A day of unplanned meandering.

I woke up this morning with no specific agenda.  I had a list of things to do, but no specific order or priorities or timeframe to complete them in.  Honestly, I can’t remember the last time this has happened to me.  How did I get to this point of continuous overscheduling, overplanning, and overbooking?  I am SO over it.  Prior to moving to Charlotte, I envisioned every day being like today:  a day full of unplanned meandering about the city.  Days filled with simple things like walking around and trying restaurants.  Meeting people.  Talking food.

I realize wanting EVERY day to be this way is unrealistic.  But how about EVERY weekend day?  Is that too much to hope for?

I laid in bed for a while thinking about all the possibilities of the day, before heading out on my Sunday run.  The Charlotte area had some crazy flash flooding on Friday, and the park behind my condo was literally under five feet of water!  Thankfully the water has resided, but the whole area is basically a giant cow chip now.  So, I decided to hit the city streets and explore some neighborhoods I don’t usually get to by foot.

After my run, shower, breakfast, and lazy time, I headed out to take some exterior photos of restaurants I’m planning to write reviews of this week.  I played restaurant stalker for a while, got a few disapproving looks from various restaurant patrons (ahhh the life of a food writer *sigh*), then headed to Central Coffee Co. to try out their goods and take advantage of their free wifi.

Can I just say, I love coffee shops.

There are always interesting people around at coffee shops.  People chatting and people who don’t want to chat at all <me>.  People seeking inspiration <me> and people who just exude creativity.

I also love coffee shops for the fresh brewed coffee (obv.) and endless supply of tasty treats to sample (double obv.).

When I arrived at Central Coffee Co, I found a random seeming building that sure didn’t look like much from the outside.  It sits at the corner of Central Avenue and Louise and has a tiny awkward parking lot.  I wasn’t getting a good vibe as I walked up to the door, and I was almost hesitant to go inside.

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Right when I opened the doors, that comforting smell a freshly ground coffee beans washed over me and I realized that the inside of this unassuming coffee shop told a completely different story.  The shop was very long and narrow inside, with one wall of exposed brick running the entire length.

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The walls were lined with a handful of small tables, mismatched chairs, and a swanky sitting area complete with white leather chairs near the fireplace.

I eyeballed their large selection of bakery treats, not sure which to go with.  When I asked the barista how the zucchini bread was, he got a big smile on his face and said it was “awesome.”  When the employees get excited about the food, that’s when you KNOW it’s good.

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I went with my standard small black French Roast coffee (I’m hardcore like that) and a slice of that vegan zucchini bread, then grabbed one of the tables along the brick wall.  Not only did they have free wi-fi, but they also had ample plugs for laptop charging = very happy blogger.

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I sat back in my chair took a long sip of my coffee, and soaked in every ounce of this place that I could.  Every sight, smell, and sound.  The music was playing at the perfect decibel, and the barista stood at the counter, head bobbing to the rhythm, waiting for patrons in need of service.  Strangers were sitting by the fireplace trading their top restaurant picks and their desires to try newly opened spots.  The lights were dim and unabrasive, one of which was perfectly placed over my table.  Occasionally, I would hear the coffee grinder buzz in the distance and that familiar smell would waft back over towards my table.  I sat typing away on my computer and snapping random photos for a while before sitting back and savoring the zucchini bread.  Every bite of the bread exuded intense cinnamon flavor.  It was moist and slightly sticky, which made the crumbs hug my fork begging to be eaten.  And I obliged.

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As I relished my coffee, I realized this whole place was speaking to me.  From the chalkboard menus on the walls, to the exposed beam ceilings and warehouse style air ducts.  And of course, there was the giant biscotti perched in a glass jar on the counter. There was just something about this place.

Something right.  

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I think I found my new spot. Smile

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Picnic in the Penthouse + #giveaway

Over the weekend, my mom, sister, and I made a trip to the Charlotte Farmer’s Market in search of delicious treats.  It was my FIRST trip to the market since moving to Charlotte.  What the heck have I been waiting for?!

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I was really impressed by the wide variety of goods for sale at the market.  Yes, they had your standard fruit and veggie selection, but they also had a fab selection of local meats, cheeses, jams, and even local crafts, pottery, and jewelry.  And a bunch of crazy vegetables I’ve never seen before.

Here are some pretty shots:

We did a lap around the market in search of dinner inspiration.

