Reunion Dinner

Dinner with all my fav girls & Kyle (haha) at Nai Tapas to celebrate Tingah's temporary return to the US. Feasted on empanadas, squid, octopus, chorizo, beef, croquettes, etc etc etc, and like, 4 pitchers of delish sangria :)

Post-feast we headed out for something sweet...and had a great Shit Girls Say moment outside of a cute bakery near 10th street, all of our eyes and mouths were just like OMG and we demolished a chocolate tart thing. Perfect :)

Cookie Party :)

Happy day after Christmas! One of the best parts of the holidays is that it's totally acceptable and encouraged to stuff your face with every sweet thing possible. And have parties celebrating this :)

Cookie party involved hungry girls, lots of sugar and butter, lots of gossiping, and lots of watching "Shit Girls Say" and identifying 100%. Casey brought amazing caramel macarons, and we made peppermint meringues, Rolos cookies, and cake balls mmm:

And the snazziest party ever...

So this party involved

1) parking in a middle school parking lot
2) taking a shuttle bus to the estate
3) being greeted by servers with specialty cocktails
4) being ushered to the heated covered tent erected in the guy's courtyard
5) the best magician ever
6) a waffle bar, a sushi bar, a mac & cheese bar, a taco bar, a pulled pork bar
7) a room of liquid nitrogen ice cream
8) a room of absolutely beautiful desserts:

Look at that cake!!! And yes, I'll be at the gym every day this week...

The Lazy "Rest of December"

So didn't take any pictures of the Christmas feasting which included duck, mutton, leg of lamb, potatoes, endless cookies and cakes and other deliciousness, and wine at almost every meal.

However, the week in Chicago was spent with all this deliciousness.

Somhe (literally) one hundred brown sugar chocolate chip cookies I baked:

Something yummy at Bolat

Something else yummy at Bolat :) goat? perhaps

Pork belly rice bowl at Saigon Sisters in the French Market, can't believe I never knew about this, it was so yummy:

Dessert holiday party in the ATK Chicago building! Awesomely sweet and super cute sugar cookies:

Shwarma at Roti, this brilliant Middle Eastern "Chipotle" style lunch spot, really good, and definitely my new Chicago lunch spot

:)

Perhaps best ramen so far?

So I really love ramen, and really want to be able to replicate it at home b/c it's perfect for like, all of my winter meals. Usually go to Naruto cuz it's close to home, and recently tried Rai Rai Ken which was good, but decided to go for the mother ship, Ippudo, this weekend.

Got there at like, 1pm, and there was a 90 minute wait. Get real. So waited for the rest of the group and luckily Kyle knew another place, and luckily it was gorgeous outside and perfect for walking and this other ramen shop, Minca, was absolutely delicious. Walked in and it smelled amazing, and then the food just rocked - super flavorful broth, yummy and soft pork, general happiness :)

Then winter holiday party! Hamachi tuna and sushi rolls and pasta stations and lots of champagne tequila drinks and half a slice of not that impressive artichoke pizza (but it definitely prevented a hangover) :)

Thanksgiving Eating

1. Macarons I brought home from Macaron Cafe - worried they wouldn't get eaten...it took about 60 minutes to get through half of them =)

2. Shrimp fra diavolo dish I made for dinner (which also included non-photogenic but yummy pumpkin chorizo soup mmm)

3. Roasted veggies, also from Wednesday dinner (high school reunion) - proud of myself for providing a full 3 course meal

4. Thanksgiving spread - there's ham, sweet potato pie, shepherd's pie, mushrooms, mac and cheese, mutton, sorpotel (yes it's Indian Thanksgiving)

5. The turkey

6. The dessert spread: mini pumpkin cheesecakes, pecan tarts, coconut tart, flan, brownies, chocolate raspberry pie, etc

7. Amazing lamb chops made by Mom for dinner - topped with feta and spinach, omg. So good.

8. More roasted veggies, one of my favorite things to pig out on

9. Buffet after Trans Siberian Orchestra at Mohegan Sun - this is one course, featuring prime rib, fried shrimp, dirty rice, butter fish, mussels, and Chinese stir-fry broccoli - all yummy, but kept me trapped in Connecticut for like, 4 extra hours

Time to get back to hitting the gym on a semi-regular basis :)

Bro-tastic DC Weekend

Caught a noon bus down to DC, which was actually quite comfortable (much more leg room than most flights) and my sweet wireless stick meant I got to watch SVU the entire ride down =) Got in around 5, dropped off my stuff and headed to Mike's to re-create Charlotte life, i.e. sitting in his living room with the Johns and drinking beers and watching them be total idiots all night.

Saturday featured a delish lunch at my favorite place, Nando's, with a hefty half chicken and some seasoned rice

After which we wandered DC, saw a museum quickly and then went to the ND-Maryland game and watched ND win, and saw the most amazing marching band ever. Like. They played the Top Gun song and were in the shape of a plane and had smoke coming out the "engine" and then become a small plane that landed on a naval carrier. Can't believe how excited I was about a marching band =)

Sunday had a very yummy brunch-lunch with Sarah at Oyamel which was like, schmancy Mexican food in an awesomely decorated restaurant. Had this tortilla with black beans, fried egg, peas, and pork belly:

And a huge dish of chilaquiles which were great, and then tacos (had a goat one and a baby piggie one):

Hooky!

Beautiful day outside!

1) Got asked out by a normal looking guy on the train, what?

2) Picked up my laptop at Mona's around 10:30. That means I got to work around 11am...

