Beach, Wedding, Shrimp & Grits Bar

The title pretty much sums up the highlights of my weekend in Wilmington and perhaps the most perfect reception I've ever attended. The weather could not have been more wonderful, the married couple more beautiful, and the food, the band, the beach, all just... you get the point.

At the reception. Charles has kind of a goofy smile in this. That's why he didn't make the Facebook profile pic cut.

We stayed at the Red Roof Inn which was kind of a dump, but the price was right. I bought a bunch of snacks at Trader Joe's beforehand to have in the hotel room before the bar [tab that the couple provided] that night in Wrightsville at Red Dogs. We had crackers with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and capers. I also brought two cheese, Coulommiers [soft and brie-related] that was on special and some Havarti with dill. Some cherry peppers caught by eye too, but they were not as spicy and delicious as my beloved peperoncinis. And some olive tapenade. And my cucumbers in vinegar. And a rose that I found during a wine tasting afternoon at TJ's one time. Then of course something sweet, dark chocolate and almond cookies [a whole tub of them which I have since let get stale but kept on eating anyway].

Ok, it doesn't look that fancy, but it was compared to this hotel. At least it wasn't a smoking room.

We were going to go downtown to the riverfront to see the free concert series they have all summer on Fridays [Zac Brown cover band that night], but it was getting late and the beach bars would be a long drive [cab ride] from there. I would mention our dinner at Hieronymous Seafood as I took pictures, but it really just wasn't very good. The She Crab bisque, pretty good. The crab dip and baked oysters, not so much. We just went because it was literally across the parking lot from our hotel and it's ranked by a local magazine a good place for seafood. It was fine though, because we kind of filled ourselves up before we went. The draft beers were good?

The bar that night was a really good time and we saw lots of UNC people. The next day we went on the boat with a law school friend, Taylor, and his parents. They played bocce ball and I sat in a beach chair. I also floated some too. The weather was great and it was very hot, sunny, not a cloud in the sky. A great break from indoor studying.

I just supervise.

The wedding was in a church downtown at 6:00 that evening and the reception was at Landfall Country Club and was just fabulous. No expense was spared. Cocktail hour was outside with white tents and lights; it lasted until dark. Inside was a buffet of food from a pasta bar, pulled pork sliders, some station where you chose your ingredients and had the chef choose them [I didn't want to wait, so I skipped it], and a separate shrimp and grits station- possibly some of the best shrimp and grits I've ever had. The wedding cake was glorious, but for some mysterious reason, we never had any of it. After a lot of dancing and hearing the band, the waiters passed out ice cream with something chocolate and pretzel-y. Oh, oh, oh, and there was a Scotch and cigar bar. I may have participated in some cigar smoking before hitting the dance floor. There were feather-y masks to wear and flashing rings which I thought might give me a seizure. And confetti to throw of course. It was a great time.

Yeah. Perfect. Also, on the water.

Bartenders would just make up drinks for you.
We actually met a guy that worked at Landfall out the night before in Wrightsville.
"Yeah, somethin with vodka and grenadine... and throw a cherry in there too. Thanks."

Um, heaven. Red or regular grits [I've never even had red ones!]. Creamy saucy shrimp.
Toppings included biscuits, chorizo, white cheddar, TOMATO JAM, fried jalapenos, onion straws, and probably more I can't rememeber because I was overly excited.

My masterpiece.

Orecchiette with white cheddar sauce. Gnocchi with brown butter and pesto. These people must live in my dreams.

Pulled pork sliders. Sadly, I was too full to eat these. Charlie says they were good.

My gluttonous extravaganza.

Options. Even lovely boxes of matches with the bride and groom's names. Many people were just taking cigars "for later."

 

Is this even edible? Shiny...

And then this happened... After, getting the trolley [for guests] back to the beach hotel, we called our newly found favorite cab driver Mike to take us back to the Red Roof... which happened to be located next door to a Waffle House. Which we went to. In our fancy wedding clothes. And I asked for gravy on top of my Texas toast sandwich... I'm not proud.

