When I first heard about Dreaming Cow, I knew I wanted to be on it. Doing social media for a New Zealand style grass-fed yogurt company that loves their animals? Yeah, that had my name written all over it.

About two weeks ago, I took a trip out to their dairy farms located just outside of Thomasville, Georgia (my home turf’s backyard!) to meet the cows and learn about the Dreaming Cow operation. I was so ridiculously excited about this trip. What do you mean I get to play with cows all day and get PAID for it? Totally a dream come true.

We started out the morning at Jumping Gully – the farm where the owner, Kyle, and his family keep the mature milking cows.

The ladies were so friendly and curious. This particular sweet girl just wanted us to rub her head and give her all the love.

I happily obliged, of course. I really loved seeing how well-treated the cows were. Some were timid, but there wasn’t any fear of humans. It was so blatantly obvious that they’d grown up in a friendly environment. But not all the cows were as bold as the girl above – some of them would just follow us around the pasture wanting to get a closer look. We named this particular cow “Harriett” due to her lightning-like marking on her forehead:

She followed us around, but wouldn’t quite get close enough to let us pet her.

When it’s milking time, all the cows make their way across the pasture to the milking station. They aren’t herded – they just know their routine.

We eventually moved over to another farm where the younger calves are kept to grow up a little bit. These little ladies were about 8 months-old.

Holy crap, they were cute.

Those little faces melted my heart. I’m pretty sure I said I wanted a baby cow about 500 times while I was there. They were so timid, but curious. As we stood in the field, they circled around us trying to get a closer look. If they weren’t herbivores, I would’ve thought that we were lunch.

From there, we moved on to another farm where the two year-old heifers lived.

These ladies were quite the lively and vocal bunch. From the minute we arrived, they were very interested in checking us out, and when we walked away, they mooed like crazy! At one point, I was just standing there minding my own business, when one of the girls got bold and decided to give me some licks.

I was surprised that a cow’s tongue wasn’t smooth like a horse’s or a dog’s – it was prickly like a cat’s!

We also spent some time in the factory learning about the entire yogurt making process, but that’s another post for another time. The whole experience was truly amazing. I have my heart set on adopting a cow now! Kyle and his family are awesome people, and I’m so grateful to work with such an inspiring brand.

I feel like The PLAYERS Championship should just be a holiday week here in Jacksonville. We should all be allowed to take off work and just head out and soak up the sunshine and hot golfers. Even though I couldn’t take off the whole week, I still decided to head out during the practice rounds on Wednesday to check things out.

Tip: Practice rounds are a great time to go if you don’t like crowds and you want to get up-close to your favorite players.

As I previously discussed, the PGA Tour and The PLAYERS staff really wanted to step up the food options this year. Part of that was including the new Taste of Jax area featuring Pele’s Wood Fire, Metro Diner, and Indochine.

Since I lack the ability to turn down thai food, we grabbed some chicken pad thai from Indochine and headed over to the 11th green.

The food variety was great. I was so happy not to eat a hamburger or hot dog! This is minor, but I do wish Indochine had given spice level options for the pad thai because I like mine really spicy. But I also understand they’re serving mass quantities, and I’m just happy to have thai food.

The food court behind 17 also has some fun new options from previous years including M Shack, Brucci’s, Bono’s, Firehouse Subs, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, and the PGA Tour Cafe. We grabbed the Black Bean Patty Melt from the PGA Tour Cafe.

Between the spicy black beans, the caramelized onions and the cheese, this vegetarian option was a fantastically filling choice.

We really wanted to try the Mayport Shrimp and Grits, but by the time we were hungry again, they were done serving food at the closest refreshment stand. Womp womp.

Another great thing about going on Wednesday was being able to see Dierks Bentley.

I’m some seriously in love with that man now. He puts on an AWESOME show.

I’ll be headed out to The PLAYERS again on Sunday with my mom for Mother’s Day. Looking forward to trying more of the delicious food options! If you get a chance to head out, I’d love to hear what you think of the food, so be sure to tweet me, tag me on Instagram, or leave a comment on my Facebook page.

I’m a big fan of Cantina Laredo at the St. John’s Town Center and their Casa Rita is pretty much my favorite margarita – I’ve talked about my love for it before.

The other night, the wonderful people at Cantina invited me to stop by and eat a bunch of their food. I said yes, of course.

Obviously, we had to start with an order of guacamole made tableside.

Beautiful sight, isn’t it? Additionally, we ordered the incredible Queso Laredo.

I could seriously drink that stuff. Sick and twisted, I know.

Normally when I’m at Cantina Laredo, I order chicken tacos and call it a day. But on this night, I promised myself I’d try some new things and maybe even step out of my comfort zone.

