Vermont Weekend...and a few Beers

Hi All! So Last week BHB and I traveled up to Vermont for the weekend! Everyone asked if we were going skiing but we only went to be away, eat good food, drink good beer, and just enjoy each others company. It's so beautiful up there and we had an amazing time. Here is a recap of our trip!

Wednesday we got up there and immediately started "beer hunting". BHB and I are huge fans of craft beer, especially in Vermont. We spent the first few hours going into different stores buying stuff to bring back home with us. When we made it into Waterbury we grabbed a bite to eat at The Blue Stone. They had the most amazing pizza, and that means a lot coming from a Jersey Girl! It was such a cozy restaurant and we got a to sit at a bar height table in the front window so we could people watch and relax after our car ride and beer hunting. We shared a steak pizza and two local beers before heading to our hotel.

Here is my hotel selfie from before dinner!

For Dinner that night we ate at Prohibition Pig, which is one of our favorites in Waterbury.

They recently held a contest for showing Pro Pig "swag" through Facebook and Instagram and I won a giftcard! It couldn't have been better timing because one week later we were there!

Here's my picture that won 3rd place in the contest!

On Thursday, we got up early and headed out to Winooski, VT. We ate lunch at Misery Loves Company, which is a trendy farm to table restaurant in downtown Winooski. I got a Korean Reuben and BHB went with The Vonnegut, which consisted of pork belly, cheese, and fried egg. The food was amazing!

After lunch we drove into Burlington to park and walk around. It was FREEZING so we tried our best to bounce in and out of shops. BHB bought me the warmest blanket from Vermont Flannel Company. It instantly became my favorite blanket! (I think BHB thought we could share, but is now reconsidering since I've used it everyday since we came home)

(I took this picture at home. I think Teddy loves the blanket as much as I do!)

After exploring Burlington we stopped in at The Vermont Pub & Brewery for some drinks. 

It's known as Vermont's oldest brewery. It was owned by legendary craft brewer, Greg Noonan, who is famous among beer connoisseurs. We each got a beer (there was a lot of beer drinking on this trip) and shared the most amazing cheese sampler platter with 6 different cheeses from around Vermont. I wish I got a picture of it!

From Vermont Pub & Brewery, we stopped into Zero Gravity for another beer before heading to dinner.

For dinner we ate at The Farmhouse in Burlington. They are known for their amazing food and incredible tap list. BHB and I had Cantillon Iris on DRAFT! We are so lucky we ordered right away because it soon after kicked and we would have missed it. For an appetizer we each got bone marrow toast. BHB ordered it last summer when we were in Vermont and I tried and loved it! It's definitely not something I would have originally ordered on my own, but I've been really trying to explore new foods. Since we each wanted our own toast we shared a burger for dinner. My phone died as soon as we got there so I only got this blurry menu pic... Blogger fail!

After dinner we headed back to Waterbury and stopped in to The Blackback Pub for drinks before going back to the hotel. The same bartender that we met last summer was working- Jessie. She remembered us and even gave me a souvenir glass to take home.

Friday was for Hill Farmstead! We woke up early and started the drive up to Greensboro Bend, which was a little over an hour from Waterbury. It's an insane drive because you really feel like you're driving into the middle of nowhere (you kind of are).

We wanted to arrive early because the brewery is known for having long lines. You can only buy their beer at the brewery and its VERY popular among craft beer drinkers. We did get there early to find we were the first ones! It was snowing and very cold so we put our bag of growlers in "line" and sat in our car. Shaun Hill, the owner of Hill Farmstead saw us waiting and waived for us to come inside early. What a nice guy!

After we got our growlers we started the drive back down to Waterbury and stopped in Hardwick, VT for lunch at Positive Pie. BHB got an awesome burger and I got a BBQ chicken pizza - yum! We also each got a beer- surprise, surprise!

After lunch we were both exhausted so we decided to head back to our hotel to rest before getting freshened up for dinner.

Friday night was the last night of our trip and we ate at The Reservoir, which is also known for great food and beer! I got pork tenderloin with veggies and BHB got the yummiest venison pot pie. I certainly had the most handsome date in all of Vermont. Love this guy!!!

After dinner we stopped back into Prohibition Pig for some drinks and to use the rest of our giftcard!

Saturday morning we packed up the car and headed back to Jersey! We had such an amazing time being away together. Writing this post made me so hungry for the delicious restaurants Vermont has and I can't wait to plan our next trip! Where is your favorite place for weekend getaways for great food and company?

xo, Jess

Here are some extra random pics of our trip. The views were incredible and the snow and ice on the trees made the road feel like a tunnel. Enjoy!

