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Weekend Shenanigans

All the kids at daycare this morning were whining when I dropped Zoe off. I made a comment about how it will probably be the same thing when I get to work. Real life, right? Gotta love the Mondays. But enough about that.

Friday, Laura and I decided to kick off the weekend right with a trip to Back 40’s new location here in Birmingham!!! Their home is in Gadsden, about an hour north of the city. Chris and I had visited up there a few years ago and thought it was a fun spot. So glad to have them here in Birmingham! The best thing? They are opened for lunch a few days each week AND they have two special brews you can only get at the Birmingham location. I tried one of them, the “Hike Out” Heffe, and it was so good! The best one at our table if I do say so myself. I decided on the chicken sausage and fries for food. Some of the BEST fries in Birmingham if you ask me! Skinny, crispy and not too greasy. Just perfection! We decided that we must try everything on the menu, and the place is both kid and dog friendly…so we will be back soon! Check out the space!

I had the floors cleaned and a magazine finished Saturday morning before Zoe got up. After we had breakfast, we headed up to Bargain Hunt in Pell City. We didn’t find anything, but we did stop at Sonic where I indulged in a pretzel twist and diet Cherry Limeade. We got back home and fed Zoe lunch. Chris left to go get a hair cut and run some errands and I tried to get Zoe down for a nap but failed miserably.

When Chris got home, we headed over to Laura’s to celebrate Sheffield’s 3rd Birthday party! I had my phone in my bag since it rained on and off and failed to take a single picture. Luckily Laura sent these to me.

Zoe had so much fun playing at the water table and stomping water on the slip and slide. Reminded Chris and I that we really need to move to a house with a better yard set up ASAP! While we own a decent hunk of land, it is all on an incline and it leaves no space for a pool or outdoor play sets. Zoe chowed down on three pieces of pizza while she was there and skipped over the cake. My kind of girl. Those two need to have another play date soon 🙂

On the way home, we stopped by Publix and Chris grabbed me some sushi. He dropped in on the floor when we got home and it spilled everywhere. He was all like, “I will go get a broom and clean this up. I am so sorry.” And I was all, “the hell you will I am eating this shit still.” And did. No shame. Then I followed it up with some rap snacks and apple sparkling sake.

Sunday morning, Zoe and I headed out to Target to do our grocery shopping and grabbed some Moe’s BBQ to bring home. She went down for her nap, and Chris and I caught up on Take Two and watched some more Blue Bloods. When Zoe woke up, we took her for a walk around the neighborhood and before we knew it, bath and bedtime rolled around. We had cheese tortellini for dinner and called it a night.

Can someone tell me why Zoe looks so big in her high chair now??? The other picture is Zoe chowing down in Target. They fed her ice cream and a slice of ham while we were walking around the store. She is a big fan of snacking while we shop. Obviously.

I have a lot on my to do list this week, and I hope to buckle down and get it all accomplished. Laura and I have a lunch date on the books today to try out a new restaurant in Homewood that opened last week. It is a healthy spot, so we can start the week out right! I told Amy I was going to do a mini reset and I cant mess up the first day! (Technically yesterday was the first day, but I cant seem to start anything new on a Sunday.) Though, I am actually using this mini-reset to make a change. More on that later this week! Linking up with Biana. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

July 16, 2018 by Nadine

Birmingham

Southern Women’s Show and Hot Fire Fighters Fighting Cancer

Last night, Laura and I were invited to a sneak peak of the Southern’s Women Show. It was such a fun night walking around and getting to see the vendors set up for the weekend. We got to have a private cooking demonstration with Bob Syke’s BBQ and tasted the Ham & Swiss Sliders. They even gave us all the recipe, a swag cup and a bottle of their BBQ sauce!!!

We then headed over to meet the beef jerky man who kindly let us sample a few flavors of his delicious jerky. It was so good!!!

Several vendors are there giving away prizes and doing demonstrations. The Red Cross is even having a blood drive!

If you test drive a car, you can take home a $10 Starbucks or Amazon gift card. Um, yes please!!! And America’s First will be giving away $20 every 20 minutes so be sure to stop by their booth.

And ladies, let’s not forget the Firefighter Fashion Show!!! Laura and I got to go last year and woooo! Hot, local fireman strutting their stuff in the newest fall fashions all the while collecting money for the American Cancer Society. This year they are even selling calenders!!! We got to meet with a few of the guys who will be in the show and they were showing us the calender and well. I mean…for charity, right!?!?! If you can’t make it to the show you can order one online here! These are the guys who will be featured…

picture from their Facebook page

We saw so many boutiques setting up shop. There are a million cute clothing options and tons of cute game day wear to be had!!!

