holidays

greetings from greenville

kdavis Leave a comment

this post and this greeting are a little tardy, but happy new year nonetheless! and happy reading as i catch you up on all the things we did in greenville, sc for thanksgiving last year. as i often say, better late than never. 🙂

the company

phillip’s uncle steve and aunt pam hosted us, his sister natalie and her boyfriend dave, and cousin tony for thanksgiving. it was a day full of resting, football watching, spirit drinking, and delicious eating. i don’t mind getting fancy every now and then, but it’s so nice to be with folks who are happy just being together. can’t wait to see them all again soon!

the activities

of course we did do a lot of eating (more on that soon), but all things require balance, so we did stay active while on vacation. we squeezed in a couple classes at the local orangetheory fitness and enjoyed walking all the bridges and seeing the sights in downtown. i can only imagine how scenic it is in the spring and fall seasons!

the eats and the drinks

now, it wouldn’t be a phillip and kelsey trip if we didn’t eat our way through town, and greenville was no exception. some places the locals recommended, others we stumbled upon on ourselves, all were good enough to go back. check out these spots if you’re ever in town!

  • this bagel had honey and pecans and peanut butter and a banana. REAL GOOD. (coffee underground)
  • phillip ordered this fancy mocha with lovely latte art on top. (coffee underground)
  • can you guess where we were? (eggs up grill)
  • phillip loves coffee! and so do i. 🙂
  • we split some eggs benny. (eggs up grill)
  • we also split a side of salty, crispy corned beef hash. yum! (eggs up grill)
  • we lucked out with gorgeous weather this day. nice enough to enjoy a pint outside! (fireforge)
  • cheers! (fireforge)
  • pretzels, mustard, and pimento beer cheese. heavenly. (fireforge)
  • a nice little wine flight at foxcroft.
  • more carbs! truffle and parmesan french fries at foxcroft.
  • more smiles!
  • caprese salad at trattoria giorgio. the pastas were pretty good, too.
  • last stop, sully’s steamers!
  • I LOVE BAGELS.
  • more bagels! (sully’s steamers)

all in all, our visit to greenville was 100% enjoyable and made better by the fact that it is only a quick 2-hour drive from our house! i expect we will find ourselves back again in 2023.

mm, mm! marcrumb cookies

kdavis Leave a comment

this year phillip and i were in birmingham for thanksgiving with my family, and if anyone has spent a holiday with us, you know that our gatherings revolve around one thing:  food.  now, you might think, “sure, isn’t that everyone around this time of year?”  maybe, but we are the kind of family that talks about their next meal while they are eating their current one.  our schedules, especially holiday schedules, revolve around when the meals are planned, and i look forward to continuing that tradition with our own family some day.

but this post isn’t about me or my family.  it’s about the food, and one food in particular:  cookies!  personally i somewhat have a love-hate relationship with cookies.  i love eating them but i sometimes hate making them – it can become quite tedious, and when you have an undersized oven like us, baking cookies takes twice as long as it should.  i imagine most people feel this way, especially those who don’t consider themselves bakers.  but alas!  i did not have to break my back or burn my fingers over cookies this year because a childhood friend came to the rescue.

my friend amanda marcrum may or may not have started a cookie company this year and may or may not have named it macrumb cookies.  it’s adorable, yes!  and the only thing more adorable than the name are the cookies themselves.  i saw some of her social media posts with darling little cookies decorated with all sorts of cute shapes and lovely designs and knew i couldn’t resist supporting an old friend.  i reached out and ordered a dozen seasonal cookies for the occasion, and the day before thanksgiving amanda delivered these precious treats in person.

i squealed in delight when my mom opened the box and revealed these little treasures.  tiny corns and turkeys and leaves and pumpkins – what’s not to love?  and if you think these were too cute to eat, you are wrong.  i chomped into one of those little corns and about jumped for joy because these cookies remind me of one of my favorite types of cookies in the world:  cheryl’s cookies.  only these are the tiniest bit better because they had the most pleasant trace of almond at the end of every bite.  the cookies were a huge hit at the andrich house, and if you consider yourself a cookie lover on any level, i insist you order yourself some marcrumb cookies.  they will not disappoint!