Happy Wedding Day, Alex and Brent! Thanks for the good times. I love the beach. Now, back to reality: Constitutional Law. Great...

Provence!

Last Wednesday we did dinner at Provence in Carrboro. The special was a $30 prix fixe date night menu- appetizer, entree, and dessert. Totally worth it. We sat outside and it was really nice, but by the dessert course, very hot. We moved inside to the bar to complete the meal. We all got a different entree, and the boys had escargots for their appetizer [no pictures unfortunately]. Everything was very good and super French.



Bread, bread, and more bread. Olive oil with olive tapenade.

Amuse Bouche- Apple with smoked salmon, creme fraiche, and caviar. Little surprise.

Charles being so French.

Onion Soup Gratinee- Really good but hot in the hot weather. I knew this ahead of time but couldn't not get it.

Sole Meuniere- Awesome lightly breaded fish with lemon sauce [mine]

Matt's duck, with an apple demi glace and broccoli rabe

Charlie's Salmon- I'm very impressed with his photography skills on this one.

Orange-Chocolate Tarte. So rich.

Today, I'm finishing up Evidence and writing another NC essay. Tomorrow, wedding pictures and Constitional law [blah]. Later this week, I have to take a practice MBE, which is terrible. PS- Yet again, I am worn out from the weekend.

My Plants Actually Grew!

I have several plants in pots in my backyard. I bought them from Roses (a 6 pack of each plant for $1.75) and have been watering and feeding them and trying to take care of them. However, since studying began, I have neglected my vegetables for days at a time. I have cucumber, tomato, jalapeno pepper, and cayenne pepper plants. I thoroughly expected them to fail. The jalapenos are the only plants I've had success with in the past. Imagine my shock when I came to tend to my plants yesterday and found this! [Pics from the dinner at Provence are still coming, but this was just too exciting.]

I swear these popped up in 4 days. They were not there on Sunday. No lie.

 

The jalapenos have sprung up! and this cucumber is ready for picking.
According to its label, these bush cucumbers are supposed to be 4 inches. This one is more than that.

One of my several tomato plants is bearing fruit as well! There are a few little tiny tomatoes trying to grow too.
I have a feeling this bigger one is going to rot before it turns red though. I don't know how to fix that.

Yes Yes YES! I am so proud.
The cucumber plants started off looking the weakest and now they are climbing all over my other plants.

So then I prepared my cucumber for immediate eating in the best way I know how. Besides cucumber sandwiches. Got out my old olive jar and filled it with sliced cucumber with some white vinegar, rice vinegar, some sugar, black pepper, and flakes of red pepper. I also added thinly sliced onion and garlic. They are so good the morning after sitting in the fridge all night.

Obligatory picture of the process.

Finished product. I'm having them with my lunch as I type this.

 

Oh, and this is what we had for dinner tonight. Although it's not homemade pasta, I thought we needed some whole grain. It's got onions, a ton of mushrooms, diced tomatoes, garlic, spinach, tomato paste, and regular tomato sauce... and of course some wine. Nothing special, but it was tasty.

Sometimes I think the "sharpness" function might be a little too much for food pictures.
Seeing the ridges of the pasta might be too detailed.

+ cheese, duh.

. . .

 



Going to Wilmington for the weekend, so food, drink, wedding, and beach pictures to follow!

Healthy Healthy, or The Most Boring Post Ever

Between trying to catch up on my Bar prep and recover from the weekend, I haven't posted my meals in a couple of days. Well, it hasn't been that exciting. The trip to Aldi on Monday brought a lot of good fruits and vegetables back to the study den, and that night for dinner we had butternut squash soup (out of a box) and sandwiches with some leftover bacon, cheddar cheese, and wheat bread (and some of that chipotle yogurt sauce I still have leftover). It was good but I was too tired (and really sore from all the activities from the weekend- umm wrestling?) to take nice pics of them and try to make it look like a fancier meal than it was. We were just trying to survive at that point. Things have picked up since then and I've revived myself with healthy foods, running, and sitting by the pool. Studying the whole time, of course. We had another salad on Tuesday- many chopped vegetables, more homemade tzatziki, and chicken. Pretty boring but I kind of gorged myself over the weekend. Also, the new snack of choice is now cherries! They are so good. So so good. And a 1 lb bag at Aldi was only $2.99.