There is even a clothing truck! (sort of like a food truck)

I am adding a trip to Unclaimed Baggage to my Alabama bucket list after hearing them talk about all the cool things that are in their HUGE store. These ladies were so sweet and funny and they even have girl trip packages giving you the VIP treatment if you call ahead and schedule a trip for you and your girlfriends. How awesome is that? They are giving away a Tory Burch purse, Tory Burch sunglasses and several other items too!

And who doesn’t like swag???

September 29, 2016 by Nadine

Birmingham, foodie, weekend shenanigans

Tropicaleo Weekend Shenanigans

The first weekend of August was here and gone, I hope it treated you well! The heat doesn’t seem to want to let up here anytime soon, so I stayed in most of the weekend. I do have lots of food porn for you today so get ready!

Let’s start it out with lunch Friday at Tazikis. I love Tazikis!!! This is the first time I have ordered the Friday special and I can promise you it won’t be the last. We also had some hummus because when in ~~Rome~~ a Greek restaurant, that is what you do!

Saturday morning we got the house cleaned and I vacuumed and cleaned the inside of my car, then we were off to Tropicaleo for our tasting!!! I was so excited for this event because I love trying new restaurants and this is a completely new concept here in Birmingham.

Currently, Topicaleo’s building is being finished so they are having a daily Popup at Crestwood Tavern in Avondale. Their permanent location will be in the Family Dollar strip mall located next to Cahaba Brewery for those of you who are local.

This place, where do I even begin??? It is a fast casual type atmosphere where you will order your food at the register and someone brings it out to you. However, the quality of the food is much more sit down restaurant. They source as much as they can organically and locally. Their local collaborations include Urban Food Project (Rev Birmingham), Continental Bakery, D’Agostino Sausage Empire, Wholesome Soda and Wabi Tea. In order to stay gluten free and vegan, there is no flour in their kitchen to contaminate. They very much cater to everyone’s diets!! Even Chris, who is on Ketos very low carb, they made a special plate just for him and the presentation was spectacular!

Their food is Puerto Rican and Caribbean, and you definitely get the island feel with the use of plantains in many dishes. When they move to their permanent location, they will have a liquor license and their drinks sound amazing!!! Can’t wait to try them out!

Let’s get to the food shall we?

They brought out some bread and all of their sauces that they make in house so we can taste. I could have simply feasted on this alone it was SO GOOD!

I ordered the Orange Lime Soda from local Wholesome Soda and it was delicious and refreshing! I cant wait to try the rest of the flavors.

For my main meal, I had the El Cubano. Hands down the BEST cuban sandwich I have ever had. The bread was utter perfection and the combination of the meats, cheese, mustard, pickles and their special mayoketchup? Just yes!

“A” ordered their special of the day which was a sweet plantain filled with eggplant. You guys!!! OMG! I hope this is on special next time I go because she let me try a bite and I about died at how amazing it truly was!

Here is the dish they prepared especially for Chris! It is their La Tripleta sandwich plated with top round steak, broiled pork, chicken, cheese, tomato, lettuce and De La Casea Sauce.

“J” ordered the Mogongo Relleno with Local Artisan Chorizo. The chorizo is served over mashed plantains which to my surprise had sort of a corn bread taste/texture. Very savory!

And to end things, we had a Nutella cheesecake!!! They have a guava one that sounded amazing as well, but we had sampled the guava sauce with our bread and wanted to try everything we could. Delicious!!!

The owners are a husband and wife team and they were so sweet. They spent a lot of time telling us about their restaurant and their plans for their permanent location. They described to us all the ingredients they used in their foods and the different tastes and feels they were trying to accomplish. Well done, I would say! They even brought out their chef to introduce to us. I was very impressed with them and I plan to visit many times to support this amazing business!

This is their menu for the daily pop up. They will have even more delicious options once they are operating in their own space!

After we ate and parted ways, I stopped by Bargain Hunt to check out their baby section. Of course. It will probably be my new addiction for the next few months to see what kind of deals I can score!

I got everything in that picture for $13. Pretty good, I say!! I cant wait to craft something with those chalkie markers!! And how cute is my little girl going to look in her hooded duckie towel straight after a bath???

Saturday night we went to Chris’s parents house for awhile and his dad made us ribs. And Sunday was a day of grocery shopping, meal prepping, and watching Weeds and One Tree Hill. I made my Curried Cranberry Couscous salad for lunches! Yum!!!

And of course, what is a weekend without some Mac?

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!!! I am linking up with Biana.

August 8, 2016 by Nadine

Birmingham, foodie

Eat Drink Birmingham

I mentioned last week that I had attended the Eat Drink Birmingham event and had a great time! The event deserves it’s own post because there was too much deliciousness not to share!

The focus of the event was to educate the attendees about how great beer pairs with food. There are so many different craft brews out there of all flavors and notes and when paired with certain food tastes, it can heighten your experience! You all know that I am more of a beer person than a wine person, so this event was so great for me!!!

