Kenzie Blogs Life: Summer

Hyman's Seafood

8:00:00 AM

After a long morning of wandering around the streets of historic downtown Charleston in the humidity and sun, there is nothing better than escaping to a cool brick building off of Meeting Street for our last seafood meal of the trip.

Charleston is home to so many great places to eat. Having a delay of trip meant we were able to visit a recommended restaurant we would have otherwise missed. If you're lucky you can try out some hush puppies that the servers give out on the nearby corner, handing you a coupon for a free appetizer. When you enter the building, there are little plaques at every table that tell which celebrities have eaten at that spot. From Raven Symone, Lance Armstrong, The Beach Boys, Sandra Bullock, and so many more.

For our free appetizer, we ordered their specialty, Carolina Delight. This was my second time eating grits, and they were so yummy! The Carolina Delight is a lightly fried grit cake topped with your choice of seafood (we got shrimp).

Carolina Delight

The menu has a wide range of fresh seafood, and traditional foods from the south!

My step-dad got the buffalo and regular shrimp with mac and cheese and hush-puppies!

Shrimp

Not wanting to stuff ourselves, and knowing the dishes were large, my mom and I decided to split shrimp and grits (with cheese). Our sides were fries, okra and bread. Definitely a good dish to split, and I was so glad we did!

Shrimp and Grits

If you're not in the mood for seafood like my sister, you can always just get some chicken strips and fries!

Chicken

We had a great time eating at Hyman's, our table was the only one filled in our little section so we had the room to ourselves. They also encourage you to visit their giftshop after you eat, where we bought some really yummy smelling scrubs before going back out into the heat. Later on, I opted for some Lemon Ice from one of the carts off the road while wandering around in the heat!

Charleston was recently just ranked the #1 city in the world by travel and leisure, and Hyman's was definitely in my top 3 best places to eat while I was there! I hope you enjoyed this post, what is your favorite seafood dish?

I hope you're all enjoying your week/summer!

Make sure to follow me on Bloglovin and instagram to keep up with all my adventures!

Thanks for reading!

Fresh

Peach "Nice"cream

8:30:00 AM

You may have seen this blog post a few months ago, and luckily I've made so many more since then! My favorite flavor of this dairy free-ice cream at the moment, is peach!

Nice-cream is probably one of the easiest things you can make, and this summer I've been obsessed with peaches. All you need are 3 ingredients to make this delicious treat!

1.Frozen Peaches

2. Nut milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk!)

3. Frozen bananas

You're mostly using frozen peaches for this, but I liked the flavor combination!

Staying cool this summer keeps on getting easier with all of the fresh fruit that's available to freeze! Just fill your blender with about 1 and a half cups of milk and 1 cut up frozen banana and 2 cut up frozen peaches!

What are your favorite summertime treats?

I hope you're following me over on facebook Instagram and bloglovin

Benefits

5 benefits of an online class

8:00:00 AM

It's summer. Do we really need to talk about school? For me, I really had a great trip (more posts are still coming) in the beginning of June. Immediately after I had gotten home, I was diving head first into an online math class.
Gross, I know.

Honestly, math has never been my best subject, or even my "i'm just okay at this" subject. I mean I can do the basics, but just don't throw the quadratic formula my way. I also have really bad test anxiety when it comes to math. Which is why, for the last two summers, I have opted to take my math credits online.
Here are some of the benefits that I found, while taking an online class:

1. You can do homework at any time of the day.

2. Usually nothing is due until midnight, which gives you plenty of time

3. You can work ahead and get things done to make room for fun activities.

4. There isn't a lot of peer pressure.

5. The teachers are really nice and quick to answer emails you might have.

Taking classes like this is also nice because you can focus solely on one subject.
What subject was your favorite in school? What one was your worst?
My favorite is definitely English, and my worst was obviously math!
I hope you're having a great summer! Make sure to leave a comment below, I love reading all of them!
x Kenzie

Balloons

Balloons and Fireworks

7:00:00 AM

One great thing about summer, besides the weather, is that there seems to be so much more to do. At least, for me anyway, I'm definitely a warm weather person and would rather be sweating than freezing any day. One of the activities that I attended last, was held in my hometown. It's a festival surrounded mainly around Ribs and Balloons. It's one of those festivals that I grew up going to, seeing the balloons glow and float over the houses.

