Road Tripped

by Emily

We are in Ohio! My grandmother’s internet isn’t the best and it’s been a long day so I won’t be able to be as detailed as I would like. It’s been a good day though 🙂

We got up at 6:30 this morning and were out the door before 7am. The trip was 400+ miles so we had to get an early start. I packed up food for the road, a la Thanksgiving Challenge, threw on a sweatshirt and split.

I had some am amazing grass – 1banana, 1scoop grass, big pour skim milk, 8 ice cubes, blender.

I was so proud of the husband for drinking some too!

A few hours later I ate a yummy leftovers sandwich.

1.5 buffalo blue bean patties on toasted bread with honey and jack daniels mustard.

We split the driving fairly evenly – 2hours Adam, 2hours me, 2hours Adam. The switches were a nice excuse for pee and diet soda breaks!

When we got in to Piqua my grandparents had a great lunch ready for us.

Carrot and dill soup was delicious.

And the two-cheese grilled cheese were so nice and gooey.

There were also spicy bread and butter pickles and sunchips on the table.

I ate more chips throughout the day than was a good idea!

To drink I had half of Adam’s holiday Coke,

and I split a lime beer with my grandmother.

For dessert I had a cherry cordial from the box of candy we brought as our hostess gift.

We had a great time hanging out with my grandparents. We played Euchre and my grandpa bought us all fun lotto cards!

I didn’t win, but it was nice to dream.

My aunt and uncle drove up this evening and we all had a great dinner together (more soup and sandwiches!).

The soup was white chicken chili,

and the sandwiches were pulled chicken – I think we are done with chicken for a bit!

I also had one delicious deviled egg.

Dessert was homemade old fashioned cream pie.

It was awesome, but the crust was store-bought so I just scraped out the filling.

Plus coffee with 2% milk.

Look at their adorable sugar bowl!

Now it’s almost 10 and I would love to get in bed! Overall it’s been a fabulous (filling) day! My grandmother is such a good cook and it’s so great to be with family.

What do you usually pack for road trips?

24Nov2009

An Early Thanksgiving

by Emily

I’m too stuffed to be sad! I have so much to talk about in this post and I’m so excited (and so drunk) that I know things will be left out.

This afternoon I picked up the husband and we headed to my imaging appointment. We were in the waiting room forever so I ended up snacking on an Apricot Pumpkin Prana Bar.

Good. And the good – but not surprising – news is that I don’t have a blood clot. Unfortunately, this meant I didn’t really get more information. I don’t know how I feel about the doctor who saw me yesterday so I actually made another appointment, this time with a sports medicine doctor, for Monday. Sadly, I decided to push back training one more time, so that I will have still been on a break when I meet with this new doctor. 😦

When we got home I started packing and one of Adam’s friend’s came over to hang out. He gave the buffalo blue bean patties a rave review!

Once he left it was time to get gussied for date night.

When I introduced the Thanksgiving Challenge I warned you guys that we had a dinner out pre-planned, a reward for a check from my old job. Tonight was the night.

We went to Juniper, a place on Elmwood that serves 100% local food. Nothing comes from more than 50miles away. Their menu changes seasonally, and the entire concept has had me in a tizzy for months. Our date did not disappoint! For starters, I was in love with the ambiance.

I even loved the look (and labeling!) of the menu! [i. porridge / ii. relish / iii. bird’s work / iv. aristology / v. fixations]

I actually don’t like Turkey Day food all that much (gasp) and this ended up being my mini-Thanksgiving. We ate so much food! I am beyond sad that my camera isn’t better, because my shots aren’t that great. It feels imperative that y’all understand how fabulous this was!

I started the evening with a glass of Dr. L, reisling.

Yums, I thought I wasn’t a wine drinker but I really really enjoy reislings. Wine hits me pretty hard though, halfway through dinner I was definitely nearing wasted. Adam got a beer made with Kona Coffee that was pretty kick ass as well.

And soon homemade foccacia and evoo were delivered to the table.

I ate the piece shown x2, dipped in oil.

The husband went soup and salad for his appetizer route. romaine ‘taco white anchovy, oven dried tomato salsa, peccorino.

I only took a small bite but it wasn’t really my thing.

mushroom pearls miso, ginger, barley.

This soup was fabulous. I only took a few bites because I knew he loved it but it was so nice and meaty!

For my appetizer I went slightly less traditional, bobo’s not wings eggplant tempura, vitamin f, grilled celery.

Ohmyfrickinggod! This rocked my socks. I would eat chicken wings every meal if the chicken wing part of the equation didn’t slightly skeeve me out, so this was perfection. This appetizer made the top three list of best things I’ve ever eaten. It was spicy and crunchy and perfect. I demolished it.

