This past week is a little bit of a tease. We were in NC visiting my Grandfather June 2-3, so we did our (non meat) grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. If you live near a TJ's and you don't shop at one, shame on you! The store has amazing deals on produce - 4 artichokes for $2.29, red peppers for $.69 a piece- and house label snacks that are amazing. I hope we get one in Columbia soon!
Imagine this, but rotated left!
Monday- Grilled Asian marinated chicken, oven roasted ranch potatoes, oven roasted broccoli and grilled zucchini.
We had happy hour of beers and deviled eggs - homemade by James! This broccoli recipe that I used was perfect! I added red pepper flakes and 1/4 of an onion and it was so good! I normally hate broccoli but knew we needed to eat it this week and I hoped I would enjoy it and I did! So non-broccoli lovers- try this recipe! I was so surprised!
James' favorite beer that isn't sold in SC and Deviled Eggs!
Tuesday- James has surprised me at work with Jimmy Johns - my favorite sandwich shop (shout out to my Phi Mu's who used to trek drive out to Jimmy Johns with me!) and told me we were going out to dinner but I wasn't to know where. He came home with white cottage roses that I love, I had a glass of wine and we were off to dinner at Saludas!
Dinner at Saluda's
I had their house salad - "Mixed greens, red wine soaked cranberries, pickled red onions, Dubliner Irish cheddar, candied pecans, cranberry merlot vinaigrette" HEAVEN!
House salad
My main course was shrimp and grits - "Sautéed shrimp, roasted peppers, pancetta, Dubliner cheddar, bourbon cream, Adluh grits, fried green tomato" Again, heaven! It was so rich- I only had half, will be a very happy girl to eat the left overs at work!
Shrimp and Grits
Steak Frites
James had the steak frites - "Grilled Ribeye, truffled herb fries, grilled asparagus, whole grain mustard demi glace" and loved it! I sampled one or seven two of his fries and they were out of this world. Anything with truffle oil is delicious!
Ready for our walk!
We had the best dinner and ended our evening with a long walk to get cookies at Insomnia in 5 Points - and a cigar for James! Such a fun night!
Wednesday our dinner was late thanks to some last minute running around for a rehearsal dinner we were helping plan/set up for! So no picture of our left over fest that turned into delicious quesadillas.
Thursday-Saturday we were either out of town or enjoying libations at Tap Room!
Back to the grind this coming week with delicious meals planned!
I am off for a few days in Conway, SC celebrating two of my favorite people in the world - Charles and Ashley! The wedding reception is at the brides amazing family home- from the pictures of the tent and discussing decorations with her, it is going to be beautiful!
Barristers Ball 2011
Oyster Roast 2011
Engagement party in Conway
Engagement party in Conway
Charles was at law school with James and was such a big help. He has graduated and is studying for the bar - not a fun summer for him! Ashley and James have known each other for 7 years! They were all friends from their College of Charleston days. Charles and Ashley were readers in our wedding and are just two of the best people. So excited to see them on their big day!
Do you keep a running tap of things you want/need to purchase? Not groceries, just a list of things you would like for yourself or your house. I am not on Pinterest, which is where I am sure a lot of you have a running list where you can visually see what you would like. I am not that high tech. I tried Pinterest for one day and signed up through Facebook and then it just followed people I never talk with but am still somehow friends with on Facebook. And made me switch to Timeline before I was ready. So I am in a bit of a Pinterest boycott for now. I am sure in a week it will blow over but until then, I will continue my wish list making in Gmail. In my drafts. In the email to James with the Subject: SWG want lists. Links included.
So I thought I would share what was currently on my Wish List. Yes I just had a birthday and its not really about getting these items. More so I can see what things I am currently lusting over. Some aren't expensive. Some are. Some I could just buy myself with my discretionary funds (Thanks, DD!) But then I remember that we really want to buy a house, and suddenly I don't mind having a 'wish list' if it means more savings in our account.
I have over sized Ray Ban Wayfarer's (as seen in this post) that James got me for some reason but I don't remember now as a sweet surprise and then replaced after a huge wave knocked them off me during one of our vacations to Florida (also booked on Hotwire - best site ever!) but these would just look great with my new initials. And would be less expensive to replace if another killer wave came my way (you know it's a big wave when some who is 5'11 gets knocked down)
I love applique monograms and think one of these would look so nice with our bedding. I have a love/hate relationship with Pottery Barn after buying and returning 5 different duvet covers in order to finally find our bedding. There are no stores in Columbia and the Charleston store has about three different duvets on display. Laughable almost. Whoever wants to look like a different person should be photographed for a PB Catalog. So I am back on the Love part of the relationship after looking at my cousin's wedding registry (Hi Lu!), so many pretty things!
Our bedroom at home - the real world of book/magazines on nightstands and Iphone chargers.
I love Jack Rogers. I wore them on my wedding day, both with my wedding dress and my getaway dress as well. I love monograms. Therefore, monogrammed Jack Roger sandals are perfect for me. I had been thinking of buying these as a birthday present to myself but after seeing (and forgetting to buy!) pair after pair on Rue La La for $79, its hard to spend $158 on these!