The first few days were a bit cool, but that didn't hold some people back from enjoying the time. By the end of the weekend, we had gorgeous weather, which was great!

Having run of the table, meant that I saw some pretty funny things throughout the night. Including a goat that kept escaping and (my favorite) a couple who was young at heart and wanted to ride the camel.

Serious Relationship Goals here folks

There are also a ton of food trucks and different vendors that sell ribs for everyone to enjoy. Though I just got some kettle corn this year, every line was super long, which means the food is delicious!

On Saturday, the last day of the fest, my family met me at my Grandparents house, which is just a short walk from the grounds and we watched the fireworks together. It was beautiful weather, and I had so much fun helping out. I definitely have a lot of funny kid stories just from the couple of hours that I spent there! One kid told his dad he wanted to ride a cantaloupe instead of a camel.

How is your summer going? Have you been to any festivals like this? I wrote a post last year mentioning this festival, you can check it out here!

Have you gone on any fun summer adventures?
Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading as always!

Bag

Beach Bag Essentials

7:30:00 AM

Headed to the beach this summer? Make sure you put enough sunscreen on and pack a few extra things! I've made up a lovely little list of things that I would put into my beach bag and maybe give you some inspiration for yours!

Top 6 Beach Essentials:

1. Sunglasses/ Hat: Protect your eyes, my nose burns so easily and I usually stuck to wearing hats on the beach!

2. Water: You might not feel very warm on the beach by the water because of the breeze, but make sure to stay hydrated so you don't feel sick later on!

3. Sunscreen: Always apply sunscreen more than once! I applied at least three times and I still got burnt.

4. A book or magazine: Being on the beach is so relaxing, bring a book or a magazine to enjoy while you're there!

5. Camera. I loved taking photos of the water and things I found along the shore, just to remember them by!

6. Snacks. I liked to pack a snack on the beach like watermelon or pretzels, just because we didn't want to walk all the way back to our house.

What are some things you always pack for a day out of the house or at the beach? Are any of these things on your list? Let me know in the comments!

x Kenzie

Chickpeas

Savory and Spicy Chickpeas

6:30:00 AM

It's finally summer. Which means I'm home from University and creating new dishes and enjoying loads of time outside! Eating salads is one of my favorite things, but having salad two meals in a row just isn't my style, and thus I came up with this dish!

A vegan chickpea dish with spices and veggies that's easy to make and doesn't take much time at all! If you're looking for a healthy, easy and quick dish to make for yourself (or one other person) this is the meal for you!

What You'll Need:

1 can drained garbanzo/chickpeas

1 cup chopped peppers

1/4 cup mushrooms

1 cup chopped white onion

2 tablespoons Garlic Powder

1 tablespoon Onion powder

1-2 tablespoons Paprika

1 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

You can 100% play around with the flavors, personally, I really have been loving garlic powder so you can take it down or turn it up with any of these ingredients!

What You'll need to Do:

Drain the chickpeas

Heat 1 tablespoon Olive Oil in pan over medium heat

Add onions, peppers, mushrooms to pan and cook about 4 minutes

Add all the spices and stir

Add chickpeas and add more spices if you wish!

Stir continuously and cook for about 5 more minutes

I found that I split up the spices and added more after the chickpeas were added and you might want to do that as well! I hope you all love this recipe as much as I did! I really love chickpeas and want to see what other dishes will come up next!

Have you discovered any new dishes lately? Anything that you want to try out? I hope this inspired you to create your own and I cannot wait to hear what you have to say in the comments! Make sure to send me an email if you have any suggestions for blog posts!

x Kenzie

Hiking

River Escape

10:30:00 AM

Summer has gone by so quickly, as usual. Lately I've been busy with work..and lots of it! I finished up my online math class awhile ago, which was a big weight off of my shoulders, then I was thrown into a whirlwind of 40 plus hours a week-work weeks. Honestly, I'm exhausted, it doesn't help that a lot of people are leaving..and things just aren't the same anymore.
This past weekend I had off two days in a row! My dad had taken the week off and we were finally able to do something.
Walking by the river, away from the city (and work) was really nice. It wasn't too hot outside and it wasn't too cold. Just perfect for capturing photos of the rapids and beautiful greenery.

