When Twitter Friends Become Real Life Friends

Today was another example of why I love abusing using Twitter. A few of my fellow tweeters and I bonded a couple months ago over a love of beets. A lunch to meet in real life was long overdue. We met at Square Onion, in I’On, for a meal that couldn’t be #beet.

The beet-loving group consisted of Holly of GoCharlestonDeals, Trish of Vidalco Wine, Charles, a fellow food blogger, and Charles’ friend Muffy. When Holly first arrived, she noticed that the restaurant was featuring a beet special on Tuesday and told the chef she wished it was for today. Well, we lucky kids got a nice surprise – the chef let us sample the special a day early!

Beets, goat cheese, and arugula. Mmm.

For lunch I had The Meredith: turkey with brie cheese, cranberry horseradish
sauce, lettuce and tomato on rosemary focaccia with a side of edamame salad.

I liked this sandwich, but next time I would get it without the lettuce and tomato. They didn’t go well with the cranberry horseradish sauce. The edamame salad was really good though.

The company and conversation were delightful, but by far the best part of our tweet-up was the surprise Charles brought us. PICKLED BEETS.

(picture from Charles’ fb)

He pickled the beets in apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, kosher salt, cloves, and cayenne pepper. They were so good that I have to admit, they are already gone. Yup, I ate them all today. Charles, you need to start a beet pickling business immediately.

In other news, I ran for the first time since I hurt my knee FOUR weeks ago. The past month has been so depressing not being able to run, but I did get really friendly with some stationary bicycles. Needless to say, when I decided to do an easy run today, I was overjoyed to not feel the excruciating pain that I had been having for so long. I wanted to jump up and down on the treadmill with joy but I figured I better not hurt myself again.

My level of clumsiness is off the charts. Just today I sideswiped a pole in the grocery store, tripped over my own shoe, lost control of a grocery cart, accidentally dumped half my water bottle on myself at the gym, and burned my finger on a pan. I rightfully own this glass:

But hey, I entertain everyone within a 10-foot radius.

What’s your favorite social media platform from which you’ve made friends? For me, it’s definitely the blogosphere!

What’s your favorite pickled vegetable? Besides cucumbers, I love pickled beets and okra.

Weekend Highlights

Aziz!!! Oh  my gosh, he was funny. My face still hurts from smiling so much.

Sunday’s weather was glorious. There was absolutely no reason to stay indoors. Well, except for brunch. Rewind to Saturday night. After the Aziz show, Boding and I went to The Macintosh  for drinks. I go in there pretty regularly and last night got to hang out with Jacob, one of the chefs. It was really cool to talk to someone who is so passionate about food, being a chef, and the Indigo Road restaurant group. We were quickly convinced to come back the next day for brunch, but I told him I would be ordering “the healthiest thing he could come up with.”

The bartender was a little puzzled by me requesting “the healthiest thing he can come up with” but Jacob did an excellent job of coming up with just that. I had an incredibly delicious plate of  butternut squash, brussels sprouts, onions, mushrooms, micro greens, and quinoa with a parsnip puree. Ahhhhh, everything needs to be dipped in this puree. Everything.

Guess who ate the mushrooms! This girl. Unbelievable.

My beverage of choice at The Macintosh is something one of the bartenders came up with for me a while back. He named it The Xtina: Corazon tequila, ghost pepper-infused St. Germain, lime juice, and agave. It’s like a spicy margarita.

Boding had the Chicken and Waffles. At first I was skeptical of waffles that aren’t served with maple syrup but then I tried a bite. They do not need a single drop of anything. They are perfect, as was the chicken.

Jacob later sent out a gift to be funny. Fried dough. Quite comical after my healthy veggie plate. He’s got jokes.

I almost forgot! I had a side of their homemade pickles again. Mmmm!

After brunch settled, we poked around random stores downtown and played tourists. I met the dog of my dreams at Seeking Indigo. Meet Stella, the labradoodle.

Broad Street.

Later on, we went to Mt. Pleasant Waterfront Memorial Park.

For a little bit, I reverted from 27 years old to 7 years old. Swings! (I think that kid next to me might have been dying.)

Monkey bars!

And then I went from 7 all the way to 77. Reading a book with a giant blanket in a rocking chair is fiiiiiiiine.

Happy Monday! Have a great week!

