Post 62 | Charleston Part 2 | What We Did

“Travel is like love, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed." 
— Pico Iyer

Though our favorite way to see a city is on bike, we've learned the "hard" way that not all cities are conducive to casual bikers. Charleston was not one of those cities! Yay! So what did we do in Charleston? Basically ate and biked. Most of these pictures were taken on my phone while I shot with one hand and steered the handle bars with the other. I realized very quickly I was going to want to stop every 50 feet to document.

We went up and down King Street, found a few locations from The Notebook (namely The American theater), rolled through Battery Park, past Rainbow Row and weaved in and out of any neighborhood street that looked pretty! The compounded charm as we saw more and more, though it was all similar, was so endearing. A mail carrier on foot delivered letters (Not bills or marketing flyers, I'm almost sure. Handwritten letters.) to white fenced homes. "Disney-like" (I know Charleston came first ;) ) trim and color and happiness in the architecture. Spanish Moss and palm and magnolia trees. Cobblestone roads, cedar doors, salt water in the air, and horse drawn carriages. What a lovely little city, through and through!

Belmond Charleston Place

We stayed in a suite at Belmond Charleston Place. It was truly the lap of luxury... we felt so spoiled! Charleston is one of the few US cities I have a hard time finding true "deals" for when it comes to hotels. It's always on the pricier side to really stay downtown. I'm a die-hard Priceline lover and exclusively use it for hotel booking (this isn't sponsored, by the way. This obsession was passed down from my mom to me! haha). If you don't use Priceline there is so much to learn! And there is a bit of a system to it... but we've saved thousands of dollars over the years. We rarely pay more than $70 for a 3+ star hotel... our best ever was $27 a night ;) We decided to splurge a little bit on this first-time childless anniversary trip. It was about $200 a night... which is more than we paid on our honeymoon! But check this out:

This is the Belmond website's total for August 23-25 for the suite we stayed in (a WHOPPING $1477.26):

And here's a screenshot of our receipt with Priceline for this trip. Just over $400!:

Talk about a thrill! Ha! And, man, the suite did not disappoint. We loved the light, the luxe, the colors, the views, the rooftop. It was marvelous and so special.

Coming Next: Part Three | What We Did Outside The Downtown

Post 61 | Charleston Part 1 | What We Ate

Before this trip I had only been to Charleston once, when I was about 14 years old. We took a roadtrip as a family which became one of my favorite childhood memories. Of all the new places we saw on the east and south coasts, Charleston stole my heart. Our hotel was across the street from the garages where the horses and carriages are kept, so all day we'd watch men in straw hats and white button-ups lead horses and buggies in and out. We walked through the brick and cobblestone roads, wandered the large street market, and happened upon Battery Park at sunset. I loved it then, and ever since I've known Caleb have been trying to go back with him!

It's turned into a little joke because we have had flights booked/trips planned FOUR times and somehow something has always come up! So when we booked flights for an anniversary trip sans kids (our first time ever!) I wanted to make sure we made the most of it. The suspense and anticipation had been building for so long!

It's not secret that food is more than just a need for us... it's a memory, it's an experience, and it's a true joy! I spent lots of nursing sessions and stretches of highway as we traveled making lists and reading reviews about where to eat. And, so, I share with you now...  What We Ate In Charleston!

R Kitchen

"R Kitchen" is, as their website says, "a kitchen, not a restaurant." There are three window slots for dinner almost every night: 6:00 pm, 7:30 pm, and 9:00 pm. You make reservations by calling (but really texting) and you MUST have a reservation. Every night there is a different chef, who makes a custom menu based on what is available in the kitchen and the preferences of the guests. (So make sure you let them know what you like/don't like/are allergic to/etc when you make a reservation. They will literally tailor dishes to your needs and wants!)

The name "R Kitchen" is a play on ideas: R for Ross, the owner, and R for "our kitchen" as a concept. The building it is in is so simple and unmemorable you'd almost miss it. More like a tiny shed or garage. Inside is a commercial kitchen with a butcher block bar and a couple of tall "cocktail tables" with bar stools. We sat at the bar and watched our chef cook every single dish and he served it to us right off the stove with steam still rising and bubbles still bubbling. We agree this was our favorite meal of our lives! The "best" part? It's $30 flat rate per person (plus tip and wine, if you want it!). We thought this was such a reasonable price for such a special meal!

