Cashews, Coffee, And Curry

First things first, I need to announce my Taste of Treme Giveaway winner –

number

winnerJordan, let me know how the cookbook stacks up against Abita’s!  And please e-mail me with your mailing address.  Congrats!

I apologize for not posting the results sooner; we have had a rough couple of days around here.  Webster has been having seizures.

DSC04661

So far (that we know of) he had one Friday morning and another at 4:30 a.m. last night.  I ran him to the vet in hysterics on Friday and she said that there could be a variety of causes but that seizures are not all that uncommon in dogs his size and that she wasn’t too worried.  We are waiting for some lab results and I will be sure to keep y’all updated as we learn more.

DSC04660

Once he recovers he seems to be in good spirits but both episodes were pretty scary for me, especially because Adam has been out-of-town.  It is a bad feeling to see someone you love out of control and not be able to help.  Both times I just petted him and gave him kisses until it was over.

I had my sights set on a hot yoga class this morning but it just didn’t feel right to go, instead I stayed in bed an hour longer with the little man in my arms.  I’m glad to spend time with him but I do need to get myself to a class asap.  I have been to a grand total of 1 class during my unlimited two months; if I don’t get my act together over the next two weeks it will mean that I paid $75 for a single yoga session, yikes!

Once we got up, the dog and I did have a successful day.  Lots and lots of cleaning was done.  And I made  homemade cashew milk.

DSC04673

How Sweet Eats’ Vanilla Cashew Milk was good, but probably not worth the time committment to ever make again.  I’m glad I got to experience it once though.

I did a lot of taste testing while I made the cashew milk and then I took advantage of the dirtied blender and made a big smoothie for breakfast.

DSC04666

DSC04669

Midmorning we put on our sweaters and took a walk.

DSC04676

DSC04683

DSC04677

Webster is ultra-super-mega cute in his gray sweater and he got several compliments today.

Lunch was spread across some afternoon snacking.  An apple.

DSC04684

An Almond & Apricot Kind Bar.

DSC04687

A Nutffles Red Velevt Truffle.  (just 25 cents at 7-11)

DSC04688

A plate of baby carrots dipped in pineapple salsa.

DSC04693

And finally, I did some baking with the “pulp” from the cashew milk.

DSC04695

After I got out all of the liquid, I spread what I could salvage on a baking sheet and dried it in the oven at 200* for 20 minutes.  Then I mixed up the cashew meal and baked it macaroon-style {vanilla extract, egg white, sugar}.

DSC04696

They were far better than I was expecting and I ended up having 4.  I am very anxious for Adam to try them because he loves coconut macaroons and I think these were even tastier.

Basically all I’ve done over break is sit on the couch and eat junk (by the way, my pants currently don’t fit: oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!) so tonight’s dinner felt extra fancy and healthy.

DSC04701

I reeeeeeeeeally want to cook dinners like a grown-up this semester so I need to get back into the habit before school starts on the 21st.  This meal was a good place to start.

Roasted asparagus.

DSC04705

White rice leftovers – from Chinese take-out I ordered on Friday 70% because I didn’t want to leave the dog to get food and 30% because I wanted someone to deliver diet soda to me in the apartment.

DSC04706

Green Curry Fritters from Cooking Light.

DSC04709

I was really impressed with this recipe; such a fun combination of flavors!  I did make a few changes, all of which I suggest you follow my lead on if you make the recipe –

  • substituted turkey for chicken (am I the only one who greatly prefers ground turkey to chicken?!)
  • used an entire bunch of green onions, whites and greens
  • substituted nayo for canola mayo
  • used 2 Tbsp green curry paste
  • skipped the sesame oil
  • substituted 2 Tbsp of tamari for the soy sauce
  • substituted 1 heaping tsp Sriracha for the sambal oelek
  • substituted 1 tsp galangal paste for ground ginger
  • substituted coconut oil for canola oil
  • sized my patties to yield 10 instead of 12

Adam should be home in a couple of hours and tomorrow we are actually getting a visit from my Maryland aunt and one of my cousins!  I haven’t seen that set of family in far too long and I could not be more excited.

