Monday, March 31, 2014

Sidecar Doughnuts and Pie-Not Pie's: The Ultimate Pastry Experience.

Have you ever had a Maple Bacon Doughnut or an Australian Meat Pie, that was so good, you went back 3 times in 8 days to get more? lol well I sure hadn't until this last week.
A few miles away from us, are two little shops, side by side. One sells gourmet doughnuts and the other sells Australian style Savory Pies and baked goods. Both unique and very special in their own way. While Sidecar Doughnuts is a bit more expensive then your usual doughnut shops, Pie-Not's pies are probably one of the cheapest lunch's you can get around, (Unless you would rather have processed food from a fast food joint). So all in all its a pretty inexpensive lunch. 
We have yet to try Sidecar's Savory Breakfast doughnuts because we haven't made it there in the mornings yet, but I can tell you, we are definitely looking forward grabbing ourselves some soon :)


Sidecar is apparently also know for its Coffee, especially their Stumptown Cold brew Coffee.
Personally its not my thing, but then again I had it straight up, and I'm not 100% certain on if thats how you are supposed to have it :p



Pie-nots has more then just pie's, and plenty of options, for those who want something sweet, or even those who are vegetarian. Everything is extremely flaky and quite addicting. 
So if you're in the area, and you want a quick delicious lunch with a sweet delight after. I would 100% suggest you head on over to Sidecar and Pie-Not's on 17th St in Costa Mesa




Sunday, March 23, 2014

Crossroads Trading Co.


My Crossroads Trading Co Experience 

The weekend before this last weekend I wanted to check out some used clothing stores, and so far we had only seen one other one in the area other then Goodwill. Once we looked up used clothes on Google, that was a different story altogether. As there were many options in the area to try out, one particular store stood out to me, and we thought we would go check the place out before it closed (since it was close to evening time)

The place was Crossroads Trading Co. and it was beautiful! 
Similar to Plato's Closet, but better, they take in lightly worn, name brand clothing, and sell it at ridiculously low prices.
The place location-wise, isn't bad, the two I've been to are in nice affluent areas. The inside does remind me a little more of goodwill and less like plato's, Considering the concrete floor and plain walls, with clothes lining it. I did think it was nice that they had good dressing rooms, not like how goodwill usually only has 2.

If you don't mind second hand clothing, and are looking for nice stuff I would definitely suggest this place. My hauls would have been way bigger if I was a normal size, considering all the racks and racks of cool clothes. They have so many cool stuff for great prices. I can't even fully express how awesome this place is!
If you are in the Southern Cali area, and are plus size, they don't have a great variety, but they do have a rack of plus clothes (although small), the Costa Mesa location has a bit more then the Irvine one.

This is my hauls from visiting Crossroads Trading Co in Costa Mesa
and Irvine.

Now can you understand why this is the coolest place! and we have 2 locations near us.
pretty stoked!!!

Friday, March 21, 2014

Umami/ Milk & Honey/ Sephora/ Ikea and Neon Pants!

Sunday March 16th, was an interesting day. 
It was a day we had originally planned to stay inside and get stuff done around the house... and, well... that didn't happen :p

A friend had sent us an Umami Gift Card and we were really in the mood for Umami, and I figured afterwards we could maybe go to a couple other places.


So I put on my new neon pants I just got from Crossroads Trading Co, and we headed out to our favorite burger joint down the road :) Of course, as per usual, it was amazing! 


and afterwards we grabbed a Lavender Latte from Milk & Honey.


I wanted to head to Sephora and Ikea once we were done, had some little things I wanted to pick up at Sephora, and it was my first purchase (sadly the main thing I got we had to take back because it turns out it wasn't exactly what I was looking for) but yay, first Sephora purchase! 



At Ikea, we really had to rush, since they were about to close in 20 minutes. I wanted to get picture frames, so we had a specific agenda. They're not all the best of quality, specifically the cheap ones, but for the price, they are a pretty great quality vs. dollar store frames or something :p and with all the things we need to hang around the house, we really can't afford more expensive ones. So for about $50 we got 9 frames, including a poster frame and the rest are bigger then 8x10's. So in my eyes, a great deal. 
That whole night once we got home I started working on our living room wall collage and the collage in our hallway.