Homemade Chicken Pot Pies

As I'm sure y'all know, we are in the midst of a blizzard in the northeast! BHB had to keep the liquor store open til about 6:30pm tonight and I wanted him to come home to a home cooked meal after traveling in the snow. For a long time we have been fans of Marie Callender's chicken pot pies, so I wanted to try homemade pot pies! I did some research so I knew the foundation of the recipe and then decided to come up with my own "filling" ingredients. I wanted to share my recipe with you!

For this recipe I used my Large Double-Handled Soup Bowls from Williams-Sonoma found here (c/o a birthday gift from my Uncle Kenny last year!) They are great because they are oven safe - hence perfect for pot pies!

**On a side-note, my next plan for these bowls is homemade french onion soup! I'm writing this so I'm more accountable to actually make it :)**

Ingredients:

1 can Cream of Chicken soup, condensed (I used 2 cans due to my extra veggies)

Pillsbury Grands! flaky layers biscuits (the one with 8 large biscuits)

1 lb Chicken breast

Bacon (I used 4 thick cut slices crumbled but I wish I added more)

2 cups of mixed vegetables (I used 4 cups bc I bought too many veggies)

Shredded Cheddar 

Directions:

Preheat Oven: 375 degrees

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

For our pot pies, I wanted to use chicken, bacon, cheddar, asparagus, broccoli, onion, and red pepper. Most of the recipes I found called for the frozen mixed veggies that included carrots, corn, and peas but I wanted something different! Feel free to substitute any variety of veggies you want!

Step 1: Pre cook Chicken/Bacon & wash/cut veggies. It cuts prep time if you do this at the same time :)

Season the chicken as you wish! I always just use a little salt, pepper & garlic powder

Step 2: Slice up cooked chicken & bacon and add it to veggie mixture

Step 3: Add can(s) of condensed cream of chicken to mixture and stir!

Step 4: Crust time- Bottom!

I found it easiest to put the biscuits on a cutting board and flatten them out with my palm. Since I have 4 bowls and 8 biscuits (perfect!), I used one for each bottom and one for each top!

When I had the biscuit nice and flat, I put one in the bottom of each bowl and tried pinching it up around the sides as much as I could.

Step 5: Add a few spoonfuls of stuffing to each bowl

Step 6: Crust time- Top & bake!

Using the same technique from step 4, I flattened out the biscuit and laid it over the top of each bowl. I tried my best to pinch around the edge to hold it in place.

Keep in mind, for my recipe, these pot pies won't have the typical "pie crust", but will only have a bottom and a top.

Bake at 375 for 25-30 min. I baked mine for 30 minutes by accident because I was outside shoveling. LOL. I would keep an eye on it in case you don't want your top as brown as ours turned out.

Step 7: ENJOY!

All of our veggies were perfectly cooked, so even though I wish the crust wasn't as crispy, I'm not sure if less time in the oven would have meant less cooked veggies.

This was my first time making this so please let me know if you have any tips or would have done something different! I'm still not sold on the way I did the crust and would like to explore other options to maybe make the full pie crust rather than the "sandwiched" pot pie.

I was VERY happy with how ours turned out. They were so yummy and BHB was obsessed! I wish I took a picture of the empty bowls :)

What veggies would you use in your homemade potpies!?

xo, Jess

Mountain Getaway

Mountain Getaway by simplyjessicalynn featuring light wash high waisted skinny jeans

Hi All!!! I am SO excited to share that BHB and I will be heading up to Vermont next week to spend a few days. We have never been away just the two of us because we are always traveling with friends or family. It came at a perfect time because I have been so busy and stressed with work that a few days of R&R is just what the doctor ordered. In honor of my trip next week and me thinking about packing, I decided to put together my ideal Vermont look :) What's your perfect mountain look?

xo, Jess

Five for 15

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I cannot believe it's 2015 already. This past year has flown by with both ups and downs for me & my family. It has been a crazy year - especially this past holiday. BHB is a manager at a liquor store and it's the busiest time of year for him. I've been helping him out working at the store during the holidays which meant taking my usual time off to spend at the store and not much time for blogging.

Here is me working at the store this past NYE. I'd obviously rather be drinking the Veuve than selling it but I still had a good time spending the evening with BHB and seeing everyone get excited for the New Year.

I cannot wait to see what this year brings! Here is a list of 5 things I hope to accomplish in 2015.

1. Blog more (ha! I say this a lot)

2. Inspire others as a Beachbody coach

3. Not to worry as much 

4. Start saving & less shopping

5. Buy a new car!

Going along with my efforts to blog more in 2015, here is a compilation of some of my looks from 2014!

   

Happy New Year to you and yours! Cheers to 2015!

Xo, Jess