"When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible." - When Harry Met Sally

With so many weddings to celebrate this year (3 down, 6 to go), its nice to stop and remember our own journey.  Six years ago June 14, B popped the question.  We always remember the date fondly because when we called his grandmother to tell her the news, she exclaimed, "And what a lovely day to get engaged, Flag Day."  Although we don't do presents or anything like that, we always try to enjoy a nice meal out (shocker I know).  This year, we decided to try Ela, a relative newcomer to the Queen Village neighborhood.

We arrived a bit early to enjoy a couple of cocktails before dinner.  I started with the "Last Chance to Lose Your Keys", tequila with rosemary, kaffir lime, and "citruses", and B had the "Daisy", hendrick’s gin with rhuby, cucumbers, and lemon.

 [Daisy on the left, Last Chance on the right]

Both were clean and refreshing, but the rosemary didn't play as well with the rest of my cocktail as I would have liked.  Next I switched to champagne but B tried one more from the "Elixir" menu, the "My Nine Rides Shotgun", bulleit rye whiskey with amaro meletti, green chartreuse, and passion fruit.  I typically hate all things burbon but this cocktail made me regret my champagne order (that's when you know its serious).

Once seated, we ordered the oysters.

They had a nice brine but were small enough to still be sweet, and despite the creativity of the accompaniments, dill pickle bits and a bacon foam, the oysters remained the main event.

We also ordered the foie gras special to start.  For those of you who don't know, a ban on foie gras is set to go into effect in California starting July 11.  To pay homage to their Californian homies fighting the good fight, a group of Philadelphia chefs have instituted Foie Gras Friday, featuring a different foie gras special each Friday.  Ela being on the bandwagon, we were able to enjoy a foie gras and lobster panacotta with potato skin "chips".

The pineapple toppings added the perfect amount of acidity to the creamy panacotta and the potato skin "chips" contributed the perfect zest and texture. 

For our second course we split the baby spanish octopus and the scallop "noodles."

The octopus had a nice charred barbeque flavor and was complimented well by a ramp puree, fava beans, and a cornbread crumble but the entire dish came out on the verge of cold.  For the scallop "noodles" the chef apparently takes diver scallops and carves each into one long noodle that is perfectly caramelized and served with a peanut sauce.  The dish was one of the most creative and flavorful I have tried in some time.

For our final dish we tried the skate.

It was fine, but nothing to write home about (whether because it was truly blah or because the previous courses packed such a punch I'm not sure).

My only true criticism came at the end of the meal when we received the check.  Yowza.  We had a great meal, but, given the hefty price tag we'll probably only be back for a drink and appys at the bar - Foie Gras Friday happy hour anyone??

"Because it’s summer and the memories are just waiting to happen." - Unknown

This summer has been off to such a bang.  The weekend before Memorial Day while B was in Miami at his brother's bachelor party, I celebrated one of my girlfriend's birthday with a late brunch at Amis...

 Followed by cocktails in the sun at Parc.

 [summer's best]

[a great pour]

The following weekend, my littlest sister was visiting me from South Carolina.  On Friday we went down to my in-law's shore house on LBI and we were met with cocktail hour and homemade shrimp and grits - yum!

The weekend was filled with relaxing on the beach, great eats, and fun family time.

One of the best things we ate all weekend was "corn mush" - a moister version of corn bread:

Mix the following ingredients and bake at 350 for 45 to 60 minutes (the longer you cook the more breaded it gets):
box of Jiffy corn mix
stick of melted butter
can of cream corn
can of regular corn rinsed and drained
8oz sour cream

The weekend after Memorial Day, I was headed down to Miami for my sister-in-law-to-be's bachelorette party.  Because I took Friday off for the trip down, we were able to celebrate a friend's birthday on Thursday night at Morgan's Pier.  Previously Octo, this waterfront deck bar has recently been given a face lift with fantastic results.  All of the menu items - including watermelon and feta salad, fish tacos, a burger, and corn and crab fritters - are under $10, and Morgan's has a great view of the Ben Franklin Bridge flanked by 2 bars, a craft beer bar on one side and a full ball on the opposite side.  They also have great music and a hot dog vendor and an ice cream vendor camped out on the deck.

[Happy Birthday!!]

The following morning I headed down to Miami.  The forecast was rainy, but, luckily Mother Earth didn't get the memo:

The first night we did a bar hop around Miami starting at Zeke's Roadhouse.

Since they only served beer and mini-bottles of not great wine, we only stayed for one drink.  Our second stop was at Kill Your Idol.  In addition to a more varied bar selection, they had fantastic margherita pizza - buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, fresh basil and a balsamic drizzle.

Before leaving Kill Your Idol we played a little "how well does the bride know the groom" trivia - she did pretty well :)

After Kill Your Idol we hit up Club Deuce.  It was a complete hole and after a shot and a quick song on the jukebox we were out of there.

Our next stop was T-Mex for beers and Mexican food.  I highly recommend the bean "queso loco" taco (been taco in a hard shell wrapped in cheese and a soft taco).  It was just what the doctor ordered.

