Saturday, March 31, 2012

the little things: uncharted.

sara bareilles... your video just made my day .  

actually, my week.



so... thanks :D

(and thanks to Pharrell Williams, Josh Groban, Ingrid Michaelson, Adam Levine, Ben Folds, Vanessa Carlton, Jennifer Nettles, and the rest of you who made fun and quirky cameos, too!) 

toodles.



Friday, March 30, 2012

home sweet home

after spending the week on a business trip out west seeing stuff like this...


and this...


and a little bit of this...


i got home today, caught an early flight out from denver to newark, enjoyed the sunshine that stays out SO late now through our new plain but pretty bathroom sheers...


then made mr p some dinner before he got home...


then he surprised me with my favorite flowers...

(kudu-lah block and holstee manifesto lingering in the background)

aaaaand we, of course, bought ourselves a mega millions ticket (didn't win... shucks), then ate dinner, opened a bottle of wine, and relaxed the night away.

life.
is.
good.

have a great weekend!

toodles.



Sunday, March 25, 2012

no ice-cream-maker? no problem.

do you like bananas?

do you like peanut butter?

do you like chocolate?

GOOD!

because those are the only ingredients you need to make some TO-DIE-FOR "ice cream".

i found this recipe on Use Real Butter, and was highly intrigued.  to be honest, i thought it was going to be yet another pinterest recipe FAIL .  much to my surprise, mr p and i downed the entire batch in all of about 3 minutes.  

oh, and it's vegan and gluten-free to boot 
(but you don't have to tell anyone that part if you don't want, it might scare them off thinking it's some sort of "health" food... even though it really is, it's just good.)


3-Ingredient Ice Cream
(a modified version of this recipe from Use Real Butter)

2 frozen bananas (chopped into "coins" before freezing)
1 tbsp creamy peanut butter
1 tsp cocoa (i used baking cocoa, but whatever powdered chocolate you have would probably work)

1. toss frozen banana coins into the food processor and chop until smooth 
(it takes a while for it to get smooth, so be patient, and scrape down the sides as necessary.  i actually added a splash of almond milk to get it going, and it made it instantly smooth!  but i promise it will get smooth without milk if you are patient enough!)

2. add in peanut butter and cocoa, and blitz until thoroughly mixed 
(no exact measurements are necessary, just use as much as you want really...)

DONE!  

eat right away (like we clearly did) or put in the freezer for an hour or so for it to get a bit harder (ours turned out more like gelato, and OH so good!)

so few ingredients...

bananas are mixing!

add the peanut butter and cocoa.

insta-ice cream!

i also added some shaved coconut flakes on top for a bit more flavor, just because i had it, but it's totally not necessary.  you could add anything you want in in really... the frozen bananas is just a great base for basically any type of ice cream, so long as you are ok with a hint of banana flavor!!

topped with coconut flakes, but TOASTED coconut flakes would be even better!

bon appetit!


enjoy!!

(and let me know if you become as obsessed with this fantastic recipe as we have!)

toodles.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

perfect saturday.

weather was perfect .

biked to the park .

munched on some samoas by the river.

enjoyed the early-blooming flowers .







but best part of it all... 

i slept in until 11:30 today!!
that definitely hasn't happened since COLLEGE !

felt... so... good... 

and i didn't feel guilty about it at all!!

all before 4pm.  the night is still young!

toodles.


Wednesday, March 21, 2012

the little things: oh hello spring.

if the recent 70-degree-and-sunny weather isn't enough to say hello to this wonderful 2012 spring, take a gander out our back window...


thanks, neighbors, for planting your blooming pink tree at the edge of your property so we get to enjoy half of it too!!

(we won't be thanking you when all those blooms fall to the ground and get all gross in a week or so, but still, we are totally enjoying it now... even MR P mentioned how pretty it looked today, and he's a BOY!)

cheers!


Tuesday, March 20, 2012

epic weekend.

wow, i've been around mr p too much.  sounds like something that would come out of his mouth or from somewhere deep in that crazy brain of his...

...but... it WAS a pretty good time, i must say!  mr p and i began the weekend on THURSDAY so we could head to the annual st patty's day in chicago trip with his friends from school....

