Mini & Mini

My mom always said great things come in small packages. 
Last week in the mist of a crazy work week, I discovered two mini pleasures:
1.  Mini cupcakes from Cupcakes Bakery in Fresno
2.  Clam Bake mini Essie nail polish available at jcrew.com

"It's a good time... for a cupcake" - Cupcakes Bakery located in Fresno.

 A mini cupcake is only $0.95.  How sweet is that? 

I heart the German chocolate cake & orange creamcicle flavors!

My Clam Bake nail polish added some much needed color into my life.  Now all I need is some sunshine and a tan.   

Seriously Marge: Spinach Broccoli Muffins

Everyone thinks their mom is the best cook, but my mom is a  REALLY good cook.  My dad often jokes with my mom about how she use to burn water when they first got married.  Passionate for fresh ingredients, this lady goes to the market everyday and hasn't met a dish should wasn't able to duplicate.  I realize there are  a ton of blogs dedicate to cooking, but I thought it would be fun to share a few of my mom's favorite recipes and simple cooking tips.

First Up: Spinach and Broccoli Muffins.
This vegetable muffin is easy to make and is the perfect "grab and go" breakfast item during a crazy work school week.

Preheat oven to 375*
 Ingredients


1 cup chopped cooked broccoli
3/4 cup cooked spinach (drain well)
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic (grated)
¼ cup green onions finely chopped (about 3 onions)
½ teaspoon dry dill or dill butter 2 oz
2 large eggs
3/4 cup low-fat milk
2 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese (add last)

Marge suggest using 3 bowls for this cooking project.
First Bowl - Put first 6 ingredients in large bowl (broccoli, spinach, olive oil, garlic, green onion and dill).  Stir until blended.
Second Bowl - Crack eggs and beat them. Add milk and set to side.
Third Bowl - Mix dry ingredients (cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt)
Slowly add  second bowl (egg and milk mix) to third bowl (flour mix).
Add first bowl (broccoli and spinach mix).
Lastly add cheese.
Use ice cream scooper to fill muffin cups.
Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Dangerous Dynamo

Place: Dynamo Donut & Coffee
Neighborhood: Mission
Price: $2 - 3 per donut
Outstanding Flavor: Maple Glazed Bacon Apple (need I say more!)
Fun Factor:  The sitting area is comfy and cute and has plenty of story books to read about donuts!
Future Concern: The donuts are tasty and are as light as air.  I could have easily ate a dozen myself !  At least my morning walk canceled out the calories I consumed.

 Today's flavors

Pretty glass stands waiting to be filled 

Fresh donuts

Breakfast of champions (me eating a donut after my walk!)

Two Words: Brass Band

Photo Credit

Venue: The Independent
Band: Rebirth Brass Band and the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars
Drinks: Tasty and Cheap
Seats: Standing room only = not a bad view in the house (except if you're 5'2 and under).
Cool fact: Sustainability; The Independent promotes positive change by proactively reducing the our venue’s environmental footprint. By making their internal operations more sustainable, they seek to educate and inspire our employees, patrons and bands to become more environmentally conscious. Our environmental objectives are focused on three key areas: waste diversion, conservation, education and outreach. source

Thanks guys for a fun evening.  Can't wait for the next concert.

A Gem of an Organizer

Most people do everything they want in the month of December.  You eat until it hurts, shop till you drop and party like it's going out of style.  No wonder January feels like one long Monday. To help pass the time, my mission is to get myself organized once and for all (yeah right....this resolution will be broken by March!)

First up my jewelry collection!

With jewelry being a big trend the last few seasons, I've started to accumulate some fun pieces.  Not owning a jewelry box, my jewelry has been spread out all over.  As a married gal, I have to consider solutions that are aesthetically pleasing, but also something that works with my unisex decore. After recently seeing some fun ways to display jewelry, I was inspired to come up with a practical and stylish solution.

Photo Credit

Kelly Wearstler's jewelry collection.  Wish I could dedicate a whole dresser to accessories, but lack of space and collection doesn't make this a practical solution for me.

Photo Credit

Using tea cups is a whimsical solution to storing jewelry, but I don't think I'm dainty enough to use this idea.

Photo Credit

I love the shadow box idea, but I have too much jewelry for this idea.  

The Solution:

A vintage inspired 3 tiered thing I found from here...

It holds cocktail rings

earrings

necklaces

& bangles!

With a masculine metal finish, but a feminine scallop edge, this was a great find that can easily be integrated into any bedroom or powder room decore.

Now onto the next organization project!

Sundate: Stella & Roxanne

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this rare cuddle moment with Stella our 2 year old Boxer Lab mix and Roxanne, my parents 8 year old German Wirehair.  Roxanne normally isn't very engaging to Stella.  Having a love hate relationship I was surprised to see Roxanne letting Stella use her back as a pillow.  Perhaps in her old age she's finally warming up to Stella (wishful thinking)!  The fact is, it's extremely cold today and I think she was using Stella for body heat! 
Oh well, at least it made a cute photo.

OMG: Twenty Eleven

Photo Credit

Since I moved back home, my dad has brought it to my attention that I say OMG  way to much. When I look back on 2010, it was an OMG kind of year, full of travel, life lessons, and new beginnings. It was also a year when Nick and I really had to make a hard decision about where we saw our future.  After years of debate and multiple drafts of "our life plan," we  I made the plunge and moved back to San Francisco.  (Don't worry Nick and I are still two love birds).  My husband is getting ready to student teach and unfortunately wasn't able to move to San Francisco with me and Stella (our dog).  So we've been having a long distance marriage for the last 5 months. I wish I could say we are over the half way point, but we still have 7 months to go.  Oh vey! (It really makes me understand what a military family goes through when their love ones are away.)

It will be interesting to see what 2011 brings.  Although like everyone else in the world I have some resolutions, I think my theme for this year is to embrace my third decade with grace, style and no regrets.

Cheers to a new year!

PS.  A new year requires a new blog format.  It's still a work in progress, but I hope you like the new look.