Weekend Recap

Heellooo blog buddies! I hope everyone enjoyed their weekends :)

Mine started off with a nice and easy 10 mile run. I ended up running it at 10:25 pace which is faster than I was aiming for, but my legs seemed to be ok with it. Again, I think I need someone to keep me on track! Anyway, when we got home, I had just enough time to give myself a pedicure and eat half a can of corn mixed with some chopped avocado and rice wine vinegar - random, I know but let's not forget what the fridge looked like.

Showered, packed and rushed out the door to begin our Baltimore adventure. We arrived at the hotel just as the bridal party was making its way out for some pre-ceremony photos and the bride was absolutely stunning! No joke - she looked like she belonged on the cover of a bridal magazine!

Since we got a primo parking spot right outside the hotel, Jamie, NY buddy and I decided to grab a cab to the ceremony. Unfortunately we forgot this wasn't the land o' frequent cabs and were left standing post-ceremony confused and lost. We wandered a bit and eventually found a busy street and sure enough a cab came by!

The reception was held at the George Peabody Library (conveniently located 2 blocks from the hotel) and was an amazing place for a reception. We started off in the Exhibition Gallery for the cocktail hour (with lots of yummy apps - crabcakes, mini raviolis, chicken skewers) and then the doors opened to the spectacular Reading Room/Stack Room for dinner.
My pictures don't do the space justice so here's a shot from the website:
It was such an awesome sight in person...and just the right size!

For dinner we had an Herbed Salad (oven roasted tomatoes, basil, arugula and micro-greens topped with toasted goat cheese and a basil chive vinaigrette)
and Chicken Chesapeake (chicken breast topped with fresh crabmeat and champagne shallot sauce) with a side of Roasted Asparagus and Potato Hash (cubes of sweet potatoes and yukon gold sauteed with caramelized onions).
Maryland doesn't mess around when it comes to crab. There were huge chunks of moist crab on top of my chicken...so huge that I was full after eating just the crab and a couple bites of chicken! Yum!

The vegetarian option was a Tomato Rice with Bok Choy and a Spinach Puff Pastry (like how I'm recruiting friends to photograph their dishes? hehe)
I didn't sample it, but the puff pastry thing looked pretty freaking tasty.

We did some dancing, took some girly (aww college neighbors/roomies!) photos
ate some cake
drank some wine and took some artsy photos
drank some more wine and took some silly photos (that will not be posted here haha) and a fabulous time was had by all! :)

As expected, the next morning wasn't so much fun :( In fact, I don't think any of us wanted to wake up to a bottle of this:
Though, it was a super cute and generous welcoming gift for guests :)

We were all hurting a bit from our late night antics and it took us a LONG while to get moving out of the hotel room and to a brunch place. After some Googling, we settled on City Cafe a restaurant recommended by the hotel just a few blocks away.

It was a fun looking restaurant and everything on the menu looked delicious AND reasonably priced. I was a little overwhelmed with all the options so I went with the Breakfast Burrito (scrambled eggs, chopped tomatoes, pepperjack cheese, flour tortilla, guacamole and salsa on the side) with sausage.
When I ordered my burrito, I expected the sausage to be all chopped up and mixed in with the egg (because doesn't that make sense??), but it just arrived on the side. A big fat, flat hunk o sausage. After chopping it up and shoving it in my burrito and making my usual ketchup/hot sauce mixture (yes, I'm like a 5 year old playing with my food), I jumped right into my meal and 10 minutes later, I feel ill...after half a burrito. Way too much egg. Way too much food too fast. Hungover belly wasn't happy so I happily sipped on my beverages:
Yes, all three of them (coffee, Pepsi w/grenadine since they didn't have Cherry Coke, and agua)!

Jamie drove us home and I kept switching off between zoning out and napping. At one point I remember thinking 'hm, I wonder what it would be like to not live in or immediately outside of a city?' I don't know why though...just one of those random thoughts I guess?

Strangely enough, I didn't nap when we got home. Instead, I finished my book (awesome, btw) and when Jamie woke up from his nap, we walked over to the Giant to restock our barren fridge. For some reason, I really wanted tomato soup with veggies so for dinner we had...
You guessed it! Tomato Soup with Veggies

Now, I wasn't about to make a soup from scratch in my state of blah so I had a little help from my friends, box soup
and beef stock...plus a few other helpers.

Super Lazy Tomato Soup
1 1/2 c tomato soup
1/2 c beef stock
3 tbsp cocktail sauce
1 tsp ketchup
1 c frozen mixed vegetables
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil

In a saucepan, heat olive oil and cook onion for 3 minutes. Add tomato and cook for another 3 minutes. Add frozen mixed vegetables and stir for 2 minutes.
Add soup, stock, cocktail sauce and ketchup, stir and simmer for 10 minutes.

I know you're thinking 'wait, did she REALLY use cocktail sauce and ketchup??' Yes, I did. I tasted my soup and it didn't have the all the tomatoey taste I wanted it to have so I worked with what I had...and we know I have a ton of condiments! I reached for the cocktail sauce because a) I like cocktail sauce and b) I thought the tomato and horseradishy thing would be a good addition. I tasted again and it was missing something else...something tart. AH HAA! Ketchup! So I went with a little squirt. It didn't hurt ;p

Since I'm home at a decent hour this evening (and I still feel like poop from Saturday) we ordered some sushi for dinner instead of going with our planned Claypot Chicken Curry. Jamie's cooking up a storm in the kitchen as we speak, preparing the curry for lunch/dinner tomorrow :)

Sorry for the long post! I'm off to think about what to submit for this week's BSI (lime!!) while snacking on some Reese's Pieces. Happy August :)