02/16/14

February Trip To Georgia

We’re back from GA. We actually made it out just in time to miss all the sleet, freezing rain, and snow. We made our way back bright {Actually it was still dark outside} and early Monday morning.

I had a great time with my family while Huck was in TN riding four wheelers with his friends from high school. We arrived Wednesday night before midnight, and I dropped him off at his buddies work early Thursday morning. Originally, he was going to fly into Knoxville to meet up with everyone, but we needed to take Ginny back to the vet and with the cost of airfare, it was cheaper for us both to go.

Thursday, I had lunch with my mom and Papa Mathis at our favorite Korean place. I could tell my mom was excited to spend time with me when she said she’d go to lunch with us, too. She really surprised me with how much stuff she tried. She even tried using chopsticks. And she agreed the food was really good!

Friday, we had seafood with my Papa Brooks and took Ginny to the vet. When we were home for Christmas, we took both dogs to have their teeth cleaned and get their yearly shots. Ginny’s liver functions came back really bad and the vet said it could be related to gum disease. He gave us 2 weeks worth of Antibiotics and told us to follow up in a month. Unfortunately, his levels were worse this time. The vet said it wasn’t due to his age {he’s 9} and $500 later, we’ll still not sure.

He gave us two new Rx to try and told us to follow up in a month. Hopefully this will work!

Friday night, Tabby took me to the new Growler-To-Go place in Downtown Flowery Branch. We sampled a few different beers trying to find something she’d like, and surprising we did! She enjoyed a Cedar and Wheat beer.

After we got our growlers, we had dinner at Show Guns. It was nice having an evening with just the two of us. I don’t see or talk to her nearly enough!

Saturday, my whole family {minus Huck} loaded up and headed to North Carolina to see my parent’s new property. In December, they purchased some land in the mountains right on the river. It currently has a RV with shed built around it with a large front porch facing the river, but they plan to build a small cabin. They’ve spent a few weekends cleaning up and were both really excited to show off their new home! I’m so happy for both of them.

When we left their property, we took the scenic route home. We stopped at the Hiawassee Lake Dam, Field of the Woods, and Murphy, NC for lunch.

Once we made it back to GA, we stopped at The Cottage for a wine tasting. We tried 5 different wines, and I purchased a white wine to take home. The view from the place was amazing, too!

Sunday was spent with my parents visiting my grandparents again.

I left my parents around 5, which really sucked by the way! I always have a hard time leaving, but usually, I’m just ready to get the ride over. This time, I was going to meet Huck at his parent’s house. My whole family was standing in the driveway when I left. I started crying before I even made it to my car.

I managed to calm down after a few minutes, but started crying again, right before getting to Huck. He felt bad and we had to go over the whole I want to leave… I wanted to live in Florida… I love you more because I left a driveway full of people I love to come be with you, spill. I honestly missed him so much, though. We haven’t gone 3 days away from each other in a LONG time! We haven’t gone more than a night a part in over a year! We’re cheesy like that!

We had dinner with Huck’s parents and called it a night early. The ride back was LONG and horrible like always. I start getting angry around the 7-8 hour mark. That’s my car ride threshold.

Tuesday, Huck had his 6ish month follow up for this Colon Cancer. Everything came back great and the doctor said he would only need to follow up yearly, now. Exactly what we wanted to hear!

We celebrated the good news with Tacos and Shrimp Carbonara {Not at the same time!}. Two of Huck’s favorite foods.

That was my trip to Georgia. Nothing crazy but lots of time spent with my family. Just what I wanted/needed!

02/5/14

Dreading The Drive

*This post is completely random! You’ve been worried*

We’re Georgia bond today! As usual, I’m not very excited at the moment. 9 hours in the car= torture. The ride is always worth it in the end, though. Getting to spend the weekend with my family while Huck’s off riding four wheelers will be fun. I swear that drive gets longer every time!

I already packed my bags and have everything ready to go. I downloaded an audio book to listen to, and I packed enough clothes to last me 5 weeks.

Side note: While in Italy, we would leave school on Thursday afternoons and not return until Sunday night, and all I’d have is small backpack. I go to Georgia for 4 days, and I pack my whole closet!

This is what my room looked like as I packed 6 weeks worth of clothes into one suitcase. The same size suitcase I’m taking to Georgia… Craziness! I guess when you can pack more, you will.