3) Promptly left for lunch with Max and Bridget around noon...Blockheads for a yummy margarita (YES it's margarita weather, and YES it snowed like, a week ago) and fish tacos (good but not amazing) and excessive amounts of chips and salsa

4) Wandered down to Madison Square Park and sat in the park and continued to enjoy the gorgeous day

5) Met up with Mona to finally use my about to expire Groupon for The Salty Pimp (Big Gay Ice Cream) which was delicious on the outside (though I don't love vanilla or soft serve ice cream so had to dump some of it...)

And then wrapped up with a chicken & mushroom sandwich, lots of Halloween candy, and a girly watching of Crazy, Stupid Love where we just stared at Ryan Gosling for 2 hours. Awesome day!

BA Friday

Original plan for today: go to work, go home, go to gym, go meet up with BAs at Bridget's sweet apt.

What actually happened: no work at work, went for drinks after work, then went for delicious green curry at Land Thai with Lauren, then home to change, then met up with BAs at Bridget's sweet apt. At least I got 1 of those things done =)

Beaching =)

Ah Florida. I may need to move to your beautiful beaches 4 months every year and just lay down and do nothing =)

First welcome to the sun meal: guac, mango daiquiri, and burger with jalapeno fritter things on top 

And later (after discovering these during an excellent Dos Caminos feast), these yummy fish tacos that were spicy and actually as delicious as Cabo! Probably more delicious because of where I was eating them!

This is where I was eating them:

Amazing Halloween Brunch

Thank you Nathan and Phil for being outstanding brunch hosts...

pigged out on this fantastic mushroom bread pudding, and shrimps and sausage and cheesy grits and mimosas and chocolate pretzels and dumplings and other deliciousness. Oh yeah, also terrible ice and snow storm outside in OCTOBER, worst thing ever.

Final Columbus Meals

Partner dinner at Lindey's...ate approximately 3 baby lambs from New Zealand:

Very delicious =) Made other people take chops so I wouldn't look like too much of a fatty haha. Also ended with half a chocolate cake, b/c Lindey's just makes their melty center chocolate cake so much better than anyone else, so rich, mmmmmmmmm.

And that's my beautiful fancy s'more dessert at another dinner, following a huge platter of pasta (I feel like I haven't had pasta in ages and ages, b/c this just tasted spectacular and was spicy and sausagey and awesome). Blondie topped with a chocolate ganache and a blow-torched marshmallow thing and raspberry, good stuff.

Another Chicago weekend!

Spent Saturday with the visiting Aussies at Xoco, and then a great latte at Intelligentsia and touristy pictures at Navy Pier and the Bean and all that, a massage, and then a lovely delicious dinner at Avec featuring the most amazing bacon wrapped chorizo stuffed dates ever ever ever:

That corner bit of super stuffed focaccia with tons of cheese and truffle oil as well as a yummy steak dish, an octopus dish, and a healthy amount of wine =) Great date night.

Buvette BA Dinner =)

Friday nights are definitely going to be long dinner nights while I'm staffed and too tired to go OUT out but still need to do something social and fun. Went to office Oktoberfest after work, then met up with Lauren and Jeremy to head to the West Village to get dinner at one of the partners' favorite restaurants, Buvette.

Put our names down, grabbed drinks, and then came back for a stellar perfect meal. Had some anchovies on toast:

And this awesome rabbit dish:

And a cassoulet:

And assorted other things like beets and ox tail on toast and this stellar chocolate mousse to wrap the whole meal up. Also, loved this super cool chandelier made out of kitchen items and kind of want it in my kitchen:

Awesome long dinner was great to catch up and lots of giggling and gossiping and all sorts of fun =)

More Columbus eats!

Huge dinner at Elevator Brewery, in this gorgeous building with like, reclaimed stained glass windows and other crazy architecture. Pigged out on beer, loads of apps: calamari, sauerkraut balls, and wings:

And then cook your own steak for dinner =) Delish

Gorgeous Day Apple Picking =)

Beautiful day for a road trip to the Hudson Valley with Nathan and Phil and Shannon and Deepa. Got lunch at a super cute little restaurant, which served a beautiful bumble bee cake (that we didn't eat)

And the ploughman's board for lunch with really fresh cheese and awesome mustard and a great lamb pie and then a huge platter of cookies at the end. Yeah big lunch =)

Here's our beautiful day!

Birthday weekend in Chicago!

Awesome birthday dinner at Next =)

Started with the prix fix menu of drinks at Aviary, then over to Thailand's street food. Deliciousness times a million. Like. Stopped taking pictures because once I got to the beef cheek curry I was too into the food to pause for a pic. Appetizer platter:

 Super artsy photo of the stuffed plantain app:

 The best tom yum soup ever, with a melt in the mouth chunk of pork belly in there.

 Sunday night dinner at DMK burger bar.

Catch Up Columbus Eating

Team dinner with new manager at Lindey's...nice outdoor seating, delicious fish special on like, a polenta cake or something, and then the most amazing chocolate cake experience of my life. Mmm Columbus fattiness is my favorite.

Massive big team dinner with like, 30 people...got the surf and turf =) Because after Maine, I definitely need more lobster...

Yeah we had like, 2 seafood towers and endless plates of appetizers. Massive meal, massively awesome, and followed by a Jeni's run.

Crazy dinner with the Aussie's at Schmidt's Sausage Haus. Obviously ordered this ridiculous platter of assorted sausages, all amazing, with sides of spaetzle (SO GOOD) and sauerkraut, potato pancakes, mmm. Also apps included like, beer battered bratwurst balls. Yeah. My heart definitely slowed down a little on this meal =)