Flip Burger

It's a busy weekend for Team Dawmilam. Our adventures started yesterday with an outing to Flip Burger with Laura (ADPi sister who's known me since I was the quiet girl with bad bangs & scrunchies) and her husband, Heyward, who happen to live dangerously close to Flip. I've been to Flip twice before - once with Christy, once with Lindsey - and both times I was impressed. Dave was getting a little upset that I'd been without him; last night, halfway through what he thought was the best burger ever, he said, "I'm officially mad that you've eaten food this good twice without me." If you're ever in Atlanta, and wanting a burger, this is the place to go.

As my official review of the restaurant, I'd like to start out with the negative: the waitresses, waiters, and hostesses look like they need to eat a few cheeseburgers or drink a couple of the amazing milkshakes there. Really, I'd like to sit down with them and force them to partake of the greasy goodness they're serving up. Upon being seated by a size 00 bleach blonde young woman who didn't know how to smile or make eye contact, Heyward pondered aloud if it hurts to be that trendy all the time. I have to agree: the people who work there aren't so much welcoming or warm. They're pretty, but they don't look happy. My guess, again, is that if they'd just eat a cheeseburger, they'd feel better. But, that's coming from a non-size-00, so maybe I'm totally missing the point.

But, there really isn't anything else negative about this place. We started our meal with the "duck nuggets," ordered primarily because it's not often you can say the words "duck" and "nuggets" in the same sentence and be taken seriously. I'd never actually had duck before, and it's a shame, because there's no way the next time I eat duck it will be that delicious. Anything cooked in its own fat, fried, and topped with a spicy sauce is bound to be delicious. The outside was crispy; the inside was a nice, creamy texture contrast. And the blood orange chili sauce added a delicious sweet kick.

We got one of all the "fried" items last night. My parmesan zucchini fries were delicious, even without their special mayo. Laura's whole pod fried okra was yumtastic, especially with the Sriacha mayonnaise. Heyward got fries, and Dave got onion rings, which apparently were just "mediocre," but this place's mediocre is like everyone else's "good." Our burgers were to die for. I relished every greasy, delicious bite of my bacon cheddar burger that had some sort of special sauce on it. Lemme tell you: it was special. Dave was in burger heaven with his chosen creation, which had a red wine jam, caramelized onions, and blue cheese. And, for dessert, we all got milkshakes.

My favorite thing about Flip WAS the Nutella & burnt marshmallow milkshake - a sweet treat that cannot be missed. But, Dave and I split a different milkshake last night, and it's my new favorite. The turtle was divine. The ice cream was a perfect vanilla, and the caramel was delicious, especially when combined with the lightly salted, toasted pecans atop a cloud of whipped cream.

To add some excitement to the night, we were so happy to run into Frank, Steve and their friend who was visiting from out of town! Great minds definitely thought alike for dinner last night. They were on their way to the Liza Minnelli concert at Chastain. Expect a similar restaurant review after our meal together next weekend at Ballenger's in Rome... a place that Frank insists is one of the best places ever.

After we gorged ourselves, we went back to Laura & Heyward's and enjoyed a relaxing evening out on their screened in porch, chatting mostly about our animals, other funny animal stories and food (welcome to life as married-without-children!). We're definitely glad to have these guys close by and are already planning our next foodie adventure together.

As for the rest of the weekend? Today, I'm preparing for the Peachtree Road Race with Lindsey, who'll be running with me. This is our second year to run, but this year, neither of us is in really good condition to run 6.2 on a hot summer day. Our motivation for running sort of waned after the half marathon in March. It really took a lot out of us! I ran 5 yesterday, so I theoretically *should* be able to run 6 tomorrow. But, neither of us expect to run at our best pace, nor have we ruled out giving up about mile 4, taking one of the beers that so many spectators try to push on the runners, and just walking the remainder of the course. Maybe I should make sure to run with a koozie? Our preparations for today will include laying out by the pool, drinking lots of water, and eating a carbo-heavy dinner tonight. I'm rather excited about getting some relaxing pool time in this weekend!

The adventures will continue tomorrow, as after the Peachtree, we have a fun day at Lake Allatoona planned with the Changs, some of their friends, Genay, Amy & Lindsey. We'll be celebrating lots of things: the fact that Lindsey and I will have survived the race, Independence Day, and Genay's birthday. Pictures & stories will follow soon!

Aloha from Hawaii

SO many fabulous updates to give my 2 readers, but in due time. Right now, let me share with you the most important part of our honeymoon: where have we eaten?

1. Atlantis Seafood & Steak. Delicious ahi poke (raw tuna with some stuff on it) and lau lau, which was scallops, shrimp, and salmon sauteed with spinach.

