A little Saturday Dis and Dat

What's up my friends?  Can you believe fall is on it's way?  I seriously turned my car around in the middle of the road to head back to Starbuck's today when I heard Pumpkin Spiced Lattes are back. Like NOW.

Never mind I'm on gallbladder enforced dietary lock down until they yank the thing out. I had to get my fix.  Ahhhh.  The smell reminds me of warm fuzzy socks and orange leaves and cinnamon on EVERYTHING.  Oh, and long sleeve t-shirts, God's gift especially to me.  I heart them.

It's fig season and we went to our friends' house last night so it was imperative that I brought a Fig and Gorgonzola pizza for pre-dinner nosh. I ran to Swamp Rabbit Cafe and Grocery for fresh figs and fig preserves and then to Trader Joe's yesterday for their most awesome Gorgonzola cheese and arugula. Leave it to me to drive all over town for one little recipe. I snagged a few other goodies at TJ's including Short Stack Syrup (my husband is making waffles as I type) and Dark Chocolate Covered Marshmallows.  

I am completely in love with Marshmallows at the moment.  They are bits of fluffy goodness.  A culinary cloud.  My obsession started when we were at the beach at the end of July, actually. Well before digestive hell.  The Sullivan's Island Coop had Haypenny s'mores, then I was in Piggly Wiggly on Mount Pleasant and snagged a bag of Campfire Lemon Meringue Mallow Bursts, which taste exactly like lemon pie.  (Sigh.  I miss them. I haven't found them here, but if you see them in Greenville, give me a shout!)

Oh, I also popped into Dapper Ink yesterday to check out their t-shirts.  I wear my green "love Greenville" shirt all the time. I've worn it out.  I grabbed a few of their newer t's for my rotation (only ten bucks each) and found out they are coming out with a brand new line of products to be debuted at Indie Craft Parade next weekend, Sept. 7-8,  in downtown Greenville.  It's a freaking amazing indie craft fair.  Go check it out.

Confessional: I have never seen a single episode of How I Met Your Mother.  My aunt raves.  My mom raves. I totally dig Neil Patrick Harris. I stalk him online.  I love seeing pictures of him, his partner and his twins. Yes, I am one of those people.  I will eventually have to get the show on Netflix or something, I guess.  Anyone else out there watching?

Hashtags.  I don't understand.  I'm totally blowing up Instagram these days, by the way.  I may not be blogging as much at the moment, but you absolutely  must follow me on Instagram to keep up with the business of being me. @gapcreekgourmet. My favorite follow on Instagram? Lena Dunham from HBO's Girls.  She is way cool. Anyway, I get that you can use hashtags to search for similar posts, etc.  But people sure do come up with some craziness. Someone teach me the ways of tagging, please.

#thingsyouwanttocraminyourface

I have made these popcorn cookies a bazillion times since I first told you about them.  You really have to try them. No kidding.

If you live in the Travelers Rest/Greenville area, the Travelers Rest Cookbook Book Club is looking for new members!  We meet the second Monday of each month at Upcountry Provisions and cook from a new cookbook every quarter.  We have an amazing spread of food at every meeting. Let me know if you'd like to join us!

I am in love with the new song "Royals" by Lorde (she's a cutie pie), but does anyone else thing the woman sounds like Poe?

Happy Saturday!
Ta.

What's up in Summerland?

(a heart by my friend Marlee)

Hi all!  I'm back.  I know it's been awhile. Thank you all for hanging in there. A bad bipolar crash left me reeling and killed my stupendous writing skills, but I'm fighting my way back and ready to share some cool stuff with the class.

I have pretty much taken up residence on Isle of Palms this summer.  Life is a beach, after all, in case you haven't heard. I've been Instagramming up a storm.  Follow me at gapcreekgourmet.

One of my seriously wicked finds:  Haypenny gourmet Bourbon Praline S'mores kit from The Co-op on Sullivan's Island.  I scarfed every single one of these myself. And I licked the plate when I was done. Every time. (No, I did not share.)  The bag contains round homemade graham crackers, fluffy little handmade marshmallows, and both dark and milk chocolate squares. YUM! I'm getting another bag as soon as I get back to the islands.  Needless to say, Weight Watchers is on hold until school's back in.

