Tag Archives: booze

STT; Thursday Afternoon – Saturday Morning

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It’s a busy day (the day before Christmas!) but I just couldn’t bear not sharing (pictures of all, descriptions of few) what I’ve been up to!

Thursday

Thursday afternoon, my mom treated me to lunch at Pesce, a newish Italian spot. We split the two things that sounded best. A spinach salad with craisins, candied pecans and goat cheese,

and a (fried) bbq chicken flat bread.

The husband has been calling about missing me and asking for pictures, so – Hi, husband!

Do you like my new top?

For dinner my parents and I headed to Victor’s Hideout for some good local cuisine.

Our plates came with plantains, fungi, sweet potato, rice and beans, and salad.

Plus I ate a roll with butter.

Here, my dad and I split two plates.  He got the fried shrimp,

And I got ole wife, a local whitefish.

Head on, scrape the meat off the bones… It was intense but tasty.

That evening I headed over to the apartment (bachelor pad) of two high school friends who just moved in together. 4 of us from a regular group were there together and it was fun to do some reminiscing. Adrien served me a tasty vodka-soda-lemon thing at some point.

But I stuck to one drink because I was driving (on the left … in the rain … without traffic signals because half the island didn’t have power). My mom did text around 1:30 to see if I was dead, which I thought was sweet.

Friday

Friday morning I may have overslept. I missed my gym window too, which was annoying. But I got up in time for breakfast.

That bowl was 1 egg, 2 whites, ~3 oz leftover spicy chicken, a handful of shredded cabbage, 1 Tbsp butter, and 2 Tbsp cocktail sauce. I’m not even going to attempt to describe it.

Brunch was Christmas in a convenience package.

A gingerbread Clif bar that I took one bite of and then trashed in horror.

And an eggnog Nutrament that I swooned over.

Plus I got a chaispresso (chai, espresso, 2% milk) during afternoon errands.

Friday night my parents hosted a Hanukkah party!

It was great getting to see everyone, and it was extra great that my uncle made his (best ever) latkes.

I took many appetizers bites. I actually did take a photo of every single one, so I’m going to consolidate them grid style –

My cousin made matzoh ball soup.

Here is my dinner plate –

Salad, noodle kugel, and a tiny bit of salmon.

And my mom made “Crack Pie” (of Momofuku fame) for dessert.

Tiny slices because it was basically a pie of caramel in an oatmeal cookie crust.

Saturday

This morning I had my mom drive me to school so I could run some laps on the field.  I have no idea of distance, but I jogged 20 minutes straight; plus a quick, walking warm up and cool down.  I am not in running shape at all so it was interesting to see a workout out in the wind!

And I’d like to wish a very Merry Christmas tomorrow to all of my readers who celebrate!

Party through Paradise

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Hello, hello!  It feels good to be back at a computer; I’ve been wanting to check a test grade for days (still not up).  I can only access the internet here when I got to school with my mom, so I plan on posting all of vacation but in every-other-day intervals.  This is a strange recap to start with though, because I don’t have a lot to share.  Blame booze and lack of sleep.

Our holiday party was great!  You know what else is great?  The drink I’ve coined a “Merry Christmas.”  It’s Goldschläger with orange juice.  Cinnamony and festive.  A few friends came over early to watch The Carebears’ Nutcracker and I poured us some Merry Christmases.

I might have overpoured.  Maybe.  That glass was 2/3 Goldschläger.  So, yeah.  And then I proceeded to spend the first half of my party far drunker than intended.  I had a great time.  And since I overpoured every drink, the whole party was drunker than intended, so at least I was in good company.  But the pictures might have suffered.

I have shots of most of the food and drinks.

Important points – 1. That eggnog seltzer was ridiculous good.  2.  My party recipes all came out perfectly and I plan on sharing them over the next few days.

I have a shot of the Christmas cardi I borrowed from my grandma.  (thanks, Nana!)

I have shots of the adorable cake balls my friend Kim brought us.

And I have shots of some party guests.  Minus the ones of party guests actually taking shots, which I promised wouldn’t go on the internet.

We had 20+ people in our little apartment and I’m not sure the dog is going to recover.

The last of our friends left the party around 1.  Adam and I got up at 5:30 AM to get me to the airport.  I didn’t actually get to my parents’ house until 10:30 PM.  And now you understand why I have no photos recapping what I ate yesterday.

You didn’t miss much, considering that I largely subsisted on two bagels and a giant bag of trail mix.  I did make sure to document the tres leches I got in Miami.

Most exciting airport food ever.