The moss on every tree and every rock was a brilliant green color and I loved it.

This photo might have been my favorite to come out of the trip

We ended our hike at this spot not too far off, the sun was peaking out of the clouds every few minutes.

Also, this bunch of roots looked like some scary creature...definitely glad it wasn't dark out...

This excursion reminded me to just take in little moments, that it's important to get away..because these past few weeks have been awfully crazy and stressful (I may or may not have cried 3 times at work). It was also revitalizing, because the week to come includes, moving back to Uni, turning 21 and starting new classes, making new friends.

I hope you all are enjoying the last bits of your Summer! Any big plans or celebrations?

Have you moved into University yet?

Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile!

Crisp

Strawberry Pecan Crisp

12:30:00 PM

What are some of the first foods that you think of when you think of Summer?
For me, I think of fruits. Mostly Strawberries, Peaches, Watermelon, Blueberries...etc. Which is why I spent some time finding the frozen strawberries in the freezer and stirring up a nice warm, fruit-filled, crisp.

Here's what you'll need:

Filling

2 cups chopped strawberries (my berries were quite small, so you may need less)

1/8 cup flour

3/8 cup granulated sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1/4 tsp vanilla

Topping

3/8 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

3/8 cup chopped pecans

1/4 unsalted butter at room temp

Here's what you'll need to do:

Preheat the oven to 350*F(177*C) ; Lightly grease 8 inch pan and set aside

Filling Directions

Combine strawberries with flour, sugar, salt and vanilla in medium sized bowl.

-Toss gently until combined and spoon or pour evently into pan

Topping Directions

Whisk brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, salt and pecans together.

-Get out brown sugar lumps, and add butter. Break up butter until mix is crumbly.
-Spread out on top of strawberries in pan

Bake 40-45 min until top is golden brown and juice is bubbly

Let Crisp cool before serving.

P.s serving this crisp warm with a little side of vanilla ice cream is the best.

I paired mine with Butter Pecan IceCream!
I hope you all enjoyed this recipe! Let me know what your favorite thing to eat or bake this Summer has been in the comments!
xx
Kenzie

fashion

Summer Nights

8:30:00 AM

It's the first of August already? What?! This Summer (like all summers) is going by so quickly! I decided while I had a bit of time to show off my newest JawBreaking purchase as well as a new plaid jacket I bought from a secondhand store!

You can find the shirt at this link right here!

I love having new clothes for the Summer and into the Fall. I haven't owned any plaid for quite some time, I feel like it went out of style a bit and now it's back!

Hope you all like this post!

Thanks for reading!

Kenzie

Balloon

Summer Daze

1:00:00 PM

As much as the humidity is absolutely killing me, I really don't want to see this summer roll to an end. With work and my online math class, I feel like I haven't fully enjoyed it. Though the math class will soon end (let's all cross our fingers that I pass it!) I will hopefully have more free time to do what Summer is for.

Adventuring.

Laying out on the deck.

Eating bowls of watermelon.

One sign of mid-summer in my town is the annual balloon festival. I unfortunately haven't been able to attend the last few years as I have always been out of town, but this year I was able to!

The balloon festival brings in about half of my towns population (so about 1500). It's held in a massive field, and as soon as you walk inside you're greeted with a large handful of food choices, a petting zoo, and colorful balloons ready to pop up into the sky.

The main food that is eaten here is called pulled pork. It's delicious, and covered in barbecue sauce, this year I tried a side of homemade cornbread from one of the stands. I only ate half of it, as it was a massive piece, but it was delicious!!!

The lines are very long, but worth the wait in my opinion. Sometimes the people standing in the queue with you even join in conversation, while we watch the balloons take off.

This year, while waiting in line, my dad and my sister popped out to grab some cheese curds. They were delicious!

A few of the balloons flew over while we waited for our turn in line and then found a table to eat dinner at.

Though it's only a once a year deal, it's still fun to go and see the balloons as I have been doing since I was young!

After eating, while my dad and his girlfriend went into the beer tent, my sister and I walked a few blocks over to my grandparents house where we were going to watch fireworks from their driveway. It's always worked out, you get a nice view of the fireworks, do a bit of people watching, and not get lost in a large crowd.