2. Honolulu Coffee Company, conveniently located next to our hotel, the Moana Surfrider (amazing). Best waffle ever, topped with strawberries, fresh macademia nuts (it makes a difference!) and my new favorite jarred syrup, Coconut Syrup, aka crack in a bottle. Also, the acai bowls are deliciously satisfying after a run. Frozen acai berry with granola and banana. Mmmm.

3. Sushi Doraku. Had the caterpillar roll: tuna with crab, topped with avocado and spicy aioli. Rusans what?

4. Giovanni's Shrimp Truck. Josh Holloway recommended it in this little travel magazine we picked up. Holy Lord that was some amazing shrimp scampi. And the pineapple coconut smoothie? To die for. I'd fly back to Hawaii just to visit Giovanni's again.

5. YardHouse Burgers. You know how sometimes you just need a cheeseburger? We got one last night: a Hawaiian, with pepper jack cheese, pineapples, and some sort of teriyaki sauce. The best burger and fries ever.

6. Fresh Catch. Tasty. Dave loved his salmon & tuna poke.

7. Subway. It was either this or peanut butter sandwiches tonight.

I'm sitting on the back porch of our hotel, all of a sudden feeling extremely fat. We have split all but two of our entrees, so that has helped our waistlines and our budget, a little. Right now, I'm watching people at the beach bar get hammered off really expensive drinks, people eating a really expensive dinner off to our left, Dave reading his Kindle to my right, and a beautiful sunset ahead of me. I heart Hawaii.

The Lady and Sons: Yay for Southern Cooking

So last week, I went to a conference in Savannah, where I not only got work done and presented some papers, but I got to spend a lot of time with Lindsey and Alexis, two of my best friends that I met at Auburn and that now teach in South Carolina. We three have similar interests that make us a dangerous trio: we're all communication folks, we're hot, we like the beach, and we love good food.

So, Savannah was definitely the place for us. We got our nerdiness on at the conference, and even came up with an idea for a panel for next year. We made a trip out to Tybee Island, and would have stayed longer had it not been so windy/cold. And, we ate, and ate, and ate some more of Savannah's wonderful cuisine. We had really nice tapas at Jazz'd Tapas Bar, good sushi somewhere I can't find on google maps right now, famous seafood at The Crab Shack on Tybee Island, and, of course, lunch at The Lady and Sons. This restaurant is what I'll focus on for this blog.

Now to actually eat at the Lady and Sons, one must plan and prepare in advance. If any of you are planning on making the trip, here's what we did that worked. The restaurant starts taking reservations for lunch and for dinner at 9:30 a.m. One cannot just show up at 9:30 and expect to get in, though. I arrived on Saturday morning at 7:45 to stand in an already forming line. Before I got in line, I ran to Panera (which is just around the corner) and got a coffee and bagel to eat while standing in line. I would advise this strategy, and would also suggest bringing a book, crossword, or sudoku to keep you busy, but I entertained myself just fine by talking to the nice guy in the Harley Davidson hat and the Michigan lady standing behind me. Lindsey came to join me after she woke up. Which brings me to another crucial suggestion: if you go "out" the night before, as we did, have a "designated diner" to stay sober enough to wake up in time to get in line at Lady and Sons by 7:45 a.m.

So, we go back to the restaurant at our reserved time with Dr. Brown (who was very generous and even treated us to lunch!). It was still chaotic outside and required me to stand really close to the poor, overworked name-takers to make sure we didn't miss our place in the cattle call. But once we walked into the restaurant, it was surprisingly calm. The atmosphere was much better than I expected, and I expected greatness! We ate at a bar table on the upper floor of the restaurant, in a quiet corner.

I don't think I can describe just how amazing the food was. I'll be honest - I thought, "a buffet? Can food really be that good if it's out on a buffet?" One bite of her spare ribs with barbecue sauce, which was the first thing I bit into, was enough to shut that little voice up. People keep asking me what I eat, and I rattle off a laundry list. I ate: fried chicken (the best I've ever, ever had, and I have some damn good fried chicken cookers in my family), creamed corn, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, turnip greens, green beans, a hoe cake (yes, a whole one, that I can tell was cooked in a cast-iron skillet and was perfectly crispy on the outside), a cheddar-garlic biscuit, and banana pudding. Dr. Brown said that the gooey butter cake was just as freaking amazing as Paula says they are on her show. To top it off, I chugged two of the best glasses of sweet tea I've ever drank. The little mint garnish was so lovely. Y'all know I am a health nut most of the time, but let me tell you: the pounds of butter and grease I consumed at that one meal was well worth the time it'd take to run it all off. And, it inspired me to fry some chicken this summer.

