I knew this would happen. I want to move here NOW. And I’m depressed by the fact that I have 4 months of dietetic internship to get through before I get to spend more time in this awesome town and get our business started. So much excitement and planning to do and my mind has to be elsewhere

Time will fly.

We spent the afternoon exploring. I feel like I have a much better sense of direction after studying the map and driving the main roads.

After driving back to our hopeful location spot, we made our way to the downtown mall to see what was going on.

So much going on!

We are not sure where we will rent yet. We’re torn between a house – like what we’re used to with space and storage – or our last chance to live in some cool lofty condo near downtown, which I think would be totally awesome. We found some lofts right near the mall that look really cool. Decisions!!

Then we explored the north western part of Cville – including a nice 45 minute walk on UVA’s campus.

Soon enough it was 5:00 and we were getting hungry. Errr, thirsty!

Two beer-lovin’ boys were thirsty for something brewed.

I had a few sips of Matt’s DELICOIUS Sierra Nevada Barley Wine!

After another hour of near-continuous Great Harvest talk, we made our way back to the mall for dinner.

We’ve tried Zocalo and Petit Pois, so tonight we gave Blue Light Grill a try.

Swank + modern seafood.

I was in the mood for a juicy red.

But also loved Matt’s Starr Hill Love

I decided to go a little light on dinner, although how can you ever really go "light" in a restaurant!?

I ordered the Butternut Squash and Apple Soup with Maple Creme. It was awesome. Not too heavy and very, very flavorful!!

Matt got the smoked trout spread and shared with me. SOOO good!

Zeb also shared a bite of his mac and cheese with us!

Entrees included –

The Arugula, Apple, Butternut and Fennel Salad for me. It was great and the perfect amount, but I wish the butternut had not been raw!

Seared Tuna over a Parsnip Puree with Mushrooms + Spinach for Matt. Of course I tried some bites.

And a really nice grilled steak for Zeb. He shared a bite with us!

I still had room after dinner so we feasted on GELATO!

I sampled many flavors and settled on the hazelnut and chocolate sorbet, which was like fudge. I could have eaten 10 of these!

Back at the hotel because Zeb has an early flight back to Montana. And I have a morning date with some KERF readers for my first taste of Bikram yoga!! I’m nervous!

Sleep tight

Par-tay in the neighborhood!

Came home from work and cleaned up the house for tomorrow’s open house. SO glad we did it this afternoon and not tomorrow morning when we’re rushing around! Matt is working and I’m going running and we want to be able to sleep in and enjoy breakfast! The house is totally spick-n-span at the moment

I wanted a snack at 4 but never got around to making one and before I knew it I was headed to dinner and my hunger had disappeared. Weird! Guess that means I didn’t need one in the first place.

We got to Big Daddy’s Burger Bar an hour early so we could put in a request for our table for 12. They don’t take reservations!

Matt and I put our name in and then went for a walk.

Not smart! The wind was killer. So we went back inside Big Daddy’s to warm back up after only 20 minutes. We waited at the bar for about an hour, but time went by fast and soon enough we were joined by our friends! Matt ordered a beer, but I was happy just standing and chatting.

We were finally seated (although since I was expecting a long wait it didn’t bother me at all tonight)

I couldn’t decide if I wanted a drink or not. I wanted to taste a beer, but I didn’t really want the alcohol. Esp. with my run tomorrow. So I settled for a compromise and ordered a beer sampler and gave two of them to Matt.

I kept the two dark ones – Brooklyn Brown and Sam Winter Warmer. I’m clearly a dark kinda girl.

Our friends ordered the fried pickles, which were AMAZING! Long strips!! They were nice and shared with the table and I had a few strips. Love pickles!

Friendzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

The birthday girl!!

For dinner I got non other than the infamous Big Daddy’s Black Bean Burger on top of a big salad. Perfection! My salad had romaine, spinach, bell peppers, cuc, corn, mushrooms, pineapple, blue cheese, a few scant walnuts and orange honey mustard on the side.

The burger was totally awesome!! Very doughy!!!! A little too oniony for me, but the texture won out.

I could have easily finished this salad, but the combination of thinking about saving some for leftovers and a trip to Tasty-Yo coming up made me put down my fork and stop eating.

