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New Bern!!

May 6th, 2016 by pladd

Steven and I went to New Bern for a weekend! It was the original capital of North Carolina back when it was a royal colony, so there was lots of historical things to do with people in period costume!

Tryon Palace!

Fancy period gardens!

Tryon Palace’s back lawn

And then there’s this nerd

We stayed at a bed and breakfast that ratcheted the fancy up to 11! This was our room:

The King George III room!

Here’s King George III preparing to watch me sleep

Look at this fancy-ass bathroom

SERIOUSLY LOOK

Honestly it was hard not to spend the whole weekend in the bathtub. But I made other plans. Like a tour of town in a Model A Ford!

So rickety!

Of course there were costumes

New Bern was an important port city back in the day because it lies at the confluence of the Trent and Neuse rivers that lead out to sea.

Selfies by the water!

One of the best parts about bed and breakfasts are the elaborate breakfast, and this place did not disappoint! Every morning there was a fruit-crumble-like appetizer followed by a choice of 3 entrees. I was usually all about the pancakes:

PANCAKES

The menu changed every day.

BUT NOPE MORE PANCAKES

Steven’s French toast was good too

New Bern is also the birthplace of Pepsi! I talked Steven into going in. It was WAY less fancy and ridiculous than The World of Coke we went to in Atlanta. Basically just a soda fountain.

Steven begrudgingly experiencing history

But the best thing about New Bern are the bears!!!! They were decorated and put up all over town to celebrate the town’s 300th anniversary in 2010. I tried to get my picture with all the ones we passed, but there are way more:

“Bearer of Rights” bear lol

Mitchell Bear (he works in a hardware store)

“Flag Bearer” I hope you like bear puns because New Bern is all about that

Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: new bern, Steven, travel

Posted in Let Me Tell You About My Life |

Anniversary Dinner Tasting Menu

November 12th, 2015 by pladd

Usually for our anniversary we go on a weekend trip, but this year we just went out to dinner. CRAZY FANCY PERSON DINNER! An, an “Asian fusion” restaurant near our house, offers a ridic 8 course tasting menu, including TWO desserts. You know I was all over that. It’s designed to walk you through the different sections of the restaurant, which was also cool, because I tried stuff I liked but would probably have never ordered on my own.

Drinks

They offered us champagne because it was our anniversary, and I even had a sip even though I normally don’t drink. The menu started with tea service!! The tea was a white jasmine, so mostly tasted like flowers. Steven was not really a fan, and it’s not my favorite tea either, but it was also so pretty!

Cute tea pot!!!

1st Course: Amuse-bouche

This one was the most visually arresting, and Steven’s favorite. Unfortunately, I don’t remember what each of the little things are (on the menu they gave us it just says “Zensai”)

You’re eating off a tree!!

2nd Course: Sushi

Moriawase: Nigiri Selection, Fresh Wasabi, Ginger

3rd Course: Soup

Apple Parsnip Soup

This included poached apples, shrimp sausage, and hazelnut granola. I was wary of the shrimp sausage, but it turned out to be delicious. Granola in soup seems weird, but it wasn’t too sweet, and definitely added a nice texture that complimented the apple well. This might have been my favorite course. But you know how much I love soup.

4th Course: Scallops

Steven’s least favorite course (he still ate it)

Bamboo scallops with nori tapioca, pearl onion, brioche, and uni cream. The uni cream was really good!

5th Course: Seabass

Steven actually liked this one even though it was fish!

Roasted seabass with Thai butternut squash, pineapple, and smoked ham dashi. I was tilting the plate to get all of the smoked ham dashi. No regrets, it was super delicious.

6th Course: Beef strip

Steven and I had lost count so we hardly had room for this guy

Beef strip with miso, pickled mustard seeds, maitake, sweet garlic, and jus. Steven had made us steak the day before, but this one definitely put even his skillz to shame.

7th Course: Dessert 1

FINALLY DESSERT TIME

Napoleon with mascarpone, pears, pistachio tuiles, and ginger sorbet. This one was the best dessert, maybe because I’m so into pears.

8th Course: Dessert 2

SO PRETTY!

Gingerbread with cherry, pumpkin seeds, and kobocha squash ice cream. And fancy chocolate writing!!!!

This dinner was so fun!!! The service was excellent and very fancy–they always came out with two people so that they could set it in front of us at the same time. Afterwards, one of the chefs came out to talk to us, which was so great, because we got to thank her in person for how pretty and delicious everything was. This was definitely one of those meals I’ll remember for a long time

Happy 4th Anniversary!!

Tagged: anniversary, food, Steven

Posted in Let Me Tell You About My Life |

Birthday Week Part 5: ICE CREAM CHALLENGE

June 5th, 2015 by pladd

I saw this on the Travel Channel once and I was PUMPED to experience it in person. At Rick Moonen’s RM Seafood in Mandalay Bay they give you sixteen little tastes of different ice cream flavors, and you have to guess what they are. It’s way hard, y’all. Some of them are normal ice cream flavors, but a lot of them definitely are not. Plus, it’s really hard to identify taste when you don’t have other clues like texture, especially when it’s not something you’re used to encountering in ice cream. Has anyone ever gotten all of them? I doubt it.

