Healthy Snack Foods

A few weekends ago on a day Jordan and I were just hanging out at home, we found ourselves rummaging through our pantry for a snack with nothing remotely snack-y in sight. We’re bad at snack food, I decided. We cook dinner a lot, so we’ve got spices and vegetables and canned goods up the wazoo, but crackers and cheese? Trail mix? Not in our house!

But that doesn’t mean I don’t snack. It just means my snacks are usually unsatisfying psuedo snacks like a piece of peanut butter toast at 3pm or a handful of dried cranberries while I cook dinner.

So on Monday I bought snack food, and I’ve never had so much fun at the Trader Joe’s on California Street. My criteria were: spend under 25 bucks, opt for healthy snacks, and get something salty for Jordan and something sweet for me. Here’s what I came up with.

White bean hummus and baby carrots. $7

Cherries. $4

Dark chocolate covered raisins. $5

Rosemary marcona almonds. $5

Edamame with lemon and salt. $4

I considered adding tart apples and sharp cheddar cheese and also bananas with almond butter to my shopping cart, but I had to draw the line and close my wallet at some point. We can only eat so many snacks in one week!

To celebrate our entrance into snack heaven, we had a snack party, complete with beers and music before going to see The Great Gatsby, which is just as magical as you want it to be and also shows what a mature Jack would have looked like had he just climbed up onto the piano panel with Rose and survived. He’s in an old fashioned bathing suit at one point too, so, go see it. And, if you’re worried about the critics’ reviews of the movie and are thinking about not going, read this before you decide.

What are your favorite snacks? Do you like having snack foods around? Have you seen Gatsby?

Have a Bejeweled Weekend

Walking home from day one at Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago last September.

Hey-ho. Happy Friday, yo. Whatcha got going on this weekend?

I’m spending this afternoon volunteering with my office before jumping aboard a flight to LA to hang out with my other thirds (sisters) for the weekend. If you’re in the LA area this weekend and you like handmade goods, come see us at the State of Unique craft fair at 110 East 9th Street in downtown LA. It’s $10 at the door to get in, but those pretty pennies admit you into a world where the drinks, crafts and photo booth snaps are all free.

Brooke has been working relentlessly on new designs for this show. I haven’t seen it all yet, but I hear stacker rings and simple necklaces abound. Anyone want to make bets on how many items I buy from her this weekend?

Truth be told, I’m horrible at buying jewelry slash most accessories. I’m excellent at buying dresses and shoes (and the necessary ingredients for baking), but terrible at jewelry and bags. But with a jewelry designer for a sister, my hands, ears and neck have been seriously upgraded the last few years. My everyday jewelry wears are all Brooke’s designs. With her help and inspiration, I’m getting better at accessory buying. Unlike a new piece of clothing, jewelry you get to wear everyday, which can make a new purchase really fun! So, speaking of, these are the spring accessories I have my eye on.

1. Polka dots make everything better, exhibit A: Charcoal dots tote from Anna Joyce.
2. These gold earrings from J.Crew are enticing for both their gold finish and their pretzel-esque shape.
3. The lemon quartz earrings from Porter Gulch are my favorite thing in the current collection.
4. I have it my mind that I can’t go to Scandinavia this summer without these clog-ish sandals from Anthropologie.
5. Solution to keeping track of small items in a large bag? An adorable fold-over clutch that fits inside.

I hope you have a great weekend! What’s the thing you always shop for? Any spring accessories you’re coveting?

P.S. At some point this week, unbeknownst to me, my blog decided its accent color would be pink. I cannot for the life of me get it to change back to the silvery-purple I chose a few months ago. So, I’m embracing the pink, thanking god that it didn’t decide to turn to pea green or neon yellow. Turns out my blog has an okay grasp on the color wheel. Plus, it’s more of a coral, really, right?

Update: The purple is back! For no apparent reason.

Who Is Your Dream Neighbor?

Awww, neighbors. I’ve had weird ones, handsome ones, loud ones, and invisible ones. Everyone has, right? Moving into a new building, one of the things I think of is who my neighbors will be. You pray they won’t be a late-night drum teacher, and possibly wish that they’ll be somewhat famous, right? Since we can’t all live down the street from Lena Dunham in Brooklyn, we’re left dreaming of boasting about living in the same building as the surprisingly sane Kardashian cousin, or more realistically for San Francisco, Mark Zuckerberg’s first paid intern. 

When I was born, my parents lived on the same street as my grandparents and my aunt and uncle. It’s been my dream to live on the same street as my two sisters ever since. So, when my sister solidified her plans to move to San Francisco this summer, all I kept saying was, “I hope you guys are within walking distance of our apartment!” It’s all I could think about and hope for.

Which makes sense, because I’ve spent a good portion of my future-oriented daydreaming thinking of walking to my sisters’ future homes to have dinner, carrying bottles of wine and food in covered containers. I dream of walking over to ask quick favors, like fashion approval or to borrow a craft supply. So when my sister called me last Thursday as I stood in Banana Republic helping Jordan pick out jeans, and she panted that there was an apartment available in our building and that it was open for showing right then, Jordan and I jumped in a cab back to our place to check it out for them before someone beat us to it.

It was gorgeous — better laid out than our apartment in fact — and met all their required criteria including enough space for my sister to run her jewelry business. We spent the weekend brewing over if this could possibly be happening. We both inquired that the other one actually wanted to live that close to the other one. Then we remembered that we’re sisters. Who else can you tell to back off and give you some space better than your sister?

So four days later, without even seeing the place themselves, Brooke and Jerry are officially going to be our upstairs neighbors. I’m 1 for 2, guys. I just gotta work on that little sister in LA…

Who’s your dream neighbor? Would you want to live next door to your family? Got any crazy neighbor stories?