And I made sure to document my reading materials.  You Better Not Cry by Augusten Burroughs I knew would be good.  In typical Burroughs style, his Christmas-themed collection made me both laugh and cry.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen was plucked at random from a sale table.  I ended up loving it!  The perfect amount of fantasy blended into Southern small town life.  Plus, cake!

And Good Morning, Killer by Anna Smith was purchased during layover #2, in desperation.  It wasn’t bad, but I’m not exactly clamoring to read the rest of the Ana Grey series either.

When I got home I immediately got started on my main goal this vacation –

I’ve read every comic in that giant stack of Archies at least 10 times each, but I’m hoping to give them all another reread this trip!

No breakfast this morning.  My cell phone didn’t switch time zones for some reason and I stupidly went to bed and got up later than planned.  I spent my late morning unpacking, then drove over to school to write this post.  Lunch was a tangerine and gala apple.

And the baked spinach patty my mom had for me.

Not traditional – usually pattys are stuffed with meat and fried – but still delicious.

The rest of the day looks to be nice and calm.  My visiting family and high school friends don’t get until later this week so I’m looking forward to time at home with my parents.  I’ll leave you with this –

What two items did I forget to pack for my ISLAND vacation? 

  1. sunglasses
  2. bathing suits

?!??!!!

What’s the dumbest thing you’ve forgotten to pack?

I Was Told There’d Be Book Club

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Book club was a success!  And Adam got off of his shift early and got to spend the afternoon with me, so it was a great day all-around.

I got up early to do some final cleaning (when people come over I like to pretend that we’re not slobs) and snacked on a bag of popcorn and a slice of 2% provolone while I worked.

I also did some major 2-for-me-and-1-for-the-bowl-ing while I prepped the fruit salad.

At 10 my friends arrived and we feasted.

We may not have really talked about the book (I Was Told There’d Be Cake) but at least we had some good eats!

My plate had potatoes,

fruit salad,

cheesy baked eggs,

and a crepe (so cool!) with Biscoff spread on the inside.

We also made hibiscus mimosas.

It was all great fun.  No people pictures though because we suck at remembering to take them.  I always have my camera with me (duh) so I need to do a better job at snapping candids.

We book clubbed until after 3pm and then my cultural meal pattern group and I baked some Irish soda bread to bring to our presentation tomorrow.  By the time they left I was starving again and my study motivation was seriously waning.  But I have an important cumulative exam – spanning two semesters and material from 2 courses – tomorrow.  What to do, what to do?

Somehow the husband and I decided that the solution was to go out to dinner and study at the table while other people prepared our food!

We went to an all-you-can-eat sushi spot that has a longish wait between courses and it was actually perfect.  I’m not prepared for tomorrow by any means, but I got a lot more done than I would have at home.

I also ate a lot.  I just plain don’t have time to break the pictures down, but here’s a shot of what I ate.

Wow!  Highlights included edamame, tamago (sweet egg) sushi, and tempura zucchini.

And we stopped at Wegmans for a candy cane for dessert.

Sweet dreams!

Best Ever

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It’s a good thing I decided not to blog after dinner yesterday because we ended up staying out for drinks!  It was a late, fun night.

We started our evening with dinner at Las Culebrinas, Adam’s favorite Cuban place on the planet.  They have rolls with the best garlic butter.

We also ordered some appetizers to share.

Fried plantain with shrimp in red sauce and mozzarella sticks.

For dinner I got Mahi Mahi crusted in corn flakes and topped with a honey mustard sauce.

It was a little too fried for me but the sauce was so good.

And it came with a side salad with great dressing.

We did lots of sharing (though no one went near Adam’s beef because he was moaning so loudly – and whispering sweet nothings to his chocolate flan – and we were all a little afraid).  I ended up eating the equivalent of 3/4 of my plate.

Afterwards we walked around Coconut Grove for some more people watching.  And somehow ended up at Uncle Moe’s for drinks.  Like the Cow Tipper.

Here’s a shot with my hand for size comparison.

My mom and I split this one, obviously.  It was tasty, but not as strong as it sounds.

Which is good, because I was feeling good this morning.  I decided to skip the hotel breakfast, which was lackluster yesterday, and get in a quick gym trip instead.  15 minutes on the treadmill for a bit over a mile.

I ate my stolen pear for breakfast.

Along with a NuGo Dark bar packed from home.

And we stopped by our old favorite Thai place for a bubble tea smoothie.

Strawberry coconut smoothie with bobba.

So freaking good!

Plus a few peppermints for freshness.

Amid the day’s exploration we also spent some time at the mall. I know shopping seems like a strange vacation activity, but my parents live on an island so it’s more exploratory for them than the beach. My dad shared a pretzel with me while we were there.