One of the Top 3 best kitchen appliances.
Others include the Kitchenaid mixer (obviously) and immersion blender.

Salad, blah blah salad. It was good, but it was still a salad. (I may have put part of mine at a tortilla at one point).
Tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, peppers, avocados, spinach, lettuce, chicken, feta.

Added feta to go along with the tza.

 

Breakfast of not-yet-champions. This is enough for an hour or so. Then I cook an egg.

Don't worry, I'm not dead yet from all this rabbit food. Last night we went to Provence in Carrboro with Matt. I have many pictures. As soon as I am caught up on my studies, I shall post. It was very good French food. Pretty big time weeknight dinner.

Lake Weekend Vacay

I may not have gotten all of my Friday assignments done, and I may have taken today off to catch up, but it was worth getting out of town for the weekend. Six of us went to Charlie's lake house to hang out, get on the boat, and let loose from studying. The weather was, for the most important parts, excellent. As soon as we got there Friday, we got on the boat for a sunset cocktail cruise. Perhaps we should have given a little more thought to the radar and tropical storm Andrea, but it looked good outside, so hey, why not.

Seriously, does it look like anything could go wrong? It was warm outside and the sky looked like this, so we headed out. As it clouded up behind us pretty suddenly, we just figured we could take the boat out to where the sky was clear. Eventually, though, we ran out of lake.

This happened ridiculously fast. The spiral shape was pretty ominous.

Oh captain, my captain. I'm questioning your judgment at this point. Keep in mind we are still dry though.

#NoFilter. These clouds are no joke. Things started to get kinda inky quick.

At first I was worried that Caitlyn would be in all my sweet weather pics, but now having captured this face and those clouds, I'm just impressed. This is her new resume. No words needed, just this face. She just looks like a badass.

After reaching the far side of the lake, we saw the rain start streaming down from the far away clouds, looked at the radar, and felt like maybe it was time to head back to the house. It was kind of a now or never thing. We could literally see the rain falling 20 feet away from us as we sped back in. It couldn't have been better timing. Just as we pulled into the dock, within 15 seconds it sounded like lightning struck directly across the lake from us. A bang loud as hell. We ran inside, and I felt like my arm hairs were standing up for the next five minutes. Matt said he thought the boat had crashed into the dock. Clay thought we might have been dead. Everything was completely fine, and we never actually saw where the lightning had hit. It was nuts! It poured down rain for a while, but we played darts inside, had a small dance party, and after it cleared up went out and jumped off the dock.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to take pics of all the food we made throughout the weekend. It wasn't anything spectacular. The first night, we grilled bratwursts and hotdogs. The next day we had frozen pizzas, lots of popcorn and cheez-its, and an almond poundcake with blackberry preserves that I made in Chapel Hill beforehand. The next morning, I did make some sausage gravy and biscuits. The gravy was from scratch, but the biscuits were from a tube. It was just Jimmy Dean sausage cooked up and browned, about a handful of flour mixed into it, and then 2% milk added and reduced to a gravy consistency. I'm sure whole milk would be better, but this was good! Too bad Matt couldn't get up in time to eat any.

Yeah, buddy.

We went on the boat for most of the day, came in for lunch and the tail end of the Carolina baseball game, and then went back out for a lot of floating, cruising around, and jamming to tunes. Then, we came in and made frozen drinks with the Margaritaville machine- I highly recommend mango margarita mix. For dinner, we had a Mexican night of ground beef tacos and some dirty rice. In the chaos of the evening, we didn't even make all the cans of refried beans that we bought. There was plenty of food and we even had leftovers, which got mixed into a conglomeration by Clay for a late night snack of cheesy ground beef rice. Clay also caught a catfish [that we did not eat].

