Month: July 2012

Chasin’ Tails, Arlington

 

For one of Deanna’s birthday festivities, we decided to try Chasin’ Tails Seafood and Bar. I’ve been to Hot N’ Juicy a couple of times, and I guess there’s enough interest around here for them to open up another crawfish joint.

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It’s really nice inside for a down and dirty seafood joint. But I guess there are some standards for the area! New Orleans street signs and fun pictures of crawfish and sayings decorated the walls. They even have a watering hole in the back with hand washing stations. They have a good selection of beers (I say this because they carry Abita beers, my favorite being purple haze). I ordered a pound of clams in garlic butter, and a pound of crawfish in original cajun medium spicy. Oh yeah, and their whole shebang wings. No plates, no silverware, just a bag of your food.

The Breakdown:
Please remember that my family is from Louisiana, and crawfish boils are our thing, so it is very hard for me to EVER find quality crawfish boiled at restaurants. The only other place I’ve had it (other than in Louisiana) in a restaurant here is Hot N Juicy so it will be hard not to compare. Anyways the clams were good. They serve short neck clams there. The wings were also good, if you like garlic. I don’t like it THAT much so I only had like two wings and tapped out.
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And now to the crawfish.

The seasoning was decent…in the bag. But in actuality, it failed. The crawfish itself, tasted like pondwater and there was nothing to save it. I understand that its not crawfish season, and when I commented on this with the waiter…he tried to play me for a fool. “We get it from a special place where they send em live all year”. No, that isn’t possible right? The mud has to be a certain temperature…crawfish season is March-June. Unless they have some indoor lab making this all happen. But the service was amazing and I like the atmosphere. I might go again for the clams and crablegs, but I wouldn’t say this is going to be my new favorite spot.

Beignets get the job done. A little too bready for my taste, but hey if we want Cafe du Monde beignets we should go there right?

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Either way it was a good time with good people. Happy Birthday D!

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France Fever: Macarons

Lets talk about macarons. You know those pretty little cookie sandwiches that are littered all over pinterest with their bright colors and so tasty look. I think there are more people that haven’t had them that has. Usually big cities, such as New York and DC will have bakeries will have somewhere for you to get a taste. But if you are looking elsewhere they aren’t THAT easy to find. I loved looking at pictures of them, and I had this big fantasy of what they would taste like. I have this weird way of being able to calculate the ingredients in recipes and pre-taste them in my mind. Sound peculiar, but usually works.

 

 

When I saw the recipe for them, and calculated it in my head. I couldn’t taste them. So I had to go find some. And I did. Let me tell you though. My first time I had them, I did NOT see what the big deal was…and I sat there and tasted about 10 different ones. Not that I would cast this decision so quickly, I found another bakery, to give it another change. It was the Swiss Bakery, in Burke. They were mini, and they were chocolate…and they still didn’t wow me. Feeling like I will have to try them in France to really be sure that I don’t like them… I gave it another chance. Michel Patisserie seemed to be the big provider of these baked delicacies in the area so I decided to try his.

 

 

I ordered a box of 30 for a friend’s birthday, so that other people could have a chance to try it (50% of the party had not tasted one ever, and the rest had one “a long time ago”). I placed an order, and they said I could pick it up at Artfully Chocolate in Delray. While I was there I picked up 4 flavors of my own to try.. Key Lime, Pistachio, Caramel and Raspberry. OH MY GOODNESS. GUESS WHAT?

I love macarons.

 

 

Really I do. The crisp of the first bite, the soft melting in the middle, the swirl of flavors in your mouth…win. Why didn’t I like this before?! It was an experience. If you want to try a macaron for the first time, remember this one thing. Get a WHOLE one to yourself. I just realized why I didn’t like it the first time. The first time, I bought so many, and had to share the flavors so we cut them. The second time, it was too small to get the whole “first bite” experience. This third time, really was the charm. I am in lust. I can’t wait to try them in France…OH WAIT I will be eating them next weekend in the City of Lights! Lucky me!

Au revoir mes amis!

