A Tour of the Homes

While we were in the city we toured four different houses with very different styles: a preserved mansion, a restored mansion, a rebuild plantation, and the crazy house. Many of these homes do not allow you to take pictures in the house but you can take them outside so I will do my best to share the best memories and what few photos that I do have.

Aiken-Rhett House (link)

Looking out over the back yard

This home was preserved, this means it is oldy-moldy. The tour of this house was very different from any of the houses we toured in that they handed us a MP3 player and headphones and told us to listen. It was interesting because there wasn't much talking to anyone else, mainly you just looked at what it told you to look at. The house was not well ventilated but it seemed to have so many historic things like the original wallpaper, molding, the lack of bathrooms, and slave quarters.

I think this was the outhouse, a million miles from the house

Walking up the back stairs

This house was a wonderful tour, since the house was preserved so much of it was intact or in those rare instances rebuilt (these were due to hurricanes or other weather related events). I think my favorite part was the ball room, which was very small in comparison to what I expected, but one of the ladies of the house had turned it into her bedroom and that was awesome!! You could see where her bed was because of the marks in the ceiling where the bed curtains hung. The porch was pretty spectacular too I could totally envision myself sitting out there with a fan and some sweet tea.

The Nathaniel Russell House (link)

I love my dad, we had so much fun

The Nathaniel Russell house has been restored meaning it has been taken back to what it would have been at been at it's glory days. Now this house still smelled like paint and sawdust since they had only been open a few days but it was so neat to see the cool stuff. Again there aren't really any pictures since you can't take any but what I did see is most definitely worth the tour. This house had a guide which showed us around 6-8 different rooms and we were one of the last tour groups to go up the floating staircase.

Since the house had been restored much of the original paint or something close to what they think could have been the right color. One the rooms was partially restored, you could see very minor details around the fire place but in the music room they had removed about 20 layers of paint (the docent's number not mine) and the fine detail was amazing. It was so pretty and there was so much detail in the wood work and around all of the windows.

The floating staircase is incredible, it is only connected to the floors so between each floor the staircase floats because it is not attached to the walls. There are several of these throughout Charleston and there preservation is incredible. I think it is important to note that there weren't really nails back then the staircase is made only of wood, so cool.

Such an amazing couple, I am blessed

This house also had a pretty awesome garden so I thought I would give you a few pics of the flowers.

Boone Hall Plantation (link)

The tour guide wore a period outfit, neat

This was the only plantation that we toured and I will admit that I was just a little underwhelmed by the house. This is not an original plantation home but a house build around 1960 to look somewhat like a plantation house. It is very pretty and we only saw 2-3 rooms in the house because someone lives on the upper floor sometimes, what?!?

The best part of this tour was actually the existing slave cabins and the Gullah Culture Show. The cabins were so small I have no idea how an entire family would live in the cabin. In the Culture Show the speaker talked about how hard it was to be a slave and how they tried to keep hold of their own culture and stay alive. In addition, the slaves in Charleston made sweetgrass baskets and have since they came over on the ships. These baskets were incredible but somewhat out of my price range, they were about 60 for the smallest basket.

I don't know if you recognize the streams behind us but they are in the Notebook. They filmed the outdoor lunch/picnic at this plantation so that was cool. In addition, Blake Lively and Ryan Renoylds got married here. I am not sure why they didn't invite me but it was still cool to be in the same place that they were. I think the other highlight is actually the alley of the oaks, as you drive in the street is lined with huge oak trees that are beautiful.

This is what I think of when I think of plantations

Calhoun Mansion (link)

The very first house that we toured was the Calhoun Mansion and boy was it a trip. As this was the first one I had no idea what to expect but what I got wasn't this. I think I should start by saying that people live in this house, yes all the time. Also there are apartments in the basement that you could rent. The people that live here have decorated it with anything and everything pretty much to their hearts content. I think the tour guide mentioned 6-7 different 18-wheelers full of stuff. I think one woman said it best, "if it wasn't such nice stuff, they would be called hoarders." Yeah I totally agree with that statement.

 Now there were a few originals to the house like light fixtures from Tiffany, that were very pretty. I think the stories about the different owners were some of my favorite parts, I loved the stories about the Navy turning it into barracks during WWII (I think). They did so much damage but at some point they also protected several of the rooms by putting up walls across the doors so no one knew they were there.

I enjoyed this house and the detail work of the building was amazing but the decor was just a little bit much for my tastes. I really have no idea how the owners live in that space because it would make me crazy but it was neat to see all of the different things and the originals. I also think the tour guide was fantastic so that could have been it, who knows.