For floating, not preserving lives.
"I like to float. I don't like to work for it." -Clay

This is what happens when we listen to Dr. Dre.
My mom saw this and said, "Instagram makes everybody look good."

Mango Margarita- These are good.

Clay's Catfish. May have had to leave the hook in it. It'll rust out right?

The weather was so good on Sunday, and we had nothing to get back to Chapel Hill for, so we went on another boat ride, floated around some, and generally enjoyed life for a little while more before we finally headed back.

Can we go out of town like every weekend?

It's Thursday, can we have a drink already?

This Bar exam might be the healthiest thing to ever happen to me. Minimal time to eat, much less drink. I go to the gym after the morning lecture and a healthy (small) lunch. I may have fruit for a snack while I do assignments, but usually I just eat a couple peperoncinis if I get hungry. Gotta push through, don't wanna get behind. Today, I got my things done at around 6:30pm and was worn the hell out.

Charlie got home from work, also worn out, and I suggested a drink- thinking maybe a glass of wine. He picked up the Knob Creek. Ah, a big timer. Since I don't love bourbon and have all that leftover simple syrup, I modified that sour recipe from before. Didn't have a lemon though. But when has a shortage of foods or supplies ever stopped me?

This has 4 oz of bourbon, 2 ounces simple syrup, and the juice of 1 lime. Shaken in the olive jar filled with ice. Strained over a short glass with ice. Traditional whiskey sours use egg yolks to make them smooth. I'm not that profesh yet so I'll stick with this combo.

 

 

This and an episode of Walking Dead. Ah relaxation. [Notice the collection of books in the background]. Also, I took a bath earlier. It was lovely.

Quesadillas and a Breakdown

Well I had my first mild freak out yesterday. Trying to complete like "exit counseling" for my federal student loans, I lost my mind, yelled, and may have cried a little bit trying to get the website to work. "You must click on all the tabs and fill out all blanks before you can move to the next section. There is an error on this page." Well, I could not find the error on the page and got myself thoroughly worked up trying to do so. This wasted about an hour of early morning time. Of course, it didn't help seeing all those loan numbers thrown in my face, making a required monthly budget around payments I'd have to make, and having the federal government suggest I get a job that pays around $116,000 a year- oh really? Yeah, no big deal, I was planning on doing that. All of this after I was so proud of myself for getting up at 6:30am and studying early and getting really jacked up on coffee. Turns out, the only problem was that you have to put something besides $0 in the blank for "Monthly Income." Sorry I was trying to be honest, goverment.

Anyway, I got all this figured out eventually after I calmed down. It was a real waste of time though. I finally looked at the Bar Points book that I've been neglecting [at least the part on Contracts] which surveys the important parts of the law and distinguishes NC law. And then I actually did all that the damn syllabus asked me to do: lectures for Real Property, 33 contracts multiple choice questions, and [even after dinner, which is unheard of for me. Who does work after dinner?] I completed a NC essay on contracts [and didn't do half bad, thank God.]

Needless to say, Charlie cooked dinner. He takes instructions very well. These quesadillas were already planned. All I had to help with was the [mini cuisinart's] chopping of the red and yellow bell peppers and onion. He sauteed those and cooked the chicken, as well as some rice and black beans. We each made our own quesadillas to our own preferred specifications once all that was ready. They were really good and relatively healthy [what with the whole grain quesadillas, chicken, black beans, a lack of grease used, and whole grain rice]. I did not make a whole lot of effort with these pics, mostly because I was so hungry. Then, when Charlie let me make mine first and I started taking pictures, he said, "Oh I forgot you had to do all that. I should've gone first." So I was rushed hurried.

Some well-seasoned chicken cooked in a pan with spray olive oil.

Shredded peppers and onions on the right.

Before folding the tortilla.

Many Sauces
From left to right, more of that chipotle-Greek yogurt sauce, Cholula, Gunslinger hot sauce, Walmart brand hot salsa.

Final Meal [plus maybe another half of a quesadilla that I made later] Seriously, not a good picture. Sorry.

 

Then I traded my normal 100-calorie Klondike bar for a Miller Lite. It was a hell of a day.