Now the dog is curled up at my feet and I’m about to pour a cup of tea and make myself finally organize my school materials from last semester.

Everyone please give your pets a big smooch for me.

Oh Baby Please Don’t Snow

Hello, again.  I didn’t blog the two days after Christmas because I got hit with a winter cold.  I’m still feeling badly but I’m definitely on the mend.  And yesterday was our 10th/5th anniversary!  10 years of being together and 5 of being married; they line up exactly because we made a point of getting married on our previous anniversary.

We spent yesterday doing our favorite things (sushi, froyo, a movie…) and just enjoying each other’s company.  I don’t talk about it a lot on the blog, but I am so fortunate to have Adam in my life and I could not be happier.  We both feel unbelievably lucky to get to be together.  We watched our wedding video this morning and had a great time reminiscing.  I’m going to try to get it up on YouTube if I can because it’s also hilarious!  And there’s great footage of my grandpa giving a toast (a poem he wrote for the event) that made me cry.  It is so amazing that we have his voice on record, it makes our wedding video all the more special to me.

Breakfast today was a big bowl of cereals.

DSC04256

All Bran Bran Buds, the last serving of Cascadian Farms Dark Chocolate Almond Granola (Adam ate through this stuff in a hurry!), toasted coconut, and skim milk.

I also had the rest of the dip (4-5 Tbsp?) with some kettle chips.

DSC04261

And this cookie butter candy bar that I found in the back of the pantry while putting away Christmas gifts.

DSC04271

Score!

The afternoon brought nachos (with black beans and salsa).

DSC04273

We need “tv watching food” for our “How I Met Your Mother Marathon.”  <– it’s good, but no “Scrubs”

To drink, I had the organic aloe vera drink from Aloic.

DSC04276

I have missed aloe drinks like crazy since we moved away from Brooklyn (where you find find them in every bodega, in fabulous combinations with tasty tropical fruits) so when Aloic offered to send me two bottles to try I happily accepted.  Here are the stats –

DSC04279

The drink’s taste was crisp and clean; it went down easy!  And the pieces of aloe were fun to chew.  If you’ve never tried an aloe drink with pulp, the closest comparison I can think of is the jelly that often comes with bubble tea.  Delicious.

And I ate the last of the tree pasta with salt and evoo.

DSC04275

I really need to consume some veggies but my cold is making everything healthy sound terrible.  Also, I have yet to go back to hot yoga and I can feel my wallet weeping with every missed class during my unlimited Groupon period.

I’m not going to post dinner, because I’m not sure yet what we’re having.  Instead two updates –

1. The weather – it is freaking snowing!

DSC04243

That was the view from inside the car before Adam dug us out yesterday so we could go on our anniversary date.

2. My hair – it’s freaking purple!

DSC04238

I continue to lose dye with each shower (that’s clearly not right) and as the color gets lighter it becomes much more noticeable.

DSC04240

DSC04235

I love it!

Our New Christmas Traditions

Happy holidays, from our family to yours!

We spent the last two days making memories and building our own traditions.  We missed our family like crazy, but other than it was one of our best Christmas days ever.  It helped that most of our new family traditions involved eating lots of tasty food!

One event I hope not to turn into a tradition was December 23rd’s 3 am grocery trip.  We had a slight misstep with the baking I did for my co-workers’ Christmas gifts.  One of my pies burnt to a crisp and I had to go buy a replacement gift in the middle of the night.  Also, we ate the salvageable half of the burnt pie… at 3 am.

DSC04051

I made my Hello Dolly Pies and they were delicious.  I hope everyone liked them!

DSC04070

We exchanged gifts at our company holiday breakfast.

DSC04075

Our bosses took us out for a delicious meal at Mythos.  I had never been there before but I’m still sure that what I ordered was the best thing on the menu.  A burrito with turkey, eggs, potatoes and cheddar, smothered in hollandaise.

DSC04073

It came with berries and Greek yogurt on the side and everything was delicious.  I ate half and brought the rest to Adam who loved it as well.

