Fat Tuesday. The day before Ash Wednesday. Which really means the day to over-indulge before giving up something for 40 whole days and nights. Which is exactly why people are partying hard for Mardi Gras right now. Want to know how I am celebrating? I am painting my nails. Mardi Gras nail art has consumed my evening. Yes, I have turned lame in my old age of 26. But believe-you-me [...]
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Three day weekends are the best. Whether you go out of town, or stay in, that 1 extra day off seems to make such a difference. Since Jon & I are headed to Europe in a couple weeks, we opted to stay in town this weekend. It turned out to be a weekend of good food. Starting with homemade dinner in Albany on Friday night & mint chocolate chip cookie [...]
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Happy Valentine’s Day! Hopefully everyone is having a chocolate filled day of love. Any holiday is a great excuse to make your food into different shapes, don’t ya think? Might as well break up the everyday monotony and make food into art. Like a cupcake Christmas tree, or maybe something as simple as a heart shaped breakfast! Cut a hole in your bread with a heart shaped cookie cutter. Cook [...]
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It all started 3 years ago when I planned a Valentine’s work event that fell through. Instead of cancelling the 15 person reservation I had, I invited all my friends to join me in a bottomless mimosa brunch at Luna Park. Little did we know that we were going to find the bottom to the mimosas and have to move to another bar in the Mission. From there, we went [...]
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The occasion was Alb’s birthday. The location was my apartment. The food was gourmet. The attire was sweatpants. The party included 3 best friends eating, drinking wine, and talking about anything and everything. How much better can it get than that? Not much. Alb is know as Allie to some, Ms. Raney to others, but Alb to my high school girlfriends and I. One day way back in high school one [...]
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Are you ready for some…overeating?? Because that is what we did. This is the third year of watching the Superbowl at Jesse’s apartment and the food gets better every year. I have some great cooks in my group of friends and it shows. Jon and I met at this party 2 years ago and he hasn’t stopped talking about the food at the superbowl party since. Must be why he [...]
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Tea Tasting. It’s awesome. I think everyone should do it. I’ve been to “tea” of course, but this is totally different and great in its very own way. A Vital Tea tasting experience goes like this: You sit at the bar and get a cute little tea cup. A nice lady brews the tea, teaches you about the benefits of the tea, and serves a taste to see what you [...]
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Snail mail is becoming obsolete, which is unfortunate but makes getting personal cards pretty darn exciting. Most of my mail is junk that goes straight to the recycle bin, but every once in a while, I get something from Grandma. Sometimes she sends me a random article, but sometimes it’s a holiday card with an extra special green surprise inside. I really like those cards. I also really like making [...]
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I feel pretty lucky to work with some lovely ladies. There are seven young women on my team and we are all very close. Literally. Like within 3 feet of each others faces. Besides just sitting close, we are friends too. We come in on Monday and chat about our weekends, eat lunch together at noon on the dot, and are drinking wine by four (just kidding! We save that [...]
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My girlfriends from college get together on Thursday nights for what we call “Thursday Night Dinners”. Oh so creative of a name, I know. It all started when I moved to San Francisco and Melissa and I decided we would try out a new bar every week until we found our “Cheers.” This lasted a little while, but we found that going out to dinner and drinks was more fun. [...]
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