Sticky Buns and New Honey Bun

Catching up a little on what's been going on since Sarah Roland came to visit us (been a few very very busy weeks!)...I forgot to fill you all in on the best morning ever that happened a few weeks ago.

On the morning of Sunday, May 20, Sarah Roland and I woke up early and went for a long 6 mile run---how all great morning's should start if you ask me. The night before, my sister Sarah went into labor back home in Oklahoma and I was up several times that night checking text message updates from my mom. It was driving me crazy that I couldn't be there to be with my family, so pounding the pavement on a 6 mile run really helped.

After our run, we headed to WildFlour Bakery to finally try their famous Sunday Sticky Buns that we've heard so much about. We tried once before a few months ago, and by the time we got there, they had already sold out. This Sunday, we made sure to be there early. 

Back in Oklahoma, Sarah went into the operating room for a C-section right about the time we got to the bakery in Charleston. I was a nervous wreck the whole time we were ordering and nibbling our sweet treats. Their deliciousness wasn't lost on me though, they were amazing---big, soft cinnamon rolls with glazed pecans on top.

Could hardly snap a pic of them before they were eagerly devoured.

By the time we got back to the car and were driving home, I got a teary-eyed phone call from my Mom and this picture sent to my phone...

My new honey bun, Kingston Alexander is born

I couldn't be more proud to be this little guy's aunt. I talked to him on the phone a few hours after his arrival (aka my mom held the phone up to him crying,) but we've yet to meet in person yet. I can't wait to hold him and give him lots of kisses when we go to Oklahoma this weekend. 

Love my beautiful sister and baby Kingston.

Tasty Weekend

John and I have been laying low the last couple weeks (Actually, I have. John is always working like crazy.) getting ready for a pretty busy May. My two best friends are coming to Charleston next month and I couldn't be more excited! I'm sure I'll have plenty of adventures to fill you in on after their stay.

In the meantime, we had ourselves a nice little weekend eating some new yummy things around Charleston. First up: really freakin' good pizza.

Our friends Nate and Alexandra introduced us to D'Allesandro's Pizza on Friday night. The place is very low key, you might say hole in the wall, and was full of college students the night we were there. I liked that you could see the cooks preparing the pizza and sliding 'em in the brick ovens right behind the bar. Tossing pizza dough in the air = awesome.

We ordered the wings to start, seemed to be a hit among the wing-eaters, but the pizza was by far the stand out. John got the meat lovers as usual, while the rest of us split the Luau--- mozzarella, feta, bacon, onion, pineapple and a drizzle of BBQ sauce. I love me some pineapple pizza and this may the best I've ever had.

John lovin' him some pizza

I can see why the college students love it, too, since it was very reasonably priced. We'll definitely be going back again. 

And then for a complete 360, after D'Allesandro's, we decided to go to Peninsula Grill for drinks and dessert. Peninsula Grill is a pretty posh fine dining restaurant right by the City Market. You know it's fancy when they have individual real towels in the bathroom instead of paper towels. Nice!

We couldn't really afford much on the menu, but that's okay because we were there for just one thing. The coconut cake. Peninsula Grill is world famous for this cake. In fact, you can order a whole cake online for $100. Before our $10 slice arrived at our seats at the bar, we were all joking about how ridiculous it is to order a $100 cake. After that first bite... I'd pay $200. It was absolutely amazing. 

Sorry for the blurry shot. I didn't have time to focus, because I had to fight John for every bite of this  slice we shared. Actually, he was very gracious. Even let me have the last bite. Now that's love. 

I'm not a huge fan of coconut on most days, however I do enjoy a good samoa, but luckily this cake's coconut flavor wasn't overpowering. And you can tell the coconut used is the real deal, not the overly sweet fake stuff. So creamy, so delicious... I'm going to be dreaming about this for weeks. 

