Shecky's Girls Night Out - Event Review

Last night was night #1 of the Shecky's Girls Night Out event in Atlanta.  From their website, here is a recap of this event: Let

Keeping up with the latest in what to wear (and how to pull it off) is hard. Fashion styles come and go, and beauty trends fade in and out. One thing that's always in style: quality time with your friends. At Girls Night Out, you and your fabulous entourage will discover unique designers, sip our delectable drinks, and cap your night off with some pretty pampering and glorious Goodie Bags (trust us, you don’t want to miss the goodies).


Let me give you my take on the event.  The Biltmore Hotel ballroom was where it all went down.  If you've never been inside the Biltmore, I hadn't, you should find a reason.  It was beautiful.  When you walk in the doors you're greeted by some security guys, they were everywhere, and funneled into the main check-in area.  What a long process.  The ticket confirmation said you needed to bring your confirmation number and your ID.  You only needed your ID and it seemed like the computers didn't have anything quick to look up last names.  

Once we were through the check in, we picked up our goodie bags (not as exciting as I had expected them to be) and headed to the first drink booth that we could find.  The alcohol booths were set up throughout the ballrooms - some liquor, some beer, some wine and some cocktails.  You could only have one drink in hand at a time.  The portions were small, but drinks were unlimited so if you were planning on being there the full 5 hours of the event I'm sure you could have found your happy place.  


About 5 minutes into the night I was frustrated.  I told the two friends that were with me that I thought I was too nice to be there.  I don't have it in me to cut in line in front of someone or nudge someone out of the way while looking at jewelry or clothes.  At the first drink booth a lady literally walked up to the bartender right in front of the 3 of us who were clearly there to order.  I'm not sure if I've ever been bumped into or nudged as many times as I was last night, a crowded bar on a Saturday night comes close to how it felt around some of the vendor tables.  


The vendors were a mix of makeup companies, small and large, clothing boutiques, jewelry designers and a few other random products here and there.  Some of it was cute but most of it was not for us and we walked by without stopping.  I think if I wasn't at risk of being smashed into while looking at some of the jewelry I may have purchased something, but never stayed in one place long enough for that.  The two girls each tried on a dress, I didn't find anything that was right for me.  


I did get my makeup done at the Maybeline counter.  The line was pretty long, but they had makeup professionals there to show you the color foundation that was right for you and then do up your lips or eyes.  I went with the eyes.  It was pretty helpful, especially the foundation color.  The makeup artists wrote down on a card the makeup they used on you along with some coupons.  I'll be using that for sure! If you wanted to wait in yet another line you could order your makeup there with $10 off, a great deal, but the line for that was forever long and I was ready to go by that point.  

All in all, an interesting event.  Now that I know what to expect I'll pass on the event next year.  I give the event 2 out of 5 stars.  It was too crowded, the set up didn't make it easy to flow from one table to the next without being in traffic jams and the good vendor tables that people wanted to visit had lines that were too long.  

Halloween 2011

I'm WAY late posting anything on Halloween.  I'm sorry.

If it wasn't official already, it is now: Stephen and I love to entertain our friends and family at our house.  We've already hosted two big events at the house and I'm looking forward to so many more.  (Thanksgiving will be at the house this year too, I can't wait.  I'm already thinking of decorations and food.)

We hosted a Halloween party this year for all of our friends.  I'm pretty sure at the most crowded time the house had 25 people (and one dog) or more in costume.  It was fantastic.

We spent quite a few days decorating the house, inside and out, in preparation for the party.  We had orange lights all around the front windows and porch, carved pumpkins lighting the way up the front stairs, a chalk outline of Stephen and Mabel on the sidewalk and hanging, tortured skeletons hanging in the windows.  Inside we had spider webs, blood on the mirrors and windows, spiders and rats everywhere and lots of food.

My favorite was the hanging skeleton, he'll make an appearance next year too.  I hung an orange, plastic table cloth on the inside of the front window.  Then I taped up a large, paper skeleton to the window behind the table cloth and lit one small lamp in the room.  From the street you can only see the orange glow of the table cloth with the shadow of the skeleton.  Love him.

The most important part of the holiday was my costume.  I can be selfish every now and then, right?

I was a box of popcorn!  We had so many boxes around the house after I finished moving in we had to put one of them to good use.

Above is the finished product!!

I started with the box and cut out the bottom and head holes.  Stephen had to help me measure my head for that hole.  Then it was time for the arm holes.  The box was much wider than my shoulders so I couldn't just do little holes or my arms would have had to be away from my body and uncomfortable all night so I made pretty big holes.  They also came in handy for storing my hands later in the night when I needed to eat or drink.

Then I duct taped red and white stripes onto the box, folding the tape around all the edges so it wasn't rough.  Very important, especially around your neck.

The popcorn was the next step.  It's Great Stuff.  The expanding foam.  That was the #1 question I got at the party.  Spray the foam into little balls and when it expands and hardens, it looks like popcorn!  There were lots of warnings on how to use Great Stuff, but if you're not working too fast and pay attention to what you're doing, it was fine.  Nothing spilled, no fingers stuck together.  Easy peasy.

