Mary – Page 35 – Fervent Foodie

The best laid plans

October 26, 2010 7 Comments

Coming off of ANOTHER big tax deadline followed by ANOTHER vacation, my body is craving some normalcy and home-cooked meals. I’ll admit, eating out is probably my favorite activity, but enough is enough already!

When I sat down Sunday afternoon to plan out my groceries for the week I was sad to see that I had 1 networking breakfast, 3 networking lunches, and 2 networking dinners this week! Argh!

Making healthy choices at restaurants is really difficult for me. Typically, I just order whatever I want when I am out to eat and then make sure to eat a normal size portion rather than the entire trough of food they bring to the table. When I am looking for a healthy meal at a restaurant, I have the hardest time making a decision. Even if I go with the “safe” salad option, it’s practically impossible to know what sort of calories/fats/carbs they’ve crammed into every nook and cranny of my leafy greens. I guess part of the problem is that I’m an anal accountant by nature. I need to see the numbers!

Despite being over-networked this week, I was super excited to attend my first CLE Blogger meet up Monday night! I made the trek from Akron to Cleveland to meet up with a group of lovely ladies at L’Albatros.

The group consisted of: Michelle of All Lacquered Up, Feeding Maybelle, Kali of Finishing Firsts, Suzanne of life on Mars, Alicia of Poise in Parma, Shannon of The Daily Balance, ME!, and Katie of Healthy Heddleston.

A special thank you to Alicia for organizing the meet up (and for sharing the lovely photo).

L’Albatros was FABULOUS. The wait staff was SUPER attentive and the ambiance was pure swank:

(photo from http://www.albatrosbrasserie.com/)

The best part of the meetup was not the food (gasp!) but getting to meet such great women. I’ve said over and over again on the blog that there is something uniquely energizing about entering a room full of chatting women. At one moment during dinner I paused and looked around the table—each of us were actively engaged in the conversation and the noise in the room reminded me of the loud rumble you hear and feel as a jumbo jet flies over head.

There were a TON of great options on the menu, but I ended up going with the Chicken Breast with Goat Cheese and mashed potatoes. Yes, goat cheese AND mashed potatoes. Insert drooling here. Oh and there were sundried tomatoes…..

Comforting yet swanky:

This was an absolutely delicious dinner. The mashed potatoes literally melted away in my mouth and the chicken was moist and super flavorful. I’ll definitely be coming back to L’Albatros!

Another great aspect of the restaurant was the cheese show. When you ask for a plate of cheese, they give you a PLATE. OF. CHEESE.

Notice that two of the cheeses must be eaten with a spoon. Mind = blown 🙂

QUESTION: For those of you out there who have a lot of work meetings that involve food, how do go about making healthy choices?

My Favs, Ramblings

Just call me Miss June

October 21, 2010 17 Comments

One of the great things about being in public accounting is that we are encouraged to network our little hiney’s off. When I came back to the Akron area, I started looking for a networking group to join. At first I attended the standard accounting networking groups, but I was feeling less than motivated. Oftentimes at these meetings you will exchange business cards with the attendees at your table and do a 30-second commercial on who you are and what you do in your career. At one of my first meetings, I did just this and as I turned to hand my business card to the old man in the blue suit sitting next to me he held up his hand to stop me and said “No thanks.”

Are you kidding me?

Needless to say, that was the LAST time I ever attended a meeting for that group. A couple months later, I stumbled on the Knowledgeable Network of Women (KNOW), which is a program of the Greater Akron Chamber. As I walked into the lobby for my first KNOW meeting I was immediately taken aback by the energy that exuberated from the room. Tons of women from all types of career backgrounds crammed into a lobby talking, laughing, and getting to know each other. THIS was the type of group I needed. No old men in blue suits to refuse my business cards, but rather a group of 300+ women all genuinely interested in getting to know you and helping you to achieve success in any way they could.

Women helping women. It doesn’t get any more awesome than that!

Over the years, I have become more and more involved in the KNOW in Akron, and I am very excited to say that I will serve as the chair of the group for 2011! As such, I was included in the 2011 calendar (on the centerfold, no less).