Matt got a beef burger and shared a bite with me, along with some of his sweet patater fries.

But GET THIS: I took a bite of his burger and mmmmmed my way through chewing. Big Daddy’s serves grass-fed beef and I was excited to read that. Then Matt took a bite of MY burger and said "I wish I had gotten that black bean burger – so good!!’

Just a minute later our server came out with a tray with a burger on top – a beef burger – and apologized that Matt had gotten the black bean burger instead.

BOTH of us were fooled to think the black bean burger was beef!! That’s how good it was. We laughed hard.

No birthday occasion is complete without dessert, so we caravanned over to Tasty-Yo for a treat!

I am a plain kinda girl, but I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and get the Blueberry-Acai tonight. In swirl form. With blackberries, coconut and graham cracker (and a free wafer!)

It was good, but the blueberry reminded me of real flavored yogurt too much and I’m going back to plain! This size small was waaay too big and I really only wanted a few bites; However, when you have a froyo in your hands it is impossible not to keep spooning it into your mouth until it’s all gone!

Happy B-Day Emily!!

NITE!

Happy Valentine’s to me! I bought three new books at Barnes + Noble with giftcards from Matt’s dad for Xmas. Well, technically Matt and I bought each other the gifts

This 150 Healthiest Foods book is awesome!!! I just picked it off the shelf and really liked what he had to say. I’ve been reading Nicholas Sparks since The Notebook so I got the new one on that (although his first 2 books were by far the best). And Michael Pollan rules and so does food!! (I like to think the title means Food Rules and Dogs Drool and not so much ‘rules’ as in commands )

While we were in B + N we ran into Diana and Dan!!!!!!!!

And then we followed each other over to EarthFare and got to chat up food talk while we kept crossing paths when we shopped.

I’m trying a new milk – a local creamery. It was less expensive than the EarthFare Organic milk, and while this milk isn’t organic, it is local and if EarthFare sells it it’s bound to be good.

I also found two new yogurts to cheer up my 5-days-a-week lunchbox!

And two baby squashies!

We almost got EarthFare soup + salad bar for dinner….but Diana convinced me my original Valentine’s idea was worth doing. And I’m so glad I did it!!

Baked tofu hearts!!

Cut dried block into slabs

Matt cut one big heart by hand, but we decided the cookie cutter was a much better tool and size

How much would kids love this!?

We baked them at 375* for about 20-25 minutes (after spraying with cooking spray) and made the BBQ sauce in this recipe. We baked them dry though and added the sauce as a dipper.

We also roasted the squashes for lunches

And sweet potato cubes for dinner!

Lots of pans!

I made the night special with a POMpagne – POM and seltzer.

Matt loved it!! Haha

Dinner turned out so great!!!!

Tofu with BBQ sauce dipper

Sweet potatoes with maple syrup dipper. These were the BEST sweet potatoes we have ever cooked!! 400* tossed in a little canola oil and roasted for about 30 minutes. They were perfect pillows of marshmallow!! These were also organic sweet potatoes, so maybe they had more flavor than the ones I’ve been used to?

The last menu item was some steamed napa cabbage with mustard, cidar vinegar and pecans

Gotta have a little sumptin’ for dessert on Valentine’s!

We did a chocolate tasting complemented with some Sandeman Port that I was sent to review (still loving my wine review job, but only had a thimble size due to last night’s overdose!)

Matt and I both LOVE port! This one was beautifully thick, rich and sweet and did not have much of that nutty taste that often accompanies ports. I really loved it – it was very much like a dessert wine. Matt missed the nut a little, but his palate isn’t as important

The featured chocolates included….

VeggieGirl Vosges Peanut Butter Bonbon, VeggieGirl Futter Butter Organic Vegan Caramel Confections. Liz is too generous and obviously loves to fill me with chocolates!!!! And lastly some Gail Ambrosius Dark Chocolates filled with Wisconsin Crave Brothers Mascarpone that I was sent from Cheese Cupid for Valentine’s! These have the creamiest chocolate filling – must be that cheese. And the dark chocolate was awesome. I heart dark chocolate!!

