What I drank--Birra Moretti

Ok.. I, in no way, am in the position to be a beer snob. A) I don't think I know enough about beer. B) I don't have the funds to be that selective.

So I have my own way to rate beers based on taste, alcohol level, and cost.

The perfect beer for swongy is hoppy, 7.
5abv or higher, and less than $8 for a 6 pack. (Aka...Bell's two hearted lol)

So how did moretti compare??
Flavor -- like keystone w a fruity aroma
ABV -- 4.6 which is higher than a light beer aka its decent
Price -- 4.50 for a bottle at Dave's italian kitchen

Basically....this beer sucks. If keystone is at a 0, this is at a -10 because it not only tastes worse, it costs a lot too! (And it also loses points for deceiving me w its fancy bottle..) food science classes have taught me that that fruity aromas can come from ketones...so could it be that moretti doesn't hide its alcohol taste well??

In any case, I tried to try something new and got extremely disappointed :( next time I want an Italian beer, ill stick w perroni.

(Ps ...Woo new fancy phone I can blog on hehe.)

hipster brunchables

ok, i know the purpose of this video is to make fun of everything. but ummmm i seriously think it's an awesome idea and i wish this were real.

mimisa pouch and mini cerveza ftwwwwwww

two new fun things i found on my mac

1. i can take pretty notes using preview

freeze drying cycle ... eff yeah!

i forgot to print out notes for a class today so i had to look at them on my computer. but that quickly became annoying because i couldn't take notes on the graphs. well....it turns out you can draw in lines/arrows and put in text on preview. how cool and fancy do my notes look???

2. i can have the computer read things for me

so sometimes there are interesting-looking posts on my reader but then i give up half way reading it because its just too long. yeah, i'm lazy. well i found oout i can just have the computer read it for me. at first i was right-clicking and having it play in my itunes. but there's a simpler way i discovered after googling-- 

• under system preferences to go speech.

•  select "speak selected text when the key is pressed" and then change the keys to something you'd use. i did ctrl+command+s. and i enjoy alex's voice. (esp when he reads stuff from betches)

• then just highlight the text you want read, and then hit ctrl+command+s! and your  computer reads it for you. woo.

i like my scotch...fo free.

johnnie walker held a free tasting event a few weeks ago. that's right --freeeeeeee. even though i sent a bunch of emails, only three of us managed to make it.

here's a quick run through of all the fun we got to have --

1. we got to play with ipads.

2. we saw very expensive bottles of alcohol that we'll never be able to buy.

the 2nd one from the right costs $27k, nbd

3. during cocktail hour, we drank old fashioneds, ate some hors d'oeuvres....aaand posted a picture onto facebook.

we're so fancy!

4. we pretended to be swanky grown ups.

5. We tweeted.

@leidermeister

6. We tried 5 labels of johnnie: black, red, double black, gold, and blue.

the aftermath

 7. We learned that you can mix scotch with orangina and ginger ale

8. We discovered jordan's hidding talent -- hand modeling.

 9. we took amazing glamour shots.

10. we get to brag to everyone how cool we are for remembering to sign up and how we know soooooo much about scotch now. (it's like...smokey and has a taste of caramel or something.)

I really wanted a (lactose-free) fudgesicle

petite yummies at starbucks

These are a great idea. They're absolutely adorable and are better for you compared to their other baked goods. Andd its smart on starbuck's part because they're still charging like 1.50 for each piece.

what they have --
Cake Pops (rocky road, birthday cake, tirimisu): 170-180
Sweet Squares (Lemon or Salted Caramel): 120-190
Peanut Butter Cupcake: 180
Red Velvet Whoopie Pie: 190
Carrot Cupcake: 190
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v-day pizza and beer

well...homemade white pizza with arugula and peroni beer :)
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DINNER FOR TWO AT ALINEA GIVEAWAY

click the pic and enter!!!!!

it only takes like two seconds to sign up and IT'S WORTH $500!!! and you can opt out of getting any sort of email from the site. alinea was voted as the best restaurant in north america and #7 in the world. i was lucky enough to go on my 21st bday but was so starstruck and made a fool of myself when i met the head chef/owner.

so do it! and if you win please take me so i can redo that encounter hehe. oh and cuz you like me :)

taking my love for starbucks to-go cups to a whole new level.

oh. my. goodness.

