Sprinkles.

We finally tried Sprinkles cupcakes at the La Jolla location. I'm dying to try the lemon but they weren't available. We got a chocolate peanut butter, cinnamon sugar, banana with vanilla frosting, red velvet, black and white, and vanilla milk chocolate. We haven't tried them all yet but all I can say is that they are NOT overrated.

Have you ever had Sprinkles? What is your favorite flavor?

Apologies times two.

I'm sorry for this week again you guys, I've been busy doing a lot of this:



If you read my 26 Before 26 post, then you know I'm trying to make perfect sugar cookies. Are perfectly iced sugar cookies as elusive for anyone else as they are for me? But I am getting closer. I mean, at first, I could barely get the cookies to hold their shape when they baked. But can anyone tell me why I have so many air bubbles in my icing? Do I need to mix it longer once I add water to thin it for flooding the cookies? That's all I can think of but maybe I'm missing something.

As far as my desk goes - apparently the hardware was backordered when I ordered it, but it didn't tell me so. But I finally have a shipping confirmation and delivery date:



I'm posting this so you can all hold me accountable. If you haven't seen my desk by the end of next weekend please yell at me until I post it.

What are you up to this weekend?

Long Beach and Retro Row.

So if you read my Tidbits post from yesterday, you know we went to Long Beach. A while back I heard about Retro Row in Long Beach. It's a street (4th Street is the real name) filled with vintage and thrift stores. Obviously, I needed to be there. If anyone lives nearby, these stores were my favorite:

Elan Collection which is actually off 4th Street on St. Louis.

The Vintage Collective

The Feed Store (awesome concept.)

but really all of the stores were faaaabulous and since I loved Long Beach so much I know we'll be back.

Some of you know I'm Italian and I craaaaaave Italian sandwiches and deli food like no other. It's really hard to find the kind of Italian food we're used to in Boston so whenever we go to a new city I always research beforehand to see if there's any good delis worth checking out. Well, I read about Angelo's Italian Deli and I knew we had to go.  It was super cute, the owner was funny and super nice, and my Caprese sandwich was delicious. They put this signature garlic spread on everything and it's amazing.

Matt got the mega torpido (a classic Italian sub with double meat) and an itsy bitsy canoli. He had his first ever canoli in San Francisco and he's officially obsessed now.

I'm so lucky I get to stare at that handsome face all day.

But I have to say, I didn't expect Long Beach to be all that pretty. Probably because my only prior knowledge of Long Beach comes from Snoop Dogg. But it was beyond charming! We unfortunately didn't do that much walking around because we had to be back to see friends, but we drove around before we headed back and I just couldn't get over how gorgeous some of the homes were - I had to snap some pictures from the car.



That first house is the sweetest, most charming house and it's literally across the street from the beach - I love that unexpected factor! And I do love the Spanish style homes that are the majority here in San Diego, but it was so nice to see something different for a change.

So thank you Long Beach, for charming the pants off of us! We cannot wait to go back. If anyone is from the area and has any suggestions in on places to eat, shop, and/or stare at pretty houses, PLEASE share them!


(P.S. - If someone who owns one of these houses somehow stumbles across my blog and wants the picture of their house taken down, please let me know! It isn't my intention by any means to invade anyone's privacy!)

Tidbits.

Saturday in iPhone pictures.

Angelo's Italian deli. A Long Beach beach street. A lovely entry. Vintage. A fairy tale tree. More vintage. Velvet Yogurt. Searching. Late night food craving.

We went to Long Beach today and it was beyond charming. More on that tomorrow.

Hope you're all enjoying your weekend!

Tortellini salad.

This is my favorite thing in the world to make a big batch of and take to work for lunch. It's easy, cheap, and super tasty. And healthy in moderation. What's not to love?

I usually double this recipe (except the dressing)!

What you need
1 9 oz package cheese tortellini (or you could get creative with it and try different flavors!)
1 bottle fat free Italian (you won't need it all)
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1 package cherry tomatoes sliced in half
1 10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess water
1 2 oz can sliced black olives, drained
Salt and pepper to taste


What to do
1. Cook the tortellini till al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water. 
2. Mix all the ingredients except Italian dressing until well combined.
3. Add just enough Italian dressing to coat.

