Charleston: The Food

Ok, here we go with the Charleston recaps!  One of the reasons I was most excited to vacation in Charleston was all of the good food I knew we’d get to enjoy.  And enjoy we did.  We are still full from all of the deliciousness we indulged in while there. 

I have to start with my very favorite food experience of the trip.  We found out about the wonderful Charleston Cooks! store from my parents, and I was beyond thrilled to find out that they were offering a couples “Southern Summer Supper” class on the Friday night we were in town!  Oh my gosh, we had a ball. 

We had a great instructor, Liz, who lead our class.  There were six couples total, and we all split up and made one dish on our menu after seeing all of the dishes demo’d.  Austin and I chose the chilled tomato basil bisque with rosemary olive oil pita crackers.  The motivating factor in my decision was that we got to use a Vitamix! 

Other couples prepared bacon, brie, and grits fritters, grilled steak with pimento cheese crust, butterbean and grilled corn aromatic rice sauté, and lemon orange chiffon cake with citrus merengue buttercream.  Everything was out of this world amazing.  We just had the best time, and we learned a few things about knife skills and got some new recipes too!  I highly recommend one of these classes if you are ever in Charleston.  I think they have them in a couple other cities in SC as well.  So so so fun. 

We had great experiences at several Charleston restaurants as well.  Our lunches and dinners included these cute places:

• Anson – best fish of my life and probably our overall favorite meal we ate at a restaurant
• Magnolia’s – a perfect lunch spot on our day of shopping
• 82 queen – a pretty good brunch, but this was not our favorite spot
• Butcher & Bee – very cool sandwich place, but a bit out of the way
• Pearlz Oyster Bar – Austin liked the oysters, and I had a pretty decent bowl of gumbo on our first night

We had the best intentions of also visiting Hominy Grill and Poogan’s Porch, but by the end of our trip, we were just so full and didn’t think we could even look at another fried green tomato. 

southern egg rolls at Magnolia’s

 

my fried green tomato BLT at Magnolia’s

Austin’s Magnolia’s crab cake

  

our grilled watermelon appetizer at Anson – so good.  That powdery looking stuff is dehydrated olive oil!

And finally, the best fish I’ve ever eaten!  Whole flounder that was fried and topped with an outstanding apricot sauce.  I ate the entire thing and loved every single bite. 

I need to post about the other fun things we did in Charleston, and I just don’t see any way around me devoting a lengthy post to pictures of the fabulous window boxes that just kept popping up everywhere. 

Currently Loving

Here are some recent favorite things in an attempt to still blog but hide the fact that I am still making my way through the plethora of Charleston pictures.

New French press from Charleston Cooks! (more on this little gem of a place soon)

Fun lunchbox that goes to work with me each day.  After months (literally) of searching for the perfect work lunchbox, I finally stumbled upon one that fit the bill perfectly.

  Summer is here to stay in the  big D, and these popsicles are the best post-run treat ever.

I read Sarah’s Key on the plane on the way back from Charleston, and I just started The Glass Castle.  The author of The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls, was the speaker at an event we went to recently, and I’ve had the book for a while but just started it today.  I am headed to my favorite reading chair with it as soon as I press publish on this post. 

 

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Back from Chucktown & Back to Blogging

I am really killing it with the blog posts in June so far aren’t I?  We have been traveling up a storm so far this month with our Broken Bow trip and our Charleston getaway.  It is nice to be home and finally settling back into a normal routine!  Recovery mode from Charleston is in full force. My feet have blisters from breaking in my new Jack Rogers on the trip (dumbest idea ever), I am still totally and completely stuffed from all of the delicious food we ate, and I’m missing the afternoon naps I got to take on vacay! 

Oh, Charleston – where to even begin?  We had the BEST time and loved our trip to the Holy City.  I am no where near done going through all of my pictures, but here are a few teasers.  I think I might break Charleston up into two posts – one for the food we ate and one for the fun we had.  Oh, and maybe a post entirely devoted to the beyond amazing window boxes that were literally EVERYWHERE.  Charleston is just a magical place, and I’m so thrilled we got to get away and enjoy all that it has to offer. 

I have major work to do organizing all of the pictures I took on our trip, but will try to make some headway in that department and blog all about our fun time in the coming days.  I have also procrastinated making the switch from Google Reader, and now that I have mere days to do that, I need to jump on that task as well!  The back to reality to do list just keeps on growing!

Broken Bow Adventures

{So, I’m hoping this will be part 1 of 2 Broken Bow posts – I didn’t take my nice camera on a few of our adventures and am hoping to steal some iPhone pictures from friends.}

We spent this past weekend in Broken Bow, Oklahoma with three other couples.  It was so so so fun!  I had never heard of Broken Bow until very recently, but one couple we were with – Brooke and Oscar – got married there last year.  Brooke and Oscar invited us, along with two other couples from our Sunday School class, to spend the weekend in Broken Bow with them.  We had all been making plans, exchanging emails, and looking forward to the trip for months.  Austin picked me up a little early from work on Friday and we hit the road for OK.  I found it amazing that this beautiful little place was only about three hours away from Dallas.  Broken Bow is near Beavers Bend State Park, and there is a gorgeous lake, beautiful streams and hiking trails, and so much pretty scenery.  I predict more trips there in the future! 

We rented a precious cabin, and all of the girls decided to cook one meal while we were there.  This ended up working really well, and it resulted in tons of good food.  We did a lot of good eating!  Brooke and Oscar fixed grilled kabobs, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and cheesy, garlicky bread for dinner on Friday.  We played a game after dinner and were all just so giddy and happy to be there. 

The boys got up early on Saturday and Sunday mornings and went fishing.  Austin caught the biggest fish of the weekend and so of course we were excited about that!  We feasted on biscuits and gravy and breakfast banana cobbler on Saturday morning thanks to Laura. 

