Official Website of JillandKate

So, we’re on a last minute road trip & when we travel it’s almost protocol for nutritional food to be tossed out the window…haha…anything with red dye 5, high fructose corn syrup or bleached white flour all seem to make it into the car. 

And that’s just the food we pack to take with us…never mind the chicken nuggets, burgers, french fries & ice creamy treats that we consume during rest stops. Eating in the car passes the time…keeps you awake…I don’t care who you are. Eating while driving is a given.

It’s just a fact of life. Yes, we could pack nutritional pre-made home-made snacks but sometimes YOU JUST CANT. No time people. (And sometimes nothing compares to Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.)

And that’s life.

So there you have it.

What are your favorite road trip snacks?

xo
j&k

Some stuff we’re frequenting or enjoying or overusing or loving right now:

• Pumpkin Soup. We cannot vouch for any other brand, but the Trader Joe’s one rules and it comes in a cute, little box. You just rip off the top, heat it up and it’s delicious! And who doesn’t love things in tiny boxes? 
• Couch to 10k App. We had familiarized ourselves with the Couch to 5k app and decided this fall was a great time to embark on a longer running goal. NO, we haven’t signed up for a 10k yet…we’re just using it as a training guide. The program is amazing and we are both running further than we thought humanly possible!
• Paramore. No new concept here but just now listening to their latest record and loving it…it frequents the iPod while running.
• Jeremy Cowart & Jon Acuff. These are two new friends we met recently . Jeremy is a ridiculously talented photographer (he just shot our friend KC’s Xmas cover & Billboard cover) and is also launching a new App called OKDOTHIS later this month. Jon is a New York Times best selling author and has an awesome blog on life and leadership–he’s also really funny. But it’s not the stuff that these guys do that makes us thankful we met them…they are kind, humble and genuinely nice guys. We need more good men like this. Go follow these guys…
• Pumpkin Flax Granola. Oops. Didn’t even realize that this food item was also pumpkin related. We’re a little embarrassed now. But guys, this granola is GOOD. Like, eat all year round good. 
• The Good Wife. It’s finally on Hulu Plus and we just can’t get enough. Kate had watched some previous seasons but we both have been watching it from the start! Who doesn’t love Julianna Margulies? We definitely do. 

What are you digging right now?

Be awesome.

j&k

I love food. I especially love popcorn. I like making it myself on the stovetop…just a little oil, white popcorn and salt. I grew up never watching a movie without popcorn…like never…so it’s in my blood. I heart popcorn and popcorn hearts me.

I was at Costco the other day and they had a sample of this fabulous treat….Angie’s Kettle Corn. I generally only like kettle corn second best to regular popcorn…but this stuff is the best popcorn I’ve EVER HAD OUT OF A BAG. It’s SO good. SO GOOD. Bonus: because it’s from Costco the bag is ridiculously huge….as all things are from Costco…hooray.

Anddddddd it only has 4 ingredients.

Anddddddd I just went to their website and read their story. So cool.

It’s so good I’m blogging about it on a Saturday night. Haha. I’m so cool. Watch out night clubs and cool hang out spots of America…if you start serving this popcorn I might show up.

Kate + this popcorn = Happiness.

Oh wow. Now I’m doing equations. The cool just can’t help but leak outta me.

Goodnight world.

xo

-kate

’0-Dark-Thirty Drive To The Airport

Last Sunday we hopped on a plane and four hours later arrived in sunny Los Angeles. Well actually it was kind of gloomy Los Angeles because they are experiencing a phenomenon called “June Gloom”…it seems that every morning is pretty overcast & gloomy and then around noon-ish the sun comes out and all is right in the world again.

We were super excited to be out on the West coast for a couple of meetings and for 2 shows. Obviously the first thing we did was go to the Coffee Bean…

After that we headed to visit Kate’s college friend and had some lunch. Traveling for work is such a bonus when you have friends that live far away from you…it was a nice time to catch up & watch her 3 kiddos run around. Later that afternoon we got to spend some time with our courageous friend Will Gray who is battling cancer. It was wonderful just to sit with him, hear him laugh and catch up. He was getting ready to go to a treatment facility in Arizona (which if you are interested in donating to help him financially with his treatment you can find more info & donate here) so we were happy to have some time with him before they left.

