1. I get the chance to travel to Seattle fairly frequently for business, and I've fallen completely in love with the city. And by city I mean food. I haven't had near enough time to explore much beyond Seattle's food scene (dying to get there for a vacation to do some hiking!), but I've had a blast trying out new restaurants each time I'm in town. I have a particular fondness for the Tom Douglas restaurants, mostly because I'm obsessed with Serious Pie [so much so that I have to recreate it at home!]. On my most recent trip, I was able to stop in at Serious Biscuit. Although I'm still partial to the pizza, this was a dang good breakfast and kept me full for a good five hours! I went with the truffled frittata with tomato caper relish, but I might have to return and try a few of their other variations.
2. I bought my first maxi dress a few weeks ago. To be honest, maxi dresses kind of freak me out. I think they look great on certain people, but I couldn't even picture one on me. It doesn't help that I'm SUPER picky about how things look on me. My mom convinced me to give one a try when we were at the Banana Republic Outlet and to my great surprise, it passed inspection! Because it's from the Outlet there's no picture of it online...real life photo to come (been saving it for my trip to Napa in two weeks!). I have since tried on other maxi dresses only to find they looked HORRENDOUS so I'm guessing this is a magic dress of sorts!
3. Remember in grade school when you brought in treats for your birthday? My office has a similar tradition! Most people bring in Panera bagels, but I usually opt for something homemade. Last year it was Life Cereal Mix and the famous Praline Mix. This year I made the gooey sandwich cookie bars...mostly because I wanted an excuse to eat them again (but needed to avoid eating the whole pan myself!). They were a huge hit--many people asked for the recipe and I heard them described as 'ridiculously good'. In other words, you should make them! (I once again made them ahead of time and froze them--they freeze so well and taste so fresh once thawed! I actually like them best still cold from the fridge/freezer!)
4. I don't have nearly as much time as I'd like to read books [turns out blogging is kind of time consuming!], but I still love nothing more than getting lost in a book! Most recently it was Gold by Chris Cleave (author of the well known Little Bee, which I have yet to read). I'm sure the fact that I read it during the Olympics made it all the more enticing, but I was completely wrapped up in this story. My sister read it in two days and then passed it off to me. Two days later, I had finished it!
Two Years Ago: Flip It Pan Review
Three Years Ago: Raisin Bran Muffins