FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Another Move

by

It’s hard to believe that the weekend I’ve been dreading for weeks has come and gone.  It almost seems too good to be true that everything went so smoothly that I’m sitting here, early on this Sunday morning, eating my breakfast at a leisurely pace and writing about it.  The movers came on time, the cable guy came on time, nothing was damaged, 95% of our stuff is put away, the animals are not killing each other getting along, the GATORS WON!  All of our big stresses are over.

Even the little stressors are nil.  We both had apartments full of opposite design spectrum furniture prior to moving in together.  I had grays and pinks and she had browns and reds.  Somehow, not only did all of our stuff fit (and nicely), it all came together and immediately felt like a home.  No more fears of living in a temporary bachelorette pad.  Phew!

Kara even gave me the sunshine room, which as you can see from the living room pic has a pretty fantastic view of the Greenbelt.  I’m excited that my room will have enough natural light that I can do my blogging business in here rather than cluttering up our living room.

But now that I’ve unpacked, it’s time to start packing again for a work trip to Tacoma, WA in the morning.  I’ll be there until Wednesday for work, anything in particular I should hit up while I’m there??

South Congress Brunch

by

On Sunday morning, Emily and I swooped up my long-time friend, Shayne, from her hotel and headed to the brunchiest brunches of all brunches at South Congress Cafe. Shayne and Emily had met years ago, so it was a nice little reunion for all of us. An even nicer little reunion when the ginger mango mimosas arrived. Seriously? Seriously.

I hadn’t been to South Congress Cafe since my apartment hunting trip last February, which was totally ridiculous because their brunch is the best around. I stuck with a classic benedict that had finely sliced ham and perfectly poached eggs. I’m more of a meat-liker than a meat-lover, so the proportions of this dish were 100% my style.

Emily ordered the steak & migas and had a little love-at-first-sight moment when they arrived. Perhaps we all did, they were b-e-a-utiful.

And Shayne went with the daily special of gouda grits with pork shoulder and poached eggs. A day prior, I had just finished ranting to Emily about Austin’s inability to provide a solid cheese grit. After tasting Shayne’s grits, I had to eat my words and then eat more cheese grits – they were phenomenal!

And a little P.S. bonus… The wait will most likely be long, but the hostess will get your digits when you arrive and give you a ring when you’re next on the list. We were able to pop into a few shops while we waited, which made 45 minutes fly by.

Seasoned Kale Chips

by

Last week, my friend Baily gave me an Instagram shout out when she posted a picture of her first batch of homemade kale chips.  You see, I coached her through the process a bit, using my blog archives as a reference.  It was nerdy to the nth degree.

But nerdy-ness aside, it was then I spent a few brief moments in nostalgia-land daydreaming about my old kitchen realized that I hadn’t made kale chips since last year.  Waiting the appropriate amount of time before re-blogging about a dish is a food blogger’s dilemma.  A dilemma that often results in forgetting about said dish completely.

I decided to ditch the sriracha this time around and bake seasoned kale chips, which was totally an excuse to browse the local spices at Whole Foods.  I landed on this Wildly Natural One because the list of ingredients immediately induced a drool situation.

Because these chips didn’t have the added sriracha moisture, they only needed to bake for about 17 minutes before they were super, super crispy.  And the Wildly Natural One seasoning was amazing.  It gave the chips that little extra something that made you think they were store-bought.  De-lish!

Hopfields And Burlap Bag

by

Considering that I will either be out of town, have a visitor, or be moving for the next eight weekends in a row, I needed to make the most of this weekend.  So when Lauren shot me an “it’s been too long” email, I thought “man, she’s right, and if I don’t see her this weekend, it’s going to be even longer!”.  I forwarded her an event invite that Macarons by Jane had sent me for Burlap Bag‘s first birthday party and we made plans to meet beforehand at Hopfields.

Two new friends, Elonie and Anna, also met up with us at Hopfields.  We made our introductions and promptly sipped and snacked away.  Lauren and Elonie shared the cheese plate and I had the salad nicoise.  The salad, consisting of fresh greens, haricots verts, fingerling potatoes, olives, tuna and egg, was super impressive for a bar.  Fresh tuna and haricots verts?  Yum.  Between the food, atmosphere, and uber friendly staff, I’d definitely pay a second visit to Hopfields.

When we arrived at Burlap Bag, the place was already packed.  And as soon as we saw Jane’s tower of macarons and all of the other dessert filled tables, we knew exactly why.  A boat load of sweets is sure to lure in a crowd.

We poked around the shop, sweet snacking and goods browsing.

And then we found ourselves back at Hopfields so I could balance out all the sweet with a salty snack and we could continue conversation.  So let me revise my previous statement…  Between the food, atmosphere, and uber friendly staff, I’d definitely pay a second third visit to Hopfields!