Forgive me for not posting over St. Patrick’s Day. We had enough of our own shenanigans to deal with without even stepping foot in an Irish pub full o’ hooligans.

We still needed a drink or ten after this mess though…

Jeff got rear-ended on his way home from work and the offender drove off! He’s in a rental for now as the repairs will probably run for 3 to 4 weeks.

We were pretty stressed after that and weren’t exactly in the mood for a crowded pub, even though The Marlay had a bunch of fun festivities planned and had extended their patio for the growing crowds.

We opted for Thai instead, at Garlic again because it’s awesome and because we could walk there (rather than try to drive while nervous and end up with two wrecked cars.)

I started with a cocktail called The Mission. It was essentially a Thai-inspired Manhattan made with Thai whiskey. Good and strong!

Jeff had a Tokyo Black porter beer. I love the little half-naked sumo dude on it!

We split this basket of calamari. Each piece was lightly fried in tempura batter and wasn’t the least bit greasy. It was coated in a spicy-sweet chili sauce that we were mopping up.

I decided I was gonna order something way outside my usual, so I went with pineapple fried rice. Woah! It was amazing! It was like every single grain of rice was bathed in a delicious coating of caramelized pineapple juices. It had a wonderful oniony note running through it and was packed full of juicy chicken and bouncy shrimp.

The plan was to then either hit up The Marlay to grab a pint or head over to Thinking Man’s Tavern and crash at the bar. Both of us were just too tired though. The adrenaline from Jeff’s car wreck had worn off and by that time we just wanted to go home and curl up with warm cats and Netflix, which is exactly what we did.

Honestly though, aside from the mauled car that we nearly had paid off, we spent St. Patrick’s Day doing exactly what we wanted.

Also, I didn’t wear green all day and never got pinched! I must be lucky, right?

March 19, 2011 Alayna Discussion 7 comments

I’m starting to feel like just maybe this warm weather is here for good now. These comfortable temps have finally inspired me to break out my blender for the first smoothies of the year this week!

Normally, I wouldn’t quit drinking smoothies in the colder months, but our apartment has been so uncomfortably cold all winter that I couldn’t bear to even think about choking down a frigid smoothie while my nose was numb with near-frostbite. This past winter was hard on me and I’ve been begging for it to get warm enough to not have to wear several layers of clothes to bed at night with the space heater cranked up to 11.

So, this little life hack is something that I’ve had to wait a long time to be able to share on the blog— hope you find it as game-changing as I did.

Don’t be fooled, the smoothie pictured above may look a fruity shade of red, but I assure you it’s heart is green!

I don’t think many people are phased by the thought of putting green leafy stuff in their smoothies anymore, and that’s a great thing. I know I don’t eat enough greens, they’re not my favorite things in the world, so learning that I could puree them into a smoothie to the point that they become nearly undetectable was a lifesaver.

There’s just one problem, my blender is not nearly powerful enough to liquify fresh spinach or kale, so what i end up with is always more of a chunky chewy cold soup. It can be pretty unpleasant to gulp down a smoothie that is little more than soft mulch, no matter how good it tastes. But luckily I’ve come up with a solution that has pretty much solved the problem for me (at least until the day I get a high-speed blender that can truly annihilate everything in its path.)

Frozen spinach.

Not just any frozen spinach though. I’m talking about taking loose fresh spinach, bagged or bunched, and sticking it in the freezer. Not the cooked stuff that comes in a box in the freezer aisle and comes out in a giant green brick, you gotta use the fresh stuff.

I stick a bag of loose bagged spinach directly in the freezer. For bunched though, I would wash and trim it then allow it to dry on a towel before freezing it in a single layer on a baking sheet.

When the spinach freezes, it becomes extremely brittle and fragile. The leaves don’t stick together but freeze individually, so it’s easy to portion out how much you need. When this stuff hits the blades in even my weak little blender, it shatters into teeny tiny little pieces, not totally obliterated like a high-speed blender would do but small enough to feel like a drink instead of a fruit porridge.

It was wonderful to drink a smoothie that was actually smooth when I got back from my run today.

A cold smoothie is so good after a hot run in the sun!

This one had frozen strawberries, frozen spinach, silken tofu, maca powder, chia seeds, coconut water, almond milk, and a little bit of leftover citrus-flavored kombucha.

Good stuff.

Maybe this hack isn’t news to anyone, but it sure has changed my smoothies tremendously, so I thought I’d share.

What’s your favorite smoothie recipe?

March 17, 2011 Alayna Discussion 11 comments

You know what I love about blogging? Bloggers!

It is so much fun to meet the people behind the blogs in person, and it’s easy because everyone kind of feels like they already know each other. And of course, we all have something in common that we can talk about!

The group met up at 5 Seasons in Sandy Springs. I was so happy that nearly everyone started out by enthusiastically ordering beer. I got a scotch ale that they were having for a limited time. It was really tasty, very roasty with some coffee and chocolate flavors.

The turkey burger was great, not dry and crumbly like so many bird burgers are. Didn’t love the sweet potato fries, they were too soft and had soaked up a lot of oil. They were pretty good dipped in the cranberry sauce intended for my burger though.

I was soooo hungry…

Our waiter dropped off a huge mug of free beer. He plopped it down right in front of Lee who already had a beer of her own. Of course I offered to “help” her with it, can’t pass up a free beer, right? 😉

Amazingly, we didn’t talk too much about blogging. Everyone was very open and sweet, so we got to learn a great deal about each other over the course of the evening.

From left to right: Myself, Lee, Sarena, Tina, Laura, Kristy, Stacy, Laura, and Laura.  Yes, three Lauras, we are children of the 80’s after all.

If you’re ever in Atlanta hit us up!

March 13, 2011 Alayna Discussion 8 comments