NYC Recap Days 1 & 2

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about my 3 NYC vacations in the past year, it’s not to plan anything. Why? Because every time I specifically plan something, it doesn’t happen. Ice skating? Didn’t happen. That museum? Nope. Pickles? Whoops forgot those too. My friends and I are too free-spirited for itineraries.

With that said, I sure had a lot of fun.

I arrived early afternoon and went straight to Kaye’s house before meeting Lucy at her new apartment. Reunion with my soul mate/old roommate/best friend? Check!! After catching up over some wine, we got ready for dinner at Sushi Samba. Enjoy the one and only group photo from the weekend. We seriously had too much fun to bother with snapping photos. Sad, but not really.

Kaye and I split two rolls: Green Envy - wasabi pea crust, tuna, salmon, asparagus, aji amarillo-key limo mayo and the Pacific king crab, avocado, asian pear, soy paper, wasabi-avocado crema.

Lucy and Ann shared a couple different rolls too.

The sushi was fine, but it didn’t wow me. I’ve had better here in Charleston. After dinner we walked over to Wilfie & Nell in the West Village for drinks. While there, I noticed some dude pouring green juice and squealed, “Is that pickle juice?!” A few minutes later, some random man and I were drinking picklebacks: shots of whiskey chased with pickle juice. WHISKEY. My body hated me in the morning.

The hangover cure, NYC style, was picking up precious little macarons from Maison Ladurée.

I got two flavors: pistachio and caramel with salted butter . They were very flavorful for being such delicate treats. I also had a bite of Kaye’s vanilla and it was by far the best. So darn delicious. Thank you, Anabel, for the recommendation!

After our “breakfast” of macarons, we had lunch at Le Pain Quotidien. Still maintaining my vegetarian status, I dined on an Organic Black Bean Hummus tartine with avocado and spicy tahini. It was very light and fresh.

Lucy’s lunch was my second choice: Rustic Tuna, Hummus & White Bean
tartine with diced tomatoes and basil pesto. I want to make this at home!

Saturday’s form of cardio was shopping. We ventured into H&M, Zara, Dylan’s Candy Bar, and Benefit Cosmetics. Out of all that, my only purchases were at Benefit. BADgal plum mascara and  It’s Potent! eye cream.

 

I went to dinner with my friend Ben who is a fitness blogger/marathon runner. (See what he’s up to on his blog, Motivate Your Ass.) For future references, he will be known as B Dawg. Apparently he thinks it is weird that I call myself Xtina, stating “That would be like if I called myself B Dawg.” So B Dawg it is.

We ate at Euzkadi, a Spanish tapas style restaurant in the East Village.

We tried a bunch of different plates:

• Goat cheese and honey croquettes
• White Beans & Chick Peas w/Mushrooms, tomato comfit & vegetables) (my favorite dish)
• Tortilla Vasca - Potato and egg omelet, w/chorizo, peppers and onions
• Seared Steak w/ Russian salad & scallion Chimichurre
• Roasted lamb in a mushroom raisin demi-glace

At first, I shied away from anything that wasn’t vegetarian but as I was noshing away on the Spanish tortilla, I realized there was ham in it. And that’s when it was decided that I would take a vacation from being a vegetarian and enjoy myself in NYC. I still didn’t want chicken, but the ham and lamb? Yeah, that happened. And then we talked about Shari Lewis & Lamchop’s Playalong while feeling (kind of) guilty.

To be continued…

PS: If you read all that, you’re ridiculous. And I love you.

Wedding Weekend Recap

Oooooooooh I bet that title freaked you outttt. Nope, I didn’t get married. No way. Never.

But Matt’s friend did. On Friday morning, Matt and I jumped in the car and headed to Virginia for one of his fraternity brother’s weddings. Guess what we had for breakfast. And lunch.

On I-95, as you’re crossing the SC/NC border, you are greeted by one of the most magnificently trashy tourist stops EVER. Meet Pedro, the South of the Border hombre.

 

Matt had never stopped at the South of the Border, so it was necessary for us to get out. There are restaurants, mini-golf, creepy gift stores, and a whole bunch of statues you can pose with.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

8ish hours later, we arrived in Kilmarnock, VA and went to the rehearsal dinner and a party.

Saturday: We decided to check out the little town’s antique stores and have breakfast at the Kilmarnock Inn.

I had the Virginia Ham & Eggs with fruit and a side of fresh, homemade bread. These were some of the best eggs I’ve ever had…in Kilmarnock, VA, no lie. The bread was really good too.