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Girl’s Night In

Photo by Deanna on Instagram

When my friend Deanna decided that she wanted a quiet girls night in, I decided I wanted to host it. I love having the ladies over, board games, and just girl talk. Deanna LOVES froyo, so I wanted to put together a sundae bar, complete with toppings. With the help of Michelle and Iza I think we did a pretty good job. Even number of ladies put us on two teams for board games. I had a really good night and think we should do this more often!

Photo by Deanna via Instagram
Cupcakes by Iza, Photo by Deanna via Instagram

*siiigh. always a good time with the ladies!

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Makeup Monday: Birchbox

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Today’s face is brought to you by a crappy front facing android camera, and Birchbox. As you can see it looks like I have nothing on. That’s because people wear make up to look natural. I’m serious. Anyways. I’ve gotten two birchboxes so far and they are pretty fun. I am sure I will hate it in a few months, but as of right now, we’re cool.

I am only wearing two things, Jouer Luminizing Moisture Tint in Bronze which felt like nothing…and looks like nothing. And some theBalm® cosmetics Stainiac. As you can see, I don’t really know how to use make up, but I tried to do the stain. I ended up with blotchy cheeks. I guess I will stick to my “warmth” with bareMinerals.

This is perfect for summer. When you want to look polished and not just rolled out of bed and went to work (which I usually do), tinted moisturizer, a cheek stain and mascara is enough to make you feel like you put in effort, but doesn’t feel like make up!

I’d do this again, but I have to rethink my staining technique!

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France Fever: What Am I Going to Pack!?

Don’t panic. You pack for trips all the time. You got this. Right? RIGHT? I GOT THIS? No. I don’t. What AM I GOING TO WEAR. Apparently France isn’t as hot as here. I have to accommodate for a lot of city walking, AND for beach. Blah. I need inspiration.

You don’t even have to read this post. It is just a reminder of what I need to pack for the week.

Things I need to pack for… Beach, hiking, going out, and city. Also a light rain coat. yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah. Continue reading →

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France Fever: Movies

 

Don’t laugh. I was totally a fan of Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. I might even still be. I wanted a twin sister to get into adventures with. Maybe some of you guys remember, they had a movie that took place in NYC and Australia as well. Anyways, one of the first times that Cece came to visit me in America, I made her watch this movie, and tell me if it was real/true. We both had a hilarious time watching this and mocking the characters. I will be watching this to remind me how much fun I’ve had with Cece over the years and how much MORE fun we’ll have in Paris.

 

Source: ew.com via Miemonster. on Pinterest

 

Does anyone else remember when Carrie was in Paris with her Lovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvah. And how horrible her french was? “Je vooudraais un chaaaaaaaambre”. Yeah. I will rewatch the last few episodes because I like watching how frustrated she gets. Merde!!!

 

 

Of course no french movie night is complete without Amelie. My little sister is named after this movie. Maybe I will try to watch it without subtitles to practice…yeah right.

 

I love Meryl Streep. This will have to be watched before I go as well. FRENCH FOOD!!!!

 

 

I’ve never seen this movie, but I am looking forward to it. Who’s going to do french movie nights with me?!

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Sugar Creek Seafood Restaurant

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When I was visiting the Outerbanks for the first time, we went to Sugar Creek Seafood restaurant. I had really high hopes for this place. We were eating dinner around sunset, outside with the cool ocean breeze, it was a pretty magical set up. The website sells it as a pretty fancy place.

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I started off the meal with a pina colada. It was delicious. We are off to a good start!

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Then it went down hill. I had really high hopes for the food here, which is probably why I felt it was sub par. The clams were COMPLETELY filled with dirt/sand. The flavor was there, but I could not get over how much dirt I was eating.
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For the main course, I chose shrimp and scallop duo. You can either have them fried or broiled. I was leaning towards broiled, but when asking our server, she said she loved everything fried. Wrong choice for me. Deep fried scallops are disgusting. And this one was soggy on the bottom. The fries and shrimp were good though!

I guess the draw on this place isn’t really the food but the atmosphere. We had a really nice view and our server was awesome. The only part of the restaurant experience that I wasn’t fond of was the stank face I got from the blond curly haired hostess. The other hostesses were polite, but she just sat there and gave me the nastiest look and rolled her eyes. Rude. Other than her, all the staff was great. The food, not so much.