Also I've been seriously hitting the wine selection at Piggly Wiggly.  There have been some really cool finds. I so wish we had The Pig in Greenville! If you have a Pig in your neck of the woods, keep an eye on the top shelf wine deals. I snagged this one for $11 off!

Another one of my summer addictions?  The Fosters on ABC Family.  I swear I haven't flipped over a show this much since...okay, so I'm always flipping over a new show, but I swear this one will be at the top of my list for a long time.  I love it more than Carrie Diaries, The Newsroom, True Blood.  More than Banshee. Strike Back?  That would be a tough decision. (Those gun toting guys are just so yummy to watch!)

Okay, since I'm on the topic of tv, I'm about to rock your world. Have you heard of the HeardonTV app for your phone?  My BFF told me about it at the beach and I'm hooked.  Say you are totally addicted to... The Carrie Diaries (duh!).  You download the app.  Click on the show and get to buy, listen to, or watch videos from the songs in your favorite episodes. It is totally the bomb.  And it's a free app.  Even better, right?  The website rocks too.

Speaking of shows, I just couldn't resist sharing this "What Your 90's Crush Says About You" from ThoughtCatalog.com. It was on the How Sweet It Is blog and had me in stitches.  Remember Party of Five?  (Swoon...)

July's Travelers Rest Cookbook Book Club meeting was amazing.  We are cooking out of the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. I made these Popcorn Cookies and they are going to be appearing regularly around my house.  You basically make chocolate chip cookie dough (without the chocolate chips) and add fresh popped, buttered and salted popcorn.  They are addictive. See the easy recipe here.

Here's my favorite song this summer:

And a random amazing pic of one of the sunflowers at the Community Garden by the library on Sullivan's Island.

And before I go...

If you have a friend who struggles with depression, please keep them in your prayers. And when they are down, send them a card, give them a call, shoot them regular emails.  It's very important that they know people are thinking of them and care about them.  Even a quick text goes a long way. Thank you to all the people who took a little time to show me they were out there. It meant more than you know. And that's all I'm going to say about that right now. Maybe more later...

Happy Monday!

the food truck war and other Tuesday things.

There's a food truck war going on in Greenville at the moment.  For a good roundup of the details go here. The City seems to want to keep food trucks out and being the big food truck fan that I am (and you are) that's not going to fly.  The Owl Restaurant (728 Wade Hampton Blvd) is organizing a peaceful protest tomorrow in their parking lot starting at 5:30pm.  It's going to be a huge event. (Thanks for hosting, guys!) Go out to support our local food trucks: Asada, Neue Southern and Chocolate Moose, and tell everyone you know!  There are at least three more food trucks coming to Greenville, hopefully by early summer.  The city needs to support these small businesses, not shut them out.  Here's some mood music.

In Starbuck's news, they are coming out with a new series of city mugs.  Charlotte gets their own mug.  My question?  Where the heck is our Greenville mug? We are way cooler than Charlotte. The good news is that they are writing on cups again instead of slapping on those ungodly order stickers.  THANK YOU! Aesthetics, people!

Hey, did you know Greenville has a juice bar?  It's called Good To Go Raw Juice Bar and it's located at 5000 Old Spartanburg Road in Taylors.  I haven't been, but someone told me about it, so I thought I'd pass it on. 

I've kicked Downton Abbey to the curb.  Too low key for my afternoon walks.  I am now totally obsessed with the web series Squaresville. It's like an innocent version of Girls... two misfits, Esther and Zelda, who are just kickin' it in their hometown, doing quarky teanage stuff.  Love it. Yes, I watch television on my iPhone while I walk.  No, I don't run into people or fall down. Go check it out. 

