Traverse City

Tomorrow Joe and I will be headed up to Traverse City to celebrate the Fourth of July and the National Cherry Festival with some of our friends. Traverse City is one of my favorite places to visit and this new "Pure Michigan" video captures the essence of the area perfectly. Happy Fourth of July!

ABC Kitchen

Last week several co-workers and I had dinner at ABC Kitchen. ABC Kitchen is the new restaurant from powerhouse chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and recently won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant. There isn’t much I can say about how incredible ABC Kitchen is that hasn’t already been said by other bloggers and food writers. I had been looking forward to dining there for months and the meal surpassed every expectation I had.
From the outside, ABC Kitchen is easy to pass by when you’re walking along 18th street near Union Square. Once inside though you’re transported into a completely different atmosphere that is rustic yet sophisticated. The place screams “shabby-chic” from the old wooden beams in the ceiling to the mismatched flowered china. If Anthropolgie were to decorate a restaurant, ABC Kitchen would be the result.

We had a group of ten people which allowed us to enjoy a family style tasting menu. We shared 7 dishes, plus a side and three desserts. My favorites were a tie between the sugar snap pea salad and the roast carrot and avocado salad. We then each had our own entrée. I chose the organic fried chicken and absolutely loved the spiciness of the basil and hot butter sauce. It came with spinach that didn’t seem fried, but had a texture very similar to the fried spinach at Rasika in D.C. Everything was incredibly fresh and creative.

Although the menu changes almost daily due to the sourcing of local and fresh ingredients, below is the menu we enjoyed last week:

Shared Family Style Market Table Course:
· crab toast with lemon aioli
· still warm fresh mozzarella, olive oil, sea salt and black pepper
Shared Family Style Appetizers:
· sugar snap pea salad with parmesan dressing and herbs
· roast carrot and avocado salad, crunchy seeds, sour cream and citrus
· pretzel dusted calamari
· strawberries, goat cheese
· spinach and goat cheese with herbs pizza
Entrees (Choose 1):
· slowly cooked salmon with creamed favas and mint
· fried organic chicken, wild spinach, basil and hot sauce butter
· black sea bass with chilies and herbs, baby market potatoes and spinach
Shared side dishes:
· roasted asparagus
Shared Family style dessert
· chocolate cake with malted chocolate ganache and toasted marshmallow icing
· cookie plate with lemon drop, dark chocolate chip cookie, chocolate chip pecan bar and oatmeal cherry
· warm doughnuts with vanilla cream and bacon fudge sauce

Weekend Recap

I knew last weekend would be a good one when my plane from LGA landed only 5 minutes behind schedule on Thursday night. Being that close to on time is a very rare occurrence.

I spent all day Friday breaking in our oven by making granola, cupcakes, a three layer cake, and cookies. I hadn't made anything other than granola since we moved in so it was nice to get back into the swing of baking. The layer cake was for our friends' birthdays which we celebrated on Saturday night. I was really pleased with how the cake turned out (pictured below) so I'll post the recipe later this week.

Friday night we met friends for happy hour at Vinology (club soda for me and wine for everyone else) and then moved onto one of Ann Arbor's newest restaurants, The Raven's Club for dinner. The Raven's Club invokes the feeling of a speakeasy/1920s social club and has a beautiful bar area. It's easy to tell that the owners put a lot of thought and effort into the decor. The menu utilizes recipes from the early 20th century and cocktails from the Prohibition era. Joe had a bourbon cocktail and lamb/pork belly cabbage rolls with an arrabiata sauce. His was so good that I ate almost half of it. I ordered shrimp and grits because I was curious to see how they would put a spin on this lowcountry classic. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. It didn't invoke any of the traditional shrimp and grits flavors and neither the grits nor the okra were cooked to a proper texture. Overall though, we really liked the Raven's Club and are anxious to go back and try more of their menu items.

Saturday morning we made our usual farmers' market trip and then spent the rest of the day doing chores around the house (cleaning the gutters - poor Joe!). This week's market highlight was the organic strawberries from Tantre Farm. In the evening we went to Zukey Lake Tavern with eight other friends for the birthday celebration I mentioned above. For anyone who lives in the Ann Arbor area, I highly recommend making the 25 minute drive out to Pinckney and enjoying some of Zukey Lake Tavern's pizza and beer on the rooftop deck. It's a perfect way to spend a summer night with friends.

On Sunday my friend Katie came over and brought Baby M some adorable new outfits. We then went to lunch at Frita Batidos, a cuban-inspired restaurant by Eve Aronoff. I've been dying to try Frita Batidos since it opened a few months ago. I absolutely loved the chorizo frita and the orange and nutmeg scented churros. The twice-fried plantains were too greasy, but did have a good garlic flavor.

We wrapped up the weekend with a yummy, belated Father's day dinner at my parents house followed by packing for me. It's only Tuesday, but I'm already looking forward to next weekend!