I actually found some other cool pictures, while searching for this one.

I wish I had more pictures from my other trips, or just more pictures from Italy. Almost all my pictures from before 2010 are gone. Stupid computer virus!!

I have the memories from my travels, though. I guess that’s all that matters. Or that means I’ll just need to visit all the places again.

In high school, I use to make scrapbooks (The low tech form of blogging!) I actually looked through one a few months ago. It’s amazing how different I am from the person in those books or just how different my life is now. Or how different my life could be. Don’t expect to see any pictures from that time in my life! Holy Bad Hair Day

What other random stuff can I ramble on about… Oh, Huck made a time-lapsed video of us cooking the other night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfLzTelLZ0I&feature=youtu.be

The caption at the end is my favorite part. I told him I didn’t understand his song choice, but he told me a “Kiss won’t make you stay but good food will”. I’ll take it!

I’m still waiting for my Beer Fest video. We’ll be stuck in the car for 9 hours. I’ll get him to work on it then!

That’s all I have for today. Like I said, this was extremely random. I’m sure I’ll pop in while we’re gone… Maybe!

02/3/14

Jupiter Beer Fest Weekend

I’m a little behind on some stuff. So, I’m going back, way back, to Beer Fest Weekend. If you remember last year’s Beer Fest was a LONG weekend. This year was no different, but I was more prepared for the festivities.

THURSDAY

The weekend started on Thursday folding T-Shirts. It ended with beers at TBC. I needed to prep my liver after all.

FRIDAY

Friday, I got off work early and went home to get ready for Field of Beers. This is hands down my favorite food/beer event. Food made with beer + beer pairing = Heaven for me! My favorite food was, of course, the Cider Donuts. Second was the Scottish Egg. It was a hardboiled egg, covered in sausage, breaded, and fried. Honestly, it tasted like an egg wrapped in stuffing. Yum!

Huck has some great video of me talking about how much I love the donuts. I was waiting for him to finish the video before doing this post, but he hasn’t finished it yet. He has lots of videos to go through.

The Maple Bacon Coffee Porter from Funky Buddha was really good. I wasn’t sure about it at first, though. I’ve tried a Maple Bacon Porter before and it was like drinking pure maple syrup… Blah!! None of the favors, in this beer, were too overpowering.

I left only feeling slightly miserable and fairly sober. Over the course of the night, I had 4 donuts total, thinking I could get more on Saturday. They were not available at the beer festival : (. If I had known, I would have consumed a lot more! Next year, it’s on!

SATURDAY

Saturday, started with me frantically trying to find baskets for the Barley Dolls. I put it off all week, and had to go to 3 different stores to find a plain wicker basket that wasn’t $10+ each. I finally found some at the Dollar Store.

I arrived at Roger Dean Stadium sporting my new Barley Doll shirt.

A few weeks ago, the organizer of Beer Fest, asked if the Barley Dolls would be interested in helping with the event. I agreed and asked a few ladies to help out. Our task, throw hops along the “parade” route behind the bagpipe players. When I opened the bag of hops, to fill the baskets, everyone started questioning what we were throwing. Dianna posted a picture with a hashtag saying “Hops not Hash”.

Once it was time, two groups of 4 bagpipe players, 2 drummers, and 3 Barley Dolls walked around the stadium, starting in the outfield. Each group followed the road around the stadium. We passed the lines of people, one for people who already had tickets and one for people waiting to buy tickets before our groups met at the main gate. Once our group was inside, the gates opened and the Beer Festival officially started. We all laughed as we looked at each other covered in Hops.

Huck was nice enough to hold everyone stuff during the parade.

I ordered cards to hand out, and everyone spent the day drinking beer and promoting the BD’s. Honestly, I think more guys asked us about our group than girls. The girls that help were awesome! Thank you ladies, again!!

I actually did an interview for the yearly video as part of the Barley Dolls. It’s never a good idea to agree to be interviewed while drinking, by the way. Guy dressed like a monk: “What’s your favorite part of Beer Fest?” Me: “The Beer?” Really, how else could you answer that?

After the festival was over, we had dinner, and went home to let the dogs out before heading to TBC. We both sat on the couch and fell asleep around 9:30 and never made it. I’m not even sad about it either. Apparently, some people stayed up until 4AM. NO THANKS!