Cookbook authors, The Lee Brothers, are coming to Greenville on March 20th for Fiction Addiction's Book Your Lunch series.  The book store says there are still tickets left.  $65 pays for lunch at The Lazy Goat and a copy of their newest cookbook, which I'm assuming you can get signed by the authors at the event.  Worth checking out. Here's their Facebook link. 

This is my favorite song of the week. Enjoy.

That's all I have for now.  I tried out the new (and very popular) Rick's Deli today, but I'll save that for another post.  Toodles.

foodie fun in Chucktown

Home sweet home and back at the keys.  I wanted to share some of the cool things I crammed in while I was in Charleston this time. If you aren't following Gap Creek Gourmet in Facebookland, you should be cause you're missing out on the rest of my adventures.  Just saying.

First, I stopped off at the SC State Fair on my way to the coast on Tuesday.  I've only been to a big fair once or twice in my life.  My favorite part? The animals, of course. (You thought I was going to say food, didn't you?  Heck no!  Fair food is terrible unless you like grease pit food that drips down your arms. Okay, the cotton candy is an exception. Love cotton candy.)

One of the coolest things I did while I was gone this time was to hang out with the guys at Sweeteeth Chocolate and King of Pops in their digs in North Charleston.  If you read the blog regularly, you know Sweeteeth is my favorite chocolate.  I swear you'll have an adult moment when you bite into their Sea Salt Caramel bar. I watched Mr. Johnny Chocolatier whip up some caramel

and watched the King of Pops folks make a batch of pops.  Also a fan of the King of Pops gourmet Popsicles and happens that both companies share a warehouse space.  I got a little taste of the behind the scenes magic.

The guys were listening to this band. Whatcha think? I downloaded the whole CD.  Very cool 1940's vibe. The video is freaking awesome. Watch it.

I think I could honestly eat out every meal for the rest of my life in Charleston and never hit every place I want to go, so it's a tough decision where to eat while I'm there.

I finally made it to The Wreck at Shem Creek, though I don't know, besides the fantastic sunset, what all the fuss is about.  Average seafood. Expensive considering they serve it on paper plates... But they did have half price bottles of wine and a good selection at that (though I stuck to tea this time).

I met friends at Huck's last night on Isle of Palms and let me tell you, it was the best thing I've put in my face in ages!  Honestly. I had the fried pork chop with apple butter on top of blue cheese mashed potatoes and collard greens.  Heaven. Did I mention I totally blew the Gluten-Free thing most days while I was gone?  Okay, didn't do too bad, but I didn't abstain either.  Hi, I'm a gluten-aholic.

I took my child and her friend to the Boone Hall Corn Maze on Wednesday.  Now that was something!  I thought it would be a crazy, get me out of this corn cause I'm panicking situation, but no!

It was fun walking through the maze and trying to trace along on the map we had in our hand. My daughter thought to leave a corn trail "like Hansel and Gretel" in case we got lost.  Good thinking.  We took a hay ride (sans hay), too and the kids played on a fake spider web, a climbing tower with a slide  that emptied out into a pile of sand and some bouncy things.   Fun thing to do if you're in the lowcountry soon.  It was a cool way to welcome fall and start the big week of Halloween celebrations coming up.

So now I'm back home and the laundry is rolling.  Date night with the husband tonight!  Yea me!  Hey, did you know Starbucks put out Pumpkin Spice Latte Ice Cream this year?  I swear I gotta get some of this. Anyone seen it in the store yet?

Anywho.  Happy weekend all!

Cola, crush and crashing.

I spent last Friday rambling around Columbia.  I've become quite fond of SC's capital city. I played with the Lorikeets at the zoo in the morning for work and then went to meet Ed, the giant kid at Edventure in the afternoon (also for work).  You can crawl inside him, check out his brain, his stomach and slide out his colon.  (I saved that treat for my next visit.)   

I met fellow food blogger April Blake at the Hunter Gatherer Brewery and Alehouse for lunch (Nice vibe, but I can't rave about the Mac n Cheese, though I was so hoping...).  April and I have chatted it up on Facebook for a while now so I thought we should actually do the face to face thing.   I've met some really awesome people through Facebook and blogging. She is rad! Follow her blog! 