• The first dish was a duck confit gordita topped with pico. This was basically like the best pork taco you could fathom. I think it was my favorite part... except that every dish was better and better. 
• The second was a simple spinach, apple, and cashew salad with a dressing of only sugar, oil, and white vinegar. I've made it again (though mine wasn't as good) because it was truly killer.
• Dish Number Three was an piece of almond-stuffed pork covered in an avocado-mango sauce over a zucchini-potato-corn hash. Good lord, right?
• The next plate was prime rib with a sweet-and-spicy caper sauce of arugula. Once cutting it all up it was basically the best steak salad I've ever had. I could have licked the plate.
• And the last-but-not-least: dessert! A piping hot corn fritter (basically the perfect marriage of a funnel cake and corn dog batter) topped with cold blackberry-mango whipped cream. This will be in heaven.

Hominy Grill

We went almost exclusively for Caleb to try the Charleston Nasty Biscuit... a piece of fried chicken and jalepeno cheese sharing a made-from-scratch biscuit drowned in sausage gravy. WELL THEN. I got fruit and eggs because I'm not the biggest "breakfast food" person and wanted to hold space for other meals later in the day! Ps. *Someone* drank their mimosa a little too quickly... ;)

Wise Buck

• This was probably our least favorite place we ate, but if we lived in the area we would definitely drop in once or twice in the warm seasons. We came in-between lunch and dinner hours so it wasn't busy at all, but the location and atmosphere would be so perfect for a summer night! We biked past it once it was dark and was hopping!
• We got the potato, tomato, and cauliflower salads, brisket and ribs, and street-style corn. Nothing was bad but nothing was memorable... We think it looked more beautiful than it tasted! The meat was probably our favorite part, though!

Xiao Bao Biscuit

• Whoa mama, is this place a food experience or what! From personal reccomendations to everything I was finding online, people said Xiao Bao Biscuit was a "must." Asian Soul Food, here we came! And... everyone was right! 
• This is a random start, but their rice is perfect. Absolutely perfect. The standard has been set for me!
• Based on reviews online, I ordered the "SOM TUM" (from their menu: "Kickass spicy green papaya salad with local veggies.") It was quite spicy but I loved it. Cool, crisp, refreshing, and full of flavor.
• Then, also based on "what everybody said" I ordered the "OKONOMIYAKI." It's a cabbage pancake with pork candy on top. Which sounds and looks so weird but if you like roasted brussels sprouts/broccoli/asparagus and Thai food like pad thai, you'd like this. It's memorable and a unique and better with every bite. I will 100% go back here next time we're in Charleston!

Peace Pie

• Peace Pie is one of our favorites in Cape May, so when we saw a store in Charleston we had to stop! These little guys are cookie outside, with ice cream and pie-filling inside. 
• Our favorite flavor is Caramel Coffee Toffee. No other description needed. 
• Pro Tip: wait about five minutes after buying one to start eating... it helps to let it melt and soften a little bit since it's so big!

Monza

• Photo Credit: Monza's Twitter / I ate mine so fast I didn't take a picture. 
• Monza was fantastic! A really great, solid, delicious wood fire pizza. I feel like we're a little spoiled with pizza places on the east coast, so I don't know if I'd "waste" a meal in Charleston here again... but not because it wasn't amazing. Just because we can get insane pizza so often "back home." But if you're in Charleston and want a good pizza, go here!

Coming Next: Part Two | What We Saw

Post 60 | Freezer Meals

“[Original, in French:] La bonne cuisine est la base du véritable bonheur.
[Translated in English: Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.]”
― Auguste Escoffier

(My dear little Bottomless Pit who starts the day accessorized and clean, and is a ragamuffin by lunch time... and shrieks and claps at the smell of food, acting all dramatic by gnawing her arm if I don't present a meal to her fast enough. Can't get enough of this one.)

Over the years I've eyed and occasionally tried some simple meal-planning (especially freezer meal prep)... but I always get overwhelmed with the blog posts detailing "35 meals for $116 in Four Hours!" I get past the grocery list diagram and need a break. I was in a very "Work With What You Have" household so I can always make something out of anything... but there has always been an interest to figure out a "system" that worked for me that did save money, make life easier, and free up time.

