Mom's Weekend, The Best Weekend

Our sorority's Mom's Weekend was a huge success, to say the least.  Each year our sorority has either mom's weekend or dad's weekend, and it switches off every year.  This year was designated to the moms, and I was fortunate enough to be on the committee that planned the entire weekend.  My mom came in on Thursday night so that we had even more time to spend together.  As soon as she got here, she took a few of my friends and myself to Olive & June for an amazingly delicious dinner.  We started off with seafood fritto misto and zucchini involtini (my favorite part of the meal- pictured below).  For our main course my mom and I split the whole wheat ravioli with goat cheese and roasted pears; seared golden tilefish with artichokes and citrus; and sides of roasted baby beets and baked eggplant.  We were going to order dessert at the restaurant, but decided to make a Tiff's Treats run instead.  I highly, highly recommend Olive & June, and I know Caramelized does as well :)

Friday was crazy hectic, as I had to rush around to get things ready for our sorority's Friday night event.  Luckily my mom didn't mind helping me all day, but thank goodness she was there because I needed all the help I could get!  Our "Dinner, Drinks & Dessert at the Driskill" event went off without a hitch, and everyone seemed to have a great time.  We hired a great photographer, a beautiful pianist, and worked with the amazing Driskill staff.  To decorate for the "Texas Chic" theme (for Go Texan Day) we set out Texas "confetti," cowboy boots, and even had a Texas necklace giveaway.  And thanks to my incredible mother, every girl and her mother also left with a personalized truffle from Sessy's Sweets.

We got creative with our pledge class event this year and decided to do a cooking demonstration with our moms at the Silver Whisk Cooking School.  After a long trek out to Lakeway, we sat down for a fun and interactive lunch.  We learned how to make deconstructed salads, chicken Parmesan with angel hair pasta, and tiramisu.  We all watched the staff "shake," jammed out to Beyonce and Britney Spears, and took turns volunteering with the chef.  My mom and I enjoyed the class and the delicious food, and look forward to taking more cooking classes together soon (I have to learn somehow)!

Because the weather was absolutely PERFECT outside, we spent the rest of the day walking around and shopping at the Domain.  I (un)fortunately had a good shopping day, and got a few goodies from J. Crew, Anthro, and Free People.  By the time we left the Domain it was 5 o'clock somewhere, so mom and I were ready for a little happy hour.  We stopped by Whole Foods on the way home to pick up an assortment of olives, cheeses, and other various appetizers.  We came home, polished off the appetizers and a bottle of our favorite Sonoma Cutrer, and made our way to Kenichi for a phenomenal sushi dinner.  I don't have any pictures from this meal- sorry guys.  As if I wasn't full enough, we then went to Halcyon with Cara and her mom where we ate a cookie with ice cream and drank "adult" caramel hot chocolate...yum.

Sunday morning we sat and had coffee before getting our nails done together.  Once again, it was gorgeous outside, so we went to have lunch on South Congress.  Then, sadly, mom had to pack up and drive home. 

I hope everyone else had as much fun with their moms as I had with mine!  Can't wait for her to come back and visit me again soon, because it is always a good weekend when mommy is in town.

Valentine's Weekend

Valentine's Weekend was so amazing and full of great memories.  As I said in my last post, the festivities started Wednesday night with a little dessert party in our apartment.  As promised, the chocolate chip blondie cookie recipe is posted below.  The Valentine's festivities continued on Thursday when my boyfriend, Ron, came to Austin so that we could our 5th Valentine's Day together.  He surprised me with two dozen red roses, a teddy bear, a balloon, a picture frame and a lot of chocolate!  We started with a little happy hour at home, and then made our way to a restaurant called Chez Zee.  This restaurant was the definition of romantic and cheesy and right up my ally.  The walls were covered in twinkle lights and heart lights, a band performed love songs in the middle of the restaurant, every table had a vase of fresh roses, and there was even a candy apple red grand piano at the entrance.  We at spinach and artichoke dip, shrimp bisque, rainbow trout and finished it off with a slice of mocha fudge cake.

The next event of the weekend was our sorority formal on Saturday night.  We enjoyed sushi and drinks at Maiko Sushi with 19 other couples, and then went to The North Door for the event.  The venue and vendors were all perfect.  There was good music, good drinks and even a candy bar where we could make our own candy goodie bag to take with us.  We all danced the night away and had a great time!

Chocolate Chip Blondie Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 bag Valentine's Day M&Ms

Directions:

1. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.  Add this mix to the brown sugar mix. Combine the brown sugar, vanilla, eggs and butter in a large bowl.  Stir until blended.
2. Add chocolate chips! Stir.
3. Spread the mixture into a greased 9x13 baking pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes (I did 20 minutes and they were still very soft).
5. Add M&Ms to the top of the blondie cookies about 5 minutes before you pull them out of the oven.
6. For best results, refrigerate for 15-20 minutes to harden.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's that time of the year again.

