Hey there! Did you have a good weekend? Did you do fun things? Supposedly, it’s the (unofficial) last weekend of summer… but somebody needs to tell the weather that. Oh my is it hot here. Anyway, let’s talk about all the fabulous things that this weekend held!
So much good food
On Friday, as a celebration of my mom’s new job, we went to Ocean Club and I had probably the best meal I’ve had all summer. We started with their fresh cracked wheat sourdough bread and soft pretzel sticks. I ordered twin lobster tails with asparagus and drawn butter, and the three of us split the black truffle mac & cheese and smoked Gouda-stuffed tater tots as sides.
Oh, and I neglected to mention dessert. Oops. Well, you know I’m a chocolate person through and through. We very strongly considered getting the chocolate peanut butter pie. How can you go wrong with that? But we were also very intrigued by the warm butter cake. The waitress convinced us to go for the butter cake, calling it “heaven in your mouth”.
Oh. My. Goodness. It so was. It was rich and buttery, had a crunchy layer of caramelized sugar on the outside, a dense-but-somehow-light crumb, and perfectly moist interior. There was vanilla ice cream melting into it and down the sides, and it was served with a tart raspberry sauce and fresh berries. So. Good. And my new goal is to make exactly that cake. Wow. Alright, moving on now.
Saturday, the foodie highlights included a surprisingly delicious Chocolate Duet with Walnuts sandwich cookie from Panera and homemade tacos.
Sunday, we went to Dirty Frank’s for dinner. I might have mentioned my love for hot dogs in the past. Well, this is a restaurant full of them. I (halfheartedly) tried to branch out, but I ended up with a Chicago dog because I love them so much. We also got fries and soft pretzels to share.
We were a little confused as to why the pretzels looked to be soaking the paper in oil, but they fry their pretzels. If you’ve never had a fried pretzel, do yourself a favor and do it! It makes the exterior perfectly crunchy and brings out a little sweetness to counteract the salt. The sriracha mustard they serve ’em with is also a genius concept.
{Chicago dog + fresh French fries}
And I closed out the night with the best Reese’s Blizzard I’ve had all summer. Yessss.
Sunday, we enjoyed a bunch of City Barbeque for lunch and dinner. Shredded meat + two kinds of barbeque sauce = bliss.
Tons of family time
After our nice dinner on Friday, my parents and I hung out for a while and watched Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. We’re almost finished with the season, which will leave us plenty of time to binge-watch Homeland before I leave next week. 😉 My mom and I did some crafty stuff to help home-ify my dorm room on Saturday (I’ll post pictures when it’s all done!) before we watched a football with my dad.
On Sunday, I got to catch up on political analysis shows with my dad in the morning. Then, my mom and I organized and cleaned out our closets a bit, did some college packing, and went shopping before meeting up with my dad for our hot dog dinner.
Monday, we spent time at my grandparents’ house with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. We took some “cousin pictures”, ate some barbeque, played games, and caught up. It’s the last time we’ll all get together before I head back to Chicago, and it was nice to see everyone!
The start of college football season
On Saturday, my parents and I watched the Alabama-Wisconsin game. On Monday, Ohio State’s season started, so my family gathered in the rec room to watch. The Buckeyes won! 😀 Guys, I love college football season. It just makes me happy. It’s how you know I grew up in Columbus. 😉
And that, my friends, pretty much sums up my fabulous weekend.
What’s the best meal you’ve had lately?
Are you a football fan?
Did you do anything fun this weekend?
I don’t blame you for ending up with a Chicago dog, since they are the best kind of hot dog 🙂 And smoked Gouda-stuffed tater tots sound like heaven.
They were awesome! I’d never had cheesy tater tots before, but now… how did I eat them any other way? 😉
I am soo happy it’s once again college football season! I went to our first home game on Saturday- Go BULLS!
So fun!
I love Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt! I’ll be excited when the next season comes out :)I spent lots of time with my fam this weekend and caught up on rest, which was SO refreshing and wonderful!
That sounds like the perfect weekend to me!
Man, that cake sounds delicious, but I think I would’ve gone with the chocolate peanut butter pie, chocolate pb fiend that I am. 😉 I used to watch football with my granddad, as he loved football, but I was really little and didn’t understand it. We watched the Superbowl a year and a half ago, because we’re from Seattle (and we were old enough to appreciate watching football and seeing the Seahawks play now), plus my dad really enjoys football. But I honestly could take it or leave it.
I went on a shopping spree to Goodwill and Whole Foods…special treat and VERY fun! Perhaps a shopping trip to Goodwill with everything being 50% off was maybe not our best idea ( 😛 ), but still…I love clothes shopping, so I still had a great time.
Our grandparents took us to the Outback Steakhouse about week ago and it was such a treat! I ordered crab, which was wonderful, but my sister ordered lobster, which I knew I loved, but I couldn’t decide which I liked better. She let me have a taste of her lobster, and I think now I’d say I prefer that, though I still really love crab. So that was a pretty amazing meal…I also made myself a pretty awesome tortilla wrap for lunch the other day using some Peruvian Chicken I’d made from Against All Grain’s cookbook “Meals Made Simple” + some spring mix + Minimalist Baker’s garlic dill sauce <- that sauce makes it!! Love hearing about your amazing eats! 🙂
Aw that sounds like a lovely weekend! I debated between crab and lobster on Friday night like crazy, but I really don’t think you can go wrong with those two 🙂