They were each sooooo good for different reasons. If I had to pick a favorite though, the Vosges combo of sea salt and peanut butter with dark chocolate was just deeeee-vine!!!

Going to snuggle on the couch before bedtime <3

Back tracking to this morning… school was on a two-hour delay!!! When I got up at 5 the Charlotte radio announcers said school was on so I assumed that meant all over the state (or they might have said "except the following school districts") Turns out my system didn’t call the delay till about 5:45, so I was almost on my way by then! I got an email from my preceptor that I didn’t read till I was in the parking lot ready to go in.

I had an hour to kill before she arrived and decided to make good use of the time by first getting freezing cold and then warming back up with more coffee. Let me explain.

I am completely nuttzo! I thought it would be fun to walk on the Salisbury Greenway….in about 26*!!

I’m not afraid of a little cold or ice

Just starting out, bundled with my scarf and gloves

And plenty of entertainment!!!

A passed a frozen lake

Watched the sun rise

And then started to become Rudolf and got REALLY cold. I guess I wasn’t moving fast enough with all the stops for photos! I turned around after 15 minutes and hot-tailed it back to my car. I was completely numb on the front when I got there!

Nothin’ a nice Honda heater and cup of coffee can’t fix. I stopped into Port City Java for a half decaf coffee with steamed milk on top.

I had a fun assignment today – sample some recipes at the high school lunch! The black bean salsa and veggie pasta salad from yesterday. I headed over around 11 and got everything ready. I was a real cafeteria lady!!! We had pretty good success getting the kids to try the recipes, and we think they liked them! [The pasta more than the beans for sure ] I loved getting to interact with the kids. They were funny. I think one asked for my phone number!! Oh, and I forgot to say that yesterday a lady asked me how old I was and said I looked like I was about 12, not 27! Guess that’s cause my name is YOUNGER!

In between second and third lunch I sat down to eat with my co-worker. I made quite the tray!!

A salad with bean salsa on top (I picked out the onions ), a few chips, a pasta salad cup (picked that onion right off the top!), oranges and frozen blueberries. It was an awesome lunch! [And I have no idea how my breakfast held me over from 6AM to 12:30PM).

Roobios tea to warm up around 2

An apple around 3

And this guy at 4:30 for my commute home. If I’m going to workout after work, I can’t be hungry when I get there or I will have no energy. This guy held me over really well. I really like these bars!

I came home to flowers!!! Matt said I could use some day brightening He also got me some crunchy almonds!! I had a few as a pre-workout snack.

I was totally pumped to get in a workout today since I took yesterday off. I was NOT happy, however, about leaving Matt. I wanted to stay and hang out with him. But I told him I’d be back in an hour max and zipped over to the gym. I did 40 EASY minutes on the Stairmaster. Maybe the easiest ever!? I wasn’t even out of breath and barely sweating doing 100 steps a minute. I think that’s just how much I wanted to be there. Stretched for all of 2 minutes and made my way back home for dinner where Matt was busy cooking….

Vegetable Fried Rice!

He cooked 1/2 a cup of brown rice in broth on the side. Then sauteed green beans, yellow squash, red pepper, a bit of broccoli and 1/3 a cup of black-eyed peas in about 2 tsp of canola oil. Then he added Tamari and rice wine vinegar to taste (he went light). Then he added the rice and combined and then broke 2 eggs over the top and stirred it all together over medium heat until the eggs were cooked.

I ate out of the bowl I brought back from Kenya!

Topped with some sriratcha of course -

And a tiny fork!

After cleaning up the kitchen and putting my sweets to bed,  I had more sweets. A bit of TEMPT Vanilla Bean with half a mashed banana and a tiny blob of peanut butter – plus cacao nibs! It was a really fun dessert.

Annnndddd I had the last Brownie Points Outsider, which I stumbled upon when retrieving the ice cream

Going to read or watch TV or something relaxing. After I sort through all of my emails from the day. It’s already really challenging to manage the blog and all my emails on my new schedule since I don’t have internet at work. I’m sure I’ll figure out a method. And I hope you guys are OK with two posts a day for now I hope to do more iPhone blogging at lunch when I get more settled in!