I wish I could have taken more pictures inside the houses for you to see what I saw but I guess you will just have to go and see it for yourself. There are still several different houses that I didn't see and several plantations. It was so fun to picture myself as a lady of the manor wandering through the house offering tea to people. These were some of the best things that I enjoyed about the city, if you go you should definitely hit up some of these or let me know what you check out.

The Civil War started in Charleston

When I planned this trip I really had no idea what I was signing up for but I loved every single second of it. We found a Civil War walking tour on GroupOn so we grabbed that and I assumed that it would be kinda interesting and to be honest I didn't really know what to expect. So our Sunday morning started early with the Walking Tour. As the group met it was a hodgepodge of people from all over the country and then the leader showed up... he was a mix of a strange high school teacher and a creepy old man.

It was so interesting to hear the story of how slavery was a vital part of the south and how much a part of both the society and the way of life. I don't know that I thought much about how slavery was a part of the culture and that it was an investment to purchase a slave. As the guy talked it about it brought a new perspective to how much the citizens of south carolina were terrified of the changes to the laws. After South Carolina seceded from the US the very first cannon shot was fired from Charleston onto Fort Sumpter, interesting I don't know that I ever really thought about where it started but it all started here.

Part of Rainbow Row

Did you know that Charleston was bombed for over 2 years and people would walk on different sides of the street to avoid the bombs? They also moved much of the city into the "safe zone" which is interesting to me since the bombs mainly hit in the old historic district. In many ways the historic homes are still present today since after the war they were too poor to rebuild so they made do with that they had.

This type of cannon probably fired on the city

Three frozen Malcolms... it was rough

After spending the morning walking around and learning about the civil war we grabbed a little lunch and headed out to Fort Sumpter. The very first bomb in the Civil War was fired upon the Fort, from them on different groups occupied the fort and either fired on Charleston or protected Charleston. There were several different forts in and around the city.

All of the different flags that have flown over the fort

Aren't they cute... cold but still cute

Once we got out to the Fort there were a few different things that I noticed: 1- the tour guide was super cute (sorry I couldn't figure out how to get a pic of him in his ranger outfit), 2- the rebel flag was different than I knew, 3- it was stinking cold that day and we were freezing. It was fun out at the fort to see so much of the history and it was fun to see the dolphins playing out in the bay on the way.

I loved getting a chance to see so much of the history of the city and hearing about the civil war. I don't know that I ever thought much about how it started but I loved hearing about it from a position I had never thought about it before. There was so much history in everything that I saw and it almost seemed as if someone neat had lived in many of the buildings around the city. The old history architecture is so much more interesting since it is all preserved.


Come back tomorrow (hopefully) for the tour of the homes

PS. Sorry these are all taking a million years but I seem to be having a bit of writers agony, I have a million things to say and no words, but hopefully this week will be better.

xoxoxo
H

Eating my way though Charleston

I didn't know that Charleston was a big foodie town until I was doing some serious research about what we should do while we were there and most people recommended that I just eat. As I spent more time looking into what I was doing and what would be good I got pretty excited about trying a few new things. I also admit that I adhered to the idea what I was on vacation and I would try just about anything. 

One of my favorite dinners was the Shrimp and Grits from the Hominy Grill. I found the recommendation for this entree and it was a good find for them. I have tried this a few different times both at home and elsewhere and I was so unimpressed that I was not sure this was going to be good. But it was incredible, I ate every single thing that came on my plate. The only thing that I didn't have much of was the boiled peanuts that came out before dinner. I really don't like boiled peanuts, these were some of the best that I have ever had but I only had one. My family has a joke about eating boiled peanuts so we had a fun laugh about the peanuts.

Shrimp and Grits, hominy grill

How excited do they look about the boiled peanuts?!?

Just about every restaurant in Charleston had She-crab soup on the menu. After I heard that it was crab bisque with crab eggs for flavor I was pretty skeptical about it. But during our last lunch we decided to give it a go and have a cup. It was wonderful, I really enjoyed it. I found it to be creamy and full of crab and to be honest if I didn't think about the crab eggs I could have eaten it all the time. I really enjoyed this, my mom on the other hand couldn't get over the eggs so she just had a bite.

The famous She-Crab Soup

At another restaurant it was pretty fun to have hush puppies brought out before the meal. I included this on this post because it was wonderful to have something good after the boiled peanuts. I don't have much to say about these but I will admit that they were just ordinary.

