Zivily!

I recently went on a bicycle and boat trip to Croatia.  Yes that's right, I rode about 15 miles/day and exercised as part of my vacation and here's the kicker: I loved it!  Really.  And this from the girl who probably hasn't ridden a bike more than a handful of times in the past 10 years.

But Croatia is such a beautiful country and seeing it by boat is definitely the way to go.  Croatia has about 1,200 islands along its coastline - give or take and depending on what you consider an island.  The water is a spectacular and clear blue/green, the hillsides pretty, lush and green and the villages: so freakin' adorable!

I mean this isn't a bad view to wake up to every morning.

Plus the more miles you bike in the day and the more hills you climb, the more gelato you can eat and not feel guilty about it at all!  Seriously, the gelato a day rule was strictly followed.

Croatia is beautiful and historic so this vacation was really up my alley.  It's always so crazy for me to visit places in Europe (or really anywhere outside of the US) and realize just how much older their history is than ours.  I mean the Greeks and Romans were in Croatia!  It's kind of at an unique crossroads between conflicting areas in Europe.

Quick lil geography lessons for those of you don't know where Croatia is: (don't worry, I didn't know until I went there the first time three years ago.)

It was also interesting to still see homes and buildings that were bombed out or had bullet holes in them from the terrible Balkans conflict and genocide in the 1990s.  A time that was so recent!

But it is still so breathtaking!

Yes, I took a picture of my breakfast because 

a. I love breakfast!  

b. This is a very standard breakfast of rolls, nutella, meat, cheese, yogurt, museli, etc and I think it's interesting to note.  A little bit different than my standard cereal or eggs bene but still delicious.

But our days mostly consisted of biking anywhere from 10-15 miles in the morning.  And yes there were hills.  I was told that this trip was rated "moderate."  Whoa, I would hate to see a trip rated "difficult"!  It's a good thing our guides only knew the heights of the hills is meters and I am too bad at math to convert it to a number I understood.  Ignorance was definitely bliss!  So I walked up little bits of the hills - I decided it was a much better way to take in the scenery ;)

Then we would tour around the port cities during the afternoon and evening.

This was our lovely boat, the Romantica.  Very romantic for traveling with my fam. haha

But they are so much fun to travel with!  I am lucky to have such an awesome and wonderful family who have actually been taking these bike and boat trips for years.

And really nothing is more inspiring and wonderful than my grandparents, in their 80s, biking alongside us too.

Oh and zivily means "cheers" in Croatia.  It's the only Croatian word I remember.  I know, so out of character for me :)

When life hands you lemons...

you can make a whole lot more than lemonade.  Recently I have had a whole lotta lemons and surprise, surprise I decided to bake with them.  I have also been on a blueberry kick since being in Croatia and drinking blueberry tea and eating blueberry gelato (what up, antioxidants!) so these recipes combine my two recent loves.

It's actually funny because I used to hate anything lemon.  But I read somewhere that your taste buds change every 7 years.  (Disclaimer: I "read" and "hear" a lot of facts and sometimes don't remember them quite right so don't quote me on this.  It's like one theory I heard that red heads can tolerate pain more than other hair colors but then someone else don't me we handle pain worse.  I'm totally going with the former theory.  But I'm off subject, sorry!)  Anyways, moral of the story: I'm super glad I gave lemons another chance.

Here is my healthy lemon blueberry muffin recipe.  Except I used half whole wheat flour, added more lemon zest to the muffins and didn't do the icing - too messy.

Then it was my dear cousin, Ne's birthday and I (obvi) was in charge of dessert.  Now I love Ne but we are a lil different.  Case in point: she isn't a huge dessert fan (!) and she remembers the time I cried when I found out there wasn't dessert one night after dinner - tragic evening.  So the pressure was on to find something she would like and I came to the conclusion of cheesecake.

