Cooking, Cleaning & Running Fools

Hello, hello!

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend.

My weekend kicked off right after work on Friday with my birthday present from Brian… a cooking class!  I’ve been talking about us going for a while now and was thrilled when I saw what he got me!

The class we took was called ‘Street Food’ and was themed around various snacks and bites that you may find sold on the street in different countries.

Here was our menu:

Beer battered fish tacos

Beef kefta kabobs

Lemongrass chicken banh mi

Cheese and bean pupusas

The class was held at the Merchandise Mart Chopping Block location, so it was super simple to get there directly after work.  Brian brought a bottle of pinot noir, we tied on our aprons and got to work.  In most classes, you work with another couple or group to prepare your various dishes.  Our class was completely full, so we were able to partner up with two other people and boy did we have so much fun!

I love cooking, I cook almost every night, but all of these items are ones I never would have just come up with on my own.

Our favorites were definitely the Beer battered fish tacos which we made with Two Brother’s Cane and Abel.  The second runner up was the Lemongrass chicken banh mi’s.  So juicy and tender, plus the crusty french bread really makes the entire sandwich.  We left completely full and happy!

I was up bright and early Saturday morning to meet my workout buddy, Lindsay at our gym.  We warmed up on the treadmill for 25 minutes alternating between a steady jog, uphill walk and sprinting.  Once we were nice in warm we completed the following workout:

Loved it!  It was so nice being at the gym so early because we didn’t have to fight for space to complete this circuit.

Saturday was such a busy day.  Immediately after our workout, I showered, grabbed a few things from Whole Foods across the street, my two of my best friends for brunch at Toast, came home and cleaned for 4 hours and then hosted a group of my closest friends for cocktails and appetizers!

Phew.  The whole day was awesome.  Even though it was jam packed, I had so much fun seeing all my different groups of friends and my workout really carried my energy level throughout the entire day.  Win!

Sunday was no less chaotic.  My parents and our family friends were over at my apartment at 10:00 a.m. ready to watch the Air and Water show (thank god my apartment was already clean).

We grabbed some sandwiches and salads from Pastoral and headed over to the lake around noon.  Unfortunately, Chicago decided to be cool and cloudy yesterday so the Air and Water show didn’t really happen, but our fun little picnic did!

I was a great way to round out the weekend… and let me tell you I slept like a BABY last night.  Fun times.

Weekend Update and a Rockstar Recipe

Good morning, rockstars!

Hope you are all mentally prepared for this work week to begin.  Brian and I were in complete denial that the weekend was over so instead of going to bed at a reasonable hour last night, we stayed up until 1:00 a.m. watching random movies.  Good life choices.

This weekend flew by in part because I had something going on every.single.day.  I love/hate those types of weekend, because truth be told I much prefer being a hermit.  I suppose I’ll save my hermitness for the winter when the polar vortex returns.

Friday after work I headed out to Wheaton, Illinois to visit one of my best college girlfriends and have a wine night.  We enjoyed many… MANY glasses of wine on her balcony and enjoyed a gorgeous sunset to end out the week.  I love visiting the suburbs because it always feels like a mini vacation – away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Saturday morning, we visited the local farmers market by her house before catching a train back into the city.  And this is where I saw the most giant tree of rosemary I have ever seen:

Think of all the dishes you could create with that!

Once I was back in the city, there was no time for rest as Brian and I were headed out to a Cubs rooftop game to celebrate my friends 30th birthday.

It was a GORGEOUS day for a ballgame and birthday celebrations are always so much fun 🙂

Sunday morning was a little more laid back.  We slept in a little bit and enjoyed a Midwest brunch filled with eggs, turkey bacon and mimosas.  Around 1:00 p.m., I headed out to meet my mom in Willmette to go kayaking on the lake!  The kayaking was fun, however, the lake was a bit choppy which caused me to get a little nauseous the last half hour of ourtrip.  I’ve always been one to easily get motion-sickness and should have probably taken something before going out on the water.

It was still a good workout, though!

To top off the awesome weekend, I tried out a new-to-me recipe from PaleOMG and it was a MAJOR hit.

