Birthday, Haircut & A Cronut

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I wanted to catch you up on what we've been up to since this week has flown by! As you know, Wednesday was Andy's birthday, we decided to cook at home and hang out for the night. Sounds like every other night for us except throw in come cake and a few presents!

At Andy's request we decided to make steak tacos topped with onions, tomatoes, cilantro and creme fraiche. Simple, but good!

Opened a few gifts! My parents sent him this flannel from Land's End. 

I got him this coat from Eddie Bauer. I wasn't going to tell anyone, but I ended up giving Andy this coat early, about two weeks ago...my excuse was that I thought he may need it, but I was just really excited about giving it to him and couldn't wait :) I think it was a good find! And yes, I totally made him try everything on and model for me.

After presents it was time for cake! 

Andy wanted some kind of pudding cake and we found this no bake Black Bottom Pudding Pie. This may have been one of our favorite cakes that I have made and it was super easy!

Thursday was a big day for me, I decided to chop my hair! I hadn't gotten my hair cut since I had moved to Charleston. Typically I just get a trim, but for some reason I was wanting something different! Yes, I took a selfie!

When I got home from my haircut, I walked into Andy wrapping presents. For some reason him doing this always makes me laugh. This and him trying to iron, always a bit of a struggle...

But now we have a few presents under our tree!

Friday night some of Andy's co-workers had organized a happy hour to celebrate his birthday. We went to a new bar called the Bay Street Biergarten. This was Andy's second time here, my first and I must say it's a pretty cool bar. You can load money onto a card and fill your own glasses with one of the many taps they have available. Dangerous.

Yesterday morning was full of surprises! First, we received  this wonderful delivery of wine! Andy found some deal online for six bottles for $1! How can you pass that up?? It's always nice to have a few extra bottles of wine sitting around!

After admiring the wine and having some coffee I headed to crossfit. While I was gone Andy was nice enough to head to the grocery store to pick up food for breakfast. I think he was feeling especially nice because he not only cooked me breakfast when he got home, but he surprised me with a lemon custard filled cronut for us to share! We've been meaning to try one and it was yummy!

After breakfast we watched a few episodes of the FX series The Americans and then made some Rocky Road Bark holiday style! Andy is supposed to bring in a holiday treat for work next week and one of our 24 Days of Togetherness activities was to make some kind of bark. The recipe was pretty painless, I asked Andy to help, but there wasn't much to do, so he did what he does best.

The bark turned out really well, we added holly & berry sprinkles for a holiday touch!

If anyone is looking for something to bring as a hosting gift during the holidays this can easily be wrapped up!

Saturday evening was Andy's department holiday party. The Chair of Radiation Oncology was nice of enough to host at his house in downtown Charleston, making it a bbq/oyster roast. This would be our second oyster roast in two weeks! Unfortunately, the weather was pretty awful, cutting the night a bit short, but we had a good time and it was nice to be able to meet some of Andy's co-workers!

After the party we ventured back to Mount Pleasant, checked out a new bar and called it a night!

Today Andy has to go into work for a bit, I'm going to finish my Christmas shopping and then I'm going to start to get things packed up for our trip home on Friday! Whoop whoop! I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their Sunday!

Happy Birthday Andy!

I just wanted to say Happy 27th Birthday to my main squeeze, +Andy Ellis! I hope you have the most wonderful day! Thank you for being so kind and caring and making me smile and for putting up with my nonsense on a daily basis. You really are an amazing catch and I'm a very lucky girl to have you in my life! Cheers to you, Ellis!

A Few Breweries...

The rest of the weekend with John can be summed up in a few words. Food, beer, football and Breaking Bad. Before I get into the remaining details of our weekend I wanted to address the fact that most of my posts have revolved around food. This isn't supposed to be a food blog, but a lot of the things we choose to do involve eating! I apologize if anyone is offended by the overwhelming amount of food we eat, but Andy and I love food! I think if one of us didn't love food as much as the other person we would have problem. Seriously.

So, with that in mind, Saturday, we enjoyed breakfast at the Farmer's Market. I tried the Thurman Murman Roti Roll (creole mac n' cheese, short rib and kimchi), John got my favorite crepe, the Monte Cristo and Andy picked duck tacos. All three solid choices.

Oh, I forgot, before the farmer's market we made a pit stop at Glazed to share a few donuts.  This was a glazed pistachio-orange.     

Now, not exactly sure what to do with the rest of the day we thought we would check out Westbrook Brewery. Andy has been wanting to go here for a while and it's conveniently located about five minutes from our apartment.

The brewery is only about three years old. It wasn't our favorite brewery, the building is brand new so it felt a bit sterile, unlike most breweries that have a bit of character. None the less, we enjoyed the beer!