Now this lemon curd marbled cheesecake comes from my Auntie but I added the blueberry sauce (taking out the nutmeg, adding more lemon juice and adding cornstarch to thicken it up.)  This was my first time making cheesecake and my second (and thankfully better) time at conquering lemon curd.  And I don't mean to toot my own horn but it was delicious.  Even Ne thought so ;)

Plus yellow and blue are such pretty, pretty colors together whether it be a kitchen, wedding or food! 

Spring Fling

Ok, so strawberries always say spring to me and luckily they are now readily available at the farmer's market and local neighborhood strawberry stands!  They are only around for a short time so you must take advantage.

And as delish as they are to just eat plain they are also great to bake with.  I know, shocking I would think to bake! :)  But I made a strawberry cake and it was yummy!  So yummy in fact that it was gobbled up before I was able to take a picture.  Lo siento!  But no worries because I found it on this blog and their photog skills are much better.  Enjoy!

Southern Hospitality

In addition to baking I also love to travel.  So my sisters and I decided to take a lil road trip from Florida to Virginia.  You all might think we're a lil crazy to just fly in from around the country to spend a weekend driving over 800 miles.  But we said, why wouldn't we do this?  We get to visit new places and spend three days with our favorite people!  Oh, and my family has quite an intense competition to see who can visit all 50 states first so this trip allowed some of us to get new states (sadly I'm losing this little game...looks I need to step up my traveling!)

So after quickly getting out of Florida we aimlessly drove along the Georgia coast and quickly realized that we were definitely no longer in California.  The beautiful lush landscape, number of Confederate flags and gun shops gave that away.  But no worries we were on a mission to get to Savannah where we shopped and wandered around the super cute town. 

Oh and wanna know a great thing about Savannah?  Open container laws.  You can walk around with an open drink in your hand as you stroll the streets.  So we did, obvi.  Fantastic!

Pretty waterfront

Then it was up to Charleston to party!  Apparently coozies are a big thing in the South.  Yeah, we didn't know that either but I will admit they are fantastic for keeping your drink cool and can be very fun.  Thanks for helping us out and lending us some Jeannie!

And what would a Saturday be with out a bottomless mimosa brunch?  You seriously can't go wrong with those three words.

Oh and a little helpful hint: mimosas are even tastier (and prettier) if you throw in a lil bit o cranberry juice!  See how much I'm enjoying it?  We need a name for the drink.  Perhaps calling it the Chucktown?  We'll work on it...

Yay brunch crew!

Charleston is a great city!  They even let you wade it their fountains but at your own risk. :)

It is also a beautiful, classic and historical city (kinda like a Southern Nantucket, if you will) and I regret not taking more pics of the architecture.  It's super purdy, I swear!

Then it was off to the Firefly Distillery.  And if you've ever talked to me for even just a sec you know that I adore sweet tea vodka.  Well folks, this is where the make some pretty tasty sweet tea vodka so it's not hard to guess that we were all quite happy here!  And they have soooo many more varieties that I cannot find in California.  Sadness.

But it was a verrrrrry fun experience here.  See above how happy we are? :)

Then rooftop drinks!

We eventually did make it through North Carolina and up to Virginia but that was a long drive that none of us really remember.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend - great sisters, fantastic towns, good friends, tasty drinks and beautiful weather - I'm ready to go back!

Oh and looking back at this post it appears that in addition to baking and traveling apparently I love drinking.

April showers bring May flowers

I hope this saying is true!  While we have not had as crazy spring weather as some, I am still excited for warm weather and blooming flowers.  These yummy lemon cupcakes seemed just the thing to usher in May :)

I found the recipe on one of my new favorite cooking blogs.  I decided to go for them because a. I had a lot of lemons, b. I had a lot of limoncello (a lemon liqueur from Italy - thanks Jeannie & Allison!) and c. I had some tasty dyed blue frosting.  I took a lil bit of an artistic license with the decorating because hey, what else would you do for May Day?  Enjoy!

And also this weekend I learned how to bake with yeast - pizza dough and bread!  It's easy!  So look for more recipes coming up...