Just call me Miss June 😀

Restaurants, Travel

Bye bye New Orleans (part 4 of 4)

October 19, 2010 7 Comments

Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!

Started with breakfast at a New Orleans staple:

Mother’s!

The line outside of Mothers was a little intimidating, and we contemplated seeking nourishment elsewhere. Much to our surprise, the line moved pretty fast… and even though there was an ADDITIONAL waiting line inside the restaurant we had food in front of us within 20 minutes of our arrival at the restaurant.

Unsuspecting diners waiting patiently for some grub:

Even though Mother’s is known for their ham, I have to say the BEST part of this breakfast were the homemade preserves that come with the biscuit.

I also ordered the Jerry’s omelet (egg whites, bell pepper, red onion, mushrooms, and turkey), which came with a giant blob of grits. Bleh I hate grits.

The omelet was quite tasty as was the giant belgum waffle that Jarrod ordered:

After breakfast, we headed to the Corner Oyster Bar for some football!

Luckily, they had the Sunday ticket so we were able to watch the Saints game while simultaneously watching the Browns lose to the Steelers. Awesome! :-/ Go brownies.

Showing some team spirit on the ceiling:

While watching the first half of the game, we ordered up some Down South Eggrolls:

They were delicious!

Here we go Brownies, here we go!

On the tour yesterday, the guide told us we had to try a gyro from Ali Baba because they are “just outta sight man!” So at half time, we wandered over to try things out first hand.

The goods:

Jarrod likes to pretend he’s a pirate anytime he eats a gyro. Haha 😀

So, this gyro was definitely tasty (but sorry NOLA, Nate’s Deli in Cleveland still has the vote for best gyro this mouth has ever tasted).

After the gyro, we headed back towards our hotel.

On the road again….

Then decided to stop at the Checkered Parrot for the last quarter of the games.

Jarrod posing as a Saints fan in his newly acquired Saints T shirt:

One thing that I never got used to in New Orleans was being able to take our drinks to-go! No open container law still boggles my mind. But, it did make for some fun city strolling 🙂

Sometime after leaving the Checkered Parrot I fell into a food coma and forgot to take pictures the rest of the day. I’m sure this coma was driven solely by excessive food consumption and had nothing to do with the cocktails I enjoyed during the game 😉

After the game, we headed back to the hotel for a 2 hour siesta, then we decided to grab some bruschetta at Primos (again)… we are such suckers for bruschetta! Afterward, we started a trek to an Italian restaurant I had found online, got tired halfway there, and decided to eat dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe instead. Lazy bums 🙂

We went with the twisted mac and cheese and hot fudge brownie bowl. I’d say we made a very wise decision indeed!

Before heading home Monday morning, we had time for one last meal in the Big Easy. We passed Daisy Dukes Express several times every day that we’d been in town, and given its close proximity to our hotel we decided to give it a try for breakfast.

The restaurant looked like a real hole in the wall from the outside, so we were pleasantly surprised by how nice the inside of the restaurant was!

Very clean and slightly swanky! Love it!

Jarrod went with the Cajun Omelet:

Luckily I was able to steal a few bites of this beauty because it was fanfriggintastic!

I went with the standard 2 eggs over medium with hash browns and sausage:

HANDS DOWN best breakfast we had in New Orleans!

Overall, and AWESOME few days away with the Man Candy. I’d love to go back to New Orleans sometime so that I can check out the districts outside of the French quarter. First stop though has to be Cafe Du Monde for a beignet!

For those who were wondering, we stayed in the Holiday Inn Express on Carondelet (technically in the Business district). We got an AWESOME deal on this hotel (only $60 per night–BALLER!). The hotel included free wi-fi (obvious necessity), free continental breakfast, and it was only 1 block to Bourbon Street. Everything in the French Quarter was in walking distance, and we did not rent a car. Taxi to and from the hotel was $33 (for two people) each way. Overall, I was really happy with the hotel. Anytime you are looking for a good bargain, you have to be willing to make sacrifices. The Holiday Inn express was clean, but I did notice a lot of the repair work on the building was not so great. Give me a clean room, comfy bed, and good location, and I can overlook crooked electrical outlets and slow draining showers.

