TGIF!

Although I have to work until 8 tonight, I'm still super pumped it's Friday! There is a fun filled weekend ahead of me.

But first, I had the pleasure of meeting and having dinner with fellow blogger, Ashley from Turquoise and Teale last night! She is as sweet and cute in person as she seems on her blog. :) My friend, Kate, also joined us! As sad as it is, I hadn't seen her since her wedding day (March 2010) so it was great to catch up with her, as well! She was a little apprehensive about the whole meeting a stranger thing, but now I'm pretty sure she wants to start her own blog!

We split the appetizer trio (salsa, queso and guacamole) and I ordered the Baja Fish Taco (tempura fried mahi mahi, thinly sliced red cabbage subbed lettuce, cilantro and ancho chili yogurt sauce) and a Tempura Avocado Taco (tempura avocado, topped with a sweet Thai chili glaze, and a citrus slaw). One dollar from each tempura avocado taco ordered is donated to the Green Heart Project, which "pairs volunteers from the Charleston area with disadvantaged youth in effort to teach the knowledge and values needed for a sustainable future and instill the virtues of hard work and success through building an urban garden." Pretty cool!

Tomorrow both the Carolina and Clemson games are on at 12 noon so we'll most likely be at a bar with multiple tv's, enjoying some frosty beverages, and rooting Carolina on to a victory over Florida! Cameron and I met after the Carolina / Florida game 3 years ago - all together now: awwwwwwwwwwww. :)

After the game, we'll go home, freshen up and make our way to dinner and drinks before the Darius concert! I.AM.SO.PUMPED. Darius is one of my favorite people to see live. I need to remember to charge my camera tonight so I can take plenty during the concert!

Happy Veteran's Day and 11.11.11! My Grandaddy Smitty is an Air Force veteran and fought in the Korean war. Cameron's grandfather is a Navy veteran and a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Thankful for both of them!

Gotta love his shirt. :)

November Birchbox.

My November Birchbox arrived right on schedule last Monday! I was pretty happy with the contents.

Maybe I should have put these in the same order as they were listed on the card. Oops.

First thing's first - I'm good with the lipgloss. Every box has had some type of lip stuff in it. I need to change my "beauty profile". This one was probably my least favorite of all of the samples I've received because it was really sticky.

I was kind of excited to try the Supersmile whitening green apple toothpaste. It made my teeth feel really clean and while it had a hint of the green apple taste, it definitely didn't make my breath "fresh," but it doesn't claim to so I'm cool with that. I guess we'll have to wait and see if it actually whitens my teeth.

I really like the Harvey Prince perfume. Very light, and I can still smell a hint of it 5 hours later.

The Zoya nail polish in Holly is the perfect color for Christmastime. But for me, only Christmastime. It's a little too much for me to wear any other time of the year.

The chocolate I really liked! It was a combination of dark chocolate, chipotle and popping candy (like Pop Rocks). First bite - didn't taste the chipotle until after a few seconds. By the time I finished the sample, my mouth was definitely warm. I've always been a big fan of Pop Rocks so I thought that part was fun. 

Tasty Tuesday - Raspberry Swirl Mini Cheesecakes

Raspberry Swirl Mini Cheesecakes

Recipe and photo from Lick the Bowl Good.

Graham Crust:

 

•1 1/2 cups finely ground graham crackers (about 12 sheets; use a mini chopper or food processor)

•3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

•3 tablespoons sugar

Raspberry Puree:

•1 container (6 ounces) fresh raspberries

•2 tablespoons sugar

Cheesecake:

 

•2 pounds (32 oz.) cream cheese, room temperature

•1 1/2 cups sugar

•Pinch of salt

•1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

•4 large eggs, room temperature

 

Preheat oven to 325°F.

 

Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Stir together ground graham crackers, butter, and 3 tablespoons sugar. Press 1 tablespoon crust mixture firmly into bottom of each lined cup. Bake until set, about 5 minutes. Transfer tins to a wire rack to cool.

 

Process raspberries in a food processor until smooth, about 30 seconds. Pass puree through a fine sieve into a small bowl, pressing with a flexible spatula to remove as much liquid as possible; discard solids. Whisk in 2 tablespoons sugar.

 

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. With mixer on low speed, add remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar in a steady stream. Add salt and vanilla; mix until well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined after each.

Spoon 3 tablespoons filling over crust in each cup. Dollop 1/2 teaspoon raspberry puree in a few dots over each. With a wooden skewer or toothpick, swirl sauce into filling. Place each tin in a roasting pan (bake in batches, if necessary); pour enough hot water into pan to come three-quarters of the way up sides of cups.