While there were a TON of great pairings at Eat Drink Birmingham, I am going to share with you my favorites! As there were so many, and it became very crowded and I didn’t get to take a picture of everything I tried.

My top favorite pairing was Silvertron Cafe’s White Chocolate Bread Pudding with Raspberry Coulis and Avondale Brewing CO’s Spring Street Saison!!!

The spicy pepper taste of the Saison really complimented the sweet and tart flavorings from the bread pudding and raspberry. I may have tried this twice. I couldn’t help myself!

My favorite plate was hands down Bellini’s Filet Fricasse!!

This dish had a delicious, tender filet over roasted corn, gorgonzola, and fingerling potatoes with balsamic glaze. It was truly amazing and I cleaned my plate for sure!! It was paired with Fairhope Brewing’s Causeway IPA which I am sure was a delight for those of you who like IPA’s…I do not.

The best smell in the room came from Bottle and Bone’s honey bacon!!! It hit your nose the second you walked in the space and it was the first thing I hit up!

This bacon was paired with Straight to Ale’s Brother Joseph Double. The notes of toffee, chocolate, raisins and plums from the beer really mixed with the salty taste of the honey bacon! Truffles the boar was there, and I felt a little guilty grabbing the bacon but they assured me this wasn’t Truffles! haha 😉

I tried parnsips for the first time here and it surely will not be my last! dg had their Parsnip Bisque with Honey Crisp Apple chips that was just delightful!! It was served up with Rocket Republic’s Terrestri-Ale Triple that just heightened the sweet and savory notes of this soup!

For those who were the DD’s, Red Diamond was there with their amazing tea! I tried the Strawberry Peach tea for the first time and WOW!! I am going to be looking for this in the stores around here because I just have to have more!

I am so lucky that I was able to attend this event! Birmingham has really become a true foodie city. We are blessed with some amazing restaurants and chefs that give us a great dining experience! A huge thanks to the Alabama Brewer’s Guild and the Birmingham Originals for such a fantastic event! To get more information and see all of the pairings, you can visit the Eat Drink Birmingham page. I can’t wait for next year!

March 29, 2015 by Nadine

Birmingham, weekend shenanigans

Weekend Shenanigans – The One I Pretend I am 22

Oh hey there Monday, be kind to me. It has been a busy weekend of me pretending I am 22 instead of 31!

Friday, I had lunch at Ocarr’s with my usual group. I LOVE their fruit and chicken salad there. You get such a great variety of fresh yummy fruits that you wouldn’t get anywhere else.

Friday evening, Chris and I hit up a few thrift stores around town and scored some great games. We then made a horrible decision to stop at Zaxby’s on the way home for lack of options off our exit. It was delicious…but so so bad. When we were done eating, we both said…

Saturday was an exciting day! I spent about two hours in the morning cataloging our game collection. This has been a huge undertaking and I only have all of our Sega collection to finish now. We then got ready and headed downtown to meet up with our friend Stephen who is in town from Vegas! We met up with him at World of Beer, grabbed a drink and then headed to Eat Drink Birmingham in Homewood. We sampled delicious food and beer pairings for about two hours and then headed back to our house for awhile to relax.

Stephen hadn’t been to Birmingham since we moved here so he wanted to check it out and start getting in to the zone for the evening. What does a world famous DJ do when he comes to our house? Plays video games, of course!!!

He was loving all of our old school games downstairs and we also played Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U. After our gaming session, we headed back down town. We grabbed burgers at Jack Brown’s and then Stephen went to go get ready at his hotel while Chris and I waited at World of Beer (for the second time of the day) for him to be done.

We then headed to Skky Nightclub for the evening where Stephen performed. He killed it, as usual! It was so great getting to spend time with him. It was pretty cool because we got the VIP area up on stage with these white leather couches. And get this….I stayed up until 4 am!!! The girl who is usually asleep by 10 pm most evenings was wide awake and jamming until 4 am.

Annnnnnnd then I proceeded to feel like death all day Sunday. Not from drinking, as I only had 4 beers the entire day…but because I am far too old to be dancing in 4 inch heels until the weeee morning hours. My knees. Oh my knees!!!

Sunday we hung around the house in the morning waiting for death. Since death did not come, we grabbed some Mexican on a patio for lunch since it was a gorgeous day. We headed to Chris’s parents house for a little while to check out his dad’s new toy and then did our grocery shopping like the adults we are.

Now excuse me while I try to survive the rest of the day. My run this morning was really hard but I pushed through and now my body is screaming at me! Crazy how after you hit 30, your body rebels against you! Am I right?! Hope everyone has a fabulous week!

March 16, 2015 by Nadine

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