run now, pizza later

Sunday Sprinkles

03.15.15

1. I hope Sundays can always be boozy with the “I'm making pretzel dip and martinis at 10am… for the blog, duh” excuse. Let's be real, if i can't use it as an excuse to recipe test martinis then what good is having a food blog?

2. Ikea is my fave and these ideas are genius.

3. I'm sorry I didn't post a recipe this week – there were some unexpected events happening and so I couldn't find the time [or the energy, if we're being honest] but I have some exciting stuff coming your way don't worry! However, for the sake of being honest… don't be on the lookout for a date night post this week. I was traveling all week for work and Frankie and I had a seriously busy weekend [Ikea always gets the best of me] so we stopped and ordered delivery from a couple of our favorite places instead of going out.

4. I'm still going strong on my no soda pact! Woohoo. I'm actually super proud of myself, it's been two and a half months!

5. I thought this was super interesting and I had goosebumps at the end. it was powerful and moving.

6. mah gurl.

7. | Scandal | Chhhhyeahh. WHAT WAS THAT ENDING. WHAT DID IT MEAN. i thought it meant she was going to go to Jake because of the beach scenes but then she saw Fitz too and now i'm like WOMAN MAKE UP YOUR DAMN MIND AND STOP PLAYING ME LIKE THIS. ugh. yeah. | Secrets and Lies | I STILL LOVE IT. I'm still sort of thinking the younger daughter either did it or knows info she's not sharing or something or the sort. Also, i thought nat's relationship with her dad's best friend is SUPER weird. regardless of if anything happened, i get why Ben was so mad and freaking out and all that jazz. | Mindy | um, frankie hadn't seen the show before I put it on today???? which makes me feel better about not having caught up till last week, but like WHAT? who hasn't seen the Mindy Show? oyyy. i thought it was funny as usuallll.

8. I love that there are do's and don'ts and helpful tips on these!

9. do you guys ever get cuts on your fingers? like slices? like you accidentally picked up a razor and sliced the pads of your fingers but then you realize you haven't shaved all week and have been in a hotel for days so haven't been cooking and can't figure out what happened to you? WHAT IS HAPPENING?!

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Date Night: Hummus Kitchen

03.13.15

Sometimes I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

And no, this is NOT going to turn into a romantic ode to that [admittedly awesome and sweet] boyfriend of mine.

I feel like the luckiest girl in the world because I might just have THE best friends.

So when my top dudes decided to come for the weekend, I was SO EXCITED.To be honest, I think we all needed that weekend together. We ground each other. Not in a “you can't leave your room” kind of way, in a “it's okay – we're all going through similar things and you're totally not alone” kind of way, in a “I know like it seems like we have all our crap together but really we are all over the place” kind of way, in a “I love you and will always be there for you through the worst of times and through the best of times” kind of way. Most definitely in a “sure, you should finish that bottle of wine and chug another one until you're wasted and fighting Frankie for Ritz crackers” kind of way.

When I was miserable and lonely and tired and emotionally drained out in Seattle, these girls were there for me. They listened to me and told me that how I was feeling was normal and okay and it too would pass. And it did. It did pass. Things got better for me. In a world that's constantly changing, I know we have each other. And now a different one of us needs the support that our friendship provides. So when she said “I need you guys,” we came together. In that beautiful way friendship works, we were there for each other.

I feel stronger when I have them around, I really do. I feel blessed and lucky and so unbelievably grateful that we found each other. Sometimes, I think about our friendship and could just cry because I'm so thankful. (I'm pretty much thankful about everything these days.)And I'm also so, so, so grateful that I have a boyfriend who not only finds his own place in [but really on the outskirts of] our little group, but loves these girls almost as much as I do. Who would protect them and defend them and even beat up anyone who hurt them (if I would let him). But who also knows when to “go to bed” so we can have a therapeutic, alcohol-induced, three-way… crying session together.

