Monday, May 28, 2012

Monday, Fun Day

I'm sure you would agree with me that Mondays generally suck...however, that sentiment is entirely false on those rare Mondays that happen to be holidays....like today!

Today, Memorial Day in the USA, I hope that you are all having a wonderful time enjoying the sun, your friends and family, great food, a cool beverage...and, most importantly, appreciating the freedom that all of us are so lucky to have in this beautiful country and remembering those who gave their lives to ensure that we continue to enjoy such freedoms. Regardless of your political stance on the issues of war and the nature of our country's military presence around the world in recent years (and trust me, I'm a hippie when it comes to peace on Earth), it must not go unnoticed that many of our fellow Americans have given up their lives with the sole intention of making ours better. So, to them, I say thank you!

Let us also not forget that Memorial Day marks the official start to summer vacation and summer fashion...I'm talking "wear your white pants and white shoes freely and without shame" season. Although, if you're really "ream" [as Joey from the "The Only Way is Essex" would say], you would proudly rock your white pants and white shoes year round.  For those of you who still haven't had a chance to pick up some crisp summer whites, here are some options that I'm currently loving:




Dr. Love and I are off to Boston tomorrow for a few days where Dr. Love will attend and speak at a conference while I explore the city and catch-up with friends. So, you probably won't be hearing from me until next week when I promise to have lots of pics from my Beantown trip. Until then, have a great rest of your three-day weekend and wear your whites proudly!

x

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Fashion Deals and Steals

Hi friends!

As a fashion loving, twenty-something-year-old (note: that's how people refer to themselves when they're at the very end of their twenties [sad face]), I have subscribed to receive promotion e-mails and sale updates from dozens of stores. Additionally, I have signed up for private sale sites such as Gilt.com, HauteLook.com, Ruelala.com, Ideeli.com, etc...

What this means is that I am constantly bombarded (in a really good way) by special sales and limited time promotions on some of the hottest items out there.  Today, as I was doing my daily audit of all of my go-to sites and checking out all of my related e-mails, it dawned on me that you may be interested in hearing about some of these deals. And that, my friends, is how the "Fashion Deals and Steals" subsection of the "In the Closet" section of this blog was born.

Today's Fashion Deals and Steals

1. EXPRESS Bow Front Jelly Flip Flops  $24.90 $14.95 at Express.com. (Shown in Hot Tamale, but four more colors available). I love these so much, I may order a pair for myself....nothing like jelly shoes to make this blogger feel young(er) again ;).

2. Gold Buckle Leather Cuff Bracelet  $54.00 $19.00 at Gilt.com. (Membership sign-up is free; shown in black leather with gold hardware, but there are other leather color/hardware metal combinations available).

3. LOVE STITCH Embroidered Strap Top $66.00 $26.00 at HauteLook.com. (Membership sign-up is free; shown in Light Taupe, but also available in Soft Blush and White). Love this top!!!

4. BANANA REPUBLIC Drew Box Clutch $79.50 $55.65 at BananaRepublic.Gap.com. (Sale price available today only with 30% off promotion code BRSTART; shown in Brown, but also available in White).  I'd remove/tuck in the chain and wear this clutch with jeans and a blazer for happy hour or dress it up by wearing it with my favorite LBD...love it!

5. FREE PEOPLE Leather Belt Bracelet $38.00 $19.95 at FreePeople.com. These leather bracelets are made from vintage belts found at flea markets in San Francisco (so cool), and, as a result, no two bracelets are the same. I love Free People's boho looks, but find that some of their clothing can be a little too (bo)ho-y for my taste. These bracelets, however, are the epitome of cool and can be paired with just about anything.

That's it for today's Fashion Deals and Steals. I'll periodically inform you of the latest and greatest in sales and promotions. Until then, friends, please leave me some comments and let me know what you'd like to see more of on the blog, and what you could live without. I appreciate all of the feedback I've been getting from you guys thus far, and would love it if you would continue to provide me with your feedback my commenting. In the meantime, happy shopping!

x

Monday, May 21, 2012

Wild Times

Hi Friends!

To kick off the blog's new "...In the Closet" section, I wanted to share something that I am wildly in love with right now...animal print. I'm pretty this is one look that both your girlfriends and the man in your life will appreciate...