Ready!

They give you one freebie

Here’s a close-up for reference

Starting at the top right: This one was vanilla bean. That’s the one they gave us.

Moving one left: This one bothered Steven. “I KNOW THIS FROM MY CHILDHOOD” he whined. He forced us to come back to it multiple times.
Our final answer: Rambutan
Real answer: Passion fruit. Steven overthinks everything.

Moving one left: This one was DEFINITELY some kind of nut, we were sure. But it had a lighter taste than most nut ice creams so we couldn’t decide what kind. I eventually let Steven fill in his crazy theory.
Our final answer: Gincko Nut
Real answer: Butternut squash. After knowing the answer and tasting it again, I was like “Oh yeah, that is totes butternut squash.” But it was hard to identify that flavor from the void.

Far left corner: “Nutella!” I said immediately. It had that distinctive chocolate hazelnut taste.
Our final answer: Chocolate Hazelnut
Real answer: Nutella

Moving one down: This one was chocolate but with a definite kick at the end.
Our answer: Dark chocolate and cayenne
Real answer:Togarashi Chocolate. Apparently this is a specific kind of Japanese pepper.

Moving one right: Cinnamon!!!! Clearly cinnamon!! For once there was consensus
Our answer: Cinnamon
Real answer: Cinnamon

Moving one right: We both agreed this one was butter pecan. It was especially buttery.
Our answer: Butter pecan.
Real answer: Coconut. This may seem like a weird confusion on our part, but I can see how both these flavors bring nutty and creamy elements that could be confused when you’re going in blind.

Moving one right: This one had little squishy things in it, which was the first clue.
Our answer: Rum raisin
Real answer: Rum raisin

Moving one down: Clearly raspberry! It punches you in the face with raspberry!
Our answer: Raspberry
Real answer: Raspberry Mint. You have to look for the subtle flavor underneath the pungent raspberry flavor, apparently.

Moving one left: This was way weird in both taste and consistency. I didn’t really like it, and had a hard time identifying it.
Our answer: Cheese
Real answer: Benedictine. This is some kind of herbal liqueur which I’ve never tasted.

Moving one left: This one was really strawberry to me. Steven insisted it was strawberry cheesecake, which I didn’t get from it at all, but I let him write what he wanted.
Our answer: Strawberry cheesecake
Real answer: Strawberry tarragon. Turns out Steven was right about there being some other taste in there, he was just wrong about what it was.

Moving one left: Mango! This one reminded me of my favorite Locopops flavor.
Our answer: Mango
Real answer: Mango Thai Chili. I should have remembered those popsickles are mango chili flavored. But the Thai part would have probably eluded us anyway.

Moving one down: This one pretty much tasted like nothing. Like plain ice cream, if that were a thing.
Our answer: Sweet cream
Real answer: Taro root. I’m surprised I didn’t get this one, because I’ve definitely had taro root tea and smoothies before. Those were always pretty strong with the taro root taste, and this was much lighter and more refreshing.

Moving one right: “Some kind of flower” I said immediately. But we argued about which. It wasn’t rose. It wasn’t lilac. Thus exhausting the only two flower ice creams I’ve ever tasted.
Our answer: Honeysuckle
Real answer: Lavender

Moving one right: Coffee!!!
Our answer: Coffee
Real answer: Coffee! Finally an easy one

Close right corner: This one was definitely chocolate. The richest chocolate ever.
Our answer: Belgian chocolate
Real answer: Chocolate

Even though we got a lot of them wrong, it was really fun to play! I would definitely do this again! Especially since the flavors change all the time. It’s interesting to see how much texture and visuals play into what things taste like when you don’t have those cues to rely on.

Yay!

Previously: Fancy Food!
Next: Goodbye Vegas

Tagged: BIRTHDAY, ice cream, las vegas

Posted in Let Me Tell You About My Life |

Birthday Week Part 4: Fancy Food

June 5th, 2015 by pladd

I feel like all I did in Las Vegas was eat. I’m not complaining. Here’s our fancy birthday dinner in Bouchon, Thomas Keller’s French restaurant inside the Venetian.

This is what I got!! Excellent choice

It’s gnudi, which I thought would be like gnocchi, but SURPRISE it is even more delicious. Those are little bundles of pasta joy, filled with cheese and probably some other things, lovingly wrapped in a beautiful mushroom butter sauce.

This is Steven’s

It was the pasta of the day! I forget what was in it because I was too busy concentrating on mine.

Also, dessert!!

YES BIRTHDAY BROWNIES

BIRTHDAY STRAWBERRY SUNDAE!

We also had fancy tea at the Mandarin Oriental. I could try to describe to you what you’re looking at here, but I would fail:

Points for presentation

The cone thing was a curry chicken salad with an Asian pear ball on top in some kind of sesame cone. It was kind of pretentious, but also delicious.

The desserts though

Oh yes. Give me all of this again.

