Birthday

Anytime Fudge!

~ atastytrip ~ 1 Comment

Happy 5th of July!

I know I know…this is why I can’t ever be a serious blogger. Serious bloggers start posting potato salad recipes during the last week of June to ensure that you have time to make their recipe before the actual holiday. Serious bloggers also post more than once every two months so there’s that too…

I guess I will be relegated to occasional, fun blogging for the time being. I’d like to think my lack of posting is because I am now spending all of my time being the World’s Best Mom like the t-shirt I felt certain I’d get for Mother’s Day would say. Instead that t-shirt never came and I am still stumbling through most days. I did get a t-shirt from my friend Justice that says “Doing My Best” which is actually a much more apt sentiment for my current life state.

Sams Dessert
What someone actually ‘doing their best’ at 4th of July blog worthy desserts looks like…courtesy of my brother-in-laws sweet mother

On the 3rd of July my best looked like me making TWO desserts for the 4th as Robert watched WWF (WWE?) wrestling on the couch. If you are like me and are now thinking, wait a second…WWF wrestling is still a thing? The answer is yes, yes it is. Now before you start questioning my taste in men, I’ve never known Robert to watch pro wrestling before. I say I’ve never known him to because I’m pretty sure everyone went through a pro wrestling phase at some point, no? I recall it being sometime around late elementary/early middle school that pro wrestling was ‘cool’. I don’t think I ever actually watched any wrestling matches, but at that point I was still desperate to be cool like everyone else so I sure acted like I did and had a ‘favorite’ wrestler. I couldn’t just choose The Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin like all the other girls though, I had to go for eccentricity. So I chose Ric Flair “The Nature Boy”, WOOO! That was his tagline, anyone remember that? Needless to say, desperate as I was, I was never really that cool.

So enough about my awkward middle school years, lets get back to those TWO desserts for the 4th of July. I really shouldn’t capitalize two because the first dessert was my Snicker Bar Salad which although delicious, isn’t really all that festive and is even perhaps better suited for Fall. Whoops.

Parade
Clearly too busy decorating for the 4th of July golf cart parade to be a serious blogger

Continue reading →

30th Birthday in the Big Apple: New York Part 1

~ atastytrip ~ Leave a comment

Now that it’s in writing I guess I am officially 30! I’ve said it out loud plenty over the last month but this must be the first time I’ve actually typed it out because it looks so old  odd!

Robert’s family always makes a big deal out of celebrating birthdays and I am lucky that he has passed that on and makes sure that I feel special and celebrated each year. I met Robert a few months shy of my 21st birthday. We hadn’t had the DTR (defining the relationship) talk before I left for Las Vegas with my girlfriends to celebrate finally being legal. Upon checking into our hotel I learned that Robert had surprised me with a day at the hotel spa the morning after I turned 21. It was such a thoughtful gift and I returned from that trip with an “official boyfriend”. It also kicked off a long line of very sweet and special birthdays (except for the one fluke year where he forgot to get me a card and we ate McDonalds for lunch…but we don’t talk about that 😉 and this year was no exception.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, dinner with friends is always nice and a party (while pregnant) didn’t sound too fun so we decided to take a trip. I hadn’t been to New York City in years and Robert hadn’t been since he was in middle school so we decided it would make for a perfect long weekend. In true crazy planner fashion I started our itinerary right away. There were LOTS of sights I wanted to see, but more so there were LOTS of places I wanted to eat (I mean what else is a pregnant girl supposed to look forward to on vacation?). If you are planning a trip to the city I highly recommend you start following a few NYC Food Instagram accounts but prepare for your mouth to water.

PSP 4

We flew out on Thursday and arrived in NYC around noon, just in time for lunch! Of everything I wanted to try, I was the most excited about trying soup dumplings or Xiao Long Bao. I tried a giant soup dumpling once when I was in China but couldn’t wait to try the cute little ones I’d seen all over instagram (and that aren’t available in any restraurants anywhere near where I live 😦

Pinch

We wet to Pinch Chinese on Prince Street, a menu I had scoped out well ahead of time and couldn’t wait to order one of everything from. Much to my dismay, they weren’t serving the snow crab over glass noodles for lunch, so we opted for pork soup dumplings, beef pan fried dumplings and Shrimp and Pork Wontons which come in the most delicious broth. EVERYTHING was delicious, highly recommend, A+++. Everything we didn’t order that I saw others around us eating looked delicious too. If we return to NYC anytime soon we will definitely be making another visit to Pinch, preferably at dinner so I can get my hands on those crab noodles.