Artichoke Lemon Pesto Chicken Pasta

Serves 4-5

(The only modifications to this recipe were the addition of red pepper flakes, because I like things SPICY and the fact that we used whole wheat orecchiette instead of spaghetti squash)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
• 1/2 lb. whole wheat orecchiette
• 12 artichoke hearts, cut in half (the jarred variety)
• 1/3 cup walnuts
• 4 tbs. olive oil
• 4 tbs. vegetable broth
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup fresh basil
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tbs. red pepper flakes
• 2 cups spinach
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Place a large pot of water on the stove, season with salt and cover to boil

2. In a large saute pan, add 1 tbs. olive oil, 1 clove minced garlic and halved artichoke and cook over medium high heat until the artichokes are slightly browned.  Season with salt and pepper.

3. Once the artichokes are brown, add them to a food processor along with the walnuts, 2 tbs. olive oil, vegetable broth, second minced garlic clove, parsley, basil, lemon, salt and pepper.  Puree until smooth.

 

4. Add diced chicken to saute pan along with 1 tbs. olive oil, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.  Cook the chicken over medium- high heat until browned and cooked through.

5.  Once your pot of water is boiling, add the orecchiette and cook until al dente.

6.  Add 1/2 cup of the pesto to the chicken pan and mix to well coat.  Add the spinach and cook until just wilted.

7. Drain the pasta and add to the pan directly, mixing until everything is incorporated and adding more pesto if needed.

8. Serve with a little Parmesan cheese on top and enjoy!

Good Eats – The Radler & The Dawson

These past two days have been stupendous in terms of my eating. My exercising, wellllll… not so much.

Tuesday night a couple of coworkers and I went out to The Radler in Logan Square to enjoy some delicious German beer and shared plates. The decor of The Radler is my favorite part about the place. It’s large with German Hall style seating, a massive bar area that sits in front of three giant handmade wooden clocks and a mural that was restored from the 1800’s.

 

“The mural was uncovered during demolition and was an advertisement for Bohemian Export Beer. The beer was brewed by West Side Brewing Co. and was only on the market for 10 years, from 1881-1890. The brewery was founded by German immigrant Conrad Seipp. During the time it was open, the West Side Brewery was one of the largest producers in the U.S.A. The brewery also produced about eight other beers as well as the Bohemian. The mural was also painted by Thomas Cusak Company. The company painted many of the advertising murals around Chicago during that time frame. It was also one of the last murals that they painted at street level, soon after Thomas decided to paint on higher elevations to make them more easily seen.”

There are touches of old and new with modern paintings on the wall and bike sculptures from a local Chicago artist.

We sat down, took a look at the menu and decided we just wanted to split a bunch of dishes to get the most out of the meal. Side note: dining with people who are so easy going and not bit picky over checks or food are my favorite kind of people to dine with.

To start, we ordered the Sourdough Spring Pea Pancakes with shaved vegetables and the German Onion Pie.

Both were delicious, but the onion pie really stole the show. It was creamy like a quiche with a perfectly flaky crush and a bacon vinaigrette – perfecto.

As our mains, we split two types of house-made sausage: the Jagdwurst and the Boarwurst and the roasted rabbit.

The sausages were good and had two very distinct flavors, one was made with pork while the other had boar in it.

We took our time nibbling our way through dinner and ordering multiple rounds of beer and radlers. If you don’t know what a Radler is, it’s a mixture between German beer and usually homemade fruit juice soda. So crisp and refreshing and not too sweet!

My second stellar dining experience was last night when I met my dad after work at The Dawson in River West. The Dawson is another huge dining venue with a fabulous outdoor patio complete with wood burning fires and cushioned seating.

We started our night outside at the bar and ordered a round of Chardonnay and the Shishito Peppers as an appetizer.

If you have not had these peppers before, 1 in 5 of then are hot which makes it all the more fun to gobble them down 🙂

Right as we finished our first glass of wine the heavens opened up and it started POURING… Oh and thundering and lightening. The staff did a great job of breaking down the bar quickly and transferring all of us indoors.

