The Toast of Music City awards came out recently, here are the winners for best food/drink in Nashville. I have highlighted in blue the one’s I have eaten at.

The day before my birthday was my friend Karisa’s birthday. Karisa lives in East Nashville and a few months ago a new restaurant and bar opened up right across the street from her condo. How convenient! So all of her friends made there way to the Holland House for drinks, eats and good company.

The restaurant has a wonderful speakeasy vibe from the bartenders wearing suspenders, to the brick facade showing through the light purple plaster walls, to the cute little cocktail glasses. They really take the time to make each drink unique and well thought out. Therefore you end up paying upwards of $10/drink but luckily we were there for happy hour.

The birthday girl with her unique watermelon mojito concoction. The bartender created it specially for her and I think it contained no less than 5 ingredients, including agave nectar.

I started with the day’s special an Abby Road.

Don’t you just love the menu. It is a work of art.

Once we successfully took over the bar we moved to the patio and ordered some food.

The SC and I shared the fish and chips. That hush puppy has got to be the best hush puppy in the world.

The best part was that we were all able to walk across the street and partake in some Wii Karaoke Revolution to end the night.

Happy Birthday, Karisa!

Yesterday I turned 26. So does that mean I am now in my late 20′s? To be honest I’m kinda liking the way 26 sounds. As a teacher I always want to be older than I really am to earn more credit with the parents. In my opinion 26 sounds a lot older than 25. But hey, maybe it’s just me!

To celebrate my birthday the SC took me on a road trip about an hour east of Nashville to Burgess Falls. We enjoyed a nice hike with beautiful views of the river/small water falls. At the end of the hike our reward was swimming under this beauty.

Amazing!

We took a picnic lunch but it wasn’t really anything blog worthy (tuna sandwiches, tortilla chips & salsa)

Later that evening we had dinner at The Red Pony in downtown Franklin. I absolutely love eating at new and different restaurants and had never been to this one before despite all the hype I’d heard about it. It definitely lived up to the amazing reviews it has been given.

Unfortunately, it was really dark in there and there was a note on the menu about not using cell phones so me being new to the food blogging thing felt a little awkward snapping the flash away on my phone. I took one picture of my meal and the SC said “Woah, that was bright,” so I didn’t take any more. You will just have to go to see for yourself

I ordered the shrimp and grits which was piled with some great mushrooms and bacon. Sinful and delicious. The SC ordered the special for the evening, grilled snapper with a twice baked potato and fried okra (which was handpicked from the owner’s garden that morning).

The decor was great with it’s bright red ceiling, gorgeous paintings of horses, exotic glass lighting and dark candlelit vibe. Unfortunately, we were seated downstairs next to a few loud groups. I was expecting a more quiet and romantic feel. We noticed some stairs but thought maybe there was a private group dining area upstairs. After dinner we decided to check it out and ta-da! There was a separate bar and dining area that was much quieter and had more of the ambiance we were looking for. So a word to the wise, if you go to the Red Pony ask for a table upstairs! (Unless you are a group of middle aged woman who are throwing back the martinis and yelling at each other in the fashion of the Real Housewives of NYC…much like the table that was behind us)

I did snap one more photo in the bathroom because I absolutely loved the vanity and sink.

Wait, did I say I turned 26? Apparently I actually turned 62 and now take pictures of things like sinks in bathrooms.

Waiting for me at home was the first cake the SC has ever made all by himself (with the help of Betty Crocker.) A red velvet bundt cake with cream cheese frosting.

For some reason my flash wouldn’t turn on. The candle in the middle makes it look like a volcano. It was delicious and I may or may not have had a piece for breakfast.

What is your favorite type of birthday cake?

We had aquired a bunch of basil from the SC’s mother’s garden and decided to make pesto.

Not having any pine nuts the SC ran to the store to get some. On his way home he sent me a text saying “surprise coming for you.” Imagine my delight when he came home with a bunch of king crab legs (MY FAVORITE!)

So we got right down to business making the pesto (which we served over cheese ravioli) and boiling the crab legs. I set the table to fit the mood.

The third place mat was for the bowl to throw crab shells in! (Once again I feel I must apologize for the terrible picture quality. My point and shoot camera charger is temporarily misplaced. I am hoping I can find it before I leave for vacation on Sunday!!!)

yummmm

quadruple yummmm…

I hope you and your loved ones make the effort to sit down and enjoy dinner together!

The other day I caught a few minutes of the Dr. Oz show in which he was talking about anti-aging and natural ways to fight diseases, aging, etc. He featuring a drink called The Green Monster and was intrigued enough to try it out. The girl he pulled from the audience tried it and said it was good, and since she is a complete stranger on TV I obviously naively believed her.

You start by juicing 1 apple, 2 carrots, 1/2 a cucumber and some kale (which by the way my juicer did not like at all, it was nearly impossible to juice the kale and I almost broke my beloved juicer in the process)

Next you put the juices in a blender and add some non-fat plain yogurt and ice. Blend away and then drink it up.

Then if you are anything like me immediately spit it out and curse Dr. Oz’s name! BLEH! It was sooo disgusting and so not worth all the trouble. I will just eat my fruits and veggies, thank you very much! I started to pour it all down the sink but the SC wanted to try it and he didn’t think it was all that bad. He is crazy.

Since I was feeling adventurous I decided to try to make Kale chips which I had seen featured on another food blog. I honestly didn’t expect these to be good and they really surprised me.

Drizzle the kale with olive oil, parmasean cheese and salt and bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes. I highly recommend this!

I was on an adventurous kick so next I decided to try to make plantain chips. Have you ever had these? They sell them in some international and specialty shops and they are so tasty but probably mostly because they fry them similar to how you make potato chips. A plantain is similar to a banana but slightly bigger and I don’t think it tastes all that good raw.

I found mine at Whole Foods.

To make the plantain chips I tried to cut thin slices, sprayed with Pam and sprinkled a little salt on top. Baked at 350 for about 20-25 minutes (flipped them halfway). Allow to cool a bit so they get a little more crunchy.

These were great and I recommend you give them (and the kale chips) a try…just stay away from the green monster!