Cotton candy cloud @ SpringFest 2013.

Would it make me less of a fatass if I told you it was thin crust???

Many have eaten here, few have died. Just kidding.
(Not that many people have eaten here.)

I REGRET NOTHING.

It’s been a drinks for dinner kind of month.

• Much needed mule @ Tin Roof Bistro, Manhattan Beach
• Cape Cod @ Forbidden City, LBC
• Sangria @ Phil’s BBQ, SD
• Lost & Found @ Eureka!, SD
• Anthony’s fruity ass cocktail + my back pocket mule @ Brooklyn Girl, SD
• Shock Top Belgian White @ Buffalo Wild Wings, Torrance

File under ‘reasons I can’t go out this weekend’.

I should probably go grocery shopping.

What was supposed to be a quick break from baby shower planning turned into 7 hours of drinking and me getting a ride home at 2am! This hostess was def hurting in the morning.

Dinner and drinks at Whisknladle with my loves last night! 31 feels a lot like 30.

Much needed mo-pho-jitos at Manhattan Beach Post last weekend with my friends who came to visit and a one Marshall Faulk who is probably the biggest dick on earth.

He and his bevy of blondes were seated at a communal table with us. I had no idea who he was, of course, but Anthony has been a fan of his since he played for San Diego State. Marshall Faulk was such an asshole to Anthony when he tried to talk to him, though! Hey man, only me and my friends are allowed to be assholes to Anthony! Ha.

It was raining all weekend, so naturally I thought it was a good idea to bust out the ice cream maker attachment that my brother-in-law got me for my stand mixer!

Last night, I made a raspberry sorbet that would bring you to your knees.

Framboise Lambic Beer Sorbetto
from The Ciao Bella Book of Gelato & Sorbetto

6 cups fresh raspberries
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Simple Syrup (see below)
1 cup Framboise Lambic

Place the raspberries and lemon juice in a food processor and puree until smooth, then pour through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl, pressing on the solids to extract the raspberry puree. Discard the seeds.

Whisk the chilled simple syrup into the raspberry puree. Put mixture in fridge to chill.

Pour the beer into a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat slightly, and boil for 1 minute. Watch the pan carefully so it doesn’t boil over. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Gently whisk the beer into the raspberry mixture. Process in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Simple Syrup

1 cup water
1 cup sugar

In a medium saucepan, combine the water and sugar. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil, whisking often to dissolve sugar. Reduce the heat to medium and-low and simmer for 4 minutes, while continuing to whisk until all of the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and let cool, then transfer to a container, cover, and refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour.

…and maybe have some coffee, too ;)

Chel’s birthday brunch at Prepkitchen last Sunday!

(Photo courtesy of @instapammie—I was too busy getting served by Anthony to take any pictures! Ha.)

I instagram’d that hoe, and then I had my way with it.

Snooze with my loves! Apparently, I wasn’t the only one with news ;)
Thanks for breakfast, Anthony ♥

Okay, but only if it’s on the dollar menu. I’m cheap.

If I’m going to participate in that office juicing potluck tomorrow (don’t ask), I’m going to have my way with Ben and Jerry tonight!

Things I learned at the OC Fair yesterday:

• Young the Giant is just as good the third time around.
• The porkabello kabobs from Bacon A-Fair are gravely disappointing.
• I only like cute farm animals on the interwebs—IRL the smell of livestock elicits my gag reflex.

It’s like they know me.

@ ‘Lette Macarons in Newport Beach!

(Somebody’s getting just as stupid about macarons as Shirley May is.)

Thrillist describes the Douche Burger as “a $666 edible fiscal disaster that piles caviar, lobster & truffles on top of a foie-stuffed, gold-leaf-wrapped Kobe patty, smothers it with Gruyere melted with Champagne steam, and finishes it off with BBQ sauce made using Kopi Luwak coffee that’s passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet.”

Do five other people want to go in on one of these??? Also, this image from 666 Burger’s facebook page looks like the first thing I created in Photoshop 4.0 circa 1996:

Armed with my Les Petits Macarons cookbook, Shi and I trolled the grocery store and soon realized that the Vons in Santee doesn’t carry the necessary accoutrements for such parisian delights! We gave up and bought some already made macarons from The Living Room instead. Boo whore.

There is a hell, and it’s the Via de la Valle off ramp during fair season! It took us four hours to get to the fair last night, but the deep fried deliciousness and freakishly large turkey legs that put me in a food coma made it worth the drive!

My Girl Scout Cookie Locator app has met its match.
Take me to your leader maple bacon donuts!

Free bundtlets for a year from Nothing Bundt Cakes???

Now I don’t have to go in there and pretend I’m buying a cake for someone else anymore. Or birthday candles to corroborate my lies. I mean what. I don’t do that.

When my friend suggested dinner at D Bar, I had no idea it was owned by Keegan Gerhard from The Food Network… that is, until he came up to our table at the end of the meal and asked if something was wrong with Chel’s half eaten dish! While their chicken and waffle sandwich was nothing to write home about, I thoroughly enjoyed everything else I put in my mouth last night—including the food at D Bar ;) Ha! I wanted their shrimp poppers to have my babies, and I thought that their lobster mac & cheese tasted infinitely better than the crab mac from Lei Lounge. Had I known this place was owned by one of the top ten pastry chefs in America, I would have saved room for dessert! I will def be back for dessert and drinks, especially since Keegan was so sweet to us and graciously comp’d Chel’s food.