Yup, 3 steps. Thank me later.

Fortunate.

We ate Chinese food (yes, again) and we got these fortunes:

Honestly, I know fortune cookies are trivial, I've said it before, but how weird is it that we both got fortunes related to travel? It's totally a sign that we need to book all the trips we've been talking about. Therefore tonight I plan on spending a ridiculous amount of time on Tripadvisor.

Are you planning any trips this summer?

Cheddar white bean broccoli soup.

I feel like spring recipes are starting to pop up. This is not a spring recipe. I just love making soup because it's so easy to scoop into portion size tupperwares and take them to work. And I know it's still pretty cold in most parts of the country so a soup recipe can still come in handy for some for you, right? Or are you sick of soup? Either way, try this soup now or wait till it gets cold again because it's delicious. The white beans make it sooo creamy without adding any cream. And it's pretty healthy for a cheesy soup, which is always a plus.

What you need
1 small onion
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
2 1/2 cups fat free chicken broth
1 cup skim milk
4 cups broccoli florets chopped
1 can white beans (Great Northern or Cannellini)
2 cups sharp cheddar
2 slices American cheese
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese

What to do
1. Chop onion, carrot, celery, and garlic into small pieces. Using a food processor is easiest.
2. Melt butter in large soup pot, add veggies, and saute on low heat.
3. Add flour, chicken broth, milk and beans. Cover and cook until beans are heated through.
4. Add broccoli and parmesan cheese and stir. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the broccoli is cooked, about 5 minutes.
5. Add cheddar and American cheese and stir well.
6. If you have an immersion blender, blend the soup for a few seconds. If not, pour about half of the soup into your food processor or blender, and puree it. PLEASE be careful working with hot liquids. If you use a blender, blend it at the lowest speed possible and make sure you put a cloth over the lid and hold it down with your hand because otherwise the lid WILL blow off.
7. Then puree the other half of the soup. I don't puree the second half all the way because I like it to be a little chunky, so if you want the soup to be creamy, puree it all the way.

Enjoy!

Bunny love.

I just have a quick post for you guys tonight. Remember my framed hearts inspired by Sarah and Bendrix? Well my friend Rachel put an absolutely adorable spin on it.

She's paying homage to her pet bunny, but how cute would this be for Easter? She used a Martha Stewart punch.

Rachel also paints absolutely gorgeous replica Disney animation cels.

How talented is she? Check out Rachel's work at her blog Wandering Free.

My apologies.

You guys! I'm so sorry I left you hanging. This past week at work was insane. My job is so rewarding, but it's also completely exhausting at times. And that left me little time for cooking, cleaning, running, reading, spending time with Matt and Jack, hiking, and therefore just about everything else. But I spent the day yesterday deep cleaning the house, writing a menu for the week, and catching up on some R&R, and this morning we went for a long hike at Torrey Pines so I finally feel like I'm back into a routine with my job.

Anyway, my last post I said I would be revealing my desk and some St. Patrick's Day goodies. If you can't tell by our last name, Matt is Irish. And he's proud of it. So this year we are having everyone over for corned beef and cabbage (ugh) and green beer and naturally I needed some simple St. Patty's Day decor. So I made this simple little bunting with some burlap, jute, and green felt:

All I did was print off a shamrock , cut it out, use it as a stencil and I hot glued the shamrocks on. Then I just folded about a centimeter of fabric over the jute and used Stitch Witchery to attach the triangles.

Super easy, super cute. Do you agree?

Did you notice this awesome heart shaped succulent?

Simrin gave it to me for Valentine's Day and I think it's the sweetest!

And as far as my desk.... I finally decided on a paint color:

It's Vintage Teal from Valspar (obviously), and I think it looks much darker in real life, but that could just be my monitor.

But when I finished painting and put the hardware on (I ended up picking card catalog type label holder pulls), it didn't look anything like I was picturing in my head and I just wasn't satisfied. So I ordered some new pulls and I'm dying for them to get here so I can FINALLY reveal my desk!

And I have one more thing to share. My friend Nikki suggested making a Hootie and the Blowfish channel on Pandora. I mean I like Hootie and the Blowfish but really? Well please do yourself a favor and do the same. Lots of 90's awesomeness will be coming from your speakers and you will not be sorry! You can thank me later :)