Once inside, we both decided we were ready for something more substantial, and split the Steamed Mussels with chorizo in a tomato broth and the Crispy Soft Shell Crab. Both delicious and light – the perfect meal!

The key to dining out at great places and not getting fat is of course portion control and lots of exercise. While I was able to squeeze in some strength training, the wine really got to my running! It’s a good thing I have soccer tonight and a race on Saturday. All about the balance!  Bon appetit, my friends!

Stormy Run

Tuesday, after a somewhat crazy work day, I had plans to hang out with friends after work.  Since I decided to hit the snooze button ten times that morning, I promised myself that I would squeeze in a run immediately after work to see how my knee was feeling.  I packed my gym bag to bring to work and brought all the necessary essentials to leave straight from the office.  Instead of heading to the gym, however, I just decided to do a quick four mile run starting right in front of my building.

I really honed in on my Tom Skilling skills trying to decide if this was a good idea or not and according to the radar, I was clear from exactly 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.  I could do it.

My run consisted of a “down and back” kind of – two miles one way and two miles back.  I ran down Jackson street until I hit the lake and then headed straight towards the Shedd Aquarium.  I ran around the aquarium and past Soldier Field until my Garmin watch read two miles and headed right on back.

The views on my run were rockin’, but the wind was real real rough (if you can’t tell by the choppy water).

Whenever I know it is going to rain or storm I feel extra pressure to run fast and on this particular run I was a little nervous that my faster pace would resurface my knee pain from the weekend.  Surprisingly it did not.  Not surprisingly at the same time as my knee really didn’t start to hurt until mile on Saturday.

I really enjoyed seeing the dark clouds rolling in from afar and pictured myself finishing just in the nick of time – which is exactly what happened.

When I got back to the office and cleaned myself up a bit I headed outside and noticed that I had literally JUST MISSED a down pour of rain.  Lucky me 🙂

… especially because I neglected to bring an umbrella to work with me.  Phew.

I met my girlfriends at their apartment in Wicker Park at 7:00 p.m., but not before picking up some much needed necessities:

– White wine

– Giant bottle of Cholula

When I walked in the door, my best friend, Katie, had delicious fish tacos waiting for me.

A night of tacos, wine, The Bachelorette and my best friends was just what the doctor ordered.

 

Hydration Meme Challenge

Hey guys! Long time no talk 🙂

Things have been busy busy busy over here at the Hanson household. BvB practices have been attended, runs have been had, and lots of planning and prep has occurred for this weekend.

It’s just one of those weeks where I literally have something going on every single night. Tonight is the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge in Chicago of which my company will be participating. The run is a 3.5 mile loop through the downtown Grant Park area.

Tomorrow I am traveling out to the burbs as I have a lot of family that is in town to celebrate my sisters college graduation.

Saturday, bright and early, is the Soldier Field 10 miler, which my running buddy and I will be participating in. Immediately following the race, I’ll be heading back to the burbs to help host my sisters graduation party and possibly stop by my good friends birthday party.

I’m already exhausted.

Luckily, there are no set plans for Sunday or Monday, but since it’s a holiday weekend I know something is bound to pop up.

My kFit team officially ended our CCC Mini Challenge Week with three final challenges:

Water Meme Challenge – Promote Hydration

We had each team visit mememaker.net and create three memes that promoted hydration and the importance of drinking water.  Here were some ones we got back:

Love it!

Sit-up Mania Challenge

During this challenge, each team had to see how many sit-ups they could do in one minute and submit their average.

FINAL Challenge – 80’s runner costume contest

The title in itself is pretty self explanatory, and I wish I could post those pictures on here because some teams were super creative – sweat suits, head bands, Mohawks and all.

Last night was a nice little break from all of the hustle and bustle going on after work.  My best friend, Kaitlin, asked if I wanted to come drink wine on her porch and offered to make me dinner.  It was pretty hard to persuade me. Not.  Kaitlin lives just about 10-12 walking minutes away, so I brought Bailey with me so she could get a little extra exercise and hang out with the girls.

It was such a beautiful night, perfect for deck drinks and the dinner really hit the spot.

Grilled Mahi Mahi tacos with mango salsa, grilled corn on the cob, cliantro rice and grilled pineapple for dessert!  I love having friends who love to cook!

