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!

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.