I'm disappointed in myself for not blogging in so long...and I have had so many amazing food experiences in the last few months...now I guess I can lump them all together! First, we traveled down to Charleston for a week to visit with friends and get some sun and sand! We ate at all of our fav's and threw in some new ones as well! The most memorable one being Bowen's Island, I knew I wanted a TON of oysters and from what I heard on travel channel it was the place to be. It was ZERO frill, eat as many til you pop oysters, as well as crab cakes, fried shrimp and fish, etc...ALL good. It was our last day down there, and it was the perfect ending to such a fun week. The view and sunset were amazing...
Heaps and heaps of shucked oyster shells..
I LOVE this sign for some reason, it was in such an odd place to be in front of the screen door, plywood restaurant that I had to take a picture, which now lives on my bathroom wall :)
Earlier that day we ate brunch at Hominy Grill, which isn't my favorite, but Poogan's Porch wasn't serving brunch on Friday and I was super depressed, so on to the next. I got eggs over easy and their awesome double cut bacon, but I mean, how can you screw that up?
During our mini-vacay we also ate at Coast, my all time favorite seafood restaurant down in Charleston. We started with their crab dip which was, as you can see...awesome
Sadly, I didn't take a before picture...we were hungry
Mike had their Raw Bar Sampler, in which we tried the baby octopus ceviche...I could have eaten an entire plate of it.
I ordered the Crab Encrusted Tilapia with Red Pepper Sauce, it was really good, I probably could have done without the sauce, but don't get me wrong, I still devoured it!
(Apologies for the sub-par quality of the iphone camera)
That same night we attempted to get reservations for Husk, because I have heard awesome things about their food, but they didn't have a reservation until 9:45 and the sunburn I was rockin' was not waiting that long to eat!...Coast was definitely not a let down though!
Some other restaurants we revisited were of course, Moe's Downtown Tavern, old stomping ground when I worked/lived in Charleston and still crave their BLT all the time when I'm home, Andolini's pizza, who has the BEST salad ever made, Basil of course, where we tried new menu items! The 3 flavor fish, was TO. DIE. FOR., and we walked to Magnolia's for some pecan pie--amazing.
(After reading this post, so far, I am SO glad I do not own a scale, Lord knows how much I gained on our tour de fatty in Chucktown.) WORTH IT
The first day down there we went to McCrady's and had some of their bar food...and one of them was very out of the ordinary for such a nice place!
that's right...sour cream and onion pork rinds, and I must say, out of the 2 times I have had pork rinds, these were considerably better!
We also tried the beef belly lettuce wraps with kimchee...a little too much of a fatty-texture for me, but tasted really good! We also had their pickles, which consisted of a lot of different veggies like okra, cucumbers, and some others that I cannot remember now...still great though!
That's about all that stands out from that trip! I was sad I couldn't get my Poogan's Porch fix, but we'll be back soon.
******************
On a totally separate note, for my 24th birthday I got a gorgeous Kitchen Aid mixer, in copper *swoon* and Mike's family got me the pasta attachments! I can't wait to try making my own pasta!
For now I have used it pretty much for chocolate chip cookies, which is the best recipe I have ever made!
and lots and lots of cream cheese frosting...this is what happens when you double an enormous recipe...
Sometime this week I plan on making these delicious looking bars, they are called "Talkin Crack Bars" and I stumbled upon them on a blog tonight, they look beyond good. They are also good for you too, bonus!
One dessert I am obsessed with is baklava...I always put making it on my own, in the very back corner of my mind, thinking it was too monotonous for my ADD self, but alas, I made it, and it was THE BEST THING I think I have ever made...in the dessert department anyway.
They were absolutely everything I had hoped for :)
Since we seemed to be grilling out a lot during the cold first few months, we shook things up and made our own version of "Juicy Lucy's" that we saw on the travel channel.
Muenster cheese, yes please!
Looking forward to hot days and cold pools!
Much Love!