We ran a few errands when Adam picked me up from breakfast and we ended up going on an adventure.  Vineeta International Market has been hiding under my nose on Grant for months!

DSC04077

We had a grand time wandering around and came home with lots of goodies.

DSC04091

Including the Thumbs Up cola we shared.

DSC04095

Then we trimmed the tree.

DSC04086

We couldn’t buy a big tree because the dog is a monster but we enjoyed this little magical grow tree I bought Adam for Hanukkah.

And then we had pie.

DSC04105

Gaaah; can this be a yearly tradition?  That pie is so fricking good.

So was the eggnog seltzer I sipped on all day.

DSC04112

I had a salad for lunch.

DSC04115

Romaine with peanut sauce, buckwheat groats, chopped honeycrisp, and cheddar.

DSC04118

Plus the last of the sugar-plum candies.

DSC04122

We did pizza for dinner.

DSC04127

Why mess with our usual traditions?

Then we stayed up late watching “How I Met Your Mother.”  We’ve decided that’s our new tv marathon of choice.

This morning (Christmas!!) we slept in late like a couple of old people.  It was pretty great.  The dog started his morning with sirloin and bacon wet food.

DSC04131

And I started mine with toffee.

DSC04129

Plus a glass of eggnog with nutmeg.

DSC04135

Then we got all fancy with breakfast.

DSC04142

Seriously fancy.  Check out we bought at Wegman’s –

DSC04080

Lobster for Christmas breakfast?  That can definitely become a tradition!  We cooked turkey bacon and then used the skillet to sautéechopped lobster tail in butter.  Then we scrambled in egg whites (leftover from the pies, plus one yolk) and baby spinach.

DSC04144

It was quite good.  And lunch was a winner as well.

DSC04153

DSC04148

We used this Christmas tree pasta that my co-worker gave me.

DSC04146

I sautéed sliced mushroom, chopped red peppers, and baby spinach in butter and evoo.  Then I tossed in pasta, a big dollop of Nayo, and a huge handful of shredded cheese.

DSC04156

Ridiculous good.

And the bowl Cannoli ice cream I had next was even better.

DSC04173

DSC04170

Ben and Jerry just keep getting it right.

For dinner we went over to our friends’ house for a party.  We brought over a good dip, and terrible chips for everyone to try.

DSC04162

DSC04176

The White Chocolate Peppermint Pringle’s looked so nasty that there was no way Adam and I could pass up the experience of trying them for a measly $2.  Pro tip – freaking terrible, aka totally worth the money to try.

My dinner plate.

DSC04178

Tons of salad with mashed potato and mac and cheese.  With homemade strawberry shortcake for dessert.

DSC04199

I ate about half.  Plus a candy cane.

DSC04180

That cane was actually my hook in a candy cane fishing game we played.  We went through a series of challenges from Minute to Win It.  Hilarious.

DSC04187

DSC04186

DSC04182

DSC04190

DSC04196

Adam and I won!  Woot!

We took a long walk to get home and stopped for sushi on the way back.

DSC04203

I had two pieces of inarai (tofu skin) but some amazing fried thing.  It was the perfect way to end a great holiday.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

P.S. Here’s a video of Webster opening his Christmas present.  You’re welcome.

Use Your Noggin

Hello, hello!  The days I’m excited to blog are always the same days I’m utterly exhausted.  Go figure.  Saturday was a symphony of holiday flavors but also a 9+ hour day at work.  Instead of posting last night I had a total tantrum and passed out fully dressed… so here is a 2-day recap.

Remember when I said “Saturday was a symphony of holiday flavors”?  You know, like five seconds ago.  Well, my day went eggnog –> candy cane –> gingerbread; bam!

Nog based overnight oats for breakfast.

DSC03979

I put 1/4 cup oats, 1/2 cup Silk Soy Nog, and 1 Tbsp chia seeds in the fridge overnight, then Saturday morning I added 1 sliced banana and a big dash of Christmas sprinkles.

DSC03982

So festive and delicious.  Also, holy frick, I love chia seeds so much.