What are things that are currently on your 'list' or on your radar? Do you have a Gmail draft full of things you want?
We live in a small, 2 bedroom/1 bath, rental in a great part of town. We love the location of the house and how close it is commute wise for both James and I to USC, it's walking distance to 3 different grocery stores and I can hit my 9 iron and have the golf ball land on the Lilly Pulitzer store. In a word, the location is perfect. Other than location, the house has few, if any, graces! Its small, it has no place for us to sit and eat a meal (hello dinner trays!) and the washer and dryer in the kitchen provide the only usable work space. However, it is a roof over our heads that is very affordable and real estate is all about location, location, location.
That being said, we have been trying to make small improvements in the house to make it more of our home and less of a house that we rent that we aren't super jazzed about. This whole idea happened after I went to visit my friend Cam, baby Thomas and her pup, Lilly. Cam's house looks like it's from a magazine and I came home to James and told him we were going to spend our weekend getting our house to look like something we were proud of. James still likes Cam, even after the 4 trips to TJ Maxx and Marshals a few weekends ago.
Enter the gallery wall. You've seen it on Pinterest and all over the blogosphere but no one (in my humble opinion) has done it as well as Young House Love (swoon!)
There were 974 pictures from our wedding (thanks to our amazing photographers, Landon Jacob Productions) and a few hundred from our engagement session (again- the images Landon Jacob Production takes are beautiful!) that we wanted to have on display. In order not to make it a 'Shrine of Sarah and James' we also wanted to use some prints that I found on Etsy that represented our honeymoon in London. We found frames at Southeastern Salvage, Wal Mart and the Goodwill (we are on a budget after all, so the ones I covet from Pottery Barn will have to wait a few years!) and one evening James got to work (using shoe string to level the pictures!) and our gallery wall was born!
So here are two 'befores' of the space (some fall visitors - Hi Jess and K Oz!)
And the after!
It is just what I wanted it to be, an eclectic mix of frames, colors and styles but with an underlying theme. My mom saw it for the first time in person this weekend and she loved it!
So I am a big fan of cooking. One of my favorite things to do is eat, so naturally, cooking is something I enjoy.
Eating a snack street side in London
My mom is a great cook and from her I learned so much - she can turn anything into a delicious meal and I really hope to be as good a cook as she is one day! For both health and economic reasons, James and I try to eat at home as much as possible which means I end up cooking about 5 or so meals a week. James is a big help in the kitchen but it always makes me chuckle, after James graduated from College of Charleston, he worked his way up in the kitchen at Fuel and then at Five Loaves Cafe downtown and eventually became head of the kitchen at Sesame before heading off to law school. So its always nice to have his expert help in the kitchen but because of his work schedule (hooray for law jobs) his hours are a bit crazy and I am the chef of our little family of two. I usually make our menu for the week on the weekend and shop for our groceries then (along with half of Columbia) and I love to try new recipes - healthy ones! My girl, Gina at Skinny Taste, has never once let me down! I have made over 100 of her recipes and they have all been delicious and James approved!
This weeks menu is full of Skinny Taste as per usual!
Tuesday- Carrot Ginger Soup, a mixed green salad with sliced grilled pork tenderloin and Peanut Dressing. The peanut dressing was delicious and was super easy to make in my 'Not Mother's Day' gift from James - my Ninja blender! Coming from a Colombian family, I love soup all throughout the year - something James is trying to get used to!
Wednesday- BBQ marinated grilled chicken (James' homemade recipe- so good!), grilled corn on the cob and oven baked steak fries. I really like to do at least one non starchy veggie with dinner but James wasn't home until 8 from work and Hatfields and McCoy's finale was on at 9 and what's not to love about steak fries? James and I were watching tv one evening and this commercial came on - only 120 calories in a serving and no trans fat? Winner winner to go with our chicken dinner
Thursday- Another late dinner after a great walk with my friend Cam and sweet Baby Thomas! Grilled chicken, green onions and Queso Fresco quesadillas (on corn tortillas - yum!) and roasted squash, red pepper and grilled corn as our side. Can we please talk about how good the Mich Ultra Cactus lime is? Like Bud Light Lime but with 30 less calories. Win Win!
Friday- Out of work early (for both of us!) and off to Krispy Kreme for our free donuts!
After staying at happy hour too long (Tap Room has 30 beers on tap!) to watch the USC vs. Manhattan baseball game we decided that food truck taco for me (in the Rosewood Market parking lot near(ish) our house) and breakfast for dinner at home for James would be perfect.
Saturday- Quick crust less quiche with roasted red pepper, potatoes, zucchini, squash and grilled corn from the night before - so good! We were headed to Cary, NC to see my sweet grandfather with my parents and brother and needed something filing! Perfect breakfast food!
What great meals do you cook each week? Are you the "head chef" in the family?
As I mentioned before, James and I traveled to Atlanta for my 25th birthday weekend. After lunch on Friday, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our next event - an Atlanta Braves game! We used the MARTA to get to the game and it was so easy!