I definitely stepped outside of my comfort zone by ordering Sea Bass! If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know that I’m not exactly a fan of seafood. Well, that’s changing. Sort of. SOMEONE has decided his goal in life is to expand my horizons and make me like seafood. It started with some shrimp and then some salmon, and now I’m ordering sea bass. WHO AM I? Long story short – I really liked the totally non-fishy sea bass. Baby steps, y’all.

We also ordered the Enchiladas de Mole. The Mole sauce was excellent, but there was just too much of it and it was the only thing I could taste in the enchiladas. If they scaled it back, the dish would be incredible. A little goes a long way with mole!

And because I didn’t want y’all to think I had a fever or something, we ordered the Carnitas Tacos.

Slow-roasted pork with chipotle wine sauce? Yes, please. Those tacos melted in my mouth, so I was a happy girl (TWSS?).

Then there was dessert. Clearly the best plan of action was to order one of everything on the menu.

The Mexican classic – Flan. This custard dessert was creamy and wonderful.

Yes, that’s a hot brownie with ice cream melting all over it. Yes, it was orgasm worthy.

And a mango tres leches cake. Wasn’t a fan. Get your fruit outta my dessert. End of story.

I lied. Fruit can be in this dessert because that cinnamon ice cream makes life worth living.

But I will say – brown butter is awesome. And this is how you do it.

Grab a stick of butter out of the fridge and chop it up into fifths and place in a small pot or pan. While you can brown butter over higher heat, I prefer to do it over medium to keep myself from burning it.

Let the butter slowly melt, gently stirring with a whisk continuously.

Totally normal occurrence in my world.

Anyway, this cake tastes like moist banana bread. And it’s slathered in peanut butter buttercream. Did your mind just explode? Good. That was my goal.

When I brought this cake to work, we ate it for breakfast. I convinced people that it was a perfectly acceptable breakfast food because bananas are fruit, peanut butter has protein, and there are eggs in the batter. Delusional? Maybe a little. Effective? Absolutely. You know… because I have to force people to eat my cake. My life is hard.

Decadent Banana Bread Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream

Makes 2 9inch rounds

Ingredients:

Ingredients:

• 1 c. peanut butter
• 1/2 c. butter, room temperature
• 3 c. confectioners sugar
• 1/2 c. milk

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the peanut butter and butter for 2-3 minutes until it has lightened a few shades. Slowly add the confectioners sugar making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl until combined. Pour in milk and continue to mix until light and fluffy.

I don’t remember the last time I ate this many burgers in such a short period of time. Normally, I eat a burger every few months when I get a cravings. As a kid, I actually didn’t even like hamburgers. It wasn’t until I was a teenager and my friends introduced me to the Jr Bacon Cheeseburger at Wendy’s did my appreciation begin.

As an adult, I can really appreciate a great burger. Thick, juicy, and medium well is how I like it. And with cheese. And bacon. Because we all know that I love bacon.

One of the newer burger joints in Jacksonville is M Shack. I’ve heard great stuff about it, but since I rarely ever leave my little Riverside-Avondale bubble. I finally made it out there and of course, I ordered a bacon cheese burger (don’t look surprised).

The burger was pretty solid. Not the best I’ve had, but definitely pretty good.

I also ordered some fries because if I had to competitively eat a food, it would be fries.

Complete with a side of M Shack-made ranch dressing. I’m pretty sure I’m a ranch dressing connoisseur, and this was good stuff. Now, the fries at M Shack have been really talked up to me. I’ve heard time and time again about how awesome they are, but honestly? I thought they were pretty standard fries. Good, but nothing to write home about.

But the best part?

Was the onion ring I snagged from Cindy. Holy crap, those suckers were good. The batter was crispy and flaky and amazing. All I wanted to do was throw it on the burger. That could easily push the burger into “extraordinary” range.

M Shack is a great choice for grabbing delicious food after a day at the beach. Or a day shopping. Or a day being lazy.

Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Did you know that Adam Scott won THE PLAYERS in 2004? It’s true. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there for his 2004 victory, as I went to THE PLAYERS for the first time in 2010. Then again in 2011. It’s always a good time – sunshine, beer, hot golfers. What more could a girl ask for? Oh right. Food.

The only part that has been lacking has been the food selection. This year, the PGA Tour and TPC Sawgrass (with the help of Prom Catering) are stepping it up a notch (or ten) with some great new dining options throughout the grounds. I was lucky enough to be invited to taste some of the goods the other night.

Throughout the course there are plenty of different places to grab something to eat. The options range from family-friendly grub to Wine and Dine on 9′s upscale eats to the Taste of Jax section featuring local favorites like my beloved Pele’s Wood Fire, Indochine, and Metro Diner.