After finishing up we thought it would be a good idea to check out another brewery so we headed north to Holy City Brewery. Andy and I had been here once before for Bendy Brewski, yoga followed by beer tasting. This place was more up our alley :)

To finish our day of over-indulging we stopped at what I think is one of the best pizza places in the city, EVO Pizza. Granted, this is the only pizza I've eaten in Charleston, I have also heard this from several other people. Before I talk about the pizza, an honorable mention goes to the snack plate we started with. Yes, there was some ham and pimento cheese, but this thing was packed with an array of pickled vegetables. Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, okra (a Charleston staple), onions, green tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers and pickles! Delicious.

Now, the star of the show, in my mind, is the Pistachio Pesto pizza. Aside from the awesome crust and the variety of cheeses, the pizza is topped with a pistachio pesto oil that is unlike anything I have ever tasted making this pizza the bomb dot com. Highly recommended.

After pizza we decided it was probably a good idea to head home. Once home I immediately face planted onto the queen air mattress we had blown up in the living room for John to sleep on. I don't think I moved for the next few hours while John and Andy watched football.

Sunday, we didn't leave the apartment and we were all completely okay with that. We slept in and woke up to cloudy skies and chilly temperatures. A perfect day to lounge. We ended up watching the entire last season of Breaking Bad. Well, Andy and I re-watched, John hadn't seen it. Not a bad Sunday. Now, for those of you who have not seen Breaking Bad, please stop reading this and start watching. It is quite possibly the best show ever.

I felt badly that we didn't venture out on my brother's last day, but I think we were all tired from a long weekend of being tourists. As his departure time approached, John backed up his bags and we headed to the airport. Only 12 more days until I get to see his lovely face again! Miss him already!

Pitmaster Backyard BBQ

While my brother was visiting I wanted to try and make sure we did something fun and unique to Charleston. While perusing the Charleston City Paper I stumbled upon the Pitmaster Backyard BBQ featuring food from Georgia's Southern Soul BBQ. For $30 we would get BBQ, live music and proceeds would benefit Grow Food Carolina. Charleston always has fun food and community events going on and we have yet to check any out! We figured we would give it a shot and it would be something different we could share with +John Grupa!

The event was held in the back parking lot of Home Team BBQ. Tents were lined with string lights and pub tables set up for eating.

Upon arriving we were offered a handful of appetizers. You could eat as many and you wanted and we did.

Twice Baked Care Farms Fingerling Sweet Potatoes, Honey, Queso Cotija, Sweet and Spicey Candied Bacon Crumble. (These were my favorite and I ate close to five of them...I think...I lost count.)

Millgrove Farms Young Collard Green “Tamales”, Braised Cabrito, Red and Green Sauce and BBQ Rubbed Pork Skins, Smoked Gouda and Jalapeno Pimento Cheese, Hot Sauce, Lime

And last, but not least Steamed May River Oysters, Fairlawn Farms Tomatillo Cocktail Sauce, Drawn Sriracha Butter. They would not stop dumping these things onto our table. We were not complaining and we kept eating.

This was the first time any of us had shucked oysters before. It felt like amateur hour, but we did our best. You really have to be careful to not cut yourself since the shells are pretty sharp.

We could have stopped eating at this point, but then it was time for what we really came for. The BBQ. Check out this menu.

Goat. Yes, there was goat and it was good. We filled up our trays with tacos topped with pickled veggies and creme fraiche along with a handful of sides, and by handful I mean a boatload! There was rice and beans, cornbread, roasted brussel sprouts with pork belly, and a root vegetable slaw.

The lighting isn't great in this photo, but you can see we had a lot of eating to do!

John and Andy did a pretty good job of cleaning their trays. I struggled a bit. I wanted to save a little room for dessert, Sopapillas with sorghum butter and powdered Sugar.

The event ended up being a lot of fun and I'm so glad we decided to do it, even if we had to be rolled out of there! We got to try some really great food and after the dinner we went out in West Ashley, an area of town we've been meaning to check out! Definitely worth the drive and the $30!

A Slice Of Home

This past weekend Andy and I were lucky enough to have my brother +John Grupa spend the weekend with us in Charleston. I was pretty excited to share the city with him and it ended up being warmer than it usually is in Charleston this time of year. Temperatures were in the mid to high 70's. I took Friday off and John and I headed downtown for some breakfast and a Civil War walking tour.

We stopped at Hominy Grill and John got his first taste of Shrimp & Grits. Welcome to the Lowcountry! These were some of the better shrimp and grits I've had since being here and it wasn't an overwhelmingly large portion so we didn't leave feeling stuffed.

Hominy also has some delicious homemade biscuits and raspberry jam. I've determined that it's almost nearly impossible for me to pass up a good biscuit, topped with melted butter and jam. I love biscuits!