Not going back.

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River Riders West Virginia: Tubing

I think I have a weird fear of water that is involved with nature. I don’t jump at the chance to go into a river, lake, pond or even the ocean. I am happy with clean, animal free pools. I will get in the ocean, if I can see my feet (see: OBX adventure). But I wanted to try tubing. It took a lot of convincing from Deanna and the boo to convince me that everything was going to be fine. That snakes weren’t going to bite my butt, or that I wouldn’t get some kind of skin eating disease from the water.

Fears aside, after the storm that put out electricity in most of the DC VA MD area, we got on a river. We did flat water tubing through River Riders. Located in Harpers Ferry West Virginia, for about $30 bucks you get a tube, and a ride to the river, where you can lazily float along. The time that we went the water didn’t get too deep. We got to float down twice that day, since white water was closed due to fallen trees.

I had a lot of fun and I am glad I got to spend a day with my friends relaxing on the river. They have a store, which has bathrooms and changing stations so you’re not roughing it too hard out there. I would definitely go again, and its fairly tame if you get anxiety like me. They do have different levels of white water tubing/rafting as well..we’ll see if I’ll ever get at that level!

I survived!

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France Fever!

 

 

Hon, hon, oui oui! I’ve decided to replace this month’s food fridays with French Fridays, in celebration of my first trip to France this year. This is also because I need to eat healthier and exercise so no more food fridays of bad food. Super excited for my first international trip as an adult. As you may know my whole blog was created on the premise of letting my best friend in the whole world Cece, know what I’m up to in good ol’ U S of A. Now I get to experience a week in the life of a Parisian. Well my Parisian.

 

 

We will spend half the time in Paris, and the other half in Nice, at the beach! I will disconnect myself so that I can fill my camera and come back with plenty to share. I will be such a tourist. At least that is what I will tell myself. I want to make the most of my trip.

 

 

Also, I am ready to try real french macarons. I’ve had a few around here, but I have yet to be amazed and won over by these delightful looking treats. If I still am not enamored by the ones in France then I guess we weren’t meant to be. I actually have the same relationship with lobster. I tried it 3 times before I realized, I don’t like lobster. Crawfish and crabs for me.

 

 

Have you been to France? Is there absolutely anything I must do to make my trip complete?

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The Outerbanks, North Carolina

I have a new favorite “local” beach. I say local because I don’t have to fly there. The Outerbanks! I know I am so late, there are already a bajillion people who have been there and love it. But I really do. The water is clear, and the beaches aren’t too crowded. And its more family oriented so there’s not crazy teens drinking and causing a ruckus. (Note if that’s what you want, don’t go).  If you want a nice quiet clean place to relax…OBX is it. I had so much fun, even though I was only there for the weekend.

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We stayed at the Days Inn Kill Devil Hills OCEANFRONT, and the beach was just a few steps out. The hotel itself is like an old colonial house. It was very cute and the staff was very friendly. We are pretty low maintenance so we didn’t really need much. They also serve a free breakfast every morning of your stay, and there’s a pool :D. Everything was very cozy. Plus there is a bbq pit and picnic tables in the back if you wanted to have your own bbq.

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We spent the day swimming, reading and lounging at the beach. It was great. The water was clear, and there were plenty of sand bars to keep me feeling like I was safe. (I love sharks, but I am terrified of them). No trash or jelly fish. Just clear water…and your occasional mole crab carcass.

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After the day at the beach, we got cleaned up and enjoyed this view at dinner. Review on the place later…

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Before we headed out we went to explore the dunes. Where I got my first bug bites (3!) of the summer. No fun. Also its really hard to walk up sandy hills. We did see tiny tiny frogs though. It was so crazy! They were so cute. They were about the size of his fingernail.

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It was a short trip, but a much needed break. I really like it out there and plan to go back a few more times before summer is over. Also, Who’s Bad, the Michael Jackson Tribute band is playing there later this month… might have to catch them out there!

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