Wining, Dining and Rioting

Mmmmmm coffee.  The perfect drink for me to sip while I recap this past weekend for you all.  Side note:  Is there anything better than Sunday morning coffee?  I truly love the few hours I have to myself Sunday morning while Brian and Bailey are still snoozing and the t.v. is turned off.

I digress.

Friday was quite the eventful day for me.  10 miles was scheduled on my Half Marathon training plan and since I had a full Saturday planned, I decided to get my long run in before the weekend even kicked off.  I have run home from work once or twice before and really really enjoy it.  The trick is to basically come to work with only the essentials.  Since I run with a hydropack, I can put my ID, medical insurance cards, Ventra and debit card in there.  I dress in an outfit that I don’t really mind leaving at work over the weekend and the same goes for the shoes.  That way, when 5:00 p.m. hits on Friday, I can change and head out the door without looking back.

Going into Friday, I knew there was about a 90% chance I would be running the route by myself and was a little nervous about it.  I talked to a few friends about my concerns and one of them suggested downloading a podcast or audiobook to keep me entertained.  Sometimes music for me just does not cut it.  I ended up downloading Tina Fey’s ‘Bossypants’ audiobook and was SO GLAD that I did.

The first half of my run was easy peasy.  I ran north on the lakeshore path and took in all of the sights and energy of the city.  It was a really overcast day, but surprisingly it was not windy whatsoever. The lake was super calm – almost in an eerie way, but I was ecstatic because the wind was one of my main concerns.

By mile 5, the sun came out to say hello!

The run itself was good, honestly I have no complaints – Tina kept me well entertained, but I just didn’t feel as enthused as I do when I run on a Saturday or Sunday morning.  I ran past bars and restaurants and saw people enjoying the Friday happy hour and thought damn – that coulda been me.  When I had two miles to go, I literally was CRAVING a glass of wine.  I packed some Margarita Clif Shot Blocks because I like their extra salt and because I wanted to pretend I was partaking in the Friday festivities – I’m a loser.

I planned my route perfectly so that I would end right by the Potbelly’s close to my house – huzzah!  Surprisingly, I kept a really good pace by myself – faster that my usual 9:40 goal.

Success!  It did feel REALLY good to have my long run over with for the weekend.  I grabbed Brian and I some Potbelly subs, hauled butt back to my apartment so that I could inhale said subs and then immediately head back out for a 8:15 p.m. hair appointment.  As I have mentioned before, I absolutely love my hair salon.  I go to Indira, which is an Aveda salon, on Southport just off the brown line.  My stylist Angela, immediately gave me a shoulder massage with their heavenly oil when I sat down followed by a rockin shampoo session and hand massages.  Bliss.

Summer is just around the corner and I really wanted to switch up my hairstyle so I CHOPPED off 5 inches!

I love it, I basically get 15 minutes back in my morning not having to deal with such a mass amount of hair.

Saturday was just as eventful as Friday.  I ran errands all morning because at night I was meeting my girlfriends out for a night on the town.  First, we went to Little Goat for an early dinner to get a good base for the evening.  This was my second time going and I wanted to try so many things, but decided to split a few entrees with my friends so I wouldn’t be too stuffed going into our next event.  I split the veggie Chickpea salad and Los Drowned sandwich with two of my friends and it was the perfect amount of food.

Oh, we also got their famous shrimp cocktail which was wrapped in fried soba noodles – awesome texture and flavor!

After dinner, we all headed over to Union Station in the Great Hall for Chicago’s Wine Riot!

Wine Riot is basically the best thing of all time.  Inside the hall, there were a ton of wine vendors with over 250 different kinds of wines from all over the world for us to try.  The company that hosted the event, Second Glass, did an excellent job of setting up the space and providing enough vendors so that it did not get too crowded.   Once we walked in, we were provided with a tasting glass to take around with us from vendor to vendor.  The pours were standard tasting pours, but after 3 hours of sampling we definitely got our moneys worth 🙂

PS – We bought the tickets in January when they were only $45.