....except this time we have family living there too!
....and the weather was perfect all weekend. in the 70s, maybe the 80s too.
....and it's only 4 hours from home.
....and i love the city anyways.
....which means it totally made me want to move there all weekend.
....and
....and
....and

(sigh)

we'll settle for jersey city for now i suppose.

 so, to recap the weekend:

(updated blog post... can't believe i forgot this photo!!)

thursday:  we got into town LATE, but still wanted tacos, so we went to CVS so danny could grab a redbull and join us.  little did we know he was going to DOWN two 20-oz redbulls, eat some nachos, then fall asleep and start snoring i think AS i was just shutting my eyes, and we went to bed at the same time.  (epic weekend begins)




friday:  started off with a 5-mile run along the bike path that runs along lakeshore drive.  mr p's brother lives just ONE BLOCK from lakeshore in lakeview.  it's.  just.  so.  awesome.


then, we cleaned up and took our things to the hotel (where we could stay with the regular annual-trip crew) before grabbing some much-needed coffee from argo tea and some chicago hot dogs.





....and then some brews at fado.



....and then mr p and zack got some big macs at the shmanciest mcd's ever.



...and then we had more drinks in lakeview with my cousin and crew at will's.

....and then we had vietnamese food at tank noodle.





....and then we had more drinks at jake melnick's corner tap and (again) fado (yes, same day)

...and then the boys had more mcd's (yes, again, same day, silly boys :P)


saturday:  (wait... that was ALL friday??)  we got 4 hours of sleep before we woke up to head over to bongo room for breakfast.  pretzel pancakes... i have no idea what that topping was but it was just. so. good.


...and zack's bacon and banana pancakes were pretty darn tasty too.


...my omelet things was just blah, so i'm not going to bore you with blah food.

...then we walked back to the hotel for a quick nap (and shower... i went to breakfast without showering... gross... after THAT friday that we had? gross.) and crossed the GREEEEEEN river on the way (walking off all those pancakes... wait... who am i kidding... we went to mcd's TWICE yesterday!! ....sigh....)


...and then we headed to pilsen for some nuevo leon!  and stop at the delicious bakery on the way back to the train...







...and then (you guessed it) the booze started!  but... at least it was classy booze.  we went to the publican!  the decor alone is enough reason to come see this place.  it helps that they have house-cured meats and a pretty extensive beer menu.



...and then we were all in a slightly buzzed, but mostly food coma state of mind, and we all took a 2-hour nap.

...and then we went to revolution brewing co. where we tried a few of their house-brewed beer (i think it's house-brewed anyways? whatever, it's their own beer, and it was delicious!) and their bacon fat popcorn, topped with shaved parmesan and fried sage (soo... you say you're gonna drive to chicago just for the popcorn? that's not extreme at all.. i mean.. yeah... it was good)





....and then the night started to get a little blurry...


...and we headed to wrigleyville for st patty's day MADNESS .  utter... MADNESS!!!



...but... zack was super excited he found a large spot for us all at the bar (too bad i found another smaller spot that had SEATS!  and then we snagged a table)


....and then we took a bunch of shots and drank lots of beer and took lots of pictures that i'm not going to show to you.

....and then we ate ian's (so sad it's not ACTUALLY ian's anymore, but the pizza was still as tasty as it can get at 3am and drunk)  and ate GREEN mac-n-cheese pizza, tortellini pizza, rigatoni alfredo pizza, and bbq pork pizza with french fries on it (clearly getting classier as the night goes on)



sunday:  ...and then it was morning (GOD it came so FAST!!!) and we met up with my cousin (and more of mr p's besties from home) again for brunch in lakeview at frasca.  TERRIBLE service.   TERRIBLE .  but, the food was decent and the coffee totally hit the spot.  my eggs florentine (pretty much eggs benedict except brioche and turkey) and mr p's breakfast pizza with prosciutto and sunny-side-up eggs were pretty tasty.




...and then we said our goodbyes, and flew back to NYC.


many thanks and hugs to everyone we saw.  we had a GREAT weekend, and certainly don't get to see ANY of you nearly enough :(  ...but can one of you please send me back my voice?  i'm not sure how much longer i can go without it... or how much more teasing i can handle from my boss thinking i partied a bit too hard over the weekend ("ah no, mr boss man, we just had our hotel AC up super high because it was so hot last weekend and it made me a little sick")

too bad chicago isn't a $20 bus ticket like it is to DC, boston, or philly, we would totally be there more often.

welp, back to reality!

toodles.
j&h