Hi friends! What a lovely Thursday night it is -- despite the New York Giants losing tonight's football game and going 0-6 of the season. Whomp. After a hard workout at the gym, I came home to whip up dinner and watch the game in hopes of a first win. With a pumpkin pie candle burning, the game on my TV, and my favorite grilled cheese for dinner - cheddar & gruyere with avocado, fried zucchini & horseradish mustard - I couldn't help but think what a relaxing autumn evening it has been. Ya know, despite my having a slight heart attack and yelling at my TV in between bites of deliciousness. The focus of today's post is a breakfast or lunch combo that was born out my need to break out the new mason jar I bought in Amsterdam and start my day off in a fancy schmancy way. I started off ... [Read More]
Archives for October 2013
Venice: The City of Dreams
(source) Well, I seem to have gotten sidetracked with my Euro trip recaps, but I'm back today with a post about the last place I visited during my vacation last month -- the beautiful city of Venice! While I experienced a combination of cool but sunny, then gloomy, rainy weather in The Netherlands, Germany, and Austria, Italy was perfect: bright sunshine and in mid-70's during my stay there. We stayed on the Lido of Venice, which was just a quick ferry ride away from all of the action on other islands via one of these bad boys... I found that hotel prices were pretty damn expensive on other touristy islands. The Lido was a bit more reasonable, and after some research, I chose a place called Albergo Quattro Fontane. [Side note: The above picture cracks me up, as ... [Read More]
Switching Up My Workouts with AIRobics and Fitness OnRequest
Another weekend flew by, and another busy Monday has come and gone. While Mondays are usually just a "back to the grind" kind of day, this Monday in particular was an exciting day for my family. Earlier my second nephew was welcomed into the world! The one major downside to living in California is being on opposite coasts from my family... especially during times like this, when I just want to see this munchkin for myself instead of through my iPhone! But, I'll have to wait to meet the little guy until I fly back to Jersey in 2 months. Moving on to exercise, you may notice that when I talk about workouts, I frequently mention how much I love changing up my fitness routine. I feel that doing the same exercises over and over mentally leads to boredom, and physically leads to your body ... [Read More]
A Visit to Livermore Valley Wine Country
October 2nd was a special day in my household - my 4th anniversary! While Adam and I haven't made our anniversary a huge deal thus far, we definitely like to celebrate the occasion and spend time together. I planned on making my spaghetti squash casserole for dinner and having a low-key, relaxing night together. I happened to be coming back from Seattle in the afternoon, and wound up hitting crazy traffic on my way back from the airport due to a horrendous accident. Running late, I wound up nixing the spaghetti squash idea and making a quicker dish - spinach & ricotta stuffed shells. I also decided to make an oreo ice cream cake for dessert, because for some oddball reason, I was craving oreo cookies (I hadn't had an oreo in probably 10 years!). Since I was short on time, I needed to ... [Read More]
Pumpkin Spice Pancakes with a Cinnamon Pecan Topping
Happy Friday!! Before I get to this deliciousness, my first pumpkin recipe of the fall... ...I have a few things to chat about. One, after much time and frustration I HAVE FIXED MY ANNOYING BLOG ISSUE! I thought that something was funky a couple weeks ago while I was in Europe, but I thought it had more to do with my traveling and using random Internet networks than anything else. When I came home, it seemed to get even worse, but then I had to get ready for my Seattle trip. Long story short, yesterday was the first time I had the hours & energy to figure out what the heck was happening. The first person I spoke to at Bluehost (my server) was very little help and sent me into a tizzy trying to figure out what all of this technical stuff was that could have been the culprit. ... [Read More]
An Afternoon at Seattle’s Pike Place Market
[This post was written yesterday but published this morning.] Hi there! I’m blogging from the skies, as I’m currently in route from Seattle back to the San Francisco airport. My work trip was a short and fun one, and I’m happy that I’m heading back today because it’s my anniversary - four years of blissful marriage with my man! :) Any who, when I arrived in Seattle on Monday morning, my co-workers and I met up, visited our client’s offices, then stopped by our client’s home to see where he lives. Check out the view he has from his house next to a lake: Pretty pretty right? After that, we headed downtown to explore. We spent a couple of hours in Pike Place Market, and I loved it there! The market had so many cute unique shops with works from local artists, plus lots of fun ... [Read More]