Saturday was another fun day of good food and time with friends. John worked all day, so Ali and I declared it a girls day and started the morning off with manicures and pedicures. We had planned to go to the beach, but the rain clouds had other plans. Luckily after our appointments at the nail salon, the sun came out long enough for lunch at the farmers market. 

Have I told you how much I love the Marion Square farmers market? Pretty amazing. And the crepes (upper left corner) are the best.

That night, we stayed in and had a chick flick movie marathon ("Steel Magnolias" and "Ghost".) And of course, no girls night is complete without chocolate....

Our new favorite-- Sweeteeth chocolate, made locally. I had Peanut Butter and Chocolate and Chocolate Carmel Seasalt.

My peanut butter chocolate bar. That seasalt on top really makes all the difference. So yum!

I hope your weekend was just as tasty!

Sweet Valentines

We had a great time celebrating Valentine's Day in the Hurst household this year. After the awesome concert, of course, John took me out for our Valentine's date Sunday night since he gets too busy at work during the week. He came home from work Sunday afternoon with a dozen yellow roses (my favorite!) and a bottle of wine. 

Roses: perfect way to start the evening. 

Then he took me to High Cotton steakhouse for dinner, a very nice restaurant in town we've been dying to try. He went all out on this one! I mean it's one classy joint, they scrape the crumbs off your white tablecloth between courses. Fancy! Even better, the steaks we ordered were delicious!

This is a picture from their website. I wasn't going to bust out my camera during dinner after all. 

When we got home from dinner, we had the red velvet whoopie pies I made earlier in the day for dessert. I got the recipe off Pinterest (you can find it here) and they were heavenly. Mine weren't quite as red because I ran out of food coloring. Oh well!

Red velvet whoopie pies with cream cheese icing

And to add to the Valentine's Day sugar fix, my sweet Momma ordered cookies from the Charleston Cookie Company and had them delivered to our house on Valentine's Day. Believe me, they are just as delicious as they are cute! Mom sure knows the way to my heart!

Thanks Mom and Larry! We love you!

 I hope your celebrations were just as sweet!

 Happy Valentine's Day!

Two Weekends of Good Food

What better way to celebrate being back in Charleston after the holidays than eating our way around town? The past two weekends, that's exactly what John and I did. Way to start those New Year resolutions huh? I promise we eat healthy homemade meals during the week :) Here's our latest food adventures in three rounds:

Round One: Folly, Folly, Folly

Last weekend after painting the Folly Boat, we couldn't miss a chance to eat breakfast at our favorite Folly Beach eatery-- Lost Dog Cafe. John's Aunt Elaine got us a Lost Dog gift card for Christmas, which we couldn't wait to use! Thanks for the great breakfast Aunt Elaine!

Early Saturday morning at Lost Dog

I got the banana bread french toast-- pretty much dessert. But so delicious!

Saturday night we celebrated birthdays with the residents at Bowen's Island, also on Folly. I've heard great things about the oysters at Bowen's Island since we moved here, so I was excited to try it out. What the restaurant lacks in style (it's pretty hole in the wall) it makes up for in authenticity. Situated right on the water off the beaten track of Folly Road, you order and eat your meal on the top story of the building while the oysters are roasting below. 

Shot of the outside of Bowen's

Inside, John ate up a whole tray of roasted oysters while I stuck with the fried chicken. 

After Bowen's, a night out on Folly wouldn't be complete without a stop at Surf Bar.

Playing Truth of Dare Jenga at Surf Bar. Pretty hilarious!

Round Two: Restaurant Week

Sunday night, John and I finally took part in Charleston Restaurant Week. Many cities have these nowadays, but if you're not familiar with them, pretty much you get to eat at some nice places you couldn't afford otherwise. Restaurants have fixed menus offering three courses for $20, $30 or $40.

Our Restaurant Week choice was Oak Steakhouse--- John chose it because it was one of the only ones that had filet on the menu. And let me tell ya, the filet was awesome! As was everything else we ordered!

On our way to our Oak. I had to take pics beforehand because I felt awkward busting out the camera in a restaurant with a dress code :)

The outside of Oak Steakhouse. What a fun night!

