M: Food and Beer City USA

I have definitely been MIA lately, I won’t lie I have A LOT going on this month and next! Showers to host, wedding festivities to host (for my BF), a wedding to go to, parties to bake LOTS of cupcakes for, and of course a small vacation was snuck in there =) So my posts may not be quite as frequent due to all of these factors (because lets face it, sometimes with so much going on, you just don’t have time to be making gourmet meals or baking for fun!), but I did want to share a little of the hubs’ and my vacay in Asheville, NC.

We had an amazing time – we stayed in a beautiful cottage on top of Elk Mountain that was only 10 minutes from downtown. It was perfection! Our view:

I also don’t think it’s a secret that the hubs is a HUGE beer fanatic. I won’t lie, that was a pretty big reason why Asheville has been at the top of our travel list =) No wonder it was voted Beer City USA in 2010! So there was lots of this:

And a little of this:

Oh, don’t forget this:

My favorite places? By far the Thirsty Monk was our favorite bar, with its Belgian beer bar downstairs and numerous amazing microbrews upstairs.

Favorite place to eat? The Tupelo Honey Café – Ah-mazing! I even bought a container of their honey and a bag of their organic free trade coffee to take home.

All in all? Asheville was definitely one of the most laid back, beautiful, fun places we’ve visited. The mountains were breath-taking and I immediately felt comfortable and at-home there! They thrive on local commerce and heavily promote local, sustainable, organic products. Oh, and the beer? Yea, seriously fantastic. If you go, don’t forget to stop by Wedge, one of the local breweries that’s pretty small and doesn’t distribute, but their Russian Imperial Stout is out of this world and their other beers were right up there with it.

So, needless to say the hubs and I have already begun planning our next Asheville trip. I’m thinking in the fall because I’m not sure we can wait until next year! And so I leave you with this little piece of wisdom from the Thirsty Monk:

Cheers!

E: Baked Mini Shrimp Egg Rolls & Easy Fried Rice

First, I just wanted to share a couple quick pictures from the weekend. Dinner with my parents Saturday night was at the Blue Crab Raw Bar in Pawley’s Island.  My parents:

 

Me & Josh:

 

Frank is really (knock on wood) starting to feel better. We’ve been taking him on super mini walks and I’ve been feeding him brown rice and turkey. He thanks you all for your well wishes:

   

Ok, onto the recipes! I must say, I’m doing really well with my Friday night dinner successes! This one could not be easier. I prepped the majority of the meal ahead of time to make for a stress free night.

Easy Fried Rice:

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of Success 10 minute brown rice, cooked according to package directions
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 egg + 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
• 1/2 cup frozen corn, defrosted
• Desired quantity soy sauce

Directions:

Add oil and garlic to a wok or frying pan. Cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Add egg & egg white, scramble and cook through. Add cooked rice, peas and corn and cook for ~ 5 minutes. Remove from heat and toss in desired amount of soy sauce. Generously serves four as a side dish

Click here for the printable version of the recipe.

The result:

  

 

Baked Mini Shrimp Egg Rolls

I had some leftover wontons and wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with them. After doing a general search on the web, I found this recipe at Green Lite Bites. I made just a few adjustments:

Ingredients:

• 8 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 5-oz container water chestnuts, chopped
• 3 oz broccoli slaw
• 20 wonton wrappers
• water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Boil water and cook shrimp for ~ 3-4 minutes until cooked through (no longer gray). Chop shrimp into bits.

Mix chopped shrimp, water chestnuts and broccoli slaw.

 

Place a small amount (~1 tablespoon) of the mixture in the center of each wonton and wrap up like an egg roll (the Green Lite Bites recipe shows how to do so and hers came out much prettier than mine :)). 

Lay on an aluminum covered cookie sheet, sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Spray tops with a bit more spray. Bake for about 20 minutes, turning once.

I served ours with sweet and sour sauce.

Click here for the printable version of the recipe.

   

 

Onto Monday! Business as usual- teaching body pump, working & a little housework. How about you?