Hello, beautiful weather!!! I really hope that you are here to stay!

I spent all afternoon outside in the sunshine– hanging out with my favorite guys and drinking my favorite brew. It was a really nice way to spend the day. Not a bad way to spend the day, right?

Mid-afternoon, we broke into a bottle of Bourbon County and munched on some TJ’s trail mix.

This is a great sipping beer!

While sitting outside, we updated our March Madness brackets. I’m doing okay so far!

Meanwhile, Murphy chewed on some sticks.

And, a highlighter! Murphy!

And, the guys ran around the yard.

Awesome day!

A limo is coming to pick us up at 5:30 to drive us into Boston for the rehearsal dinner. Fancy, right? I can’t wait!

Greetings from I-93!

I’m blogging from the passenger seat of Mal’s car. Mal and I are driving to my mom’s house to drop off Murphy for the weekend. (My brother-in-law is getting married!) “Grandma” is really excited to have her “grand-pug” for the weekend. She has all sorts of plans for him!

Breakfast

After Body Pump, Mal and I headed to the Wheelhouse Diner for breakfast. The place was pretty much empty on a Friday morning. Usually, we wait a good 20 minutes for a table, but we sat down right away.

I ordered the “usual” for breakfast: 2 eggs, homefries, and rye toast. Best breakfast ever!

After breakfast, Mal and I headed home to shower and pack for our trip home. In our travels, we stopped by D&D for a couple of iced coffees. Iced coffee is so delicious on a sunny day!

Then, Mal and I took a quick trip to the mall to do some last-minute shopping. Mal bought a couple of new shirts and pair of pants, and I frantically ran around the mall in search for a strapless, backless, stick-on bra. My goodness, it was an adventure! Eventually, I found something at Victoria Secret. Thanks for everyone’s suggestions! Hopefully, it all works out!

We ended up spending longer than expected at the mall, so I threw together a quick lunch for us to eat on the road while Mal finished packing. I made a couple of PB & J sandwiches and grabbed a couple of Granny Smith apples.

I’m starting to feel a little car sick– car blogging doesn’t jive well with me. Lots happening this weekend! Stay tuned!

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Murphy and I enjoyed a wonderful walk around the neighborhood this afternoon. The weather was absolutely gorgeous!

On our walk, I encountered a number of signs of SPRING! It’s almost here!

Beautiful budding flowers.

An active park.

Bright blue skies.

YAY!!! I’m so excited for nice weather! Let’s hope it sticks around.

Murphy and I walked for almost an hour and covered 3 miles. Keeping track of our progress with my Garmin made it feel like a workout to me!

As soon as we got home, Murph passed out on the floor and took a nap. He was so exhausted!

I didn’t even have a chance to take off his leash and harness!

Dinner

My appetite was all over the place this evening. I was hungry, but not in the mood for anything specific. I ended up making some homemade sweet potato fries, which I tossed in olive oil and ground flaxseed meal.

I loved the addition of the ground flaxseed meal– very yummy and nutritious!

On the side, I made a pesto + sour cream mixture for dipping. The sweet potato fries + dip were an amazing flavor combination.

Dessert

A little while later, I wanted something sweet to eat, so I attempted to make a butternut squash version of my Almond Joy “Ice Cream.” Well, my little kitchen experiment totally bombed. Basically, frozen butternut squash tastes nothing like a frozen banana. The butternut squash is really bland and boring while the banana is sweet and smooth. I’ll be sticking to frozen bananas in the future!

I ended up eating my frozen creation because I added about an ounce of Scharffen Berger dark chocolate to the mix and I didn’t want to waste it. That stuff is too good to not eat!

Around 8:00, my appetite got really weird. I made myself a small bowl of Galaxy Granola and then grabbed a beer. So random, right? A smooth, dark beer just sounded so appetizing to me. I’m just going with it…

Look what arrived in the mail today!!!

My Rent the Runway dress! You guys helped me pick it!

This afternoon, I tried on the dress and it fits perfectly! Thank goodness! BUT, I’m having a serious bra issue!

Check out the back of this dress:

A strapless bra just won’t work. What are my other options? I need to buy something TOMORROW or otherwise I can’t wear this dress. And, going without some sort of support is just not an option. Any ideas??? Help!

I’m heading to bed early again tonight. G’night, blog friends!

The Bertolli folks sent along some shots from the professional photographer at the Into the Heart of Italy event that I thought you guys would like to see, including a couple of photos of Marisa. She was gorgeous in person, by the way! Enjoy!

Photo credit: Kevin Mazur, Getty

Murphy is waiting patiently for me to take him out for his long walk of the day, so I’m going to whiz right through this post. It’s 65* and sunny, and I haven’t been outside yet today, so I am also in need of some fresh air and sunshine!