I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but it was a long, great day, filled with little treats, and good eats, and wonderful fresh feelings.
It was a good little shopping day :)

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Downtown Orange and Paris in a cup

This last weekend was filled with shopping, something I hadn't really done in a long time and was much needed!

I'm not going to dig into our finances, but let's just say we came into a little extra money recently, and if you knew me, you would know that I try to be smart with our money, to save, and make sure we put it towards our future priorities and bills and such. But I'm also a shopper, I need that fix every once and a while, and shopping online just doesn't cut it.

So I was really thankful that I was able to get out last week and do a little shopping.

This post is of Saturday March 15th.


I've been craving to go antiquing lately, and so far in California, I haven't found a lot of vintage/antique shops around, just one here and there, but not like in Michigan where you have towns everywhere chalked full of antiques.
so I was doing research friday night, to figure out where we might be able to go. and found a cluster of red dots (on Google maps) over in Orange.
Looking further into it, it looked like this little area had a ton of antique shops.
So we decided to take the day out and explore the area.
Once there, we found out it was actually Downtown Orange, and I must say, it is officially the cutest town I've seen out here in California, other then the palm trees, it reminded me so much of home. The reason being apparently orange is one of the only places in California that hasn't torn down its early 19th century buildings. They have kept and restored a lot of the old buildings (which a lot of Michigan is, that's why I love it) and so it has that beautiful small town charm that comes with it. 
and oh boy was the place bustling. There was people everywhere, we found it very difficult to find a parking spot. But as we were driving around, I noticed the town was absolutely FULL of antique shops.
Michael and I agreed that we would love to live there, we even started looking at the prices of places in the area, maybe in the future *crosses fingers* 

Once we did find a parking spot, and checked out a couple stores, I did find something I wasn't too fond of.
Apparently people in California really do their research before selling because almost EVERYTHING was super expensive. I'm not stupid, of course I expect that a lot at antique stores, but never have I been to such big antique stores, and figured i would be better off on Etsy :p
Now I did say "almost" everything, one of the first shops had some antique sheet music for a great price and I just fell in love with some of them, they were perfect for the house (framing)
and I did hit the jackpot at the last store we stopped at.
One of the sellers was selling a set of purple glassware, 4 cups, 4 appetizer plates, and 4 dinner plates, in perfect condition, everything for $35. Not only is that a fantastic price, but the dish ware was stunning! There was no way I could give that up.


So I did get some really good steals, and by that time it was 2:30pm and we hadn't had lunch or much of a breakfast, so we were staved, and we figured we were probably done for the day (since we wanted to stop by crossroads before they closed) There was so much more to explore, we really only hit 3 big antique stores in this town that has at least 6-8 of them. So its a safe thing to say, we will definitely be back to Orange! and I'm very much looking forward to it :)

Our next thought was to take our box (they put our glassware and other things in a nice box for us) back to the car and then find a place to eat, but as we were would around the block back to our car, we passed a little place called Paris in a Cup, and people outside were sipping tea in china cups. 


the place looked so quaint, I just had to check it out first, considering they also had macarons :p
Once inside, we noticed a back room, that looked like a french shabby-chic tea party.
As it turns out, the place is a france-inspired tea restaurant, that usually only accepts reservations unless someone cancels last minute, and stops seating at 3:00.
And guess what, it was 2:40, and they had a table open.
it was like a sign from God!
Of course we accepted it and the nice gentleman at the front of the house, stored our box in the back for us :)

I've never been to a place quite like it. Everyone drinking hot tea with teacups and teapots. Cute little sandwiches and desserts on tiered platters, scones and baked potato soup in little glass tea cups.
The whole places was gold with black and white accents. Ornate mirrors and chairs, and little chandeliers. Of course it was a little gimmicky, but it was a delightful experience.







The big thing was the tea, not I'm not a tea person, so I opted for the french vanilla lemonade, which honestly, was better then I expected, and I'll be sure to try and make it at home.


But Michael had gotten ginger peach black tea, and it was the best tea I'd ever had, I kinda took over his cup after I decided to also try the rose apple tea, and didn't care as much for it.
But the texture was so much better then hot flavored water (which is what I call tea). Very sad that they were out of the ginger peach when we tried to buy a box :\ 

It was an interesting experience, and fantastic day!


