There’s no excuse for me not posting in a month except I was lazy and unmotivated. And that’s all I’m going to say about that. Instead, I’ll move forward and make up for July’s monthly love post as well as throw some August in there.
And without further adieu, here’s everything that I loved in July.
Most importantly was weekends spent with friends. July 4th we had a few drinks and blew stuff up in a friends driveway. The following weekend was a pool party to celebrate another friends birthday. And it culminated the weekend of the 18th with a trip to Myrtle Beach to celebrate another friends birthday. We spent the weekend playing games, drinking some beers, hanging out on the beach, shopping and eating. A LOT! One of our friends has a lovely little house in a smaller, less touristy area north of Myrtle Beach and the great thing was that it wasn’t that crowded and the town was small and tiny enough to not even have a McDonald’s, just a bunch of sleepy little tourist shops and food joints and a gas station or so. All in all, it was lovely weekend spent with friends and fun in the sun and I had such a great time!
We culminated that weekend at Rioz, a Brazilian churrascarria (steakhouse). We had been looking forward to this for weeks and had pretty much specifically planned this trip around this place. It is basically all you can eat meat. I’ll say it again – ALL YOU CAN EAT MEAT! You sit down and they give you a coaster – one side is red and the other is green. You flip it to green to have them continue bringing you meat and when you need a break, flip it to red. The servers bring the meat on skewers to your table and cut off pieces and you just keep taking them until you can’t eat anymore. I’m talking filet mignon, filet mignon wrapped in bacon, chicken, lamb, flank steak, ribs, pork sausage, chicken wrapped bacon – just uber-deliciousness. And they have a phenomenal salad bar (but who wants salad?) with fresh shrimp, cheese, sushi, pasta. They also give you plantains and mashed potatoes with cheese and polenta. But again – who has room for any of that when it’s all you can eat MEAT! And it’s good cuts of meat and they are cooked succulently and flavored perfectly. Not to mention the grilled pineapple sprinkled with cinnamon that they cut off warm at the table and the drink and dessert carts they roll to your table. I had a caipiranha, which is basically just lime juice, sugar and a shitload of rum. And for dessert, a ginormous piece of cheesecake that was absolutely freaking delicious! And we both got all of that and got out of there for about $100 ($35 per person + extra for dessert and drinks). Seriously, if you are EVER in Myrtle Beach, you must go there. Just not this coming up weekend because we’ll be going back for Steve’s birthday!
On the food front again, there’s this Fruit Salsa that I posted earlier in the month. This was an experimentation that I picked up off the Internet because I needed a quick and easy dip type thing for one of the parties and I wanted to do something “different” than most people did. Thankfully, it was a success and it’s versatile enough for me to interchange fruits as they go in and out of season. I definitely think next time, I will cut the recipe in half because we had so much more left than we needed. I ended up leaving it at our host’s house and he pretty much said he was eating it ALL WEEK!
As far as entertainment goes, I can’t talk about July without mentioning Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Like I said to everyone else, I don’t care that the critics didn’t like it. I don’t care that the story was pretty much disjointed and nonsensical. I don’t even care that Megan Fox needs to keep her douchebaggy piehole shut and serve the exact purpose that she got famous for: eye candy. I just care that shits blows up and there are giant robots and awesome cars and giant robots and oh, did I mention? GIANT ROBOTS. GIANT ROBOTS THAT CURB STOMP EACH OTHER. Seriously, that’s all I have to say about that.
Finally, there’s an album I fell in LOVE with and am still playing it over and over through this month. Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss has got to be one of the most hauntingly beautiful albums I’ve ever heard. Even now, when I hear one of it’s song on my iPod shuffle, I kick it off random just to listen to the whole album again. It’s a weird combination, with Plant of Zepplin fame and Krauss’ root primarily in country and bluegrass but it works phenomenally. I’d throw the name of some of my favorite songs out there but I’d end up giving you the entire list so it’s prudent for you to check it out yourself and then thank me as you find yourself humming the tunes over and over again even when you’re away from the music.
And that’s pretty much it! July had some great times and August had some even better ones. And even though this is late, it’s still nice looking back on the little things I enjoyed!
My fellow Lowcountry Bloggers and Charleston readers, I need to solicit your vast knowledge!
I have two questions for you and any advice or input would be greatly appreciated.
