before and after

Today my pally and I made one of our occasional jaunts to one of the most magical places on earth.

Supp:

It’s good that we have to drive like 45 minutes to get there. Otherwise I’d probably be morbidly obese.

“Breakfast” before:

Cuppa T (my best friend’s rap alter ego, am I right Lydia?). And also my best friend’s favorite tea. This is GOOD TEA, peeps.

 

Adorably tiny tangerine. I got a bag of like 12 of these bad boys for $1 at HMart and they ROCK MY LITTLE BRAINS OUT.

This is the first time they had a ROARING FIRE going at Cracker Barrel!

A waiter kept periodically throwing on kindling. Awesome.

Continuing with the coziness theme, I had some adorable comforting tea:

I ordered the amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing Maine blueberry pancakes. Before:

Aaaaand after:

I knew I’d need a pancake-dominating strategy or I’d never finish them, so I focused on the blueberry-y parts. Oh and got rid of that huge glob of butter, much as I’d love to have a heart attack when I’m 25.

It came with Maine blueberry syrup! I brought the leftover home it was sofa king good.

Then, speaking of heart attacks, as is now apparently our new tradition because it is just so stupid delicious, we once again got the baked apple dumplin. NO WORDS.

Before:

Aaaaaand after. That streusel (PECAN STREUSEL, PEOPLE!) is like an inch thick, no joke. Ahhh.

 

The ensuing dinner was a rather austere, plantlike affair.

Before this was leftover pasta.

After:

Leftover eggplant and tomato sauced pasta from the other night+ sauteed more eggplant peppers and mushrooms+ tapenade topped with (I was going for deconstructed lasagna reminiscent) tofu mashed with the last of the hot feta dip and some goat cheese from the party. MARVY!

More leftovers:

Before: Lauren’s grits from lunch.

After: “polenta”, which I topped with mustard greens sauteed with garlic in olive oil deglazed with a bit of balsamic and some toasted pine nuts.

Finally, just a good recipe:

Chow chow bok choy. I halved it (we had three heads of baby bok choy) and only used like 1 tsp of peanut oil cause puhlease.

Enjoyed with rice and another great pork chop courtesy of brining! Seriously, I am over unbrined meat. I used some of our extra turkey brine on some bone in pork chops. Brined 6 hours, broiled 6 minutes per side. BAM. MOIST MEAT.