SUNDAY

Sunday, we woke up nice and refreshed. We headed to the beach around noon where we mingled, ate more good food, drank more good beer, and enjoyed the sunny warm day. After the beach, we made our way to Square Grouper where I called it a night around 8PM. I had a ride home and jumped on it. I went home, cleaned up some, and was in bed by 11PM, “Who am I??” Huck rode the bus back, and arrived home around 1AM. When he woke me up to let me know he was home, I was happy to already be in bed. I told my coworkers I’d be in late Monday, my job is pretty laid back about stuff like that, but ended up getting up early and making it to the gym, “Again, What’s happen to me??” This damn 9-5 job has me all messed up!

As always, it was a great weekend. As soon as Huck’s finishes the video, I’ll have it uploaded for you guys.

01/23/14

Funky Buddha and Lucero

As part of Huck’s Christmas present, I bought him tickets to see one of his favorite bands play in Fort Lauderdale. Lucero is a pop, alternative, country band. Their songs are not on the radio, so you’ve probably never heard them before. Unless you watch The Walking Dead. Apparently, one of their songs was on the show.

We saw them a few years ago in Atlanta, and I wasn’t a fan. I like rock music but their stuff is raspy country rock. If that makes any sense. Since then, I started warming up to them and actually liking their music (My Best Girl is my favorite)

So, last night, after I got off work, we made the hour long drive south to Oakland Park. The Culture club was only a few miles from Funky Buddha, so made the most of the trip down south and stopped in for dinner and drinks.

{Some of the pictures below are from our first trip there a few months ago. I posted them so you could see what the place looks like, since I forgot to share them before.}

When we arrived, they let us know they were tapping a German Chocolate Cake Brown Ale. I didn’t have to look at the menu after that. German Chocolate was all I needed to know.

We also ordered some food from Caleta. Every night, Funky Buddha has a food truck available. Caleta wasn’t a food truck, though. It was more like a catered event where you could purchase food.

Caleta specialized in Peruvian food. Huck ordered the Seco de Carne & Tacu Tacu {Cilantro Beef Stew with a Bean Cake}. I ordered the Aguadito de Pollo {Chicken, Potato, Rice, and Pea Soup} I found a recipe for the soup today and really want to make it at home!

The pictures suck, I know, but both dishes were great. And warm soup was perfect for a cold night. The German Chocolate Cake Beer was the perfect dessert!

After we finished our beers, we went to the Culture Room. The place is really small, but you’re guaranteed to have a great place to watch the concert.

Unless this A Hole stands in front of you.

20 people in the whole room and he stands in front of me?!?

They put on a great show! I really enjoyed the concert. I was disappointed they didn’t play My Best Girl, though!

We made it home by 1AM. Our old house was 45 minutes to an hour away from downtown Atlanta, but didn’t seem as far as Fort Lauderdale does. Maybe I’m just not use to making that long drive anyone?

Merry Christmas Huck I hope you had fun!

01/20/14

Cruisin For A Boozin, Little House, and Ice Skating

HI! Have you missed me? I just can’t seem to make myself sit at my computer and blog lately. I decided today, I’m blogging without a recipe, and I’m perfectly fine with that! This blog originally started as a journal about our lives in South Florida, and I enjoy being able to look back on stuff we’ve done here. The food part may take a back seat for a while.

With that said, we had a busy, fun, weekend.

Crusin’ for a Boozin’

Saturday, we attended the 4th annual Crusin’ for a Boozin’ bike ride/pub crawl through Lantana and Lake Worth.

Every year, a bunch of friends come together, ride their bikes around, and drink all in the of charity. This year all proceeds went to Surfers For Autism.

We cruised around, with the group, for a couple of hours before parting ways and attending a homebrew festival at The Little House in Boynton Beach.

The Little House

Huck, Greg, and Karl each entered a different beer into the Homebrew competition with the hope that all three would come in first.

{Huck bought a GoPro last weekend, and he’s loving it!}

Huck brought his Black IPA, Greg had a Double IPA, and Karl served his Milk Stout. He was the oddball.

In the end, it was only Karl that placed. He got first place in the judges category. The rest of the night was spent listening to Karl gloat, and Greg and Huck whine about being robbed

Ice Skating

Sunday morning, we were up surprisingly early after our busy day before. Since Huck and I started dating, we’ve talked about going ice skating. That’s 6 years! Well yesterday, we finally went. I’m not going to lie. I usually tried to get out of it. I sucked at rollerblading, so I knew ice skating would be even worse!