In all my life I have never understood the phrase uttered by so many mothers (and grandmothers). What IS a "stomach ache" anyways!? Tonight I found out

Michelle and Ben invited us over for the perfect holiday party complete with all of your favorite hors d’oeuvres, cookies, music, costumed dogs, and decor.

You know all of those "rules" that the women’s magazines impose?

• "Don’t mindlessly eat"
• "Sit down with a plate of food"
• "Stay away from nuts and high-fat foods"
• "Fill up on veggies so you stay away from desserts"

I say GUF to those rules. If you go to a fabulous holiday party every single weekend night between Thanksgiving and Christmas, then you might want to set some guidelines, but this was one of few parties in our season this year, and any form of restriction would have just left me unsatisfied. Michelle had so much wonderful food, and it all tasted so delicious!! If you want any of her recipes, please visit her blog! There are no "this is what I ate" photos because I ate it all

My contribution to the party was a cheese platter of cheeses sent to me by Wisconsin Cheese Cupid, a site where you can pair wine + cheese and cheese + wine. The site is actually really well done and tells you which wines suit each cheese best and vice versa.

My board had:

Arla Foods Dofino Edam, Widmer’s Cheese Cellars’ Cheddar, Belgioioso Cheese Blue, and Roth Käse Gruyère.

I made a little card with each to tell which beverages were recommended

Michelle and I tasted

And approved!! The BLUE cheese was out of this world!!! I also really like the stinky Edam.

Coincidentally Michelle had some Riesling out and it was on all four serving cards. I have to agree with the recommendation!

Taste.

Bite.

Beg.

Cooper got a bone instead!

Diana + Dan’s Bailey and another dog (a Penny look-alike), Marley, also joined the party in costume!

After a few hours of grazing, the desserts really put me over the edge and I got the worst stomach ache!! My upper chamber was about to burst!! I think I even ate the centerpiece..

Thankfully my stomach settled and I feel better now. I have finally learned not to drink too much alcohol (it’s just natural now for me to stop after 1-2 drinks) but I still haven’t learned that eating too much will make me feel sick. All in good time.

Happy Holidays to all and to all a good night!

Flight snacks

Followed by a smooth ride home via fancy car service provided by Bertolli Sauce!

Followed by a warm welcome home with an over-the-top meal and hot back-to-normal husband!

Dinner was on the table – perfect timing for my delayed flight to arrive!!

Homemade Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Sautéed Sweet Kale

Matt followed Alton Brown’s recipe to a T – butternut squash, potato, flour, sage plus Parrano cheese. He says you can find the recipe online (and that it’s rather time intensive but totally worth it!)

It was amazing, especially after coming home from a looooong day of traveling and snacks.

On the side we had sauteed kale in apple cider vinegar, agave nectar and garlic. A HUUUGE pile to get some more fiber back in me!!

I didn’t finish the whole bowl and intentionally saved about 1/3 to pack for tomorrow night’s dinner!

Glad to be home with my gentlemen! (And my GOSH how much I love this computer!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I also came home to a CROCKPOT sent to me by reader JOY who had 3 from her wedding and offered to give me one. Thanks so much Joy!!!

Also found some new tubes of Mix My Granola. They sure like keeping my supply flowing!

The mix this time is HALLOWEEN inspired – candy corn, peanut M&Ms, hazelnuts, apricots and organic granola. I had a little handful for dessert!

I am off to take the bubble bath I have been dreaming about since about 2PM. I need to SOAK! Hoping to do a little YogaDownload when I’m done. And hoping to smell like the EO products I picked up at Foodbuzz!

Guesswhat!? No more traveling [with the exception of one overnight trip to my parents'] until Christmas!!

But tonight it was all about the veggies!!! After a weekend of chocolate and wine, this dinner was much appreciated. We met at The Plant Cafe in the Marina and it totally rocked my socks. The menu was so extensive of wonderful organic + creative dishes.

It was an order-at-the-counter place, which worked out perfectly for a group of 11!

Some of the bloggers: Holly, Lauren, Amber, Kelly, and Cara (coming soon!). Plus Stacey, Chrissy, Katharine and her boyfriend visiting from Baltimore.

