What I’m Loving Wednesday 10.31.12

1. Last night I instagrammed/tweeted a picture of the Pumpkin & Black Bean Chili I had made for dinner.

One of my readers who I met this Spring tweeted that it looked so amazing. I was pretty sure she lived in the same complex as me, so I told her to come on over. Shortly after, I sent her back home with chili, Sriracha, and a few pieces of chocolate. She had never tried Sriracha before and I knew I had to convert her. The chocolate was given for obvious reasons: always eat something sweet after a spicy meal. It’s a rule.

I LOVE MY READERS. You guys are the best.

2. Last Friday when Danielle and I were out, we ran into our friend Will who is just as much of a beet lover as I am. Danielle suggested that we just get married and demanded that Will get on his knees.

Obviously this was a joke, but I’m humored that a) he’s holding his own arm up, b) he’s holding my wrong hand, c) he looks like a Twilight vampire, and c)we are in front of a gay bar. But by far, the funniest part of this whole situation was people’s reactions.

People take stuff on Facebook so seriously! No one in my family called me -- they’ve either abandoned me or know quite well how peculiar my behavior is.

3. After I ate on Saturday, I boxed up my leftovers before I went out for the night. I left myself a love note.

No, it did not work….for me or Danielle.

4. Last week  Groopdealz had a sale for these chunky anchor bracelets for only $7.99. I bought the blue and it’s just as pretty in person.

I found some similar bracelets on Etsy here and here.

5. This is pretty darn accurate. 

6. I was one happy child on this day in 1987.

25 years and 92875298729687 cavities later, I want to wish you a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

What I’m Loving Wednesday 10.24.12

1. I ate at Purée four times this weekend: Friday dinner, Saturday brunch, a juice, and Sunday lunch. What is wrong with me? Nothing.

Friday: I had the Asian Bowl: pan fried tofu in a chili garlic sauce w/ brown rice over a bed of greens, shaved cucumbers, carrots, ginger.

Boding had the Pad Thai: rice noodles with crushed peanuts, red pepper, snap peas, coriander, lime.

Saturday:  Danielle and I split two wraps: Grilled Chimichurri Seitan Wrap (protein marinated in homemade herb cilantro lime dressing then grilled) and Mo Mo’s Homemade Rosemary BBQ Wrap.

2. I’m not the most organized person when it comes to my belongings. My shoes are all over my apartment and my purse is always a mess. I’ve learned to embrace it and work well amidst the chaos. Check out my k-cup madness. What’s your favorite k-cup flavor?

3. On Sunday evening, Boding and I went to Trader Joe’s for dinner stuff. There was one pumpkin Greek yogurt left. Obviously I grabbed it out of principle.

I was just there for the bare essentials: Greek yogurt and wine.

4. I enjoyed said wine in my favorite Pier 1 chalk note wine glass and pajamas. Christmas pajamas…two months early.

5. Speaking of Christmas, the seasonal Clif bars are back! Peppermint Stick is the real winner of this trio. What do you think of them?

6. Now rewind back. Halloween is my favorite holiday and I’m excited for this weekend’s festivities. I went from wanting to be Cat Woman, to a cat, to something very different than either of those animals. Here’s one hint :I will be carrying these around all evening.  (Annabel/Hannah/Amanda --  shhh!)

7. Amanda and I are still on a running kick. We never plan how far we’ll run and kind of just see how we’re feeling at each mile. On Monday’s run, at 7 miles in we felt great so we continued. At 8 we still felt good. Neither of us wanted to stop at 9 because, well, why would you when 10 is right around the corner? ;)

Nope, we’re not training for anything…other than world domination.

I Think You And My Friends Should Hang Out On The Weekends

Bonus points for anyone who recognizes that title from a song…

Friday: Amanda and I got manicures at Studio Nail & Spa in Mt. Pleasant. I like this place a lot because it’s really clean and the employees are really nice. I left my nails painted in OPI’s “Your Web or Mine?”

That evening we visited Daryl, our favorite server at Hall’s. This man takes good care of us.

He gave us a random cookie & strawberry plate. He’s the sweetest!

Saturday morning Boding and I got breakfast paninis at Great Harvest. I always get the ham, egg, and Swiss.

Because I now carry around the Sriracha in my purse (not a joke), Boding added some to his sandwich and exclaimed, “Now I get why you put this on everything.”

Later at Target, I found Candy Corn M&Ms. These are SO good. They taste more like cake than candy corn though, which is fine by me. They might be my new favorite, or at least tied with pretzel M&Ms. Get some immediately.

Saturday night a few of us went to a friend’s house before going out. We found what appeared to be a torture chair…

…then were told it was actually an old dentist chair. So yeah, still a torture chair. However, we did have fun posing with it.

We finished up the night with an “Xtina” at The Macintosh. Jackson made this drink up for me a while back. It’s habanero-infused St. Germain, lime juice, agave, and soda water. Sometimes he replaces the St. Germain with ghost pepper-infused tequila, which is just as good.