And I was right! I either held onto the wall or Huck almost the whole time.

Sometimes, I held onto both!

I did manage to do a full lap without Huck or the wall’s assistance. Another hour and I’d be doing circles around him.

Going to the Palm Beach Skate Zone made me really miss working from home. A Sunday afternoon is not the best time to go ice skating unless you’re attending a kids birthday. And there’s nothing like having a 3 year old zoom by you as you’re holding onto the wall for dear life, afraid if you fall you’ll never be able to stand back up.

We also realized how old we’re getting when Huck told me he was ready to go because his ankles hurt, and I said good because my hip hurts. We watched a little hockey before heading home.

We ended the weekend watching football at a friends house. It was definitely a busy weekend. Next weekend will be no different. It’s The Jupiter Beer Fest Weekend! I already told my work I’d be late Monday morning.

01/11/14

Banana Nut Beer Bread

When I woke up this morning, it was sunny outside. Now, as I get ready to make a recipe to photograph for the blog, the clouds start to move in. It happens every weekend. I get the worst lighting. How am I going to better my photography skills with gray skies?

I’m hoping, as the sun moves to the front of the house, the clouds will start to disappear, too. I do have a couple of recipes I made weeks/months ago, that I haven’t shared. I wanted to make them again and take better photos, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. As I turn around to check the weather, I noticed it’s currently pouring outside. Go Figure.

So, I decided today, I’d share this beauty.

Yes, I know everyone is “eating healthy” and trying to lose weight, and I’m sure a Banana Nut Bread recipe probably will not get many Pins on Pinterest right now, but this bread is amazing! And I used Greek Yogurt {I literally use it for everything now!} instead of all butter.

Plus Nuts and Bananas are good for you and a piece of warm Banana Bread is just good for the soul. I wasted no time cutting a slice of this bread and probably burned a few taste buds. You can’t beat fresh bread right out of the oven. Leftover bread is great toasted to crisp up the sides and warm the middle. Now, I need to remake this… Today!

The best part about this bread, is the Cinnamon Sugar swirl. It adds a little something extra to a normal banana bread.

Speaking of extras, I used Lazy Magnolia’s Southern Pecan Brown Ale in this recipe.

If you’re keeping count, that’s 5 recipes using their beer. I’m kind of obsessed.

If you can’t find Southern Pecan, you could use any brown ale that is low in bitterness or your favorite Stout or Porter. I’d stick to a drier beer, though. A really sweet Milk Stout may off balance the recipe.

Just another side note, Banana Bread always reminds me of my mommy! She makes it all the time. As I think about it, I can actually smell the bread cooking, and hear the smoke alarm going off! Love you Mommy!!

[gmc_recipe 10038]

01/7/14

Brussels Sprouts Gratin and Sailfish Brewery

Honestly, I can’t remember eating Brussels Sprouts growing up. The first time, I remember trying them, was a few years ago. I’ve been a lover every since, but the only way I ever make them is roasted or sautéed in a pan with Crumbed Bacon, Garlic, and Crushed Red Pepper.

A few weeks ago, Huck wanted Potatoes Gratin. I decided to change it up some. While searching through the freezer, I found a bag of Brussels Sprouts, and came up with a plan.

Brussels Sprouts Gratin with Beer, Bacon, and Cheese. Yummy!! I actually made this for Christmas dinner and everyone loved it. We’ll, I think everyone loved it. There wasn’t any left, and I got lots of compliments.

For this recipe, I used Cigar City’s Hotter Than Helles Lager. It’s not actually hot but a nice refreshing lager. Munich Helles Lagers are a style of beer. Helles is actually German for Bright. It’s a bright yellow, light refreshing beer. I ordered this beer a few weeks ago on a trip to Fort Peirce.

Fort Pierce and Sailfish Brewery

A few weeks ago, Huck and I were sitting around bored. We both wanted out of the house but couldn’t decided what to do. We finally decided to venture north to Sailfish Brewery. We’ve talked about going for a while and figured it was the perfect excuse to get out of the house. It’s a new Brewery in Fort Pierce, about and hour north of our house. Once we arrived, he had an early dinner at the Original Tiki Bar.