Tuesday we had a great time playing at The Parlor in West Hollywood. We had a bunch of friends and fans come out to see us and it was A BLAST. They even had a photo booth…best place ever. We had a slight delay in our set because we were waiting for the hockey game to wrap up…go KINGS or something like that (…..AHEM….go Bruins)

We loved this shot! Thanks for letting us borrow your pic!

This is Tom Jordan, he played a set after us & killed it!

Wednesday we had a great meeting in the morning and then headed over to the StageIt headquarters…okay with one small stop at SPRINKLES cupcakes (thanks for the gift card Victor!)…we bought so many cupcakes they gave us two free ones to sample from their sugar free line.

OMG. So good….and they had the nicest people working there. We loved visiting the StageIt head quarters…their staff is amazing and we loved being able to play a show right from their offices overlooking LA. Fun fun.

Thanks Joanna for letting us use your pic…she was watching via StageIt.com

We then celebrated the day with flaming margaritas at El Compadre…olé We ended the day with delicious food  & drinks with friends. Lots of laughter. Here are some more random pics from our trip:

Elevator shots posse.

Random snake man on the street.

Random new best friends Dakota & Kelsey serving up smiles & drinks at The Coffee Bean

Best burger at In-n-out

Chello?

Coffee Bean crazy.

It’s a Nico & Robert/Jill & Kate sandwich

Double veto in LA with The Fray.

Kate & Nico smizing.

Favorite flower bushes…they are everywhere in LA & remind Kate of her grandma.

Crispy Rice Spicy Tuna. Crispy Rice Spicy Tuna people. SO GOOD, there are no more words.

Earlier in the week we got out of Nashville for a few days and escaped to mostly sunny Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. It was a perfect little 2 and a half day escape from the cold that has plagued Nashville otherwise known as winter. And okay fine…it hasn’t been that bad here but a chance to see the sunshine & the beach were gladly welcomed

We took off on Sunday morning…daylight savings morning…ahhh hem…who books a 7:45am flight on daylight savings morning? We do apparently and let me tell you…we were zombies on the plane. Not even ashamed to say that we were both asleep before taking off and there might have been drooling.

Anyhow…we landed & decided to spend the day in Savannah, GA (the airport is Savannah/Hilton Head) cause neither of us had ever been….it’s so cute & quaint. All of the squares with their beautiful gardens and historical land marks…oh and the park & bench where Forrest Gump sat…that was pretty cool.

Upon arriving at the beach we went for runs on the beach (week 7 of #C25K for the #j&k5k…wooop woop!) & found the most perfect WHOLE sand dollar! We were so committed to the run that we almost didn’t stop to photograph it but we just HAD to.

Did some shopping and meandering around the island & stumbled upon this gem in a back alley somewhere…no further explanation necessary.

Our last night in SC we stumbled upon the greatest little Mexican restaurant…and it was in a strip mall next to a grocery store….but don’t let that fool you…it was AMAZING! The front of the menu boasted that this was the “Home of Jimmy’s World Famous Margarita’s”….that sounded like a challenge…but what do you know…THEY WERE THE BEST. And Jimmy made them for us. He’s the handsome fella behind the bar. The food was so fresh and full of flavor. If you find yourself near Amigos….you must go.

Lastly we stumbled upon this cupcake shop called Sweet Carolina Cupcakes….holy moly…Hilton Head has some amazing food going on. Yum yum yum. These cupcakes were the bomb. (note that we don’t have an actual picture of our cupcakes because…well….we devoured them in about 2.2 seconds…not even enough time to photograph the lovely red velvet and cookies & cream delights.)

Anyhow…so that was our lovely min-vacay. Bring on the spring & summer. So many exciting things in the works. The trip left us with one question when we returned home: we wonder if Jimmy would ever think about opening an Amigos chain in Nashville? Hahahaaaa.

Okay–off to rehearse for tomorrow night’s show at The Listening Room…Nashville folks: we hope to see you there!

Much love,

j&k