Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Chicago for a Day!?

Southwest Airlines is the only airline I fly if I have a choice in the matter. It's cheap, they have an amazing rewards program, they still let you check two bags for free and their flight attendants are hilarious. Case in point: "if you press the little light bulb button above your seat, it will turn the light on; if you press the little flight attendant button, it will not turn us on."


The other day while checking my email, I saw that they were having a sale. Typically, their cheapest fares from Boston are $69 each way to Baltimore. I'll probably take them up on this offer at some point. However, I was shocked when I saw $41 flights to Chicago. If you click on the "flexible dates" calendar, you may even happen across a flight that's cheaper than those the sale is advertising. Everyone should definitely check this sale out. They have a lot of flights on sale if you book by 10/8/15 for travel between 10/13/15 and 3/9/16.

I didn't want to spend more money on travel since I just got back from New Orleans but this deal was too good to pass up, especially considering I had enough airline rewards points to cover the fares for both Drew and myself. Still....I didn't want to spend money on a hotel; oh the dilemma.

That's when I got one of my crazy ideas....why don't we just go for the day!? We can get some deep dish pizza, do a little sightseeing and have the rest of the weekend to recuperate. I'll keep you all updated after my short little trip later in October.

New Orleans Day 4: The Big Easy-to-Leave?

As soon as I stepped off the plane in New Orleans and got a whiff of something gross, I didn't think I was going to enjoy the trip. However now that it was the last day, I was sad to leave the city behind.

For our last meal, we decided to have lunch at Cochon Butcher. I've heard a lot of good things about Cochon but frankly, Emeril's looked better and I have a tendency to overspend on food while on vacation so I opted for its cheaper outpost.

 

I ordered the BBQ pork sandwich and a cherry limeade. Drew and I shared house chips and a side of mac-n-cheese. Everything was very good; but was it anything I haven't had before? Not really.

After lunch, we had some time to kill so we stopped at the Riverwalk Outlets. I had never been to an enclosed outlet mall before. Interesting. It was nothing special other than the pretty view of the Mississippi River from outside the cafeteria. It definitely didn't beat the breathtaking view from the plane ride home though.



Au revoir New Orleans....until next time? We'll see but there are still a ton of other places I want to visit first. 

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

New Orleans Day 3: Alligator Two Ways

I love, love, love donuts (yea, I know I didn't spell it correctly but can you blame me with all these Dunkin Donuts around!?) That being said, it is absolutely shocking that I didn't order beignets my first day in The Big Easy. I never had an authentic beignet before so I didn't know whether to expect more of a donut or more of a fried dough type pastry. I've never been a huge fan of fried dough so I was hoping for the former. Well, today was the day I was finally going to find out.

We walked down to Café du Monde and each ordered our own order of beignets and a frozen cafe au lait. I couldn't believe the amount of powdered sugar they put on those things! They must go through 10 million boxes of Dominos powdered sugar per day, especially considering the cafe is open 24/7. The beignets ended up being the perfect combination of donut and fried dough. Although....I don't think I'll end up craving them just as much as I would a donut. Still, they were delicious.


After breakfast, we walked around the shops at the French Market and bought some bananas foster coffee to bring back home. It ended up being way too strong. After we bought a few more things and took pictures inside the St Louis Cathedral, which we weren't supposed to do (I didn't know...I'm Jewish....remember!?), we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our Cajun Encounters Swamp Tour. I wish I had changed into jeans....


As soon as I got into the bus that picked us up from our hotel to bring us to the swamp, I scraped the back of my leg on a metal spoke that was sticking out from under the broken seat I went to sit in. An OCD person's worst nightmare! I've had like 20 million panic attacks since then. I'll tell you one thing, if I end up with some type of disease, I'm suing.

Anyways, the tour ended up being fun but I'm not sure it was worth the $50 ticket and scrape. The highlight of the tour was seeing the wild hogs and the pretty scenery. We didn't get to see any large alligators because a poacher came through and killed most of them a few days prior but we did see a few small ones.



Once we got back, I most definitely showered and wiped myself down with rubbing alcohol! After resting for a bit, we headed out to Arnaud's French 75 Bar, which I've heard amazing things about. I got the Honi Makai and the Bastille Cup. The Honi Makai was a little stronger tasting than I usually like my drinks to be but the spiced sugar sprinkled on top made it truly addicting. The Bastille Cup was light and refreshing. I also had a sip of Drew's drink, their namesake, the French 75, which was very good.