I have to say, while the dress was the initial inspiration for this look, I think there is no doubt that the clutch steals the show.  I just LOVE the rich shade of red, the gold hardware, and the amazing texture of the ostrich-embossed leather...GORGEOUS!!! (Not so subtle hint to Dr. Love about future gift to wife..............followed by inevitable eye roll from Dr. Love.)

The best thing about this outfit is that the dress is suuuuper affordable ($24.95), so even if you're like me and aren't about to spend $450.00 on a clutch right now, you can still take a trip to the wild side with this dress while not breaking the bank. 

x


Friday, May 18, 2012

Guac in Your Locks

Every now and then, I come across a blog that I find to be so interesting and informative that I visit it again and again.  That is the case with Huda Beauty. The blog is run by Huda, an international makeup artist, who tries out tons and tons of beauty products (from convenient store to department store brands) and shares her reviews of them.

Not only is her blog a great source of information about commercial products, but she also has some great tips on how to make your own homemade beauty products, such as face/body/hair masks, face/body scrubs, puffy eye solutions, etc...

Thus far, I have only tried two of her homemade beauty products: the Shiny Hair Coffee Mask and the Vitamin & Moisture-Packed Hair Mask. As far as the coffee mask goes, I didn't really see any noticeable change in the level of shininess in my hair. I did, however LOVE that the smell of coffee filled the bathroom as I showered. My hair also had a faint scent of coffee all day long. Being a coffee lover, I quite enjoyed it, but I'm not sure how the rest of you would feel about that. Another problem I had with the coffee mask was that it took a long time to wash the coffee grinds out of my hair and off the shower door and walls. Overall, I was not too impressed.

The Vitamin & Moisture-Packed Hair Mask was a whole different story. I prefer to call it the guac mask, because all it was made up of was 2 parts avocado (about 1/2 cup) and one part mayonnaise (about 1/4 cup).

Sadly, this is the only pic that I took.

I mushed the two together, plopped the mixture all throughout my hair (note: avoid roots, or else you'll end up with major greasiness), and spread it from about two inches away from my roots all the way down to the ends of my hair with my fingers. Once I had the mask all over my hair (avoiding roots), I wrapped my hair up in a bag (a shower cap is preferable, but I didn't have one handy) and let the mask sit for thirty minutes.

Unlike the coffee mask, the guac mask washed out super easy, didn't make a mess of the shower, and left my hair feeling very soft and frizz free. It was so easy to prep, just as easy to apply and clean out, and left my hair feeling great! Oh, and it's super cheap!  Can't wait to try out another one of Huda's homemade beauty products soon.

In the meantime, I HIGHLY recommend that you try out the guac mask.  Come on friends...put some guac in your locks, some mush in your bush, some sauce in your moss, some stuff in your fluff. You won't regret it!






Sunday, May 13, 2012

Don't Hate, Celebrate

Happy Mother's Day, friends!

I hope you are all having a great weekend. Ours has been jam-packed with "distract Paris" activities.  Dr. Love and I spent the weekend watching, not one but, two movies, had a long Saturday lunch by the beach, bought a much needed coffee table, and even considered buying a puppy.  Seriously, for the sole purpose of cheering me up on Mother's Day weekend, Dr. Love considered buying me a puppy. Thankfully, we both agreed to put the puppy talk on hold until we have more reasonable (and mature) motives for getting one.

Why was Dr. Love trying to distract me so much? Well, you see, ever since my mom passed away in 2003, I have hated Mother's Day. I hate hated the commercials, I hate hated when people asked me what my Mother's Day plans were, and most of all, I hate hated that everyone got to hang out with their mom and celebrate her awesomeness while I sat around and cried about how much I longed to have mine near. Friends, I'm writing in the past tense, because I think that I'm finally ready to not hate Mother's Day.

To be honest, if my positive, happy mom had a clue about what a miserable mess I was every time I missed her, and especially on Mother's Day, she would be very upset with me. In fact, I specifically remember her telling me shortly after my grandmother (her mom) had passed away that our loved ones who have passed suffer when we suffer and that it is our duty to continue living happy lives and to remember them with joy. I also remember my mom's favorite poem/prayer/quote by Reinhold Niebuhr that she loved so much that she set it as her computer's screen saver, pinned it above her lab bench at work, and put it on our refrigerator door:  "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference."

This Mother's Day, I am taking my mom's advice, and the words of the prayer she loved so much, to heart. The truth is, this is the reality of life...there are so many joys, and so many pains. I am choosing to focus on the joys of today rather than the pains of a tomorrow that I cannot change. And boy are there plenty of joys this week!!!