For entrees Adam got the chicken little poussin, chevre, rosemary smokies, fig jam.

Delish. The meat was super succulent and the fig jam was as good as you would imagine. Adam said his favorite component of the evening was the dark meat of his chicken. He ate every single scrap of meat he could find, and even did the wishbone with me!

I won! I wouldn’t have mattered though, I definitely have everything I could wish for.

I ordered the ponzu salmon bok choy, forbidden rice, pickled lime.

I was pretty stuffed at this point so I only ate about 1/3 of mine. I asked for my fish well done and I thought it was cooked perfectly. The lime flavor on the veggies was out of this world.

Honestly though, the best thing on the table wasn’t even the entrees. It was this random bowl of roasted squash.

Holy frick!!!!! This is literally the best thing I’ve ever eaten. When I took my first bite I made Adam stop talking for a minute so I could just sit there.

We were pretty stuffed at this point but we knew we had to try dessert. Adam got the chocolate ‘bomb.’

I know this sounds crazy from a food lover, but I really don’t like chocolate cake! I took a small nibble, and I could tell it was good, but it just wasn’t my thing. He loved it though. It had Grand Marnier and candied orange peel on top. The homemade lavender chocolate ice cream was ridiculous.

I went with my favorite, trio of creme brule vanilla bean, cinnamon, pumpkin.

Gah! Indescribable. I don’t know how I managed to let Adam split this with me. I was most excited for the cinnamon, but pumpkin ended up being out of this world. This was another moment when I just had to sit in silence.

I honestly can’t describe how much I enjoyed this meal. I must have thanked Adam 20times during dinner for putting up with my out of control joy! I was in love with everything in my mouth. I felt so thankful.

Now that we are home I need to finish packing quickly and get to bed. The plan is to leave before 7am tomorrow and I do not want to be a sleepy driver. I will hopefully be doing regular posts this weekend but depending on the internet situation there may just be a big recap. Whatever may happen, I hope all my readers and their families have a fabulous Thanksgiving.

What is your favorite restaurant? I loved everything about Juniper – the decorations, the flavors, and the ideals. The only other place I feel so strongly about is Serendipity in New York City.

22Nov2009

Bowled Over

by Emily

Hello, hello! I’m up pretty late for a sick kid so I’ll try to keep this quick. The movies didn’t really work out – we went to the mall and missed not one, but two! showings. We ended up being at the mall for two fruitless hours, we walked around a bit and had a long chat on a bench.

I was actually glad we missed the second show because on the ride home I got a killer migraine that would have hit mid-movie. After some Excedrin and a quick nap I was ready to make a fancy shmancy dinner. I love brie, and was so excited to see some in my Foodbuzz swag. And actually the inspiring recipe can from a magazine I read on my California trip!

We loosely followed this recipe from Real Simple, Pasta with Brie, Mushroom and Arugula. Our changes –

we used ziti instead of penne
we used white mushrooms instead of button mushrooms
we used a cooking onion rather than a red onion
we subbed 1T butter substitute (Promise) for the evoo

It was pretty tasty! But I guess it’s a good thing I’m sick or I’m not sure one meal for the whole day would have covered it 🙂

After dinner we headed out to meet some friends at a local bowling alley. We called and found out games are $3 after 9 so it seemed like a good idea, even though I’m not a very good bowler. We played (and drank) with three other couples and it was a lot of fun!

I managed to finagle it with the snack bar and the bartender to get a chocolate milkshake with a double shot of Jack Daniels.

Perfection.

And later on I had a diet coke with amaretto.

None of my games were great, but the second was the worst (I was playing under Benji’s name) –

Embarrassing! I had a great time though, I definitely want to go back.

Now the goal is sleep before 1am. My workload tomorrow is pretty light, I only have class one day before Thanksgiving some I’m hoping to get lots of pre-work done next week. Sweet dreams folks!

Do you like ‘couples sports’ like bowling and mini golf?

15Nov2009

This Needs to Be a No Crap Zone

by Emily

I’m a little drunk and have a scary amount of work to do tomorrow so I’ll keep this speedy.

I might not have gotten much work done this afternoon but I did have a very calming snack.

A Tazo tea sample pinched from my hotel room and Frog Hollow Farms cookies.

And I baked a pie!

We had an extra Wholy Wholesome WW Pie crust and Adam is a crazy person who has been requesting ‘smores pie minus the actual ‘smores crust. I followed my grandmother’s recipe, but subbed chocolate chips for bars since that’s what we had in the cupboard. You better believe I did some nibbling while I cooked.