After drinks, we headed to dinner at Royal House. We chose the restaurant based on the fact that it served everything we had left to try while still in Nola. It also had decent reviews on Yelp. We ordered fried alligator as an appetizer which did in fact taste like chicken just like everyone says. I ordered the Taste of New Orleans which was a sampling of chicken & andouille jambalaya, crawfish etouffée and seafood gumbo. I thought that the etouffée and the gumbo tasted very similar but all three were quite enjoyable. Drew ordered the shrimp creole and we swapped meals halfway through. That dish was very spicy but good.


After dinner, I realized that I didn't get a chance to try Doberge cake and the following day was our last. Problem was....a lot of things are closed in New Orleans on Mondays and Tuesdays so my options were limited. Drew had wanted to head to Frenchman Street that night to listen to some jazz and lo and behold, the only place still open that served Doberge cake, Beachbum Berry's Latitude 29, happened to be on the way. I never in 30 million years thought I would end up at a Hawaiian restaurant in New Orleans....but that's what happened and I had the most delicious roasted pineapple doberge cake with key lime icing.



Finally, we made our way down to Frenchman street and happened upon another unexpected surprise, reggae music at Blue Nile. The reggae band was amazing but after a while, we decided to head out and see if we could find some jazz. There are about 12 jazz bars on Frenchman street, most of which don't require a cover. However, when we ducked into the second place, we were promptly kicked out. They said I had to order a drink if I wanted to stay but after all that food, I felt too sick to drink. I should have lied and told them I was pregnant or something. Oh well, it was getting pretty late anyways and I needed to get some sleep.

Happy National Coffee Day!


Who doesn't love a good cup of coffee? Unfortunately, I didn't get to take advantage of any free coffee offers because I'm working from home today but I decided to brew up some Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee that I picked up on my recent trip to Jamaica. Oh how I wish I was back there...I'm daydreaming about it now...


It's definitely the smoothest tasting coffee I've tried. I wish I had bought more while I was down there but of course I was being cheap. They do sell it on Amazon but apparently, according to reviews, it isn't the real stuff. What is everyone else's favorite coffee? Are you a Starbucks or a Dunkin Donuts fan? I personally love both but I could drink the blueberry coffee from Dunks by the barrel full! I also love Green Mountain's blueberry K-Cups and Folgers' Caramel Swirl K-Cups.

Monday, September 28, 2015

New Orleans Day 2: Southern and Grubbin'

On day 2, we woke up bright and early for breakfast and to lie by the pool for a bit. It was in the hotel’s courtyard so luckily, there weren’t any gross aromas wafting in from the street. After the pool, we headed outside to wait for our Southern Styles Tours tour bus (a Groupon deal of course). Normally, I’m not a huge fan of tours but when I was planning the trip, it didn’t seem like there was much to do in New Orleans other than eat so I figured, why not?

 
Our tour guide ended up being really funny and we got to see a lot. It was really eye-opening to see all of the damage left behind by Hurricane Katrina, even after 10 whole years. Of course we all heard about it on the news but I don’t really think I ever understood the impact it had until I saw it with my own eyes. As we were driving through the 9th ward, the tour guide told us that the area was under 12 feet of water. He also said that the city recently gave paint to its residents so that they could paint the fronts of their houses. The president was coming down and the city wanted to look like they were doing better than they really were. He also mentioned that a lot of people believe the government used dynamite to blow up the levees in the 9th ward so that they could save the French Quarter. Once I returned home, I watched Spike Lee’s documentary, When the Levees Broke, which also touched on this. A lot of people said they heard explosions. I really hope that this "conspiracy theory" isn't true. You can see some of the existing damage in the photograph below but we weren't even allowed in the area that was hit hardest.


Aside from the Hurricane Katrina Damage, we also stopped at The City Park of New Orleans and got out to walk around and grab a snack if we wanted. I was trying to save my appetite for dinner so I did some exploring instead. After getting back on the bus, we made an additional stop at a cemetery and drove past some celebrity homes, including Sandra Bullock’s and Peyton/Eli Manning’s childhood home. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting New Orleans. Since it's not a walking tour, you get to see a lot of the city in a short period of time and although there were some devastating things to see, it was very informative in a non-boring way.


By the time we got back to the hotel, I was pretty hungry and was regretting the fact that we didn't grab a snack so we walked over to Sucré and ordered some French Macarons. Drew ordered the Peanut Butter & Jelly and the Pecan Macarons while I ordered the Bananas Foster and the Salted Caramel. I'm not always a huge fan of Salted Caramel but the salesperson suggested it and it was delicious! In my opinion, they were definitely better than the macarons at Laudrée. They tasted like food as opposed to flowers. Just saying. 


After our light snack, we headed back to the room to rest up a bit before dinner and talk about the day. We didn't have plans for the following day and decided to book a swamp tour, which several people had suggested to us. Once our plans were set and we were ready, we headed out walking towards Emeril's for dinner. I always try to walk anywhere I can because a) it's exercise and b) it's free. However, in this case it wasn't the best idea. It was very hot out and I felt ridiculous because I was carrying my heels in a shopping bag so that I could change into them a block away from the restaurant. Yupp. Please tell me I'm not the only one...?

Emeril’s was very very good. We shared the barbecued shrimp appetizer which was to die for. In fact, it looked so good that I couldn't wait to dig right in. Hence, the lack of a photo. For our entrées, I got the Herb Crusted Salmon with a Potato-Sweet Corn Croquette, Baby Spinach, Watermelon Preserves and Chorizo Vinaigrette. Drew got the Andouille Crusted Drum with Grilled Local Vegetables, Shoestring Potatoes, Glazed Pecans, and Creole Meunière. I liked Drew’s dish slightly better than my own but they were both delicious. For dessert, I got the S’mores Ice Cream Sandwich and Drew got the Banana Crème Pie. Overall, it was definitely one of the better meals I’ve had in a long time.


After dinner, we headed back towards our hotel and stopped at the Carousel Bar in Hotel Monteleone, which is in all actuality, a real slow-moving carousel. Naturally, all of the seats were taken at the carousel so I didn’t get to experience it firsthand but we did sit down to have a drink in the lobby area. 


All in all, the trip was shaping up to be better than expected thus far. I just had to make it through the rest of the trip without any more of my OCD inducing mishaps...

Sunday, September 27, 2015

New Orleans Day 1: Pee and Prawleens

New Orleans. I wasn’t sure what to think. On one hand, people kept telling me how smelly it was, yet on the other hand, I was dying to visit the south and try authentic beignets, gumbo, po boy sandwiches and alligator. And while I will say, that yes it was smelly, I ended up having a great time.

My boyfriend and I made the trip down there a few weeks ago. We arrived in the city around 3 o’clock and the first thing on our to-eat list was po boys. We were starving after being on a plane all morning so we decided on going to the first place we saw that had them instead of looking for the best place. We did see that Killer Poboys was right around the corner so we stopped there after reading good things on yelp. However, when we got there and realized they didn’t have the traditional fried po boys, we decided to go elsewhere and ended up at Deanie’s Seafood. We tried the shrimp and oyster po boys. The oyster one was definitely better.


After we finished eating, we went back to get settled in our room at Hyatt French Quarter; which I would highly recommend by the way. I’m a huge fan of Hyatt and of any hotel that doesn’t use those old gross looking comforters. The hotel was a little too close to Bourbon Street but once inside, it didn’t really matter. 



Once settled, we decided to do a little exploring and take a walk to The French Market. On the way, I saw a guy peeing on the sidewalk next to his drunk friend passed out on the ground. Gross!!! Several blocks later, my flip flop broke and I accidentally stepped on the sidewalk. I realllly hope that no one peed there. Anyways, I was pretty much stuck so Drew went off in search of new flip flops for me. After stopping in H&M and Urban Outfitters, he couldn’t find any so I hobbled my way over to the nearest gift shop and ended up buying some hideous ones there. I will say that they were very comfortable though. 


By the time we got to Jackson Square, the sun was setting and the St. Louis Cathedral and Mississippi river were beautiful. We walked by Café du Monde, went into a couple of gift shops and ended up buying some pralines (praw-leens) from Magnolia Praline Co. after trying samples from a few different places. I felt ridiculous because I had no idea what a praline was up until that point. I knew they were popular in New Orleans but I kind of thought they were those cookie straws. I’m definitely going to have to try making them at some point soon. I bought a postcard with a recipe for them at a gift shop. I haven’t made them yet so I don’t know how they’ll turn out but here’s the recipe: 


After returning from Jackson Square, we weren’t really hungry yet but since we wanted to try as much food as possible, we decided on getting Gulf Nachos and drinks at Batch Bar in our hotel. I saw the nachos on the menu while planning our trip and was dying to try them. The menu describes them as having layered blackened shrimp, grilled corn, crawfish abita queso, roasted red peppers, chipotle sour cream and pico de gallo. They weren’t as good as I was hoping because they were a little fishy tasting but I’ll admit, I’ve been craving them for the past couple of days. 


After our appetizer and drinks, we headed back up to our room a little bit weary about what the next day would bring but also excited to explore a new place.

