Cookbook Love

I have always loved cookbooks, but sometimes I feel overwhelmed trying to find one that I will actually use on a regular basis. This summer I got lucky and found two absolute must-haves - Williams Sonoma Farmers' Market and Essentials of Healthful Cooking.

I find that I often get carried away eating out or just not eating well and that I forget about things like vegetables. These cookbooks have lots of great veggie options and just plain delicious food.
What I love about the Farmers Market Cookbook is the dedicated page for each fruit or veggie, instructions for how to pick them and ingredient specific recipes. Wondering how to pick asparagus or what to do with the 12 zucchini you just picked from your garden? This cookbook is for you.

What I love about the Essentials of Healthful Cooking book is the variety of recipes, nutritional information and calories for each dish, and lots of tips and techniques.

Fourth of July + Cupcakes

I am a firm believer that nothing screams holiday like cupcakes! For July 4 I made Hershey's perfectly chocolate cakes with homemade butter-cream frosting. YUM!

Sunday Brunch

I decided to do something special for Easter and make eggs benedict from scratch. I have never attempted to poach eggs, let alone make my own hollandaise sauce. I looked at several difference recipes and decided to use a Tyler Florence version I found on Food Network. I used whole wheat English muffins from Whole Foods and smoked salmon instead of Canadian bacon.

This recipe was a total success. I managed to get everything ready at the same time and not ruin the sauce. It was great! Even Van, who typically doesn't like egg dishes, thought it was good.

Sunny Day and Sweet Tea Vodka

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the wonderfulness that is Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka, I highly encourage you to check it out. In my personal opinion, the best way to drink Firefly is to make a spiked Arnold Palmer. Pour one part Firefly and one part lemonade over ice. Garnish lemon slices and enjoy! It is the perfect drink for any sunny afternoon and is my go-to drink for summer.

The Best Thing About DC in the Spring

The weather was absolutely gorgeous and so were the cherry blossoms. What a perfect way to spend my lunch.

After Sun Skin Savers

After our adventure in Mexico and the not-so-successful SPF 55, my skin was in need of some serious TLC. As soon as I got home I turned to my favorite after-sun skin savers. I figured with spring break and summer on the way it was the perfect time to share.

First, is Alba's Kona Coffee After-Sun Lotion. It is loaded with EGCG help neutralize free radical damage and smells so much better than that green aloe gel stuff. If you love coffee, it will really make you feel better.
I also recommend Alba's Sugar Cane Body Scrub to help exfoliate peeling skin. Again, it smells amazing and is gentle, but still effective.

What I Did on My Vacation

I wouldn't consider myself to be a brave person. I'm scared of lots of things like heights, flying, roller coasters (don't laugh) and absolutely frightened of snakes.

Van is always the first to try everything and being with him has helped me get over my fears and experience life. So when we had the opportunity to have our picture taken with a snake on our vacation, I volunteered.

Thankfully, I only had one little freak out before they gave me the python. As you can see, I'm actually smiling.