Finally, it was time for showers and gussying. I straightened my hair for the first time in my entire life and I think I like it.

The semi-formal was at the Samuel’s Grand Manor, which ended up being a very nice spot. Dinner was actually a sit down meal and the company was great. Adam is so lucky to be in school with such a great group of people.

We hit up the open bar when we arrived; whiskey sour. [I started drinking and the lights went down so my pictures were pretty much doomed at this point]

And I had a small appetizer plate.

Before the bar closed for dinner I had a bourbon and ginger ale.

Yummy salad.

Bread and butter.

Vegetarian entrée.

Since I don’t eat steak the waitstaff hooked me up with this veggie pasta plate. I ate all the veggies but pretty much ignored the pasta.

There was ice-cream for dessert but it didn’t look exciting so I gave mine to Adam. I did however, break into the centerpiece.

We totally took that candy cane home with us too!

After dinner Daniele delivered the bourbon and ginger that put me over the edge.

We hung out for a bit, but my foot hurts from my doctor’s appointment and without dancing we ended up leaving before 10:30. We were actually almost to our house before I had the world’s most intense craving for chicken fingers. It’s possible we drunkenly made our way to Denny’s (ew!) and I decided that this wouldn’t count towards the Challenge because I didn’t get enough dinner at our pre-planned event.

The craving –

I ate three and then decided I should probably be done. P.S. I am totally sick. Every time we’ve eaten crap this year it’s been confirmed for me that I just can’t. I didn’t overeat at all (in fact my dinner all total was probably on the small side) but I feel like I’m going to explode. My body can not tolerate fried food.

I also got embarrassingly excited about this –

Peppermint hot cocoa? Yes please! Honestly, it was worth Denny’s food to be able to sit with my husband. We talked about my goals and possible plans for next year. He is so busy and it’s hard to focus at home, it was nice to just sit and talk.

Now I’m going to brush my teeth (and possibly puke) and collapse into bed. Please, God, please let me wake up and get some work done tomorrow!!!

9Nov2009

Home Again Home Again

by Emily

I’m sorry to do another quickie (that’s what HE said, ba-zing!) but I have a test tomorrow and my flight didn’t get in until midnight.

This morning Camile and I walked down to Pier 39 to see the sea lions one more time.

I think I’m in love!

After a quick shower and pack-up we made our way over to Café Lulu for a goodbye brunch. They had a make your own bloody mary bar!

I also had some pear and frisee salad,

and a bit of soufflé.

It was a good breakfast.

On my first flight I ate a KIND Plus bar,

and a serving of veggie chips from Oh! Nuts,

and a Cliff Mojo Bar.

It was a five hour flight!

I had a quick layover, during which I spotted a Freshens. Not getting some wasn’t an option.

Small cup of fat free pecan praline, so worth the $3.59 and lack of real dinner.

Now I’ve got to get some Zzzzzs so I can hope not to fail my Chem test tomorrow. I had a fabulous time this weekend, San Francisco was great and it really was a joy to connect with the other bloggers. I met so many people who I deeply respect and had many good conversations. Thanks Foodbuzz!

Challenge Balance – $35.30

8Nov2009

Dinner with Outstanding in the Field

by Emily

Tonight was amazing! I am so sorry for another lame post, I truely truely am. I get so excited about food but I have so much to say that it is too much and I’m exhausted.

Dinner was put on by Outstanding in the Field (a very locavore, farm to table, excited about sustainability organization) and was held at Greenleaf Warehouses. The setting was legit a warehouse, I love industrial/fashionable settings.

You can just go ahead and multiply this glass of vino by 3.

And I had 1 shrimp crisp,

and a whipped tuna cracker.

Dinner was family style, so we got to serve ourselves. First was a pickled veggie plate Ahi tonnato on pain de mie with gochukaura and parsley.

I loved how spicy everything was.

Next was soup Mushroom dashi, maitake, shimeji, enoki mushrooms.

It was very similar to a miso but the mushrooms had an insanely lemon taste. This was the only thing I didn’t love.

Then they brought out udon noodles with fresh calamari Udon, grilled Monterey calamari in a browned butter ponzu reduction, cucumber, kaiware, frisee & yellow pear tomato with chojang & sesame vinaigrette.

I was very nervous about it but Jenna convinced me to try a taste.

So glad I did! I actually really liked the calamari but the soba noodles were the best, very doughy and raw. Plus the dish had a good spice kick.

Then came salmon and mushroom risotto Salmon baked with dashikombu, fried garlic and Japanesse curry powder / Mushroom risotto with koshihikari rice, crispy maitake mushrooms.

I don’t know why I took such a tiny serving, but it was delicious. I love love loved the curry powder.