A last minute addition to the costume was the popcorn on my head.  We had a few test popcorns and Stephen was brilliant and glued one to a headband.  The perfect finishing touch.

Park's Edge: Restaurant Review

It's been called one of Inman Park's best kept secrets, and I have to agree with that.  And it's a secret because unless you knew where you were going, there is no way you'd find Park's Edge.  The restaurant is tucked back off the main road, down a one-way street that seems to dead end more than once on your way to the parking lot.

I expected to be able to see more of a park from the patio, but I saw some cars and an old train track.  There wasn't much a view.  Was I missing something?  I went to Park's Edge for Sunday brunch with one of my friends for her birthday.  We met at 12:15 so we could take advantage of the bottomless mimosas or bellinis that started at 12:30 (silly GA law).  Our server was great and had the orders for the drinks in before 12:30 so right on the dot we had drinks at the table.

The menu has a wide variety of items that cover the range from sweet to savory.  I started my meal with the soup of the day, a corn chowder.  It was fantastic.  Down to the very last drop.  Instead of slices of bread to the table before our entrees came out, warm biscuits were delivered to the table.  If you're keeping track, before my meal actually came out I'd already had a biscuit and a hearty bowl of soup.

For my meal I ordered the Breakfast Croissant ($10).  It seems a little pricy but you've never seen a breakfast sandwich this large.  After all of my appetizers I was only able to finish half of the croissant.  My friend ordered the Demi's Chocolate Chip Seasonal Berry Pancakes ($11) with bacon.  The berries were blueberries on our morning.  I had a little bit of order envy when I saw her serving platter size pancakes come out of the kitchen.  She wasn't able to finish those either.

The atmosphere was nice, very calming colors and music and the wait staff was always around when needed but never too overbearing.  Our drink glasses were never less than half full before a second glass was placed on the table for us.  We had to tell her to cut us off.  The dining room was packed for a Sunday brunch, but with a ScoutMob deal, it's what I expected and we knew to make reservations.

As I've mentioned in another post, Sunday brunches are my favorite meal of the week, especially when they're with people I love.  Park's Edge is definitely a great place to bring a friend, date or visiting family. I can't wait to go back for dinner.

Halloween: a little teaser

Stephen and I are hosting a pretty big Halloween party at the house this Saturday night.  The past week has been getting ready for that party.  Every evening after work we've been decorating, crafting and carving to get ready for the big event.  I don't want to post pictures of our progress or costumes just yet, but believe me, they are going to be worth the wait.

I didn't want readers to think I'm not sticking to my New Thing Everyday theme, so here is a sneak peak of what we've been working on.  Check back next week to get the full update with pictures of all of our decorations, how to details and party pictures.

You'll have to wait and see what my mason jars will be.  I got the idea from a friend who is very crafty.  I'm testing my abilities, but not disappointed so far!

We carved 4 pumpkins last night, here is my first one.  Pictures of the other 3 to follow.  

Farm Burger: Restaurant Review

Most weekends the best part of Sunday morning is waking up past 10:00, staying in bed a little bit longer then heading to brunch with friends.  

This past Sunday a big group of us headed to Farm Burger in Decatur.  Atlanta seems to be the home to Frozen Yogurt shops and Burger restaurants.  I'm not complaining at all - I love them both.  

Besides being plentiful, the burger places that are opening are organic and the meat comes from grass fed cows.  Here is the official statement from Farm Burger on their website:  

Farm Burger wants you to think about your burger - what it is and where it's from. Our burgers are made from 100% grassfed beef that is dry-aged and ground fresh. Our cows are raised on the sweet grasses of the southeast, and never fed antibiotics, hormones, or grain. Our menu is seasonal and sourced from local farms. Our space is convivial and comfortable - because eating is a celebration to be shared. Our food makes ethical eating easy.

The menu definitely stays true to that statement.  As you build your burger, or chose from the few set burgers on the menu, you can add items such as oxtail marmalade, roasted bone marrow or pork belly.  Not items you'll find on the menu at Burger King.  The roasted bone marrow actually comes out in the bone.  Mabel spend the evening with the bone that night.  She's never been happier. 

I had a burger with gruyere cheese, local bacon and a side of french fries.  I should have upgraded to the sweet potato fries, but the regular ones are what fries should be - fresh cut and salty.  The burger was fantastic.  You have two choices when ordering, medium or well done.  Mine came out close to medium well and Stephen's was well done even though he'd ordered medium.  That's really the only complaint that anyone at our table had on the food.  Our meat temperature wasn't always consistent with how we ordered it.  The best part about the burgers being so fresh was that you're not super sleepy after you finish your meal.  

One note - get there early or plan to wait in line.  Some of our group tried to go on Saturday and the line wrapped around the building.  We were there at opening (11:30 on Sunday) and there was a line right away and seats were scarce once people started moving through the line.  

Farm Burger is a fantastic place for a burger, especially one a little outside the box.  There were tons of families on Sunday morning and the atmosphere is very welcoming to everyone.  The patio at the Decatur location was fabulous.  We'll be going back again.  Our burgers cost $12 each, so it's not an every weekend trip, but definitely a great option for a lazy Sunday morning with friends.  