Outer Banks Trip Recap

Last week Joe and I spent some time in the Outer Banks with some of his family and our friend Erin. Mostly we just laid on the beach, went for walks, and ate lots of seafood. Joe, his dad, and uncle went on a couple of fishing expeditions and brought back enough tuna and mahi mahi to feed an army. The town where rented a house, Rodanthe, was pretty quiet, but one food highlight was the amazing apple uglies (aka apple fritters) that we enjoyed from Orange Blossom Bakery. They were crisp on the edges, soft on the middle, and had a thick glaze. Joe's grandfather used to love going to Orange Blossom Bakery so we kept up the tradition on this trip.

We drove to and from the Outer Banks and it was a loooong 14 hours each way. On our way home we stopped for a BBQ lunch at Pierce's Pitt BBQ in Williamsburg, VA. For anyone who likes collard greens, I'd recommend a stop at Pierce's. I know the point of BBQ is the meat and sauce, but for me the highlight is always the sides and the collard greens were an outstanding side.

The best part of driving was that we got to visit a new town, Lexington, VA, and check two more schools, VMI and William & Lee, off our list (sidenote: someday soon I'll have to blog about our mission to visit as many college campuses as we can). Lexington is an adorable town full of Civil War history and natural beauty.

For dinner we went to a cozy little restaurant called Brix. Brix offers small plates of seasonable, sustainable, locally grown food. Everything we tried was delicious from the mustard green and herb salad that was grown in the owner's mother's garden to the potato and cabbage "trichats" with white truffle oil. Our hands down favorite dish was the posole, made with hominy and locally raised pork. I commented to Joe that it was the best thing I'd eaten since our dinner at Husk and he agreed. Although I wasn't able to enjoy any of it, Brix did have an extensive list of wines by the glass, which on a non-pregnant occasion I would have really appreciated. After dinner we headed to a little ice cream shop for black raspberry and mint oreo ice cream.

Overall, I'd say we loved our visit to Lexington!

NYC Bucket List

Today is one of those days where I'm less than thrilled with my transient lifestyle. Maybe I'm getting old, or maybe it's because I've now been out of town almost every week for a year straight. I was in St. Louis from June 2010 until January 2011 and then immediately started traveling to NYC from February 2011 until now. I think I've hit a wall and now all I want to do is be at home during the week and stop missing out on weeknight activities. I felt this way in early 2007 when I was working in Chicago, living in Connecticut, and visiting Joe every weekend in D.C. At the time my friend Erin called my a "gypsy" since I couldn't even manage to be in one place long enough to schedule doctor or dentist appts. As soon as I stopped traveling and started living and working in D.C. I was immediately restless and wanted to be traveling again. The grass is always greener on the other side...

So to keep myself motivated there are a few things I want to make sure I experience before I stop traveling to NYC. There are probably hundreds of restaurants I'd like to try and places I'd like to visit, but to keep things manageable, here's a short list:

• dinner at ABC Kitchen - a few of my coworkers and I have reservations for tomorrow night so this will definitely be accomplished


• walk through Central Park - I've walked through Central Park many, many times on previous NYC vacations, but have yet to visit this summer


• visit to Bouchon Bakery - I'm a sucker for French desserts, especially macaroons, and I've heard that Bouchon has some of the best macaroons in the city


• dinner at Social Eatz - while Angelo wasn't my favorite Top Chef contestant, I've heard great things about his new sandwich place and am interested in trying it


• attend another Broadway or off-Broadway show - my friend and I saw Wicked in April, but I'd like to try and see one more show before leaving


• attend another show at the Comedy Cellar - my favorite comedy club - another visit from my dad will ensure this gets checked off the list

Any other suggestions of places I should try to eat at or things I should try to experience before leaving NYC?

Can you Meet Me Halfway

Yesterday marked the halfway point of this pregnancy! 20 weeks down, 20 weeks (approximately) to go! These 20 weeks have gone by pretty quickly and I hope the next 20 do as well since I'm really looking forward to getting back to intense workouts, sushi eating, and coffee drinking. Joe and I are spending week 20 in the Outer Banks sitting in the sun, walking along the beach, eating seafood caught hours before and hanging out with these guys.

Charleston Trip Recap

So even though I’m about two weeks late, I want to post a little recap of the anniversary trip that Joe and I took to Charleston. From the history, to the food, to the shopping, it’s by far my favorite destination. This trip might have been our best one yet because it was by far the most relaxing. On previous trips we’ve tried to pack in as much as we can because there is so much to see, do, and eat. Leading up to the wedding we also had to try and cram in as many vendor appointments and tastings as possible. This time we enjoyed tons of delicious food and spent a lot of time just walking around, but some of the highlights of this trip were:

King of Pops – since Charleston was hot, hot, hot we enjoyed several gourmet popsicles from King of Pops. We tried the coconut-lemongrass, grapefruit-mint, chocolate-banana, and pineapple-habanero. All of them were fantastic and very unique. My favorite was the pineapple-habanero since it was refreshing with a little kick at the end when you bit into a piece of habanero. A close second was the chocolate-banana . King of Pops is in Alanta, Athens, Asheville, and Charleston and they tweet each day to let people know where their cart is parked.