First on the docket is this.
My boyfriend and I are planning a “Staycation” here in our lovely Lowcountry area. We were originally going to go back to Pennsylvania to visit our family and friends but unfortunately, finances and some other details fell through. So rather than let that get us down, we decided to make the best of it and spend a week off of work enjoying the Charleston area.
The problem is that, like everyone, we are a bit short on funds and would like to do it without spending a lot of money.
So, fellow Charlestonians, what would you do? Where would you go?
How would you enjoy our beautiful corner of the US in a cheap and economical way?
We have done quite a bit of the downtown touristy stuff, the plantations, the general (and more expensive) attrations. We are looking for cheap and easy. We like the outdoors and don’t mind driving. We are counting gas as a normal expense so driving to explore places is fine and considered cheap for this trip (there’s a good chance we’re going to work a day trip to Savannah so cheap ideas there would be appreciated as well). If there is admission, we’d like it to be no more than $10-15 a person.
I’ve got some ideas but I figured I would reach out to the collective and see what everyone weighs in with.
Secondly, in another effort to conserve resources and make a little money (and restore a little organization and sanit to my life), I have been purging my house of all the crap I don’t need. As a result, I’ve ended up with an entire room of stuff that needs to be gotten rid of.
It ranges from clothes to household goods to books to decor to office supplies. And that’s where my second question comes in?
Can anybody recommend good consignment shops or someplace that I could get rid of some of this stuff in the Lowcountry here and make a little money at the same time?
I’m aware of all the usual avenues and even have a few things posted over on good old Craigslist and even have my extra point and shoot for sale on Ebay. A lot of the stuff is electronics and computer equipment and women’s clothing (things I have long given up on fitting into anymore). I thought about a yard sale at my house but they are exhausting and I’m not in the best location for one since I’m in the way back of the neighborhood on a cul-de-sac. There’s also the Goose Creek community yard sale but it’s in September.
I’d like to weed out some of the stuff and make a bit of cash but eventually everything will be donated, most likely to Goodwill or through the local Freecycle. I just don’t know anything about where I could get rid of some of the things that are still in really nice shape without just feeling like I’m tossing out quite a bit of money.
So I turn to you all because I know there are some great and knowledgeable people out there!
Thanks in advance for all of your suggestions!!
Summer, it seems, is in full swing around here! Though last weekend was rather low key for us (we spent the 4th at a friend’s house shooting fireworks off in his street – the joys of living in a state where they’re legal), we found ourselves rather busy this weekend and actually have the next few booked up.
Friday night we had a nice leisurely dinner with some friends then headed to Wal-Mart to pick up supplies for a surprise party that we threw another friend yesterday evening. I then spent all day yesterday preparing food and myself and hanging out with my little brother before heading over to the party location to setup. After that it was eating and drinking and celebrating and swimming and I’ll tell you what, last night was the perfect night for swimming! Warm and balmy but not overly humid and even the water was nice and warm to where you didn’t get a chill from being in it. I think I have to get myself a pool, or at least make a point to visit one more often.
Today, as a result of me feeling just flat-out exhausted, we didn’t do much. I slept in and sat around for awhile trying to force myself awake. Then in the early afternoon I decided I couldn’t take the clutter and mess that had overtook my house, so I spent the afternoon picking things up, doing laundry and going through some cubbies in the kitchen and laundry room as part of my overall ‘get rid of useless shit’ campaign that I have taken on the past few weeks.
And now it’s time for True Blood and just the general wrapping up of another week and preparing for a new one.
Tonight though, I would like to share with a recipe. I’ve never done this before, despite wanting to, but I figured I’d try something new because, well, I like food and I like sharing good food with people. This doesn’t mean I’m a good cook but I try and get by, somewhat. I basically like things quick, easy and accessible and most of the food we tend to eat can be rather plain – we are only mildly (and by mildly I mean rarely) adventurous eaters.
That being said, I was looking for something interesting and different but festive to take to this evening pool party last night and stumled upong this recipe for Fruit Salsa and homemade Cinammon Sugar chips (on AllRecipes) and decided it fit the exact idea I was looking for. I took my own liberties with the recipes and came up with a delicious, fairly easy and perfect summer dish! I also received tons of compliments on it and numerous requests for the recipe so I might as well share it with y’all too!
