What I’m Loving Wednesday Version 4.0

1. I got another pickle birthday present. My manager brought in Japanese pickles!! The difference in these pickles is the addition of soy sauce – holy salt overload.

To say thank you, I whipped up a batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookies after work.

2. Yesterday at work we had the 2011 Enterprise Expo. Elizabeth and I visited the different booths to learn about the partners and solutions that help our company succeed. We may or may not have been lured in by Italian Ice!

There was a cotton candy stand too. Our friend had cookies. Someone else had candy. I can’t believe I still have teeth.

3. On Cow Appreciation Day, I got a picture message from high school friends, April and Josh.

“I know today is like a national holiday for you. Today april and I stopped in harisonburg va and saw a double drive thru at the chick fil a. Took a picture just for you.”

DOUBLE DRIVE THRU? Talk about efficiency!

4. I’ve said this before, but I’m rarely, if ever, competitive with girls. I am, however, competitive with boys, specifically boyfriends. I realize this is not normal, but I cannot begin to explain the excitement over finally winning a Words With Friends game to my ex-boyfriend. This fella is a Charleston Law student whose vocabulary probably doubles mine. As a language major and someone who reads/writes for a living, it drove me bonkers every time he won. I finally did it!

I am not sorry for louding him out.

5. Speaking of cellular devices, I finally ordered a cover for my new phone. I dropped it four times last weekend. Does this not scream Clemson, Auburn, sheer obnoxiousness?

6. A few friends and I have started a book club. The first book we’re reading is House Rules, by Jodi Picoult.

After two pages, I was hooked. I am now halfway finished and am really enjoying it. For those of you who have not read the book, it is about a teenage boy with Asperger’s Syndrome who is accused of murder. Pick it up if you’re looking for a good mystery!

7. This Bits of Truth quote:

On that note, I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday. Smile at a stranger today – you never know how much of an impact this simple gesture can have on another person.

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!

Stop Making Other Banana Bread Recipes…

and make this one right now.

Well, right after you catch up on my blog. :)

I make cookies weekly, but the other type of baked good I really enjoy making (and eating!) is bread. God bless carbohydrates. They make us run faster! I absolutely love bananas and whenever I see those brown speckles forming on their peel, I immediately think of banana bread. You do too, right?

Three speckled bananas sat on my counter this morning and although I had just finished my cereal, I knew I needed a second breakfast. Rather than using an old recipe, I started googling new ones. There are way too banana bread recipes out there y’all. Just too many for my short attention span. For some reason the name David Lebovitz popped into my head, and boy, I’m glad it did.

This man is good. And he uses the metric system. I might love him.

Banana Bread adapted from David Lebovitz

makes one 9-inch loaf

• 1½ cups (210 g) flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¾ cup (150 g) sugar
• 2 tablespoons (55 g) melted butter
• 1 large egg white
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 cup (250 ml) banana puree, made from 3 small, ripe bananas
• ½ cup (125 ml) low-fat sour cream Greek yogurt
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Grease a 9-inch loaf pan and preheat the oven to 350*.

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and sugar. 

2. In a separate bowl, mix together the butter, egg white, egg, banana puree, Greek yogurt, and vanilla extract.

3. Slowly incorporate wet mixture into the flour mixture. Stir just until combined.

4. Add mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

5. Cool for about 20 minutes, and serve warm. Drizzle with honey for an even tastier treat. 

And here is when you say, “Aaaah, I want that.”

In addition to eating several spoonfuls of the delicious batter, I ate a warm slice. I’m sure you can imagine how difficult it was for me to wait 20 minutes for it to cool a bit. And that scary looking knife my ex gave me? Oh yeah, that thing is sharp, and for the first time ever, I didn’t annihilate my bread. Thanks B.

And you all can thank me later for blogging about this. I promise you’ll love it. And if you don’t, send me your, dare I say, better recipe.

What is your favorite tried-and-true recipe? Please share!

this makes me laugh.

 

happy friday!

Baking Carrot Cake Cookies in Gym Attire

Around 5 a.m. this morning, a nasty storm came through Mt. Pleasant. It was so loud that it woke me up and I thought the world was ending. No joke! It shook me up so much that I couldn’t go back to sleep. I must also mention that I didn’t fall asleep until about 1 a.m. So running on 4 hours of sleep, I decided to start working at home.