Done with breakfast, we headed over to the historic district for our tour. Our tour guide had a lot of great information to share. Walking down the streets you will see large cement blocks in front of houses that were used as steps for people exiting their carriages and boot scrappers to the sides of the front doors that people used before entering the house. Seeing these things you begin to imagine what life would have been like back then, a bit different...

After walking around for 3+ hours we definitely built up an appetite. I decided I would take John over to Sullivan's Island for a late lunch and the beach. We stopped at Poe's Tavern, which is home to one of my favorite burgers, The Sleeper. Roasted Garlic Blue Cheese Spread and Buffalo Fried Shrimp. Andy gives me a hard time because I get this every time we go here, but I can't help it.

We took a quick walk on the beach, John dipped his feet in the ocean and we headed home to re-group before heading out for the night. Walking and eating sure does take it out of you :)

24 Days Of Togetherness & 2 Ingredient Pancakes

A friend recently introduced me to the Carrots 'N' Cake blog and since day one I've been hooked. Tina, the author, has the cutest pug named Murphy and always has great recipes and ideas. I stole one recipe and one idea and thought I would share them with you since they both coincide with one another.

The first was her idea called 24 Days Of Togetherness. I surprised Andy with this activity last Sunday, so we've already got a head start. It's really very simple. I wrote down 24 different activities, most inspired by the Holiday season. 

Each day we pick one activity to do. So far, these are the activities we've done.

Sunday - Watch a Christmas movie (We chose The Nightmare Before Christmas)
Monday - Drink wine and listen to Christmas music
Tuesday - Use coupon on the fridge. (We have a handful of coupons that are going to expire at the end of the year, I thought including this as an activity would remind us to use them!) We chose the buy one sushi roll get one free at a sushi restaurant in Mount Pleasant
Wednesday - Make breakfast for dinner
Thursday - Find a happy hour to attend

Now, the second thing I stole from Carrots 'N' Cake was the recipe for 2 Ingredient Pancakes! Andy and I decided to make these Wednesday since our activity was to make breakfast for dinner! These things are super easy, they are gluten free and you can top them with whatever you like. All you need is one banana and one egg. Try to make sure you use a small banana and a large egg. If the banana is on the large side, use two eggs. This will help the pancake stay together.

To make the pancake, place all ingredients in a small bowl and blend until smooth. I like to use the Cuisinart hand blender. This thing is pretty awesome and it gets the job done in about 30 seconds. It also comes with this handy mixing beaker.

Once ingredients are combined heat a medium sized skillet over medium to low heat. Make sure it is not too hot. Grease pan with cooking spray, pour batter into skillet. I like them thicker, but you can spread batter around to get more of a crepe consistency. You want to cook them very slowly over low heat, about 6-7 minutes. Once it starts to bubble and the edges pull away easily go ahead and flip it! Cook for a few more minutes and it should be done.

We sautéed some butter, apples, ham and cinnamon together for our topping.

Finished it off with some shredded swiss cheese, a bit more cinnamon and some maple syrup! Yum!

We wanted to do one savory pancake and one sweet, but they both ended up being pretty sweet. The last one we topped with plain greek yogurt, a few dark chocolate chips and the left over walnut-toffee crunch from our Thanksgiving dessert. I think I liked this one best, the chocolate and toffee ended up melting together making it super delicious.

Some other topping ideas would be almond butter and bananas, mixed berries and whipped cream, shredded chicken, salsa and avocado. The pancakes really don't taste much like banana so any kind of toppings you choose work out well. Hope you enjoy!

Christmas is coming!

I must say that being in the South during Holiday time feels a bit odd. Today it was 75 degrees. No, I'm not complaining, I'm just saying it's weird not having to bundle up to go outside. There is something about lighting a fire, drinking hot chocolate and listening to Christmas music, but there is no need for a fire here. With that, it's hard to get into the Holiday Spirit, but I refuse to let this weather rain on my Santa Clause or give him a sun burn :)

So Sunday, Andy and I went on the hunt for a real Christmas tree, well, it wasn't really a hunt. There happened to be a vendor right around the corner from us. I had great expectations for this excursion, but it turned out to be quite simple. We arrived, the guy pointed us to the smaller trees and we picked one! She's a beauty!

I also made a few friends in the process...Priscilla the donkey and Louisa the goat. Of course I had to say hi.

We started decorating the tree Monday night, got the lights on and went to put on the ornaments and realized they didn't come with hooks! So, we made a quick stop at Target and got it finished. I think it turned out pretty well!

A few weeks ago I also purchased these cute stockings and stocking holders from kohls.com.

It may not feel like Christmas outside, but it's starting to in apartment 1033! Now, if only we had a need to light that fire....

On another note, my younger brother John who currently lives in Minnesota, is going to be visiting Andy and I this weekend. I don't think he could have come at a better time. The high there is a whopping 7 degrees on Friday. I think he's looking forward to the weather and we're looking forward to showing him a good time, can't wait!