French Onion Soup: New Recipe

I'm on a roll.  I made my second soup in the past month last night - French Onion Soup.  It's weird that I chose some FOS to make because I think I've only ordered it in a restaurant one or two times in my life, but just the thought of it warms my belly.  I should order it more.  And after my experience cooking it last night, I'll be making it a lot more too.

I originally found a recipe on one of my favorite blogs, How Sweet It Is.  The recipe cooked the soup in the crock pot and if you know me you know that I'm dying to find more great crock pot recipes.  Silly me, I didn't read all the way to the bottom of the recipe to see that after one hour of cooking it still needs 6-8 hours to cook on it's own.  So I'd gone to the store, purchased all of the ingredients I needed and told Stephen and Richard that I'd have dinner ready at 8:00pm.  If I stuck to the recipe, we would have been eating at 1:00am.  God Bless the Internet and iPhones.  How Sweet It Is - I'll be back to ya later.

Where did I find my night saving recipe - The Food Network.  It's like it was meant to be.  I bet if I had not freaked out and calmly gone into the office I would have found the recipe in one of the 20 Food Network Magazines I have on the bookshelf, but I didn't.  I used modern technology.  

Here is the actual recipe that I followed.  I made some minor tweaks (since I wasn't shopping off of this recipe to begin with) but it turned out fantastic.  French Onion Soup brought to you by Tyler Florence of Tyler's Ultimate tv show.  Please go to the actual recipe page for the step by step directions, but I'll include the ingredients here and let you know where I made some slight changes:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 4 onions, sliced (I got nervous with the size of the onion pile I had once I sliced all 4 onions - I used 3.5.  Don't be afraid - use 4 full onions)
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 bay leaves (No bay leaves used... I never remember Bay Leaves)
• 2 fresh thyme sprigs
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup red wine, about 1/2 bottle (I only had half a cup, so I used a half a cup of water with the half cup of wine)
• 3 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 quarts beef broth (get low sodium so you can control how salty you want the soup to be)
• 1 baguette, sliced
• 1/2 pound grated Gruyere (I got slices of Gruyere from the deli counter at the grocery store.  Much easier than grating it and cheaper)

Basic directions:

Slice onions and cook in the butter until soft, about 25 min.  Add wine and cook until evaporated (I had to drain the wine/water after 10 min).  Add flour and cook for 10 min.  Add beef broth and cook 10 min.  When ready to eat, place in bowls, top with bread and top bread with slice of cheese.  Broil until melted.

It was very easy and having done it once it will be easier for me the next time around.  It's almost Fall - start making some soup!

Zoo Atlanta through the Eyes of a 1-year-old

Saturday was a perfect weather day.  As our NBC Affiliate station in the market says, it was an 11-Alive day because it was an 11 out of 10.  I knew it was supposed to be a good weekend and I wanted to be outside as much as possible.  Living in a house without a pool makes it hard to hang out at the house outside.  Zoo Atlanta isn't too far away, only a mile, and I've wanted to take my little friend, Peyton, to the zoo for a long time.  She's 15 months now and I thought it was the perfect time.

Off we went!  It was such a great trip.  Peyton's friend, Grayson, and her mom, Courtney, joined us for the trip.  Five ladies spending the day at the zoo.

We were pretty unsure how the girls would react to the animals and being in a stroller for a few hours.  We were ready for them to be over it in one or two hours and we were okay with that.  It was also time for us adults to have some friend time.

The girls did WONDERFUL!  They waved at all the animals, they loved looking at all of the people walking by and being outside all day was great for them.  Some of the animals were scary for Peyton and she'd quickly wrap her arms and legs around me so I wouldn't feed her to the big, hairy animals.  I thought she'd love the gorillas but they were frightening for her.  Maybe in a few months we'll go back and she'll be ready for them.

The bird exhibits that we could walk through were the biggest hits, besides the playground.  In the first bird house you can buy a stick with bird food on it and they birds will come right up to you!  I wasn't sure how the girls would like it but they were very interested in the birds coming that close.  I'm pretty sure Peyton knew I wasn't going to feed her to the birds.

The petting zoo was great for Grayson but Peyton wouldn't get close to the goats or sheep without running back to me or her mom.  The other benefit of the petting zoo was that the girls could run around and no be in a stroller which was necessary for them to do after so long all locked up.  The girls just want to run!  After the petting zoo we headed to the playground.

Playgrounds with two 15 month old girls have to be one of my new favorite places.  The girls had such a great time running around the fort, sliding down the slide, driving the school bus and exploring.  We'd been at the zoo for close to 4 hours when we got to the playground so we let them run a bit then we headed home before anyone got sleepy.

That's right ladies and gentlemen.  Two toddlers made it 4 hours at Zoo Atlanta.  There were no tears.  No naps.  All smiles.

I highly recommend taking your kids to Zoo Atlanta.  We thought the girls might be a little bit too young, but they are just at the right age to start them out.  They have so many years of zoo visits ahead of them, I hope each one gets more and more exciting for them.