 

Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Carefully remove tins from water bath and transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate (in tins) at least 4 hours (or out of tins up to 5 days in airtight containers). Remove from tins just before serving.

Makes 32 mini cheesecakes.

Concerts.

I LOVE live music. Always have. I started thinking about all of the concerts I've been to the other day and compiled a list just so I could look back and remember them. It was really hard to remember them all and I'm sure I left a few out.

First concerts:

Tanya Tucker - First concert I attended thanks to my dad signing me up for a jump rope contest behind my back. I wound up winning tickets to see this lovely lady. (I just Wikipedia'd her and don't recognize ANY of the song titles.)

BoyzIIMen - abc, bbd.

Country Phase:

Garth Brooks

Shania Twain

Dwight Yokum - my mom's old fave. i went with her to make her happy.
Tim McGraw

Alan Jackson - the night I first tasted red bull / vodka. (in college, obvi.)

Keith Urban
Carrie Underwood

Kenny Chesney
Dierks Bentley

Rock Phase (most of which were from WaveFest, a local music festival that was put on every year by our rock radio station, 96Wave. RIP 96Wave and WaveFest.):

Stone Temple Pilots

3 Doors Down

Cake

Cracker

7 Mary 3

The Jayhawks

Randoms:

John Mayer

Widespread Panic

moe.

Train

Maroon 5 - before they hit the radio. my sister and i pretty much discovered them.

Sheryl Crow

Ziggy Marley

The Wailers

311

The Fray

Gavin Degraw

Corey Smith - most recently added

The Repeat's:

Will Hoge

Hootie & The Blowfish

Darius Rucker - seeing him again this Saturday! I may or may not being going backstage! :)

Cowboy Mouth

OAR

Fuel

What has been your favorite concert that you've attended??

Go Cocks!

Beat those Hogs!

Da fair.

As our weekly date, Cameron and I decided to go to the Coastal Carolina Fair last night. Mainly we went because Corey Smith was playing. Cameron's parents volunteer at the fair so they hooked us up with free tickets, hand stamps for unlimited rides and a VIP parking spot. Nice!

After sitting in awful 5 o'clock traffic on the interstate, we finally arrived around 6:30pm. Corey Smith wasn't set to start playing until 7:30pm so we decided to grab our first meal of the night (corndogs) and ride some rides. Now, I've never had a problem riding the big roller coasters that flip you every which way at amusement parks like Carowinds, but flippy fair rides that can go up and be torn down in less than a day? No thanks.

And then this happened..

No "working our way up" from the small rides to the big scary ones. Cameron just walked up to this one and got in line. It all happened so fast I didn't have a chance to argue/pout/cry. This ride brings you all the way to the top (no idea how high and I don't care to know either) and then drops you, letting gravity take its toll. You can't scream because your stomach is basically in your throat. Other than thinking about how awesome my life has been and telling Cameron I love him before I was about to die, I couldn't stop thinking about my Reva's that I was wearing and how paranoid I was that they were going to fly off my feet at any second!! Great way to start the evening.

 

Now, you may think that after such a scary ride, we'd tone it down a notch, right? I thought we would, too. But you and I would both be wrong. My new rule was as long as it doesn't flip me upside down, I'd consider riding it.

 

And then this happened..

 

Ugh, why did I put myself through this? This one was scarier to me than the first one! This one slung you back and forth, this way, that way, every which way. Cameron was laughing at me the whole time. I was really convinced that the next time they flung us to the other side, we were just going to go sailing over the entire fair and crash and burn into one of the funnel cake stands. No more, I said.

 

And then this happened..

 

Some relaxing swings, right? No! Y'all, this even scared me once I got on it! I am becoming such a baby in my old age! I don't know if it's the heights or the fact that I'm not sure how safe these rides are, but never again will I be riding on anything other than the ferris wheel at the fair. But then again, I was paranoid last year on the ferris wheel that my hair was going to get stuck and my scalp would be ripped off. Sorry for the gross visual.

 

So I said, for reals, I'm done with the rides. Let's get our second meal and go grab a seat in front of the stage. And that's what we did. I got some fried pickles (duh) and he got some chicken tenders and fries. FYI - the fried pickles weren't that good. Sorry, no pics.

 

The only pic of the night is of the concert. I only knew a handful of Corey Smith songs so I couldn't sing along that much. He was entertaining though!

 

Fun night, all in all, with lots of laughs.

 

Have you been / are you going to the fair this year?

Are you a scaredy cat like me?