I thought I’d throw together a super quick last minute Memorial Day list of ideas for you. Just in case you’re still looking for that perfect dish or drink to make this weekend! Get the list below and enjoy your weekend!! :)

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

Last Friday-Monday, I was in Disney World! I attended the Food Blog Forum in Orlando for the second year in a row. This is probably my favorite food blog conference. I love how intimate it is and how much you’re able to network and learn from other bloggers.

I hope you enjoy the photos that I snapped with my iPhone! Most of these appeared on my Instagram so they might be repeats if you follow me over there :)

Our hotel room was kind of out-dated – kind of looks like grandma’s house but it was still nice :)

Amanda of Kevin & Amanda being a typical food blogger at lunch ;)

OBSESSED.

So much fun eating Dole Whip together! Rachel, Katrina, Sommer, Amanda, and myself.

A bunch of us waiting for the monorail to head to Magic Kingdom! Aggie, Sommer, Katrina, Megan, Rachel, Erin, Gina, Carla, Audra, Me, Amanda, Tina, Jenny, and Meagan

All of us in front of Cinderella’s castle

The coolest fruit cup, ever!

Me and one of my blogging BFF’s, Rachel!

Ahh love these ladies!! Tina & Carla

Caroline is the SWEETEST girl, ever!! I was so thrilled to finally meet her!!

Taking a break outside with some pretty friends :)

We just love to snap pictures!!We had a sugar heaven during lunch

The aftermath of all the cupcakes!!

Haha, I thought this was so cute!Finally got to meet Liz!! How cute is she?!

Hey, look! It’s ALL FIVE PW WEDNESDAY LADIES!! Do you remember that series? Omg, so fun and we all finally got to be in one place together at the same time!!

Finally went on Tower of Terror…can you find me? ;) hahahaha

The view of our resort (The Grand Floridian) from the monorail

Epcot!!

We all stayed an extra day to explore the parks!

Caroline’s adorable almost 1-year old, baby Liam!!!

I say I don’t want kids – but I really just can’t resist cute babies ;)

Oh, and then all the girls (minus me, cause I’m super light weight) drank…a lot…at the hotel we stayed at Sunday night.

Then we pigged out on delicious pizza!

I finally got my Starbucks fix at the airport. It was so long awaited since there were no Starbucks at Disney!!

–

I hope you enjoyed getting a recap of my trip to Orlando through pictures. It truly was such an amazing weekend.I met so many new and old bloggers. It was so much fun. I hope I get the opportunity to do it again next year. There were way too many people I know I missed so I hope to cross paths soon!

Thank you to Julie, Lindsay, Jaden & Scott Hair, Diane Cu &  Todd Porter, and Walt Disney World Resorts for helping put together a truly spectacular event.

The biggest take-away I got from the conference session was: “If you think you can’t afford a lawyer, you can’t afford not to have one. If you think you can’t afford an assistant, you can’t afford not to have one.” What did I do this week? I’m in the process of hiring a lawyer to help me with my contracts and I just hired an assistant today to help me with my day to day blog stuff. Thank you Jaden for that push!

I loved this quote from Diane: “You can go to a country & not know the language, but you can share a meal with someone and know them.” It is so true. It is exactly why I love food so much. Not only is it delicious, nourishing, and memorable, it brings people together.

See you at Food Blog Forum: Asheville in 2014 :) xo

More Food Blog Forum Recaps (will update as more come in – let me know if you did one!)

Amanda of Kevin and Amanda

Jenny of Picky Palate

Audra of The Baker Chick

Liz  of The Lemon Bowl

Amy of Nifty Foodie

Rachel of Baked by Rachel

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

It’s so hard sometimes to pick and choose what to post on certain days. Thankfully I have you all on Facebook to help me out :) You guys were clearly craving the take-out, fake-out over the cookies I had wanted to post! Ask and you shall receive! This lightened up version comes from the book I talked about last week, Comfort Food Makeovers by America’s Test Kitchen. The numbers on this dish before ATK’s makeover was crazy! 910 calories, 45 grams of fat, and 5 grams of saturated fat. After? 490 calories, 8 grams of fat, and 1.5 grams of saturated fat. What a difference, huh?!

