Fall favorites

I know that fried rice is typically a dish thrown together with leftover rice and whatever vegetables and proteins you have on hand, but I can't handle that sort of ambiguity. I didn't actually get around to making kimchi fried rice—despite my longtime love of kimchi and rice—until I sat down and wrote a recipe.

Some people love beer, others prefer wine, but my drink of choice is a craft cocktail—I think that's due to the fact that I didn't really start drinking alcohol until my late 20s. My favorite place to enjoy craft cocktails is straight from the source: at a local micro distillery. Minnesota is home to over 30 micro distilleries, which typically have tasting rooms where you can purchase cocktails, tasting flights, and bottles of spirits.

Mike and I spend our weekends running in opposite directions (literally in my case: seven miles on Saturday and three miles on Sunday). After one too many weekends when the only significant chunk of time we spent together was grocery shopping, we realized that we needed to prioritize time with each other. So we instituted a standing coffee date on Sunday mornings.

Instead of choosing one full-sized espresso drink, a coffee flight lets you sample three or four miniature-sized beverages. Ready to start sipping? Here's where you can find coffee flights in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the surrounding suburbs.

As I've previously mentioned, since I'm a self-employed freelancer I have the flexibility to workation, or combine my workdays with vacation activities when I'm away from home. Mike's recent team work week was the perfect opportunity to workation in Boston's Seaport District—accommodations and his expenses were already covered, so we only had to pay for my flight and meals.

This is my 12th annual summer recap post—I've been writing them every September since 2013. They've become a nostalgic throwback to a time when blogging was a more personal medium, when the text...