Fancy Steven approves

“We’re just going to have a snack”

Just a snack

Next: ICE CREAM TASTING CHALLENGE
Previously: Cooking Class

Tagged: BIRTHDAY, dessert, food, las vegas

Posted in Let Me Tell You About My Life |

Birthday Week Part 3: Bellagio Cooking Class

May 31st, 2015 by pladd

As a birthday present to Steven, I got us a cooking class in Las Vegas at the Bellagio hotel!! They do it once a month, taught by the executive chef and his culinary team. It was really cool, and felt like being on a reality tv show!

Complete with other people to set up your station for you, just like on tv

First was the salad course, where we got some professional chopping lessons down, as well as how to cook couscous quick, make a yogurt dressing, and artfully arrange everything:

Steven’s artfully arranged salad

Then we learned how to tie and roast a whole chicken!! We didn’t do that part individually, though we did get to eat it:

Hello, beautiful chicken

We got back into it for the dessert course, a passionfruit mousse. Here’s a look at Steven and my station:

Sadly we did not make the actual mousse

We did make a fancy sauce for it, though, and artfully decorated with chocolate curls and piped cream.

A dessert work of art!

My priorities were more about getting as much chocolate as possible on there

We met some really cool people in the class, including Las Vegas locals and a guy vacationing from Brazil! It was my favorite thing we did on this trip, so I would definitely recommend it!

Yay!!!

Next: Birthday Week Part 4: Fancy food
Previously: Birthday Week Part 2: Selfies

Tagged: BIRTHDAY, cooking, las vegas

Posted in Let Me Tell You About My Life |

Birthday Week Part 2: Las Vegas Selfies

May 31st, 2015 by pladd

Last time we went on a trip I decided to document the journey in selies, mainly because it involved staying up for 20+ hours and I wanted to watch my face deteriorate into a rictus of tiredness. This trip was no different!! So here it is. Las Vegas: A Tale Told in Selfies!

Waiting for the airport shuttle!! So pumped!

Those were the last real trees we would see for five days.

On the plane!!

Look at this fancy hotel!

It is JUST LIKE being in Venice!

Just as expensive and smoky as real Italy!

Paris!!!!

The bottom is full of people trying to push sketchy things on you, just like the real Eiffel Tower! Vegas is committed to authenticity.

Right before becoming MASTER CHEFS at the Bellagio cooking class

OMG about to go up in the world’s tallest ferris wheel!

550ft above Las Vegas!

Steven attempting to take a selfie

Dressed fancy to go out to eat!

Plane ride home

More non-selfie photos to come.

Previously: Birthday Week Part 1: Steven’s Mohawk
Next: Birthday Week Part 3

Tagged: BIRTHDAY, las vegas, selfies

Posted in Let Me Tell You About My Life |

Birthday Week Part 1: Steven gets a mohawk and I get a job

May 30th, 2015 by pladd

As you know, Steven and I were born two years and one day apart. Meaning that our relationship faces the trying hurtle of back to back birthdays. It’s really hard not having everything be all about me around my birthday, but SOMEHOW I persevere. This year was especially dramatic because Steven turned 30. And went through some kind of crisis of hair:

The sides of his head can feel the breeze for the first time since infancy

However, mohawk styling–or really, any styling–isn’t an inborn skill. It’s taken lots of practice.

Steven owns way more haircare products than me

He actually owned more haircare products than me before this too.

Plus, who do you think takes the longest to get ready now?

Again, it was actually always him.

Isn’t perfection worth it, though?

BEAUTY TAKES TIME

He also had a concert two days before his birthday, the perfect occasion to debut an awesome new hair:

Concert master style

I also noticed him getting a lot more compliments from people in the audience during intermission and after, maybe because he stands out way more now.

He just wants attention

For Steven’s birthday lunch, we went to Lucky 32!!

First lunch as a 30-year-old!!!

They had strawberry shortcake for dessert!

So old. So mature.

As for me, I got a new job at the library! Exciting birthday present from Wake County!!!

Twice the swag

Next: Birthday Week Part 2: Las Vegas

Tagged: BIRTHDAY, hair, Steven

Posted in Let Me Tell You About My Life |

James and Alana’s Wedding!!! A Tale Told in Selfies

May 6th, 2015 by pladd

Last weekend I officiated a wedding!!! That is a for real thing I can do.

Behold

It was a long weekend involving flying to Austin, epic laser tag, and not sleeping very much. I decided to capture the progression in selfie form:

On the first plane, at 6am!!!

You can tell that we are both excited, though a little sleepy.

Waiting for my brother to eat lunch with us

At this point I had already been awake for upwards of seven hours without eating anything besides plane pretzels. I nearly took a nap on the sidewalk and told Steven to go on without me.

Waiting to go to the rehearsal dinner

At this point I had eaten lunch and had a one hour nap. READY TO GO AGAIN!

At laser tag, after laser tag

This laser tag place was the most hardcore one I’ve ever seen with three stories of structures to climb and hide behind. Steven would go on to complain for the rest of the weekend about how badly his knees hurt from dramatically throwing himself to the ground to avoid being shot by a ten-year-old. Still, it’s not a bachelor party unless you come out of it sore, right?