Restaurants, Travel

Taking it easy in the Big Easy – Part 3

October 18, 2010 5 Comments

Day 3 in the Big Easy started off with:

Haha, well actually it started off with FREE continental breakfast at the hotel. Thennnnn the Maker’s Mark (for Jarrod anyway… I think that stuff tastes like nail polish remover).

After breakfast and some meandering through the French Quarter

Then we stopped at Primo’s for some snacking:

Primo’s got horrible reviews online, but we were dying for some bruschetta and they happened to have it on the menu so we decided to ignore the reviews.

I love how all the bars and restaurants down here are open to the streets. Most of the buildings have huge windows that you can open up and it makes you feel like your are in a courtyard instead of inside the building.

I should also mention that the whether has been AMAZING the whole time we have been here. 80+ degrees, sunny, and no humidity. GLORIOUS!

I’m so glad we ignored those reviews on Primo’s! Take a look at this beauty:

Jarrod said it was the best bruschetta he ever had. I don’t know about the BEST, but it definitely was REALLY friggin delicious.

We also ordered a small margherita pizza:

This was tasty too—just needed a little hot sauce!

After lunch we had some time to kill, so we popped a squat across the street from Jackson Square to watch some street performers.

These guys were actually REALLY good!

And they drew quite the crowd!

It’s crazy what these guys can do with their bodies. I can’t do a pushup let alone hold my whole body up with one arm and spin it around like a helicopter while simultaneously bouncing up and down:

Me and the BF in Jackson Square:

After lunch, we headed to our French Quarter & Cemetery tour (which I purchased on Groupon a month or so ago). The tour only cost us $10 a piece, and it was a self-guided walking tour that lasted 1.5 hours. SCORE!

While walking around the French Quarter a random man shouted out Jarrod “Man you big as an Avatar! Look at that big ole white boy!” Neither of us have seen the movie (so we’re not quite sure how Jarrod reminded the guy of an Avatar), regardless we both busted out in laughter at the man’s explanation (as did the group of people walking behind us). Only in New Orleans 😀

You may be wondering why the heck we wanted to go on a cemetery tour on our vacation. No, it’s not because we are nearing on Halloween. It’s because New Orleans cemeteries are uniquely interesting:

Since the city is located below sea level, all of the deceased are buried ABOVE the ground.

What’s even more interesting is that family members are added to the tombs over CENTURIES. We passed many tombs where the first family member was buried in the 1800’s and over the years more and more family members were added (even as most recent as 2004)!

Jarrod and the tour guide:

The tour guide told us that this is the tomb Nicholas Cage built for himself:

Even though this tour was REALLY cool, we both felt odd smiling for a picture in front of a tomb (hence the grimace on Jarrod’s face) 😛

After the tour, we headed back to the hotel for our daily afternoon nap (we’re like a bunch of old farts, I swear!).

We were having a lot of debate on where to go for dinner, but settled on Margaritaville. I know, I know… Jimmy Buffet is one of Jarrod’s unstated idols, and neither of us have ever been to Margaritaville, so off we went.

We wanted to push ourselves a little out of our comfort zones, so we opted for the Crab, Shrimp, and Mushroom dip for our appetizer:

It came with delicious garlic bread for dipping. I thought it was actually really good (Jarrod wasn’t quite so keen on it, but he was fully satisfied with the bread).

For dinner we went with the Jambalaya:

Jarrod said this was the best meal he had to date in New Orleans, and I agree it was DELICIOUS. And yes, that is seven (count them) seven pieces of garlic bread that we wolfed down during dinner 🙂

After dinner we strolled over to Bourbon Street and stopped on the backside of Jackson Square to snap a photo of the shadow casted on the backside of the building:

While on Bourbon St this time, we hit up several bars including Club 524, Krazy Korner, and the Bourbon Street Blues Company (again!).

On our walk back to the hotel, we both concurred that our favorite parts of New Orleans were everything we had seen OUTSIDE of Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street is definitely fun and full of crazies, but it is a little too commercialized. We both just prefer the old-world charm of NOLA over the flashing neon lights of Bourbon Street. I do wish we had an extra day in LA to visit the districts outside of the French Quarter, but alas that will have to wait til next time!