I was really impressed with this inn, other than the fact that they don’t know how to spell restaurant. Pretty bad, no?

Around lunch time, the bridal party and their guests went to a barbecue at the groom’s parents river house. Look at their gorgeous view!

That evening, it was time for the wedding! It was a small wedding (about 100 guests) which made for an intimate, but very fun evening. It was fun meeting lots of people and getting dressed up!

The girls:

Sunday: Back to home sweet home!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

NYC Weekend Recap

Friday: Kaye met me at LGA and we took a taxi into the city, straight to Washington Square Park to hang out in the sun for a bit. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we wanted to sit so she could eat the Chick-fil-A sandwich that I brought her. Yup, I brought Chick-fil-A and chocolate chip cookies almost 700 miles just for her!

I was kind of jealous of her sandwich so she suggested we try to get into the NYU location. We walked over, only to find out that it was still closed for Summer break. I was 9 days too early! Maybe next time?

Later we met up with my friend Conor for drinks at Blind Tiger and dinner at Fedora in the West Village.

Saturday:

Conor and I rented bikes and rode all over the island. One of our stops along the way at Milk & Cookies, an adorable bakery in the West Village. They have cookies, ice cream sandwiches, brownies, and bars.

I got a s’mores cookie with mint ice cream. Although I didn’t love the combo, they were still good individually.

Conor got a massive ice cream sandwich with chocolate mint cookies and dark chocolate ice cream. Insane.

I also couldn’t resist buying their cookbook that features 84 of their recipes! I want to try all 84, I really do.

We picked our bikes back up and rode from Christopher Street all the way down the island. I saw the Statue of Liberty from really far away!

We continued riding around the bottom of the island, up around the Lower East Side, then back across to the West Village. It was really fun seeing some of the different boroughs. Surprisingly, I didn’t crash my bike once!

That evening, we had dinner at La Esquina. Mmmm…really good Mexican food. After dinner, we went to a bar called Brinkley’s.

Sunday: Before heading to the airport, I had brunch at Café Cluny in the West Village. Ahhh, this place was so cute! It’s a small, French style café with really good food and drinks. I think this was my favorite restaurant this trip.

I headed to the airport around 11 am only to turn back around 3 hours later…USAir cancelled all their Southbound flights due to “weather issues.” It wasn’t even raining!? Much frustration and taxi dollars later, I was back in the city for dinner at Otto. Pizza made me feel a lot better!

Monday: I finally headed home and am now catching up on my life! I had so much fun in NYC, but I love my bed and the heat. Will catch up on all of your blogs soon, promise!

Pizza, Gelato, and Packing for Destin!

Three day weekends really freak me out. I felt so off today! Anyone else out there keep forgetting it’s actually Tuesday?

My friend Rob is moving to NYC in a couple weeks – sad! We went to our last work lunch today. We went to Vespa Pizza last time, so today we tried the other pizza place on Daniel Island: Orlando’s Pizza. Orlando’s brick oven pizza uses dough and sauces that are made daily and the freshness is evident in its taste. The crust was perfectly thin, with a fair amount of cheese, and lots of sauce. To me, this was the perfect slice of pizza, and for only $2.50. I will be back a thousand times.

I regretted not getting two slices!

After the salty came the sweet. We walked to Et Cetera, a small gourmet food shop. They had gelato from Paolo’s Gelato, which is located downtown on John St. I ordered the Bacio (chocolate and hazelnut) which is totally weird for me; I don’t like chocolate based ice cream. This little sucker cost $4 pre tax. What? My pizza was less than this ball of ice cream. Don’t be fooled by this pic – it may look like a full cone but it’s just a blob on the top. I ended up throwing out the cone because there was no gelato in it. Boo.

After work, I went to the gym for some cardio. It was 93* outside and it felt the same in the gym. I sweated like never before. I ran a little over 3.5 miles (1 regular mile and 2.5 miles of interval sprints) then headed over to Whole Foods to pick up my 7th CSA box. Goodies!!

I quickly showered and got ready because Mariah, Lucy, and I had plans to go to Mustard Seed for dinner. We shared an appetizer of sesame crusted tuna with wasabi ginger mayo and sweet soy sauce. We tore that right up!

I was craving vegetables like never before, so I ordered the stir-fried vegetables with brown rice and added chicken. This did not disappoint – I think it included every vegetable known to man.

