Best Moments of the Weekend

*My healthy lunch from Ali Baba Deli: Pita bread, tabouli, fattoush salad, grilled vegetables, and pomegranate muhammara. Swing over to Daniel Island just for this muhammara. It’s one of the best things I’ve eaten.

I’m loving all the veggies I’ve been eating since I started being repulsed by stopped eating meat/poultry/eggs. It has been 5 full days and it’s so easy! I know I said I wouldn’t give myself a title, but if I did, I’d be a lacto-pesco-vegetarian, right? I’m eating some dairy and fish, but no meat, poultry, or eggs. Enlighten me.

*The lovely Starbuck’s cups.

*My facial from Facelogic. This was incredibly relaxing and my face now feels as soft as baby’s skin! I highly recommend Dina if you’re thinking about going to Facelogic.. I also purchased this Dermalogica starter kit that they used on me.

*A visit to TCBY for frozen yogurt! I had a strange, yet delicious combo. +

with

*The Vow. I thought the movie was really good, but not as passionate as, oh, say The Notebook? Does anything compare to that movie?  I shed no tears, but came close a couple times. Deep breaths and shoving gummy worms in my mouth fixed that.

*Winter decided to grace Charleston with its presence Saturday night. The cure for the blistering cold? Winter gear + beer.

Oh, and hot chocolate for good measure. I am unsure as to why I wore a hat, mittens, and a scarf, but no socks or real shoes. Clearly I was in a rush for the necessities. 

*Brunch with Rachel at Hall’s Chophouse. I love that before bartender Darryl handed me the menu, he asked me, “Beets, right?” Well, of course. I, for the 29862968th time, got the Blackened Salmon Salad with a side of beets.

*After brunch, Rachel and I went to HIP HOP CLASS. No joke. I didn’t fall! It was sooo much fun. Definitely worth laughing the whole time! Immediately after that, we did Body Pump. 2 hours of exercise on a Sunday? Heck yeah!

And just for giggles, let me tell you about the worst part of my weekend. On Saturday as I was leaning down to adjust my bike at the gym, I knocked my head into one of the handlebars. I smacked it so hard I gasped aloud and now have a bruise. Seriously, will I ever grow out of this clumsiness?!

What were the best moments of your weekend?

GIVEAWAY coming tomorrow! Hint: It’s going to be SWEET!

The Weekend Is Only Half Over!!

Okay, it’s more than half over, but I’m in denial.

Friday: Matt and I, along with a few others, went to a Riverdogs game.

I stared at this guy’s butt for half the game.

While there, I had my first pickle dog! Eeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhh! And a giant Coor’s Light. What a special moment this was.Stay tuned for later this week when I show you exactly what a pickle dog is. Trust me, this is going to be such a good post.

We also stayed for the fireworks! I like them now. They are kind of romantic when you are with the man who asks you to get married if, at 35 we are both still single. Hahahha yes, that’s Matt, my future ex husband.

After the game we went to Closed for Business for a beer. This is not one of my favorite bars, just fyi. Thankfully I was entertained by a Fashion Friday DON’T: tall socks with sneakers. Bad, bad, bad.Saturday: I spent the entire day with Amanda and we had soooo much fun! We met a bunch of our other girlfriends at the beach, and although it was almost 100*, we had a really nice, relaxing time. The ocean feels like bath water right now. Oh, July in the South.

After we left the beach, we wanted nothing else but frozen yogurt!! We decided to check out Lil Yo Yogurt, a part of Square Onion Too on Coleman Blvd. Inside a small house, Lil Yo Yogurt has four flavors of froyo:

I got strawberry & vanilla and Amanda got chocolate & vanilla. I guess we took the phrase “guilt-free vanilla” seriously, because we both got 8-ounce servings! Mmmm.

I was really proud of Amanda’s bowl – you couldn’t even see her yogurt under all the chocolately goodness! We both topped our froyo with these amazing homemade peanut butter chocolate bars…sooo good.

That evening,  we decided to continue our date with a wine tasting, a movie, and dinner. The wine tasting was at Winestyles in Town Center. For $5, we got to sample 5 different wines, shown here.

The “samples” were pretty generous. We both felt a bit tipsy walking into the movie. And that movie…we ended up seeing Midnight in Paris, a romantic comedy about an American couple in Paris. Amanda and I are both fans of Rachel McAdams and had read that the movie got a good rating, but it was just odd. I still don’t know if I understand what was going on. Has anyone else seen this? What did you think?

Our late dinner was at Mustard Seed, surprise surprise. Jonathan surprised us with an appetizer of cornmeal crusted green tomatoes with shrimp and a fresh pepper salsa. Ahhhh it was so good. So summery!

We decided to share two entrees. We started with the roasted chicken, blue cheese, & caramelized pear salad with raspberry port wine dressing. Drool. This is definitely their best salad.

Then we had the Pad Thai with shrimp and chicken. This has always been one of my favorite entrees.

Now I am at home reading this book I found in the Blackbaud “library.” Have y’all heard of this?

Just kidding.

But I really am reading it and will read the next three. All my friends read them while I was reading cookbooks I guess.

Happy Sunday!!

Bestie Cookout Version 2.0

Margaret and I had a perfect Spring Saturday. We spent a few hours at Sullivan’s Island basking in the sunny 85 degree weather. It was a perfect beach day, and I even found a starfish!

While at the beach, we discussed our birthday plans. Margaret’s and my birthday are only 6 days apart (June 24th and 30th, respectively) and we want to celebrate all month long. We decided we’ll go to Destin, Florida the first week of June. Margaret grew up in Destin and her parents still live there, so we’ll stay with them and play on the beach all day. An 8-hour road trip to white sand beaches sounds like the perfect way to start off our birthday month.

After the beach we cooked a feast! While cooking, we sipped on some white wine with some straws I found at Target.

I had beer chicken for the first time! Margaret gutted a whole chicken, stuffed it with a Coor’s light, and put it on the grill. The steam from the beer makes for a really moist chicken.

Margaret with the chicken’s heart!

We finally used the collards from my first CSA bucket. Margaret boiled them with onions, red wine vinegar, and cayenne pepper.

It was the first time that I actually enjoyed eating them.

We really love our food. And each other.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and spent some time outside! Lucy and I brunched at the pool all day and are now headed to the gym and then home to do face masks, manicures, and pedicures!