My candy cane came in the form of a Peppermint Stick Clif Bar during work.

DSC03975

This is Clif’s best seasonal flavor by far.  The bar has the perfect amount of peppermint.

Gingerbread was a cupcake surprise from the husband.

DSC03987

He had an appointment near Fairy Cakes in the afternoon and he brought me home a gingerbread stout cupcake with cream cheese icing.

DSC03991

It was ridiculous good, maybe the best cupcake I’ve ever had!  The cake had a great ratio of spice to sweet and was so fluffy and moist.  I shared one big bite with Adam but downed the rest with gusto.

The rest of the day’s eats were out of season, but still good.  From fall I borrowed an apple and a Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale.

DSC03996

DSC04004

I split the beer with Adam and ate the apple on my own.

I guess nachos are actually appropriate for any season, right?

DSC04002

Adam and I shared a tray, straight from the oven.  We topped scoop-style tortilla chips with roasted brocoli and green pepper, Newman’s Own Pineapple Salsa, and Cabot Reserve Aged Cheddar.

DSC03998

We loved them.  He was a little iffy on roasted brocoli as a nacho topping but it was delicious.  And I was worried about that type of cheese versus a regular cheddar, but that ended up being perfect too.  And the pineapple salsa is hands-down the best jarred salsa I’ve ever had.

Blah, blah, blah, and then I started having a fit and had to go to bed.  I didn’t get anywhere near enough sleep during the weeks Adam was gone and I’m still really freaking tired.

Sunday was a super hungry day and I ate a ton of crap.  A brunch of sorts, was low-fat coffee yogurt with honey roasted peanuts and honey,

DSC04008

a few pieces of toffee candy from home,

DSC04011

and several handfuls (about 3 servings or 250 calories worth) of dried turkey.

DSC04013

During work I drank a Starbucks Vanilla Doubleshot.

DSC03977

Working with crowds of Christmas shoppers is exhausting but also really rewarding.  Five different people today thanked me effusively for my help and that was a really good feeling.  Actually, one super hot guy told another customer that I was fantastic and I about died!

Adam picked me up after work for a fun treat.

DSC04025

Bubble tea from Gin Gin!  Best bubble tea I’ve ever had, and I’ve tried a lot.  I got a medium red bean milk tea with regular and popping boba (the purple one is Adam’s taro).

DSC04021

We both swooned over how good they were and finished our drinks in the car long before we made it home.  And we called my mom on speaker on the drive and drove her crazy scraping through our ice for errant tapiocas!

Dinner was pizza.

DSC04027

And we shared a beer.

DSC04029

We were gearing up for a long night of baking.

DSC04036

I’m giving my co-workers all pies for Christmas and we are not even close to finished still.  Sorry, husband!

We made smoothies mid-baking for strength.  Frozen strawberries and blackberries blended with So Delicious Mint Chocolate Coconut Milk.

DSC04032

And I’ve done a little nibbling while we baked.

I have a holiday breakfast with work tomorrow and then I’m spending Christmas Eve on the couch with Adam.  I have two days off in a row for the holiday and I am so excited to spend them with my boys!

DSC04031

Did you give any handmade gifts this season?

It’s Begining To Look A Lot Like Christmas

We are four days away and it is starting to snow!  We might have a white Christmas after all.  Also, the world didn’t end today; yay.

Sorry I missed a post last night (after going on and on about how I was “back,” natch) but I was still running errands as the clock neared midnight.  Two crazy days in a row are over and I’m ready to recap.

Thursday’s brunch included two of my best savory recipes.

DSC03896

A Nacho Turkey Burger topped with some Citrus Guacamole.

DSC03903

We even toasted our buns (in a hot skillet with a bit of Smart Balance Light) so the meal felt extra fancy.

I also had a deeelicious drink; 1 cup each Chameleon Cold Brew coffee and eggnog.

DSC03890

I know it’s cold out for iced coffee but I couldn’t resist the chance to pair my favorite coffee with my favorite winter flavor.

I worked 9+ hours and was sooooooo hungry when I got off.  I would have loved to go straight home for dinner but we had errands to run so I ended up getting Moe’s instead.