So, speaking of my Facebook page..let’s just say, when it rains, it POURS. Did any of you follow along with what happened last night? I’m sure 95% of you received that Pinterest email about my Holy Yum Chicken. What a bunch of drama. I seriously have the best fans and readers. You all came up to bat for me with the negative comments and messages. I can’t thank you enough for understanding and realizing this was all beyond my control.

It really irks me that people jump to conclusions and have their own assumptions about everything without getting the facts first. Ever heard that quote, “be kind; for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” ? Well, so many people don’t really know what’s going on in my PERSONAL life and to add what happened yesterday on top of it, just really put me to the tipping point. Seriously, newsflash: this isn’t the end of the world. There are countless of tragedies going on in the world right now (re: OK tornadoes, wars, etc.) and for people to freak out at me over a recipe?! Really people, perspective…

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the recipe below. It’s become one of Jason & I’s favorite! :)

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

Do you ever feel like some days you just have ZERO time to do anything? There are days where I’m at work that I’m in 3458970 meetings and when I get back to my desk, it’s not to eat, it’s to clear out my inbox and respond to a bajillion emails that I got while I was in meetings. On top of that, trying to meet project deadlines too.

There have been so many days that I’ve skipped lunch because I just didn’t have time to eat. Even to stop for a snack is sometimes hard. Some days you just need a break, am I right? 30 minutes or so to take delight in each day and savor the moment.

Kraft PHILADELPHIA’s newest dippable, spreadable snacks are called Snack Delights. They come in five luscious flavors, including Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, White Chocolate, Cinnamon and Caramel.

Don’t these strawberries look divine in the dark chocolate spread? Oh my gosh, they were so good and the PERFECT snack to just take some of the stress away! I do hope you’ll take some time in your life to enjoy a daily moment of delight!

I have been selected by Kraft Foods to be an ambassador for PHILADELPHIA cream cheese. While I have been compensated for my time, my opinions are my own.

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

Oh, to be a kid again. It’s one of the most carefree years in your life. You really have no clue what’s ahead for you. You just live for the moment. I sometimes wish I could think like a kid and not be so overly worried and concerned! Speaking of being a kid again, I technically am going to go relive my childhood this weekend by going to Disney World! Yup, I absolutely cannot wait. I went to the Food Blog Forum at Disney last year, and going again this year! It’s going to be a magical weekend ;)

I love when babies/toddlers are old enough to talk and they just have the cutest isms. They’re so literal and so matter-of-fact. Here are some Natalie-isms I wanted to share with you. Natalie is Jason’s 2 year old niece. I guess she’s technically mine now too since we’re married.

“What would you like for breakfast, Natalie? Hmmmm a big cookie!”
“Nat, who are you talking to on the phone? A boy.”
“Nat, do you want more bread? For Natnie’s belly.”

She’s so cute. She also calls me Jujee because she can’t say Julie yet :)

Anyway, I’m sure all of us as children have had the canned version of Spaghetti O’s. Honestly, even as bad as they are for you, I thought it tasted really good (haha what kinda food blogger am I?!), but today I bring you a healthier homemade version! I picked up this book, Comfort Foods Makeovers by America’s Test Kitchen a few months ago and I literally went through a stuck a little post-it on each page. There’s so many dishes in there I want to cook and best of all, they’re LIGHTER and HEALTHIER. They have a little picture at the bottom where it shows you before calories and after. It’s a really great book. It’s got all your classics and then some. Definitely makes you feel a little better about eating all your comfort foods. They also give you reasons as to why they did what they did and how it works to make the dish lighter. Neat, huh? :)

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

Here I go again with yet another coffee flavored recipe! I should really just have a category that’s for “coffee flavored goodies” or something. It seems like I always have coffee on my mind. From the moment I wake up in the morning to falling asleep at night and dreaming about the next morning’s cup of coffee! With so much coffee on my brain (and probably in my brain, haha), it’s no surprise that my first ice cream recipe made from my KitchenAid Ice Cream Attachment was a coffee flavored one.