Lunch

After working hard all morning, I finally broke for lunch around noon. I threw together a big salad with lots of veggies and some dry roasted edamame. My appetite is finally back and I am craving nutrients!

In the mix:

• Romaine
• Carrots
• Cucumber
• Broccoli
• Red onion
• Balsamic vinegar
• Dry roasted edamame

After lunch, I craved something sweet, so I dug into one of my carrot cake cupcakes that I baked yesterday. Mmm!

Snack

After lunch, I went back to work for a couple more hours before taking a break to eat a snack and watch some Real Housewives of New York City. (They’re my favorite! ) As a snack, I made a package of instant oatmeal with liquid egg whites, dried fruit, nuts, and chia seeds. It hit the spot.

Feel Great Weight

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Burgers & Burgundy

Great event this Saturday at Gordon’s: Burgers & Burgundy!

Trading Up Downtown

Check out my Deal of the Week and giveaway!

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It’s walk time! See ya for dinner!

Good morning, bloggies!

I slept so late this morning! It was awesome and totally worth it. I feel so much better this morning. I almost feel like my normal self again. I just need to get rid of my stuffy nose!

Breakfast

Mal finished off the peanut butter the other day and almost threw out the jar. The horror! Luckily, I saved it in just the nick of time, and used it for OIAJ this morning.

I made blueberry oatmeal this morning.

In the mix:

• 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup Galaxy Granola
• 1/2 tbsp chia seeds
• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed meal

Mmmmm… peanut butter!

I also had some iced coffee with hazelnut milk with breakfast.

So, even though I was feeling under the weather yesterday, I wasn’t too sick to bake cupcakes! I’m not going to lie, eating homemade carrot cake cupcakes for lunch definitely made me feel better! I was in cupcake heaven!

My cupcake baking extravaganza was part of a fun promotion with OpenSky. I have lots of adorable cupcake-related products in my shop, so I thought it would be cool to create a special cupcake aisle.

My cupcake aisle has 5 great items all handpicked by me, including cupcake plates, cupcake stands, cupcake wrappers, and a cupcake kit. Plus, 1 bundled item that includes a set of 4 cupcake plates + 1 color cupcake stand. All of the products are so adorable! I’m sort of obsessed with the dessert plates.

So, here’s the deal:

• If you purchase any of the individual items from my cupcake aisle, you get 10% off, PLUS an exclusive carrot cake cupcake recipe that I created the other day. Just use the coupon code ‘CUPCAKEAISLE’ at checkout.
• If you purchase the bundle of items (cupcake plates + stand), you get 30% off (only $39.90 vs normally $58), PLUS you get my exclusive cupcake recipe. (You don’t need a coupon code for this deal.)

My cupcake aisle is only open for 1 week with these deals, so act fast. But, I’ll be adding more great cupcake-inspired products to the aisle in the future. Happy shopping!

P.S. These cupcake goodies make wonderful gifts, especially for bridal and baby showers. They come in really cute packaging!

Question of the Day

If you could only eat one dessert for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I’m feeling so much better! I’m not 100% quite yet, but my fever is gone and my energy level is almost back to normal. I still have a runny nose, but the head-cold pressure is mostly gone. An early bedtime is on the agenda for tonight, so hopefully, some quality rest will help me make a full recovery by tomorrow.

The BEAUTIFUL weather also made me feel much better!

When Mal got home from work, we took Murph for a long walk around the neighborhood. We walked and talked and soaked in the sunshine. It was nice.

Gorgeous weather obviously calls for flip-flops!

Dinner

Mal and I worked up an appetite after walking with Murphy for more than an hour, so we headed to Finian’s for dinner.

Finian’s has been on my “Need to Try” list for years now. Everyone who I have talked to about this restaurant has raved about it, so I was excited when Mal suggested it for dinner tonight.

Finian’s is a restaurant and pub with an “old-fashioned” vibe. You won’t find funky entrees or trendy cocktails, but Finian’s serves up some quality, homestyle food.

Tonight, the dinner crowd seemed to be mostly families and retirees. Mal and I were easily the youngest adults in the whole place– although, we felt totally welcome! Finian’s has an extensive menu of mostly American-style, comfort food at very reasonable prices.

Our meal started with dinner rolls and corn bread muffins. I ate one of the corn bread muffins and Mal ate the rest!

After we ordered our food, Mal and I filled out our brackets for March Madness. This year, we’ve decided to strategically diversify our efforts so maybe we can win some money!

For dinner, I ordered the salmon salad (in honor of last Friday’s “For the Health of It” event ). The salmon was very tasty with a buttery, herb-crusted seasoning on the outside. It was tender and “meaty.” I ate every last bite of it!

