Mary – Page 9 – Fervent Foodie

A sweet weekend.

October 16, 2011 11 Comments

The past few weekends have been go-go-go: from Atlanta to Nashville to sleep-deprivation-fueled grumpiness seeping through every ounce of my bones. Thank the heavens this weekend was a completely different story.

Friday night the BF and I headed to Hawthorne’s to share some mouth-watering chili queso dip and small sausage pizza. And a few beverages, naturally. We had our hearts set on a balsamic glazed pasta dish and a hot fudge brownie sundae, but alas we wimped out after the first two courses. Amateurs.

Saturday, after I made out like a bandit at the outlet malls, we took advantage of the sunny day (hello high 70’s in October) and walked a mile uptown to have lunch at Dean & Deluca. I’ve never been to Dean & Deluca before, partly because I didn’t entirely understand the concept of the place and partly because I thought it was over-priced and hoity toity.

Randomly my Citi card (that I’ve had for a mere 11 years) decided to actually pay up on my “thank you” points, so I cashed those puppies in for a gift card to Dean & Deluca.

Inside of D&D, they’ve got various pantry staples like pasta sauce, noodles, spreads, and salsa. There’s also a large fully stocked sandwich bar with pretty much any toppings you could want on a deli sandwich. I went with the turkey breast on multigrain:

Loads of turkey, avocado spread, tomato, sprouts, and some chipotle mayonnaise. YUM.

The sandwich was about $9, but it was a hoss. Definitely worth the price tag. The side dishes on the other hand were a bit pricier. We nabbed some hummus and Stacy’s Pita Chips:

And some white bean salad:

At $4 a pop for the sides, plus two sandwiches, the chips, and two bottled waters our lunch came to $35. In my opinion, that’s a bit pricy for a sandwich shop, BUT it was rather delicious.

We’ll go back… once those thank you points rack up again Smile

After lunch we headed to the grocery store to stock up for the week. Grocery shopping is always a serious event for us because we each buy enough food to feed a small family. Walking past the card aisle it suddenly dawned on me that it was Sweetest Day! Whoops! I know, I know. Sweetest Day is a Hallmark holiday. Some of you might not even know the day exists. I don’t care though. I’m all about celebrating and will take any excuse I can get!

Last year, we both forgot about Sweetest Day (clearly it’s a holiday of high importance). I was in the kitchen making lunch, when I realized our oversight. I turned to Jarrod, looked up at him with a look of angry rage, and said “It’s Sweetest Day! Where’s my chocolates, biotch?”

Yes. That happened.

Tee hee hee! I know, it’s horrible. It sure did give us both a good laugh though.

For this Sweetest Day, we stuck with our pre-realization plan and cooked up some enchiladas. All I can say is OMG. Recipe recap to come this week, promise.

Since we forgot about Sweetest Day, Sunday morning we woke up “bright and early” (9am) to have a post-Sweetest-Day breakfast at the Flying Biscuit Café.

We’ve been wanting to try this place out since we moved to Charlotte. There’s practically always a line outside and that’s usually a good sign that some good food can be found inside.

We sat outside on the back patio. It was so sunny and hot I had to take off my cardigan! Gotta love fall in the south!

I ordered the veggie omelet with some chicken sausage:

Even though we were loving the sunshine, it wasn’t making for super photo-snapping conditions. I was able to coerce Jarrod into helping me filter the light with a napkin:

Ahhhh… Look at that beautifully filtered light!

Jarrod got the cajun chicken scramble filled with goat cheese and spinach and topped with a well spiced tomato sauce.

Oh… and we got a pancake. With chocolate chips. *insert drool here*

EVERYTHING about this breakfast was delicious. Well seasoned, crazy good flavor, and no grease to be found. I can’t believe we haven’t been to Flying Biscuit Café before. They even had this amazing apple butter on the table that tasted of pure fall bliss. Cannot wait to go back and try their oatmeal pancake!