HelloFresh and Soon to Say Hello to Blue Apron

While I love the finer things in life, I’ll admit I can be on the cheap side (hey, I am Jewish afterall!). That’s why I was initially a bit hesitant to try any subscription meal plans. The HelloFresh classic three meal box for two costs $69 per week while the same from Blue Apron costs $59. A bit costly, if you ask me…especially considering my boyfriend and I bought a house only a few months ago.

I don’t think I would have even considered subscribing to either of these if it weren’t for my new co-worker. Knowing that I love food just as much as he does, he brought in a stack of HelloFresh recipes for me to take a look at. I took pictures of the ones I thought looked the best and even tried making one or two of them after a not-so quick trip to the grocery store. The recipes were simple and I loved that they solved the nightly dilemma of what to have for dinner. I was happy to enjoy something other than a Lean Cuisine for once; although I’m not knocking them…their newer Marketplace line is actually pretty damn good. 

Anyways, I digress…I ended up signing up for emails from both Blue Apron and Hello Fresh hoping to exploit the system and just use them for their recipes. Anytime I saw a recipe that piqued my curiosity, I hauled ass to the grocery store. The only problem with this is that after a long day at work, the last thing I want to do is go grocery shopping. Plus, it’s probably even more expensive. I’ve made the North African Beef Tagine with Zucchini & Almond-Herb Couscous twice now and between the ground beef, the Ras El Hanout, sliced almonds, medjool dates and fresh produce it’s easily a $25+ shopping trip. Not to mention, I ended up using dried mint and parsley that I already had in the house instead of fresh herbs.


Although my boyfriend, Drew, really liked the dish and was even the one that requested it a second time, he mentioned numerous times that I shouldn’t make such “complicated” meals on weeknights. After that, I decided to take a break and give him a turn in the kitchen. He loves cooking and thinks he’s a chef but makes chicken and Brussels sprouts ALMOST every….single….weeknight! In all fairness, he is actually pretty amazing in the kitchen.

However, A few days after going back to eating Lean Cuisines and Drew’s cooking, I noticed that Blue Apron was on Groupon. For $39, they were offering new clients their first classic box for $39 (I later noticed that HelloFresh was offering the same deal). There was also a 20% off coupon on Groupon at the time so I purchased the Groupon for only $31.20. I figured that if I went to the grocery store, I would probably spend more than that on three nights of meals anyways. I haven’t used the Groupon yet because we’ve been in the middle of painting our kitchen but it’s finally finished so I’ll definitely be using it in the coming weeks. 

Last week, I got an email from HelloFresh saying that they were offering 60% off my first box if I signed up within the next two days. Score! This ended up being even cheaper than the Blue Apron Deal…$27.60. This just so happened to be perfect timing because I’m going away this weekend and haven’t even packed a single item yet. Who has time to work full-time, go grocery shopping, cook, clean and pack!? I’m not superwoman!

I got my first HelloFresh box today. I was really impressed with the way they packaged everything. Inside of the box, there was a cooler bag with 6 ice packs on the bottom. The meats lay on top of the icepacks followed by a separator and then three boxes containing the rest of the ingredients, one for each meal. The package was delivered around 1pm and the ice was still frozen when I got home at around 6 pm. It was in the high 80s today so I found this to be impressive. The ice packs can even be re-used. Drew even joked (actually….I’m not so sure he was joking), that we should save the box for next time we bring food to someone’s get-together. The only problem with the packaging was that the box was so damn heavy…I really need to start doing my Jillian Michael’s workout DVDs again, STAT! 


Tonight, we ended up making the Parmesan Crusted Chicken with Balsamic Potato Salad and Garlic Roasted Tomatoes. Although it was a simple dish, it was really flavorful. I never thought to put balsamic vinegar on potatoes before and I was secretly married to balsamic vinegar in another lifetime. 



I was also amazed at how much quicker the preparation was without having to measure everything out. It was also probably one of the first nights my boyfriend and I didn’t get into an argument over measuring food. Whenever he cooks, I ask him to measure out ingredients because I try to follow Weight Watchers and I’m a bit OCD…I hate estimating. This annoys him because it slows him down and it makes him feel less chef-like. Oh well, he’s supposed to do whatever it takes to make me happy, right? I absolutely love how HelloFresh lists the calories, carbs, fat, protein, fiber and sodium for each recipe. It really takes the guesswork out of everything.

It was also one of the first nights we decided to eat on our screened in porch instead of in front of the tv. Less time cooking = more time to relax. Ok, so maybe we did just finish sanding and staining the porch. Minor details.

All in all, I can’t wait to try the other two meals we had delivered this week and also to try Blue Apron in a few weeks. I have a feeling I’m going to become addicted to both of these services. I’ll keep you all updated.