Weekend Pictures and Wonderfulnesses

So last week, I had my birthday and got to celebrate with my family and some friends at home. And I got to demand some special treatment (and was equally surprised by other special treats!) Basically, there were a few things that I wanted to do in Charleston that I hadn't gotten around to, or wanted to try again, and this was my weekend to eat!

Cory's Famous Grilled Cheese- from a new(ish) food cart downtown

SUPER delish- cinnamon raisin bread, honey mustard, muenster cheese and bacon!

My wonderful fiance nomming a deluxe grilled cheese with bacon

Uber cute Sugar Bakeshop (that's making our wedding cake!) Go visit them.... they are wonderful and have such unique flavor combinations. 

Chocolate peanut butter in the right hand and mini grapefruit vanilla cupcake in the left!

The grapefruit was mine, all mine! And a great balance of the tart with the vanilla. Recommend!

My surprise brownie cake from my future mother-in-law. How sweet! 

I love Charleston's iron work! Outside the William Aiken house.

Stingrays hockey game- just like when I was little! I celebrated my 8th birthday with them too!

Beautiful Sunday sunrise before church

And I could be at home along the intercoastal waterway for the rest of my life!

I hope your weekends were just as lovely- I'm back to the daily business/busy-ness of school!

Thank goodness only a few more months towards graduation!

Wonderful Weekend: The Food

Fresh Carrots from City Roots at the Farmer's Market 

(I ended up getting a bunch of them because they looked too good to pass up)

I had the pleasure of going to the Columbia All Local's Farmer's Market this past Saturday at City Roots because the market moves out of downtown when there is a football game downtown. 

It was so great to walk around the farm literally inside of the city and next to the airport. I love being able to see where my food comes from because it just feels right.

And there was a vendor I hadn't seen before. They started their business a couple of months ago as ARTISAN SALT MAKERS. So neat! The lady at the table was so enthusiastic and explained that they only make small batches of their salt and hand grind it for the consistency they aim for.  She also let the group that had formed around her table try a pink peppercorn (actually a berry) and it was delicious! 

They have some great flavors like rosemary, rosemary & pink peppercorn, pink peppercorn, three mushroom, a really strong truffle salt,  and lavender salt. I bought one as a present, but I can't reveal which one here! I'm definitely going to get more when I go back, but I ran out of cash before I went to her booth.

After getting some food shopping done, I made these peanut butter cookies for my friend's wedding shower. I dipped them in dark chocolate because the cookies were not super sweet and the chocolate just was the perfect complement. I think this will be my go-to peanut butter cookie recipe from now on- it doesn't require shortening and all of the ingredients are usually around my house.

And I also made these cinnamon cupcakes but I just made a simple glaze with powdered sugar, a little milk, cinnamon and vanilla extract. It was perfect because the cupcakes were a cross between a cupcake and a muffin so a thick icing would have just been too heavy. 

It was a great shower with all of our church friends around and just a refreshing way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

I hope you are getting prepared for the big Turkey Day- I'm headed home today to help prepare with my mom and try a great cranberry dressing recipe. I couldn't be more excited to just spend time at home and in the kitchen with my mom (spoiler: she has a ton of molasses and we're making a batch of gingerbread dough for the freezer). 

Wonderful Weekend 1: Thrifty Finds

By all accounts, I had a wonderful weekend- my friend and I went shopping for a wedding shower, my dad met me in Columbia and we had a wonderful lunch and walked along the river bank, and my dad even went to the antique store with me!

I was beyond surprised that he agreed to come, but he actually found some cool stuff and enjoyed looking around!

One of the vendors was in the antique mall when we were there and was marking all of his items in various booths 66% off and told us that if we found anything else, he would discount it further! I found this amazing Indian wood carved stand with a detachable top ($17.50) AND a cookbook holder in the same woodwork style ($7.50).

I have been dying for one of the cookbook holders after I saw one at a thrift store and decided to not spend $10 on it (silly me) but I was so excited to find these two pieces!

I also picked up 5 depression glass sherbet cups in my pattern, yellow Madrid. So wonderful! I'm working on creating a 6 piece tea set with plates and bowls and sherbet cups, so this was great! And they were only $2.50 a piece- a steal.

And I went to the Salvation Army on Saturday after going to the farmer's market and picked up a great printed scarf, a weekly meal planner and some Christmas presents.

These weekend make the looking all worth it. I love thrifting and antiquing! 

PS: check back later today for the post about my wonderful FOOD weekend events!