Do you know how LONG I waited to get this ice cream maker? Over a year. I typically am the biggest impulse buyer, ever. I never wait to get things. If I want it, I buy it. Which is why it’s so hard to get me presents. Anyway, so I had wanted this since way before last summer, but we got engaged last Spring so I knew I had to put it on my registry and when I was THISCLOSE to buying it every time I saw it, I quickly closed the web page or walked to the next aisle in the store. I can’t believe I held out for so long. We finally got it (thanks to my manager!!) before our wedding and I couldn’t be more happy with it. I was so happy with it that I went all ice cream on the brain and ended up making an ice cream pinboard. There’s sorbets on there that I want to try too.

You know, I’m glad wedding presents aren’t like Christmas presents, where you have to wait til the actual day to open it. I don’t think I could’ve held out with all those boxes that we got nearly every day leading up to the wedding! Haha, can you even imagine? That’s pure torture!

Oh, did you catch my honeymoon pictures yesterday? If not, you should mosey on over to see the beautiful island of Turks & Caicos after you check the recipe below!

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

You’ve seen our wedding photos, now it’s time to show you our honeymoon! Destination: Turks & Caicos!

It took us a while to decide where we wanted to go. We knew we wanted to go to the Caribbean because all we really wanted to do was relax. We didn’t want to do Europe because that’s more tourism and physically doing stuff. We just wanted to be lazy :) plus, we haven’t taken a real vacation in over 2 years – with getting engaged, buying a house, and planning a wedding, a relaxing vacation was well overdue.

We had St. Maarten, St. Lucia, and Turks & Caicos on the list. We crossed off St. Lucia because it was too far and we crossed off St. Maarten because, well, I don’t know why. All I know is that we talked to some friends who have been to Turks & Caicos before & they highly recommended it.

After we decided on where we were going, we started looking at resorts and hotels. We first wanted to do an all-inclusive thing, but then we realized that would pidgeon-hole us because you would likely end up staying at the resort the entire time and not exploring the island and trying different foods – and you know that was one of my main things, so we started looking at really nice hotels. We probably spent a good couple days searching and finding places within our budget. We finally stumbled across Beach House. It was recommended to us by Turks & Caicos Magazine. They saw my tweets saying we were going to TCI (Turks & Caicos Islands) so they asked where we were staying. I had no idea so I asked for recommendations and they knew I was a foodie so the hotel they said that we could get our grub on was Beach House. Sold!

Beach House generously hosted us for two nights with us paying for the other 5 nights, we also booked under the Beach House Beginnings package. It included:

• Round Trip Transfers to and from airport
• Beach Picnic
• Chef’s Tasting Dinner for 2
• Sunset Cruise
• Snorkeling at Smiths Reef
• Breakfast credit each day (subject to tax and service charge)
• Champagne and Chocolate Truffles

I love that Beach House has only 21 suites. It’s very intimate and very quiet. Everyone that works there is SO friendly and helpful. For someone like me, I like taking control of the situation, but when we were there, they took care of EVERYTHING. Making our dinner reservations, calling our cabs, etc. Definitely a different feeling but I loved it.

The grounds a Beach House are so well-kept and full of lush greenery and flowers.

They don’t have room numbers here. It’s actually their motto. “Where the rooms have no numbers.” We stayed in a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom suite. Really, we didn’t need all the space, we would’ve been fine with the 1 bedroom suite, but when we got there, they said that the suite we were originally supposed to be in, had some “sprucing up” to do so they upgraded us to this larger suite on the 3rd floor. I think they were just being super nice :)

The very large kitchen area when you first walk in through the door

This place was huge! Check out the living/dining room area.

Haha, can you believe Jason and I got put in this massive suite??

This was our master bedroom

Down the hall was the second bedroom that we didn’t even use! We should’ve took some of you with us ;)

Loved this waterfall shower!! I’ve always wanted one :)

This sitting area on our very large balcony was one of my favorites. I LOVED that it was covered and it was a nice place to walk out to every morning and see the marvelous beach. It was also really relaxing to just sit out there and listen to the ocean.

Ahh, this was the view from our balcony. Bliss.

Part of the Beach House Beginnings package is the champagne & truffles on arrival! The truffles lasted us ALL week! It was such a nice treat to have every evening after we came in from the beach.

This was in our freezer. Papaya and almond sorbet – made in-house. It was AMAZING. I have never had papaya before and I certainly want some now! The flavor is so sweet and lovely.