DSC03911

But who would complain about Moe’s?

I got a naked burrito (aka a cheaper rice bowl) with rice, black beans, sautéed onions, green peppers, and mushrooms, lettuce, corn salsa, cilantro, guacamole, and sour cream.

DSC03913

Plus chips with queso.

DSC03918

I ate all of the queso, 2/3 of the chips, and 3/4 of the bowl.

When we finally made it home (more than 12 hours after I left!) there were presents from both sets of parents.

DSC03924

My mom sent us homemade toffee.

DSC03921

It was the perfect bedtime snack.

Friday I started with a salad.  Romaine topped with 1.5 chopped turkey burgers, shredded cheese, a dollop of guacamole, buckwheat groats, and honey mustard dressing (I accidentally used way too much dressing and it was kind of gross, boo).

DSC03928

Also half a honeycrisp with 1 Tbsp each peanut butter and Biscoff spread, melted.

DSC03934

And I drank a Guava Rockstar Punched at work.

DSC03941

<– yum

I have the best bosses on earth and they surprised us with pizza for dinner mid-shift!  It was too exciting.  I had a a veggie slice and a buffalo chicken slice.

DSC03946

DSC03945

Mr. Pizza has the best crust in Buffalo.

And I won this candy bar.

DSC03957

When I got home I made myself eat fruits and veggies first though.  A handful of baby carrots.

DSC03949

An ambrosia apple.

DSC03953

And finally my tasty snack.

DSC03962

1 serving of Green and Black’s Toffee Milk Chocolate Bar,

DSC03964

and a cup of eggnog mixed with Silk Soy Nog.

DSC03967

Topped with a sprinkle of nutmeg.

Finally, some general updates –

  1. My hair – I’m still leaving the tub purple after every shower and my new hair is a bit lighter than the original photo I showed you guys.  I will have to have Adam snap a picture the next time I’m home during good light.
  2. Christmas – we are not going to visit any family, boo.  But Adam and I are going to have our first ever Christmas with just the two of us; it’s time that our little family started to develop some of our own traditions!

If you celebrate, where are you spending Christmas this year?  Do you and your significant other have any of your own holiday traditions?

Exam Eating

Sunday’s 3pm Spot coffee was a terrible mistake.  I got less than three hours of sleep that night!  It made Monday morning’s 6 am Starbucks coffee an absolute necessity.

DSC03666

That’s a tall, non-fat, eggnog latte and it was fabulous!  And I ate a Green Dragon apple (also fabulous) while I read through my notes.

DSC03663

My morning snack was from my #simplesurvivalkit.

DSC03668

A serving of Food Should Taste Good Chocolate Tortilla Chips to scoop up green salsa.

DSC03671

I had time to go home between my exam (went well-ish!) and work so I made myself a delicious plate of eggs for lunch.

DSC03674

At that point I still thought I was making a healthy dinner so I kept my eggs simple with no veggies.  Just 5 chopped slices of turkey – just regular old honey roasted like for sandwiches – cooked in 1 Tbsp Earth Balance with 2 eggs and Cabot’s Sharp Cheddar Light Cheese scrambled in.

DSC03678

They were amazing; I’m having a total love affair with eggs recently.

I brought a Hint Blackberry Fizz with me for my 8.5 hour shift.

DSC03684

The Fizz was good, but it didn’t pack the caffeine-punch that I desperately needed.

At one point during my shift I was so tired that I was in an actual daze!  On three different occasions I wanted to call Adam to bring me something and I had to really crank up my brain to work through why that didn’t make sense.  <– he was out-of-town

I ended up using the work Keurig to make an extra-strength coffee with cream and sugar.

I stopped at the Co-op for food the minute I got off of work.

DSC03687

I shoved that Orzo Greek Salad into my face while walking around 7-11.  Classy.

I had to run another errand on the way home from work and I called my parents to tell them I was home safely and suddenly it was 11 pm.  I was exhausted and cranky and so hungry I felt like I was going to pull my hair out if I didn’t get food into my mouth immediately.