Round Three: Taste of Folly

Last weekend we headed back to Folly Beach---apparently we just can't get enough. After voting in the Republican Primaries Saturday morning (bonus points if you can spot my teeny tiny "I voted" sticker), we went to check out Taste of Folly. Center Street, the main strip of Folly, was closed off and restaurants had tents set up along each side. At the tents, you could order some of the restaurant's best dishes (usually on a smaller scale) for pretty cheap! Great way to try a lot of different dishes from different places. There was also some live music to complete the street-festival like atmosphere.

Eating my $1 slice of pizza from Woody's. Yum!

John enjoying a mini cup of She Crab soup-- a Charleston classic.

Lastly, we had to get a treat from Tokyo Crepes. This cute little food truck is set up down on Folly Beach most days of the week. I bugged John about stopping there all summer long when we were coming and going from the beach, but we never got to. John and I ate crepes in Curacao on our honeymoon and every since then, they've kind of been our thing.

The Tokyo Crepes food truck. You know the best food comes out of RVs.

Strawberry Dream = delicious!

Now back to those resolutions....

Great Eats: Birthday Party at Rita's

This week, our friend and John's co-resident Branden celebrated his birthday. I signed up to make his birthday cake for John to take to work and I made a french vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting. I would have taken pictures of the cake, except I hate to say, it was not my best work. Lesson learned: when you're rushing to make a cake before going to bible study, you're likely to not let it cool all the way before icing and then the icing will get all melty. Oh well! Still tasted good!

Friday night we went out with all the residents to really celebrate Branden's birthday. We went down to Folly Beach and ate at Rita's, one of the Folly restaurants we had not been to yet.

Beach restaurant- food still good in the winter!

I had the Cantina Burger because it's served with guacamole on top, which I love! The fries were spicy and really good too! Ate way too much!

After dinner we went over to Loggerhead's Beach Grill for some drinks with the birthday boy.

Branden, Brittany and me

John and Matt being weird

Despite the placement of that beer bottle, I swear Connie, the pregnant lady, was not drinking!

Fun night out with friends!

The best seafood I have never eaten

Everyone knows I don't eat seafood. So why am I writing about a seafood restaurant? Because it was just that good, that's why.

We took Mom, Larry and Sarah to Hank's Seafood while they were in Charleston because it had high ratings on UrbanSpoon (the ultimate test of greatness) and it's been ranked the best seafood restaurant in the city several years in a row by the Charleston City Paper readers. Since everyone else in my party was hankerin' for some seafood, I happily went to the seafood restaurant.

Hank's is conveniently located near the Charleston City Market downtown. Perfect for shopping before dinner, like we did. Advice: You do need reservations.

At first we were intimidated by the white tablecloths and the high prices on the menu posted outside the restaurant. But we decided it was probably worth it and it definitely was.

Mom and Sarah got the crab cakes and said they were the best they'd ever had. By the way, did you know crab cakes are broiled and some crab cakes are fried? Apparently there is a difference and everyone in our party decide they liked broiled better.

I ordered the buttermilk fried chicken because John's boss recommended it (I usually don't like fried chicken either.) It was absolutely delicious. Nothing like KFC thank goodness. The mashed potatoes and asparagus were just as scrumptious. For a seafood restaurant, this place sure knows how to please the landlubbers, too :)

Tastes like chicken! That's because it is.

Great eats: Smoky Oak

Of all the things we did with my family while they were in town, eating at some great restaurants was probably my favorite thing. After all, Charleston is known for its wonderful food so we had to show it off. While they were here, we covered a wide variety of food genres including seafood, lowcountry fare, burgers, mexican and breakfast food. But we started it all off with great barbecue!

John and I discovered Smoky Oak, less than a mile from our house, the week before my family came. Its great BBQ sandwich and large selection of beer on tap (similar to Oklahoma's McNellie's) has already made it a regular on our restaurant rotation.

