me, my Camelbak spewed on me.  SPEWED/SQUIRTED MILK in a very inappropriate area to be spewed/squirted on. My coocoo area. I quickly learned that milk doesn't dry clear. Ugh. And like the true hot mess that I am, I did NOT go home and change.

I'm so glad Victoria jumped on the oat bran train because I had run out! She was nice enough to share with me!

In the oh-so-lovely paper bowl from work:

1/3 cup oats

1/3 cup skim milk

1/3 cup hawt water

apples

cinnamon

nutmeg overkill

For lunch, I attemped to eat leftover bucatini, but blah, I'm not a fan of re-heated pasta. Thank god I store Fiber One bars in my car, purse, office, house, Brandon's house...I dug a caramel bar out of my purse. It was a little smushed but my colon didn't care. Heeheeee...TMI and you love it.

Since I was a little perturbed with my Camelbak, I threw it in my purse...WHY???  OH, just for it to LEAK ON MY BLACKBERRY. Cammie, why are you failing meeeeeeeeeeee? Needless to say my phone was out of comission. And so was I. I made it through the rest of the work day okay--just a little agitated. But on the drive to B's house I was a MESS. Not a hot mess. A shaky, nervous, pathetic mess. Withdrawal signs? Possibly. I just didn't know what to do with myself. It was just my ipod and me. Not like I could talk to the other drivers on I-26, right? That wouldn't be safe. So, in panic-mode, I put on classical music to see if it would calm me. I know this sounds borderline pyschotic but my BB is my baby. He came into my life July 8, 2008 and I don't know how I'd handle his sudden death...I remembered reading that if you get your phone wet, you can stick it in a bowl of uncooked rice and it will suck the moisture out. It worked. Around 9 pm, my phone was alive and my nerves were calmed. Calm nerves may have been from the glass of Reisling I downed but whatever, on to dinner.

So I know we're all from the United States and we really can't be claiming the nationalities of our great-great-great-grandparents, but when I cook Italian food I'm secretly like YEAAAAAAH I'm Italian, and what! FYI, Orso = bear in Italian. I must admit that if we're talking pie charts and percentages, I'm more, um...Irish.

Tonight I was Italian Christina and made Chicken Marsala. This is one of Grammy's classic dishes. Grammy that was born Meredith Herd (Scottish?) and married a douchie Italian man.

Brandon cut three chicken breasts into cutlets and sauteed them in olive oil over medium-high heat. Usually I dredge them in flour first, but after that glass of wine, I forgot.

When they were done, I removed them from the pan and sauteed minced garlic and mushrooms for a minute or so. (Orso, there I am again! Ha!)

Next, I added about two cups of Marsala cooking wine to the pan and cooked it to a glaze. Typical recipes only call for 1/2 cup of wine and broth, but we like things extra saucy. After that, I added a can of chicken broth, plus thyme and oregano. I let the sauce reduce to half the amount, then added the chicken to simmer for a few minutes. We put it on top of leftover Bucatini.

After dinner, Brandon read a thousand pages for school and I hung out with the Golden Girls. Four episodes later, I was craving hot cocoa. Random.

Recipe stolen from the side of the Hershey's cocoa box (three servings):

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sugar (I used less)
  
• 1/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• Dash salt
• 1/3 cup hot water
• 4 cups milk
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Miniature marshmallows or sweetened whipped cream(optional)

Directions:

1. Stir together sugar, cocoa and salt in medium saucepan; stir in water.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Boil and stir 2 minutes.

Add milk; stirring constantly, heat to serving temperature. Do Not Boil.

2 Remove from heat; add vanilla. Beat with rotary beater or whisk until foamy. Serve topped with marshmallows or whipped cream, if desired. Five 8-oz. servings.

Hot cocoa made a crazy, rainy day wonderful!