High 5 for Friday

December 2, 2011 By Laura

Hold on to the ones who really care
In the end they’ll be the only ones there
When you get old and start losing your hair
Can you tell me who will still care?
Can you tell me who will still care?

Can you guess the song? Maybe the ~~super-complex~~ chorus will help…

Mmm bop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, ba duba dop
Ba du

If you said Hanson’s Mmm Bop, you are correct! The prize? Hanson Beer.

That’s right. According to Eater and other sources, the cute little teenage boys are reportedly going to be releasing their very own IPA beer – cleverly named Mmmm Hop – to be released in 2012. Can this be for real?

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This is just one of the many items I’ve been meaning to share on the blog this week. Thanksgiving threw me off so today is a “catch up” day.

#1

I’ve been meaning to give a shout out to Sarah @ The Smart Kitchen. This rockstar lady received an job offer she couldn’t refuse… but it had her moving half way across the country on short notice. What is a foodie to do with the stockpiles of goodies in her pantry?

Share!

I was one of the lucky recipients of Sarah’s Random Snacks of Kindness (pictured above). Those arbol chilis in my Pumpkin Tempeh Chili? Those are thanks to Sarah.

She also included my favorite – Biscoff Spread! In sample sizes, which make my travelin’ heart happy. The Hatch Chili Salsa also made me smile. Spicy food is my BFF. there was a lot more to it, but those are the items that I’ve consumed first. Thanks for moving, Sarah!

#2

My best friend’s baby is the cutest thing in the world. I’m not just saying that… truth be told I’m not a huge baby person (insert horrified gasps here).

Jackson is an exception. He also has good taste – we shared a Whiskey Sour and edamame (I’m KIDDING… he can’t chew yet) at Top Flr, one of my “go-to” restaurants in Atlanta.

#3

The Warhol exhibit at Atlanta’s High Museum was great (albeit small).

They are running a show called “Picasso to Warhol” right now, so he had to share billing with several artists. I’d love to go see a full exhibit one day!

#4

You all seems rpetty amazing by the bacon weave on the mac ‘n cheese at my “Bargiving“… I can’t believe I didn’t share bacon dish #2.

Pig Candy. (Some call it candied bacon… I think pig candy is more fun.) You coat bacon with brown sugar (and perhaps a sprinkle of cayenne) and cook it on a baking sheet in the oven until crisp. It’s pretty amazing stuff.

Now that I’m back on the healthy-eating train, we won’t mention how much I appreciated it or how well it pairs with a crisp ale.

#5

Last Sunday I was lucky enough to see Kristian Bush (of Sugarland fame) play at my favorite local venue, Eddie’s Attic.

Long ago he had a band called Billy Pilgrim – this show brought back the days of seeing him (or Jennifer) play teeny venues with my elbows on the stage. Ah, memories.

This night he played “in the round” with his brother, Brandon (on the right), and singer/songwriter/storyteller Ellis Paul (on the left). Perfect end to the weekend.

Does that mean that he didn’t attend Jennifer Nettles’ secret wedding last weekend?!

***

You can thank me later for Mmm Bop being stuck in your head all day. 😉

Will you try the Hanson beer?

Did you ever follow a band/musician before they made it “big?”

A Taste of Everything

November 8, 2011 By Laura

Saturday was one of those days where I feel like I never stopped eating.

In other words, it was a perfect day.

After the panels, we made our way to the Tasting Pavilion. There was definitely a buzz in the air as the bloggers lined up to be let in.

Inside there were companies offering samples of everything from coffee to wine, chocolates to endive, vegan meal bars to lamb-filled phyllo.

I left no corner undiscovered as I bounced from table to table in a state of foodie euphoria.

Some favorites:

Oren's Nuts

Espolon tequila drink made with COCOA bitters (recipe at the end!!!)

Decadent, thick balsamic (aged 8 years) from House of Balsamic

Mission Minis Cupcakes – the chocolate PB (eaten, thus not pictured) was the best

21st Amendment's craft brews - loved them all, but Allies Win the War took the prize

The Girl & The Fig’s Black Mission Fig Jam

The best part was yet to come…

at 2pm a crowd formed around the Alexia display. None other than Tyler Florence had arrived.

