Birthday Dinners! 

This week was a rather big week for me. I FINALLY turned 20!!! Whoooooo!! It actually feels really weird, I keep wanting to tell people that I'm still 18 but I can't. I'm a bit sad because I'm no longer a teen and according to my law class I can't void a contract anymore. Haha, I'm such a dork. 

However, I cant wait for all the weird adventures this year will bring and all the people I will meet and places I will see. Even turning 21 is still a huge event I'm looking forward to! I think I might be getting way ahead of my self there so let me just start with turning 20...

I was super lucky this year because I got to celebrate multiple times through out my birthday week. Mainly cause my birthday had landed on the same day I had a lot of finals, so celebrating with everyone that day would have been tough. So instead, I celebrated on Sunday at Butter for brunch! 

The menu was so epic and different and the place was beautiful! 

 To start we had a basket of warm goodies and sweet. That doughnut in the picture was sooo good!! Then we had to try the gnocchi mac and cheese that was completely covered in strips of bacon. Isn't that just everyone's dream? Cause it's definitely mine! Then I had my burger, but the fries was the true heroes! I dipped each and every single one in that garlic ailoi dip on the side and last but not least, I stole some of my mom's brioche french toast topped with sugar and fruit. And let me tell you, it tasted fifty thousand times better than it looks! It was perfectly creamy, fluffy, sweet, and acidic! 

The next day I got to celebrate was on Tuesday, the actual day of my birthday. I had finished my finals and meet up with two of my favorite peoples! We went to an ice cream place first because there was a 45 mins wait to our restaurant. So I got a sugar cone with Thai ice cream which was so so good! It literally tasted like Thai ice tea but in ice cream form. 

Then once we were finished we headed to our restaurant and where we order pork buns, spare ribs, and chicken wings. And let me tell you that they were SO BOMB! The chicken wing was fried to perfection and coated in this sauce that was perfectly acidic, salty, and light. The pork buns were fluffy, soft, and had a squirt of mayo to coat a piece of pork belly that was tender and smothered in sauce. Can you tell that I might be in love with the pork buns? haha. 

  

Finally our ramen came, and what can I say, it had it all. It had a buttery soup base, chewy noodles, more tender pork, and was completely garnished with mushrooms and scallions. Utter perfection, I tell you, utter perfection! 

I'm going to stop now cause I'm making me hungry and I'm probably making you hungry. Is it too late to say sorry? I will say that I am beyond grateful for everyone who celebrated my birthday with me and that this birthday was ah-mazing!!

Orange Hot Chocolate Recipe! 

Click the Video Below!!!

Harney & Sons Soho!

You know that day when it absolutely gorgeous outside and you wonder why the heck you're going to school and work? Yea, that was me the other day. It was so beautiful, so instead of being a responsible student I decided to ditch everything and enjoy some really good scones. 

We went over to Harney and Sons in SoHo, which is this beautiful tea place. The second we stepped in we were instantly smacked in the face with the smells of fresh tea and buttery scones. It was hands down the best greeting ever.  At first we looked around the store to see all the little tea stuff they had but we couldn't contain ourselves, so we continued all the way to the back where the dining area is. We order vanilla scones with clotted cream and jam, ham and gruyere scones with ground mustard, along with caribe tea. It is a black tea with flavors of strawberry, guava, coconut, and hibiscus. 

These scones were unbelievably delicious! They came out warm to the touch and were plated so simplistically. They were not at all what I was thinking they were going to be. They were super soft and fluffy on the inside and had just a bit of a crunch on the outside. Sorta toasted to perfection in a way. I loved the vanilla scones with clotted cream and instead of the jam, we drizzled the honey from the tea. It was a match made in heaven. The clotted cream literally melted in my mouth. 

The ham scones, on the other hand,  were perfect just on their own. When you took a bite you could see the semi crunchy pieces of ham and little bits of pulled guyere cheese. I think the ham scones were my favorite. They just had the right balance to them. 

I literally felt like I was in a British movie just having tea and scones. It was so much fun and if I had to re do it and miss school, I'm not gonna lie I'd do it again.  

P.s.- I dont ever skip anything. Missing one day of school is like a sin for me but I've been on top of my school work and it was a day well deserved.

:)  

They had a wall of tea! It was massive and very impressive.

Pumpkin Cupcakes and Cinnamon Cream Cheese! 

I think most people have already had a pumpkin overload. It feels like once it becomes pumpkin season, everything and anything pumpkin comes flying in your face. I personally love it and was feeling especially in the mood this weekend. I have yet to have something pumpkin and I was feeling like cupcakes. I searched for days to look for the perfect pumpkin cupcake recipe and i can proudly say it hit the spot. I was actually nervous picking this recipe out cause it was so easy to make and super fast. But once they came out and i piped them... oh my god they were so good. 

