Weekend Wrap-Up

Note the Lisa Frank napkins

Happy Monday, everyone! If you have noticed, I took a little break last week to get through the overload that is my schoolwork. Dear junior year, freaking chill! But I am back. I have definitely lost track of all the NYFW updates I was planning on giving you this past week. However, I have gone the Plan B route–tomorrow I will be posting a summary of what big trends were seen on the S/S 2015 runways!

Not only has schoolwork taking up a LARGE portion of my time, but we have also been planning a birthday party for two of my roommates that went off without a hitch this past weekend. Ready for the theme? A throwback to the sleepovers of our youth. We decorated with streamers, balloons, banners and even made goodie bags for our guests (complete with gel pens, glow in the dark rings, Ring Pops and Fruit Roll-Ups.) One of my big contributions to this shindig was the nostalgic (read: FREAKING AMAZING) playlist made up of nine hours worth of songs from the ’90s and early 2000s. There was plenty of Spice Girls and Daughtry for everybody.

On Sunday morning we ventured down to South Side and took brunch at Waffles Incaffeinated. OH. MY. GOD. It was probably the most filling and delicious brunch I have ever had. To start, the coffee was great and I should know; I’m kind of a morning coffee connoisseur. Ordering the food was probably the most difficult. There were so many waffles and omelets to choose from.  I ended up with the Funky Monkey waffle loaded with chocolate, peanut butter and bananas. I also made sure to order a side of the home fries per the suggestion of one of my friends. Dear Lord it was incredible! There was plenty of sharing going around at our table. If you are ever in the Pittsburgh area please do yourself the favor of dining at Waffles. The wait can be long though so try to call ahead!

❤ Ashley

What fun did your weekend hold?

Summer Recipe: Bruschetta

Hello there!

I hope that everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend and indulged in plenty of family, friends, food and fireworks. 🙂 Today I am bringing you a recipe for one of my favorite go-to foods–especially in the summer: bruschetta.

We have made bruschetta many, many times before but usually with the bruschetta mix in a jar that you can find in the pasta aisle of your grocery store. It is something that is really quick and easy to make for nights when you have no idea what to make for dinner, or as little snacks for parties. Making it homemade is not to difficult as I have found! It is a little bit more time consuming of course; but is there really a problem with that?

Here’s what you need:

6-7 plum tomatoes (they are a lot easier to cut up; they are not as juicy and have fewer seeds)
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
basil (difficult to say how much, use as much as you prefer)
salt + pepper
mozzarella cheese
French baguette

Here’s what you need to do:

– Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F
– Slice up your bread to slice about 1/2-1 thick. Brush both sides with olive oil (this isn’t the 1 tbsp from the recipe) and put them in the oven for about 3 mins on both sides.
– Parboil (boil some water, take it off the heat and place the tomatoes in the pot) tomatoes for 1 minute. Peel them and cut in halves or quarters to remove the seeds.
– Finish cutting tomatoes into small chunks, chop garlic and basil also.
– Combine tomatoes, garlic and basil in bowl. Add olive oil, vinegar and salt + pepper.
– Spoon mixture onto baguette slices. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Bake 3-5 minute.

The result is pure delicious-ness!

❤ Ashley

What is your favorite summer time food?

Crepes with Yogurt and Blueberries

This summer, I have made a promise to myself to experiment more with food and become comfortable preparing all sorts of different dishes. This is probably due to the fact that I am far to excited to have a kitchen this coming year at school. Recently, we dined at a French bistro in Gettysburg called Café Saint-Amand where I tried crepes for the first time and became absolutely obsessed!

I decided that this would one of my first experiments: crepe making.

Overall, the recipe is pretty straightforward with few ingredients. The hard part was flipping those thin little crepes. The first few were absolute disasters, but I did get better with them!

Ingredients

1/2 cup flour
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/4 water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon oil
pinch of salt

Directions

1. Mix ingredients until batter is smooth
2. Let the mixture set a few minutes
3. Pour 1/4 cup of batter into lightly greased and well heated small sauté pan
4. Cook about a minute (until batter looks dry) and flip–it does not take long to cook on either side

Of course you can make yours either savory with maybe some bacon and eggs rolled into the crepe, or sweet like I did! I rolled mine around a dollop of greek yogurt and blueberries. Yum!

❤ Ashley

Do you like crepes? Have you tried to make your own?