Our final stop on the bar hop tour was Mango's. 

It was perfectly cheesy and ripe with bachelor/bachelorette parties.  After a bit of dancing some of our party decided to head home to bed.  Those that remained went to Fontainebleu and ended up getting ourselves escorted into the VIP section of Club LIV to catch the end of LL Cool J's concert.

 [me and the bride to be]

[LL]

After an amazing beginning the weekend just continued to get better.  Again Saturday's weather defied the rainy forecast...

We spent the entire day by the pool and then showered and headed to dinner at Asia de Cuba.  The atmosphere was great, very Stephen Starr-esque with white and black mod decor, and the food was wonderful (the only low point of the meal was the service - plan to wait for-ev-er for everything).

 [at dinner]

[me and the bride-to-be after dinner]

[roomies for the weekend]

After dinner we enjoyed drinks/dancing at Lush.

 [gals]

[dancing to party rock anthem]

For our final stop of the weekend we stopped at the "hot new" club Bamboo.  We found the atmosphere lack-luster - there really isn't any dance space, mostly just tables for bottle service - but we had a great time nonetheless.

[end of the night]

Being invited to eight weddings in 2012, it was no surprise that J5's bachelorette weekend was followed by MMA's bridal shower weekend in Philly.  A bunch of my college girlfriends came into town for the festivities so Friday night B and I took them to our new favorite bar, Morgan's Pier.

[pi phis <3]

The following morning the bridesmaids hosted MMA's shower at Positano Coast.  I would highly recommend it for anyone who has a shower or other 25-30 people event to host.  The food was great, their banquet rooms are beautiful, it was quite affordable, and, best of all, the bride had a fantastic time!

 [the favors and photos of the couple and their parents and grandparents]

 [the flowers courtesy of Old City Flowers]

 [the bride and one of the most impressive bow-bouquets I have ever seen]

[most of the group]

To finish off the weekend a bunch of us went to Los Caballitos for dinner.  Gorging ourselves on delicious Mexican food was the perfect cap to a great weekend.

[beef nachos and veggie quesadilla - yummm]

I can't wait to see what the rest of the summer holds!

The morning after I trying out Tapestry, B and I grabbed a late brunch a Khyber before I prepared to head to NYC for an all-nighter to see SNL

The brunch at Khyber is not for the health-conscious.  B ordered a dish with brisket, fried potatoes, collard greens and covered with poached eggs.

It was a heart-attack on a plate, worth every bite.  I had the biscuit and gravy.

As you may have gathered from previous posts, it is one of my favorite brunch dishes.  Unfortunately Khyber's wasn't great.  The biscuit was nice and fluffy but there was WAY too much sausage, and the gravy was greasy and runny.

After brunch I got ready for SNL.  As you may recall, friend Sarah Schneider is a writer for the show and she was great enough to get my friend MMA and I tickets to view the show in the writer's room with her, before taking us with her to the after party and the after-after party.

When MMA and I got to NYC we met up with one of MMA's friends from law school for drinks at the Cubbyhole...

Followed by dinner at Cowgirl.

With a nice buzz we headed to 30 Rock.  Not wanting to embarrass Sarah we only too one "celebrity" photo, of Lorne Michael's dressing room.

The show was hilarious (Will Farrell and Usher) and we got a picture on set afterward.

We had a fantastic time and, thanks to some 5-hour-energy, managed to stay awake until the sun came up to catch the 6:45am train back to Philadelphia.  Thanks so much for a great night Sarah!

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." - Seneca

I've recently tried a couple restaurants that are new beginnings to some of my former favorite spots.  First, I checked out Il Pittore, the new Stephen Starr in the spot that was formerly Noble, with my mother-in-law and some other gals.

For starters we shared a bunch of appetizers - the cheese plate, baked ricotta, bruschetta with mushrooms and fava beens (and a special that I can't remember!)

All were delicious but the baked ricotta is NOT to be missed.  For my entree I had the scallops.

They were served with delicate baby mushrooms, a warm mushroom vinaigrette, and a pea puree.  The scallops were perfectly caramelized and the combination was fantastic.  All-in-all it was a great meal and we look forward to our next visit!

Second, B, his brother, and his fiancee and I went to Tapestry, which is in the location that was formerly Adsum.  For starters we had the warm burrata with roasted red peppers, arugula, and balsamic.  It was fresh and tasty.  For dinner I had the frisee salad with potato, pancetta, poached egg, and champagne vinaigrette.  It was a strange dish in terms of proportions - I was given a mountain of well dressed frisee with just a tiny amount of potato, pancetta and egg to complement it.  Also my poached egg was well done so I did not get the nice runny egg yolk that I was looking for.  Those flaws aside I did enjoy my meal, and the only complaint I heard from anyone at the table was about the wait staff (service took forever) so although I wasn't as blown away as with its predecessor Adsum, we will most likely be back.

[here are a few shots of us four at a concert after dinner at Tapestry]