I ate about x2 what’s pictured. We were practically frozen so I also bought an earl grey with steamed skim milk.

A few stops later, and we were at my favorite place on the planet.

Where I made the biggest cup of froyo I’ve ever eaten.

Everything chocolate and caramel, smothered in marshmallow.

Heaven. Pure heaven.

And the evening only got better. The plan was to go to Joe’s Stone Crab, but a 2-hour wait scared us away. The disappointment was very serendipitous, because we ended up having a best ever dinner at Joe’s less formal take-away spot next door. You ordered your food at a counter and brought it to the booth yourself and it ended up being just perfect.

To start, Adam and I split a seafood bisque.

It was creamy and tangy with big chunks of fish.

Then the four of us split an order of stone crab.

Stone crab is like the best crab you’ve ever had, on steroids. It is meaty, yet tender and buttery.

I got most of two claws, dipped in butter and mustard.

I drank a spicy bloody Mary with my food but I was too excited about the crab to remember to photograph before a few sips in.

For the rest of the meal, my mom and I split two sandwiches.

The shrimp po boy and the lobster Reuben.

The po boy was good, though I mostly ate the shrimp out of the bun, dipped in remoulade.

The Reuben was out of this world. Everything that’s good about a Reuben but with the added amazingness of lobster.

Everyone kept laughing at me for chewing with my eyes closed but I just couldn’t help it. The big pieces of meat were absolutely perfect.

I thought I couldn’t be happier, but then Adam bought me this t-Rex juice container.

Best trip souvenir ever.

My favorite activity in any city is bike riding, and for the hour after dinner that’s just what we did.

It was so much fun, though our times in the sand basically left my thighs burning! Then we spent another hour walking down the club strip on South Beach for the ultimate people watching. It was the best vacation day ever.  The best.

Happy Thanksgiving

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We’re in Miami!

Can I just say, how little I did I manage to pack for two people for four days?

And that’s with the husband’s giant boy clothes taking up extra space.

Our day of travel went smoothly, minus my yogurt (in a perfect peanut butter jar!) getting tossed at security. We slept though the first flight and then spent three hours walking around the Chicago airport.

We got a strange 8am meal, splitting a Baja chicken burrito from Burrito Beach.

I asked for chicken, red rice, black beans, corn, cheese, sour cream, and roasted veggies.

Supplemented with a tangerine packed from home.

I was pleased with the job I did packing food for this trip.

(Adam also had a downright gourmet salad in my backpack.)

I ate a sandwich – Applegate Farms Turkey Bologna, Crofter’s Grape Spread, everything Bagel Thin – on flight number two.

Plus Peanut M&Ms bought from the airport.

I also started reading the all time funniest book ever on the plane.

Clearly Webster liked it too.  I laughed aloud so many times I’m sure our seatmates were thinking of muzzling me.

Before we knew it, we were on the ground and hugging my parents at the gate.  We are so freaking excited to be with them (especially in Miami!).

Our first stop was a nice walking tour of our old haunt, the U!

So fun to see how the campus had changed in little ways.  I will admit to becoming a bit nostalgic when we walked past the building where I took all of my English classes.  Plus it’s fun that Adam and I got to date here for four years.

Our next stop made my heart sing.

Self-serve froyo is high on my list of things to be thankful for!  I did keep the serving small though (we were about to head out to a nice Turkey Day dinner!); dolche de leche and taro froyo with fruit, a smidge of marshmallow, sprinkles, and lots of popping bobba.

If we manage to sneak in a froyo every day of the visit I think this will end up being the best vacation ever.

For dinner we headed to the Chart House.

The shirt that Adam has on here is actually the one he got married in!!!

I started my meal with a Blue Moon.

And a really great roll with butter.

And for dinner I went traditional.

Sliced roast turkey,

cornbread stuffing,

mashed potatoes,

cranberry relish,

and creamed spinach.

The spinach was soooo good, but overall I probably ordered the wrong thing since I actually hate most Thanksgiving foods.  I only ate a 1/3 or so of my plate; but at least I won’t have regrets about “missing”anything, and Adam is thrilled with his plate of leftovers.

My meal came with pecan pie.

But there wasn’t a preference issue that kept me from eating this, the pie was just plain nasty.  Store-bought (crappy store-bought) pie, Chart House?  You can do better.

But what really matters on Thanksgiving is family, and I got to spend the day with my three favorite people.  And I hope all of you, Americans or otherwise, got to spend the day with your nearest and dearest too.

This Is Halloween…

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…and it just wouldn’t be Halloween without candy for dinner!  Seriously.  And it’s a good thing that dinner was easy to describe because I’ve got to keep this quick; I’m spending 8am – 9pm on campus tomorrow and I need to sleep.

