Weekend of Shopping and Tapas

Hi there, hope you had a fabulous weekend. I spent my weekend doing two things I love, shopping and dining with friends and family.  I should've spent my Saturday studying for my statistics exam... but oh well... should've, could've would've. Besides, I don't plan on using statistics and facts in my Master's Thesis anyways. I plan on making stuff up.

I'M ON 'TAPA' THE WORLD!
On Saturday, some of the book club ladies got together for a Tapas pot-luck dinner. In a nutshell, we ate lots, cracked open some very nice wine from San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles, looked at a bunch of cookbooks from the 60s, made fun of people in Molly's high school year book (yes Amber, I saw yours and Johns pics!), watched "Coco Before Chanel," then crashed on the couch/bed. It was a good night.

For the Tapas party I brought Tomato stuffed with Egg Salad. The recipe is exactly what it sounds. I used organic tomatoes on the vine. I don't really like raw tomatoes so I figure if I were going to eat them raw, I would want the best possible quality tomato. You have to scoop out the seeds and the inside of the tomato and save the tops for decoration.

The egg salad recipe is boiled eggs chopped up, green onions, paprika and mayonnaise. Very easy -- except that it took me three tries to boil eggs! I don't know why, but getting perfectly boiled eggs is so frickin' hard! I covered the eggs in water, brought it to a boil, then simmered for 2-3 minutes. The yolks were still too gooey. I did the "how to know when it's done" test by spinning the egg -- nope, still way too gooey. Finally, I just boiled the eggs for 20 minutes, maybe more. It was a long time.

The freshness of the tomato is a great balance to the creaminess of the egg salad. Each bite was quite refreshing :)

The rest of the tapas were also quite delish...especially Molly's bacon wrapped sausage. Who doesn't like anything wrapped in bacon?

WEEKEND SHOPPING

I also did some shopping for random stuff. I bought this flowy, lace-y pink-ish blouse which I initially liked when I tried on. I tried it on again at home and it makes me look like a light pink wedding cake. Despite that disappointment, I did make purchases that I am excited about.

I have been wanting this journal for a long time. This is a diary of all the places you eat at with your friends. As much as I like cooking, I also really like trying new restaurants.

In this diary, there is a section for brunch, lunch, dinner and tea (but that will probably be more like dessert for me). On the pages, there is space for the restaurants' business card and you write things down like who you went with and what you ordered.

(Book purchased from Anthropologie)

My other purchases at Anthropologie was this hook and cooking oven mittens. I needed a place to put my apron, and now I have one. I have never really invested in my kitchen, but now that I'm cooking more, I feel happier in a kitchen that is to my liking. Perhaps that will translate into tastier food!

I purchased this very cool chalkboard from IKEA. I have to confess, I was so excited to draw on this chalkboard. I felt like a kid again. You don't often see chalkboards anymore but when I was in elementary school, we only had chalkboards. I remember how much fun it was drawing on the board. The sound of the chalk, the chalk dust on my fingers... it was a very nostalgic moment for me. Of course, I HAD to buy the colored chalk :)

My other weekend purchases include these tin frames. I got them at Marshalls -- that store has excellent house and cookware. Sometimes you'll come across a great find, like a Le Creuset for really cheap. Not sure what i'll put in these yet. I might put some Van Gogh prints in an old art book I found at the flea market.

I was also very excited about this lamp I found in the Clearance section at Marshalls. 

I have been shopping for more house/kitchen ware lately. It's probably a good idea I put the breaks on purchasing more clothes because my room is a mess and my closet is a giant mess -- it stresses me out when I see it. It has come to a point where I wear a lot of the same clothes because it is easily accessible and I don't have time to look through the piles of clothes or closets to find something new. I need to take a day off to organize my clothes. I have had really weird dreams lately -- two of which I was getting arrested. I heard that a messy room can have an affect on how you sleep. Interesting.

It's Monday. One down. Four more to go.