And ended up nabbing quite a few goodies including these fresh tomatoes and basil which we combined with fresh mozzarella from Trader Joe’s to make a fantastic caprese salad:DSCF7051

We opted (aka I demanded) to put olive oil, salt and pepper, and balsamic vinegar on top:

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We also snagged some corn on the cob and some grass-fed beef for our burgers.  I haven’t had corn on the cob in quite a while, and the cobs we picked up from the farmer’s market were so tasty and sweet and the kernels were just the perfect size to fit between the gap in my front teeth.

Makes me think I need to incorporate that veggie into my life more often 😉

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We sandwiched our grass-fed beef burgers between brioche buns courtesy of Trader Joes, and topped everything off with more tomato and onion from the market and lotsa ketchup and mustard, of course.

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I know these look like little baby burgers, but they were actually six ouncers dwarfed by those delicious brioche buns.

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The only things missing from our picnic in the penthouse were potato chips and dip.  In my family, we eat chips and dip as an appetizer, and as a first course, AND as a compliment to any summer meal.  We will down 2 bags with gusto, especially if there’s some Lawson’s chip dip nearby for dunking Smile

My belly was still obsessing over the thought of chips and dip when I came home from work yesterday and was greeted by a large box of York’s Harvest Garden Chips from Charlotte-based Tropical Foods!

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First off, coming home to a package of goodies to sample has to be THE BEST welcome home present EVER.  I immediately tore into the package to check out the Garden Chips.

The chips are made from real vegetables (awesome), and they are completely natural, completely crunchy, and completely addicting Smile

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I was sent a few different varieties to try, including Okra, Green Beans, and the Mixed Vegetable chips (sweet potato, taro root, squash, carrots, and green beans).  After trying each and every vegetable chip variety, I decided the carrots and the green beans are my fav Smile

Have you guys tried these veggie chips yet?

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More importantly, do you want to try them *for free*?!  We all know I love freebies.  I have no shame 😛

You can enter this giveaway for the York’s Harvest Garden Chips up to four times by leaving a comment on this post for each of the following:

1.  Leave a comment and let me know your favorite cookout food (recipe links are always welcome!)

2.  Add me to your RSS feed OR sign up for email subscription to my blog

3.  Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway:

4.  Like the Fervent Foodie page on Facebook:

Comments must be posted by midnight Thursday July 28, 2011.  Then I’ll use a random number generator to select a winner Open-mouthed smile

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Stop.and.go.

Stop and go.  Stop and go.

Ya’ll may recall my short-lived escapade with running last summer.  And you might also recall when I hurt my knee.  And if you recall those two things you might also recall that I tried to get back into running by purchasing new running shoes and starting interval training.  And then remember when I hurt my knee AGAIN?  And then I went to the orthopedic surgeon and he told me “some knees just aren’t made for running.”  And then I said screw you, doctor.  I’ll show you, doctor.  And then remember when I tried to do interval training again?  And then I hurt my knee.. AGAIN.  And then basically said yeah screw running?

That was fun, wasn’t it? Smile

Sooooooo…. about 2 weeks ago I went to the Charlotte Running Company to buy *new running shoes* … Stubborn might just be my middle name.

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Note that I purchased the new shoes BEFORE trying to start running again.  Let’s give Mary a cyber pat on the back for at least taking one step in the right direction.

The coolest thing about my visit to the Charlotte Running Co., was the personal fitting.  This involved me running on a treadmill while they videotaped my ankles and feet.  The playback was pretty interesting to watch.  I learned that I do not over or under pronate (roll the ankles inward or outward), which I was always curious about.  What I do do is over extend my legs when I run, which causes my heel to hit the ground first.  Apparently, the balls of your feet should hit first.  The salesman told me to pretend that I’m running on hot coals and take quick short steps.

Verrrrrry interesting.  It’s funny to think that there’s a “right” way to run.  There’s more to it than strapping on any old pair of tennis shoes and hitting the payment.  Really, Mary?  Cuz that worked oh so well for you last summer, didn’t it?

After trying on about 10 pairs of running shoes, I ended up going with the Asics Gel Nimbus 13:

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Even with my new shoes and my new hot coal running technique, I didn’t want to just jump into running head — strike that — ball-of-the-foot first.  I decided to ramp up with… you guessed it.

Interval training.

Originally, my goal was to start with 1 minute running and 1 minute walking for 20 minutes. Then each week gradually increase the run portion of the interval by 1 minute.

Good plan, eh?

Probably was, but it just wasn’t challenging enough.  But as much as I just want to just get out there and RUN until my legs can’t carry me any further, I have a little nagging voice in the back of my head reminding me how devastated I’ll be if I hurt my knee again this summer.  Sooooooo I reached a compromise with the nagging voice.  Instead of bumping the run time up a minute each week, I’m bumping it up a minute each day that I run.

