Adventures in Food {a long overdue update on what and where I've been eating}

I have had SO many foodie items I have been wanting to share with anyone who will listen to me that I've finally tried to sit down and gather my thoughts.  I've been to several new places around Atlanta and beyond and I must share -- the good, the bad, the mediocre; etc.  The only thing I know to do here is to dive in and get right to it.  

St. Cecilia

apologies as I am unable to locate source for this photo. it is not mine. 

What I Loved: This place is just amazingly beautiful inside.  Great Buckhead location and incredible ambiance.  I've been for lunch twice.  

What I Didn't Love:  My first trip I had an appetizer come out that was cold in the middle.  Don't get me wrong they were great about it -- brought us a new one ASAP and even comped it (not that we asked them to) from the check.  Still -- I just feel like this is something that should happen at TGI Fridays, not a Ford Fry establishment.  The second time I went on a Tuesday afternoon around 11:30 and was told that since I didn't have a reservation I had to wait for a table.  I went with M to wait at the bar -- and pretty much saw a million empty tables and lounging wait staff.  By the time they decided to come give us a table we had already had an appetizer and just decided to stay at the bar since we were already settled in. 

The Food: I hate that I had so many service issues because I feel like their pastas and desserts were very, very good.  But again -- due to service I have not been back and probably won't go back for a while. 

The Florence

Savannah, GA

source

On our way to St. Simons Island we managed a pit stop in Tybee Island and went into Savannah to make a special trip to Hugh Acheson's newest digs.  

What I Loved: the people I was with, our very nice server who triumphed in a seemingly chaotic Saturday night rush, wine knowledge and lists, lots to choose from on the menu, beautiful dining space and open kitchen. 

What I Didn't Love: There didn't seem to be a lot of parking (although we found a space easily). 

The Food:  I'd definitely be willing to return to this place but we definitely had a few food low points here.  But also some high points and great service.  We tried a fish dish, a pizza, lots of small plates, some entrees, and dessert.  The bread plate and beef carpaccio were very good.  Pizza was just ok.  M had the roasted & confit pork -- very, very good.  I will say my meal ended on a bad note with the peach tart I ordered for dessert.  I hate to be so super harsh but it was truly so dry it may as well have come from a vending machine.  A friend ordered the cannoli which was incredible.  So get that instead. 

A notable mention for our trip -- Tybee Island Breakfast Club which recently got a small mention in the Garden & Gun food issue was a fun treat before we headed out of town and continued to St. Simons.  Go early so you won't have to wait as long! It's not fancy but it's good and has super large portions if you are starving. 

Echo St. Simons

source: tripadvisor.com

What I Loved: Echo is located at The King and Prince resort in St. Simons and it has a special place in my heart because The Housewife got married in St. Simons and her reception was at the resort.  This is a new place to me -- I'm not quite sure when they opened but I can't wait to go back.  Service -- fantastic.  Ocean front views if you want them.  Open for breakfast, lunch, dinner, & cocktails.  I loved the food. 

What I Didn't Love: Hey look -- it turns out I don't look for things to complain about. I loved everything about this place. 

The Food: It was all SO SO good.  And I truly don't think that it was due to the fact that I was starving from an intense and long beach day.  Please try this place if you are in the area! 

Southern Soul BBQ

source: guyfieri.com

I know it's sacrilegious to be from the South and say that I don't necessarily live and die by good BBQ -- but this place may have changed my mind.  We were on such a good kick of hitting some restaurants we wanted to try out that we squeezed this one in on the way out of town.  I do not regret this stop at all. 

What I Loved: Simple, good service, quaint atmosphere, ate it all outside in the August heat next to their smoker.  I had a classic pulled pork on a bun with slaw on top and a side of hush puppies.  The hush puppies shattered my soul (in a good way) and I forced the entire sandwich into my body even though I was incredibly full after eating only half. It was that good. 

What I Didn't Love: The only thing that makes me sad is that this place isn't close to my house! 

The Food: They had a really extensive menu and served items other than BBQ. Per Garden and Gun rumor is sometimes they have Sunday Brunch items -- like cornbread waffles.  Someone mail one of those to me as soon as possible.  In true fat-kid fashion we couldn't just leave without taking one of their pimiento cheese sandwiches with us.  I popped it in the oven the next night and we split it for dinner -- it was incredible!  

