food lately: well, i love a fried egg

They aren't in every meal, but a lot of them. they make everything better.

What I've been cooking (with and without fried eggs):

Polenta with tofu sausage, roasted tomatoes and garlic, and fried eggs

Black beans and salsa with a fried egg, on a tortilla

Soy-rizo & corn, and black bean & sweet potato empanadas

angel hair with tomatoes and tofu sausage 

Egg and black bean quesadilla (scrambled not fried!)

fried egg and tomato sandwich

Cheese and tomato sandwich with Trader Joes root veggie chips

Bahn mi sandwiches and greens at Ashley & Shira's

and finally, spaghetti with a fried egg, of course

I think I know what I want for dinner...

xoxo

food out on the town

Some food in town as of late:

all the salsas at a trip to carrburritos with ashbash and casey

Bacon egg and cheese biscuit from sunrise

shrip and chorizo pizza at the standard with lisa

baby bruschetta from toast with jonathan

all highly recommended

xoxo

derby de mayo

Derby de mayo happened.  You know the rare event when the first saturday of may (the day of the kentucky derby) falls on the fifth of may (cinco de mayo). aka derby de mayo.

part 1 of the party was the derby with mint juleps, betting, and watching i'll have another win, just as i predicted.  Though i lost to jonathan in the end due to another bet he made. ridiculous. 

part 2 transitioned to cinco de mayo festivities with food, pinata, and margaritas. 

the night was fabulous and booze filled. as a result there are limited pictures, except for this:

all that remains after a serious batch of mint juleps. 

out of control, per usual.

xoxo

and then nyc

after a quick weekend at the beach it was off to nyc to see Casi and Sus graduate with their masters from Columbia with lots of family around. 

The first night in town we headed over to il bambino for many delicious crostini and the best flourless chocolate cake of my life.  I'm not kidding. I've had my fair share of flourless chocolate cake and this is by far the most spectacular. If ever around astoria, you must try it. 

The next day we headed over to a couple museums, including of course, the NHM, because I love the dinosaurs.

After graduation there was another great lunch at gobo. Again, many small dishes, a favorite style of my family. There was this avocado tartar with a lime chili sauce that we devoured: 

And finally, graduation dinner with all the fambam was at Alta. Although there were many delicious meals throughout the trip, there is no question, this was the best. Because there were so many of us we were able to get almost everything on the menu.  My favorites: fried goat cheese with lavender honey, crispy brussel sprouts with apple, and the shrimp & chorizo skewers.  These mini creme brulees weren't too shabby either: 

so much good food. how will i ever recover?

I forgot to mention the basics that were also consumed of bagels, scallion pancakes, and italian food. 

xoxo

dc for a minute

we had a conference in dc for a few days right after the semester ended.  

so we went to founding farmers and it was pretty damn good. 

we started with a round of fancy drinks, mine of course was gin based with muddled lemon, delicious. 

then we had some serious fried green tomatoes and crostini with brie, apples, and onion jam, 

both as delectable as they look. 

 

And then there was the main course, holy moly, this is where things really got out of hand:

lobster mac and cheese, crab cakes, salmon, and scallops with butternut squash risotto. 

 

Yup. It was all as awesome. My crab cakes were the best. We voted, so it's not just me saying that. 

Oh, but of course, we had to get dessert, you know make sure we tried everything.

Red velvet cake and chocolate mousse: 

 

I don't know if you can tell but that mousse bowl was about a quart and a half in size, and was probably the best mousse i've ever consumed.  We barely touched the cake, I had one bite, leftovers were taken.

On a free afternoon Laney and I went to the Renwick where, you know, they house American crafts. It was great, and I decided that after grad school I will just move in and be the resident crafter. 

Sound like a plan? 

And of course, we had to make a stop at the NHM to see the dinosaurs

I do love dc. 

xoxo

ps.

we may have left our mark on a paper table cloth:

food lately: sandwiches too

Because everything's better with bread.

PB and Banana:

Drunken Goat Cheese and Roasted Grapes:

Caprese plus parmesan:

xoxo

food lately: more plates

Some things I've been eating, that I'm ready to have more of:

Cheesy potatoes and succotash with rhubarb. Yes rhubarb! 

It's delicious, just saute it up with the others.

Potato pancake, veggie sausage patty, and cheesy eggs:

Squash casserole and roasted broccoli: 

White beans and artichoke saute, and sun-dried tomatoes and mozz toast:

Lemon potatoes, falafel, and so many greek dips:

Cheese toast and jalapeno eggs:

get cooking kids.

xoxo

the post

I've always loved getting mail.  From people I care about at least.  Most mail these days is junk or bills, another form of junk. So when I get a postcard from ashley, or a letter from a friend, it makes me smile.  

Especially when they are as cute as some of these: 

From Jake, an adorable card with a more adorable envelope!

 

Ashley's not too shabby at the lettering either:

 

Or sending the best postcards, oh how i love pantone, and pink!

 

So take a moment, support the US Postal Service, and send a friend a letter,
it will make their day, I promise.

xoxo

shower season

the party variety of shower season has begun.  And we kicked it off with a library baby shower for Lauren.  Jade and Maggie did an amazing job putting the day together. 

To start, it was a library shower, so I got to go through all of my childhood favorites to pick out a couple for the future reader. Though the ones below were some of my absolute favorites, I ended up going with the all time great, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Love You Forever. Such winners!

As for the shower itself, Maggie made all of these garlands from an old encyclopedia and colorful paper to make pendants and mini books, that now resides in the baby's room!

Not to mention this library card station where we wrote messages to the future literary genius. 

And the ladies outdid themselves on the food - waffles, hash browns, fruit & yogurt, and cupcakes -

A delightful brunch indeed!

xoxo

bowtastic, in progress

Ashbash and I are quite behind on our crafting, to no one's surprise I'm sure. But we made some progress last week after classes finished. We started on some of the long list of bows we want to craft by addressing some simple hair pins and lapel pins.

They are simple enough to make: take a strip of fabric and loop it around to form closed sides, bring the end of the strip back to the middle, and then take the tail and wrap it around the middle and tie it through itself.  We slide the pins in between the back flap.  You can basically make these by tying a bow any way you like, we made a few types but these big ones were our favorites: 

 

   Alex                                                            Ashley

xoxo