On Sunday, Boding and I went to Second Sunday on King and ran into our best friend Nikki and her baby. We held him so she could shop, ha!

Boding wore a diaper bag!!

How cute is Liam?

Happy Monday!

Fall 2012 Bucket List

First off, I’d like to give a shout out to Jane, one of my favorite bloggers, who writes In The Pink & Green. She’s got an awesome blog, writes well, has a great sense of style and seems like such a sweetheart. I hope to meet her one day! Yesterday she posted a Fall 2012 bucket list and inspired me to make my own.

Food

• Bake at least 1 new recipe with pumpkin
• Bake at least 1 new recipe with apples
• Make 1 new recipe per week using my CSA produce
• Use the double waffle iron I won on The Shiksa’s blog

Fitness/Health

• Run at least one registered 5k – the Pajama Run and/or the Reindeer Run
• Reduce sugar intake during the week, feel less guilty about indulging on the weekends
• Continue doing 30 pushups and/or 1 minute planks every hour at work with Dane

Education

• Attend a cooking class
• Read at least one book a week (I know, I’m crazy.)
• Go to the 30th Annual That BIG Book Sale
• Attend a Wine Awesomeness Wine School class

Fun

• Have a girls’ beach house weekend on IOP using the gift certificate Amanda & I won from the Bacardi contest
• Celebrate my baby brother’s 16th birthday – ahh!
• See Breaking Dawn Part II on November 16th…at midnight, of course
• Halloween!!

Travel

• Go to at least 1 college football game this  year
• Visit my family in Massachusetts
• Visit my grandparents in North Carolina

Fall officially starts September 22nd and ends December 21st. I have plenty of time to cross everything off!

What’s on your Fall bucket list?

What’s your favorite thing about Fall? I bet 50% of you are going to say PSLs….

Freaky Eats On Halloween at FIG, New Hair?

I like Halloween. A lot. I think it’s so much fun getting into costume, and I’d be totally okay with dressing up every weekend. I’m already pondering outfit ideas for next year. Maybe I should right my wrong by being a this year and dress up as an .

Although actual Halloween fell on work night, I was easily convinced to go out. First, my friend Eric encouraged me to go to the Cirque de Noir party at Mellow Mushroom. Second, my boss told me, “Go out. Have fun. It’s not like your boss will be breathing down your neck tomorrow.” He works remotely in Reno. Ha!

So I was sold on going to the party, and then majorly sold when Eric asked if I wanted to go to FIG for drinks and food beforehand. FIG (Food is Good) is one of those restaurants that has been high up on my list of places I’ve wanted to try. Chef Mike Lata is dedicated to serving fresh, locally-sourced ingredients on his menu and this was evident in each dish we were presented.

(via)

Somewhat pressed for time, we opted to sit at the bar and split  few appetizers.

Oh, pâté. You are so unhealthy, yet so delicious. I had high hopes for the fig mustard, but it wasn’t what I expected. I stuck with the yellow mustard and was a happy girl.

This was definitely my first time trying beef tartare, which Eric highly recommended. I certainly was not expecting  mound of raw beef to be presented in front of me, but hey, it was Halloween – bring on the freaky stuff. The texture was wonderful, but I thought it lacked flavor. Those “maxim potatoes” (chips?) were incredible. I ate most of them.

Our third appetizer was very interesting.

Ever had a coddled egg? Crazy good. The intense creaminess of the egg made up for the fact that it was sitting in  ramekin with funghi, all of which I avoided.

After several savory dishes, I was ready for something sweet. Wait, when am I not ready?

Chocolate budino with sea salt, caramel and hazelnut.

The bartender told me we wouldn’t finish this and, astonished, I told him “Oh, yes, I will.” My eyes are definitely bigger than my stomach. This was incredibly rich (and delicious) and I only ate  few spoonfuls. Each bite, laced with with silky caramel and topped with se salt crystals and hazelnut bits, was heavenly.

So, on Halloween, I ate like a freak.

1. chicken liver
2. raw beef
3. mostly raw egg
4. bowl of chocolate

It was interesting to say the least. I’ll definitely return to FIG to try their main entrees.

In other news, for the past month  I have been contemplating going to the dark side this winter. By that I mean, going brunette. I told my hairdresser and she crossed her eyes at me. I think she fears I’ll hate it. For fun, I started playing on taaz.com, an online makeover tool. IT IS SO FUN! Look what I’ve done to myself.

Haaaaa! You can totally see my real hair sticking out at the bottom, but this made me laugh. Check out long hair. Horrendous!! That is Sophia Bush’s hair, btw. I cannot have long hair. I wouldn’t know what to do with it, other than use it as a blanket for my neck.

Do you change your hair color per season? I typically do not, other than sticking to only highlights in the Summer, rather than both highlights and lowlights the rest of the year.

Have you, or would you ever, eat raw meat? I have no fears in trying new foods. The words salmonella and e.coli mean nothing to me.