There was goat cheese sampling which included a fabulous truffle cheese that was to die for, a bubbly bar to try various types of champagne as well as a photo booth to take funny pictures with friends.  It was a serious good time.

Sunday was basically spent in recovery mode.  Brian and I have started watching Scandal and are basically hooked – Olivia Pope is awesome.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Hope you all celebrate with lots of tacos and margaritas!

 

Snapshots: Easter Weekend

We had quite the eventful Easter weekend! …Even though I thought it was going to be a low key one.

Saturday morning I was up bright and early to meet Lindsay for our half marathon training run.  We originally had a 10k on our calendars, however, we decided to just maintain our endurance level and shoot for another 8 mile run.  I met Lindsay at her place and decided to DIVVY my way up there.  If you are not from Chicago, DIVVY is our bike share program throughout the city.  It is super convenient and easy to use.  There is a DIVVY station about a block away from my apartment and one right in front of Lindsay’s doorstep.

It was a beautiful, beautiful day, so we decided to stick to the Lakeshore path to take in all of the amazing views.

We passed the Lincoln Park Zoo where we were tempted to join in the free Easter egg hunt and play with the monkeys and zebras.

Before we knew it we were up back towards Wrigley which lead our run to conveniently end right by an Einstein Bagels – win!

Lately, my post run cravings have included bagels and lemonade.  When I went to go get my lemonade at Einsteins, the Lemonade dispenser must of been running on it’s last leg because I got a really nasty, watery tasting lemonade.

This is my unhappy lemonade face.

The rest of Saturday was spent cleaning and prepping for our Easter celebration.

My parents got down into the city super early on Sunday to save some seats at the Easter mass we went to.  I had no problem heading over to the church early in part because it was GORGEOUS outside, but also I wanted to watch the little kids do their post mass Easter egg hunt.  So cute.

After mass, we headed back to my apartment to finish the prep of dinner.  My parents were in charge of the appetizer and brought over this amazing goat cheese and roasted pepper dish as well as some cute Easter treats.  Shout out to my cousins in Ohio for sending us an awesome Edible Arrangement!  Once Brian’s family arrived it was time to pop the champagne, open a few bottles of wine and get to dining!

Can we talk about how awesome these cream puffs/swans were that Brian’s cousin Diane brought?  Almost too pretty to eat… almost 😉

I am so so so so full and happy that we were able to celebrate with friends and family this weekend.  Brian and I had an amazing time hosting Easter dinner and can’t wait to dig into all of the leftovers!

Hope you all had a nice weekend!

Xmas Came Late & Running Mile 8

Good morning, friends!  I hope you all enjoyed the weekend!

I was very much looking forward to my Saturday all of last week as I finally got to use one of Brian’s Christmas gifts that he gave me – A wine tasting tour in Michigan!

He got a deal on the tour through Living Social, so I was not really sure what to expect going into the day.  I was pleasantly surprised, however, when we got downtown Saturday morning and saw a giant coach bus waiting for our arrival.  I will just say off the bat that everything about the tour, hosted by Cannonball Productions, was so well organized.  I was glad to see that having a bathroom on a bus full of winos was a top priority!

It took us two hours to get to our first winery – Lemon Creek.  We were immediately ushered into their tasting room where we got to sample five of their wines including their signature ‘ice wine’ for $3 extra.  Have you ever heard of ice wine?  I hadn’t either, but apparently it is a very popular staple in Michigan.  The grapes are picked during a chilly night – harvested at less that 17 degrees Fahrenheit.  Each of the grapes that are picked only create ONE drop of ice wine.  Since it is so concentrated, the wine is super sweet and is termed ‘The Nectar of the Gods’.  I’m not a huge fan of sweet wine, so this wasn’t really my thing, but Brian had no problem finishing off my pour 🙂

We were able to spend 45 – 50 minutes at each winery and although that sounded like a long time initially, the day seemed to go by very fast!  Lemon Creek was good, we enjoyed their Chardonnay and Dry Rose, but their pours were the smallest of the bunch…

Next on the tour was Baroda Founders Winery.  We were able to get a tour of the production room before our tasting and lunch began.  The owner himself gave us a tour and showed us how they make their most popular wine – Luce Del Sole ( which means sunshine).  I very much enjoyed the tour and that specific wine that he poured for us himself, but unfortunately I did really care for anything else that I tried there.