Restaurants, Travel

N’awlins – part deaux

October 16, 2010 7 Comments

Day deaux in New Orleans started off as any vacation day should: A HUGE breakfast of course.

We woke up bright and early Err… we headed to breakfast at 11:30…. whatev. Our destination was the Old Coffee Pot Restaurant in the French Quarter.

To our surprise, Guy Fieri had just been to the restaurant last month! How cool!

The best part of the restaurant (in my opinion) was the AWESOME courtyard, which had a really intricate mural painted on all the walls.

Gentleman admiring the view:

The service was incredibly slow :-/ but I just had to keep reminding myself to take it easy. I’m used to a much faster pace of life than they have down here, that’s for sure. We were able to get some mimosas pretty quickly, so that helped to turn my frown upside down 🙁 –> 🙂

For breakfast we decided on splitting the Creole eggs and potatoes:

And some creole pancakes with mashed bananas:

Jarrod REALLY liked both of the dishes:

I wasn’t real excited about them though. The banana pancakes were super tasty, just too sweet for my breakfast tooth. And I was really caught off guard by the creole sauce. I expected something spicy, but it turned out to taste more like spaghetti sauce! We decided I was thinking of cajun sauce. Hopefully I can score some cajun food in my belly this weekend 🙂

After breakfast, we walked around the French quarter:

We spotted Cafe Du Monde, which was one on my MUST-VISIT places… but since we were still full from breakfast, we didn’t stop.

Then we walked along the Mississippi River

Until we reached the Aquarium! Neither of us have ever been to an Aquarium before, so we were pretty pumped to check it out!

I soon realized it’s incredibly difficult to capture good pictures of an fish in an aquarium!

Jarrod checking out the fishies:

This one makes me laugh every time I look at it 😀

There were two really AWESOME parts of the aquarium. First, was getting to touch sting rays:

Isn’t that out of this world??

In Jarrod’s words, the sting rays were “creepishly smooth.” I didn’t believe him til i mustered up the courage to touch one as well. After several missed attempts, I was able to brush my hand across one of the stingray’s backs. I immediately flung my arm from the water, squealed like a child, and ran over to Jarrod with my hand stuck out it front of me and a look of fright on my face. Hahaha.. I’m fairly certain I scared all the children waiting in line for their turns. What can you expect though, those things really are freakishly smooth!

The second BEST part of the aquarium was one of the final rooms on the tour that had a floor to ceiling GIGANTIC aquarium with HUGE fish, sharks, and turtles:

I could have sat in here for HOURS! So relaxing.

After the aquarium, we did some more site seeing and then stopped at the Crescent City Brewhouse for a drink:

Even though neither of us are beer drinkers, we both thought the fermentation tanks were pretty cool!

Next stop: Johnny Po-Boys for lunch!

We split the chicken po-boy and the shrimp po-boy:

Then headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep! First stop on the dinner path was Pat O’briens Courtyard:

This picture really doesn’t do the courtyard any justice (darn night time pictures). Just trust me that it was AMAZING.

For dinner we split the sampler, which consisted of Jambalaya, Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, and Red beans and rice:

This was hands-down our best meal to date in New Orleans. My favorite was the jambalaya, and Jarrod’s favorite was the gumbo. Don’t worry, we wolfed down the red beans and rice too 😀

After dinner, we made a much anticipated return to Cafe Du Monde!

I have been waiting to try these Beignets (French doughnuts) for MONTHS.

That is an extreme amount of powdered sugar! Ready to dive in!

DSCF3826

These beignets were so hot and friggin delicious. Heaven in my mouth I kid you not. We may have to make another stop at Cafe Du Monde this weekend 🙂

After hitting up a few local establishments, we headed to the Casino to get our gamble on. I was feeling lucky, so I popped $5 into a 2 cent slot machine. About 5 minutes later, I decided to pull my money out:

Don’t worry, I lost the remaining 40 cents on a penny slot a few minutes later.

Jarrod nearly lost his $10, but luckily he hit the jackpot on his last spin and was able to get his total up to $9.94!

Given that I didn’t pay for any of my drinks, and that I got to keep the 94 cents because Jarrod hates having change in his pockets, I’d say I came out the TRUE winner this evening 🙂

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