🏠 Lately...Self-Isolation Edition

Happy Friday and thanks for stopping by! I hope everyone is being healthy and safe, what a strange and uncertain time we're living in lately. We're currently on day 14 of self-isolation and we've been having fun keeping busy around the house. Today I thought I'd share some of what we've been up to lately:

1) Farm-Fresh Eggs-
David's co-worker lives in the next town over, raises chickens, and kindly left 2 dozen eggs in his mailbox for us. They are both beautiful and delicious! We've been having fun making all sorts of egg dishes and I swear they taste creamier than store bought. David made croque madames for lunch one day using the eggs and they didn't disappoint! In just one bite I was instantly transported back to Paris. He used this New York Times recipe.

2) Cinnamon Rolls-
David also treated us to homemade cinnamon rolls as a surprise last Sunday morning using our bread machine. They were so yummy, not too sweet, and had the perfect amount of cinnamon and vanilla. If you have a bread machine and about 3 hours to kill, I highly recommend! Here's the recipe.

3) Whipped Coffee-
We jumped on the bandwagon with the rest of the world this week and gave whipped coffee a try and oh. my. goodness. It is by far one of the tastiest coffee drinks we've ever tried, and so much better than the calorie-filled ones at Starbucks (We estimated each one to be just under 150 calories)! We used our hand mixer which allowed us to whip some up super quick and we had ours over ice. I'd love to try it with some hot frothed milk next. 

I promise we haven't only been eating well, haha. We've been enjoying lots of walks around our walking trail, exercise videos on YouTube, self-care galore with face masks, at home mani-pedis, extra dog cuddles, and we even had a game night! We played Uno and Stinky Pig and haven't laughed that hard in a while.

This weekend I'm looking forward to watching the movie Emma, I missed it in theaters and am so happy it's available to rent!

PS- If you're into British history and need a good show to watch, I highly recommend the CNN 6-part series on the Windsors. It's been so fascinating to see the succession of the throne and all the drama that went on behind closed doors, all while trying to run a country. 

What have you been doing to pass the time? Any fun ideas? Let me know down below, I love hearing from you! 

Thanks for reading, have a fabulous weekend. :)

Dancing in the City

A few weeks ago my parents, David, and I went on an epic date night in NYC. It was part of my birthday festivities, going to a private ballroom dance class and dinner at my favorite restaurant afterward. 

We tried out the Arthur Murray studio on 5th Avenue and had such a blast. We took an "Intro to Ballroom" class and were lead by 2 lovely instructors. It was so much fun and next time you see us on the dance floor, watch out! We learned so much in just an hour. We tried the Waltz, Hustle, and the Merengue-which was our fave. David and I even learned how to dip!

Afterwards we went to L'Express for dinner. It's a French cafe with really good food and cocktails. I had my favorite, the croque monsieur and we shared a bottle of Poema champagne. Both were divine. 

In lieu of a birthday cake, we tried cherry pie from Whole Foods and it didn't disappoint!

It was such a fun night and I can't wait to use the skills we learned next time we're on a dance floor. I love gifts that are experiences that I can share and make memories with my loved ones. 

What did you for your birthday? Let me know down below, I love hearing from you!

Thanks for reading, have a fabulous day. :)

“Clean-Up” Recipes

Here’s 3 recipes I’ve made lately to use up some ingredients I had laying around:

Apple, Blueberry, & Cherry Crumble-

I totally made this up on the fly with fruit that needed to be used up in our fridge-

-Peel and chop 4 apples, add 2 cups blueberries and a cup of halved, pitted cherries (I’m sure any fruit would do, I aimed for 5-6 cups of fruit). Add to a buttered, 2 quart baking dish

-Mix the fruit with 2 tbsp cinnamon sugar (the cherries mixed with the cinnamon made for such an incredible flavor)

-For the topping melt 1/3 c butter in the microwave. Add 1/2 c oats, 1/2 c sugar (I used raw), and 1/2 c flour. Mix with a fork into a crumb mixture and spread on top of fruit

-Bake at 400 for 35 minutes or until the top is slightly browned. 

I would call this a crumble “light”. It tasted so clean and not overly sweet. I think this would be so good for breakfast with some yogurt as well as amazing for a light dessert, perhaps with a scoop of ice cream or gelato. 

Croque Monsieur Casserole-

I found this recipe while searching the internet for a breakfast casserole I could make to use up some ham I had in the fridge. This turned out to be such a wonderful Sunday breakfast, I would definitely make this for company or even for a light dinner with a green salad. It tastes exactly like my favorite French sandwich, but way less labor intensive. 

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread-

I used this recipe which I make at least once a month, but this time I added 1/2 c chocolate chips that I tossed in a little flour so they wouldn’t sink. This is such an easy recipe and I love using it for overripe bananas. 

I would definitely make all 3 things again, and it makes me so happy not to waste food. I love being creative and making sure we use everything we buy.

Do you have any favorite “clean-up” recipes? Let me know down below, I’d love to hear from you. 

Thanks for reading, have a fabulous day!