Ice Ice Baby

A couple weekends ago (I've lost count, that's how long I procrastinated this post,) John and I went to check out the South Carolina Stingrays---Charleston's very own hockey team! One of John's co-residents is a booster for the team, so she invited the residents to come out on "Pack the House Night" when tickets were just $5. I'm no hockey fan, but I rarely turn down $5 entertainment on a Saturday night.

Go Rays!

 The game actually wasn't that bad. Our team won and there was one really good (kind of scary) fight! We had a few drinks, spent time with our friends and got to watch this act of awesomeness at halftime....

Oh yeah, he's juggling fire! 

But by far the highlight of the night was the look John sported to the game...

All stache, baby.

 Yes, he shaved off his beard, leaving only the mustache, and kept it like that for about 3 days! The first night, it was funny (and actually fit in pretty well at the hockey game!) After that, it started bugging me that my husband looked like a 40 year old trucker. But hey, if he wants to experiment with facial hair, so be it! Thankfully, it's gone now!

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....

Bucket List: Paint the Folly Boat

Today I got to cross off one of the things on my Charleston Bucket List! This morning, we woke up early, put on our grungy clothes and painted the Folly Boat!

Here's the back story on the Folly Boat: On the drive down to Folly Beach, there is a landlocked row boat sitting off the side of the road. The boat washed up here during Hurricane Hugo back in 1989. When no one claimed the boat, locals turned it into a Folly Beach landmark by painting it to greet all beachgoers. Because of its close proximity to Folly Road, the only road in and out of Folly Beach, the painted boat has become a free-for-all billboard. Nowadays it has a new painted message almost everyday, from birthday wishes and farewell tributes to silly phrases and advertisements. It's legal to paint the boat. The only catch is your message is likely to be painted over as soon as the next passerby decides they need to proclaim something roadside.

To see what other people have painted, check out the Follyboat.com website for a full gallery of pictures. Some people are really creative!

But this morning, it was our turn to have our message on the boat. Our couple friends Connie and Daniel both have birthdays this week. So Connie asked us if we would help her paint the boat for Daniel's birthday and surprise him. He's turning 30 after all--- this is a pretty boat-worthy birthday.

The before picture of the boat. First we used white paint to erase the previous message. The previous message was also a birthday message though, so we left the "Happy Birthday" part. Less work for us!

Just so you can get an idea of how many times this boat has been painted. Look at all those layers!

Connie is about 7 months pregnant, so John and I were in charge of the spray paint. This was the best part! Who knew vandalism was so much fun?

Connie handled the white paint like a champ.

John decided polka dots would be a nice touch. Daniel loves polka dots after all....

Me and Connie with the boat.

Me and John on top of the finished product. I think the 30 is the best part. What do you think?

Apparently we weren't the only ones who discovered a newfound love for vandalism. Everything around the boat was painted too. These trees and some pine cones on the ground-- now multicolored.

The street in front of the boat. Once you start, you just can't stop.

And of course, we had to leave our own mark, too (on the back of the boat.)

Beach Day...in January

One reason I love Charleston....

Going to the beach in January! 75 degrees!

Sure, I was wearing shorts and a cardigan instead of a bikini, but you still can't beat the vitamin D in the middle of winter! No matter what time of year, laying by the waves reading a book is my very favorite spot to be. Hope 2012 provides even more of this!

Happy 2012!

We rang in the New Year in Tulsa this year, during our weeklong post-Christmas vacation. For the second year in a row, we spent the night with my family, racing into the New Year!

Mom, Larry and I all ran in the 5K, which started at 11:45. The midnight fireworks went off when we were about halfway through with the race, meaning we literally raced into the New Year.

Here we are with our cheerleaders, John and Sarah. Family tradition for a second year in a row!

Last year, we finished Mom, Larry and then me. I came in about 32 minutes last year (I wasn't in great running shape, give me a break!)

But this year... we finished me, Larry and then Mom! I finished with a personal record, 26:44! I came in 4th in my age group (so close to getting a medal!) and 18th out of 318 women overall. I couldn't be happier!

Mom finished first in her age group and Larry came in second in his. Way to go team!

Me and my Momma! I love running with her! One of the best parts of my trip home.

Happy 2012 everyone!

Christmas on Call

Merry Christmas from Charleston!

For the second year in a row, John was on call over Christmas (of all the luck!), so our Christmas celebrations were a little different this year. Since John has to work through Monday, we're going home to Oklahoma after Christmas instead of on Christmas. So we got to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning in our own home in our new town.

While I baked, ran errands and relaxed at home on Christmas Eve, John was at the hospital until about 5:30 pm.

Working hard on Christmas Eve

When John got home, we cooked a special Christmas Eve dinner together while listening to Christmas music, my favorite!

Glad I got to spend at least some time with my love on Christmas.

John stayed toasty by the Yule Log. We actually do have a fireplace, but it is way too warm here to fire it up. It was in the high 60s today! Earlier this week, I had the AC on!

The Christmas Eve Meal: Steak, twice-baked potatoes, my homemade cornbread and peas! It may not be traditional, but it was yummy!

And we ate it on the coffee table in the living room while watching our favorite Christmas movies. Mine: "The Santa Clause", John's: "A Christmas Story."

Unfortunately we didn't get to go to Christmas Eve service because John could get paged at any time. So the rest of the evening looked like this:

John checking up on his patients

But everything else at our home was ready for Christmas, including me!

