What a Hoot!

Since I haven't been baking in a while (sad face) it's a good thing I have some pretty creative friends and I can showcase their talents.  I am lucky because my besties are pretty fun and awesome too and like to hang out with me.  Well a few weeks ago it was my friend Briana's birthday (I won't say what b-day) and her sis, Cameron, made this sweet cake:

That's right folks, it's a cake in the shape of an owl!  Bri likes owls so it's kinda perfect.  Cam baked cakes in glass bowls and then put the two half spheres together, frosted it, decorated it and bam! we had an owl.  I really kinda like this view of the cake.  And not only is it super cute and creative but it was yummy too!  I just had to share because it's still one of my fav things of the moment

Cameron, can you please visit for my birthday?  My fav animal is a manatee...start researching :)

Love this cake and these girls!

Happy Father's Day!

I was lucky to be able to spend father's day this year with my dad and grampie - two great men in my life who I love dearly.

My dad is kind, patient (necessary when raising 3 girls) and always there for me.  From researching papers for me to always slipping me a twenty dollar bill when I was a broke student to being my travel agent to instilling in me a love of history and reading and so much more.  I was fortunate to carpool with my dad to and from work for almost two years and those are times I will always treasure.  Thanks for everything Dad!

I also have a wonderful grandfather whose love and support for me is never ending.  I love spending as much time as I can with my grandparents and was lucky enough to go to college near them and travel with them as much as I do.  As my grampie turns 86 tomorrow he continues to be a fantastic example to me and all my cousins of an active person who stills bicycles with us and works on his iPad everyday.  Thank you Grampie for all the fun times and memories!

Little Treats

The other day my friend Ali and I reunited over a lovely tapas dinner.  Now tapas are fantastic!  They are little plates of yummy food so you order a bunch and share and drink some wine and have a wonderful time.  (I tell you, those Spaniards are on to something: lots of little plates of food and siesta (nap) time everyday.  I'm so on board!  Perhaps it's time I take a trip to Spain...)

So much fun to catch up with my wonderful red headed twin!  Who woulda thought there'd be this great little place in GB?  It's a lil pricey but a great place for a celebration, which we had - we hadn't seen each other in about a month!  We had the best time chatting over wine and tapas instead of our usual fro yo :)

Anyways, we ordered four different plates to split and I am blogging about two and Ali on her fun blog will write about the others!  And honestly my memory is fading in my old age so if my descriptions aren't very well, descriptive, then I apologize but I ate this awhile ago!

So we started off with tasty lil skewers of fig, (I think) goat cheese and proscuitto.  Now I'm not usually a fig eatin type of girl (I blame it on my mom feeding us too many Fig Newtons when we were kids - they are not a cookie or dessert and never will be!) but when it's paired with something yummy, I'm down.  And of course when you throw in cheese and cured meat who in their right mind would say no?

Next up was lamb tenderloin pops.  Little balls of delish lamb fried up?  Si por favor!  It was hard not to try and pop a dozen of these in my mouth but I had to refrain because there were only four and my momma did teach me to share.

And don't you just love the presentation?  Seriously sometimes food looks almost too pretty to eat.  But just almost.

Redheads Are NOT Going Extinct

No, I didn't find some new scientific study to back this up but this was just the conclusion that a fellow redhead and I came to on our walk to work.

After passing two other redheads while leaving BART I ran into a third lovely redhead woman (30ish, gorg complexion, tall and beautiful long (jealous!) red hair) who complements me on my hair and we start chatting.  For a good 10 blocks!  We both discussed how everyone tells us that redheads are going extinct but we see them everywhere.  And no we aren't talking about all those bad dye jobs 'cause we can spot a fake.  We had such a good convo about how much we love being redheads.  Now I don't mean to sound conceited but I have totally come to love my hair.  It makes me stand out, it helps people to remember me (seriously I still think people from college would prob call me the Alpha Chi with red hair), it's a conversation starter and helps substantiate my love of being Irish!

So this post really has no point other than to say, "yay redheads!" because sometimes we can get made fun of.  Probably because you're all just jealous ;)  But it was lovely to talk to another redhead and she was definitely a kindred spirit (please tell me some red haired girl got this Anne of Green Gables reference!)  And there are some pretty cool redheads out there: Ariel, the little mermaid, Anne of Green Gables, Nancy Drew...and now onto some real people: Prince Harry (my future hubs), Julianne Moore, me (hahah jk)

So whether you call us red, ginger, daywalker, gorgeous (thank you homeless man under the overpass - I do appreciate your compliments!) or whatever...I highly doubt we are going extinct.

(obv, I love being a redhead...it's in my blog title!  It's reference to the little girl Charlie Brown was always in love with.  He had good taste!)

You run like a girl!

Last weekend my mom and I and about 4,000 other women ran in the Women's Fitness Festival 5K in Sac.  This was a fantastic race for many reasons: a. It was sponsored by Kaiser, Whole Foods, Nike and Blue Diamond Almonds so there were some sweet freebies to be picked up, b. It was a ladies only race and women are so sweet to run with, c. it was with my awesome momma! and I'm sure there are more reasons but lastly d. it was around the state Capitol and through the beautiful tree lines streets of Sacramento:

(Seriously, I'm gonna miss this about Sacramento.  Oh those trees!  They don't call it the City of Trees for nothin...)

But it was an awesome race because 4,000 women were out there running and getting fit!  I love seeing that.  Whether you are running to train for a harder race or to get the free breakfast at the end (holla) or just to be social or because you heard that the t-shirt fits really well and is cute (totally!) then GO YOU!  This race combined some of my fav things: running, women's issues (WEAVE was the beneficiary), fun people and Whole Foods.  Can't wait for next year...

Wined and Dined

So Sacramento just had their annual Wine and Dine week.  I love when cities do this - prix fixe yummy menus at various restaurants in town.  It means that I can go to a fancy schmany restaurant that I normally wouldn't go to and get a fabulous three course meal for a great set price.  

I went to Ella with some sorority sisters last week.  I've always wanted to go to Ella because it looks so pretty and fancy and it was!  We had a delish meal and some fun times.  And of course I took picture of my food!

Course #1:

English Pea Soup

Fines Herbes Crème Fraiche and Tiny Greens with House Smoked Salmon 

So I normally don't like split pea soup but this English pea soup was great!  Especially with the smoked salmon.  And the color!  I wish I had a coat in this color green :)

Course #2:

Fines Herbes Gnocchi 

Crispy Prosciutto, Parmesan Cream, Vegetable Ragout, Poached Farm Egg 

Seriously how can you go wring with gnocchi?  You can't.  Lots of veggies, the surprise egg on top (guess I shoulda read the menu better) and again with the beautiful green!

Course #3 (dessert!):

Strawberry and Rhubarb Crumble with Vanilla Ice Cream

Ok, I gotta say that this wasn't my favorite.  Yes it looks cute and was good but this was my first time eating rhubarb and I'm not quite on the bandwagon.  Sorry.  But the strawberries were obvi delish!

All this with a lovely glass of local Malbec and I was happy.  Thanks for a fun dinner ladies!