Happy preparing!
Fruit Salsa
5 peaches
1 lb. strawberries
2 Fuji apples
1 pint blueberries
1 jar fruit preserves
At the simplest level, dice the peaches, strawberries and apples into small, “salsa” size pieces. Mix them together is a large bowl with the blueberries. Then throughly mix the preserves together with the fruit. Cover and chill.
Now for some details.
The recipe originally called for kiwis, raspberries, strawberries and and apples but I don’t like kiwis and couldn’t find raspberries so I substituted, which is the beautiful thing about this recipe. I’m sure you can substitute almost any fruit that’s in season.
Part of the key to this recipe is that the berries and fruit make their own “juice”. The recipe originally called for some white and brown sugar to be added but I omitted it at the suggestion of others on the site and I’m glad I did because it definitely would have been way too sweet had I added it. Also, I used a jar and a half of preserves because it didn’t seem like it would be enough but next time, I’ll use just as a jar because it, combined with the natural fruit juices, made the salsa a bit too liquidy for my taste.
For the preserves, I used apricot and they were delicious! Others have suggested strawberry and regular grape jam.
Overall, people loved the salsa and I received tons of requests for the recipe so I’m going to add it to my repertoire and continue to experiment with it to find out what other different things I can do with it.
Homemade Cinnamon Sugar Chips
10 flour tortillas
Butter flavored cooking spray
Cinnamon & sugar mix
Another basic level recipe – spray both sides of the tortilla, slice into chip size pieces, coat with cinnamon sugar mixture then bake at 350 degrees for approximately 9-11 minutes.
Again, since this is a very easy recipe that you can take liberties with, I’ll share my tips with you and you can modify them accordingly.
I started off spraying a tortilla, cutting it, coating it with cinammon sugar then baking it but this was rather time consuming. By the end, I would take a tortilla, spray both sides, stack it on a plate, then spray another one on both sides and stack it on top of the original one. I did this for about four tortillas before I cut them then just left them on the plate and coated enough chips at a time that would fit on the pan.
The easiest way I found to coat them is to mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a ziploc bag (about 1/2 cup sugar to 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, though don’t quote me on those measurements as I just eyeballed it – it should look more like dirty sugar and not brown sugar) then drop about four to six chips in at a time and shake the bag.
The hardest thing to gauge was baking them. I wasn’t sure if the sugar was supposed to turn the sugar dark brown and crystallize it or if it was ok for them to look like you could still brush the sugar off. It took me a few batches to figure out that I was looking more for the chips to just get hard and crunchy to the touch instead of the sugar crystallizing. So just feel it out for a few sessions and you’ll get comfortable with it.
After that, serve the chips with the salsa – dipping them in the fruits is absolutely delicious!
Overall, I really enjoyed making this and loved that it was fairly easy but well received. The chopping up of the fresh fruit was really only the more labor intensive part – it took about two and a half hours to get everything as finely chopped as I needed it, but it was well worth it!
As of now, we still have quite a month planned. Next weekend, we are going to Myrtle Beach for a long, relaxing time at the beach to celebrate another friends birthday. I’ve equated it to a big slumber party where we grill out, play some board games, hang out on the beach all day and just generally relax. The following weekend is fairly free but the weekend after that we heading to Pennsylvania for a week-long visit with the family.
Overall, I have quite a bit to look forward to and while life is rather busy and chaotic still, it’s these little things that give me something to look forward to.
Hope you all are having a good summer so far and if you try the recipe, let me know how it went for you!
June was a very chaotic month for me. Yet somehow, in the midst of the chaos, I still managed to find quite a few things to love and some of these things helped me get through the month without having even the smallest form of nervous breakdowns, despite wanting to.
Without further ado, here’s the things I loved the most for the month of June.