Ingredients

1⅓ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
¾ cup canned pumpkin
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs

The first thing you want to do is to mix all your dry ingredients into one bowl. So that would be your flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Then in a separate bowl you want to mix in your pumpkin, both sugars, oil, and eggs. Finally you want to dump your flour mixture in your wet mixture and mix until combined. 

Once you spoon them in the cupcake liners pop them into the oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 18-20 minutes. 

Once they were done, I let them cool while I made my cream cheese frosting. The recipe I used was my normal cream cheese frosting. Which is:

8 ounces softened cream cheese 

6 tablespoons butter 

2-3 cups of confectioners sugar 

1 teaspoon vanilla 

Then i just added cinnamon to taste just to make it go better with the pumpkin cupcakes. I just put a touch less than a tablespoon and they came out perfect. 

:) 

What is your favorite pumpkin sweet? 

I got the recipe here:

http://www.browneyedbaker.com/pumpkin-cupcakes-with-cream-cheese-frosting/

Winter Revival | How to make your room cozy! 

I love love love when it starts to get colder. I know some people hate it because it means its going to get darker and dreary but I love it. It means all the candles and blankies come out. It gives me a reason to come home early and stuff my face with yummy comfort food and think about how close the holidays are. It basically what I live for really. 

So this past weekend I just got into the cleaning and redecorating my room phase. I wanted to make it more organized and most importantly cozy.

First thing I did was put away my summer sheets and pulled out my red fleece. This is my favorite part, to me it screams Christmas. I also couldn't forget about Scrump. Shes my buddy. Shes actually starred in a couple films. Her best was Lilo and Stich. ;) 

oh look at that close up. 

Next up... some CANDLES!! I recently made a pit stop at Bath and Body works and picked up some candles. Different smells for different rooms of course. But I wanted the pumpkin one in my room. I love lighting it at night so it illuminates my room with an orange-y glow and leaves a lingering pumpkin pie smell as well. 

    As I was cleaning, I collected my "everyday fall makeup" just like some eyeliner, mascara, eyebrow pencil, a red lipstick, and some small container of foundation and I put it into my eye glass case. It totally fits everything and its super duper handy. If I'm in a rush I just grab it and run. 

I also have a space in my closet that is open, so I can place some clothes outside to put on display. I decided to pull out all my comfy cardigans and favorite sweaters. I think there something special about walking in and seeing your sweater collection... I don't know, maybe its just me. 

Finally just to clear up some space on my wall. I tacked on a drawing I made in the summer. It says "Good Vibes" and when I wake up its the first thing I see. Good aura kinda thing.  Then I also had a lot of polaroids laying around so I got some string and clothing pins and I made a little line of pictures and ticket stubs! I'm thinking of painting the clothing pins gold...

Are you excited for the fall time and whats your favorite candle? 

Snowballs & Gelato in NYC!

After a long day of studying and working from 6am to 4pm all I ever want is cake. No question about it. So I met up with my cousin, (HI NICOLE!!) and went on a hunt to go and kill our cravings, as we all do. The first stop was Empire Cake! 

 

 We got the coconut snowball and the swiss roll aka "ho-ho's." I actually never had a snowball before this because I'm not a big fan of the texture of coconut and every snowball is dipped in coconut shavings. But we decided to give it a go because if we were going to lose our snowball virginity it was going to be in an Empire. That's right, we're classy like that. 

If you didn't know what a snowball really is, don't worry cause I didn't either. In a nutshell its basically a cake filled with coconut creme, rolled in marshmallow and dipped in coconut shavings. My favorite part was the coconut creme center. It was perfect, if I could get a bowl of it, I would.

Next up was the Swiss roll and man oh man did this cake do wonders on my life. It was super chocolatey, super decadent, rolled up with whipped cream, and completely enrobed in bittersweet chocolate. It was literally amazing and it was huge! The fat kid in me didn't know what to do. 

The light whipped cream added the perfect balance to the decadent chocolate cake. 

After we ate our treats and overstayed our welcome we headed to Gelato Giusto!

We went in and ordered a pistachio and earl grey gelato. It was better than the  usual gelato I normally find. It was lighter, softer, and touch creamier. It didn't even taste the way I thought it would. The earl grey was a light tea taste not to over steeped which is perfect and the pistachio was on a whole other level. It didn't have that generic pistachio taste, it was a more real pistachio taste and I loved it. It sucks cause I think it might have raised my standards for other pistachio flavored gelatos.

Look how cute their decorations are! 

Last but not least we headed to Union Square and stopped at my favorite place called Fish's Eddy. It this cute little kitchen store that has those little vintage bits and bobs you need in your kitchen. Its basically the best place ever. 

:)