Cheers to being married and relaxing!

This is the dining area at Beach House. Lovely, isn’t it?

The Food

The food on Turks & Caicos Islands is extraordinary. It’s definitely a food lovers’ paradise. They have a lot of dishes with conch in it because it’s what they have an abundant supply of down there. I will say though – everything is imported and nothing is grown there, so food can get pricey – but it’s really worth it. The attention to detail and presentation and the incredible flavors of every dish we had – I’d gladly have it every night!

Beach House has an in-house chef, Chef Eric Vernice. His background is French cuisine and he ties all of the island flavors so well together in perfect harmony.

When you have dinner at Beach House, they start you off with a different amuse bouche every night. This particular night, we had this cauliflower cheese mousse. Oh my god. I don’t even know how to explain it. It was one of the lightest and most luxurious things I’ve ever put in my mouth. I wanted to just go to the kitchen and take the piping bag full of it and drink it. That wouldn’t have been too classy, though..

This was chargrilled wild prawns, octopus, and Caicos conch. Served with a Tuscan bean salad and chorizo vinaigrette.

Yellowfin tuna

Tartar

Mahi mahi, oven roasted

…served with vegetable stir fry & basmati rice and shrimp tempura miso soy

Ok, so part of the Beach House Beginnings package is a $20 credit for breakfast every morning. It’s basically free gourmet breakfast. EVERY MORNING. Makes sense why we gained so much weight. We had such rich breakfast every morning. Check out their breakfast menu – I mean, really. I think Jason could live on eggs benedict the rest of his life.

Me? I could live on this brioche French toast with lavender honey. That whipped cream? It’s got a hint of lemon. It’s PERFECT with the caramelized bananas. Ugh, I die.

We ventured out to the hotel next to us, the Gansevoort. We loved their restaurant, Stelle. This was a watermelon & mint mojito. So good.

We went to Stelle two separate nights and both nights we got the conch ceviche. With a presentation like that, who could ever say no to it??

Jason got one of their specials of the day – a salmon dish with roasted garlic potato puree

I got a pork tenderloin with sweet potato puree and poached apples and salted kale. SO GOOD.

So another part of the Beach House Beginnings package was the Chef’s 5-course tasting menu. I only got two pictures of this because the light was gone by the second dish :( This picture above is the amuse bouche that’s different every night at the restaurant. I honestly forgot the name of this but I know those little beads that look like caviar, they’re citrus beads – they pop in your mouth a citrusy taste! Really fun.

This was a display of sashimis with the citrus beads.

Another part of our Beach House Beginnings package was a beach picnic! They prepare all the food for you and you pick it up at the restaurant in these cute baskets. Thanks for carrying them, HUBBY ;)

Not a bad view for lunch, huh?

You’re about to flip out at how much food we got. This was a tomato salad with buffalo mozzarella.

Then a nicoise salad.

A turkey & cheese sandwich

AND a smoked salmon sandwich.

Finally, this decadent dark chocolate ganache cake.

Haha, food coma..on the beach.

Things To Do

Jason and I aren’t the excursion type couple. We’ll do like minimal physical activity but you won’t find us scuba diving, deep sea fishing, etc. We did do a lot of walking on the beach, eating, swimming, and Jason did some snorkeling. I, on the other hand, got really claustrophobic with the huge goggles and tube, so I opted out, haha

Yet another part of the Beach House Beginnings package was a sunset cruise. This catamaran picks you up right in front of your hotel! You do get a little wet though because you gotta walk right into the water about shin-deep to get on those stairs.

Haha, I thought this netting was going to break. Jason had to reassure me a few times that there was no way it could break.

On Thursday nights, at Bight Park (which happened to be a 5 minute walk from our hotel – we were so lucky) they have a local fish fry!! All these local restaurants come out and cook under these tents. Good food, cheap (our entire meal was like $40), and great entertainment. They have a live band and everything! It was really fun to do something that the locals do and get into their culture a little bit.

Making lots of conch salad!

The conch fritters with spicy mayo was REALLY GOOD. They were kind of like hushpuppies but just with conch.

This conch salad was SPICY but still great flavors!