I seriously may never be able to eat BBQ anywhere else again. I just don't think it will compare. 

I'll try to get my other places up in another post. This one got away from me with length! One small mention should go out to supporting local coffee in St. Simons at Wake Up Coffee. Super cute, wonderful scones, and delicious iced coffee! 

Also -- where are you eating right now? Seriously. I want to know. 

~the engaged gal~

{scotland part one}

I'm so late on a travel post. I worry I have forgotten some of the wonderful details of my trip! We got in pretty late to Scotland after our day in Paris. I was so far beyond tired.  We didn't stay up very late and I slept until 10 am the next day (unheard of for me).  We had a lovely time just going about town and hanging out with 3 Putt's family.  They live pretty much in the middle of Scotland and are in the town of Auchterarder (thanks customs agent for making fun of the way I said it) near this huge amazing 5 Star resort where they are hosting the Ryder Cup this year.   Since 3 Putt's sister works there we went for a little tour and stopped off for some adult beverages before our late lunch back at the house. 

Fun at Gleaneagles! 

I mean how cute are his dad and his sister? I loved finally being able to meet his sister and brother-in-law.  Big highlight of my trip! They made me feel so, so welcome and it's a wonderful feeling to have going into our marriage.  I could not be any luckier on the in-law front.  Seriously!

Here are some pro images from the Gleneagles website just so you have an idea about this luxury spot.  It is really incredible. 

//via gleneagles website//

I will make myself save money for a spa trip one day.  

//via gleneagles website//

3 Putt's parents have 3 fluffy dogs.  They were super cute. 

My soon-to-be brother-in-law was assigned to take us out the following day while everyone else set up for a family engagement party at the house.  He took us up into the mountains in Crief and drove us around.  We stopped for some pictures.  So beautiful!

I actually don't have any photos really from our engagement party! I put my phone down and had so many people to talk to I never went back to find it until later that night.  However, I am still touched by the giant welcome I received and the fact that his family came from near and far for this gathering and to meet me.  It was a really special day and I am so thankful that I was able to meet pretty much all of his family on our trip.  We will see them again for a post-wedding dinner around Christmas! I can't wait.  

~the single gal~

12 Hours in Paris

I guess unemployment is good for me.  A travel post as promised! 

I previously blogged about scouring for a plane ticket with a decently long layover in Paris on our way to Scotland so that we could mesh two trips into one.  At first I started to try to fervently plan a step-by-step day for us and research fabulous places to eat and have coffee, etc.  But then I woke up from that crazy dream and decided that since we didn't have much time we would just kind of see where the wind blew us that day.  Being completely unfamiliar with Paris it just seemed best to wander.  

I will try not to write much because this post is so photo heavy but I did want to say a few words about our adventure.  First -- 3 Putt is extremely well traveled.  It usually seems like he has been everywhere but he actually had not been to Paris to sight see.  So it was really special for me that we were able to share the experience together.  That being said -- I was also excited to have him there because he is so well traveled.  I was really kind of stressed about the language barrier, trying out public transportation, getting lost, mean French people, etc. but 3 Putt is good with these situations.

So, as far as our day -- we landed from our 9ish hour flight and after we checked in for our connecting flight I went to freshen up in the restroom for about 30 minutes.  Our layover was 12 hours and I definitely didn't want to be rushed so that we would have more fun so we took our time exiting the airport.  We found the train station easily on our own and a lady working a ticket booth was very helpful in the ticket purchasing process.  We bought from a kiosk and went on our way.  There are a lot of hat pics in here as the weather was about 40 degrees with 80% chance of rain all day while we were there. 

pretty much stopped to eat breakfast at the first place we 

saw off the train as we were starving! seriously, I 

couldn't even tell you the name of this place but the coffee was good

and the food was hot. 

//jardin de tuileries//

restaurant guy was very nice and gladly spoke a bit of English with us to 

ensure we were on the right track to find the big sights! turned out we

actually hopped off the train at the right spot on our first try.  

//arc de triomphe du carrousel//

//one of the million gratuitous louvre photos//

the line to get in here is very long.  so we just took pics outside and instead we ended up walking over to the Musée d'Orsay after walking around Jardin de Tuileries for a while to get out of the gloom and see some art.  There are two great looking restaurants in this museum. I think next time I would like to eat there! So beautiful! 

