Friday, March 18, 2011

Friday Pic: My City


Two thoughts, 1. I love the city I live in and 2. I wish I had a better camera.

So folks, another week has come and gone, and another Friday is upon us. Unfortunately, my work week doesn't end here as I head up to San Francisco to help out at the SF World Spirits Competition, work some events and then travel to New York to work more events. In total I will be gone from LA for well over a week. Phew.

I love my job? Happy weekending!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Apple Streusel Muffins


Food makes anything better- that is a fact. From stress to grief to anxiety to fear, food definitely makes everything better. It may not solve anything, but there is something about food that comforts and satisfies your soul.  Do I get an AMEN to that?

Based off of this fact, I baked a batch of Apple Streusel Muffins to take along with me to visit my dear friend Shannon who had surgery on her foot last week. I am proud to say that she devoured the muffins and her foot miraculously stopped hurting... well not quite but I'd like to think these muffins helped her along her journey to recovery.If anything, they told her I care.


Moist and massively impressive these muffins are even better than the ones you get along with your morning coffee at Starbucks. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups peeled and diced granny apples (I used about 2 to get 2 cups)
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup melted butter

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 12 cup muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. Lightly dust the muffin cups with flour, shaking out the excess.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and diced apples. Gently toss to combine.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk brown sugar, buttermilk, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla. Gently stir into the flour mixture until blended. Spoon batter into prepared tin, dividing evenly among muffin cups.

4. For the topping, mix together brown sugar, flour, cinnamon in a small bowl. Add the melted butter and toss with a fork until it resembles coarse crumbles. Sprinkle mixture over tops of muffins.

5. Bake for 23-35 minutes, until the muffins spring back when gently pressed. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan and placing on a wire rack.

Makes 12 muffins.

Recipe courtesy of Bite Me by Julie Albert & Lisa Gnat.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Belated Birthday Wishes

Hello Friendsies.

So I'm sorry that I lied about what I would be posting today... I was going to show you what I ate at Animal restaurant but the weekend turned out to be one of those fun but exhausting ones and blogging was the last thing on my mind. What did I do that was so fun yet exhausting?

Well I went down to OC to visit my Bro & Co., and to celebrate my dearest niece, Elsa's 2nd birthday!


For more details on the weekend, hop on over to Sarah's blog, where I'm expecting a full pictorial coverage of our celebrations! In the meantime, HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY little one. Aunty Nic loves you so much!! xoxo

Happy Monday everyone!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Friday Pic: A Sneak Peek


It's Fri-Fri-Friday! Can you tell I am just a tad excited! :)

Anyway, for this week's Friday pic, I though I would give you a sneak peek, a glimpse of what's to come, a little something to wet your appetite for Monday's post. Doesn't that look dee-licious?? It's from my dinner at Animal Restaurant and let me tell you it was good. Real good. So stayed tuned.

On another completely different note, one of my dearest friend's Shannon is having toe surgery today and I wanted all you good folks out there to put in a good word for her with God. While the surgery is not a life threatening one, Shannon informs me it is going to be a painful one. Furthermore, Shannon is going to be in a boot and out of commission for a while and this will not do for the I-can-do-it-myself-I-am-woman type of girl that Shannon is. So pray for a speedy recovery as well.

Thanks Y'all! Happy weekending!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Letters From Lauren

Hey-ho folks!

Happy almost almost almost the weekend! I do apologize for the silence this week. Like I've mentioned before, work has been wearing me out and the last thing I can think about when I get home at night is blogging.

I promise I will hunker down this weekend with my trusty ole Mac, so that come Monday you'll have something interesting to chew on.


For now, let me introduce you to Lauren. Lauren is a girl who loves letters. Lauren is a girl after my own heart in her love for letters. So join her on her journey as she attempts to write (and document) a letter a day in 2011.

Know someone would could benefit from receiving some snail mail? Email Lauren with some details about said friend and she'll take care of the rest!

Now how cool is that!

Image from Letters from Lauren

Friday, March 4, 2011

Friday Pics

Taken with my camera phone this morning:
Flowers from my dear sis-in-law and a snail mailed note from my darling nephew

It's another TGIF!

Work has been insane. My boss is on a 3 week personal vacation and this means I have twice the work load to deal with and also twice the exhaustion.

I might also add that I worked an event on Wednesday where I had to sit outside in the rain for 2 hours checking in consumers. And no- there were no umbrellas nor space heaters. It was miserable.

Needless to say, this week has been hard and I welcome Friday with open arms. TGIF
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