Sunday Funday

In case you missed it, I had quite the blog failure of a weekend. Sunday was a much better day. I slept in later than normal, but woke up just in time to get ready for church. We had a very special speaker today. Tim Scott!

That was a nice surprise. He was quite the animated speaker and it was nice to have a Charleston celebrity in the house. Tim seems like such a great man and I was impressed that he has been with the church for over 14 years.

After church, Matt insisted that we go to See Wee restaurant, an old shack of a place that I had never been to. See Wee is pretty deep in Mt. Pleasant, on the way to Awendaw. It’s right off 17 – you can’t miss it.

The inside of the front room looks a bit like an old convenient store with candy, fresh pies, and glass soda bottles. We ate in the back room where everyone else was and were immediately served fresh hush puppies. Yum. They were piping hot and delicious. If they weren’t just a ball of fried goodness, I would have eaten them all. My arteries were happy sampling one and a half.They serve strictly Southern food, most of which is not healthy. I was relieved to see that grilled chicken and steamed vegetables were an option on a menu full of fried food. Along with my grilled chicken, steamed squash, and butter beans (love!), I could not resist a side of fried pickles.

Believe it or not, their fried pickles were just as good as Midtown’s, which are my very favorite! The pickles tasted very similar to Charleston Pickle Company’s pickles.

Matt had a very traditional southern meal: fried chicken, macaroni & cheese, fried eggplant, and butter beans. His poor arteries.

I wasn’t in love with this restaurant, but mostly because it’s not my favorite cuisine. The service was excellent though! We were checked on multiple times by the very friendly staff. I also love that they had fresh homemade pies. The sign out front makes me laugh too, “Y’all come!” Oh, South Carolina.

Our next stop was at Marshall’s to check out some home stuff. I was ecstatic to find this plastic cup. It looks just like my blog header!! Totally meant to be.

I also snagged this salmon pink & grey blouse. The picture doesn’t do it justice – it’s adorable and I can’t wait for cooler weather so I can wear it.

Well, I’m off to a booze cruise with some friends. Matt’s trying to recreate the cocktail we had at Biggie’s, and then we’re taking the boat out to watch fireworks. 

Happy Labor Day my friends!

Taco Mamacita, Ow Ow!

Yeah, that onomatopoeia was probably unnecessary but I just drank a bunch of coffee. On Sunday, Matt and I decided to continue our church hopping (chopping) adventures. We last went to Seacoast, which was a bit more contemporary than we like, but they also offer a traditional service in their chapel. We went to that service and it was much more our taste. Although I still found the music to be quite contemporary (can I get a choir?), I thoroughly enjoyed the sermon. Matt enjoyed the fact that the chapel wasn’t 800 degrees like the cove we sat in last time. Nobody wants to be sweating in church, and I surely don’t want to be smelling him.

After church, we decided to celebrate National Tequila Day. Church then tequila. Priorities, people! We went over to Sullivan's Island to try the new Taco Mamacita, which is based out of Tennessee.

The Mexican-themed menu has your standard chips, salsa, guac, tacos, enchiladas and MARGARITAS! Woop woop!

On the left you will see theand on the right is the
Can you guess whose is whose?

To start, we had the

I forgot to take a picture. I guess I was already tipsy. Just kidding.
As far as the tacos go, you can choose two of their twelve different tacos and add a side for $8.99. I ate this combo:
Pickles on a taco!!! Yum. The Caribbean Taco was better; it had a ton of flavor. The black bean & corn salad could have used some salt but I figured I was getting enough in my beverage.

Matt’s combo:

The picture is a bit blurry, but street corn had been grilled and topped with Mexican crema and cheese. Goodness. Way to fatten up a vegetable. Matt said he liked his Oy Vey taco better.
 
After lunch we drove to Costco, the store where we usually get in some kind of trouble. If you are a new reader, pleeeeeeeeeease check out the post where we purchased a giant 51” blow up ball. Sadly, we did not get into trouble this time. I did, however, take a bicycle for a spin down a few aisles. Matt looked at me like I was an idiot but I explained to him that this was Costco and I was just sampling it.
Matt bought stupid things like light bulbs and soap, while I bought necessities: pineapple and a lot of gum. At the rate I chew gum and share with the intern, this box will be gone in oh, two weeks?

The next stop on our (family?) adventure was Barnes & Noble so Matt could work and I could play. He gets mildly irritated when I take his picture while he’s trying to focus. This is just payback for things like decorating my room with my bras, making me sit in the trunk, hosing me down in the yard,  and stealing my phone to creep on my text messages.

My three brothers didn’t abuse me like this, so I guess I’m suffering now.

This is such a busy (but fun!) week for me. I will be:

• pickle dog tasting
• sampling new items on the Mustard Seed menu
• going to the grand opening of Trader Joe’s
• checking out the new J. Crew outlet
• possibly seeing Friends with Benefits

What fun activities are on your agenda this week?
What type of abuse do I owe Matt?

