Happy Birthday, Margaret!

Margaret:

Since we have been friends, we’ve had an unbelievable amount of fun.

We’ve danced with swords on more than one occasion:

We’ve worn horrible sunglasses at night:

We’ve dressed up in ridiculous costumes:

We’ve consumed way too many drinks…some delicious and nutritious:

and some downright disgusting:

You’ve helped me be a good blogger, despite us dropping this cake:

Remember this cake that was originally meant for our ex-boyfriends but turned into a “Bestie Cake?” Sorry boys, our love was stronger! Ha.

You helped me (semi) understand football, which is still shocking to most people:

I showed you my love for Chick-fil-A,

and you showed me your love for ice cream.

We celebrated Auburn winning the National Championship,

and me winning Charleston’s Best local blog.

We’ve had lots of smiles…

but even better were the times we laughed so hard that our eyes rolled back in our head:

I promise to always let you squish my face…

and be the “big sister” you never had.

THANK YOU for being an amazing friend: listening to me cry, bringing me soup when I am sick, telling me when I’m acting coocoo, but most of all, BEING SO MUCH FUN!!

Can’t wait to for our birthday party tomorrow! XOXO!!

Bambu for Mary’s Birthday

Wednesday was Mary’s 26th birthday, so a big group of us went to Bambu to celebrate. I had previously met the chef, Joaquin, at the Best of Charleston awards party. I let him know that I was coming in because I wanted to say hi. Right after we ordered our meals, Joaquin texted me telling me to come in the kitchen.

In the back waiting for me was a little sake glass bouquet of flowers! How sweet is this?

While we waited for our appetizers, I was suddenly presented with…….I kid you not…FRICKLES!!! Frickles at a sushi restaurant? How was this real!?
They were tempura fried and served with some kind of sauce that Lauren ended up stealing to put on her sushi. Both Jess and Amanda decided that these were the next best frickles after Midtown’s. I agree – tempura battered pickles are pretty ridiculous.

As part of my meal, I ordered the edamame & spinach dip served warm, crispy wonton chips. The last time I went to Bambu with Diana and Lucy, a reader told me that I needed to try this appetizer the next time I went in. Thank goodness for her recommendation – this was absolutely delicious. The whole table was raving about how good it was. It was topped with panko breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese – to die for!

I also ordered a unique roll that was wrapped in cucumber instead of rice. This is the Coleman Blvd roll with tuna, salmon, yellowtail, scallions, asparagus wrapped in cucumber with ponzu sauce.

Without the rice, it was a lighter roll and you could really taste the freshness of the fish. Although it really didn’t need any sauce, I ended up dipping it in Jess’s ponzu sauce. That citrusy sauce is hard to resist!

After we all finished our meals, the birthday girl was surprised with dessert! Our whole table got these amazing sugary cinnamon dough balls with warm caramel sauce. One bite in, Jess declared, “My life has changed forever.” They were that good.

Perhaps the most exciting event of the evening (after the surprise frickles, of course!) was my next surprise. Joaquin had made me Pad Thai to go for tomorrow’s lunch! Lauren and I plan on eating this at work tomorrow, Lady & The Tramp style.



Shout out to Lauren – it was great to meet you!  

Thank Yous, A Winner, and Rainbow Eating

First, I’d like to thank you all for the sweet compliments on my nerdy glasses. I love how much better I can see and really have only taken them off to shower, work out, and sleep. When I take them off, I’m like ewww. Also, thank you for your help on the t-shirt contest!  :)

Second, I’d like to announce the winner of the Fiber One Brownie giveaway. Instead of using a random number generator, I used the Mariah generator. Without telling her why, I asked her to pick a number between 1 and 92…and she chose #8:

Congrats, Britton! Please e-mail me your contact information and your prize pack will be on the way.

…

In preparation for looking svelte for my birthday party on Saturday, I have increased my fruit and vegetable intake. Ok, ok, really I just have so many veggies from my CSA. I was chatting with Mariah, who also subscribes to a CSA and we were joking amount how many fruits and vegetables we ate all day. We kind of feel like rabbits.

For breakfast, I had my usual Kashi original cereal with light vanilla soy milk and blueberries. FYI, the “abbrev” for blueberries is “bluebs.”

Mid-morning, I snacked on some almonds and dried cranberries.

For lunch, I had more of the Roasted Beet & Goat Cheese Quinoa.

My afternoon snack was a zucchini muffin and some baby carrots.

After I picked up my 10th CSA box, I cut up fresh yellow squash, zucchini, carrots, corn, and tossed them with italian dressing, balsamic, and goat cheese.

I ate that along with black beans and my most recent discovery: Bilinski’s Apple Chardonnay chicken sausage.

The moral of this story is: There is a rainbow in my stomach. It might even be a double rainbow.

On a completely different note, while I was gorging myself with rabbit food, Mariah asked me a very serious question. Our gchat conversation, complete with faces:

Mariah: if there was a breakfast that is just 100% bad for you (but wasn't) and you could eat it all the time... what would it be?

 

 

me:oooh probably pancakes.or cinnamony french toast

 

 

Mariah: with an assload of butter and syrup

 

 

me:and powdered sugar and brown sugar. also honey and whipped cream.

 

 

Mariah: all of the above

 

 

me: i wouldn't mind if there were chocolate chips in there either

 

 

Mariah: nope me neither

 

 

I can’t stop laughing at our heads. But the point of that was my question for you all:

If you could eat any breakfast, regardless of how bad it was for you, what would you have?!

Monday Can Be A Fun Day

Mid-morning while at work, I got a call that my glasses were in! I was so excited I almost took an early lunch get them. I’m glad I waited…Rewind to about a month ago: I found out that one of my readers, Amanda, also works at Blackbaud. She e-mailed me because she, too, had purchased the Pearle Vision coupon. We tried to coordinate our schedules to pick out glasses together, but that didn’t work. Luckily our schedules matched up today! I got a text from her saying her glasses were ready and she asked if I wanted to ride with her to pick them up. Blogger meet-up and new glasses? YAY! Her next text was “Pick you up at the front door! Valet service at Blackbaud!”

And then I jumped in the car with a stranger.

An awesome stranger! Amanda is so fun and sweet and I was glad to meet her. :)

That afternoon, my coworker and I planned a meeting to review my first 3 months of work. Her plan was to have an off-site meeting...at Menchie’s! Elizabeth got a bowl of cake batter froyo with cinnamon toast crunch cereal, and I got a bowl of cake batter and brownie batter froyo.

And here are the glasses!

After work, I went to the gym even though I felt like I had been sweating enough to skip it. It was over 100* here today. Ahh. You see why frozen yogurt was necessary? The gym was sort of miserable, but the Pandora app got me through it. I may or may not have made a couple moves on Words With Friends during my interval run…the walking part, of course.

For dinner, I made Jenna’s Roasted Beet & Goat Cheese Quinoa. Oh, hello heavenly beets and goat cheese.

This was my first time cooking quinoa, which is a shame because it’s a powerhouse food. Quinoa is fluffy, slightly crunchy, and nutty. It is high in protein and a good source of magnesium, manganese and iron. Although most people consider it to be a grain, it is actually a relative of leafy green vegetables.
Don’t forget how wonderful beets are. Check out these beet balls I saw in Whole Foods on Sunday. Wtc are beet balls? Odd, to say the least.

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!