Not the best picture of my pulled pork sandwich, but you get the point. The mac n' cheese is also delicious!

One of the South Carolina beers I tried was Son of a Peach. That's right, peach beer. Sounds weird but was actually pretty tasty!

Another interesting thing we've discovered at Smoky Oak is the variety of BBQ sauces. I always thought red tomato-based BBQ sauce was BBQ sauce. But it turns out different regions use different kinds of sauces on their barbecue. Smoky Oak has all the sauces, so you can try each one.

Turns out a mustard sauce is the main BBQ sauce in South Carolina. It's actually really good! Much better than the plain old vinegar and pepper sauce that's apparently popular in North Carolina. Somehow I lived in Alabama for a year and never figured out that white sauce is the popular BBQ sauce there.

After trying many of these sauces at Smoky Oak, I read a great article on the sauce debate in Garden in Gun magazine. Great magazine by the way! You can read the article here.

Mom loved South Carolina's mustard sauce on her pulled pork sandwich.

Great eats: Poogan's Porch

Tonight was my family's last night in Charleston (they've been staying with us for the past week; many more blog posts to come about that) so we decided to eat some famous lowcountry fare at Poogan's Porch for their last dinner.

Poogan's Porch opened in Charleston in 1976 but is located inside an old Victorian-style house that was built downtown in 1888. The restaurant is named after a dog, "Poogan", who used to love lounging out on the porch and begging for table scraps. Poogan died many years ago, but in front of the restaurant there is still a small memorial to him.

Poogan's Porch is also famous around these parts for its great food. Inside the front hallway are many autographs of celebrities that have dined at the restaurant. Larry was excited to see a menu signed by Brett Farve. Jim Carey also had a funny message on his signed menu. But really, the most important people dined there tonight.

Here we are on the famous front porch.

Sarah ordered the crab cakes and said they were delicious...I'll take her word for it.

Really? Who would order Mac 'N Cheese as their entree? Me of course! Calm down, I had a side salad, too. But the Mac 'N Cheese, made with smoked gouda, was to die for.

The lack of people in this famous restaurant is because we could only get a 5:30 reservation. Note for future: call more than three hours ahead for reservation.

Poogan's Porch also has another interesting reputations as one of the most haunted places in Charleston (we learned that on our Charleston ghost tour, blog post to come). The Travel Channel even voted it the third most haunted place in America in 2003.

Some say Poogan haunts the front porch, but the most famous ghost is an elderly lady who was a former resident in the late 1800s. The lady was known to appear in the upstairs window, which the restaurant eventually boarded up because people would so often call the police when they saw her banging the windows to get out.

She also makes appearances in the dining room, most often to the restaurant staff. But she's also known to haunt the upstairs women's restroom, either banging on the door when guests go in or appearing behind them in the mirror. Of course, Sarah and Mom had to try this out.

Mom trying to capture the (lack of) ghost.

Great eats: Taco Boy

On Fourth of July eve, John and I decided to brave the Folly Beach traffic to have dinner at Taco Boy. John ate here the weekend he was in town for his interview and raved about the street style tacos, so naturally I was dying to try them. Taco Boy is right on the main strip at Folly Beach-- which needless to say was PACKED this weekend. But luckily, we found two seats at the bar, so we didn't even have to wait for our taco deliciousness.

The outside of Taco Boy minus the crowds (aka stolen from Google images)

If you know us, you know we love guacamole. And Taco Boy did not disappoint on this classic appetizer.

Unfortunately, when the tacos came, we devoured them so quickly, I forgot to take a picture. Oops! Just take my word for it, they were great! John had the fish tacos and I have the pulled pork- yum!

After dinner we explored all the tourist shops, which John loves for some reason. They were all exactly the same and full of crap. :)

Folly Road was packed with vacationers for Fourth of July.

One of the best things about Taco Boy is that after dinner you can take a stroll on the beach to work off that guacamole. Here we are in the tide, which you can't see because it's so dark- use your imagination.