(yo CAL, this is dedicated to you)

united states of good beer

good.is (i got directed here from grubstreet) asked its readers to nominate "the most awesome, best-tasting, sustainably brewed, independently owned, community-oriented craft beer brewed in your state". these are the results.

if there's anything i'm as interested in as food it's beer. definitely since the whole turning-21-thing. i mean..my first legal drinks were beers at alinea. i think that says a lot haha

so yeah, i've been trying to increase my beer iq by ordering new brewskies on tap at restaurants and picking up fun-looking six packs at stores.

(oh, and there have been the multiple times where i've taken pictures and planned on blogging about ones i've had. totes a fail. whoops.)

but anywho this looks like a list worth going through! i'm at 10/49 so far.

HOMEMADE POPSICLES HOLLER

one of my christmas gifts this year was the zoku popsicle maker. i may have been talking about it since november when i found out i was getting it...

so eating popsicles..in the winter? yeahh usually i'd be like def no. but when they're made with a cool machine and take less than 8 minutes to make..HELL YEAH WOOO.

this machine is awesome. and i'm in lurve.

(oh heyyyy there pretty)

for its first run, becca and i decided to make popsicles of the alcoholic sort (obviously...) we tried to make cool stripes but got too impatient and didn't really know how much to fill. so they didn't turn out too pretty. after some practice i think i'll be able to make these bad boys.

(our popsicle!)

orange layer = orange juice and moscato wine

pink layer = peach/raspberry tea, strawberry puree, moscato wine, tripe sec.

they were good and not too sweet. we didn't put too much alch because we were afraid they wouldn't freeze. it'd be interesting to see how much we can actually put in. (hm...freezing point depression calculating party?!?!?)

updates on pretty designs and yummy flavors to come :)

spotted on bd's facebook page.

i mean, i might already have most of this memorized...but w/e. still awesome.

pretty food stores i wanna visit sometime

fauchon in paris

theurel & thomas in mexico

omg josh groban has an online cooking show

and of course it's hilarious. and i spent all 8+ minutes giggling.

What I Made: Roasted Brussel Sprouts

(sometimes i can make good food. and take pretty pictures of em.)

i got inspired to make these because i had gotten some roasted brussel sprouts over tgiving break from whole foods. altho very yummy...i realized i could make it at home and not have it cost me (erm..my mom) $8/pound.

soo fast forward to winter break and oh..what do they have at costco?? humongo bags of brussel sprouts of course! scorez.

using recipes i've done for roasting other vegetables (and my innate chef-ness, duhhh) this is how i made em:

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Ingredients

• Salt
  
• Black Pepper
  
• 1/4 cup olive oil
  
• 2 lb brussel sprouts, cut in half
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
  

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Cut the brussel sprouts in half and toss them with the oil, minced garlic, and salt & pepper to taste*.
Spread the sprouts over two of the biggest baking pans you have so they have space to cook.

bake for about 15 minutes.**

* I've been having issues with over-salting recently so i kinda cut back on it and just salted at the table, ha. but pepper.... we're bffs so i kinda added more than a normal person would
** i just took em out when i could smell the garlic and don't remember exactly how long they were in there...ha

i gotta say -- they were better than WF's. i think since i wasn't making 100's of pounds of the stuff, i was able to spread em out on the pan more so they crispy at the edges. also, i used evoo (WF used canola, i believe) which gave a better flavor. aaand i had em pretty peppery, hehe. will i be making these again?? hell yes. any tweeks? MAKING MOREEE. my mom and i went through these wayy too quickly :(

Spotted at whole foods

I understand the convenience of pre-cut fruit..but already-peeled clementines?? They're so fun (read:easy) to peel!!
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ohh josh groban *heart*

here's my holiday gift to you - 30 minutes of josh groban's adorableness. if you didn't already know, josh groban is one of my not-so secret celeb loves (after mark ronson, adam brody obvs).

so why you ask?
ummm WATCH HIM HOST NEVER MIND THE BUZZCOCKS. he's hilarious! and his comedic timing's great. and i love his ability to make fun of himself and career.

and if you're all like "psh..its just the writers" watch this, the episode from two years ago when he was a guest on the show.

he's great. oh and so is his twitter!!