Soup Dumpling 2
The cutest little soup dumpling you ever did see
Making dumplings
Loved Watching this guy handroll each dumpling!

After lunch we walked around Nolita (Soho? The boroughs confuse me) and browsed through a few shops before stopping at Milk Bar for dessert.

Continue reading →

Life Since Thailand & Leftover French Toast

~ atastytrip ~ Leave a comment

Goodness, A LOT has happened since I first started documenting our trip to Thailand. I went back to work, Robert and I both celebrated a birthday, we spent a fun weekend in Charleston with our Aunt and Uncle celebrating the wedding of a friend, I planned my next trip (Maine! More on that later) and oh yeah, we survived a HURRICANE! Per usual, life has been a little busy.

So lets sum it all up rather quickly shall we?

My birthday was fabulous! Robert treated me to a fancy dinner and built me my dream porch bed swing! I had a great celebration with his family and my sweet niece made me my favorite dessert…from scratch! She is an amazing baker and young lady!

To top it all off I got to host a birthday dinner for my dear friend Justice just a week after mine. We played power hour (so college) and she and Lindsay taught me how to use snap chat (still don’t get it) so it was pretty fabulous.

We then spent a wonderful weekend in Charleston with Robert’s aunt Vanessa and Uncle John, remember them from Bermuda? They were gracious enough to host us while we attended a local wedding and we had a great time! Vanessa and I have very similar culinary tastes so it’s always a treat to see what fun (and usually healthy) recipes she is serving!

vanessas-table
Look at this beautiful table!

That weekend it was a delicious shrimp stir-fry with forbidden black rice for dinner and blueberry quinoa for breakfast…a recipe I will definitely be replicating!

That brings me to Robert’s birthday and a much less impressive breakfast recipe. Robert LOVES french toast, and considering I am much more likely to be making blueberry quinoa type recipes for breakfast, he rarely gets it.

bday-sign

Continue reading →

Birthday(s) in Bermuda – Part 3

~ atastytrip ~ Leave a comment

Our final full day in Bermuda began with a big breakfast while we made plans to head to the beach!

Breakfast
                      Oatmeal forever ❤

Although we had visited the beach briefly on our day of scooter touring, we hadn’t really gotten a chance to relax in the pink sand or enjoy the cool waves. We decided to spend the day at Horseshoe Bay, one of Bermuda’s top rated and most beautiful beaches.

IMG_1771

Once we arrived, we discovered that the beach definitely lived up to it’s reputation and was thankfully not very crowded.

IMG_1772

The beach was very wide and peppered with wonderful rock formations that created quiet little coves to explore.

IMG_1779 IMG_1786

Robert and I walked up and down the beach, stopping for plenty of photo opp’s and to admire the “pink” sand.

IMG_1782 IMG_1795

The sand DOES have a slightly pink hue, thanks to tiny red organisms that grow under the coral reefs and get washed to shore.

IMG_1793

When we made our way back to our towels, the rest of our group was hanging in the waves!

IMG_1807

I of course had forgotten my swim shirt (bummer) and was nervous about getting too much sun on my back so Robert and I decided to climb some of the tall rocks for a great vantage point instead.

IMG_1809 IMG_1817

Continue reading →

Birthday(s) in Bermuda – Part 2

~ atastytrip ~ 1 Comment

Our second full day in Bermuda started with breakfast at our hotel followed by a ferry into town. Our hotel provided a complimentary ferry across the bay into Hamilton which was very convenient.

IMG_1600  IMG_1610

Once we made it into town we got our bearings and explored a few cute shops on the way to the Hog Penny Pub.

IMG_1614 IMG_1617

The Hog Penny held a special significance to my brother-in-law since it was where his parents first met many years ago. His father was in the military and his mother was on vacation. They met at the pub, fell in love and have refused to return to Bermuda since for fear that it wouldn’t live up to their wonderful memories. So romantic!

IMG_1627

Of course we all wanted to check it out after that story so we decided to stop in for lunch.

IMG_1625

I decided to try the Bermuda Fish Chowder. The chowder is considered the national dish of Bermuda so of course every restaurant on the island puts their own unique spin on it.  It’s a tomato based stew with large chunks of fish and veggies, typically seasoned with black rum and hot pepper sauce.

IMG_1626

It was delicious and my aunt who had tried the dish at lunch the previous day claimed that the Hog Penny version was much better.

IMG_1623  IMG_1624

After lunch we headed to the harbor to meet the captain of the pontoon boat we had chartered for the afternoon.

Continue reading →