The final two wineries on the tour were my absolute favorite: St. Julian and Round Barn.  The woman who was assisting Brian and I with our tasting at St. Julian was phenomenal.  My favorite of our six tastings was their Syrah and I may or may not have taken home three bottles! Did I mention that their pours were over double the size of Lemon Creek?  Win!

My favorite part of Round Barn, however, was not their wine.  It was their signature bourbon and beer.  We also got six tastings there, as well as a souvenir tasting glass and the woman who took care of me could just tell that I was in need of a grand finale tasting.  She had a bourbon cocktail that literally knocked my socks off – psych! I wasn’t wearing any socks 😉  She had mixed their bourbon with one of their apple wines that had been mulled for hours and OMG it was like heaven in a glass – the perfect drink for a fall day.

While I got my bourbon on in the main tasting room, Brian ended his tour at the brewery.  Their beers were equally as delicious and Brian got a growler for us to enjoy on the bus ride back to Chicago.

 

Our Loot!

I would highly recommend this tour to everyone!  For $75 you get round trip transportation, copious amounts of wine, free lunch and a bunch of new friends.  I was also grateful that the tour got us back into the city by 6:00 p.m. as I had plenty of time to recover before my eight mile training run the next day!

I was surprisingly not too dehydrated when I woke up on Saturday, but I made sure to drink plenty of water and eat tons of protein to get my body up to par.

Lindsay and I both knew that there was a possibility we would be running during a Thunderstorm, but Mother Nature was pretty good to us!  Since we knew it was windy along the lakeshore path, we routed ourselves through the Lakeview, Roscoe Village and Lincoln Park neighborhoods.  With Lindsay’s wedding coming up in the fall, we always have so much to talk about that the run goes by quickly.  I swear she is the best running buddy, I don’t even bother bringing headphones anymore.

I felt pretty good after the run, my hamstrings and butt were super tight so I made sure to spend extra time stretching those out.

The rest of the night was spent on the couch eating DELICIOUS Thai food and watching Game of Thrones – EEEKKKKK!

A Night at Wrigley Field

Good Morning!

We have been having really beautiful days here in Chicago and last night I got to enjoy one of these days outside. GASP.  Yes, outside!

As I mentioned yesterday, one of my coworkers was giving away his Cubs tickets for free and I was the lucky person who snagged them 🙂

After work, I raced home where Brian and Bailey were waiting for me with big smiles.  We decided to make dinner and eat before the game so we wouldn’t overindulge too much at the stadium.  Originally we had salmon and asparagus on the menu, but that didn’t really seem like a good base to go with our beer and alcohol consumption, so we switched to turkey tacos instead.

These hit the spot! All I did was Sautée the ground turkey with some taco seasoning and salsa and it was sooooo yummy.

With our bellies full we headed to Wrigley, which is just a 15 minute walk from my apartment.  My coworker has really good seats – aisle 17 row 9 – right behind home plate.  The sky/view was spectacular.

Before we got settled we b-lined it to the beer tent where Brian got some cold refreshing brews and I opted for the white wine.  I know, who drinks wine at a ballpark, but hear me out.  My favorite ballpark treat is a big bag of salted peanuts and when you pair that with a cold glassd of Pinot Grigio you get the salty sweet effect.  It’s heavenly.

My second favorite ballpark treat is of course the chicago hot dog (off the grill not from the concession).  I was pretty full from my tacos at home and half a bag of peanuts, but it was still really hard to resist a hot dog with all the delicious smells surrounding me.  Cheers to my willpower for the night.

Staying healthy at a ballpark is super difficult so I usually try to eat super clean the whole day leading up to the game so that I don’t go to bed at the end of the night feeling like crap.

That being said, there are definitely ‘better choice’ options that you can opt for.  For instance, choose a grilled brat with all the fixings sans bun over a giant helmet of nachos with neon orange processed cheese.  I saw a bison hot dog last night that looked mighty tasty as well as a pulled pork sandwich!  At Sheffield’s Grill inside Wrigley, the do have a gluten free bun option if you’re on that diet and there are gluten free beer options available at some of the beer tents.