I was pretty impressed when this salad was served to the table. It was huge, but also packed with veggies– tons of tomatoes, red and green bell peppers, red onions, and sauteed onions.

Now, Mal and I are watching American Idol and eating ice cream. Aren’t you suppose to feed a cold?

Enjoy the evening, blog friends! Normal blogging to resume tomorrow.

G’night!

Even though I was sick as a dog yesterday, Bertolli’s media lunch and premiere were a ton of fun!

As you know, Bertolli just launched a new series of webisodes titled “Into the Heart of Italy: Six Adventures, Three Celebrities, One Mission… To Unlock the Secrets of Italian Passion for Food and Life.” This online series features celebrity chef Rocco Dispirito and actors Marisa Tomei, and Dan Cortese as they explore the food and culture of Italy. To kick-off the series, I was invited to attend a lunch in New York City with Rocco, Marisa, Dan, and a group of 7 food and celebrity bloggers.

The event was held at the fancy-schmany A Voce restaurant in the Time Warner Center.

We were treated to a wonderful 5-course meal in a private room at the restaurant.

I was really excited about the event, but don’t I look sort of sick?

The meal started with freshly baked bread, drizzled with olive oil. Holy yum!

There was a special menu prepared for the event. Everything sounded so delicious– and it was!

Farfalle
rapini, calabrian chilies, pecorino romano

Brasato
red wine braised beef short ribs, farro, root vegetable soffrito, marrow

I’m not really a meat person, but the beef was my favorite course of the whole meal. Yum!

Parmigiano Reggiano
primolio, balsamic

Bomboloni alla Toscana
tuscan doughnuts, bittersweet chocolate

Holy yum!

While eating lunch, we viewed the first webisode in the Into the Heart of Italy series. I usually don’t get into stuff like this, but I really enjoyed watching what happens to Rocco, Marisa, and Dan as they travel through Italy. They’re actually pretty funny together! Plus, there’s a sweepstakes tied to these series that I really want to win. I need a vacation in a bad way!!

After the lunch, the bloggers received an exclusive hands-on pasta demonstration with Rocco and Dan.

We learned how to make Farfalle!

First, the guys gave the pasta-making a try.

And, then the bloggers gave it a whirl. It’s not as easy as it looks!

Success! It’s all about the 3-finger pinch!

While Rocco and Dan chatted with us, I munched on a couple of cookies.

And sipped on some hot coffee with cream.

Group shot (minus Chris): Me, Vera, Paula, Lori, Lori, and Sabrina.

I truly loved meeting these bloggers! They were all so wonderful, and I’m psyched to add their blogs to my Google Reader.

What an awesome event! Thanks for inviting me, Bertolli!

I can’t believe that I am sick. I never get sick. Ugh.

I’ve felt like crap all day– sneezing, stuffy nose, itchy skin, achy neck– and, on the flight home, I started to get a fever. I just took my temperature now and it was 100.8* F. I still can’t believe it.

I actually haven’t been fever-sick since high school, so this is sort of a big deal for me. I really don’t deal well with being sick. I’m such a baby. Anyway, I’m taking the night off and hitting hay immediately. I’ll give ya a recap of the Bertolli event tomorrow. It was a nice time.

And, here’s what I ate for dinner: Tazo Refresh iced tea + Parmesan Garlic Triscuits (aka the dinner of champions).

Good night, guys!

Hi, guys!

I just got back from a wonderful breakfast at the Landmarc Restaurant with Lori, Paula, and Jennifer (from Bertolli’s PR team). It was so nice to meet these ladies before the main event this afternoon. I just love chatting with food bloggers– and, of course, dining with them. I always feel better when someone else whips out their camera when the food is served!

I really loved the decor inside the Landmarc Restaurant– simple, yet modern and sophisticated.

Not surprisingly, I started-off my meal with an iced coffee. It totally hit the spot this morning.

To eat, I ordered the Landmarc Egg Sandwich, which came with Gruyère cheese on an English muffin and hash browns on the side. I made a special request for spinach in my egg sandwich. Gotta get those nutrients!

The egg sandwich was delicious with lots of egg, spinach, and cheese. And, I loved that it wasn’t sopping in grease. Ya never know with egg sandwiches! I ate the hash browns with a little ketchup.

Paula was nice enough to offer me a bite of her toasted baguette with Nutella, so I couldn’t turn her down. I <3 Nutella!

When the check was brought to the table, it arrived with a surprising item: cotton candy! Fun!  I had a taste, but cotton candy really isn’t my thing. It’s actually too sweet for me!

I have a couple of hours to kill before the media lunch, so I’m off to explore. Sabrina should be here any minute now, too!