Everything was fine until someone shouted and a mob formed! Tyler was surrounded and security couldn’t restrain the hysterical group of women (and a few men).

The police arrived with tear gas and mob shields. It was like a scene from a movie!

I’m kidding.

It was a very calm line. I waited patiently, along with the other bloggers and received an autograph photo. Tyler and I chatted for a moment about the demo he would be giving at the banquet later that night, and I got a pic with him.

Why doesn't Picnik have an "add lipstick" feature?

Tyler’s demo that evening was also mob-free. Pre-demo/dinner there was a cocktail hour where we snacked on the 4 finalist recipes for the new Alexia flavor.

No surprise, my favorite was the Thai-Spiced Sweet Potato

The reception was a great experience because I was able to meet even more bloggers – including Mamma Pea (who told me she thought I would be taller in person… I thought she’d be shorter 🙂 ).

I also got to hang with some of the same people we met the night before. Our table was a fun one!

Pictured: Karen, Lauren, Maissa, Christin, Me, Sarah, and Lori. (Thanks to Sarah for sharing this pic!)

Last but certainly not least – I spent some QT goofing off with my new favorite person – Andy (a.k.a. orange pants).

Andy and Me

Andy's pants

For his demo, T-Flo (his new nickname, pass it on) made a fantastic-smelling sage pork chop with sautéed cabbage.

T Flo's meat

Gentle hands to saute the cabbage

TV screen shot of the plated dish

"My name is T Flo, and my pork is fantastic."

Unfortunately that was NOT what we had for dinner. It was kind of a cruel tease because Tyler’s sage and seared pork smelled incredible.

What we had:

Banquet menu

Even FoodBuzz couldn’t make hotel banquet food taste good…

I requested the vegetarian meal, which consisted of wheatberries, leek, tomatoes, and carrots. Sounds ok, but in reality it was overall greasy and tough. Ho hum.

Looking on the bright side, I did get to practice my iPhone photography on Karen’s surf n’ turf main! The lighting was terrible, but one of these was shot with a point-and-shoot and the other with my iPhone.

Can you tell which is which?

I like to call these “I’m still learning.”

Until next year, my friends! P.S. Come to Atlanta!!!

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Here’s the tequila-cocoa bitters recipe, as promised. If you serve this at your next party, please invite me. So. Good. 🙂

La Bandita

2 oz Espolon tequila
3/4 oz Wild Turkey American Honey
1/4 oz Frangelico
2 dashes Angostura cocoa bitters

Shake and serve chilled!

***

If Thomas Keller had been there, I probably would have started a mob.

Have you ever had good banquet food?

Who is your favorite “celebrity” chef?

There Ought to Be a Law

July 5, 2011 By Laura

There ought to be a law against going to work the day after ~~the 4th~~ any holiday.

At least I have yesterday’s appearance on the Food Buzz Top 9 to boost me this morning!

That hummus really was good.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who buzzed me and WELCOME to new visitors!

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Yesterday’s Peachtree Road Race was really good.

I ran the world’s largest 10K in 51:08. A new PR!

A time under 50 mins would have been awesome, but I can’t complain about anything sub-55. And I finished in plenty of time to cheer on a lot of the finishers. 🙂

Post-race I met up with some good friends and enjoyed ~~brunch~~ their company. Brunch was terrible – they ran out of EGGS, which meant I didn’t get to eat much of anything until 4 hours after finishing the race.

Fine if you run out of food, but at least tell me so I can order something different. ~~Like the spine my stomach was eating.~~

We made up for it in ~~beverages~~ fun at the next location.

The sign didn’t lie – it was the bar we were looking for.

Diesel (870 North Highland Avenue Northeast, Atlanta, 404-815-1820) provided a knowledgable bartender and possibly the best grilled cheese I’ve ever had.

The D’Yer Mak’Er consisted of mozzarella, roasted tomato goat cheese, swiss, cheddar & bacon on rye. The rye made the sandwich… YUM.

How about some icing on the grilled cheese cake? Watermelon beer.