Did I get you with three-way?! yeah… we're not like that, but I wanted to lighten the mood.

So like I said, this wasn't a romantic ode to Frankie… but an ode to my bestfriends, because I think Carrie had it right – they truly are my soul mates.

Which is why I was more than happy to share last week's date night with them.

| Date: | 3/7/2015

| Time: | 4:27 pm

| Place: | Hummus Kitchen, UES

| Food: | Mediterranean

| Drinks: | Glass of Red Sangria [Ash] + Glass of House Red [Frankie] + Glass of Malbec [LJ – cause she's bougie]

| Dinner: |Mazze Trio (falafel, couscous tabule & oven roasted cauliflower + pita) [Ash & Frankie] + Falafel Laffa [LJ] + Moroccan Laffa [Britty]

| Dessert: | Baklava [to share]

We thought this place was SUPER cute. After not being able to decide where to go for like 80 hours, and eating a super late breakfast, it definitely hit the spot. Frankie and I shared an appetizer plate (primarily because I couldn't MAKE UP MY MIND with all the options) and everything was super good. Falafel is usually hit or miss with me and I was pretty happy with this one. I do think the tabule stole the show for me though, I was really into it… much like the orzo salad last week, which surprised me because I've been SUPER into roasted cauliflower lately. That's not to say the cauliflower wasn't good because it wasssss… I was just more into the tabule. LJ and Britt both said their meals hit the spot.

Dat baklava doe.

Full disclosure: I have nothing to compare this to because this was my first baklava experience… but um. YUM.

LJ basically cajoled the table into sharing it… but the waitress thought it was all for her and only brought one spoon.. hahahahhaha.

After eating, we made our way to that art exhibit I told you I wanted to go to! And then checked out the local bar we talked about! And then we stopped into the grocery store so I could get things to make Moscow mules and snacky-snacks.

When we got home, I made my favorite mustard pretzel dip (which I'll share soon!) and a bread + oil + spices plate. We kept things casual and watched Pitch Perfect, while singing along and reciting all the lines we knew [and watching Frankie cry from laughter for like the 238957912940823rd time].

It was lovely, and perfect, and just exactly what we needed.

my life as a new yorker: week 5

03.10.15

In case you've missed what's been happening so far, check it out here: week 1, week 2, week 3, & week 4!

Gahhh. week five. It's been crazy.

I've been keeping up with my Kayla guides and eating healthy and it's just been really great. I've felt great. I need to work on my water consumption – even though I gave up soda and energy drinks I still have trouble with keeping track of my water intake. I'm hoping that it'll also help with my skin. The coconut oil has still been working miracles, but I feel weird about putting it on my face. Is that a thing?

I've been making ALL my food for dinners and lunches during the week and it's been wonderful. I've been going crazy for zoodles and my new spiralizer. I love it. I want to spiralize all the things and then eat vegetables ALL THE TIME. is that normal? probably not. But it's an improvement over the bread and oil I was consuming as meals last week… or is it?

I also made a roast chicken and roasted sweet potatoes and yams and it was glorious. Pro tip: roast a chicken and chop some of the meat up and mix it together with cilantro pesto to make a cilantro chicken salad and eat it on toast squares. It makes for a glorious, cutesy Sunday lunch with ya friends or loved ones! So casual. So loungey. Is loungey a word? Spell check tells me no. I hate spell check.

The snow stopped this week! (I'm knocking on wood don't worry.)

Or it at least SEEMS like it's stopped. The weather at the end of the week was SOOO nice. It couldn't have been nicer for my franzzzzz to visit (I suppose it could have been if it were summer…. but its WINTER people so just go with it).

Cause my friends visited this past weekend! and omg it was so nice to be able to have an impromptu visit because we're not crazy far away from each other.

We drank QUITE a bit of vino. and just hung out. It was perfect. we've all pretty much seen the main new york attractions so there wasn't anything toursity on our list during this weekend. Britty came on Thursday night and we spent Friday being lazy and eventually exploring the streets of the Upper East Side. We did everything on foot and just moseyed our way around after grabbing bagels and coffee in the morning.