Mint Iced Coffee Recipe

San Francisco is a coffee-lover’s city. Local roasters abound — Blue Bottle, Four Barrel, Philz — and their brews are almost always within walking distance. So it’s not surprising that upon becoming a San Franciscan, I started drinking more coffee.

I’m a decaf girl, which I know to the average coffee drinker usually makes little sense. So, I’ll put it this way: I love the taste (and tradition) of morning coffee, but I’m what I like to call “naturally caffeinated.” A cup of caffeinated coffee is enough to make me a nervous wreck. So, since I don’t need coffee to function — quite the opposite, in fact! — I’m a weekend coffee drinker.

I was using a French press to brew coffee, when we got here. I found it quaint to turn on the tea kettle and wait for the coffee to brew in a glass, manual contraption, until the first time I had to clean the grounds out of the canister without a garbage disposal. Then the French press sparkle started to fade. So last week we bought a real coffee maker. I spent my weekend as happy as a 50′s housewife with her first washing machine. Coffee at the press of a button? Have you guys heard of this!?

While the new coffee maker was the highlight of my weekend coffee drinking habit, it was the iced coffee I drank last Friday that I want to share with you. I mentioned already the insane weather we got in SF last week — eighty and ninety degrees in the City by the Bay. Friday was another really warm day in San Francisco, so I decided it was an iced coffee day. What I ended up having was much more than that though.

Philz is my San Francisco coffee hub of choice. Brewed one cup at a time next to an impressive case of both exotic and classic breakfast pastries, Philz had a line on Friday morning, so I had time to really peruse the menu and decide on the Mint Mojito Iced Coffee. Really, what’s more refreshing than mint on a hot day? The Mint Mojito Iced Coffee at Philz is a sweetened iced coffee with a bunch of muddled mint leaves.

It. Was. Amazing. Sweet and refreshing — like a light mint milkshake with a kick and perfect for a warm spring or summer day. While a bit too sweet to replace your morning cup’a'jo, I savored every sip and even poured the last part of it into a glass cup at home to enjoy (and photograph).

The great news is that the coffee concoction can’t be that hard to make. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Brewed coffee, cooled
• A handful of mint leaves
• Cream, to taste
• Sugar, to taste

Muddle the mint leaves with a spoonful of sugar. Pour desired amount of cream into cup and stir. Add ice. Pour coffee over ice. Stir and enjoy.

Philz even puts mint in some of their hot brews. Have you ever had mint in coffee? Are you a coffee drinker? What’s your summer cool-down drink of choice?

How To Celebrate a 30th Birthday in New York

A thirtieth birthday is a thing to be cherished and celebrated, if you ask me. Fortunately, my sister’s fiance feels the same way, which is how we ended up booking flights to JFK way back in January. And thus the 3 months of secret-keeping started.

Each week I was more careful talking to Brooke on the phone. I was so worried I was going to say something to ruin the surprise. I had to be really careful not to say “Give it to me in a few weeks,” when she offered an old skirt she doesn’t wear anymore.

So it was a huge relief when we touched down at Kennedy airport and grabbed a cab.

But the surprise didn’t actually hit me until we got to about 74th Street — two blocks from my sister’s apartment. Then it all caught up with me and I couldn’t think straight anymore. When we pulled up, I paid the driver and started walking inside. Turning around to check that Taylor and Jordan were with me, I saw Jordan lugging both his suit case and mine. Right — our suit cases. Oops! I had tunnel vision, guys.

The door man smiled as we walked in and said, “You’re here to surprise Brooke, right?” Right he was! I had butterflies in the elevator and I had to take some deep breaths. I found this video on my phone days after we returned from the trip. I didn’t know I was recording. Listen to what a wreck we are!

And, then, the big moment. (Warning: turn down your speakers. Shrieking is something of a talent in my family.)

When we were done hugging and squealing and reliving the last few weeks’ anxiety about blowing the surprise. we didn’t waste any more time before getting the party started. Here are the highlights of the weekend.

A Riverside Park hang. 

A 30th birthday bash in a Brooklyn backyard (with party props).

The New York Explorers Club goes to the Bronx Zoo (the coolest zoo ever). 

A French birthday  dinner.

General NYC merriment. 

How have you celebrated the dirty thirty? What’s the best surprise you’ve ever been a part of? 

Party props available from The Manic Moose on Etsy. 

Have a Rejuvenating Weekend!

I’m baaaaaack! And I’m tired.

As I told you on Monday, we surprised my sister last Friday by showing up to her Manhattan apartment unannounced (well, her fiance knew), and the east coast time zone party started from there. That story I’ll have for you on Monday.

For now, I’m still in rejuvenation mode. How do you recuperate from a time zone change and a party weekend? For me, it was a matter of reliving the fun in photos of videos, getting my butt (and abs) kicked at Pilates, eating a salad and then treating myself to a macaroon, and sleeping for a combined 12 hours the day I got home. 

Also, did I mention that it was NINETY degrees in San Francisco yesterday — the same day that a freak snowstorm hit the midwest? NINETY DEGREES, you guys. That doesn’t happen in San Francisco, but you better believe I took full advantage, donning a dress and eating my meals outside. I melted and enjoyed every minute of it.

Now this weekend I’m looking forward to getting back into my SF routine and back to this ol’ blog. Catch ya back here next week!

Got any fun weekend plans? How do you recuperate from a big weekend or a trip? 

Surprises in New York

Surprise! I’m in New York celebrating my darling big sister who turns thirty today. We flew here on Friday morning and surprised the heck out of her. See her shock for yourself.

We partied like it was 1983 on Saturday in Brooklyn, and now I’m traipsing around the five boroughs until Tuesday. Catch ya back here on Wednesday.