Birthday Brunch!

This week is very special because my best friend and mom is turning the big 5-0 on Thursday!  We obviously had to commence the festivities the weekend before her birthday, so we decided to have a girls day complete with brunch, shopping, and coffee.  We started the day off right by ordering delicious mango mimosas at Press Wine Bar in Tremont.  They were so good that we felt obligated to get a second round during our meal...it's a celebration week! 

Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day was great this year because it was full of surprises!  Howie and I tried Chinato, a fantastic East 4th Street restaurant that I hadn't been to before, a new type of wine, French Pinot Noir, which I didn't know existed, a new brand of chocolate from Lilly Handmade Chocolates in Tremont, and a new dessert recipe I invented: Baileys-infused chocolate cake with a chocolate mocha mouse and Heath bar bits.  Any day that involves you and a loved one consuming Italian food, wine, chocolate, and then more chocolate, coffee, and Baileys afterwards is bound to be an excellent day!

Sweets For Your Sweetie

Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays.  I love the romantic dinners, flowers, and cards...but my favorite part is without a doubt eating as many sweets as my heart desires for the entire day!  My love for this day and all of the sweets that go along with it began when I was younger.  My mom would bake my brother and I our own massive cookie hearts in our favorite type of dough, and it made me look forward to the holiday every year.  Now that I'm older, I like to bake all the people that are special to me something delicious to carry on the tradition for Valentine's Day.  I promise my Italian Buckeyes and Nutella Heart Cookies are better than any storebought chocolates!

Tortellini Soup

If you saw my last blog pot, you can imagine that I was looking forward to a Superbowl Sunday filled with snacks, beer, and friends.  But by the time the weekend got underway, Howie and I were both feeling under the weather.  Since we didn't want to go anywhere, we made the best of a bad situation and stayed in with all of the essentials: cable, big bowls of tortellini soup, cheesy garlic bread, and Blue Moon with gigantic oranges to get some Vitamin C.  Unlike many soups, this tortellini soup can be made in less than 45 minutes, and always hits the spot on a cold winter night (the leftovers hit the spot anytime...the recipe tastes even better the second day)!  The only thing that could have made the night better would be a football game with 2 teams playing well!

Superbowl Sunday Snacks

It's finally Superbowl Weekend!  I may seem excited, but my dirty little secret is that I really don't like watching football very much.  I do, however, enjoy the social aspects of the game...the tailgating, the talking during commercials, a good beer, and of course, the food!!   Everybody has been taking time to debate betting on the Seahawks or Broncos, but have you considered the all-important snacks?  I have some great recipes that will make game day even better.  Crispy Baked Potato skins, a healthy-but-delicious Southwestern Bean Salsa, and the classic Buffalo Chicken Dip will definitely take your party to the next level!

Peanut Butter Cookies!

This past Saturday, Cleveland greeted me with snow, wind, sub-zero temperatures, and gray skies yet again!  I feel like I've been snowed in since the holidays!  It didn't help that most of friends weren't around because they were busy doing a design competition.  After catching up on this week's TV shows and homework, I decided to surprise them with some cookies to help them get through the last 24 hours of the competition.  They've been staying up late all week, so I wanted a dessert that gave them a little sugar, a little protein, and a little motivation to pull through.  PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES!  Did I even need to say anything else after the word "peanut butter?"  This recipe has been my favorite cookie to make since I started baking with my mom as a little girl, and I'm fairly positive it's everybody's favorite cookie to eat as well!

Date Night In University Circle and Little Italy

3 years ago, a boy named Howie that I had only known a couple of weeks took me to a fancy Italian restaurant near the central market in Florence, and asked me to be his girlfriend.  Try topping that kind of experience every year for your anniversary!  Since a trip to Tuscany wasn't in the near future, we figured a little art and a lot of Italian food would be the next best thing.  We took advantage of the later hours at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Friday nights, and planned a trip to Little Italy for dinner afterwards! While the art was pretty spectacular, I think my favorite part was the architecture of the atrium.  If you've only visited during the day, I would recommend going again at night because it was a completely different experience!