Until we found a bar. muahahaha. We ran into the stumble inn and I knew I had heard good things about it so we stopped in for a quick drink because neither of us were hungry for lunch yet. [I'm kicking myself for not making the “stumbled into” joke and going with “ran into”… GAH WHO AM I?!?] then we made our way over to the meatball shop, which is just ughhh. so good. SO GOOD. I'd had it before and each time I go I get a few sliders because I can never make up my mind with all the choicessss.

but it didn't take us long to decide on sharing the sangria… naturally.

LJ didn't show up till late Friday night and we headed back to my apartment and I had my first shake shack experience (spoiler: the shakes are awesome)! Then we played xbox…. all night. because that's who we are.

side note: the kinnect is SO COOL. we played virtual bowling and tennis and all kind of things.

Saturday we went and saw the art exhibit I mentioned last week! It was super cool. Frankie was not as amused… at all. he thought it was okay, but just “didn't get it.” hahahahah.

We had a late breakfast and late lunch so we weren't really hungry all night. We stopped into a really cool bar that we found just walking around and scouring yelp. It had a speakeasy feel and also a sort of vampire-ish vibe – according to Laura. i love the music. And the drinks were great. and it had couches… so i was sold. donzo. don't need to see any others… just kidding. i need others.

Then we went home and watched pitch perfect… while eating pretzels and bread with olive oil. damn I thought i got away from the bread and oil meals in week 5.

The next morning we got muffins from a bakery next door and caught up on tv shows and it was perfect.

Apparently I really needed a lazy weekend of just hanging out in order to recoup from all the apartment work I'd been doing over the last month.

I don't really have that much to talk about this week, but overall I was just really thankful for everything that's happened in the past few weeks.

Perfect. Loungey. Amazing. Glorious. <– should i try to come up with some new material? jeeze. i'm a broken record.

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Toppings

Sunday Sprinkles

03.08.15

1. It's not hard to figure out my results for this one… any guesses?

2. Today literally GOT AWAY from me. One minute I'm eating muffins and taking LJ to Penn Station, then I'm catching up on Jane the Virgin and all the other crap shows I watch, then BAM it's like 10 pm and I just finished packing. I want my weekend backkkkk. clearly I'm having a major case of the Sunday blues.

3. I LOVE getting mail. I got the cutest valentines day card in the mail and now I just want to send ALL THE CARDS.

4. I learned something valuable at the gym today! My gym gives us MyZone activity belts for free with our membership. It's pretty similar to a polar watch and basically monitors your heart rate and tells you how many calories you burn during your workout. It's not even REMOTELY close to what the treadmill tells me I'm burning (in my favor). I always knew they couldn't be really accurate, but I'm talking like underestimating 150 calories. crazy.

5. Ugh. WHYYYYYY. WHHYYYYYYY.

6. It was like FIFTY DEGREES TODAY. Can it stay forever? Is spring on its way here? I WANT IT FOREVER. except not really, I want it until i'm ready for beach weather.

7. | Scandal | Olivia CLEARLY needs some time to figure out her life. She needs to take a hot second to recoup and breathe. The part where she had to grip her dress to stop her hand from shaking was just so sad. UMMmm. I love the new VP. I think she's great. I do have to say I was surprised they chose to do an episode with that subject matter. | Secrets and Lies | I LOVE IT. I was so sad How to Get Away With Murder was over, but I'm LOVING secrets and lies. I don't know who I think did it. Originally I thought it was the wife. But her reaction to finding out about the boy being his son was too real. So now I don't know. Part of me thinks it was one of the daughters. I feel like they're making it seem like it could be the older daughter… but maybe it's the younger daughter? I just think its weird that his flashlight is missing and also she acted weird when they talked about his death at the dinner table. I DON'T KNOW. | Mindy | WHERE HAVE I BEEN?! She's pregnant, WHAT. I love love love it. I love where it's going. But I want Peter back. ASAP.