By the end of the day, I knew I should go to the gym, but I was exhausted. I know better than to go to the gym when I’m overtired. I end up doing a pathetic workout and feeling like crap rather than energized. Boo.

So I skipped and baked instead. This makes total sense, right? I decided to leave my gym clothes on and get in the kitchen!

The dough was so good, I didn’t really want to bake it. I just kept looking at it.

And then I ate some.

And some more. Even though it looks like I’m kissing the dough…

I present to you…

Carrot Cake Cookies!
adapted from the Brown Eyed Baker

Yield: 18 cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
• 1 cup raisins
• ½ cup chopped walnuts

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 375*.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, ginger and cinnamon.
3. With a stand or hand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed for 1 minute. Add sugars and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for another minute. Slowly stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated.  Carefully mix in the carrots, coconut, raisins and walnuts.
4. Spoon cookie dough onto a baking sheets. Baking for 15-18 minutes or until slightly browned.



These cookies are tender but full of texture from the carrots, coconut, raisins and walnuts. They taste very similar to carrot cake, but almost in soft muffin-cookie form. I used much less butter than the original recipe which made my cookies softer. If you’d like a crumbly cookie, use the original recipe. 

While I was baking, Santo sent me a message saying I needed to meet him later to pick up my birthday present. I love experimenting with new cookies and Santo is my go-to cookie taster! He is always honest and I’m glad to provide him with sugar. He’s such a great friend – it’s the least I can do!
Now my present from Santo…oh my goodness, another pickle present!
Not only do these say “Tickle my pickle” but they glow in the dark. Hahahaha.

I must admit, if I met a guy and he wore these, I’d be a tad bit concerned, wouldn’t you? However, rolled over 3 times and worn by me, they are pretty stinkin’ cute!

Ignore the rather large bruises. I am a clumsy mess.
Thanks Santo!! 

My Birthday Recap

I had such a good birthday this year and feel so blessed to have such great friends! The day before my actual birthday, Mariah met me for a “pre-birthday lunch” because she really wanted to give me her gift early. I couldn’t say no to that.

She picked me up valet-style from work (woo to that!) and we went to Wasabi on Daniel Island. We both ordered the same lunch special: house onion soup, teriyaki chicken, vegetables, and steamed rice.

Delish! Before we ate, I opened my present from Mariah. Inside the gift bag were two hilarious gifts: Wickles!!

And a Charleston Pickle Company t-shirt!!! I was so in love with this shirt that I put it on right when I got back to work!!

Sorry it’s backwards. The shirt says “What’s in your pickle?”

After lunch, Sean (favorite intern) surprised me with a plate of homemade brownies! When I asked if he made them he responded, “No, but I measured.” Well thanks Sean’s mom!

Later I met a group of my close girlfriends for dinner at Mustard Seed. Amanda gave me this really cute birthday cupcake kit:

Nikki gave me a pair of pretty earrings and a Menchie’s gift card. That gift card will be used immediately.

And for dessert, Mary and Jess made me chocolate covered pistachio cake pops!!

Aren’t they so cute? I love how green they are.

Here’s a pic of us after dinner. I’m so thankful that you girls came out and love each of you so much!

The next day, I got the most interesting birthday present from my ex-boyfriend. For those of you who are new readers, Brandon is who started this blog with me until I took over. Of all things an ex-boyfriend would buy me for a birthday present…let me just tell you, I was not expecting this.

A Shun Santoku knife.

REALLY? He must not think I’m that crazy.

This thing is magical. It cuts so well it scares me. After I opened it, I immediately cut up an apple, a tomato, a cucumber…just random stuff I could find in the fridge. It’s pretty amazing and I wonder how long it will take before I chop a finger off. Just kidding but not really.

XO!

Happy 4th of July!

This pretty much sums up my weekend.

Friday:

Dancing with a belt?

Slightly upset that she took it away from me. I guess she thought I was going to choke myself.

A Charleston fire engine.

Saturday:

Boat day.

Stopping for our favorite fast food after a long day in the sun.

Sunday.

Beach day. Later at the bar we took about 45 pictures doing “The Chandler” smile. Please say someone knows what this is.

Monday:

Beach day #2. Champagne and pickles – the most delicious combo.

Sporting Kira’s new cover-up from Wing’s.

My liver really wants me to go back to work tomorrow.

I might do a full recap later. I might not.

Love,

Your most classy friend, Xtina