Our beautiful Christmas tree

The new Charleston ornament I picked out. It has all the Charleston landmarks on it.

The Charleston ornament John picked out: a blue crab!

After our movies, we settled down for a long winter's nap. And luckily, not a creature was stirring....

Not even a pager. Thankful for a silent night!

John left for the hospital at 6:30 am on Christmas morning, so we woke up at 5:30 to do our Christmas time before he left.

First up: stockings! And no, there's not three people living here. John just got me so much good stuff for my stocking, he needed two socks to hold it all. Love him!

John loved the mustache clips in his stocking. No, not clips you put in your mustache. Paper clips in the shape of mustaches.

We had our traditional monkey bread for breakfast (yum!) and John read the Christmas story from the Bible before we opened gifts.

Actually, there weren't many gifts to open this year. We decided to buy a new coffee table as our Christmas gift to each other. But, the table is going to be custom built, so we don't have it yet. Despite the table gift, John got me something else anyway. And since I didn't buy wrapping paper this year (all our gifts are being packed in suitcases and flown to Oklahoma!), he decided to just decorate the box instead of wrap it.

Beautiful!

And inside the box was.....

A foam Schooner hat! Just what I've been saying I wanted all football season long! I knew Santa was a Sooner! I can't wait to bust this baby out at a game :)

And that's it folks! John's at work, I'm cuddled up on the couch and tonight we're going to a friend's house for Christmas dinner. I hope you are spending the holiday with those you love and that you have a very Merry Christmas!

Cookies for Santa

It's that time of year again! Time for Christmas baking! I love getting elbow deep in flour and making Christmas cookies. The problem is, if I'm only baking for two people, even one batch is way too many. So this year, my friend Connie and I collaborated to do all our Christmas baking in one fun-filled afternoon and then give all (or most of) the goods away to everyone we know.

Last Sunday, Connie came over, we turned up the Christmas music in the kitchen and we baked and decorated for about 5 hours. We made four recipes that produced 120+ cookies all together! It was marvelous!

First up, the classic iced sugar cookie....

Bow chick bow wow. Yes, Mrs. Gingerbread woman is wearing a bikini top.

And yes, she may be a little lopsided.

Frosted sugar cookies are my favorite Christmas cookies. These are what we always made when I was growing up, so it's not really Christmas for me until I have a few of these babies. This year, I took the easy route and used Betty Crocker's sugar cookie mix. Much less mess and just as good!

I did make my own icing though, so I get credit for that. I used this recipe that was posted on my friend Erin's blog, which originally came from the decorated cookie blog.

Sugar Cookie Icing

"Note: This frosting is similar to royal icing, but I add shortening and flavoring to make it taste delicious. Thus, it dries hard enough to handle and pack when left overnight, but not rock hard, like traditional royal icing. The consistency is NOT the runny kind used for flooding. It's stiffer. Take a spoonful, turn it over the bowl. The frosting should cling to the spoon and slowly fall into the bowl. That's the

right consistency.

4 tblsp meringue powder (available at many supermarkets and in most craft stores)
1/2 cup water
6-7 cups confectioner's sugar (may need more or less, see the consistency advice above)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup Crisco

Whip the meringue powder and water on high speed for a looooong time, several minutes, until it's fluffy and peaks form. Gradually add the rest of the ingredients to desired consistency. Store at room temperature in a sealed container for up to a month."

I used the original recipe for piping around the edges of the cookies, and then made another batch of the icing and watered it down a little for flooding. Be careful not to add too much water though! Just a few teaspoons.

It made quite a mess, but worked pretty good! And the end result is delicious!

Decorating these bad boys took the most time. We baked the cookies first, let them cool while we made the other recipes, and iced them in the end.

Next up were two new cookie recipes for me: Candy Cane Blossoms and Red Velvet Cookies

Do I need to tell you which is which? I think you can figure it out.

I found both of these recipes on Pinterest and will link to the recipe on their original blogs. The Candy Cane Blossoms required making my own colored sugar! Wasn't too hard, but I way overestimated how much I would need. Anyone need a half gallon of red and green sugar?

The Red Velvet Cookies are probably

my favorite! Plus they were the easiest of the bunch! They're made with a box of red velvet cake mix, add a few basic ingredients, add in white chocolate chips, stir and you're done.

Next up was a recipe Connie brought for Snowman Cookie Balls.

Our Snowman Cookie Balls didn't turn out as perfect as the recipe's picture- what whatev. They were still fun to make and they taste delicious! Inside the white chocolate coating is a mixture of ground up Nutter Butters and cream cheese, rolled into balls and frozen. The end result tastes like a peanut butter bonbon. Yum!

After all the baking was done, we split up al the cookies into these fun containers I found at Walmart, for about $3 each.

One set went to my coworker at the magazine, one set went to the family I babysit for, and the two big tins on the bottom went to the MUSC resident office (we sent 80 cookies to them!)

Of course Connie and I kept some for ourselves, too.

Today my coworker returned the favor and gave me this set of traditional Charleston cookies called benne wafers.

The benne wafers have been around in Charleston since colonial times and were brought here from East Africa. The cookies are very crunchy and thin and most of them are delicious-- lemon, chocolate, yum! But a few are a little odd, one is all sesame seed and one is kind of spicy! Either way, it's fun to have some traditional cookies around this Christmas too.

Hope your holidays are as sweet as mine have been so far!