We started our tasting with the cold sandwiches available from The PGA Tour Cafe – the Avocado Power Lunch (gluten-free!), the BSR Sandwich (turkey bacon!), and the Chick’n Salad (vegetarian!). Of the three, the Chick’n Salad was by far my favorite. I loved how they made it from chickpeas.

From there we moved onto the hot sandwiches that would be available at the PGA Tour Cafe. The Black Bean Patty Melt is an awesome vegetarian option with soy cheese. It’s like a delicious old school grilled cheese with the added bonus of black beans. By far my favorite of the items I tried.

In addition to the sandwich options, THE PLAYERS will also feature Mayport Shrimp and Grits with Fried Green Tomatoes.

The shrimp and grits were awesome. I’ve always been a seafood hater, but lately I’m coming around to liking shrimp (and salmon, shhhhh).

And a skirt steak sandwich with caramelized onions.

The steak on the sandwich was fantastic and the onions were perfectly sweet, but the crusty french bread made it a little hard to eat.

After we ate our faces off, we headed out on a tour of the grounds.

TPC Sawgrass is so insanely beautiful. I love that place. I can’t wait to head out to THE PLAYERS this year and eat more of the awesome food (and drink the tasty drinks)!

Here’s a few more tidbits about this year’s event:

• Carpool! Parking is free for cars with at least 4 people in the vehicle
• Permanent restrooms have been built, ladies. No more port-a-potties!
• Plenty of vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free food options.

Hope to see you there!

I know – it’s never good when someone says those words. But I promise this isn’t what it looks like. I was just playing around in the kitchen, drinking wine with Liz, innocently baking cupcakes for Aliera’s birthday, and it just happened. I didn’t mean to cause any harm, but now? I’m not sure I can go back to living life the way I did before.

These aren’t just ordinary red velvet cupcakes. They have bacon. And they’re GASP! from a box. I know! I was super, duper busy last week, so I grabbed a box of red velvet cake mix to expedite the process. I’m normally a from-scratch kinda girl, but with some tweaks, a cake mix can produce incredible results.

In all seriousness, I think they’re the best cupcakes I’ve ever made. They were dense, yet moist, and absolutely delicious.

So there it is. I made red velvet cupcakes from a box and added bacon. And my life is forever changed. I hope you can understand.

Bacon-Bottomed Red Velvet Cupcakes

Yield 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 box red velvet cake mix
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 c. butter, melted
• 1 1/4 c. water
• 10 slices of cooked bacon, chopped

Preheat oven to  350°F for metal or glass pans, 325°F for dark or coated pans. Prepare a cupcake pan with liners, adding a tablespoon of bacon crumbles to each cup. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, blend together on low eggs, butter, and water until moistened. Continue to beat on medium for two minutes. Pour into cupcake tin, filling each 2/3 full.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1 c. butter, room temperature
• 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
• 2-3 c. confectioner’s sugar
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract

Last night, I had the pleasure of joining Lisa at Spank! The Fifty Shades Parody, presented by the Artist Series. It’s the first time I’ve gone to one of their shows, and holy crap – it was a stellar start.

When I read Fifty Shades of Grey last year, I rolled my eyes HARD. I mean, 28 year-old billionaire? 22 year-old virgin who is instantly into S&M? Helicopters? Secret sex rooms? Non-disclosure agreements? Stalking? Oh, COME ON. It was beyond ridiculous.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I sat down at Spank! The show opened with a Magic Mike-style dance number by the wicked hot Hugh Hanson (Christian Grey character). I loved that the plotline revolved around E.B. Janet’s (E.L. James, the Fifty Shades author) thought process while writing the book. The actress who played E.B. Janet was amazing at throwing in local references throughout the show. She was witty and sharp. I also loved how Tasha Woode’s (Anastasia Steele character) involvement with the crowd. The castmembers are masters at improv.

After the show, we had the pleasure of a little face time with Hugh Hanson.

Ladies, that man is HOT. And he’s also taken. By a woman. Cause I know some of you were going to ask.

Anyway, Spank! is at the Times Union Center until Saturday, so go see it! It’s a hysterical good time.

I’ve heard so many wonderful things about Olio, and it’s been on my list for a long time. Adam Richman even featured their duck grilled cheese on his Best Sandwich in America show on Travel Channel:

Since it’s a short walk from the office, a bunch of us headed over for lunch. After much deliberation, I decided on a hamburger with white American and fries.

I’d heard the hamburgers were top-notch, but I can say without a doubt that this is the best hamburger I’ve ever had. It was so juicy and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Cheese and meat became one, y’all. It was glorious.

And the fries? Those are crispy, chunky sticks of heaven.

In case you couldn’t tell, I kinda sorta maybe totally loved Olio Market. Definitely a must-try in Jacksonville!