Given that we travel so much, and, let's be honest, I've been sick-pregnant so much, I haven't had a lot of time to indulge myself in this little challenge. But the combination of New Years, a new (spacious, bright, happy!) kitchen in our current AirBNB, and the couple of months to settle in, I was motivated to move.

Inspired by the Carrabba's/Maggiano's style of "Two For One Pasta" (one to eat now for dinner, and another boxed up to take home for "the price of one) I simply made a meal at dinner time... and froze half of it! So at the end of the week, my whole freezer was filled with a week's worth of meals. My thought was that if I could do this system on weeks I know I have the time, I'll always have a meal available when I just have to "throw something on."

For grocery shopping I just went through the recipes I wanted to make, added an item to the list, if I saw a repeat item I noted the quantity I would need (ie: canned tomato sauce was in two recipes, shredded cheese was in three, etc). I ended up buying eight chicken breasts, three pounds of ground beef, and potatoes as the base for the meals. And I went from there!

This worked so nicely because it truly wasn't ever any more work, and there was no "extra time" set aside to do it. If you're browning ground beef, you're browning ground beef. Doesn't matter if you're cooking half a pound or two pounds. It's the same process/mess/time. I stored the extra meat cooked in Ziploc bags in the fridge until I needed to use them for their next recipe.

It was so fun! And I'm excited to do round two next week and add more to the stock!

Shredded Chicken

• Pack of eight chicken breasts (could cook by boiling, grilling, baking, or in the crock-pot -- or even just use rotisserie chicken that's pre-cooked). 
• I shredded the chicken and set aside 1/3 for tortilla soup, 1/3 for me to throw into salads, and 1/3 for teriyaki chicken bowls. 
• Tortilla Soup Recipe (roughly, I always mix and match and add. But this is close.)
• Teriyaki Bowl is basically chicken marinated in Trader Joe's Island Soyaki Sauce atop a mix of sesame oil, coconut oil, tons of lime juice, cilantro, green onions, red peppers, cucumbers, and carrots.

Ground Beef

• 2-3 pounds of ground beef, browned on the stove with onions and salt and pepper
• After cooking 1/2 was set aside for fajita enchiladas, and 1/2 used for ragù sauce.
• Fajita Enchilada Recipe (Again, roughly. Added fajita seasoning and beans to the meat, etc. But worked off this recipe. Caleb loved it! And said it was almost as good as his mom's enchiladas ;)
• Ragù sauce was diced tomatoes, can of marinara, basil, onions, ground beef, a few hot italian sausage links (also used in roast recipe below), garlic, garlic powder, and probably a dash of wine or parsley or something else I can't remember simmered for a few hours.

Potatoes

• Three bags of the "fingerling" style potatoes
• Half-or-so used for Broccoli Cheddar Soup, half-or-so used for chicken bake
• Seared Broccoli Soup Recipe (shocker: added my own twist! Mainly carrots and cream. But this recipe was a huge winner. Searing is the trick!) Served with Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits from a box 'cause mama don't bake from scratch unless it's a holiday. And all the stores are closed.
• Roast Chicken & Sausage Tray Recipe This fellow here is going to be a fall/winter staple for us. SO easy. SO fast. SO full of flavor (new flavor, at that. Have never quite tasted the sauce before and we all loved it.)

Breakfast

• This has nothing to do with freezer meals! Ha! But we're trying to really focus on taking those small steps and awarenesses to take care of ourselves. Our minds, bodies, and energy have the capacity to work so well and are equally able to struggle so hard. As we're learning from life lessons, we're trying keep in mind that everything is better when we're eating well, moving/sweating our bodies, and spending time outside every day. And it's easy for us to both skip breakfast... solution? Make breakfast darn good!

• Also, this is random, but gosh. Have you had Dave's Killer Bread yet?! If you haven't get some immediately. Organic, healthy, whole and so good. This bread is soft when it's supposed to be, but has a good crunch when toasted, and has flavor and it's the only bread I buy now. It's worth the extra money for stuff so great!

Any recipes that are favorites in your meal rotation or must-trys for our next week?! Do you have any time/money saving meal planning and freezing tricks? Do you eat half of the ragù out of the pot with a wooden spoon like I do?