Husk – Joe and I have been wanting to eat dinner at Husk since we first read about Sean Brock’s concept for a restaurant that uses only Southern-sourced ingredients. After reading countless rave reviews about Husk, we had high expectations and it didn’t disappoint. In fact, I’d say our dinner was one of the top 5 meals we’ve ever had together (with other top meals being our engagement dinner at CityZen in D.C., our meal at FIG in Charleston, and a couple of our meals at McCrady’s). We went to the bar first for drinks and bar snacks. Joe was in bourbon heaven since they have an incredibly extensive bourbon list. He tried a new bourbon, a Southern beer, and was then given a free sample of Pritchard’s rum, which is a rum aged in bourbon barrels. We shared the Giddy Goat Pimento Cheese appetizer and made a pact to start making our own pimento cheese at home because it was so delicious and inspiring. We then moved over to the main restaurant for dinner. Everything about dinner was fantastic, but the highlight of the meal might have been Joe’s cornmeal crusted catfish entrée. It was served with summer squash, zucchini, and tomato broth and as he put it was the “perfect Southern bite”. I also give Husk rave reviews for their pecan pie. I generally consider my pecan pie to be the best I’ve ever had, but Husk’s matched mine in that the inside texture was perfectly smooth without the slightest hint of graininess from the sugar.

McCrady’s – as in past visits and during our wedding, the food and service at McCrady’s was spot on. We went early and enjoyed some of McCrady’s bar snacks, drinks, and bar ambiance. The deviled eggs were the highlight of the bar menu. We then moved to the dining room for dinner and once again Joe ordered slightly better than I did. His appetizer of butter poached octopus with squid ink potato puree had the perfect texture and brininess. I started with a chilled English pea soup with smoked trout and yogurt that tasted like it has just come out of the garden (which it had since Sean Brock has his own farm a few miles outside of Charleston). For dessert we shared a strawberry rhubarb clafoutis. Clafoutis is one of my favorite desserts and I thought this one was perfectly executed.

Shopping – Joe and I tend to do a lot of shopping each time we’re in Charleston since some of our favorite clothing stores are there. This time Joe got some new clothes at M. Dumas and Sons, where we had a lengthy conversation with the sales clerk about what a quality brand Southern Tide is. Another store we found that we had previously never been to was the Heirloom Book Company. Although our suitcases were too full to purchase anything on this trip, we will definitely be going back. The Heirloom Book Company specializes in cookbooks. They had everything from Grant Achatz’ tome Alinea to Martha Hall Foose’s “Screen Doors and Sweet Tea”.

Baked – I think we made 4 visits to Baked during our 4 day stay. From iced teas and coffees to delicious baked goods, a visit to Baked is a must on any Charleston trip.

Kayaking – our hotel concierge suggested we go kayaking in Shem’s Creek since it’s something we hadn’t done on previous Charleston visits. Joe and I are big fans of kayaking so we headed over to Mt. Pleasant and rented kayaks from Coastal Expeditions for Sunday afternoon. We spent two hours going up and down the creek and out into the harbor. We saw several dolphins and tons of birds and fish. It was nice to see an alternate view of Charleston and Arthur Ravenel bridge.

Clothes for Mama and Baby

I have had the hardest time figuring out what to wear now that I have a baby on the way. I am very particular when it comes to clothing and normally really enjoy putting together outfits. However, as my clothing options that fit have become more limited I have started to dread getting dressed in the mornings, especially for work. My biggest issues with the usual maternity clothing stores are that all of the clothes look so cheap! I really wish Lilly Pulitzer and Kate Spade would start maternity lines, but until then, there are only two things saving me from starting to wear yoga pants to work 1) I work in NYC which has infinitely more shopping options than I have in Michigan and 2) I’ve discovered some great online companies (mostly British) that seem to understand that some pregnant women don’t want to wear cheap looking clothes for 9 months.

For future reference for myself and for anyone else who might be looking for more high-quality maternity clothing options, here are my current favorites:

Boden

Isabella Oliver

AG Jeans from A Pea in the Pod

Rosie Pope

While shopping for my clothes has been less than fun, shopping for baby clothes is the opposite. Now that we know baby M is a BOY (he was very cooperative for that part of the ultrasound so there's no doubt of his gender), I've started making purchases for him instead of just browsing. Yesterday I ordered two outfits from Zulily. For anyone not familiar with Zulily, it's sort of like Rue La La or Gilt Groupe for baby and kids stuff. They have wonderful deals on great brands. I ordered two items from the Kate Quinn Organics line. One is an infant footie outfit and the other is a track suit (both pictured below). I'm very excited for the UPS man to deliver these!