8. It was so wonderful to have my friends here this weekend. they're the cutest and I miss them already. i cant wait to tell you about all of our adventures!

9. I'm kind of obsessed with this? I love the semi confusing step pictures.

10. THE DELUXE TS 1989 SONGS ARE ON ITUNES. go forth and listen. Insty | Twittah | Lovingzeblogs | Pinnypins

Date Night: Vespa Ciobuono

03.06.15

I'm taking a page out of someone else's relationship here.

I don't know if that's a good thing or if it's a rip off or what it is… but I'm really excited.

I don't know if you guys have heard of Ash‘s cookbook Date Night In or not, but I've been on a cookbook mission lately and stalking all the recommendations from my favorite bloggers.

I follow AshRod on instagram and I've been sporadically reading her blog Not Without Salt for a few years now (she's a Seattle blogger!). But when I read the concept of her cookbook I fell in love. It's so simple and so adorable and it sounds perfect. And then I read a post of hers that talked about how she and her husband would have a weekly date night out at restaurants before they had kids and I knew I wanted that. I wanted a “date night.” I'm cliche – sue me.

When I brought the idea up to Frankie I told him I wanted to set aside one night a week (as often as we can) and go out on a date to a restaurant and just spend time together. We won't go to the same place twice and we will always have a cocktail (or five). Those are the only rules!

He was all for it! He even mentioned that we should keep a list of the places that we go. I was already two steps ahead of him with a moleskin already devoted to it.

I'm obsessed with the idea mainly because we've never consistently gone on dates. We met in college, actually a few months before college started, and we've basically been “dating” since freshman year. We would rarely ever go on “dates,” mainly because we're both perfectionists and were too obsessed with school… and the fact that we had no money didn't help.

I love the idea of setting aside time to spend with each other every week. And I love the fact that we'll be going to a new place every week. It's going to be a great way to explore New York City and I figured I'd take you guys along for the ride and show you where we went, what we ate, and what we thought. Here goes nothing!

| Date: | 2/28/2015

| Time: | 7pm

| Place: | Vespa Cibobuono

| Drinks: | Campari Vespa (Campari, Gin, Aranciata St. Pellegrino, Lemon, Prosecco) [Ash] + Pinot Noir [Frankie]

| Appetizers: | Bread & Oil + Orzo Salad (zucchini, bell pepper, arugula, lemon pesto) [to share]

| Dinner: |Pappardelle Bolognese [Ash] + Pollo Milanese [Frankie]

Overall, we loved this place. The service was a little slow, but I had read some yelp reviews ahead of time and knew that had been an issue before so I didn't really mind. We both LOVED the Orzo Salad. I bought some orzo recently to try and recreate it. We couldn't decide who had the better entree and ultimately agreed it really depended on what mood you were in. If you wanted something heavier, the bolognese was out of this world (and it was recommended by our waiter) but if you were looking for something lighter and fresh the milanese was definitely the way to go.

I kept saying all night that I really wanted a spiked hot chocolate for dessert, but after doing a quick yelp search and not finding anything close I gave up. As we were walking home I noticed Two Little Red Hens and remembered that a friend from high school who reads the blog said it was to die for. So I tugged on Frankie's arm and asked if we could stop.

Never one to deny me a cupcake, he of course obliged.

We each got two mini cupcakes (which were all phenomenal): Banana & Brooklyn Blackout [Ash] + Boston Cream & Marble [Frankie]. We each ate one there and then made our way over to a cute little wine store because Frankie needed red wine.

I was so tired when we got home that I curled up on the couch and promptly fell asleep at 10pm. Frankie let me sleep for two hours while he played xbox. It was perfect.

Tell me suggestions on where to go next! Or just tell me about some really great dates you've had!

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