Besides the food being awesome it was also a really fun night… even though the Cubs lost… surprise… surprise 😉

Hilton Head Recap: Food

It’s no secret that I have a weird obsession with all things food related – I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that most bloggers do.  However, this past week at Hilton Head was awesome in part because I didn’t have to worry about cooking for myself for seven whole days.  Plus, my mom and dad made most of the reservations which meant I was in a total state of RELAXATION. Here is the recap of the week and my recommendations for some dinner/lunch hot spots.

Saturday: Uhhhh we got in at midnight sooooo I had a few bites of mom’s leftover sushi and then hit the hay.

Sunday: Skull Creek Boathouse

Skull Creek Boathouse is a great family-friendly restaurant on the island that is perfect for al fresco dining and an amazing view of the sunset.  This restaurant is one of the more popular ones on the island and there is always SUCH a long wait.  I’m not sure how it happened, but we were lucky enough to snag a tall-boy table by the bar outside without having to put our name on the waiting list.  Noteworthy – don’t wait for resos – grab a seat at the bar – it is always a good time.

For the table we ended up splitting an order of the hushpuppies which were so delicious.  For my main course, I opted for the peel n’ eat local shrimp – for obvious reasons.  It’s funny, on the menu they had peel n’ eat shrimp and then shrimp that were already peeled for like $5 more… are people that afraid of peeling shrimp.  C’mon.

Monday: Low Country Boil – The only meal I cooked all week!

This is an awesome recipe I will have to share with you later, but it was super simple.  I basically threw some fresh jumbo shrimp, corn, turkey kielbasa (for us heart healthy folk) and red potatoes in a pot of boiling water with old bay and lemons.

It was super yum and you best believe we ate the whole damn thing.

Tuesday: The Black Marlin

Another really popular restaurant on the island, however, we did not go out until 8:00 p.m. so we beat all of the family rush 😉  The Black Marlin has a really awesome patio that overlooks the bay.  My mom and I weren’t super hungry, so we just ended up ordering a bunch of appetizers: Sushi Nachos (oh, yes), Crab Cakes and my favorite… fresh oysters.

To die for.  Right from the Skull Creek Bay.

Wednesday: Sunset Grill

This restaurant is not as well known so… shhhhhh.  Don’t ruin it! 😉  It’s tucked away behind a trailer park on top of a laundry store.  Despite it’s appearances, it is THE BEST restaurant i’ve been to on the island.  The atmosphere is small and intimate with just enough glamour to make it feel like a special occasion.  PLUS, it has the best view of a sunset on the island (hence the name).

As an appetizer, Brian and I split the wild mushroom pizzette.

So fresh and delicious.

My main course, however, stole the show.

Seared Scallops with a vegetable rice succotash.  Ohhhhh Myyyyyyy Loooorrrddd.  The best meal of the week.

To top it off as my “dessert” I ordered a 1664 Blanc which is a beer that I drank all the time when I studied abroad in Paris, France.

Thursday: Dinner made by Dad.

Fresh peel n’ eat shrimp as an appetizer.

Local trout, salad and wild rice as the main course.

I’ve been raised by excellent cooks in the family, it’s not wonder my obsession with food has gotten so out of hand 😉

Friday: The last supper – Harold’s Diner  – plus copious amounts of mimosas!

For lunch, Brian and I biked to our favorite local diner that has the BEST grouper sandwich – with a side of attitude!

We order grouper sandwiches from this diner every time we are on the island and they never disappoint.  They also have phenomenal looking burgers, cheesesteaks and breakfast food galore.  Seriously, THIS is what diner food is all about.  Fresh, local and unforgettable.

As you can see, the daily activity was much needed in order to ‘balance’ out my daily eats.  The food on the island is so fresh and delicious, if you don’t like seafood… we probably can’t be friends.  KIDDING… or am I?

Welp, that’s it folks.  My Hilton Head Recap is complete which means vacation is officially over. 😦  Until we meet again.