My feets in action:

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I’m also running every other day (as opposed to EVERY day I tried to run last summer), and I found a pretty nice path to run on (as opposed to hard streets/sidewalks).

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If I stay on this plan, I should be able to run 5K no (knee) problem by mid August! That would be the ultimate accomplishment in my mind.  I know 5K isn’t much—I mean it’s no walk in the park but it’s also no marathon—but in my knee-injurfied world it’s quite the accomplishment!

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Waffles in mah belly

I woke up bright and early this lovely Saturday morning to head to Day #4 of Body Pump.  Apparently, sometime between Thursday and today the Y got new weights, which are LB weights as opposed to kilograms…  Needless to say, I was thrown off by this ABSOLUTELY INSANE change, but I managed through the class Smile

When I got home I wanted something a little special for breakfast.  Something delicious but balanced…

After some foraging in the kitchen, here’s what I came up with:

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That’s

  • 2 Eggo Light Whole Grain Waffles
  • 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s vanilla fat free Greek yogurt
  • 3 sliced up strawberries
  • 1/4 cup of blueberries
  • 2 tbsp Smuckers Sugar Free Syrup

And that, my friends, was a whole heck of a lot of deliciousness.

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This may be my new Saturday staple Smile

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Mmmmmmmm…

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Stats on breakfast:  286 calories, 54g carbs, 3g fat, 14g protein, 5g fiber

What’s on the agenda today?  I’ll be running some errands, hopefully grabbing a tasty lunch, then spending some quality time with the condo *hopefully* making a dent in the pile of boxes I now call home Smile

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Weekend Fail.

Going into the weekend, I had one goal:  to find the new Luna Bar flavors and devour mass quantities of them.  For those who aren’t maniacally obsessed with luna bars ….   For those who have been living under a rock!!! …  ahem…  for those who aren’t aware, the new flavors are Chocolate Chunk and the highly coveted Chocolate Dipped Coconut.

Saturday afternoon I was out running errands when I got wind of a winter storm a brewing.  So I decided to high tail it to Whole Foods in Cleveland so that I could snag the new Lunas.  I even called the store ahead of time to make sure that they had the new flavors in stock.  As an added bonus, I planned to swing by Trader Joes which is right down the road from Whole Foods.  It’s not often I make this trip up to Cleveland, so I had already started mentally drafting a lengthy list of goodies to pick up.

About 20 minutes into my drive the freezing rain started.  No worries I thought.  I’ve got this.  Zoom zoom Mazda, zoom zoom. 

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A few miles passed.

Ok Mazda, perhaps a little less zoom.

Let’s creep like a turtle instead, shall we?

The closer and closer I got the Cleveland the WORSE AND WORSE the weather got.  At one point traffic was stuck at a dead stop for a good 15 minutes, which I soon realized was due to an accident that had resulted in a car completely flipped over on the snow embankment.  I counted four accidents on my journey north.  And I’m not talking fender benders.  I’m talking the kind of accident you drive by and say “holy cow! how the heck did that happen!??!?”.

Perhaps this was a bad day to go to Cleveland…

 

When I finally arrived at Whole Foods, I was literally shaking.  I bolted inside and headed for the Luna Bars.  I quickly spied the Chocolate Chunk and grabbed two with gusto.  As I reached victoriously into the Chocolate Dipped Coconut box I realized, to my utter horror, that the box was empty.  They were sold out.  They were sans coconut goodness, if you will.

I had just risked my life, and they were sold out.

I stood in front of the Luna Bars motionless as defeat washed over me. 

As I turned to leave, I remembered that I was also super excited to try out the new blueberry muffin LaraBar.  Just as I headed to grab one, an old lady swerved her cart into the aisle and picked up the ENTIRE last box of blueberry muffin Laras and dumped them into her cart. 

 

I kid you not.  It was like a scene from Walmart’s toy aisle on Black Friday.

I turned away concealing my internal rage, bought my 2 chocolate chunk bars, and headed to the car. 

I immediately tore into the Chocolate Chunk Luna Bar.

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This Luna Bar was definitely tasty, like a big chocolatey chewy graham.  It reminded me of the smore Luna a little too much though….

After all that nonsense, I decided to just go home.  No TJ’s shopping spree.  That’s right.  I drove all the way to Cleveland in an ice storm for 2 Chocolate Chunk Luna bars.

Fail.

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