There was oxtail, but I obviously ignored it, and then came out a platter of brussels sprouts Roasted brussels sprouts, ponzu fried garlic, guanciale, bonito flakes. Jenna told me there was short rib in them, so I resisted. But brussels sprouts are in my top five all time food favorites, so I finally said f’ it and ate one. Delish. Then the waitress came by, and said “vegetarian.” So I loaded up a plate.

So.Fricking.Fantastic. They tasted like McDonald’s fries, which sounds awful but was just amazing. However, apparently, so not vegetarian. They definitly had pork in them. Which makes me quite sad 😦

Finally, dessert. Ah dessert Koshihikari rice pudding, cookie crumble, and warren pear.

I love rice pudding, but the pear, oh the pear! I had a bite of pear at the farmer’s market this morning and I’ve been telling people all day that it was seriously the best thing I’ve eaten out here. The dessert was from the same farm!!! I was in heaven.

Before we headed out they did Foodbuzz awards which was a lot of fun. I definitly congratualate some very deserving winners!

A bus ride later, Camile and I walked the mile back to our hotel for the last time. On the way home I just might have seen a 7-11 and shrieked at the top of my lungs. Bosenberry and cola, oh yeah.

Even more exciting? Getting in bed now! Tomorrow morning there is a goodbye breakfast and then I fly all day long and get back home at midnight! I have a big test on Monday so I’m not sure what the posting situation will be. I hope everyone else’s weekend ends well!!

Challenge Balance – $31.71

7Nov2009

ANOTHER Drogging Post!?

by Emily

Yes, yes, I am drunk again (i.e. yet another lame post). We’ve been so busy and carrying so much stuff, and tasting so many things that my pictures are pretty weak. It’s funny that my worst blog posts are coming from a blogging event! Also, disclaimer – I do not have a ton of time, I apoligize profusely for not linking in this post!

I dragged myself out of bed at 6:30 this morning and met up with a group of runners to hit the piers.

I actually jogged the mile over from my hotel first to met them at theirs. Everyone is so friendly and nice and I was beyond happy to be able to keep up…..until I couldn’t! I ran 1.87miles with the group before I thought I’d die and I stopped to walk. Brittany was super sweet and walked with me (I guesstimate about 2+miles?) around the piers. We stopped by the sea lions which was pretty thrilling.

I ended up running back to my hotel too (more than a mile because I got a little lost) so I actually got in a pretty good work out!

After a quick shower Camile and I headed back to the ferry building for the first event. There was a farmer’s market on and it was so gorgeous.

I had a few small samples,

and I had to buy a diet coke ($1.25) because I was super thirsty.

Then we went to an olive oil tasting class, which was super informative.

And then a large group of us headed to the “tasting pavillion” which was almost like a food expo. We got to watch Brandi cook her winning recipe.

So.Many.Samples!!! I had lots of good eats. Again, about 95% is shown.

The Hell or High Watermelon Wheat Beer people rocked my socks, I totally got my own can!

Camile and I left early and I spread my swag out on the bed and did my evil genius laugh.

All my swag in total –

We walked to FedEx and my swag package weighed 16lbs! Now we have showers, and then a walk back to the other hotel before we are bussed to a fancy dinner. I can’t wait!

1Nov2009

Happy 80th Nana!

by Emily

Hello, hello, hello! Sorry to skip out for the weekend but I had a fabulous time. I flew to Ohio (with a bunch of other family members) to celebrate my grandmother’s 80th birthday. We did party/family time all weekend, which meant TONS of cake! I missed the husband a lot but I had a great time, my family is so funny! This post won’t be as detailed, due to length, and if you get too bored skip to the bottom to find the winners of the Zevia contest.

Friday we had to get up nice and early to make it to the airport for my 6:35am flight. I was hungry when I got to the airport but it seemed early and I knew I would sleep my first flight so I decided to wait.

On my layover I got egg and cheese on a cheddar jalopeno bagel.

It was very tasty but I dropped half on the floor so I only ate half of it.

I was so excited when I finally got in to the Dayton airport!

My mom and grandma picked me up and we drove over to Tipp City to do some shopping (also the location of my grandmother’s surprise party!). We saw all sorts of fun things.

Nana (grandma) was impossible to get to her surprise party, she kept insisting the chosen restaurant was too nice, too slow, etc. I finally had to pretend I was going to pee my pants if we didn’t at least go in to the restroom! When she saw all of her friends she was so surprised she cried!

My mom and my aunt (who flew up with my mom a few days earlier than me) did such a good job planning and decorating!

We did a party lunch at Coldwater Cafe and it was very nice. I got a bloody mary to drink.