Our awesome bartender recommended this Hell or High Watermelon Beer by 21st Amendment after I requested something with flavor, but light. Not too much alcohol content (who really needs an 11% alc beer?). Not too sweet.

It hit the spot. I thought the watermelon would make it too sweet for me, but it was much lighter than many of the “berry” flavored beers out there.

The watermelon flavoring was more “real” than candied/artificial. It is a wheat beer, but remains light and crisp Nice amount of bubble. Nothing overly complex, but a refreshing beer after a long day.

***

It rained last night so no fire works for me… the 9.5 hours of sleep I got instead was incredible.

How was your weekend? Did you get to enjoy a race and/or fireworks?

Tasting, Tasting 1-2

May 25, 2011 By Laura

Saturday and Sunday I visited the tasting tents at the Food and Wine Festival. I miiiight have snuck in Saturday… shhhh!

The gates of heaven

The food was all good, but I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more variety.

There’s only so much fried chicken and BBQ I can consume.

Indian-Spiced Fried Chicken and Waffles = worth it

An exception to the “too much fried” rule is the above Indian-Spiced Fried Chicken and Waffles by Asha Gomez of Spice Route Supper Club. I have GOT to check out one of her events ASAP. Rumor has it she may be looking for a restaurant space…

Celeb Highlight: I got to meet Chef Norman Van Aken (the father of fusion… I shook his hand!).

Food Highlight: The beer, cheeses, and desserts (duh).

Best beer – New Heaven

The cheese spread (pun intended)

Coming to Whole Foods ATL soon!

I wish I’d done a better job remembering to photograph… there’s was just so much to eat! 🙂

My favorites beer/cheese/dessert:

Wild Heaven Craft Beers – I’d had these before, but Invocation and Ode to Mercy are the two brews offered by this new Decatur, GA-based brewery. If you find them, drink them immediately. It’s the best new beer I’ve tasted in a long time.
Sweet Grass Dairy’s Truffled Chevre – Decadently delicious. There’s no other way to describe this. Need proof? They are complete OUT for the season. 🙁
The Hungry Peach’s Peach Cobbler Cupcake – Moist, flavorful, light… ~~dignity is the only thing that kept me from devouring their whole display~~
High Road Craft Ice Cream – Every flavor was good (I shamelessly sampled everything), but if I had to cheese I’d say don’t miss the Caffeine Cacao and the French Toast (JUST like your mamma’s… in ice cream-form). Good news for Georgian’s – they are coming soon to Whole Foods! #godblesswholefoods

I had a great time hanging out with 2 new friends on Saturday and the Lippy crew on Sunday. (Nathan’s wife, Chelsee = coolest chick ever.)

Me and Nathan Lippy. Our hair matches a little.

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If you ever wonder if your “clean” way of eating really makes a difference, eat like I did all weekend. Monday I woke up feeling like crap. Too. Much. Rich. Food.

I seriously almost hurled during the flight to my client meeting.

At least it was better than it would have been: I ran 5 miles Saturday morning, took an hour walk that afternoon, played 2 ball games Sunday morning, and then ran 3.5 miles. I should re-name this blog Run-Eat-Repeat. 🙂

I’m trying to mini-detox this week. It’s not working so well since I’ve been traveling, but I’m definitely eating much cleaner than I did this weekend! Monday I drank my breakfast (not in a noon-game tailgating way) before rushing to the airport:

Some days, you just need a green smoothie. This was one of those days.

I did my P90X Ab Ripper X (best ab workout ever, btw), followed by my 75 push-ups (are you doing yours?!). Then ~~chugged~~ enjoyed this refreshing smoothie.

Mango-Almond Smoothie

1/2 champagne mango
1/2 banana
1 C fresh spinach
1 C unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1 tsp Maca
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp almond extract
water (adjust to desired consistency)

Put it in a blender. Pour into glass. Top with your favorite crunchy treat (I love this low-sugar citrus-granola).

Drink up!

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More like what I gorged on this weekend… but whatever… 🙂

Even though we’re already mid-week, this may be a timely discussion question given the upcoming long weekend…

How do you detox after a weekend of indulgence?