Brunch at Carter’s Kitchen in I’On, Mt. Pleasant

This past Sunday, the lovely Sarah Jones of All Over It invited me join forces with her and review Carter’s Kitchen. Nestled in the I’On neighborhood, this charming little restaurant is a great spot for dining. My first impressions of the restaurant were how pretty it was inside and how welcoming the staff was. It was a beautiful day so we decided to sit on the porch and enjoy the sunshine.

Before we were seated, we ordered drinks from the bar. While waiting, I glanced over the menu and noticed one of my biggest pet peeves: the unnecessary apostrophe. Urrrgghhhh.

I let my pickiness for grammar go as soon as the bartender handed us the Bloody Marys.

The darker one to the left was made with a local product: the Charleston Bold & Spicy Bloody Mary mix. It’s thick and has a really nice kick to it. It made the second Bloody Mary taste watered down.

Then the ordering of multiple dishes began. We started with two recommendations from our server. Bruleed grapefruit with vanilla sugar:

This was as delicious as it was beautiful! The ratio of tart to sweet was perfect and I’m now inspired to make this at home.

Biscuit Sliders with country ham, bacon, sausage:

I had high hopes for these but the biscuits were very dry and the ham was extremely salty. The concept is cute though!

By this time, we were ready for round two: mimosas. We had a grapefruit and St. Germaine mimosa and a cranberry and Amaretto mimosa.They were both excellent. I now want only cranberry and Amaretto mimosas for brunch. See ya, OJ!

Out of all the entrees, my heart was set on the Seafood omelet with shrimp, crab, scallops, and lobster sauce with a side of grits and toast.

Both the texture and taste of the eggs made me question if they used eggs from a carton. Boo. The seafood stuff inside, however, was incredible. There was so much crab meat and the lobster sauce was divine. I’d eat this every weekend. The grits were fantastic – some of the best I’ve had in Charleston because of their perfect consistency.

We also tried the Orange-Vanilla French toast.

YUM! It had a slight hint of citrus and was perfectly crispy with a soft middle.

As odd as this sounds, one of my favorite parts of brunch was the home fries. They used red, white, purple, and sweet potatoes. So colorful and so tasty.

Carter’s Kitchen has really great brunch items at fair prices with an even charming atmosphere. I insist you sit on the porch! The food was prepared and plated well, aside from the dry biscuits and disappointing quality of eggs. My only gripe about our experience overall was that our server was inattentive and not very friendly. Maybe I should have given her one of my mimosas…

What’s your favorite brunch item? Do you prefer salty or sweet in terms of breakfast items?

Charleston friends: Where is your favorite spot for brunch?

The Weekend Recap

Since Grammy arrived, I’ve been spending a lot of time with the fam. On Friday, she, Auntie Kelly, and I had a girls’ evening of dinner and movies. Grammy is a messy eater, and because she piled her burger high with toppings, she felt it was necessary to wear a  bib to eat. No joke.

The woman is nuts and I love her.

On Saturday we went shopping and I picked up 2 pairs of shorts from Banana Republic. Reason #2985725 why I love warm weather: white shorts. I’m not sure what I’ll wear the white & silver pair with yet. Any ideas?

For lunch, we went to the Centre Pointe Chick-fil-A, my favorite location. The love for Chick-fil-A runs in the family. Look at my cousin going to town on an Oreo parfait!

That evening I met up with my dear Courtney who is visiting from NYC. She made a delicious mostly local, vegan dinner for a few of us. We started with a kale salad with olive oil, lemon juice, chili flakes, garlic, and bread crumbs:

She also filled squash blossoms with tofu ricotta, soft tofu, lemon zest, and fresh basil. They were sprinkled with olive oil and breadcrumbs, then baked. On the side, we had baby red potatoes roasted with rosemary and oregano. All the vegetables were fresh from the Farmer’s Market! Everything was so fresh and healthy, just the way we like it.

Don’t you want Courtney to be your personal chef now? I do!

After dinner, we went to The Royal American for some drinks. A lot of people love this “dive bar.” As a bar hopper who can’t seem to sit still, I don’t like that it’s so far away from everything. But I was in good company!

I told Courtney she makes me want to be a brunette. She told me I make her want to be a blonde. Typical girls. Courtney, it was so good to see you in CHS!! And I think just being around you made my Klout score go up. ;)

On Sunday, I had brunch and a major catch-up session with the lovely Sarah. We went to Carter’s Kitchen in Mt. Pleasant – more on that in another post. I love this girl!

On Sunday afternoon, Courtney, her friend Stephanie, and I finally saw The Hunger Games.

Holy crap, this movie is intense! Though I didn’t care for the book, I enjoyed all 142 minutes of the action-packed movie.

Made any recent clothing purchases? What color top would you wear with those white & silver shorts?

Ever had stuffed squash blossoms? Aside from Saturday, I’ve only ever had them in Italy.

The Friday Five–5/17/12

1. What I’m Eating: Okay. So we all know that I love Chick-fil-A. But here’s something I’ve never shared. My absolute favorite part of the IceDream is the last bite of the cone. Here’s the thing: you HAVE to make sure that enough ice cream has melted into the bottom of the cone before you eat it. Who knows what I’m talking about?

This last bite is more exciting than the cone itself. I cannot even express how much joy I get out of it.

2. What I’ m Laughing at: My cousin! At lunch the other day, his quesadilla arrived with a garnish on the plate. He scowled at it and asked me if I wanted his “salad.”