And for lunch I split – more halfs! – a turkey pannini (with artichoke spread and cheese) with my mom.

I ignored the chips but the sandwich was great.

My grandmother cried when she opened her presents and again when they brought in the cake!

I am not really a chocolate cake fan so I took a small bite and then packed up the rest to bring home to Paps (grandpa). I also packed up all the bread from the table baskets. My family teased me but they are either going to use it again, ewww, or throw it out, wasteful.

We got to go home long enough to pick up my grandpa and then we – me, my mom, my aunt, my grandparents, and the dog – squeezed into the car for a long drive to Toledo where my uncle lives. I seriously can not handle how funny my family is, we had such a good time!!

We were running late when we got there so we had a quick dinner from Wendy’s. I got a baked potato with broccoli and cheese.

I also ate one of my pumpkin cheesecake cupcake/muffins, so good!

My uncle is a high school football coach so we went to watch his team. It was their last game of the season, against their biggest rival, and they whooped them, so it was a lot of fun. My uncle had the marching band play happy birthday to Nana and she cried again!

After the game we went to a ‘end of season’ party my uncle was throwing for the other coaches. I had a small vodka and coke,

and a small slice of pizza.

And then there was more cake and more tears!

Quite a night was had by all 🙂

For Saturday breakfast I had an English muffin with homemade strawberry jam and scrambled eggs.

We spent the morning having family time before we headed to another birthday party, this one for my cousin’s baby! Lunch was buffet style at the party.

Cheesy potatoes,

fruit,

and veggies.

And of course more cake – I just ate the icing off this piece.

Over the course of the party I sipped a beer

and had a good time hanging with my mommy and grandma.

My mom, aunt, and I (all Virgin Islanders) walked to and from the party because it was so exciting to be cold! It was sad saying goodbye to my cousins but then the six of us packed back into the car and headed back to my grandparents’ house. More uproarious fun was had, including the hilarious/horrifying realization that my grandmother – who was driving – talks with her hands a lot!

It was Halloween, so I broke out some fancy chocolate I bought for the occasion.

We all had a small piece.

When we got home we had to rush to get dressed before meeting my grandparents’ best friends for dinner. It was a great last meal. I had a bloody mary again, to which I added a ton of Siracha and sizzled my mouth off!

My grandmother shared her side salad with me,

and she and Rose gave me their martini olives.

They are both amazing and both happen to read the blog, hi guys!

I also had a small piece of bread.

I was torn on ordering but when the waitress said unlimited toppings on the flat bread pizza I was sold! I asked for roasted red pepper, green peppers, red onions, caramelized onions, tomato, spinach, and mushrooms.

Mmmn. I ate 3/5 pieces.

It was another late night and I think we left my grandparents thoroughly exhausted!

This morning my mom and I both had 6:50 flights so it was another early trip to the airport. Goodbyes were easy; I see my grandparents for Turkey Day and my mommy and aunt for Christmas!

For reasons explained in the next post, I packed my own breakfast. A banana from my grandmother’s house,

and a seasonal Pumpkin Spice Cliff Bar from home.

My flights were all blissfully uneventful. I was very excited to see the husband at the airport. Apparently he went to a Halloween party last night so I’ll have to track down some pictures of his costume. He made himself spaghetti this weekend so I had a big bowl of that (doctored with mozarella and red pepper flakes) while I wrote this monster post.

My fingers are exhausted, it is definitely time to say Goodbye! I will “see” you all this evening, hope everyone else had a good weekend!

Zevia Winners

I used a random integer generator to choose the winners.

Runners Up who receive a mixed six pack

(#18) Annalene – i actually have tried Zevia before & I have to say that while they may take some time to getting used to the flavor after the initial drink or 2 these are actually quite good! my favorite is the lemon lime
(#5) Jenny – I would love to try the all-natural diet sodas. I work the night shift, and am obsessed with my diet Pepsi….but always feel guilty about the weird ingredients and colorings.
(#17) Erin – I really want to try this stuff since I love the occasional diet coke.
(#2) Holly – I’d love to win – this soda has been all over blogs and I’ve never tried it!
(#14) Erin– Zevia sounds great!

Grand Prize Winner who receives a mixed case

(#9) Molly – Sounds good!

Winners – shoot me an e-mail (emilyhwaxATgmail.com) by Tuesday morning to claim your prize!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: booze

Road Tripped

An Early Thanksgiving

Bowled Over

This Needs to Be a No Crap Zone

Home Again Home Again

Dinner with Outstanding in the Field

ANOTHER Drogging Post!?

Happy 80th Nana!

Zevia Winners