Pie Hard

2 Fridays ago, my good friend Libby came back to visit.

Libby lived in Raleigh, but now is getting her masters in science at App State, because she's smart like that.  She comes and visits her friends in Raleigh every so often, because she's nice like that. We all went out to Sono followed by dessert and champagne at Bittersweet.

Nick & Amanda came :-)

and Debs!

Bittwersweet is a new downtown bar that specializes in drinks and desserts.  It's pretty cool. 

We all shared the pumpkin pie, bacon apple streusel and a cookie platter.

And then took some group pics. I'm showing much more leg than everyone else.

No pictures of Aaron and Libby's bf but they were there too!

Good times.

Cooking Lessons

I love to cook, but lately I've been having some mishaps in the kitchen.

This fig, bacon and goat cheese pizza was a success.

But these mussels were a sandy, gritty fail.  They looked pretty though!

Kitchen Lessons I've Learned

-Purchase an oven liner to avoid a feast of dinners past from accumulating on the bottom of your oven.  Don't use aluminum foil or parchment paper. Also, put your oven liner on the bottom rack, not the floor of the oven.
-to avoid grit, only buy PEI Mussels.  Optional - soak your mussels in cool water with some cornmeal at the bottom before preparation.  Lastly, remove the beards from your mussels.
-Find a cookie sheet brand you like and can trust. Use this brand to bake all your cookies for consistency. I like Chicago Metallic and it's cheap.  Also, use your silpat.
-Let the cookies cool before removing them from the cookie sheet.  It doesn't matter if this is the only cookie sheet/silpat you own :-/
-Be ridiculously generous with butter and marshmallows when making rice krispies.  Like 1.5x the recommended amount :-)

And what I'm still learning...
I love steak and have successfully cooked a steak before.  However last Thursday I found myself setting off the fire alarm 4 times and coming to close to having a heart attack over fear the sprinkler system would be next.  The kitchen was just so smoky!  I've been reading about the smoke points of oil and trying to figure out how to avoid this problem in the future.  My phone is the galaxy s5 and it often stalks my google searches and suggests I check out things (usually the NC state score on game days).  After my mishap, it recommended I read  No Grill, No Vent, No Problem.  Great, so my phone knows I've been struggling in the kitchen too!

I've had a lot of good days in the kitchen so of course I was due for some bad days.  Practice makes perfect!

Chicken Sauteed in Brown Butter and Sage with Parmesan Spinach Orzo.  

This was a success. Well kinda. :-)  Always room for improvement!

G2B Gastropub

Sunday 2 weekends ago I had to work 12 shift on consult-liaison psychiatry.  It was pretty exhausting, mainly from all the notes I had to write.  Aaron and our friend Sarah were so kind and patiently waited for me to get off at 9pm so we could all go out to dinner!  We met up at G2B Gastropub in Durham. 

It was delicious! 5 stars for sure!  In front of Sarah is a braised lamb chop.  

We also had fried artichokes and a scottish egg.

The Scottish egg opened- it is lightly boiled, wrapped in meats and fried.  A little odd to be at first but I paired it with french fries at the table and then it tasted like a delicious hash.

 Scallops and butternut squash

Sticky toffee pudding and chocolate cake

Everything at G2B was delicious, my favorite being the sticky toffee pudding which unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of.  They also are well known for their burgers, including a lamb burger.  I'm looking forward to heading back to try that with and the toffee pudding again!  If you are ever in Durham definitely try them out.

State vs FSU

So, Saturday was pretty epic.  My husband's fraternity, Pi Lambda Phi, partnered up with another frat on campus for the tailgate.  Which culminated in a band and hundreds of drunk undergrads.  Just to clarify, I do tailgate on the alumni side and most of us are alumni (or wedded to an alum!).  But not Saturday...

sorry a lil blurry :-)

 Yeah. This is crazy

Adam 

 Shrodog came to town! 

State played great and lead most of the game but ultimately we lost to FSU.  Overall, this season is much better than last year's and I couldn't be more proud of the boys.  It's funny because in the past I was hesitant towards football and tailgating, now I'm the one dragging Aaron out of bed and asking him about tickets to the game.  BBQ, beer, friends and football though - the perfect Saturday. :-)

New York & Hoboken

After the wedding in Nashville, Aaron and I caught a flight to LaGuardia the next day to go to Aviva & Shaun's wedding in New City, NY.  Aviva was my roommate when I interned at NYU one summer.  She went to Cornell and now lives in Boston.  It's pretty amazing how we haven't let the distance and plane tickets drive us apart.  I love this girl and her snarky sense of humor! :-o

My first Jewish wedding - the hora!

The fire alarm went off at 6:30 am the next morning after some lady hung her dress on the sprinkler.  I have very strong feelings against that lady, as well as the lady who I saw running down the hall, causing me to think the hotel was burning down and Aaron and I had to get out or die. 

The same day as the hellish 1.5 hour fake fire at the crack of dawn, Aaron and I traveled to Hoboken to visit Aaron's friend, Ryan. I have never been to Hoboken before and I must say, it's pretty awesome.  It's a town in NJ that's one square mile in size and just a bridge across from Manhattan, or stop on the PATH.  It's eclectic with some pretty amazing food.  If I was still in NYC I would definitely consider living in Hoboken over an outside borough like Brooklyn. 

Aaron was stoked to see Cake Boss, without a line too!  We went in and got him some birthday cake :-)

Fiore's.  Absolutely amazing sandwiches with the best mozzarella.  I need to live here. 

The view from Hoboken

We also spent some time in Manhattan meeting up with friends and eating more delicious food.  

We had a delicious housemade pasta at Pepe Rosso Social

With Aaron in Washington Square Park.  I love that neighborhood.

Met up with my super smart friend Amena, who is a second year at NYU's law school!

Our trip ended with 1.5 hours of traffic trying to get to JFK to catch our 5:30 flight.  At 4:50, our uber got a flat tire in Queens where there were no taxis in sight.  A lyft later we got to the airport, begged everyone in security could we skip them (New Yorkers are nice!), ran barefoot to the gait with the plastic security bin and barely made the flight.  A slightly sweaty ending to an awesome vacation. :-)

Tailgate

Quick break from the Nashville/New York recap to show you pics from this past weekend.  With beautiful weather and a 6pm football game, there was plenty of time to tailgate.  And  we won vs Presby College, 42-0!  Go State!

Dessert at Poole's with Debbie and Sarah the night before 

Tailgate time

This BBQ rocked my world.

Sunshine and flip cup :-) 

Nashville

Two weekends ago, Aaron and I had two close friends getting married back to back on Saturday and Sunday.  Rather than chose, we decided to bite the bullet and attend both!   On the 5th, we flew to Nashville and attended Leigh & Carter's wedding on the the 6th.  Then on Sunday, we flew to New York and attended Aviva & Shaun's wedding.  The following week we took off and spent time in Hoboken, NYC, Charlotte/Gastonia and Boone.  Yes - 4 states in 5 days!  Here's some photos from Nashville.

Shared the plane ride with friends 

On Broadway Street in Nashville

Found Elvis

Bars, cowboys & music

Downtown with Aaron that night

Opryland Hotel - gorgeous

My cousin's now husband proposed to her here years ago.

Celebrating the bride and groom Saturday night.  Congratulations!

More pictures to come! Hope y'all are doing well!