After breakfast I convinced Jarrod to go for a run with me! Jarrod HATES running. Despises it. LOATHES the idea. He gave it his all, and we made it nearly 4 miles split between intervals of running and walking. I am so proud of him Smile

While relaxing after the run, we watched the Browns lose Devil , cooked up some sweets for the Blogger Sweet Swap, then dined on some crockpot Chicken Taco Chili (posts to come this week, PROMISE!).

All-in-all a relaxing food-filled weekend with my sweet. I actually feel ready for Monday… dang hope I didn’t just jinx myself.

Recipes

Oatmeal Envy.

October 11, 2011 24 Comments

I have an intense love and passion for overnight oats.

Those cool creamy oats topped with sliced fresh fruit and a dollop of vanilla Greek yogurt make the absolute perfect breakfast… that is until October rolls around. Then I want nothing to do with anything cold and EVERYTHING to do with all things warm and gooey.

BRING ON THE COMFORT FOOD! WOOOOOOOO! Party smile

In the chilly months, I keep a jumbo tub of quick oats in my desk at work. Every day when 10am rolls around I cook up a serving of oats in the microwave and garnish with a teaspoon of brown sugar and some ground cinnamon… which I also conveniently keep in my desk. Don’t judge.

These microwaved oats satisfy my cravings for warm and gooey, but they always leave a bit to be desired on the palate. The microwave seems to zap out all that oaty texture I love and leave you with a bowl of pasty porridge.

Then I had this BRILLIANT idea.

Sunday night, I cooked up a big owl batch of oats on the stove, where any decent bowl of oatmeal should be birthed.

For each serving of oatmeal, I tossed a 1/4 cup of fresh blueberries into a 2 cup pyrex glass bowl.

Am I the only one who is obsessed with these little bowls? They are the perfect size for portioning.

Gosh, I love fractions*… errrr I mean portions. I love portions.

*I wasn’t kidding. I love fractions… and algebra…

Once the oatmeal was cooked (I like mine just a little runny), I poured the oats evenly into the bowls right overtop of the blubes.

Mmmmmm….. Doesn’t that look delicious?!

I know. It looks like crap. Bare with me.

At this point, I let the oats cool off a bit while I clean up whatever disaster I’ve created in my kitchen. I sprinkle the cooled oats with my go-to-combo: ground cinnamon, 1 tsp brown sugar, and 10 grams of Trader Joes Unsalted Dry Toasted Sliced Almonds.

Geeze that’s a mouthful.

Yes, I weigh all my ingredients.

No, officer that’s not a drug scale. It’s for my oatmeal fractions I mean portions. Portions, sir.

Feast your eyes on this GLORIOUSNESS:

At this point all you do is pop some lids on these beauties. DO NOT STIR. When you’re ready to feast the next day pop the oats into the microwave for 1 minute 15 seconds. Did I mention not to stir them?

As the oats warm up, the moisture will help to steam the blueberries and they’ll burst along the bottom of the dish. Once nuked (then and only then) you can give them a good stir. Trust me. Waiting to stir til the end is key. You’ll actually be able to taste the itty bit of brown sugar rather than it getting lost in the oaty wilderness.

These are my new favorite oats because they retain that oaty texture I adore and because they are friggin delicious. I think that’s reason enough.

I like to make 2-3 servings of these oats at a time for grab-and-go breakfasts throughout the work week. They release a glorious smell when reheated that I guarantee will waft out of the kitchen and make your coworkers jealous.

Promise.

Stats: 250 calories, 39g carbs, 8g fat, 7g protein, 6g fiber

(1/2 cup quick oats, 1/4 cup blueberries, 1tsp brown sugar, 10 grams TJ’s unsalted dry toasted slice almonds)

Travel

Food.Blog.Forum.

October 10, 2011 27 Comments

What’s up guys? Hope you had an awesome weekend! I spent mine over in Nashville for the much-anticipated Food Blog Forum! My brain hurts from the vast amount of information learned in zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…..