The Friday Five

I know it’s Thursday, but I’m really excited for Friday…

1. What I’m Reading: Thank you Chelsey! I am tearing through this book and loving it.

Book Description: In pre-war Prague, the dreams of two young lovers are shattered when they are separated by the Nazi invasion. Then, decades later, thousands of miles away in New York, there's an inescapable glance of recognition between two strangers. Providence is giving Lenka and Josef one more chance. From the glamorous ease of life in Prague before the Occupation, to the horrors of Nazi Europe, The Lost Wife explores the power of first love, the resilience of the human spirit- and the strength of memory.

2. What I’m Listening to: XX by The xx.

Music Description: “(The xx are) making hauntingly beautiful music with its electro pop-soul jams and emotive lyrics.” --Nylon

3. What I’m Watching: This video over and over and over. It’s a tad obnoxious (what else do I like?) but highly entertaining.

4. What I’m Eating:  popchips! I’ve been obsessed with their barbecue flavor for a couple years now, but I recently tried the cheddar flavor.

And the sweet potato flavor should be at Whole Foods soon. Excited!

A popchips giveaway may or not be coming this way soon. Just a hint…

5. What I’m Bookmarking:

I fit in one of those pie slices. ONE! I’m sure you can figure out which.

HAPPY WEEKEND!

What are YOU reading, listening to, watching, eating, or bookmarking? GO!

goPerformance Round 2, New Workout Playlist

Last week I blogged about going to goPerformance, a new program at East Shore. They offered a second week of trial classes, so naturally I signed up for two more sessions.

This week’s class session was set up in the same fashion as last week: 8 different activities done for 45 seconds with a 15 second switch before the next one. After each round of 8 activities is a 2-minute break, followed by another round of 8, another 2-minute break, then a third round. Make sense?

In other words,  we did 3 rounds of 8 activities for 45 seconds each. With the breaks, it’s a total of 30 minutes. A tough 30 minutes. During the 2-minute breaks you can rest, run laps, or, if you’re like me with a dead knee, you can do cartwheels and swing in the hanging rings. Yes, that’s what I did on the “breaks.” I’m a former gymnast and sometimes I just want to play!

The workout:

1. Sumo Squat to Upright Row with Kettlebells –

Holding the kettlebell in front of you, squat, rise, then do an Upright Row. Like this:

(source)

2.  45* High row with hip abduction -

With one leg out at a 45* angle and the other flat and extended towards the rope, hold onto the rope with both hands, lean back, then lift yourself to standing position. The farther you extend your standing food, the more of a challenge this is.

3. Plank Rope Pulls – In plank position, use one arm to tug the rope towards you for half the 45 seconds. Switch arms for the second half and tug the rope the other way.

4. Burpee to wall ball – Placing hands on top of the medicine ball, complete one burpee and then throw ball at target. When ball lands, repeat with the next burpee to wall ball.

5. Half Rope Climb – Holding at the top of the rope, feet extended out, walk your arms down the rope until you are almost flat on the floor (backside down). Climb yourself back up. Repeat.

6. Side-to-Side Medicine Ball Slams – Lift the medicine ball over your head and slam it down to the ground, rotating your body to the side as you throw. Pick up the ball and throw to the opposite side.

7. Russian Kettlebell Swings  - This was the most difficult for me, but by far the most effective, in my opinion. Here’s what you do:

(source)

8. Suspended Mountain Climbers – Place hands in the rings and feet on foot pads. Extend into suspended plank position and climb that mountain!! These suck in a good way.

Whew, enough of that! I’m pretty sure I saw stars after that workout and I’m not talking about the ones in the sky.

…

Many of you often ask what I listen to when I work out. To be honest, it totally varies, but here’s some of what I have been listening to lately. Clink links for videos.

• The Longest Road (Deadmau5 Remix)  - Morgan Page
• Cracks (Flux Pavilion Remix) – Freestylers
• Lights (Bassnectar Remix) – Ellie Goulding
• Blackout - Breathe Carolina
• Till The World Ends - Britney Spears
• Top Of The World - The Cataracs ft. DEV
• Gotta Get Thru This - Daniel Bedingfield
• We Found Love -Rihanna
• Sorry For Party Rocking  - LMFAO
• Starlight – Muse
• You’ve Changed – Sia
• I Want You – Kings of Leon
• Backseat – New Boyz feat. The Cataracs & DEV
• Love Letter to Japan – The Bird And The Bee

That has got to be the most random assortment of music ever.  Congratulations if you know half of those songs. Let me know if you do. Enjoy!