The one day where it is acceptable to be cheesy and romantic, and the one day everyone simply loves each other.  Even though my friends still make fun of me, I love celebrating Valentine's Day in every way possible.  The apartment is decorated, the chocolates are set out, the desserts are made and I am sitting here in my Valentine's pajamas... I am ready.  This year, the festivities started last night when we had our friends over to our apartment for dessert and wine.  Everyone had to pair up and bring a Valentine's dessert  that they found on Pinterest.  We also asked that everyone wear their Valentine's gear, but that didn't work out so well.


Before everyone came over, a few of us spent the afternoon baking and creating.  Brenna and I chose to make chocolate chip blondies, which neither of us had ever made before.  We didn't cook them all the way through, but they still turned out pretty good, and they were even better when paired with vanilla ice cream.  The recipe is very simple, but I will post it soon.  Cara and Paige came over to bake as well.  While Paige made some adorable pretzel buttons, Cara took a stab at making red velvet crinkle cookies, and man were they good.  Probably my favorite dessert of the night. She will be posting the recipe here soon.

Chocolate chip blondies with Valentine's M&Ms

Our creations

Cara's amazing red velvet cookies

Paige's pretzel buttons

Mel's assortment of cupcakes from Polkadots

Stacy and Jess' chocolate covered pretzels

Oh, if My iPhone Could Talk: My Life Through My iPhone

If my iPhone could talk, it would have some great stories to tell.  It would also tell you that I love taking pictures, so I'm sorry in advance for all the pictures to follow (and also sorry if you are a victim of this blog post).  Naturally, when I'm bored I like to scroll through all of the pictures of my iPhone, all 2000 of them.  Every time I do, I smile at all the amazing memories and laugh at all the absolutely ridiculous pictures.  I always tell myself that I am going to do something with all of these pictures, but haven't thought of anything until now.  Once a month, I am going to try and publish a "My Life Through My iPhone" post with the most memorable pictures from that month.  It will probably be completely irrelevant for all of you, but will act as sort of a month-in-review for me.  Should be fun...we'll see.

As for now, here are the best pictures from the duration of my iPhone's little life.

That one time I was a vegetarian... for a day.

That one time I went to the Dallas Market.

That one time my kitty was camera shy.

That one time my best friend danced in the snow.

That one time my dad closed his eyes during a picture (actually, that's every time).

That one time we discovered that Woonsocket is a real place.

That one time Nia played with her glitter ball.

That one time my boyfriend asked me to prom.

That one time I spent a Friday afternoon in College Station...

That one time there were a million naked people running around Austin.

That one time my roommate was a dork.

That one time we took the doors off my boyfriend's car.

That one time we discovered The Stage downtown.

That one time I rode in a Maybach in Vegas.

That one time I passed my real estate exam.

That one time we had our GNO.

That one time I tried on my Mimi's handmade dress from decades ago.  Looks like an early Kate Spade dress to me.

The first time we got glitter nails.

That one time I brought all my friends to KA Kamo in College Station.

That one time we played dress up at Academy.

That one time Ashley was spider woman.

That one time my mom slept at the Phi house.

That one time we visited my brother at work at Hot Topic. 

That one time... 

That one time Brenna attempted to play the guitar.

That one time we all wore our Michele watches.

That one time Courtney stole my iPhone.

That one time we were bored. :)

That one time at the ZBT house. 

That one time I loved my roommate.

That one time I found my dream job in NYC.

No words.

That one time it was so windy on the bus.

That one time in New Orleans.

That one time my cat stuck her tongue out.

That one time Stacy was a goober.

That one time Cara tried to blow dry her hair. 

That one time we were at a nice restaurant together. 

That one time we were fit.

That one time I MADE him kiss me.

That one time I decided my Spanish professor was mentally disturbed.

That one time I looked legit.

That one time I played with the tiniest kitten EVER.

That one time on Cinco de Mayo!

That one time I tried to take a selfie.

That one time Ron was monochrome.

That one time... again.

That one time we met a guy that was half horse.

That one time at Dairy Queen. 

That one time in the beautiful Texas Hill Country at Lost Creek Vineyard.

That one time we matched.

That one time on the Fourth of July.

That one time my mom was Deadmau5.

That one time Erin played with the pelicans.

That one time I looked out my window in Cali and saw THIS.

...again.

That one time my boss put purple in his hair.

That one time at a UT football game...

That one time I hugged Cara too hard. 

That one time I took the cutest picture ever. 

That one time Ron and I found a cute little froggy.

That one time I had to get a rental car... would have rather gotten a bike.

That one time Ron and I had the best date night ever.

That one time we surprised Courtney on her 21st birthday.

That one time Courtney and I went from drinking sparkling cider to wine together, 9 years later.

That one time Ashley stole my phone to take a selfie... oh wait. 

That one time Ron and I went to the dry cleaners in Israel.

That one time Cara had a sandwich that was bigger than her face.

That one time we got margaritas at our family dinner.

That one time I found the best quote ever.

The end.