Unfortunately I ran out of time this morning and didn’t even manage to finish more than 1/3 of my oatmeal.  My yogurt and pear held me over okay while I was busy, but the minute classes were done I needed to EAT!  I just had to get through my 30 minute commute (I walked today) to tear into this huge plate of bread with dipping oil.

Guys, this bread is so freaking good.  It speaks to my soul.

Mmmmmmn!

I was craving a Reece’s Cup all day but we were too cheap to buy candy so I settled on this peanut butter chocolate ice cream bowl instead.

I put a healthy scoop of chunky pb in the bottom of a cup, topped with mini chips, microwaved until melted, and then scooped on a bit of slow-churned vanilla ice cream.

So much better than the candy bar could ever be.

And I even did end up getting my candy.  I had to break a $20 before tomorrow so I bought 15cents worth of the good stuff from the bulk bins.

Followed by pumpkin beer!

We headed over to a friend’s house for a Halloween get-together and this Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin Ale was split three ways.

I also had a small cup of tasty punch,

a handful of pita chips with hummus,

and some organ sugar cookies.

I believe I ate a stomach and a humerus.

Other than cookies and company, the impetus for the get-together was introducing our friend Anna to the fabulousness that is “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

She’s a fan now!  Especially of the music.  Confession – I totally call “TNBC” by the title “This is Halloween” instead!  Happy Halloween, guys!

Staying Alive, Staying Alive

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Let’s not talk about last night.  Dinner was a disaster, studying was a disaster, bedtime was a disaster.  Let’s not talk about this morning either.  No breakfast, no answers to the test questions, no remembering that my car was parked on the wrong side of the street and that deciding to walk would earn me a ticket.

Let’s just start this post at 11; that’s when the eats for today started anyway.  I spent the hour between my test and class in the food lab, planning for the Chili Sale.  We are selling on Tuesday and cooking all day Sunday so my group had to go think logistics.  We’ve got a specific plan for what all 18 classmates will be doing in the kitchen for 6 hours on Sunday, but I’m pretty sure it’s still going to be a shit-show.

Today’s food lab was the fat substitute group.  Normally I don’t snap pictures because I’m too busy taste-testing but there were a few things I couldn’t eat today so I had the time to photograph.  We tried regular and reduced fat samples of potato chips,

pudding,

and shredded mozzarella.

I could totally tell the difference between the original and modifieds!  Appearance, texture, and flavorwise.

After lab I got some real lunch (and breakfast!) at the campus bookstore.

Del Monte Tropical Medly fruit cup for vitamin C.

Plus this go picnic snack pack.  It contained crackers with hummus,

and roasted edamame, a fruit and nut blend, and a small square of dark chocolate (all of which were fantastic).

This ended up being a very filling lunch, though 520 calories is low to cover two meals.

I was stuck on campus until 2 so I got a little bit of studying done.  After our crazy chili week we have two super difficult weeks of testing and assignments and I’m hoping to be a little better prepared.  And speaking of being prepared … I am recertified in CPR!  That was what my committment at 2 was, BSC offers classes to students for free.  2 hours of chest compressions felt like quite a workout!  I can’t think of a better motivation to start hitting the gym than the fact that I might be too fat and out of shape to save a life.

This weekend is going to be super busy (I’m spending Saturday and Sunday on campus) so when I got home I did some preemptive cleaning and got ready for our weekly grocery trip.  Plus I put dinner into the crock pot.

I refueled around 7 with a Honeycrisp apple.

Plus half a Wolaver’s Pumpkin Ale, split with the husband.

We weren’t fans sadly, neither of us finished our half.  The first sip was heavenly but every subsequent taste felt a little more bitter.  I washed my mouth out with a cordial.

And then we were off to the store.

Thankfully dinner was preparing itself at home because we were HUNgry like Attila by the time we got home.

And this meal was gooood!

Roasted green beans.

Tofu “fish” cakes from More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow.

And a hunk of Piccolo bread from Wegman’s bakery.

Some notes on the bread – a) it was perfect; chewy yet airy; b) I dipped it in olive oil but couldn’t get a good photograph; and c) another (smaller) hunk was also hungrily eaten in the car on the way home!

Are you CPR certified?

Bad Blogging of Book Club

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It’s 2am and I just got home; I’ll just give the important notes.

* Webster is doing fine, he came home with an antibiotic and an order not to worry

* I looooved The Help.  I may not have eaten or changed out of my smelly shirt this afternoon, but I read it in its entirety today

* My friends make really amazing food for book club

* I had 3-4 chocolate saltines and 5-6 chips with the most amazing crab dip

* I had two Arnold Palmers made with this!