It's been awhile since I had a girls weekend with my sisters & mom, the last one was 2 years ago and I wrote about it here. We had one planned earlier this year but weather/being sick got in the way and then life just got busy. Luckily we were able to plan a short weekend in August where we could all get together out in Maryland & Virginia (hopefully next time Sonya can make it!) We packed quite a bit of stuff into the weekend without it being too rushed, it was a good amount of trying new restaurants and exploring new areas. We started Friday with pedicures and dinner at Cava in Baltimore. I've been to Cava a few times and it's one of my favorite restaurants around here, both the upscale restaurant and the fast casual version. They serve mediterranean small plates which meant we could order a bunch of different items and try a little bit of everything. That's pretty much the perfect type of meal for my family since we love to share food and try it all. They also had fantastic cocktails. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out at Brittany and Dustin's apartment relaxing. The next morning we eased into the day with a nice walk around Columbia before getting around and heading to Navy Yard in DC. We found good lunch and dessert options here plus pretty views just walking around. The next stop for our day was in VA. We made a quick pit stop at my apartment then off to Arrowine where we did some wine and beer tasting before driving to Mosaic at Merrifield. We spend the rest of the afternoon indulging in treats and shopping here. We shared affogatos from Dolcezza, shopped at Papersource, Anthropologie, and Target. We ended the evening with dinner at Matchbox, I had only had brunch there so having dinner was a treat and we tried out the pizza which was spot on! We wound down back at my apartment the rest of the evening. Mom and Danielle headed back to Ohio on Sunday but we couldn't send them off without having brunch first. And no trip to this area is complete without Founding Farmers. This time we checked out the breakfast buffet at the Tyson's Corner location and WOW! It was soooo dang good. There were so many options and treats and food and just anything you could want. The amount of food was almost overwhelming but that just means I need to go back some other time to try the food that just would not fit in my stomach! Overall it was a fun weekend with the girls and already looking forward to another one!
After looking through my vacation photos I decided to split them into 3 categories for this post. Kyle and I crammed a lot of good food, drinks, and sightseeing into our vacation but we were also able to relax and not rush through anything so it was a perfect combo of planned stuff and just going with the flow. Asheville was a neat town and pretty small. We were able to see most of the city in 2 days and then spent the rest of the time checking out the other sights outside of the downtown area. I doubt we'd vacation there again to see the city but I wouldn't mind stopping back to stay in a cabin in the mountains and grab a meal or two in town since the food was amazing. FOOD! DRINK! EXPLORATION! I had a super fun and full Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend in the middle of February. I roadtripped up to Pittsburgh to hang with Kyle on Friday the 14th and then we headed to Columbus for the rest of the weekend. We had tickets to the George Strait concert with my friends on Saturday and then spent part of Sunday meeting up with my family for food and then some exploring. It was such a fun weekend even with a few bumps (hotel room not ready) and it still being snowy and super cold. I could go on and on about the whole weekend but I think my photos will tell the story better! For Christmas I received a partner brunch cooking class from Kyle and this past weekend was the set date! I've never done a cooking class before so I was super excited and even more so since it was cooking brunch mmmm! It was at Crate Cooking School in Pittsburgh. There was 5 items on the menu so we split into groups to tackle each recipe. Kyle and I made the cheddar scone "sliders" and the cocktails, and at the end everyone cooked their own French omelet. After all the cooking we had a full meal of all the items and we were stuffed from all the good food but can't wait to make some of the recipes again. I included the two items we made below! Champagne Cocktail
1 sugar cube 2-3 dashes Angostura bitters 1 ounce brandy dry champagne 1 maraschino cherry superfine sugar and maraschino syrup for glass rim Moisten the outer rim of a champagne flute with maraschino cherry syrup and coat with super fine sugar. Place the sugar cube in the bottom of the flute and saturate with a few dashes of bitters. Add the brandy and when ready to serve fill the glass with champagne and garnish with a cherry. Cheddar Scone Sliders with Ham and Honey Mustard Butter Scones: 4 cups flour 2 tablespoons baking powder 1.5 teaspoons salt 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter 6 ounces coarsely grated extra-sharp cheddar 1 cup whole milk 2/3 cup heavy cream Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut butter into small bits and with pastry blender blend into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal. With a fork stir in cheddar. Add milk and cream, stirring until just combined. Transfer mixture to a floured surface and with floured hands knead until it forms a dough. Roll out dough to 1/2 inch thick and cut out 2 inch round scones. Arrange on baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes until pale golden. Sauce: 1/2 cup softened unsalted butter 3 tablespoons coarse-grained mustard 3 tablespoons honey Mix all ingredients together. Assemble by splitting the scones, spread with the honey-mustard butter, and add ham slices. Enjoy! Phew I survived 21 days without sugar so now what?..... First off I really liked the 21dsd program and would reccomend it to anyone that wants a chanllenge and wants a break from sugar. Plus I will definitely be using the book for recipes from now on and I will probably buy the new cookbook that can accompany the challenge and has even more healthy sugar free recipes. I