The Big Chouffe

We have mentioned it before, but sometimes it is mine and Eric's duty to help out our friends. Especially when it comes to alcohol. It's what friends do, right?

When Julianna texted us last week and said she had scored a big bottle of beer, we knew we were the perfect people to help her drink it. Luckily she agreed.

It wasn't any beer, it was the Big Chouffe!







Not only was Juli going to let us drink her beer, she also provided us with snacks!


Juli is a master beer opener, so we let her do the hard work.








The Big Chouffe was really good, slightly strong, but delicious.

We were also happy to see Adam, Juli's boyfriend, who just got back from being stuck in Europe due to the volcano.


Juli and Abby eating the food.


Abby's dog Dolly was chilling too.


At the end of the night I tried to steal Chuck by putting him in the bike basket.

He didn't want to come home with me.

Thanks Juli for having us over!

Finishing Up the Photos

Ok, finally. Last post from our weekend in NYC/Brooklyn.
We woke up Sunday morning to rain. Eric and I planned on heading back to Philly early, but we couldn't leave without eating some substantial food.

We really want to go to Bliss, and we called beforehand to make sure they were open.

It was about a mile walk from Becca's apartment, and we arrived while the cafe was still half empty. It was a really cute place.





In case you haven't noticed yet, I am not a very adventurous eater. Eric is, but I tend to stick to the basics (although I have branched out SO much the past few years). I ordered a bagel, homefries and a side of fruit.



Eric went a little crazy and ordered the vegan breakfast burrito.



We both really enjoyed our breakfast and I am glad we finally made it there.

Happy Birthday MOM

Note: There's only a few special people that get recognized on this blog, so if you ever get the pleasure feel special… very special.

With that said I’d like to say happy birthday to my mom. I love you MOM! Though I don't think I ever call my mom, "Mom," I will here. It seems to be what respectable children do.

I'm pretty excited for the parents to finally get up to see us/the new place in Philadelphia all the way from "big D" (Dallas, Texas if you will). I wish I could say I was the only reason they were coming up next month but you know what, I'll take what I can. My mom is a bit too busy working all times of day, so vacation days are few and far between. I mean unless were talking about that time they went to Vegas without me, aka my dream destination since I was a child… lets say I enjoy casino establishments. But nonetheless we are pleased to have them coming up and hopefully show then some sights and sounds.

I am not as neat as Lauren with old pictures of my mom in her hay day, but I have a nice picture from the last time we saw them. Happy birthday mom!

Yep, I am still talking about our weekend in NYC

Nope, not finished yet. I have ONE more post about NYC/Brooklyn for tomorrow, then I will be finished. Promise.

After Saturday's brunch, Eric and I headed into Manhattan to go shopping.
We stopped to grab some water, and I was pretty excited to see a cat chilling.



No lie, I miss my cats a lot when I leave, even for two days. So getting to see this kitty made me happy.

I was pretty jealous of the bike lanes in Manhattan.



Like I mentioned, we were on a mission to shop. We stopped by Moo Shoes in hopes of finding some shoes.



Love this store.


Plus it's filled with cats.



I left empty handed, but Eric picked up some nice dress shoes.

Babycakes just happens to be right around the corner, and I was not going to miss an opportunity to stuff my face with pastries.





Eric and I lucked out with a really short line. By the time we paid the line was out the door and into the street.



We got a red velvet cupcake and a carrot cake cupcake.


A wonder bun and a chocolate chip muffin.


The rest of the day was spent shopping for Eric. I actually bought NOTHING, but he came away with some really nice clothes!

Later in the evening with met up with one of Eric's old friends for a couple of drinks.
By the time we finished drinking we were starving.

Angelica Kitchen wasn't too far away, so we made our way over there hoping the wait for a table wouldn't be too long. We lucked out again and were given a short wait, so Eric went to buy a bottle of wine.

We started with an appetizer of cashew cream. This was amazing. The portion was small, but I liked that because I could enjoy it, but not get stuff (I have no self control over amazing food).


We also ordered some bread, which I smothered with the cashew cream from above.



For entrees Eric went with a special, Bell's Tempeh, a citrus-y tempeh with black rice.


I ordered the roasted vegetable salad, which came with hummus on two crostinis.



At this point I didn't think I could physically put any more food inside me, but there was no way I was passing up dessert.
We split orange poppyseed cake.



The food at Angelica Kitchen was amazing. I highly, HIGHLY, recommend it if you are ever in New York.

Our weekend in NYC/Brooklyn cont.

As usual Eric and I woke up Saturday morning starving. Once we all pulled ourselves together we headed out to get brunch.





We headed to Bliss Cafe, only to find out they wouldn't open for another hour or so. I couldn't wait that long, so we headed across the street to Wild Ginger, an all vegan pan-asian restaurant. It was pretty difficult to switch from pancakes to Asian style dining, but luckily Wild Ginger did not disappoint at all.



We started with some miso soup.



Followed by two appetizers. Eric and I ordered the Indian pancakes with a curry dipping sauce.
Oh my god amazing. The pancakes were light and fluffy and the sauce was perfection.



Becca ordered the scallion pancakes, and I was able to snag a piece. These were topped with a mango salsa and were equally delicious.



For our entrees Eric ordered the basil soy protein.


Becca ordered the sweet and sour sesame soy protein.


And I was the lame/odd one out because I ordered a salad. But it was delicious!


After stuffing ourselves we walked around Brooklyn, popping in and out of shops.


As we were talking I heard someone call my name, turned around, and saw a friend from college. He was out walking his dog, who happened to be the cutest puppy ever.


We hung out in Brooklyn some more before heading into Manhattan for the day.


And I'm gonna leave off there for now...still have a lot more photos to go through.

NYC for the weekend

Eric and I have a lot of photos from this past weekend. A lot. So I am going to break it up into a couple of posts!
Friday afternoon, after getting home from work, Eric and I headed to New York City! We rode the Chinatown bus ($20 round trip).
We brought dinner to eat on the bus, but I ended up just eating a bunch of Pirate's Booty.



We made it to New York's Chinatown with no problem.
Lula's Sweet Apothecary just happens to be near the bus stop, and it just so happens that Eric had never been there, so I suggested we grab some ice cream before doing anything else.



They are re-doing the interior, so for now it's just walk up, but I was happy to see that they were so busy.

I ended up going with cake batter with sprinkles and Eric got cake batter/strawberry swirl.



I inhaled my ice cream in about 2 minutes.


We met up with my friend Rebecca, who was awesome enough to let Eric and I stay at her apartment, and headed to Brooklyn.
Becca just happens to live on top of a bar, which seemed like an easy place to hang out Friday night.



We figured out that we have known each other for probably close to 20 years? We went to elementary, junior high, and high school together.

Some more friends from Texas came and joined us, including Nick!


I didn't get a shot of all of us, but there's some photos of Nick, Trevor, Rachele in this post. They were part of my main high school posse.

After a few drinks we headed to Papacitos, for some burritos.


I passed on eating, but Eric ordered a giant vegan burrito and a tecate.





After eating we parted ways and headed to sleep. I was starting to crash hard, due to my normal bedtime of 9pm.