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…..

zzzzz……

zz.

Whaaat? Where am I?!

Ohhhh… My bad. Suffering from a bit of sleep deprivation over here!! Anyway…. This weekend I made the voyage to Nashville with Vanessa of Life Undeveloped, Brooke of Baking with Basil, and Jamie of Bibliophiled Away. I left Nashville a mere two days later with a few new friends, 17 pages of notes, 33 items on my want-to-do list, and crap ton of free swag!

Look at all this stuff!

Free stuff = happy foodies!

Our first night in town we headed over to a Taste of Nashville party at the farmers market where we were given the task of sampling everything from mustard slaw hotdogs to goo-goo clusters to vanilla vodka over blood orange soda. It was horrible.

Out of everything I sampled, My FAVORITE nibblet was the Onion Bisque from the folks at Perl. I am sending hopes and prayers that they someday offer this soup online.

Please!! I beg you!!!

We also got to see a live cooking demo with Arnold Myint. Arnold is a Nashville native who owns several restaurants in the city. He was also a Top Chef Season 7 contestant. Since I cancelled my cable to support my coffee addiction, I had no clue who this guy was until I read the marketing flyer… Regardless, it was super fun to see a professional chef at work in the kitchen. I really liked the lentil tacos he cooked up. I’m going to try to recreate them… one day. Hmmmm where did I put that want-to-do list anyway?

Saturday was JAM PACKED with forum sessions on different topics, including: PRspectives, recipe writing, blogging etiquette, food styling & photography, working with brands, blogging as a business, and social media.

My favorite of all the sessions was the food styling & photography session with Todd Porter & Diane Cu, the White on Rice Couple. Beyond being extremely informative, it further cemented my desire to become a better photographer. It also resulted in about 7 of the want-to-do’s on my list!

Look at us all ready to get our learn on! And our eat on, obviously.

Caroline, Brooke, Moi, Jamie, Vanessa (thanks to Vanessa for the people photos!)

For lunch we hit up some local food trucks for a sampling of their tastiest wares.

The weekend was pretty much scheduled out from start to finish, so there wasn’t much time left for exploring Nashville. Sunday morning I took a quick stroll in hopes I might stumble upon something interesting near the hotel.

All I found was this piece of art… and I have no idea what the heck it is.

Travel

Here we go….

October 7, 2011 4 Comments

Restaurants, Travel

Weekend in the ATL (part #2)

October 5, 2011 10 Comments

Last weekend the BF and made like the birds and headed South(west) to Atlanta! You can check out part 1 of our mini vaca here.

Soooo where did I leave off? Oh yes, one of many two-hour naps Smile

When we finally awoke, it was time for DINNER. We were both in the mood for some Mexican treats and after some research we agreed on Tin Lizzy’s. They have a HUMONGOUS menu and you can order things a la carte, which always makes me happy. What’s there not to love about sampling LOTS of mini niblets?

I was also happy to see that Tin Lizzy’s supports National Breast Cancer Awareness month AND that the restaurants sports a good sense of humor 🙂

After perusing the menu, the Man Candy and I developed a game plan.

Course #1: A “Top of the House Margarita” for the lady, A “Fall Off the House Margarita” for the man, and Queso Fundido with chorizo, grilled onions, and peppers:

This dip was delicious—though I would have preferred larger hunks of sausage… The bigger the better in my book Winking smile

Come to think of it, the margaritas may have been a contributing factor to my love for this dip. What I remember most vividly is how deliciously creamy it was. The chips had some sort of seasoning — paprika and cayenne perhaps? The spice of the chips paired with the creaminess of the cheese made for a really good combination.

Course #2: A second round of marg’s plus one Santa Fe Steak Taco and one Fiesta Chicken taco. For each of us, naturally.