Our first attempt at a hike on Saturday was sadly rained out, but we made up for it with an extra long hike on Saturday afternoon.  It was a little misty outside, and I did not take my camera.  The scenery on that hike was just so amazing.  I so wish I had pictures to prove that to you, but the whole hike was just breathtaking! 

Saturday night after our epic hike, we watched the movie “8 seconds,” and Taylor fixed a tasty supper. I had never seen or heard of that movie before, but it was so good.  I even cried at the end, which I rarely do in movies, but gosh, it was sad!  It was about a bull rider, and I don’t know what came over me that even allowed me to stay awake through the whole thing, let alone be the most invested person in the living room.  I fell asleep shortly after bawling my eyes out at the end of that movie but was informed the next morning that I missed a country legends sing-a-long with Austin, Jared, and Brooke… so disappointed to have missed that!   

Austin and I cooked breakfast on Sunday to fuel us for our outdoor adventures later that day.  We had some perfect weather on Sunday, and we headed to a part of the lake where we rented kayaks, canoes, and paddleboats.  I am now 100% obsessed with kayaking.  File that under “things I NEVER thought I would say,” but I had SO much fun!  I haven’t stopped talking to Austin about us getting our own kayaks.  The kayaking was easily the highlight of the trip for me.  I had never done it before, but it was awesome!  We followed up the kayaking with a paddleboat ride (not as fun) so I could take some pictures.      

 

 

We are so thankful for great friends and our fun weekend getaway! 

A Morning Ride

This is it – the very last of the May posts!  Happy May 31 everyone, and thank you for reading along with my little challenge.  Today I’m blogging about a vivid memory. 

Oddly enough, I was talking to my parents about this very memory last night.  This kind of stems from this post where I discussed five songs and memories associated with them.  One very vivid memory I have from my childhood is riding to school with my dad. 

It is just me and Dad in his truck, and we’re on the Louisiana Tech campus headed towards my school.  Who knows where Melanie is?  It is probably around 7:30 in the morning.  The truck is frigid, as always, and it smells like coffee and cold air.  Paul Harvey probably just finished telling us “the rest of the story.”  We are getting close to the school, driving past the Tech Natatorium.  The road has a big curve, and Dad comments how when Mom drives on this road, she just drives slap in the middle of the road like she owns it.  I think to myself, yes, that is a true statement.  She does tend to not really respect the curve in this particular spot.  Dad chuckles to himself and probably starts on a story about how Mom’s dad working at Tech when they were in college there meant she always got her way.  He loves to tell a story about Mom’s revenge on the girl who copied her puppet in education class, so that probably comes up around this point.  We stop at a crosswalk to let some people cross the road, then we pull around the front of the school, I get out of the truck, start to thaw out, and head to school for the day.     

Isn’t it strange how the most random memories stick with us? 

This May challenge has been so fun for me, and I am very glad I did it.  Lord knows what I am going to blog about now that I don’t have a prompt or designated topic for the day!  See y’all in June.

Letting Go

We’re so close to the end of this May challenge!  Today’s topic is to react to the phrase “letting go.”  I’m going to take some creative liberty with this one and keep it light-hearted.

Letting go… of my iPhone

This weekend in Broken Bow, my goal is to let go.

My precious little thumbs, they’ll soon become quite numb.

I use my phone too much, it is almost like a crutch.

Social media can be so addicting, perhaps I should do more listening?

I’ll focus more on winning board games than on picking Instagram frames.

We’re headed out of town, I’ve got to put the phone down! 

How about those poetry skills, y’all?  Haha!  I’m so thrilled that tomorrow is Friday.  The short week has had me mixing up all of my days, but tomorrow is the end of the week and the day our fun weekend begins!  Hopefully the blog will survive the weekend with no posting, because I’m pretty sure after my LAST post in the month of May tomorrow, I won’t be back until Monday.  This poor little blog probably needs a weekend to rest after such an action-packed month.      

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A Day Late & A Dollar Short

Here’s one more combo post for you –> Day 28 + Day 29

Day 28 = just pictures {pics from Maine almost exactly 2 years ago}

 

 

Day 29 = 5 songs that bring back memories

1. Blake Shelton – Honey Bee – this song will always remind me of the summer we moved to Dallas and studying for the Bar Exam.  I think I heard it on the radio every single day driving from bar review class to the library.  I do still love this song though!

2. Barbara Mandrell + George Jones – I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool – this song reminds me of all the mornings riding to school with my Dad when I was little.  We always listened to the local country station, and he loves this song.  Also, we managed to catch Paul Harvey just about every morning, and hearing anything Paul Harvey always takes me back to those truck rides as well. 

 

3.  Josh Abbot Band – She’s Like Texas – Austin and I pretend that this was our first dance song at our wedding.  It really should have been!  This song reminds me of all the traveling we did to attend the weddings of our friends in 2011 and 2012 because we always listen to it at least once on our road trips.

4. Ronnie Milsap – Pure Love – My parents, especially my mom, love them some Ronnie.  We sang a long with many Ronnie Milsap songs in the car growing up.  I love Ronnie as well, and the Ronnie Milsap station on my Pandora app is one of my very favorites. 

5. Pat Green – Wave on Wave – this song will always remind me of my late high school/early college years in Texas.  In high school I went to a Pat Green concert and thought I was just so cool.  Pat Green and really all Texas country songs all remind me of my time in Aggieland, too! 

Hurray for a short week!  I’m loving that today is already Wednesday.  We are finalizing plans for our upcoming Charleston trip and getting ready for a fun getaway with friends to Oklahoma soon as well.  Can’t wait for all the travels coming up in the next few weeks!