For one, I'd like to wish my wonderful cousin, Sahi, a fabulous 19th birthday! She has been the cutest bundle of joy from the start and I love her to bits!!!

 From cute baby (1993)...

 ...to life-size Barbie!!! (2011)

I would be remiss if I didn't also take this opportunity to congratulate my brother's three best friends, I-Man, R-to-the-D, and Who-the-Man, on their graduations!!! These three guys are the best and I am so proud of all of them, not just for their academic accomplishments, but also for being such wonderful people!


Finally, I am sooooooooo excited that one of my best friends, Kaka, got engaged to her lover man, Dr. Ray, last week!!!!! I love them both so much and am so happy for them! By the way, I'm not sure if this world will have ever seen a bride as beautiful as Kaka will be on her big day...I mean, look at the girl...she's gorgeous!!!! Can't wait to see her this week and give her a big squeeze!



Second finally (yeah, I just did that), I want to wish all of the wonderful mothers out there a very Happy Mother's Day! A special Happy Mother's Day to my mom.  Thank you for all that you taught me and for your continued guidance...I love you!

 Smiles for miles...

Third and last finally (yes, I'm really "third and last finally-ing" you...I'm "wizard of the first order" cool like that...recognize), I'd love to hear from you.  What is the best advice your mom ever gave you? 





Friday, May 11, 2012

Greekin' Out

Lately, more so than usual, I have been looking for healthy and fresh recipes and ingredients to fill Dr. Love and my diets with. There's something about the sunny, warmer weather that kicks me into work-out/eat-right mode.

In the past few weeks, I have seriously been geek-ing out on the world wide web looking for new ideas in the kitchen. One commonality on almost every health blog I visited, was the far stretching love and uses for Greek yogurt. I mean, I have seen it used in desserts, dressings, as a snack. You name it, and it has been tried, loved, and blogged about.

Coincidentally, my sister-in-law LeRobins (who also happens to be my sister in law...get it?...she's a lawyer like me....one of my best friends from law school, actually!) was just raving this past weekend about how good and healthy Greek yogurt is. After all of the blog/online recommendations and a super reliable one from LeRobins, I had no choice but to try it out. So, I decided to Greek-out Persian style...and what better way is there to do that than with "Joojeh Kabob?"  Joojeh Kabob refers to the Persian style marinading and grilling of chicken breasts. The Greek twist is that I marinated my chicken breast pieces in Greek Yogurt.

Here's how I went from geek to Persian-Greek:

1. I used chicken breast fillets because they are thick enough to dice up...

2. The chicken pack consisted of four fillets, but I only used two, as I was only cooking for Dr. Love and myself. Even with two, we ended up with leftovers for tomorrow's lunch.

3. I diced the two chicken fillets into one inch cubes. (Tip: Consistency in size will result in consistency in cooking time.)

4. I then marinated my chicken breast cubes with the following ingredients: one tablespoon of Greek yogurt (woot woot!), black pepper, chicken seasoning (the one I use is by Weber and called Kick'N Chicken...I love it), garlic sea salt seasoning (mine is McCormick brand), turmeric, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, salt (from my fatty puffer fish salt shaker), and dried parsley flakes (not pictured).



5. I mixed it all together...


6. I marinated the extra two breasts for tomorrow's dinner, but substituted out the Greek yogurt for extra virgin olive oil, mostly because I'm not sure how the yogurt and chicken combo will do overnight. 

7. After marinating the chicken, I covered both the cubed chicken and tomorrow's leftovers, placed them in the fridge, and turned my attention to my wooden skewers. The only way to barbecue with these babies and not have them catch on fire is to soak them for a while before you're ready to barbecue (I've read that a minimum of 30 minutes will suffice, but in my experience, it's best to soak them for at least 45 minutes to an hour.)

8. I placed a heavy object (butter-knife in my case) on the skewers to keep them from floating up. 

9. Once the skewers soaked for long enough, I pulled the chicken cubes out of the fridge and slid them onto the skewers.

10. I popped those babies on the bbq...

11. And less than ten minutes later, they were ready to go...in my belly!!!

12. I also made a salad with spring mix and spinach (not pictured). 
 
I clipped my spring mix bag with one of my many Ikea clips...these things are amazing and come in various sizes (below). I'm pretty sure buying them was the best $2/$3 I have ever spent.

