Family Dinners at the Beach

I loved my mom's plan to dine out for some dinners and cook in for others. Each couple was assigned a night to cook, and you had to come up with a cocktail, app and main meal. 

My mom started us off with sangria paired with a homemade pico de gallo along with cheese and crackers. Then we enjoyed surf and turf with a baked potato bar and vegetables. 

My aunt made a light peach cocktail paired with a sun-dried tomato dip. We dined on slow-roasted ribs with corn on the cob and really great red potatoes (that I'm already craving). 

Hank and I had a tasty Mexican night last week so we decided to recreate it at the beach. We started with Hank's homemade guacamole paired with Low Country Lemonade. We made about a sand bucket's worth of this concoction with crystal light lemonade, vodka, peach schnapps and blue curaçao. We enjoyed chicken enchiladas with black beans & yellow rice.  

I decided to do it up with dessert. I made personal dirt cakes topped with sand (crushed vanilla Oreos), ocean water (sky blue frosting), beach float (gummy Lifesaver) and umbrella. I interpret dirt cake as one layer crushed Oreos, one layer chocolate pudding and one layer mixed cream cheese (one block) with cool whip (one tub) and repeat. I love family dinners!

Sea Looks

I love a good nautical / sea look. It's in my house, and it can be found in my wardrobe. 

I enjoyed much of the decor at Sea Captain's House. I collected enough sea shells to border a mirror. I definitely want to add a sea urchin diffuser to a room - along with a hint of coral. They had great needlepoint pieces as well. New sea looks coming to our house soon!

Beach Bums

Hank and I just returned from a relaxing week at the beach. We stopped by one of our favorite restaurants on the way in, Crab Catcher's. It's in Little River right on the water. 

 

My favorite moments of the week were taking walks on the beach, collecting sea shells, cruising in a limo to the piano bar, Hank being awarded as the Putt-Putt Champ (complete with trophy), and family dinners with my parents and aunt & uncle. I laughed all week!

The beach life is a beautiful life, and I had the best time just soaking it all in. 

Move from the ocean to the slide to the lazy river to the hot tub (repeat).

We enjoyed breakfast at one of our favorite spots, Sea Captain's House, where we dined on perhaps my favorite breakfast out there, Crab Cakes Benedict (crab cakes topped with poached eggs and hollandaise - the kicker - these are served on fried green tomatoes).

Livin' the beach life (complete with tacky / fun new long sleeve for those relaxing nights). 

Congrats to May

My friend May bought a lovely new home!

We enjoyed a spaghetti lunch at her new place to tour and celebrate happenings.

Life Lately

{top, left} Hank and I had a great time at a Crab Out - endless crabs and Corona Light

{top, right} Bentley continues to love life, snoozin' and lots of treats (when he is good)

{bottom, left} I scored a new private reserve wine cellar that someone actually tossed

{bottom, right} I finally said goodbye to my blue hand chair that I've had for 10 years

Lantern (Now I feel I have truly eaten.)

Wow. This restaurant blew my mind and is definitely one of my top five favorites. Lantern was named by Gourmet as one of America's top 50 restaurants and has won many awards. 

We made reservations for 8 p.m. in the main dining area, but we scored a table in the back bar so we were quite happy. The bar area is dark, lit by lanterns and has a very cool vibe. 

We enjoyed delicious cocktails including Hibiscus Petal (hibiscus-infused vodka, fresh lime juice and Thai basil) and Junebug (Pimm's, fresh ginger & lemon soda and cucumber). As for appetizers, we had crispy local okra with Indian spices and hot tomato chutney along with a crab cake special. 

The main event was fireworks. Hank had a barbecued local pork chop, and I had the sea scallop special. I was especially obsessed with my dish. The scallops were perfect, the leeks with ham were innovative and the jasmine rice was a great compliment to the amazing broth - just look at it! Then there was dessert... We indulged on a bruleed local fig sundae with creme fraiche ice cream, pistachio cream, spiced red wine caramel and toasted pistachios. There are no words. I feel lucky to have a restaurant the caliber of Lantern so close to home.

Celebration

This is me, and on Tuesday, Aug. 14, I found out I landed an exciting new job!

This brought on lots of celebrating. I enjoyed pretty flowers, balloons and sweet treats. 

Hank and I had a fantastic dinner at Lantern that Tuesday night (and it needs its own post). 

Peachy Keen

Oh the lake - I could have stayed all week. We did a bit of treasure hunting on Saturday morning, and my Dad scored a vintage ice cream maker for $5. My Mom went to pick up fresh peaches while we were out so we united our finds to make homemade peach ice cream.

We came to the lake on this particular weekend for one of my favorite annual events - the George T. "Buck" Wilson Memorial Pig Pickin' that I've mentioned before here. This family tradition is always a fun one, and this weekend at the lake could not have been prettier.

OBX

Last weekend I enjoyed a beach vacation at Nag's Head with three other girls. It was fun! We caught the end of the opening ceremony of the olympics on Friday night and had spirit cups and dips to go along with it. Saturday was spent at the beach. Nag's Head is beautiful with ample free beach parking and lots of beach areas that aren't crowded. We attempted to fly kites, squealed at crabs and shot scenes for our music video - which is to come. 

We also played at the pool on Saturday and did some shopping too. I purchased the neatest homemade candle at Seagreen Gallery that's in a vintage glass bottle - the scent is rose geranium, and it is fantastic. We had fun getting ready for Saturday night, and we ran into Guy Fieri upon our arrival at Basnight's for dinner. He was in Nag's Head for the week for a family reunion, and he was quite nice. After dinner, we danced the night away in our VIP area (that I created by making a blockade of chairs). We lunched at Sam and Omies on Sunday and that was the delightful end to a lovely beach weekend. I can't wait to go back!