I ended up eating a bunch of crap and staying up too late but not studying.  Of course.  Homemade nachos that I ate so quickly I think even Webster was a little disgusted.

DSC03696

That’s 2-ish servings of Nacho Cheese Tortilla PopChips microwaved with cheese.

DSC03690

I bought the chips with a sweet free coupon that PopChips sent me and sadly I don’t think I like the tortilla version as much as the originals.  Something about the texture feels off to me.  To be fair, PopChips are amazing so the standard was set high.

Plus Tandoor Chef Vegetable Pad Thai,

DSC03702

and a bowl of melted pb with cocoa powder.

DSC03706

I wish I could tell you that today has been better on the fruit and veggies front but sadly that’s not true.  This is definitely a week of exam eating.

Breakfast of champions.

DSC03709

Plus this Boston Cream Pie Seltzer that I thought would be amazing but ended up getting passed to a friend after one sip because it made me gag.

DSC03715

I have adored Polar this year though and one bad flavor won’t turn me off.  I am very excited about the Pear Vanilla I bought with it.  And I am crossing my fingers and toes that the Eggnog flavor with be out again in time for Christmas.

Starting at 7:40 I had two very frustrating meetings on campus.  I don’t know if I get to graduate or not (getting a 2nd degree vs. just taking the classes needed to sit for the RD exam), I don’t really understand what I need to have done for next semester, and I have lots more to do before Thursday.

I took a walk home to clear my head and got Subway for lunch.  A 6-inch tuna sub with lots of red onions.

DSC03722

Do you have a Subway rewards card yet?  Because my sandwich was free!

And I’ve got a healthy dinner waiting for me in the fridge…

DSC03717

Or just “a dinner.”  I’m blogging my winner of a dinner in advance because I have to go back to school for another meeting at 2:00 and then tomorrow morning I have two final exams that are going to crush me.

Plus this afternoon I am taking a study break to do something crazy.  There is a hint in this post.  Can you guess???

The Best Thing Ever

Howdy!  It was bedtime hours ago is bedtime but I’m bubbling over with good cheer so I wanted to blog.  Spread the love and all that.

Note 1 relates to note 2.  Note 1 – Please ignore my crazy hair and old lady scarf and focus in on how fabulous my giant puffy sleeves are.

Love them!  I bought this top back in my teacher days and it always made me feel like a professional city lady.

Note 2 – I got to Google Video Chat with Adam tonight and it was the best thing ever.

My husband is the most handsome man on the planet!  And me…. well, I’ve got my great sleeves.

Adam has been/will be traveling a lot for interview this year and suggesting that we use the video chat today is the smartest thing he’s ever done.  I can’t even tell you how good it was to see and hear him while we said goodnight.  And this best thing ever is actually a silver lining on what seemed like a terrible situation.  You see, yesterday Adam broke his cell phone.  And if he’d had his phone with him on his trip today we wouldn’t have been on Google Chat at all.  The money and time we are going to lose fixing it and the hassle of Adam having to navigate a new city tomorrow sans phone all pale in comparison to how wonderful it was to video chat this evening.  <–silver lining

Don’t get me wrong, all of the travel has been/will be hard.  A lot of his interview dates are right on top of one another and they make our busy schedule even more hectic.  For example – he got to the apartment at 2am this morning and was heading to the airport by 6am.  This meant I got 3 hours of sleep last night.  Ugh.

It was a double pizza day.  Making a smoothie meant getting out of bed five minutes earlier so instead I breakfasted on the cheese slice Adam brought me from our favorite pizza place in Brooklyn.

Amazing and also a bit sickening.

Clinic went well today, even though I was tired.  In the morning I partnered with another student to chart on a tube feed and in the afternoon I shadowed a RD on the renal transplant floor.

Lunch was a mix of food from home and $2 spent at the salad bar with our great nutrition department discount.  A ‘Thanksgiving leftovers’ sandwich of sliced turkey, homemade cranberry sauce, and cream cheese on a Sandwich Thin.