I totally wanted an Anchor Steam but they didn’t have ANY dark beers on the menu. I got a zinfandel instead.

For dinner I was totally craving a huge salad and ordered the Thai Crunch with Baked Tofu. It was totally fresh and filled with herbs. Loved every bite and I could not stop eating it!!

After topping with the tofu –

Holly shared her mango spring rolls, which were nothing other than perfectly simple + fresh

And Chels and I split the hummus plate. We had too much good food!! The hummus was fabulous and I ate a number of bites over my salad – and a few pita too.

The signature dish was The Plant beet, lentil + bulgur veggie burger. Many of my tablemates got it! I had a bite of Chelsea’s and it was really good.

I couldn’t help but notice a huge selection of desserts as we walked in…

So we decided to try out the vegan German chocolate cake! I had probably 1/3 of it – loved the coconut!

"Cheers to internet friends!"

What another incredible day! I am so grateful for my time spent on Bald Head. Like they say in the movies, “times stops” here.

The day started with a family walk -

Surprise Buzz!

We made friends with lots of wildlife on our walk -

Hello Duke!

Old Baldy

A monkey

Sportin’ KERF

Our walk was marsh view and totally fun

A blue heron -

And a cute puppy!

A late lunch -

Leftover salad with feta + walnuts and grapes and leftover shrimp and tortilla chips

And a cheesy roll

The Inn we’re staying in has a cookie jar….

I resisted it thus far, but I had a delicious cookie after lunch

And then we said goodbye to mom and dad

After some debate on what to do next, beer + beach were both mentioned

Yesterday when we threw out the Operation Beautiful bottle, it only went about 10 feet and then came back ashore. Bummer! Today, Matt took it waaaaay out there [in the freezing water] and threw it hard.

Success! It went way out there and drifted out with the tide.

After a chilly hour or in the beach, we came inside for some sports.

Soccer!!! Matt A. is turning from Matt Allen to Matt Athlete because he is not only a star runner, but a star soccer player too!

OK, I won’t lie. They brought New Castle for hydration! We played sports for about 40 minutes and we got thirsty!

A lonely cocktail hour without our parents. I had some Reisling

Family portraits -

For entertainment we played a version of Trivial Pursuit that let us keep our own score -

Larbs demonstrating a penguin’s foot -

After cocktail hour we hopped on the golf cart to head to dinner

We went to the Bald Head Island Club for dinner. Our first time there, so we were in the reviewing mode.

A delicious Shriaz

Cheers!

We had the fried oysters to start – and they were fabulous!

I had the crab cakes for my meal.

But we played the rotate-your-plates game, so we all had a taste of everything. Matt A.’s vanilla fish was the best, followed by my crab cakes and them Matt’s cornmeal fish and then Larbs’ gumbo.

We couldn’t resist an Apple Pie a la mode and Carrot Cake  for dessert

And when we returned, the last bite of birthday cake.

‘Twas a super festive and fun evening!

But totally time for bed!

The day started out beautiful – Operation Beautiful!

Caitlin is calling for creative submissions for the Operation Beautiful book. With beach on the mind, I thought a message in a bottle would be fun. How cool would it be for someone to find this a few months from now and email Caitlin!

Capping the bottle (former New Castle glory!)

After our project, we set out on our kayaking adventure -

Two hours of beautiful marsh later….

It was way past lunchtime and we were hungry. We quickly made our way to the beach for lunch, thankful we’d already packed up sandwiches

We had Whole Grain Goodness with pepper jack and ham and honey mustard

We also packed a bag of produce each – an apple, a carrot, some grapes

And some Barney Butter!

Matt put some on his apple

And me on my carrot!

I didn’t end up eating my apple due to being full from some home brew x2 small cups

The afternoon was spend with this. I finally finished the book. It wasn’t my favorite, but it did get really good by the end. Can’t WAIT to see the movie. Love Rachel McAdams!

Around 5PM the clouds started rolling in

Booo. But as soon as I was packed up and ready to go, the sun came back out and we stayed another hour playing frisbee!

The next event on the agenda was cocktail hour! Best time of day and the most fun times with mi familia.

We had quac and chips (I had just a few of each)

And some Toad Hollow Chardonnay from Healdsburg!