It was an open bar style restaurant right on the water.

I thought I took pictures of our food, but can’t find them. I ordered a Beer Battered Fish sandwich, that was amazing, and Huck ordered Chicken nachos that he really enjoyed as well. We were really surprised with how good the food was. Bars can be hit or miss when it comes to food.

After dinner, we stopped at P.P. Cobb General Store. Karl told Huck about their impressive craft beer selection. The owner told us he had over 500 different beers.

You can build your own six pack from any beers in the store, even if they’re in a case. Huck started pulling beers out of 6 pack boxes, and I told him you can’t just start pulling any beer out you want. He quickly informed me he could. He’d talked to the owner while I was gawking at the beer.

They also have craft or specialty sodas. They reminded me of the old fashion Coca Cola bottles. Everyone, in town we talked to, raved about the food there, too. They served lunch everyday. I’d like to plan a trip back just for lunch. The city of Fort Pierce is spending a bunch of money to revamp the Downtown area. It was a neat area with cute shops. I wish we had more time to wonder around. It was getting dark by the time we left P.P. Cobb.

Once we bought our beer and random general store stuff, we headed to Sailfish. Sailfish is location in a historical building in downtown Fort Pierce. Another fun fact, one of the girls in the Barley Doll’s, husband, is part owner of the brewery. I spoke with the head brewer a few months ago about possibly doing a brew class with a couple of BD’s and Sailfish. Which reminds me, I should work on that for an upcoming BD event.

They’re currently expanding the brewery, and were installing new equipment when we were there. The building to the right will be their new brew house. They had a nice outdoor patio, too.

I can’t remember exactly what beers we tried. I ordered a light beer, a wheat maybe. It was a good beer for what it was. I’ve noticed I don’t like wheat beers that much anymore. I like hops! Huck ordered a Brown that was really good.

We got a growler of the brown to go, so I could enjoy one when we got home.

It was a fun day. We explored a new area close to home and added another brewery to our list. If you’re ever near the Treasure Coast, I recommend a trip to Fort Pierce and Sailfish.

[gmc_recipe 9985]

01/2/14

New Year’s Eve

Can you believe it’s 2014? I still can’t believe Christmas is over. We still have our tree up. I’m assuming, since New Years was during the week, most people will wait until the weekend to take theirs down. Any excuse to enjoy it a little long. I’m kind of excited to have the house back in order, but always hate see our tree go!

NYE

We brought in the new year at our buddy Greg and Sam’s house in Delray.

Our host

Yes! Sam is wearing a bow tie with a polo!

My New Year’s Eve was definitely all about the food. Every time I walked into the kitchen, Sam was pulling more food out of the oven. We all agreed, he should start catering parties.

We had dips, egg rolls, mini pig in the blankets, stone crab (Greg said stone crab was a traditional NYE food for him. I told Huck we’re making it a new tradition too. Any excuse to eat crab!)

I brought Shrimp Ceviche and a Beer Cheese Ball without the Beer. Both were super easy and received great reviews. I plan to have both on the blog soon. And I’ll try to remember the beer this time.

After eating too much, we sampled some beers.

Heady Topper

The first beer Huck and Greg brewed together.

Bell’s Batch 10,000 Ale

After the beer, food, and football, we played Jenga. Every time we go somewhere people request Jenga. (If you’d like to make our own life size Jenga, check out my how to post <— Click Here). It’s really popular and fun to play and watch. While people play, there is always a group standing around watching.

Regular Jenga didn’t last long before the guys decided to start making the game interesting.

I guess the rules were you couldn’t touch the blocks with just your hands. It made for a very interesting game!

Huck won for most creative with the shop vac.

We ended the night around 3AM on the couch watching True Blood. I managed to make it until 4AM. I woke up early to start my New Year’s Day food.

I used my new triple crock pot to cook Black Eyed Peas, Collard Greens, and Pork. I have it every year!

Everything was great, and I love my crock pot.

I enjoyed my leftover for lunch at work yesterday, too.

And I have a bunch left. I see some Black Eyed Pea and Collard Green Soup in our future!

I also wanted to share my Christmas present from my sister.

This cup makes me happy. I’ll be working and look over and see all the people I love! It’s awesome!

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Because Life Is Better with Food and Beer

February Trip To Georgia

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Dreading The Drive

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