13. I added crumbled feta cheese...

14. I threw in some sliced peperoncini and Kalamata olives...

15. Diced up and threw in some red onion. (This onion saver is another super cheap, but great, find. Keeps my onions fresh for a super long time and also prevents them from stinking up the entire fridge.)

16. I also threw in some halved cherry tomatoes, seasoned the salad with salt and black pepper, and topped the whole thing with red wine vinaigrette dressing (I was out of balsamic vinaigrette).

And...drum roll please...........................

.............................the result was nothing short of Persian-Greek awesomeness! Dr. Love really enjoyed all of the flavors and especially loved that I finally made him something Persian-ish, while my favorite thing about the meal was that it was not only delicious, but also light and healthy. Try it and you will love it...noosheh jaan*!!!

*"bon appétit" in Farsi.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

What You Caulking About?! Part Two

Hi friends!

In the past week, a few of you have asked me for an update on the shower re-caulking project. I'm sure when you asked, you expected that I would have a glorious story to share about how the project left the shower looking sparkly and new again.

Well, unfortunately, that is not the case...but worry not! The problem is not that the process failed, but, rather, that Dr. Love and I failed to complete the process. Yes, I know, I first posted about this project three weeks ago (Jeez!!! I hadn't even realized that we started the project so long ago!), but life happened.

Dr. Love has been super busy with work and, as a result, was both unable to complete the project himself and also unable to share his vast amount of caulking knowledge with me...that is, until tonight! Tonight, I get schooled on caulking. Tomorrow, it's me against the tub in a caulking face-off...kind of like a cockfight, but the legal type...so I guess we can call it a caulk-fight.

In the meantime, please enjoy the beauty that we have lived with for the past three weeks...




And, yes, we have been showering in the guest bathroom and running across our upstairs hall naked daily for the entire neighborhood to see...I guess not everyone is suffering from this project completion delay after all.  Remember friends: there is no satisfaction greater than giving back to one's community...naked.


Friday, May 4, 2012

A Salsa Story

Earlier this week, Dr. Love notified me that he had signed me up for a contest at his work.  Well not me, exactly...he had signed my salsa up for a homemade salsa contest in celebration of the Cinco de Mayo holiday. The problem with this, my friends, is that I have never made salsa before. Sure, I have enjoyed hundreds upon hundreds of different kinds during my life, and sure I love to cook...but I have had no clue how to make a homemade salsa. After asking Dr. Love a few follow-up questions and doing some brief Google research to make sure that I was not getting myself into some crazy complicated thing, I confirmed my participation. Being the graceful lady that I am, I high-fived Dr. Love and yelled out, "In it to win it!! Let's do this, baby!"

I was all fired up with the excitement of learning how to make something new (and something that I like), but had no idea where to start. So, I spent about thirty minutes Google-ing until I found a recipe (here) that seemed manageable to me and had a good list of preparation instructions with pictures. I then brainstormed about things I wanted to change or add to the recipe based on flavors that Dr. Love and I enjoy.

The following is my salsa story:

First, I grabbed my main ingredients from the fridge...

Orange, Red, Green Bell Peppers; Globe Tomatoes; Nature Sweet "Cherubs"/Cherry Tomatoes (not pictured); Red and Green Jalapeno Peppers (not pictured); Serrano Peppers (not pictured); White Onions; Cilantro; Garlic; and Lime.
 And rinsed the items that required rinsing...


I then peeled one onion (recipe called for two, but I decided to go with one), halved it, sliced it, and diced it...


Here's how I diced the onions...The first step after halving the onion is to make cuts all the way across the onion (I go right to left), but without slicing all the way through with the tip of my knife. That way, even after the slices are made, the onion half remains intact...

I'm pretty sure I learned this method of dicing onions years ago from watching Giada de Laurentiis's "Everyday Italian."

I then rotated the onion 90 degrees so that the uncut side faces my hand and the sliced side faces the knife and is perpendicular to it. I then slice all the way across the onion going from right to left...

 Easiest way to dice onions, in my opinion. Thanks Giada!

Once my onion was diced, I turned my attention to my three-ish cloves of garlic. While I used three cloves, two were very small (as seen below), so it's more like I used two. If I remember correctly, the original recipe called for three cloves, but that just seemed like too much to me. 