Last night, I did two things I haven’t done in a long time—I went to happy hour with Kelley (who I haven’t seen in four years!), and I ate solid foods.

It was glorious.

Someone at the bar thought I was 21 (bless their heart) and told me that I had beautiful skin! My inner goddess swayed in a gentle victorious samba. Clearly, I’ve been reading too much Fifty Shades.

Pammie and I made these maple bacon donut holes for her fiance’s birthday tomorrow!

Pinterest is slowly domesticating me, one recipe at a time…

I made these portabello pizza bites, and they were so good that I almost forgot that I ruined my Calphalon pan broiling these bad boys. Almost.

I baked these cookie dough brownies for my boss’ baby shower at work today. I don’t plan on eating any of them, but I’m sure I gained 3 pounds just thinking about it.

Also, I’m skipping the gym tonight. This has nothing and everything to do with brownies, but I mostly just wanted to get that off my chest.

Today, I got off Pinterest long enough to actually make this Spicy Shrimp Fried Rice recipe that I pinned, and I managed to do it without burning the house down!

I don’t even know who I am right now.

Last night’s happy hour turned into eight hours of sangria swirl margaritas at La Puerta, sake snow cones at Gaijin, beers at Blind Lady Ale House, and vodka at The Ould Sod.

I def won’t be drinking tonight… or maybe ever again.

I usually try to go hard on my days off, but I just ended up going to the DMV, having brunch at The Mission, playing with my favorite frenchie, and calling it a night at 9:30. What has my life come to?

This pretty much sums up my summer plans.

It’s hard to binge drink and still mind your calories. I was hoping that Skinnygirl Margarita would bridge that divide, but I’m pretty sure it was made to test my gag reflex!

GPOY.

I instantly regret wearing jeans instead of leggings to work today. How can I stuff my face with Phil’s BBQ when my clothes are so binding?

This is pretty much how I approach telling someone that we can never be together.

Million dollar margaritas with Trace last night! Happy birthday and happy Hunger Games! May the odds be ever in your favor :)

My Instagram feed exposes my obvious love of booze, fine dining, and other people’s babies.

St. Paddy’s Day doesn’t usually register as a blip on my radar, so I intended on having a low key movie night instead… which turned into beers with Shi and Anthony at Tiger! Tiger!… followed by house margaritas at my house… followed by me waking up on my bathroom floor (not pictured). So… just another Saturday.

Christine and the birthday girl before she got kicked out of El Camino last night! Happy birthday, Jessie!

Is it weird that I have half a baguette in my tote bag right now?

I had happy hour at The Prado at Balboa Park last night! We enjoyed margaritas and live music by Trent Hancock. The highlight of my night was when he asked for song requests and hand to god, someone suggested Hoobastank (and it wasn’t me!). The lowlight was parking down the street on 6th and trekking to the restaurant because I didn’t want the valet attendant to see my secret shame! Ha.

Phil’s is opening a restaurant in Santee! This alcohol notice confirms it. Soon I’ll be able to get drunk and stuff myself with meat closer to home. And then I can head over to Phil’s afterward ;)

Another Saturday night in working on my design portfolio and eating enough takeout from Domo Sushi to feed a small village.

My Saturday nights have been pretty wild lately.

I would be lying if I said that I finally updated my jailbroken phone for the wireless syncing capabilities.

Since I didn’t instantly turn into a little old troll under a cave when the clock struck midnight on my 30th birthday, I abandoned my original plan to hide under my bed all weekend and celebrated instead:

• Pink champagne to toast my dirtieth at work, courtesy of my boss
• Pammie’s CMYK balloons made my little design nerd heart race
• European Cake Gallery cake with a message from Gloria from Modern Family! Ha. It was just as good as last year’s message from the cast of Saved by the Bell.
• Pizza and beer at Blind Lady Ale House to celebrate Anthony’s, Christine’s, and my birthday week! The only sausage I had that night was the chorizo on my artisan pizza, Shirley May =P
• Moscow mules at El Camino and a Seau sighting at Lucha Libre with Christine, Pammie and Jessie
• I made a wish on my creme brulee and practiced my indoor voice at Donovan’s for Restaurant Week with Pammie, Chel and Shi.

I made it through my 30th birthday relatively unscathed with a little help from my friends and a lot of liquor ;) Thanks for a great weekend, loves ♥

Know when to give up and have a margarita.

There’s this Chinese hole-in-the-wall that I order food from whenever I’m feeling shitty (so like… every Wednesday), and they used to give me four sets of plastic silverware, because I clearly ordered enough food to share with three other people.

And then there was a period of about a week where I ordered takeout from them like three or four days in a row, and they started giving me just one set of utensils for all that food plus extra fortune cookies (to feed my pain, I’m sure). Actually, this was last week.

(L-R) tomato sauce/alfredo sauce (Shi’s, obvi), pepperoni and pesto, chicken alfredo

Over the weekend, we had our way with all the DIY pizzas we could eat and somehow lived to blog about it.