Plus Food Should Taste Good Sweet Potato Chips.

And salad bar with cherry tomato, cucumber, carrot, red onion, and honey mustard dressing.

I always have to really talk myself into salad at home but when I’m out and about it tastes so good!

Dinner was round two of pizza since I was stuck on campus working on a group project.

A buffalo chicken slice that was nowhere near as good as Zetti’s.  And I dropped a greasy piece of chicken on my nice pants.  I clearly should have gone with another salad instead!

Finally, I ate 2 oz of chocolate covered kettle corn nuts while I puttered around the house this evening.

They are good, but not as good as they were inside cookies.

How do you stay close to your loved ones when you are physically far away?

A Perfect, Peachy Visit

If you follow me on Instagram you may have already guessed that… WE WENT TO ATLANTA!!!

We got very lucky and had access to two free tickets that had to be used before the end of 2012.  I had two days off in a row from school and work so we started clicking on cities at random until we found a set of tickets that worked with my schedule.  We ended up in Atlanta!

We flew in late Tuesday night and left Thursday morning so it was basically a one-day trip and it was absolutely perfect.  We spent every last minute walking or eating – So. Much. Food! – and got to try lots of local flavors as well as froyo, twice!  Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous.

The gorgeous weather was totally in our favor; perfect walking around temperatures.

We started Wednesday morning with Sublime Donuts.

Adam and I shared three kinds –

Butterfinger,

dulce de leche,

and s’more.

Butterfinger was his favorite and s’more was mine. The donuts were great but they definitely confirmed that I’m not a donut person; I could tell that they were awesome but they just weren’t that exciting for me.  Give me a cupcake or froyo instead anyway.  <– twice that day!

Next up, we visited The World of Coca-Cola.

We learned some interesting Coke facts and saw lots of neat old products,

but the best part of the visit was the tasting room.

They had Diet Cherry Coke!

Actually, they had lots of flavors – 60+! -and Adam and I tasted every single one.

The basics –

Peppermint Sprite –

Africa –

Asia –

Latin America –

North America –

Europe –

Ahhh!  Adam was pretty ill by the time we were done but I told him that I’d be training for that day my entire life!

On our way out they even gave us a bottle to go.

I’m not even going to lie, I totally bought a Cherry Coke Zero a few hours later!

We spent a few hours walking around the downtown area before we were ready for lunch.

You won’t be able to guess what type of food we set our GPS for…

Froyo!  I got a million flavors (including apple pie!) with all of the non-fruity toppings.

To save a little money, we got lunch food from Publix instead of going to a restaurant.

I ate about 1/3 of that smoked turkey and mac and cheese.  Plus a short salted caramel hot chocolate while we recharged our phones at Starbucks.

For dinner we got Thai at Mali.  We shared the Moo Sho to start.

Steamed rolls stuffed with sautéed chicken, shrimp, egg, and vegetables.  Served with a peanut sweet plum sauce.

There was a little hiccup when they were out of the dish that brought me to the restaurant (seafood Pad Thai with crab claws), but we rallied by sharing two drinks.  A pineapple capirinha, pineapple, cacha rum, limes and sugar,

and a Thai tea-ni, tea infused vodka, vanilla vodka, sweetened Thai tea, and milk.

For my meal I got grilled salmon with sautéed vegetables in basil sauce, ordered Thai-spicy.

It was good; nice and spicy!  So spicy, in fact, that I ended up ordering a regular Thai iced tea to help cool down my mouth.

Dessert was round 2 of froyo.

I got taro, almond butter, and pecan pie froyo topped with sprinkles and sweetened condensed milk.

<– best bowl of froyo ever

The yogurt place was in a cool area and we ended up doing a final round of booze and food at the incredible Rosebud.

A can of PBR for me,

and pimento cheese with spiced saltines to share.

Amazing!  I adore pimento cheese and this stuff was ridiculous.  We waddled back to our hotel completely satisfied and happy.

It was an amazing trip and I feel very fortunate to have been able to take it.  Our Turkey Day wasn’t quite as traditionally thankful but I’ll tell you about that later.