Sporting my favorite accessory, the tomahawk and proudly wearing one of my birthday present from James, my monogram necklace!
We had the best time even though the Braves lost. Fireworks at the end of the game were the perfect ending to a great birthday!
On Saturday, we spent the morning eating crepes at Le Triskell French Creperie (in a word-AMAZING) and then lounging at the Intercontinental pool where I misjudged my legs as being tan and didn't block them from the sun and ended up with RED legs (I always wear SPF 50 and am considered the sun block police of my friends (they hate love it) so I have learned my lobster lesson). The pool was beautiful and we had the best time reading and relaxing!
Saturday afternoon we headed to Max's for some pizza and brews! I knew it was just around the corner from the Georgia Aquarium and would be a perfect spot for a late lunch. We had many a beer ($5 pitchers of PBR- what's not to love!) and enjoyed such delicious pizza! I wish we had a place like that in Columbia - it was all so fresh and it did not look like your ordinary pizza joint!
Post delicious meal and pitchers!
Just waiting in line!
After Max's, we headed to the Aquarium to spend our afternoon admiring the fishes, only to find out we had an hour before our tickets would let us in! What to do, what to do! We headed back to Max's for another pitcher and enjoyed not having to drive anywhere!
When our wait time was up, we headed to the Aquarium and it was wonderful! We had gone to the Aquarium in Charleston on our mini-moon before we headed to London for our honeymoon and we loved it, so the Atlanta one was much bigger and grander!
Very active dolphins!
We went to every exhibit the Aquarium had open and got to see some very active river otters - my favorite sea creature!
Love birds
This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. I think that is an eel next to me (not a sea life expert!) and my favorite song ever is MGMT's Electric Feel, which I have always called "Electric Eel", even after being corrected and having it showed to me by everyone who has it on their iTunes (I get it, I just don't care, my way is way cooler). Close your office door (or put headphones in for those in cube land) and have a mini dance party!
We ended our fun Saturday in Atlanta with dinner at Flip Burger in Buckhead - where I had the best milkshake- Nutella and burnt marshmallows! YUM!
Sunday morning was check out and off to Babette's Cafe for brunch - on our way home and an amazing meal - Babette's Benedict for me, Sunday Eggs for James and a basket of scones and muffins for us to share! Topped off with a delicious Mimosa (with pineapple juice!) and it was the perfect end to a wonderful birthday weekend!
As WASP-y as I may look, it may be a surprise to find out I am actually Colombian. Well, half and half, (hey American dad!) my mom's family is Colombian, from Cucuta, a city that borders Venezuela.
My mom's family on our wedding day
My parents met while my dad was getting his Masters (my mom her undergrad!) at Texas A&M and, once married, moved to Oxford, England so my dad could get his Ph.D . After a year of living in Oxford, my parents had my sister, Delina, and then me!
At Oxford on the honeymoon - back to my roots!
We then moved to South Africa where my dad worked for a few years and it was off to Cali, Colombia where my brother, William, was born! Most of my childhood memories are from Cali and what a great place to grow up. My mom's whole family lived in Colombia at the time (in the capital Bogota and the surrounding 'burbs', Chia) so we did a good bit of traveling around the country. We lived in Cali from 1990-1996 and if you have knowledge of world events (or if you watched Entourage) you know that was the time that Pablo Escobar basically ran the country with a bloody iron fist.
As beautiful a country as Colombia is, in 1996 we had to move to the States for safety reason and we headed to Cary, North Carolina, then moving to Fernandina Beach, Florida and finally settling in Charleston Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Colombia is a beautiful country full of beautiful people, places and history and now is as safe as any city in the States.
It is always funny when I tell people I grew up abroad, I have limited knowledge of American happenings until 1996. OJ Simpson and that white bronco - had no clue about.
NKOTB were not in Colombia, so we listened to this growing up - Shakira, Carlos Vives, Grupo Niche (thanks to my parents).
The food I ate (and still eat) is completely different than what American children ate. Fresh fruit was abundant and as tropical as you can get. Moros y Cristianos Black beans and rice, platanos plantains, arepas (funnily enough, one of James' favorite breakfast foods that my mom makes for him)
The food I crave, my true comfort food, is Colombian/Latin. Any kind of legume and rice - black/pinto/lentils and a fried plantain and I am immediately happier and more at ease. Having grown up with fresh squeezed juice every morning it took my siblings and I years to drink OJ in the States and to get used to not having the different tropical fruits.
Light Ya stash in our house
Thankfully, my Tia Delina still lives in Colombia and when she comes to the States she brings me gold Light Ya, the Crystal Light of Colombia but made to taste like the Colombian fruit juices I grew up with.
So imagine James' shock when I told him about my family and my background. James is now trying to learn Spanish so he can understand what my family says when we want a 'private' conversation yet don't want to leave the room. He has also learned to love Light Ya, my mom's Arepa's, my love for Spanish music and why I have little, if any, idea of where states are located on a map (We were out of the country for that!).
