miette & President's Day Weekend

This past weekend was President's Day weekend, a 3 day weekend! I was lucky enough to have my sister and some friends in town so that means going to lots of yummy places!

One of the days I took my sister and her friend to the Ferry Building for an afternoon snack. We stopped by miette to get their Old Fashion Cupcake - a bittersweet chocolate cake with an Italian meringue topping (which was similar to a marshmallow consistency), Rose Gernanium Macaron, and Vanilla Macaron. They had other desserts there in addition to cupcakes and macarons, which include cookies, cakes, tarts, ice cream sandwiches, and other confections. After, we headed over to one of my favorite coffee places, Blue Bottle Coffee, to get lattes and cappucinos to go with our treats.

The cake portion of the Old Fashion Cupcake was nice in the fact that it was not too sweet but it was a little on the dry side for my liking. I really liked the Italian meringue topping though and the candied peanut on top (It was like a Boston Baked Beans candy)! The macarons were nice also but again not the best I ever had. Bouchon still makes the best macarons in my book!

The packaging & decorations were really cute!

Hazelnut Macarons

Also, while at miette, I picked up some cupcakes (Yellow Lemon, Old Fashion, Carrot Cake, Gingerbread (which was recently acclaimed the "Best Cupcake in American" by Food Network), and Carrot Cake for the friends I had visiting. One of my friends is as big of a cupcake/dessert lover as I am. I had gotten a Hazelnut Macaron for their baby girl who finished the whole thing herself when I gave it to her after having dinner with them. She's a dessert lover just like her mommy and I! I'll have to ask them how the other cupcakes are.

Here are the highlights of other places I visited this past weekend:

Cha Cha Cha - shrimp appetizer!
Flour + Water - margarita pizza!
Tartine - this time we had the brioche pudding with nectarines! (b/c they didn't have anymore chocolate croissants or chocolate banana cream tarts)
Mama's - eggs florentine and grapefruit juice!
Bi-Rite - salted caramel and earl grey!
Humphry Slocombe - salted chocolate!

Valentine's Day Potluck Treats

Yesterday was Valentine's day and my office had a little potluck. Here was the menu:

♥ Spinach dip with veggies and crackers
♥ Grapefruit, avaocado, fennel salad
♥ Italian pasta salad
♥ Cucumber and PB & J tea sandwiches <--- I made these :) See below!
♥ BBQ & fried chicken
♥ Chocolate covered strawberries (with toffee bits)
♥ Vanilla Cupcakes w/ blackberry frosting

Like I said above, I made the tea sandwiches. PB & J sandwiches are pretty straightforward. I used crunchy peanut butter and strawberry preserve. Now for the cucumber sandwiches. Traditionally, it is just bread, slices of cucumbers, and butter. The modern moderation uses cream cheese and seasonings instead. Many recipes will include mint or dill along with the cream cheese. I used this recipe as a reference and simply mixed in about 2/3 of the Italian dressing seasoning with 8 oz. of whipped cream cheese. I used white and wheat bread for each sandwich and cut each sandwich out with a heart cookie cutter. Lastly, I decided to decorate the PB & J sandwich plate with colorful heart sprinkles.

They were a hit along with all the other dishes. Everything was just delish! We just have the best potlucks!

Valentine Cards & Envelopes

Since this year I am living away from my family and closest friends, I decided to make them handmade Valentine's Day cards and send them via snail mail.

The card: The little squares of Valentine images were on one regular sized scrapbook page. I cut each square out and pasted it on some origami paper I had around the house. On the back of each Valentine I made, I decorated it with stickers and a personalized message. 

 The envelope: I took standard sized scrapbook paper and trimmed about 2.5 inches off the length and width of the paper to fold it into an envelope. I used this tutorial to make the envelopes but I didn't use a ruler and just free handed everything and it turned out great looking given that the envelopes just were perfectly symmetrical.

I bought all the scrapbook paper and stickers I used from the dollar section at Target! I spent less than $10 to make a dozen Valentines with plenty of materials leftover. What a great deal!

Happy Valentines Day!

I've always enjoyed Valentine's Day ever since I was a little kid. I loved passing out Valentines and candy in grade school. I never thought of it as a romantic day but more of a day to remind you of the people you love and show them some affection. For the last few February 14's I haven't had a traditional Valentine but that doesn't get me down. This year my Valentine is one of my best friends. (I'm so glad she got her Valentine exactly on time!)

Here are some great V-day finds:

Google's doodle skit for today is ADORABLE!



Ryantines (thanks to a friend who sent them to me)

All Ryantines! and Ryantine's Day Mix!

Valentine Memes!

Happy ♥ Day!

Me, a Foodie?!

Yesterday, I stumbled across Yelp's Top 10 Restaurants of 2011. Turns out that I have been to 7 out of the 10 restaurants on the list. Two of the 3 I am missing are in SD, which I don't travel to much, and NY, which I haven't been to since I was 14. So, what does this mean? Does this fact make me a foodie? I certainly do use Yelp to find restaurants (and other places, such as venues and hair salons) however, I don't post reviews or check in or take pictures of food at restaurants (much). Anywho, I'll just continue the way I have been and call me a foodie if you please, however, I have never considered myself one.

On another note, I was surprised that most of the restaurants are in LA and of course it was nice to see an OC restaurant on the list. Represent! Woo!

Holiday Cookies

I wanted to get this post in before it became too far away from the holidays. Each year, I like to bake holiday cookies for my family, neighbors, and friend's families. This year (2011), I gave out cookie plates but decided to move away from the traditional holiday cookies. I made the following: Coconut Sandwich Cookies (left), Lime Meltaways (back), and Chili Chocolate Truffles (right). All of the recipes I used are either from marthastewart.com or inspired from a recipe on there. Though I liked them all, my favorite was surprisingly the Coconut Sandwich Cookies. (I thought it would have been the Lime Meltaways!)

I did make one traditional holiday cookie and it was Gingerbread People Cookies. I made these for my cousins to decorate on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Again, I got the recipe off marthastewart.com. I love her site and all of her recipes. The kids had lots of fun decorating and eating the cookies!