Earlier today my hubby, father-in-law, and I headed out East to a more rural area of San Diego County, to a place called Julian. Known for their apple pies and being a close B&B getaway spot for people like us living in the city, Julian is a cute little area that Adam and I have spent some time in before. It's interesting because it's only an hour drive from where we live, yet you feel as if you're a world away. Roaming horses, rolling hills, empty twisty roads, snow, and cowboys are things you don't usually see in San Diego but will notice in Julian. The reason for our trip there today was to go to the town's Grape Stomp Festa at Menghini Winery. It was a beautiful day outside for the occasion, and I sampled a few glasses of sangria from local wineries. My girlfriend Jackie met ... [Read More]
wine
Baking a Giant Cookie at 7 in the Morning
That's right, this AM before I began working, I baked a cookie the size of a pizza. Why? Because today is my hubby's birthday! I blogged about celebrating his turning 26 a few days ago, but today is Adam's actual birthday. My, how far we've come since our first birthdays together... New York City, 2007: Since our birthdays are only 6 days apart (yep, mine is next week!), the first summer we were dating, we went skydiving together to celebrate both of 'em: It was so much fun, I'd do it again in a heartbeat! On the menu for tonight: Dinner: my spaghetti squash casserole + fresh bread Wine: A bottle of Mark West Pinor Noir (<-- pretty cool website!), which I actually broke out our wine chiller for to set it to the ideal temp. Their wine is near ... [Read More]
Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffins
Hope you're having a fabulous Thursday. I'm blogging to you as I sip my first glass of wine for the night - a yummy California Chardonnay: Backing up to last night's jewelry party, we had a fun relaxed ladies' night. Besides the chocolate Kahlua cake I talked about yesterday, we had a few other goodies: Roasted Red Hummus Platter - Champagne punch bowl - FYI, that fun ice/strawberry ring in the middle is pretty & decorative for the punch bowl, but not very practical. We had trouble getting it out of the way to scoop out punch with the ladle. [Note to self: come up with a smaller ice chiller next time!] My best friends Meaghan and Danielle came to the party: And this close-up photo of Meg and me is hilarious (Thanks for the photography styling, ... [Read More]
Weekend Recap + Homemade Pizza
Wow, what an awesome Presidents' Day weekend I had! It has been so great to have my best friend in town. I had my first dueling piano bar experience. It's safe to say it's going to be my new favorite way to spend a night out! We had a blast belting out all the tunes they played. We played with Harley at the beach. There was quite a bit of wine tasting... And we thoroughly enjoyed my homemade sangria. Today, I got some work done during the day while Meg laid by the pool and hung out. Then this evening we made my FAVORITE dinner. In fact, when Adam's home I usually make it every Friday night. Everyone that knows ... [Read More]