What I’m Loving Wednesday

1. As I was walking down King St on Sunday afternoon, I spotted this graffiti:

2. I went back to Ann Taylor on Monday because their sale got even better. 60% off? Yeah, give me one of everything. I snagged this beautiful top. It’s sheer cream at the top with a keyhole back. So ready for Spring. Pastels!

3. @GsElevator is my new favorite twitter feed. It’s a bunch of quotes overheard in the Goldman Sachs elevators. Some of the things these guys say are unbelievable. These are actually very tame:

4. This book. Eye makeup is my favorite to play with. It’s much easier to shamelessly wink at men when you’ve got fancy eyes.

5. Kashi’s Banana Chocolate Chip Soft ‘n Chewy Bar. Thanks to Rachel for telling me about it!

I’m also dying to find this flavor, but they don’t sell it anywhere around me. If anyone wants to find one for me, I would love them foreverrrr.

6. It’s FEBRUARY!! I have so much fun stuff planned this month:

• Champagne (v.) for a Cause party at Fish on Friday
• Aziz Ansari at Theatre99 on Saturday
• Super bowl Sunday
• Lunch with Ashley, Holly, and Trish at Square Onion on Monday
• Wine & Painting class w/ Boding at Fear No Easel on Tuesday
• Hair appointment! YES. Thrilling, really.
• Bacco Cooking Class the week after
• Valentine’s Day – blogger swap presents! Also, if you guys know Cupid, tell him to stab me, please.
• NYC!!! I can’t tell you how excited I am about this.

Tell me something fun that’s going on in your life! New foods, music, books, planned vacations?

Black Bean Burgers with Spicy Corn Salsa & Avocado Crema

After reading Food Matters by Mark Bittman, I decided to make much more of a conscious effort to eat as clean as possible. Everyone’s idea of “clean eating” varies, but to me it is eating little to no processed foods. Of course it would be difficult to eat clean 100% of the time, and honestly, I’d be absolutely miserable without my Chick-fil-A and candy. With that said, my goals are to eat:

• 4-5 servings of vegetables per day
• 1-2 servings of fruit per day
• less meat/poultry than I typically do
• more fish
• more whole grains
• less sugar

This is pretty much the way I eat now, aside from the random candy at work, Chick-fil-A, and frickles.

Early last week, I read about a perfect recipe on my sweet friend Mary’s blog. I tweaked it a bit according to my food preferences and it was absolutely delicious.

Black Bean Burgers with Spicy Corn Salsa & Avocado Crema

Makes 6-8 servings

Black Bean Burgers

• 2 (14.5 oz.) cans black beans, drained and rinsed,
• 2 roasted red peppers from a jar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 (4 oz.) can of green chiles 
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 2/3 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs 
• Olive oil

Avocado Crema

• 1 avocado, pitted and cubed
• 1 (6 oz.) container of plain, fat free Greek yogurt 
• Juice of 1 lime
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Spicy Corn Salsa

• 1 (15.5 oz.) can of sweet corn, drained
• 1 medium tomato, seeded and diced
• 1/2 (4 oz.) can of green chiles
• 1 jalapeno, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Juice of 1 lime
• Salt & pepper, to taste

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade, process 1 can black beans, roasted red peppers, eggs, garlic, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper until smooth. Add the additional can of beans and the green chiles, then pulse a few more times until combined, but not completely smooth.

In a large bowl, combine black bean mixture with bread crumbs. Add more bread crumbs if needed, forming a firm mixture that is the consistency of ground meat. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. 

To make the avocado crema, mash the avocado until smooth. Add Greek yogurt, lime juice. Mix with a fork until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside. 

To make the corn salsa, mix the corn, tomato, green chiles, jalapeno, garlic, and lime juice in a medium-sized bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Remove the black bean mixture from the refrigerator and shape into 8 patties. Heat olive oil in a large non-stick pan over medium heat. Cook the patties for 5-7 minutes, flipping once.  

To serve, top the cooked patties with the spicy corn salsa and avocado crema. Serve immediately.

I insist you make this! The avocado crema is absolutely delicious on the mildly spicy burger and the corn salsa gives a good texture to the overall dish. The meal is low fat and full of fiber and protein. Thank you, Mary, for the awesome idea!