;) 

Post 59 | Royal

"I'll follow you
When the stars go blue."
(Ryan Adams)

"They put a purple robe on Him." (Mark 15:17)

I know nobody knows the hour or day of His return. And this theory doesn't hold entirely, but if I were picking my Second Coming Lotto Numbers, I'd guess He'll arrive in those minutes where the world is purple. A time of day Pixar, and recently "La La Land" (here and here) seems to capture especially well. 

Most know about Golden Hour but Lavender-Magenta-Plum Six Minutes is almost more enchanting. I was answering a few emails while the kids played at my feet a some nights ago. I turned around to check on my two and... it was purple. For the most catching half of a second I wondered, felt like, "Maybe He's here...?" 

Allowing my mind to wander, I can envision the colored places twisting and coming to life. Like the Fairy Godmother Pumpkin Scene in Cinderella. All of a sudden the light on the wall and the rumpled blankets and the clouds and the rim on the tips of noses and the little squash in the corner unravel to become a royal robe. It flaps across the sky, making the sounds of a large kite catching wind or a crisp, heavy sheet being snapped across a bed being made by two. The remnants of gold sparkle up together and sit up on His head; the redeemed crown of thorns, made only of light. The whiteness where the sun blinds morphs into and then gallops in as His noble horse. He will ride across the sky, eventually touching the ground He's visited before. The dark shadows will slip away like balsamic vinegar spilled off a granite counter.  Eventually wiped away in full.

The mountains will finally shout their song, as they seem to be longing to do even today, and the water will applaud, and the stars, exploding like fireworks will zoom-hiss-BANG. As the trees begin to bend their knee, and lower into a bow; as that pesky, holy curtain rips open and we see what's been around us all the time... as we see Him and Heaven and angels and beyond; as rainbows stream down from the sky like ribbons celebrating "He promised!" there will be terror and relief and awe. 

"I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. His eyes are like blazing fire. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood. On His robe and on His thigh He has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS." (Revelation 19)

"You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart.

Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Yes, Virginia! In all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. Thank God! He lives, and He lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, He will continue to make glad the heart of [His] child." (Francis Pharcellus Church)

It's all so near. Evil is close, but He is closer. Our King in Purple.

"When the thunder strikes and the rain pours down,
I think of you in the purple gown."
(Manu Bansal)

Post 58 | Small Things

"Wherever you go, say,
'This little cause is not as strong as I should like it to be, but,
by the Grace of God, I will make it more influential.
At any rate, I will throw in my weight to strengthen the weak things of Zion
and certainly I will not despise the day of small things” 
C.H. Spurgeon

"There are some who despise 'the day of small things' in this way—they pass by the small things. If you have any spiritual feeling at all, do not despise it, but go to God with it and pray that the work which seems to be begun in you may be carried on until it is complete.

When you feel, sometimes, in the assemblies of God’s House, a softening influence stealing over your spirit, or when possibly, in the middle of your work—you do not know why—you suddenly feel very tender in heart—or, perhaps, walking down into the City early in the morning, before many people are astir, you feel a solemnity quite unusual to you—do not despise it! These little things may lead on to a blessed work." C.H. Spurgeon

Maybe it's standard New Year's wist, or the familiar feeling of approaching "two paths diverging in a wood" (or in our case, like, five paths) and I'm sorry I cannot travel all of them, or part of standard growing-older as an adult, or something else I'm not aware of... but I seem hyper aware right now. Some of that is good (every little thing just feels so special for some reason), and some is bad (how do you get your brain to turn off it's montage of everything you suck at or totally messed up on... in your whole life??), and all of it is needed, I presume, to keep growing in Him.

Just wanted to take some pictures of my dewdrops, my simple and sweet and tiring and quiet and oh-so-noisy-sometimes days... my small things. Tunnels made from mini cereal boxes and how my heart turned into a space heater when I saw it. Getting unpacked and organized in yet another new home (my favorite ever, I think). Bath time, meal time, getting dressed time.

"May you take care of these dewdrops of Grace. It there are but a few tiny drops and if they are but cared for and valued, the Lord will yet send you a copious shower of blessing. Do not despise anything that looks like Grace in your heart." C.H. Spurgeon

(Entire Sermon on Zechariah 4:10)