I then removed the skin from my cloves by lining them up, holding my knife down flat on them, and then smashing down on the knife with my other hand.Two things to note with this maneuver: (1) be very careful to not smash your hand down on the sharp edge, and (2) I'm pretty sure I owe Giada a shout-out for this idea too.  By smashing down on your garlic cloves, you cause the garlic skin to crush making it easier to remove. It basically falls right off...




After peeling my garlic, I cut the ends off each clove (I'm pretty sure you only have to cut off the rough end, but I do both out of habit), sliced the cloves, and then minced them. 

 

 For me, the easiest way to mince garlic is to first slice it, then gather all the slices up in a pile and run my knife over them in an up-and-down motion with my right hand, while I use my left palm to hold the tip of the knife in place.


I then gathered all of my tomatoes, removed the stem of each of my globe tomatoes and sliced them in half...


I left the cherry tomatoes intact. 

Once my tomatoes were prepped, I placed all my tomatoes in a sauce pan with about 1/4 inch of water in it (I started with the amount the original recipe called for, but reduced the amount to about 1/4 inches after deciding that the suggested amount looked like too much). I first placed the globe tomatoes in (cut part face up) and then scattered the smaller cherry tomatoes in the available crevices...


I then turned the heat up to medium/medium-high and allowed the water to boil and evaporate. This process took about 10 minutes and allowed the tomatoes to soften up enough so that the skin just fell right off with a little tug of my fingers. While the tomatoes were still boiling,  I prepared my bell peppers for roasting...

 Greased my cookie sheet...
Sliced and seasoned my bell peppers. 

The bell peppers were my own addition and not part of the original recipe. I'm a big fan of roasted bell peppers, especially when they're all spiced up (spices: salt, pepper, turmeric, and paprika) and have oil drizzled on them, like above. I used a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and then added some vegetable oil (I was concerned about the smoke point of EVOO given that the peppers would be set directly under the broiler. I highly recommend that you do some online research about different oils and their smoking points if you cook...really interesting stuff).  

So once the bell peppers were in the oven (broil at 500 degrees for about 10 minutes, checking frequently to make sure they aren't burning), I turned my attention to the tomatoes again...

Once I had them peeled, I placed them in my Magic Bullet (love that thing...big thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law)...


...chopped up my cilantro (I used about one cup) and jalapeno and serrano peppers (I used a lot...maybe about 2.5 jalapenos and about 2.5 serranos... because I like my salsa spicy. However, I didn't dump it all in at once. Instead, I built up the spice level slowly by adding the chopped peppers little by little and tasting in between each addition), and threw those in the blender too.



I blended the tomatoes, cilantro, and spicy peppers for about 15 seconds, until everything was evenly sliced and combined, but not yet liquefied. 

By this point, our whole house was smelling amazingly delicious.

I then heated my chopped onion and minced garlic together in a saucepan over medium heat (with about a table spoon of vegetable oil) for no more than 15 seconds. (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this step...)

Next, I poured the contents of the blender onto the onions and garlic in the saucepan and turned the heat to low/medium-low and allowed the mixture to simmer slowly.  


It was only at this point that I realized that my tomato to onions/garlic ratio seemed off...so I sliced and threw in two more globe tomatoes. As soon as they softened up a bit (a few minutes), I pulled them out of the mix and threw them in the blender. I then also added a piece of roasted red bell pepper, roasted green bell pepper, roasted orange bell pepper, and another 1/2 serrano pepper to the blender. I blended the contents for about 5 seconds, with the hopes that this round of blended tomatoes would be a bit thicker and less liquefied then the first. 

I then added the roasted bell pepper/additional tomatoes/additional serrano peppers blend to the simmering mix in the saucepan and let it continue to simmer. At this point, I added some salt, black pepper, and cumin. I built up the amount of spices the same way I had done with the spicy peppers, again tasting between each additional pinch. 

About 15 total minutes of simmering (and occasional stirring) later, I had my salsa. I let it sit for a little to cool and then packed most of it up in preparation for its big day tomorrow...


...the little bit that was left over was devoured by Dr. Love, our friend "Nimers" who was over, and me. Friends, simply put, my salsa is the bomb diggity...plus some.  I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I'm feeling pretty confident that this salsa story is going to end in a victory!!! I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, Happy Friday and have a great Cinco de Mayo!


UPDATE:  Dr. Love: "They couldn't handle the heat. A non-spicy won. You won in my heart (and in my taste-buds opinion)!" I may not have won the salsa contest (this time), but I definitely won the husband contest ;)