Back to trying to describe how good the food was: it was spectacular. It tasted like Momma Charlie's Sunday dinners. Any of you out there who have a Southern grandmother who could/can cook like Momma Charlie (my dad's mom), then your mouth is probably already watering at the thought of a big, heavy, coronary-attack-inducing meal. There is something so honest, delicious, and artistic about the home-taught, non-pretentious, generations-old-cast-iron-skillet-created meals that show up, still, every Sunday, in homes across the South. If you aren't fortunate enough to have a Southern grandmomma (or two, like me, jackpot!), your Southern grandmomma has passed away, or, God forbid, you are from "up north" and don't know quite what I'm talking about, then go ahead and book a ticket today to Savannah just to visit Lady and Sons. Eating there was truly an experience, one that will make you long for home or search out a friend from somewhere in north Alabama who has a grandmother that you can befriend in hopes of getting invited over for Sunday dinner.

Surprise! And a Special Dinner at Bella Notte

So... I'm engaged! Dave totally surprised me with a proposal yesterday morning. Here's the story, and some links for those of you who I called and were confused by the story.

Dave had driven to Lexington to see me this weekend, but he got in late Friday night. By the time he got here, I was already out on the town for Rosalie's bachelorette party. So Saturday morning, Dave and I wake up, eat our cereal, drink coffee, and are watching tv and checking e-mail, trying to figure out what to do that day and for the weekend. Basically, we're having our normal Saturday morning. I'm still in my pajamas, sitting on the couch, had not yet showered or brushed my teeth, and was pretty grungy after a night of dancing and being out at the bar. I suggested a walk, as it looked like it would be sunny. After checking weather.com and figuring out that it was going to be freezing, though, we decided we'd just find something else to do.

At this point, Dave gets up, leaves the room, and I assume he's going to the bathroom. I'm in the middle of e-mailing a friend, when he comes back in the room and says "Here, I printed out a lolcat for you."

Now let's break here. For those of you who don't know what a lolcat is, go here before continuing on with the story. Lolcats are a web phenomenon, and basically a website for pictures of cats and other cute animals with funny, nonsense captions. We are dorks. We love this site, and we laugh at it all the time. It is saturated with a high dose of cuteness, so it's just one of our little "things" that we like to share as a couple.

Back to the story. I think, "oh, cute, a lolcat, bet this will be funny." And I see this:


So here's my thought process over the next few seconds: "aw, Chloe! Isn't she cute. Wait a minute. Holy crap. Is he serious?" And then I look up, and there is a ring in my face. Dave is crouched down on my level, tells me I make him happier than anything in the world, and would I marry him?

After a moment of panic, screaming, uncontrollable crying, several "OH MY GOD ARE YOU SERIOUS"'s and a big hug, I said yes. I continued to cry and freak out, until Rosalie ran out of her room, asking what was going on, and shared in the excitement.

I was totally surprised. After he gave me the ring, I stood in the middle of the floor crying for a minute because I was in shock. I think I have never, ever been so surprised in my life. This tops the previous big surprise - my 17th birthday party. I knew he wanted to propose for a long time, but I honestly didn't expect it until at least after I had defended my quals, which will happen in another two weeks. I thought that by withholding my ring size and stone cut preference, there was no way he'd ever go out and get a ring. Oh, I was wrong! Dave has had the ring since before spring break. The only thing that kept him from proposing that week was my stress level. Apparently, I was so stressed out over studying for quals, that he feared a surprise proposal would add to my stress level, and/or distract me, and/or cause me to not give a very positive answer. He thought about waiting until after I defend, but he didn't want to wait that long. He wanted to propose while we were out on a walk, but since it was cold, and we'd already looked at lolcats that morning, he felt the timing was right that morning.

We are both very happy. It still hasn't really sunk in for me, but I'm really excited to have a fiance! Our families are happy, our friends are happy - it is a happy thing. Even though I gave him no direction on the ring (except for that one time I said I didn't like gold bands and liked solitaires), he did an amazing job choosing it. We are in the process of figuring out how to have a very small gathering to celebrate at some point next year, after I finish school.

I don't have a recipe to share, but instead, to celebrate, we went to our favorite restaurant in Lexington, Bella Notte. I'll share what we ate with you! Dave had amazing pork spideni, which was pork medallions, breaded and lightly fried, with apples, walnuts, and some sort of amazing sauce; I had penne kalamata, which is my favorite pasta there - penne with olives, pine nuts, grilled chicken, and a light butter sauce. Dessert was nothing less than stellar, and we even splurged and got two! Profiteroles, and panna cotta. The homemade caramel sauce and candied basil that accompanied the panna cotta took that dessert over the top. And the profiteroles were very nicely done; as if something made with espresso gelato can be less than amazing.

Oh my gosh. I'm engaged, to the most wonderful man in the world!