Good god these tacos were delicious. The Santa Fe steak taco came with grilled steak, jalapenos, onions, tomatoes, cilantro and was smothered with spicy ranch and cheesy queso blanco. Despite being listed as a “healthy option,” the fiesta chicken taco packed a tasty punch. It came on a whole wheat tortilla topped with grilled chicken, corn, black beans, tomatoes, onions and cilantro. SO GOOD!

Course #3: Margarita #3 for the man…. Big glass o’ water for the lady… AND a Grilled Chicken Tin Skillet:

Right when the food arrived, Jarrod looked concerned….

“Did I seriously just order that?!”

Even though we were both ridiculously full by this point, we managed to do some damage on this skillet. The hot skillet was full of veggie rice, grilled red peppers and onions, jalapenos, some crispy tortilla strips, queso blanco, and salsa fresca….. Heaven.

After eating all this delicious food, we had to do some googlin’ and see if there are other Tin Lizzy’s locations closer to home… Sadly, the only locations are in Atlanta, but this restaurant alone is worth the drive to ATL. I promise you.

And as if that weren’t enough…..

Course #4: Dessert from Joes on Juniper! Sooo…. Joe’s turned out to be a gay bar (oopsie…. Smile )…. Jarrod and I felt a little bit like outsiders… But who cares check out the dessert tray!

Enter my perpetual indecisiveness! Gahhh! After much debate and a few suggestions from the bartender, I nabbed the chocolate cake with white icing and took it back to the hotel with me. After we ate ourselves into oblivion there was nothing left to do but SLEEP.

Good thing we had a big dinner, because we didn’t eat breakfast until NOON on Sunday. Torture, I tell ya. Torture. I’m surprised my body didn’t experience a complete meltdown.

Apparently, we weren’t the only ones who thought the Thumbs Up Diner would be a good stop for Sunday brunch, because we waited for nearly an hour for a table!

This gave us ample time to figure out what we wanted to order. Jarrod went with the build-your-own omelet… of course. What is it with guys and their obsession for build-your-own menus???

I got my usual eggs & turkey sausage plus a whole wheat homemade biscuit, and about 3 lbs of potatoes:

I was really excited about the homemade whole wheat biscuit — but once I sunk my teeth into it I was not a fan. It was way too moist–kind undercooked in my opinion. In my mind a biscuit should be flaky and buttery with a bit of a crunch to it. This guy was DENSE. And moisssttttttt.

Oh… and there may have been a belgian waffle Smile

After breakfast, we headed to the Centennial Olympic Park to walk around a bit.

We got there just in time for the water fountain show.

By then it was nearly football time! Jarrod did some research and found a bar with the Sunday Ticket—so we were hopeful that they’d have the Browns game on.

When we pulled up outside of Black Bear Tavern I was ECSTATIC to see a decked out Browns van parked on the street!!!

Once inside I was stunned to see a bar FULL of Browns fans! Unbeknownst to me, Jarrod had secretly scouted out a Browns bar in ATL. It’s official. My boyfriend rocks Smile

After watching half the game and realizing the Browns were definitely not in it to win it, Jarrod decided to take me to lunch at a cool place he’d found last time he was in Atlanta.

Alon’s Bakery & Market

This place was AWESOME. It reminded me of a smaller Earth Fare with less groceries and more soul.

They also had a fully stocked bakery section:

PLUS a large selection of fresh breads, pre-made grub, and made-to-order sandwiches and paninis:

They even had a fresh-served ice cream section and a mini coffee bar in the middle complete with stools for sitting!

LOVE THIS PLACE!

We grabbed a couple of salads to share:

And a few turkey sandwiches:

This was the Peppered Turkey sandwich: naturally smoked peppered whole turkey with alfalfa sprouts, avocado, red onion, and sliced tomato served on whole wheat bread with grainy mustard and mayonnaise (AKA my sandwich soul mate).

And since the whole weekend was a major bust, we decided to try and turn things around by sitting on the patio with some dessert and some coffee.

Ok… maybe the weekend wasn’t a complete bust. 😉

P.S…. HAPPY 300TH POST TO ME!!!!

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