Matt did a peach barley wine tasting, but I was not a fan

Around 8PM, we started on dinner.

Toasting walnuts for the salad –

Homemade dressing with 3 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp honey mustard, 2 tbsp lemon, pinch salt, pepper and garlic salt and a big 2 glugs of orange juice –

On the menu –

Confetti Shrimp + Grits with Feta + Walnut Salad + Honey Wheat Rolls

The Shrimp + Grits Variation Here!

Carolina shrimp sautéed with carrot, peppers, baby spinach and Old Bay

This huuuuuge batch of "grits" was really a mixture of millet and amaranth cooked with butter and drizzled with agave nectar –

The salad was a simple green leaf lettuce with tomato, mushroom, feta and walnuts we toasted in a skillet

What would a Younger-Monson meal be without Great Harvest Honey Wheat Rolls!?

And of course wines..

I had some Bianco

Everything was delicious

Shared my roll with Matt –

Cheers –

Splash – O – Red

After we digested a bit (walks / swinging / etc. ) we rendezvoused (sp?!) for cake!

Our family friend Sara Coleman started a bakery in Raleigh – The Cupcake Shoppe. Last night’s cupcakes came from her bakery, and she made the Octoberfest birthday cake just for us.

We dined on candy corn while we prepared the cake!

Mom did a hilarious reading in honor of our birthdays about a papa who doesn’t like onions [neither Larbs or I do]. Hilarious.

I procrastinated celebrated the end of 26 years with 2.5 slices

It was vanilla bean with strawberry buttercream filling. My was it delicious!

The leftover wedge.

Larbs and I exchanged gifts. We got her Crate + Barrel placemats + napkins and she and Matt got me….STEMLESS WINE GLASSES!! So in love.

Everyone else is dreaming of sugar plums and I am still typing.

Goodnight!

We had a little snip, snip action from our friend Kris today!! She came over to cut Matt’s hair and I couldn’t resist requesting an appointment as well. Don’t worry, we tip her well

Afterwards we went out for a photo shoot ’cause I know you guys would ask to see the results!

Stella got her layers back Just a few…

Matt got me in action

His looked cute as well! Perfect. Cut.

Old farts

While we were outdoors we encountered some wildlife -

He’s staring us down!! The biggest praying mantis ever.

My day was made when the mail truck came and I got a card from my mom – along with a little spending money for some fall clothes! Too bad I have to share it with Matt Thanks mom!

Dinner was quick + easy + involved only one pan.

A Trader Joe’s salmon patty baked and topped with Tribal Moose Cranberry BBQ Sauce and Fig Goat Cheese. Served over spinach + Flax Oat Bran.

Roasted brussels. 400* for about 20-25 minutes after being tossed in some olive oil, maple syrup, salt and pepper.

I added some more maple to mine! They were sooo good. I can’t believe i ate the whole pile!

I was  missing a little sumptin’ after dinner and decided to make some Banana Ice Cream.

So heavenly. Remind me of that the next time I complain about cleaning the food processor, which I just threw into the dishwasher tonight. (We only run ours every few days so I hate using up all of the space with this dish!)

Topped with a little PB and cacao nibs. Deliciously filling.

A Limerick

So I asked Matt to draft some text for an invitation to send to our family members for Thanksgiving. I was super impressed with his creativity when he came up with this!!

A Limerick.

As long as Kath is living,
the responsibilities, she’ll be divvying.
The task falls to me
to write wittily
and invite you all to Thanksgiving.

Our menu is most ambitious:
Besides turkey (incredibly delicious),
It’s rich Fall flavors,
in food sweet and savor,
Cuisine that’s truly nutritious.

Corn pudding signifies Autumn,
And oysters, you’ll think we caught ‘em.
There’s fresh homebrewed beer
(it’s pumpkin this year!),
The desserts, I hope someone brought ‘em!

So please makes plans for vacation,
Our guest room’s taking reservations.
It wouldn’t be the same
unless the whole family came
to the ultimate seasonal celebration!

Wish we could invite you all!!!

***

I would love to stay and chat but it is dark and scary down here in the living room and I want to go upstairs where there are [hopefully] less chances for bug sightings!