Hands down, the best event for me, was a visit to my hometown of Siler City, North Carolina to visit my grandparents, my dad, my sisters and other family members. The weekend we went was their 50th anniversary and while the trip was not without drama (truthfully a visit with my family can’t really occur without a bit of the dramatics), we had a very nice time overall. We took my grandparents out to breakfast at their favorite restaurant on Saturday morning with my eight year old cousin, T, in tow. It was just them, T and Steve and I, at this restaurant owned by a distant member of the family once or twice removed or something like that. Regardless, the food was delicious, down home Southern cooking just the way I like it and the tea was cold and sweet the way we like it as well. Afterwards, we visited with my great-aunt and uncle (my grandmother’s sister and husband) who own a welding & crane company, have a small short track racing team and a fleet of old school (and one new school) Corvettes in their garage, which is actually bigger than Steve’s shop at work. The rest of the day we spent with my dad, my grandpa and my cousin, and my brother and sisters, fishing and riding four wheelers out at an aunt’s pond, eating Sir Pizza for dinner (which is hands down one of my favorite pizzas ever!) and hanging out around a fire at my dad’s place out in the country. On Sunday, we took my brother to buy some “professional” clothes for grown-up interviews and then went out to lunch together at the local seafood restaurant that I remember so clearly from when I was young. Overall, it was a low-key weekend with its ups and downs but sometimes, it’s nice to come back to a simpler place and enjoy the easy things in life where we don’t spend a lot of money and just enjoy being around each other. Siler City has changed so much over the years and unfortunately, is going more down hill than I like to see but there are still remnants of the small town USA that I remembered so much about it and part of me loves the nostalgia of just going home and being with family. And seeing beautiful sights like these always helps too!
My entertainment world has been rather busy this month.
On June 1st, Conan O’Brien took over The Tonight Show and this was a long anticipated event for me. I had nothing against Jay Leno, he was just a bit dry for my taste. I love Conan and sometimes found myself staying up way too late to catch him on the Late Show. Now, I can catch him at 11;30 and the show has yet to disappoint me. The monologues, the skits (I particularly loved when he visit local stores in his new neighborhood and took over the tram ride at the studios), even the guests. It’s definitely now my cup of tea and I’m glad they picked him to step into Jay’s shoes (I always thought he deserved it anyway – he’s up there with Jon Stewart for me).
Also on TV this month, True Blood returned and some of you might remember, I featured this show in my very first monthly love post and it gets a second mention here because my obsession has not waned, it has only grown stronger. I have read the first two books in the series and we are now on the second season and it only gets better. I find Sookie to be a much more enjoyable human female role model and heroine than the other vampire books (I’m looking at you, Twilight!) and even the side characters in the series are so wonderfully and richly developed that they make almost all the storylines enjoyable (I find Lafayette to be one of the best characters on TV right now and am so glad they brought him back this season instead of having him meet the same fate as his literary equivalent). This is one of those shows that I gladly look forward to Sunday nights for so I can sit down with some dinner and my blanket and a full uninterrupted hour of vampires and shapeshifters and sex and blood and humor and hot, hot, hot men (Bill, Eric, Jason … need I say more?)
The hands down best movie of the month was The Hangover. You could just see the thought process behind it – let’s take four randomly different guys, bring them all together in Vegas for a bachelor party and give them the greatest night of their lives but the worst hangover ever. So simple but so very complicated as they spend the entire weekend looking for the groom, whom they have somehow lost (and that was actually one of the more enjoyable moments of the film because I thought that where and how he was lost was going to turn out to be so outlandishly unbelievable that it ruined the movie but in reality, it was so very simple and believable that I thought it tied everything together nicely). But seriously, there’s tigers and hookers and gambling and drinking and chickens and a baby and Mike Tyson. And Bradley Cooper. And Andy, from The Office. And Zack Galfinakis (I don’t know if that’s how he spells his name and don’t care – he’s hysterical in this film). And did I mention Bradley Cooper? A very HOT Bradley Cooper! Overall, this was one of those funny, hysterical, quotable movies that will be added to the repertoire and the DVD shelf from now until forever.
And finally, there’s Bejeweled 2, which I’ve played numerous time before but somehow got really, really addicted to this month. I play it on Facebook as Bejewled Blitz and I swear, that one’s going to give me a heart attack because you have one minute to get the highest score possible and the stress of it all makes me insane sometimes. I also downloaded the app onto my iPod Touch and have spent numerous nights in bed playing it while I wasn’t tired enough to fall asleep. I took it with me to the doctor’s office and played it in the waiting room and to North Carolina. I’ve had to force myself to stop playing. But it’s so awesome so can you really blame me?
So those were my pleasures for the month of June which were perfectly wonderful because they helped me get through a fairly rough month. Here’s hoping July is a bit quieter!