How have I never seen this? I don't think I've watched videos since before MTV abandoned the format. Thanks to one of my buddies at Friday night's girls night in Columbia, I am newly obsessed with this video and Mr. JT.  

Justin Timberlake - What Goes Around...C by LIMIT-AR

I put some crazy mileage on the car this weekend meeting friends!  After coming back home for long enough to get a shower and kiss the hubs and child, I was back in the car bound for Spartanburg for a homemade Empanadas lesson and to catch up time with my Argentinian friend.  (Love ya X!  Thanks for the lesson!  I wish I had brought some home!)

There was not enough time in my Sunday to recoup from my Weekend o Girls' Nights. I made this Fig and Gorgonzola Crisp from the How Sweet It Is blog before my figs went bad.  So yum but REALLY rich...

 and managed to get some sit down time to watch Hunger Games.  Our friend was a prop guy on the movie, so we were excited to see what he had been doing for months and months.  We also watched the season finale of True Blood.  I wanted to squeeze in The Newsroom too, but didn't happen.  I'll be so bummed when I finish the season finale of that one. I really, really love it.  Scandal (another one of my top pics) and Boardwalk Empire and Walking Dead will all be on again soon, so at least there will be something to tide me over til Girls starts in January.

On the health front... I am now allergic to air.  I'm kidding.  But I have been itching in random places all over my body for the past two weeks (like fleeting hives) so I'm not ruling it out.  My doc thinks I'm now allergic to my bipolar meds. Yeah... expect a breakdown post soon. Today I was doing good to stay vertical.

BUT the fact that Snapfish sent me a nice email with news of their SocialPic Book did provide me with a moment of excitement!  I can't wait to get on there and play.  But first, I must work.  Real work.  The kind I get paid for.  And get ready for an event tonight, but oh how my bed calls...

Ta y'all.

The Monday Mumble

Fall is hurling toward us.  I’m happy because I am just not geared for 90 degree weather, and thought I love my child dearly and hanging out with her is so much fun, I am glad to get my schedule back so I can actually get some work done.  BUT I’m also sad because listening to ZacBrown’s Toes in the Sand 5,000 times a day isn’t okay when you’re wearing a sweatshirt.  I guess it’s retired until next summer. I need some fall music.  Any suggestions?

You know I stalk How Sweet It Is.  In her last week’s Tuesday Things email (you must sign up for it!  It's too cool!) she had this Rich Kids of Instagram site linked.  It’s Instagrams of rich kids doing rich kid things. It entertained me to no end on the drive back home from IOP.  And she made this Brown Sugar Fig and Gorgonzola Crisp.  I am totally rounding up some figs today. I’m not kidding. 

I JUST found out that my parent-in-laws have never read my blog!  WHAT?! Right?  So a big hello to the father-in-law who decided to join the party.  I’ve been dragging them around to restaurants and taking pictures of my food and cooking crazy stuff for over a year now.  They probably thought I was NUTS since they had no idea what I was up to.  Well, now ya do. And I’m not 100% nuts.  Just maybe 87%.

My daughter is a rock star.  Just saying.

This is the best Zinfandel I have had in my life.

I’m headed to Hollywild Zoo to cuddle some animals and get a tour this week for my animal of the week column for discoversouthcarolina.com…and I’m heading to Columbia to meet fellow blogger April Blake.  I am so excited.  I love her blog and we’ve been chatting it up on Facebook.  And I’m apparently climbing into a giant kid (?) statue/interactive thing at Columbia’s kids’ museum for the day job.  That should be interesting. I’ll see what sort of culinary shenanigans I can get into for you folks in between this week.  Always willing to suffer for the masses.

I MUST try out the ASADA food truck.  Two Greenville food trucks popped onto the scene while I was sick and I’ve totally missed out.  I’m on a mission.  

Have a great week guys.  And be sure to suggest some fall music.  New bands preferably.  I WILL check them out! 

PS: Dangermuffin is coming to Asheville on Nov. 2^nd.  I can’t stand myself.