Hushpuppies: a much better appetizer

One of the other things that I ate lots of was dessert, if there was cake I had it. I had cake all over the city and if we walked past a bakery then I had cookies or a cupcake. The red velvet cake was at a steak house, I think I was pretty under whelmed that entire meal. The cake was relatively dry and my steak had lots of fatty parts. But it was fun to sit around and hang with my parents. 

This mostly eaten cookie was from Bakehouse Charleston. It was a really good chocolate chip cookie. It was a very large cookie, I ate the whole thing but I totally could have shared it with my dad. My mom had a double chocolate cookie, that was really good too. I also loved my diet coke but that is just the best part of any day.

First bakeshop we hit up... good cookies

The best dessert that I had was the strawberry cupcake from Sugar. I wish I could have shown you a picture but this fat girl ate it before I could think of taking one. It was amazing, the icing was butter cream with strawberry puree mixed it... so stinking yummy.

For the most part I loved everything that I ate and there are still a million more restaurants that I am still looking forward to trying on my next visit. What is the best thing that you have ever eaten?

Charleston Highlights

I have been back from Charleston for a few days and to be honest I just haven't had the time to sit down and write up the trip. I got back super tired and I have company this weekend so it was just a bit crazy. But I happen to have a few moments so I thought that I would give you some of the highlights and write a few more in depth posts next week.

The best thing I ate:

So yummy

Shrimp and Grits from Hominy Grill. I got this recommendation from Southern Living and it was better than I imagined. I love both shrimp and grits apart but together they were wonderful. I have heard that this dish is often pretty bland but this one was not it was wonderful. My dad was skeptical about this but it turned out that it was wonderful.

Three best things I saw:

Rainbow Row

Rainbow Row is a series of old historic houses that have been restored and are now painted fun colors. There are many strange tails about how the colors came to be but the one I heard was that it was a woman who choose the first paint colors and now everyone has to conform. I am pretty sure the colors are not original but they aren't too far off. 

Mansions and Plantations

Boone Hall Plantation

On Saturday we headed out of the city for part of the day and went to Boone Hall Plantation. This is a new house made to look old, so that was nice. We could only see part of the house since the owners occasionally stayed on the top floor when they were in town (we heard that multiple times, but more about that later). It was neat to see so much of the farms that were still in use and so much of the history. This place had many of the slave quarters still standing and that was just so neat to see.

The Pineapple Fountain

My mom is wonderful

I know that this seems just a little boring to make my top three but I was really excited about seeing it. There are more fun things that I saw but this was one of the first things that we saw since we parked down on the pier and walked through the historic district and then we found this! So much fun.

It was a wonderful get away and I am so excited to share with you all of the cool things that we saw and did and perhaps some of the yummy things that I ate. I am so thankful that I love my parents and that I am able to spend time with them and enjoy their company.

Charleston vacay

While I am sitting in the airport I thought I would write a quick little post letting you in on my next adventure. I am going to Charleston, South Carolina for a long weekend with my parents. When I finally finished grad school they asked what I wanted for a gift and I said a trip. After much deliberation I decided on Charleston. I wanted a city with great food and good southern history. And Charleston meets all of those requirements.

We will be in town for four days. I have a long list of things for us to do but we haven't really decided on anything. But here are the few things that I am very excite about:
Sugar Bakeshop: has wonderful cookies or so yahoo says
Civil war walking tour: hopefully this won't be lame
Plantation houses: I just love the history of this time so hopefully this will be neat.
Civil war reenactment: I am not sure this will happen but I kinda hope we make it out to see this awesomeness!!
Harbor tour: I hope we see some dolphins or other marine life on the way out to the fort.

I am about to board my flight for my adventure. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and don't work to hard. If you are lucky I will try and post something from the trip.

I'm off to the land of sweet southern things!

Xoxoxo
H

Old Candle Rejuvinated

Before

I have seen several different pins where they clean out old candle jars. I snagged this candle from Big Lots and I finally got to the bottom of the wax. I realized that it would be great for holding cotton balls or something else in my bathroom. I will admit that I was very skeptical about this working.

Melting wax... looks like a lava lamp

What I did was boil some water and pour it into the glass and then wait. It was kinda fun to watch the wax melt and then rise to the top. I then went out to dinner with some friends and when I got back it had all risen to the top and then I just broke it out. I then repeated the process to get more of the wax out  and loosen the wick holder. After that a little soap and water the candle looked like a nice pretty jar.

It all rose to the top and hardened

Now that I had a nice glass jar I decided that I wanted a little something more so I went about trying to decide what to do. In the end I realized that I wanted either a fleur di lis or a monogram on the jar, since I don't have something that I could affix to the side I opted to paint the outside of the jar. Now that I had a plan I just needed a template because I cannot draw to save my life, I am too much of a perfectionist.

For the template I found one that I liked online, scaled it down to size, and printed it out. I then taped the paper to the inside of the jar and painted inside the lines.

I opted for two coats of paint but I think that just one would have worked. I will admit that this looks like a homemade craft but since it is paint it will come off pretty easily should I decide that I hate it. I like it in the bathroom filled with cotton balls next to the sink.

After

I really enjoyed this craft I think I might do this for another candle that I have but I need to finish burning all of the wax. It was so easy to get the wax out and I was pretty surprised about that but now that I know I feel as if a whole new world has opened up for me. Let me know if you give this a try, I like this one it makes me feel like I can justify buying candles since I am going to reuse the jar!

Easy Cajun Food

One of my favorite cooking utensils is the crock-pot because with a little work in the morning before work there is a hot dinner when you walk in the door. There is a downside and that is that chicken doesn't take very long so I tend to make these meals on Sundays when I am home for the day. A few years ago a good friend of mine gave me The Ultimate Slow Cooker Book by Better Homes and Gardens. One of the things that I really loved about this cookbook is that some of these recipes have two parts: make one dish and eat it two ways. I find this to be particularly awesome since I eat alone and this means that I don't have to eat the same thing 6 days in a row.

When I was in high school we lived in Louisiana and I realized that I just love the food. I tend to eat it when I go home for the holidays but over time I am realizing that sometimes it is just good to make what you want at home. These two recipes are similar to gumbo and jumbalaya, two of my favorite things. It will seem odd that it calls for Pace Picante sauce but I find that this is a pretty good knockoff that didn't require hours and hours of work. This may not work for you if you have a family recipe that has been handed down for generations but I like this.

Stewed Chicken and Andouille

1 lb andouille sausage, sliced

1 onion sliced

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

16 oz Pace (or any other picante sauce but I use Pace)

1/2 cup water

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp dried thyme

2-3 cups frozen okra

1- Put everything but the okra in the crockpot, give it a little stir and top with the okra

2- Cook on low 6-7 hours or high 3-3.5 hours

3- Make some rice close to the end

4- Before serving remove 4 chicken thighs and one cup of the sausage mixture (the liquid). I think I pull out a little more than a cup but it doesn't matter. If you are on top of things you can shred the chicken here. Then pop into the freezer or store in the fridge for less than a week.

Bayou Shrimp and Rice

12 oz thawed shrimp (without the peels, obviously)

Reserved Chicken and Sausage mixture, make sure the chicken is shredded

2 1/4 c water

1 1/4 c Pace

2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 c rice

Any left over okra from the frozen bag

1-Mix the liquids in a pot (plan ahead for size everything is going to go into this pot) and stir. Add the rice, bring to boil, reduce to simmer for about 14 minutes

2- Add the shrimp and the chicken and sausage mixture (and okra if you are adding extra). Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer for about 5 minutes until the shrimp are cooked and the rice is done.

I really enjoy making this, I made it on new years day this year. I hope to try and make a real southern gumbo one of these days but it just makes so much food so I tend to stick to these meals. I hope that you try this, many of the recipes that I share with you are just for fun but this one is amazing. Be sure to let me know if you try it or if you have a good recipe for gumbo. I hope that you like this and that it is as enjoyable to you as it is to me. 

It's chilly outside so it's time for Chili

One of my favorite meals as a child was Chili but we always had to wait until it was cold enough. Once I finally started living alone and cooking for myself all of the time I starting making this relatively frequently. I made this the other day since I am not sure how many more cold nights I am going to have here in Dallas this year.

Homemade Chili

1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
14 oz. tomato sauce
14 oz diced tomatoes
dash cayenne pepper, paprika
2 tsp. chili powder
2 cans of red kidney beans drained

Directions
1- Brown the ground beef with the onions and bell pepper, drain the fat
2- Add the spices and the tomatoes and simmer for 30 minutes
3- Add the kidney beans and allow it to come to a boil (until the beans are warm)
4- Serve it up with some Fritos and cheddar cheese.

As a kid we had this with dill pickles on the side, so yummy. When my mom makes this are less beans but I really like beans in my Chili. I have found that if I don't want to eat all of the chili that if I toss it in the freezer it is fine in a few weeks. I made this for my grandfather once he said it was almost as good as Wolf Chili (high praise).