It should be my bed time, but I have work to do. I’m about go to nuts with these markers – stay tuned for the fancy tank tops I’m making for our drive to Destin tomorrow.

Speaking of Destin, I thought it would be fun for Margaret and I to complete a photo challenge on the way there…kind of like a scavenger hunt with our cameras. I am trying to think of funny things we need to take pictures with. So far I’ve come up with the following:

1. A picture of SC, GA, and FL welcome signs
2. A picture of us with a truck driver
3. A picture of a “foreign” Chick-fil-A
4. A picture of Margaret pumping gas with her beef jerky and Mt. Dew – her car ride requirements
5. A picture of somebody else pumping our gas (Thanks for that one, Rob!)
6. A picture of us wearing our horribly ugly sunglasses/headbands…just you wait

Please help us come up with more ideas! I will be receiving all your comments while we’re in the car, so I can just keep updating our list! THANKS!!!

XO!

I'm baaaack! Massachusetts Goodies and Mosaic Blogger Meet Up

I'm back in the dirty South! I had so much fun visiting my family and can't wait to go back again. While I was there, I found a bunch of new fun foods. The very first day I found the Peanut Butter & Co. Mighty Maple peanut butter at Hannaford for only $3.89. Another place I wanted to pick up nut butter was at Trader Joe's!  My aunt Jennifer brought me to their location in Acton, where I grew up.

We found lots of goodies and had fun checking out their products. Jennifer wanted to buy this just for the name:

After a week's worth of random food and souvenir shopping, my suitcase became so full I had to sit on it to zip it shut. No big deal, right? Well, when I got to the airport, it was 10 lbs over the limit! I opened up my suitcase to put stuff in my carry-on and because it was so packed, it popped open and bras and underwear went flying all over...oh, and peanut butter jars and brownie mixes, too. Oh, the life of a foodie. Here are all the goodies I brought home:

• Peanut Butter & Co. Mighty Maple peanut butter 
• Peanut Butter & Co. Rip-Roaring Raspberry jelly
• No Pudge! Fudge Brownie Mix, Cappuccino
• Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt Brownie Mix
• Trader Joe's Sesame Honey Almonds
• Trader Joe's Almond Butter with Flax Seeds
• Maine Blueberry Honey (can't wait for this on my Blueberry Ricotta pancakes!! 

I was so excited to take home all these goodies, even if it meant that 50% of my souvenirs from Massachusetts/Maine were FOOD items! When I got home Tuesday night, I had a package waiting for me. I recently became facebook friends with the manager of one of our local Chick-fil-As. For being such a "raving fan", he sent me some gifts:

In the box were 2 stuffed cows, 2 football-shaped koozies, a pencil sharpener, a Pez dispenser, a towel, and lotssssss of coupons! Thank you to Rick & Debbie Blind of the Centre Pointe location! :)

Yesterday was my first day back to work, yuck, but I had a blogger meet up to look forward to. For dinner, Erica, Lindsay, Blair, Amelia, Kerr, Katie, and  I met up at Mosaic Cafe in Mt. Pleasant. Mosaic Cafe is an adorable restaurant that strives to use local ingredients and focuses on seasonal cuisine. The menu is full of soups, sandwiches, and salads. I chose the Oriental Chicken Salad: chicken breast salad (sesame seeds, snow peas, scallions & walnuts), carrots, sprouts, crunchy noodles, grape tomatoes, with a sesame-ginger vinaigrette for $10.95. 

It was pretty good, but not fantastic. I'm not sure if it was from the chicken or the dressing, but it was extremely salty. And my salad didn't have any snow peas, scallions, or walnuts on it. Hmmm. I still had a great time catching up with all the ladies and meeting Katie and Kerr for the first time. :) Here we are inside the restaurant. 

From left, Blair, Erica, Kerr, Katie, Lindsay, Amelia, me:

 

And another pic from outside. I purposely wore flats so I would be as short as Erica. She ended up wearing heels and we were still the same height! :)

Remember my 3-week Abstinence from Alcohol challenge? It's almost over!! The time is length is random, I know, but we decided to do it on the 10th, and just wanted to do it until the end of the month. On Saturday, I'll be celebrating the fact that I have been able to go without a sip of alcohol for 3 whole weeks -- even while on vacation! I'm a little afraid that a couple sips of wine will have me falling out of my chair. I better surround myself with good company!

One more thing: I added a new tab a couple weeks ago: Foodie Goodies. It's a page dedicated to my absolute favorite food products. Check it out and let me know what your favorites are! I'm always looking for new items to add!