don't think it changed my body too much that I noticed, clothes definitely felt better from the holiday eating frenzy. I also had pretty good energy the whole time and no sugar crashes. I still had my daily caffeine so that always helped me start the day but usually one cup was good enough and then food fueled me well the rest of the day. Overall it was a good challenging program that made me feel good but not life changing or anything. Next I will defnitely be eating sugar again and not be sugar free forever (evident by a few splurges the first day off the challenge). I will try to eat sweets and treats in moderation though and not go back to "holiday" eating. As far as more carbs and stuff I feel like my body does better with them so I will add them back in and stick to healthy whole grains with a definite splurge here and there. On my first day off the challenge my splurges starting with a little dark chocolate which tasted sweet enough even being 85%. Then after a 75 minute 100 degree level 2 power yoga class I indulged at brunch. I had a bloody mary and the chicken and waffles. All of it was so worth it and sooooo good! Later that day I did my P90X3 warrior workout around 6 and I just felt like I had more energy and more umph during it and I have no other explanation except the food I ate fueled me better. So I definitely think having the carbs and protein and whatnot helped me out, so we'll see how my workouts feel the next few weeks when I add some foods I haven't been eating back in! So that wraps up my sugar challenge now I just have my P90X3 challenge going on which is good for me for now! Happy New Year everyone! 2013 was a fantastic year and I'm looking forward to this year even more. Here's a quick list of some of the fun things that happened this past year: * My 3rd nephew Henry was born January 31st and he is super cute and I love seeing our family grow! * Tried new things health wise by starting to run and ran my first races a 10k and 5k and hit goal times for both! * Met Kyle and had so many awesome adventures with him and lots more to look forward to! * Traveled to a couple new states/cities: New Jersey, Oregon, and Pittsburgh also traveled back to Delaware, Ocean City, MD, and of course Ohio for lots of family time and events. So those are the major points from last year and could go on and on on everything else but that would take forever, so probably easier just to look through old posts for more details if you want! I rang in the new year with Kyle and his friends in Pittsburgh. They had never been there before so we got to be "tourists" for a few days and do lots of exploring and trying fun new restaurants. Photos below! I can't believe the holidays have already come and gone! Wow time really does fly but I had lots of fun spending time with family and friends over the last month and a half. The holidays were a little different for me this year but still so good, I also overindulged A LOT but totally worth it! I'm getting back to the health kick now but more on that later... This year (well last year now since I'm a little late on this post) I spent Thanksgiving in Virginia since I had to work a little that week, but I did get to spend with Kyle's family and made my Grandma Metzger's famous noodles to make it feel more like home! It was really good and I had all the yummy foods that go along with that day, but the company was even better than the food, I am lucky that I was able to have someone else's family here in VA to spend the holiday with! I was also able to do some baking with Kyle in preparation for Christmas. We made buckeyes, chocolate covered cherries, and gingerbread men, along with some eggnog cocktails! Sooooo good and was my first taste of eggnog and I have to say I'm hooked for sure. For Christmas I celebrated with Kyle the week before and then headed back to NR for the week of and spent a lot of time with the family and catching up with friends. It was so much fun watching the twins dig into presents this year, they loved opening gifts and helped out everyone, especially opening Eric's presents hehe! And I know Henry is not far behind, next year will be even more fun with all 3 of them older! I hope everyone else had an amazing holiday season and enjoy the photos! I headed back to Ohio for a little mini vacation in July. I had fun events going on two weekends in a row and it made sense to stay there the whole time instead of trekking back and forth from VA to OH twice. It started with a fun girls night in Columbus before the Color Run on Saturday morning with the sisters, mom, and friends! It was a lot of fun and we got covered with color (which took a little while to get off....) but so glad I got to experience it! My trip also fit perfect with a Christmas in July party at Ashley and Cole's which was great. I got to catch up with some friends. After the weekend in Columbus I headed to the parents and spent the week there and had a lot of fun time with the twins. I helped babysit and went to the fair with them which was a lot of fun. It was entertaining seeing their interaction with the animals! The end of the week I headed back to Columbus to get Kyle from the airport and hung out with Brittany and Dustin before our cousin's wedding on Friday and then reunion on Saturday. The parents house was definitely full that weekend with everyone in town for the wedding and it was a lot of fun being around the whole family. The wedding was also great with good food, dessert, and a lot of dancing! That was the end of my mini OH vacay, it was a good mix of planned stuff and just R&R plus catching up with the family and some friends! Below are a few photos of the adventures I got into, enjoy! I vacated the DC NOVA area for the 4th of July since I've already done the whole "tourist" national mall fireworks thing before. I was also in need of the beach so Kyle and I hit the road to Cape May, NJ (got to check a new state of my list). It was nice to get away and very low key we checked out some local sites, went to some wineries and a brewery, an enjoyed the sun and sand (maybe a little too much sun since we did get a little burnt one day). |
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