Vino & Amigos

This took a while to post and not because  I couldn’t, I have just been the laziest for no reason. Let’s just say it was a creative block but I owe it to my friends to relive our day at the vineyards. It was a perfect September weekend filled with laughs, booze, a wedding, and great weather. My two girlfriends who I love and have known since we were Girl Scouts were born one day apart and decided this was the year to celebrate with a wine tour in Long Island. We started early and met downtown for our 8 hour tour.

Do I even need to say we had a great time?

9am mimosa making

 

With one birthday girl

 

Birthday girl no.2

 

Mingas… falta una

 

I’m missing this weather as we get ready for winter… BUT… I’m excited for the holiday celebrations!!! AND getting my christmas tree again this year.

Happy hump day everyone!

Xx

Yummies

As you all know, the east coast was attacked by a hurricane this past weekend. All of New York City stopped on Saturday as the MTA took precautionary actions and shut down all public transportation at noon. It was a total inconvenience because everyone was confined to their neighborhoods and apartments. I mean, I wasn’t cabbing it anywhere! I save my cab rides for late night transportation.

So with all this time and nowhere to go what else is there to do…? ….Cook and EAT!! Lots and lots of food to eat… I think everyone gained the Irene 15. My brother and I made some very delicious meals all weekend but the most exciting one of them all were my Cookies & Cream cupcakes! That’s right! They’re uh-mazing. I recommend.

Recipe from 500 Cupcakes

I absolutely love this recipe but usually make half of it. I don’t want to end up eating them all!

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for the cupcakes
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 cups self rising flour (Presto)
1 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
10 crushed Oreo cookies
 
for the frosting
3 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
pinch of salt
10 chopped Oreo cookies
 
Preheat the oven to 350°F and prepare the cupcake pans with aluminum or paper cups. With an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar, and eggs until combined then add the remaining ingredients, except the cookies, and beat until smooth and pale, about 2 minutes. Stir in the Oreos.
 
Spoon the batter into the cups. Bake for 20 minutes. Then remove pans from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a wire rack.
 
For the frosting, beat the confectioners’ sugar, salt, and butter with and electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Fold in the chopped cookies leaving some aside to top the cupcakes with. Serve and eat!
 
Makes 1 1/2 dozen.
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It’s almost the weekend and it looks like it’s gonna be good. Enjoy it!

Xx

 

Brooklyn Flea

Hello lovelies! Since everyone on the East coast is stuck at home while we bear this crazy storm, I thought what a great opportunity it was to post my flea market adventures from last week. Yay!

Last Saturday my girlfriends and I decided it would be a great day to go to the Brooklyn Flea Market in Fort Green. I had never been to this part of the borough and I have to say that I loved it. The area is adorable with plenty of cute places to grab a drink or bite not to mention how beautiful the houses and brownstones are! They have this elegant air about them, blocks covered in trees and buildings with ivy… My kind of place. It was a gorgeous summer day that made for a pleasant walk to the market and more than made up for the annoying weekend commute (thanks MTA!). Let’s just say it took all of us away too long to make it there… just sayin’.

The minute we enter the market we all spot the same thing: ice cream cart! Naturally, we go straight to the line, which was long by the way. Blue Marble Ice Cream had an amazing assortment of flavors: coffee, dulce de leche, and blueberry (say what!?). Soooo delicious! A good start I would say.

Here are some of the little things that caught my attention…

  

  

I was loving on all the furniture.

<3

I really wanted this… lol

  

Who doesn’t want a dinosaur necklace? I don’t. But I do want a squirrel mug, with the rhino plate.

I really fell in love with so many pieces of furniture that it’s not even funny. Walking around the market made me feel as though I needed to have a house to decorate. Well that, and also the fact that two of my boyfriend’s friends just bought a house. Seeing them fixing it up and making it their own has me thinking of how I would want my home to look like. I think a well rounded mix of modern and cozy country home is where I’d take it. Clean and fresh with a punch of contemporary…. Look at this amazing piece… I. Want.

Spectacles!

Tie clips for the fashionable man

 

Maria’s wooden tape measure treasure.

Even though I saw many things I wanted (that’s odd), I’m broke so, I knew I was going for the sake of window shopping. But my friend Maria saw something she had to get! It was the little nerd inside her saying she had to buy it. What is it? Well, it’s an old school wooden measuring tape. She explained that engineers back in the day didn’t have the fancy ones they use now. It looks pretty awesome. I thought it made a great giraffe. Wall art!

Besides the obvious things you find at the flea market: antiques, clothing, accessories, junk; there was an incredible assortment of yummy goodies. The girls got some delicious homemade pop from the guys at Brooklyn Soda Works while I went for the ice cold bubble tea! Not to mention the other good stuff that was around: lobster rolls, pulled pork sandwiches, asia dogs, tacos, grilled corn, porchetta, and much, much more. I didnt get to try any of it but everything looked and smelled amazing. It’s a definite must-go if you want to do something different on the weekends.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this post! Now I must go and start moving things out of my window’s way before the hurricane arrives… you know… just in case something flies straight into it shattering into a million pieces while water uncontrollably gushes in. I live right in front of the water ya know! Lol… Safety first people!

Be safe, happy Saturday!

Xx