And then we walked along the beach during sunsets :)

One night, we went to this restaurant/bar called Somewhere. It’s a really casual, low-key place with REALLY good food. It was a 5 minute walk from our hotel and it was a nice break from all the fancy food and expensive checks :) Jason got fish tacos and I got BBQ pulled pork quesadillas. It never felt so good to eat so casually, haha – we also ordered fries (the fries at the hotel were even super fancy thick cut and artistic looking ones!) and beers and just watched a basketball game.

During the time we were in Turks & Caicos, we met a lot of sweet couples, one of which was from our area and got married the same day as us! They were on their honeymoon too and doing the same package we did :) we also met this couple on the sunset cruise that live in LA but the guy was born in our area. We then met two other couples who were both from CT and another couple from Philly. It’s nice to talk to people while on vacation and be social and not just stick to yourself. Everyone’s got a different story so I love chatting people up – you could tell everyone felt the same!

All photographs taken by yours truly!

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

I wish I had some of this pie left. Although it was made weeks ago, yesterday would’ve been a good day to take a bite of this pie and pretend I was in a tropical paradise. I was in the exact opposite place. I was in bed majority of the day feeling like absolute death because I was running a 101 degree fever. Fevers are not fun. I can deal with congestion and coughing, but once that fever hits, it completely shuts you down. Your entire body aches and you feel so weak and cold. Ugh, just even thinking about it makes me cringe. Thankfully there’s ibuprofen, but I’m just wanting to kick this cold so bad. I need to at least be 70% better by Friday since I’ll be heading out of town again. Luckily it’s to somewhere warm – Orlando, FL! Most importantly, DISNEY WORLD. And I definitely do NOT want to be in bed all day ;)

Oh, so on Saturday, Jason and I went on our first married date night since we got back from our honeymoon. We went for sushi – always a good choice when it’s warm out. We then went and saw Iron Man 3. SO good. I loved how funny it was (RDJ is always so funny!) and I loved all the explosions and action. Has anyone see it yet? I know most of you probably went to see The Great Gatsby this weekend, right? I’m waiting til the crowds die down for that one. I hate going to movies opening weekend! It’s just such a huge cluster.

Continue reading: Tropical Pie

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

So you know my chicken dish, Holy Yum Chicken? Well, this is holy yum chicken’s Asian sister.

Equally easy to make and equally delicious.

Again, FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS. I won’t mislead you. I won’t lie to you about something. My results are the pictures above! So clearly, it worked with the recipe below!

It’s as every bit delicious as holy yum chicken, just obviously different flavor profiles. Jason prefers this Asian version but I prefer the mustardy version that the holy yum chicken offers. Definitely all taste preference but honestly, I could never say no to garlic, honey, ginger, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Your house will smell ridiculously good.

Sorry I’m not writing a whole lot today..just got a TON of things going on at the moment. You would think things would calm down after the wedding, huh? Nope. Especially since I’ll be out of town again next week…got a lot of loose ends to tie up! *sigh* it never ends here!

Enjoy the recipe :) I bet you already have all ingredients in your pantry!

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

Well, as most of you all know, I got married on 4/27/2013. I want to take this moment & share a snippet of it with y’all. Hope you don’t mind this minor food interruption! :)

It was a gorgeous Spring day – I honestly could not have prayed for better weather. It was a sunny 70 degrees with a light breeze. There was no sweating (except for killin’ it on the dance floor!) and no sweaters/jackets to be worn. It really was perfection.

This was the absolute happiest day of my life. I loved every second of it. To be surrounded by family and friends, some that traveled thousands of miles, is one of life’s greatest blessings.

To our parents – we wouldn’t be here today without your love & support. Thank you for making this day possible.

To each and every one of my family and friends – we love you and we are so beyond blessed & happy that you all got to be apart of our special day.

To all my blog friends who sent gifts & cards & well wishes – wow! Y’all amaze me every day and I love this blogging community. Everyone is so generous, supportive, and loving.

Everything was perfect – down to the tiniest detail I planned out. It’s really crazy. Over a year’s worth of planning – & it’s over in a blink of an eye.  It’s so cliche but it is so very true!

You all have followed along with the wedding details – now that it’s happened & come to life (and ended) – what do you think?!

All photos courtesy of Katelyn James Photography.

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou