Frosting and Fashion

I have a habit of working my birthday for weeks after the actual day. I don't have just a single birthDAY, I have an unofficial "birth month." Even though I turned 25 the previous weekend, the quarter of a century celebrations continued into this weekend. You're only 25 once. 😇 I love eating food that's visually pleasing as well as pleasing to the taste buds. My family and I went to the Hotel Dupont, which delivered on those standards. We ate in the Green Room, which looked like a room straight out of the Titanic. The room had gigantic chandeliers, larger- than- life velvet curtains, and fresh- cut flowers on every table, all while a pianist plays music while you eat. Two words- fancy schmancy ! It was the height of classy and luxurious, and the perfect place to celebrate a special occasion.  For an appetizer I ordered a glass of champagne...and pan seared sea- scallops with blueberry pureé and cheddar grits...sounds like an odd combo but it was so fresh and...

This weekend was really fun and super kawaii!!! I spent it being a tourist in my own city. I took my mom down to Chinatown to get foot massages for her birthday! We're both the year of the monkey and since this Chinese New Year is year of the monkey, why not go celebrate it together in Chinatown! We made it a fun day trip and just walked around exploring with no schedule or plans.  W e got amazing Chinese chocolate crepes and bubble tea, went to the Hello Kitty store- which was a pink HK heaven, and much more. My mom even was feeling adventurous and tried sushi for the first time& liked it! We got matching "year of the monkey" necklaces to remember our fun day. Here are some photos from our Chinatown adventures🎎             Then the next day we went to the H Mart in Upper Darby. The store is full of all sorts of Asian food and products! There were all sorts of Japanese candy, live crabs and fish, mochi,...

Tonight I surprised my family with a new dish I created on the spur! I just had to share with you all because it was slammin'! I saw this bottle of truffle oil in our pantry and thought ooh fancy! It sounded different and I never cooked with it before, so I decided to be inventive with it!  Estimated total cook time was 30-40 mins.  I created the magical pasta dish as follows: I cooked 1 1/2 cups of chopped fresh mushrooms, 2 shallots chopped long ways and thin, and 1 large clove of fresh garlic in a little less than 1/3 cup of truffle oil in a pan. I cooked the penne as I let the mushrooms and shallots mixture simmer over low heat on the stove to cook through in the truffle oil. After the pasta was cooked I drained it and returned it to the pot with about a table spoon of the starchy water still remaining in the pot. Then I mixed in the mushroom and shallot mixture into the pasta, along with a cup of grated parmesan cheese, and an extra drizzle of the truffle oil.  The f...

     Last night my cousin and I wanted to go "balls-to-the-walls" crazy and try somewhere new for dinner last night! So we decided to attend the grand opening of the new restaurant Me N Mo Meatballs at  214 South St Philadelphia, PA 19147.      The concept of the restaurant is very unique! Me N Mo Meatballs offers customers a variety of different types of meatballs. The grand opening party had a ton of different flavors, from buffalo chicken to spicy pork meatballs alon with gnocchi, bread, and salad as sides for customers to sample. My cousin and I sampled every flavor meatball there and each one was delish! We seriously must've eaten like 30 meatballs combined between the two of us..(How many of you can say that?! LOL)      The owners were very accommodating and friendly the entire time. They made sure there were plenty of food and seats to go around. Also there was an open bar available where people could sip on "winter sangria ...

Rainy cold weather never fails to give me the "baking bug!" I'm a Pinterest fanatic, I'm always pinning new recipes to try on rainy stay-at-home days like today! I hit a sale on Christmas candy yesterday at CVS, and they had bags of Hershey kisses for $.99! What's the difference after you peel off the red and green wrappers? LOL. I found this recipe on www.annies-eats.com but just substituted Hershey kisses instead of the chocolate chips! They're great to share with a good friend and a cup of hot chocolate to escape the cold weather and get your chocolate fix! See the recipe for these double chocolate kiss cookies below: