I’ve been working behind a bar since before I was able to (legally) drink alcohol. And while bartending is a great job to have, it kinda sucks when you aren’t getting tipped. Times are tough, trust me I know, but we’ve got to make money too! Here’s how it goes - if the bartender isn’t making a dime one night, they aren’t going to be happy, and if we ain’t happy, ain’t no body happy.

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So Mt. Pleasant isn’t exactly Downtown Charleston, but close enough.  If you can break away from Downtown for a night, I suggest heading over to Samos on Coleman Blvd in Mt Pleasant. It’s a Greek restaurant that has a tapas menu and a full dinner menu.   It’s perfect for going out with a group of friends, having a bottle (or 3) of wine and grabbing some inexpensive aps for a great night.  When the weather is warm enough, make sure you call ahead and get a seat outside, it’s pretty close to perfect! And the food will keep you coming back for more!

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I love Thai food just as much as I love sushi! Back home in Charleston, we had the greatest Thai restaurant on the planet - Basil! Moving to Charlotte was kind of depressing because I knew that if I wanted to get some great Thai food I was probably going to have to make a trip home for the weekend. Well … I was driving down 5th Street one day and on the corner of 5th And Church I saw a sign in the window that said Basil opening soon! After doing a little bit of research I learned that my most favorite restaurant in the world was also moving to Charlotte!

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It’s no secret that I love sushi and if it were up to me, I would eat it all day, every day. When I got to Charlotte my first order of business was to find a sushi bar. After a few suggestions, my boyfriend and I stumbled upon Nikko’s on South. And what can I say, it was love at first bite!

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I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who doesn’t like broccoli and cheese soup. Well turns out it’s super easy to make! Enjoy!

in a pot big enough to make soup combine 1 diced onion, 2 chopped carrots, and 2 chopped celery stalks over low/med heat. coat with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, fresh garlic, and cayenne pepper

once everything is soft - not mushy - put enough chicken broth in pot to just cover all of the ingredients and add a medium sized head of broccoli. cook for another 5 minutes or so.

once the broccoli is soft, mix everything together with a hand blender (a regular blender works too but i like having a hand blender). blend until you get to a consistency you like. i like to leave it a bit chunky

add 1/4 cup of heavy cream (more if you like really creamy soups). you can also add more chicken broth if you like soupier soups

now for the best part - the cheese! add i small block of velveta (yes, velveta!) and a block the same size of white cheddar. to make the cheese melt fast, cut the cheese into 1 inch cubes

cook until the cheese has all melted - about 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes to help the cheese melt

once everything has melted - enjoy!

Cooking and wine. Possibly two of my favorite things ever. Everyone needs to know how to cook. You don’t have to always try to cook a gourmet dinner for two, but you should know how to cook something easy, cheap, and really good. When my boyfriend and I started dating I would cook dinner for him, and I swear that’s what made him fall in love with me. It wasn’t that I cooked the best food he’d ever had … though it was probably pretty close … but cooking at home is just so much better than eating out all the time. Especially if you’re starting to gain weight, going out to eat constantly is the first thing you need to cut out. The portions are waaaay too big and whatever you can cook for yourself at home is going to be much healthier. So, take my advice and learn to cook something! Cooking is not hard, but it does take practice. I’ll give you some of my staple recipes so you can start cooking for yourself. Ok, so I’ll only give you what I put in it but no measurements … I never measure anything.

“Boyfriend Dinner” – you first have to understand that when I was growing up my mother wasn’t exactly the best cook ever. Quite the opposite actually, when I had toast at my friends houses I always wanted to know why you didn’t have to scrape the black stuff off because mom always burnt our toast. She came up with boyfriend dinner and at first we were all a little suspicious, but it turned out to be great. That’s how it got to be called boyfriend dinner – whenever I brought a boyfriend over for dinner for the first time this is what she would cook. So weather you’re having over your boyfriend, another couple, or just want something easy for yourself this is great!

1 or 2 big cans of Italian Style dice tomatoes

I can tomato paste – if you want thicker sauce, use the whole can, not so thick, half the can or even leave it out

Garlic! – I love garlic and I put it in everything, all to taste

Invest in a garlic press! It’s the one of greatest kitchen gadgets I’ve got. You peel the garlic, put it in the press and it comes out minced – that way you don’t have to cut up the garlic yourself and also don’t have to worry about having chunks of garlic in your food.

1 diced white onion

1 diced green pepper

Put everything into a big pot on medium heat on the stove and cover

Put salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, cayenne pepper in sauce to taste

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts or 1 lb peeled shrimp – if you’re having people over for the first time for dinner go with the shrimp

When meat is cooked, add it to the sauce

Serve it over bowtie pasta

Top with feta cheese or goat cheese and toasted pine nuts (optional)

To toast the pine nuts put them in a pat on low heat for a few minutes and toss them around – do not put oil in the pan or the pine nuts will burn