3. What I’m Sipping: This wine!

I picked up a bottle at Trader Joe’s because it was a staff favorite. While in line, the cashier mentioned that it was his favorite, so I quickly grabbed another bottle. We finished off both bottles at book club tonight. It is GOOD!

4. What I’m Bookmarking: This shrimp & zucchini curry recipe looks absolutely delicious.

5. What I’m Listening to: After listening to the entire cd multiple times, I’ve decided that my favorite song on Born to Die is Diet Mt. Dew.

Are you a Lana del Rey fan? Yes, she’s awkward. But she’s pretty and she has a beautiful voice! Which song is your favorite?

Have a great weekend!

CSA Week 5: Orzo with Chicken and Green Beans

I’m now on my 5th week of my CSA with Gruber Farm. I’m really enjoying the variety of each box and how fresh the vegetables are. Every box is a new surprise. Sometimes I don’t even wait until I leave my pickup location to look at what’s inside.

Week 5 contents:

• collards
• broccoli
• purple potatoes
• zucchini
• yellow squash
• strawberries
• string beans
• kale (not pictured – I donated it to one of the nice gym employees)

This face shows how excited I was about the purple potatoes.

In my right hand are some fancy beets that are known as both “Candy Cane Beets” and “Bullseye Beets” for the striped pattern inside.

The inside of the purple potatoes are pretty too. They are a purplish color because they contain anthocyanin – the same antioxidant found in blueberries.

I’ve shared plenty of beet recipes with you: Beets with Yogurt & Walnuts, Citrus Walnut Beet Dip,  Beet Chips, Glazed Beets, and my very favorite Beet Risotto with Goat Cheese.

I’ve even made mashed purple potatoes with goat cheese!

Time for something new. Check out this recipe from my hero, Martha Stewart. Did I choose to share this recipe with you because it contains Orzo? Yes.

Orzo with Chicken, Corn, and Green Beans

Ingredients

• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/2 pound orzo
• 8 ounces green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 package (10 ounces) frozen corn kernels, thawed
• 1 whole roasted chicken, (3 pounds), skin discarded, shredded (about 3 1/2 cups)

Directions

1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook orzo until al dente, according to package instructions; add green beans during last 6 minutes of cooking. Drain; rinse under cold water until cooled.
2. Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium. Add garlic; cook until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Add corn and 1 teaspoon salt; cook until warmed through, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Toss pasta and green beans with corn mixture and chicken. Season generously with salt and pepper.

(via)

You can make this in about 20 minutes! And when you pick up that box of orzo, I hope you think of me. ;)

I pretty much just asked for a slew of tweets of orzo pictures, didn’t I?

Tonight is the first meeting of the book club I organized last month. I’m so excited to have everyone over to discuss Fifty Shades of Grey. I  can just imagine the conversations we’ll have…

What’s your favorite green vegetable?

Are you in a book club? What are you reading right now?

What I’m Loving Wednesday

1. This coconut milk dessert. It’s dairy free and delicious. There are slivers of chocolate and chunks of cookie dough. It tastes much creamier than ice cream, but lighter, if you can believe that.

2. I never thought I’d wear a romper until Kaye donated one to me. It was love at first wear. Last weekend I bought another cute one from Target.

3. Summer fashion. White jeans, blue sandals, pink toes. Color everywhere!

4. I wonder if this wine is any good. I just love the many possible meanings behind the name. Crusher as in crushing grapes? Or crushing on men? Or on men crushing grapes? So many possibilities.

5. To celebrate the release of a product, Blackbaud greeted us with candy this morning.

A lot of candy. Though I prefer chocolate, I grabbed a push pop and a ring pop.

6. I saved the candy for a rainy day and opted for lunch and dessert from Chick-fil-A. I had the Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich with a fruit cup and an IceDream. This picture epitomizes Hungry Meets Healthy.

7. It’s not often that I get bored, but when I do, I like to add Dom Mazzetti’s head to pictures of Kaye and me. We love him!

I Just Blogged. To Say. I Love You.

All you readers make my day.

Ok, maybe not the token creeps/haters.

But 99.9% of you are awesome. Every comment, email, tweet, or facebook message makes me smile. Huge!

I love how you guys think of me for the most random things: Chick-fil-A, pickles, beets, flirting, hula hoops. The list goes on. In today’s post, I want to share some things that have recently made me smile…brought on by YOU!

Rachel tweeted a picture of the Chickpea & Zucchini patties. I love seeing my recipes in someone else’s kitchen:

Sarah, who I actually got to meet after the i5K race made me smile with this:

Cheers to my wine pal, Sierra, for finding me some recovery shots:

The day I considered not writing The Friday Five posts anymore, Molly put me in check:

Based on my eating habits, Ryan thinks I should start another blog:

If it weren’t for Danielle, I wouldn’t have known about this delicious beet juice at Whole Foods:

I swear that with this little blog, I’ve convinced thousands to eat more Chick-fil-A.

Alex, a night at Chick-fil-A is always classy.

When I briefly went pescatarian:

And as gross as they are, some of you are okay that I’m obsessed with pickles!

And this one. Oh, Ashley. This was one of my most favorite tweets EVER.

But you topped them ALL with this one. Reading my blog and eating Chick-fil-a? Unbelievably awesome.

You guys have even alerted me to lookalikes! Crazy!

Thanks to all of YOU, I’m constantly inspired to continue blogging. There have been so many days that I’ve contemplated taking a “break”, but without fail, one of YOU kicks me back into it.

THANK YOU

SO MUCH!