//ootd//

Mainly I wore this hat because I had a blowout at Dry Bar before we left and I didn't want it to go to waste.  So I wore this a lot due to the rainy weather but it worked! Hair saved! 

I didn't realize this until we were crossing over, but I think we were on the bridge over the Pont des Arts where they place the love locks in Paris!  I'm a cheeseball so this was very thrilling to me especially since there was a gentleman there selling locks.  Obviously I made 3 Putt put a love lock on the bridge with me.  He is such a good sport. 

This was actually before we went to the museum.  We had a lovely afternoon wandering around (minus our only encounter with a ridiculously rude and outrageous French man that worked at the museum who yelled at us about a photo -- even though everyone in there was taking lobby pics and we were not inside an exhibit) and looking at art and then took the long walk to the Eiffel Tower.  The walk was actually lovely as I believe we were in the St. Germain area, but we didn't go too far into the park as we had been up walking for several hours and I was getting really tired and hungry. 

//almost there//

//eiffel tower selfie//

After we finally saw the tower we pretty much immediately ran back out into town looking for a place to lunch.  A lot of the little cafes look the same so we just dipped into one to take a seat for a long meal.  Food was just okay but people working there were very nice and the wine was good. 

I know I need to wrap this up.  All in all -- the day was magical.  Paris is just as beautiful as any picture I've seen and just as romantic as everyone says.  Overall we actually had an excellent experience and found people to be very nice and helpful and the trains pretty easy to use.  I did download an app called "Pocket Paris" to my phone that gave maps and info offline so that we could use my phone and not be on celluar data.  I found this app very helpful and very worth the $3.  The most expensive part of our day was lunch but overall the rest was very affordable.  I was also in disbelief at how close most of the big sights are to each other! I felt like I saw SO much and we were only there a short time.  We actually ended up heading back to the airport early since we felt pretty tired and wanted to make sure we didn' t miss our connection.  Ending the day with 3 Putt, a delicious cappucino and some macaroons (okay we ate some Pringles too) was just perfect. 

~the single gal~

Focus

I'm having a hard time focusing on thankfulness this week.  There I said it. 

I'm trying.  But I am just getting all wound up and stressed out about our trip to Scotland/Spain in February to visit 3 Putt's family and my Grandfather is still very ill.  And it rained ALL. DAMN. DAY.  

See I can't even shop my sorrows away. That would just create additional financial sorrow.  I am thankful for all I have but this year has been a bit of a stretch already and with Christmas coming and then a vacation I don't even feel better about life with my bank account entering into 2014.  

Some days I am tempted to ask 3 Putt to move in.  Wouldn't life be easier with the seemingly dual income? I'm sure it would be. I have a lot of people ask me if we do live together already -- we don't.  I've lived with someone before and a long time ago I made the decision that I'm not doing the "roomie" thing with a significant other until I am engaged.   I mean, if I'm going to live the hard life I may as well just be used to it if things don't work out.   No one wants to get used to shopping at real JCrew and then have that taken away, amiright?

So far the Europe trip has been a good "seriously stop shopping" exercise.  And 3 Putt and I have been spending many a Saturday night at home with a pot of chili and cheaper glasses of wine.  But it would be nice to feel a little bit better about December spending.  And boarding the dogs in February (for 14 days).   This trip is a definite priority for me to spend more time with his family and I am excited about it, but I worry I will just be stressed about the money the whole time I am on my vacation.  And that's definitely no fun.  Someone pass a klonopin. 

~the single gal~

Blogs We Love {Paris in Four Months}

It's another rainy Saturday here in Georgia -- but what better way to spend the day than combing through all the fabulous photos and entries posted by Carin Olsson on her blog Paris in Four Months.  She moved to Paris originally for four months to explore and learn the language but she loved it so much she has since moved back.  Her blog is full of beautiful photos including images of the most beautiful {and likely delicious} desserts the world has to offer.  

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**all images from Paris in Four Months**

What I love about this blog is that she makes me feel as if I have been to a place I have never seen.   It also makes me want a fancy camera that I would have no idea how to use but that's another story. 

Love you. Mean it. 

~the single gal~