Reasons To Love Charleston

It took me quite a while to admit that I would never move back “home” to Massachusetts. Half of my family lives there, but after 14 years of living in the South, I know it’s where I belong. Charleston, specifically, is a wonderful city to live in for many reasons.

1. The weather. Although hot and humid, we have beautiful summers. We can go to the beach more than half the year and our winters are very mild. It was so nice this afternoon that Matt and I decided to walk the Ravenel Bridge. Say hello to Matt. I’m sure you remember him from previous posts.

While walking the bridge, he noticed an interesting rule for users of the bicycle and pedestrian lane: “No jumping, bungee-jumping, base-jumping, catapulting, or any like act from the bridge.” Um, what? Catapulting?

2. Local vendors! One of my new favorite products are these pickles from Charleston Pickle Company. I picked up two jars last week and I couldn’t get home soon enough to eat them. I tried to open them in the car but they were sealed too tight! :( As soon as I walked in, I opened a jar and started eating them with a fork.

3. Charleston is called “The Holy City” because we have so many churches. I am not a member of one in particular, but would like to be, so Matt and I decided we’re church hopping to find one we like. It sounds like we are married. Having both attended East Cooper Baptist before, we decided to try Seacoast’s contemporary service. We both enjoyed the experience but want to go back to one of their traditional services.

4. Restaurants open all the time. The new Triangle Char & Bar opened up in Mt. Pleasant, so a few of us went after church. I had the Classic Cuban: ham, pork loin, Swiss, Cuban mustard, pickle, on pressed bread with “sweet sticks.” Sadly, there were only 3 pickle slices on the whole thing. Next time I will ask for extra extra pickles.

5. The people. It is incredibly easy to make friends here because everyone is so friendly. I always chuckle when I visit my family in Massachusetts because the majority of the people really aren’t interested in who you are/what you have to say. Last fall, a survey conducted by Travel + Leisure magazine concluded that Charleston has the most attractive people. I’d like to think that’s true – I have some pretty friends!

6. Just last week Travel & Leisure magazine also ranked Charleston as the #2 U.S. city to live in! This is pretty big, considering New York City is #1 and Chicago is #3. See the rest of the list here.

7. Trader Joe’s is opening in Mt. Pleasant on July 29th! I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited. Yes, that excited. Here is the progress as of last week.

8. Last but not least, I have some exciting news. I have begun writing a weekly blog post on the new Mt. Pleasant Patch, a site dedicated to covering news, events, and more. You can find my introductory post with healthy living tips here. Stop by and say hello!

Weekend Recap

Friday afternoon: Boding and I were gchatting about my new phone (he also has an android phone) and he asked about my weekend plans.

Boding: What are you up to tonight/weekend? I want to nerd out with you.
Me: omg i know.
Boding: Technology is fun!!!!
Me: it really is.

So basically we’re huge nerds. After work, I picked up my 14-year-old brother so he could could spend the night/hang out with Boding and me. Boding met us at Pearle Vision so I could finally pick out a pair of glasses using the Charleston Savvy Shopper Deal I bought last week. I spent about 5 minutes choosing between a ton of glasses – I honestly have never made a decision so fast in my life. I narrowed it down to two pairs, then made Boding, my brother, and the girl helping me give me their opinions. In the end, I went with the DKNY tortoise shell pair that I blogged about last week.

I think they are so much cuter on in real life than in that webcam photo I took, so I’ll be sure to take another picture for y’all.

After the glasses purchase, the three of us went home to hang out. I got a text from Jonathan, the chef of Mustard Seed saying, “I made you sushi and fried pickles because you made me feel bad for not being here yesterday. You can come pick it up if you’re hungry.” What, what!! I was so excited even though I really did not mean to make him feel bad. I went to Mustard Seed later that night and Jonathan gave me a huge plate of sushi:

 

He also sent me home with fried pickle spears with a saffron aioli!

Saturday: Jake and I hung out by the pool all day and made a stop by the library for this book:
I started it while at the pool and it is so good. I’m excited the movie is coming out soon! Has anyone read this yet?

I dropped Jake off that afternoon and then headed over to the house where Mariah was housesitting. I brought over the sushi and frickles for our dinner. The frickles were awesome. It was the first time I had tried fried spears. Jonathan used cornmeal and panko crumbs so they were extra crunchy! Now y’all know why I love Mustard Seed so much – Jonathan is thoughtful and creative.

We made ourselves some big girl drinks (sweet tea vodka + water) and sat on the porch with this wonderful view:

 

We also found a really interesting contraption in the living room. Anyone know what this thing might be used for?

Look, again, no pupils!

Sunday: I went to church today! I hadn’t been in almost a year, and it was so nice to be back. I went to a contemporary service at East Cooper Baptist which was completely different than the traditional services I went to growing up. The music was so lively – I caught myself tapping my feet as I was singing.

After church, an old friend and I had brunch at Red Drum. I ordered the Huevos Rancheros – two fried eggs, ranchero sauce, cotija cheese, and refried beans over corn tortillas. Delish.

I spent the rest of the day at the pool. It had to be about 95* today. Scorcher!

My birthday is in 11 days!!!!!! Hope everyone has a great week!