Monday, March 17, 2014

Friday the 14th - Part 2: Chapter One in Santa Ana

Friday March 14th - Part 2:
Chapter One.

After work I thought it would be nice to try out the gypsy den in santa ana, because Michael had only been to the one here in Costa Mesa, and the one in Santa Ana is a bit different (atmospherically).
But once parked a block away, we walked past an interesting restaurant called Chapter One, they claimed to "now open" but from what I saw on their website, it sounds like they have been there for a year or two.
The place was super busy, and the menu looked fantastic, so we decided since we have eaten at the Gypsy Den before, we might as well try Chapter One while we're here.

It was about 8:30-9 o-clock when we went in and got seated.
The place was really dark, thankfully we got seated in the least crowded area of the place (so it was less noisy) and near a window so there was a bit more light coming through the window from the street lamps. Helped with taking pictures :p

Instead of ordering an appetizer, we tried their special soup of the day (although we didn't get it until half way through our main course because the waitress forgot we ordered it, lol )

So technically our two main courses came first.

  • Beef Culotte
    • The premier cut from the cap of the sirloin. Bacon-wrapped, dredged in ground coffee beans & cocoa, served on Dijon mashed potatoes with a red wine demi-glace 

And -
  • Lamb & Gnocchi
    • Homemade potato gnocchi, lamb ragout, heirloom carrots, gremolata, feta cheese, curried granola, fried kale


I actually expected to like the beef coulette more, since it wasn't until recently that I started trying and liking more lamb dishes (after a really bad first experience). But I must say, I was super in love with the lamb gnocchi. There were a lot of different textures and flavors going on. You had crunchy and soft, savory and sweet, wet and dry, but they all mixed very well and worked out to make a stunningly delicious plate of food! First time trying Kale too, and even though it was a little weird, it worked well with the dish.
This dish was absolutely amazing and it even makes my mouth water just typing this up.

The beef coulette was good as well, but not as good, looking back what stands out the most was the fact that half the meat on the dish was very tough, a couple bits i had to really really work to chew, and thats one of the reasons i don't really like steak, but love filet mignon :p Also the flavors, although good, seemed to clash a little, but not so much that you couldn't enjoy it, the dijon mashed potatoes were an interesting though, and the wine sauce was very flavorful.
At the time, I remember enjoying it, just not as much as the lamb gnocchi.


The soup I got was the special, it was a sausage sweet potato and kale soup.
Since it wasn't really clear, I was actually expecting a creamy soup, and a slightly different kind of sausage, silly me :p
The soup was good though, it seemed very fresh, and the flavor was nice, but my problems lie in the fact that the sweet potato didn't stand out, I almost expected it to be a sweet and savory kind of thing, and it seemed to be only a savory thing. Also (this probably is completely my fault) I don't do well with spices, and the sausage seemed to be of the very seasoned kind, and with it already being a savory soup, it was a bit overwhelming.
even still, that's me really critiquing it, it was enjoyable. Just not what we were expecting.


Last is dessert. we decided to also go with the special, which was a white chocolate rum bread pudding, with a scoop a vanilla ice cream and spiced sauce.
We initially were going to go with something else, but we chose this because we have had some pretty good bread pudding before and figured we would try something of the regular menu next time we hopped on in.
Sadly, we were both disappointed.
It so happened to have pecans all throughout it, and it threw the texture off for the both of us. Honestly, it wasn't anything special, it didn't stand out and it was probably the most disappointing dish of the night. As the waiter was taking out plate, asked how it was, and I just commented on how we didn't care for the nuts.
He chuckled and made a remark on how he would go tell the chef RIGHT AWAY, which I'm sure he meant as a joke (my husband says) but the inflections of his voice spoke otherwise, almost like he thought I was entitled for having a negative opinion, when he is the one that asked me how it was....
idk I'm sure I'm making it more then it is, but it really put me off.

Here is the thing I find interesting, by the time we left, it was 10:45 and on the way out there was rope and a bouncer set up to card everyone.
Which makes me wonder if since he was carding everyone at the entrance, would I have even been carded if asked for a drink since I was already inside? Just wondered :p

All in all it was an interesting place, that we both agreed we would like to go back and try some other dishes sometime. I would suggest you check it out, because it was an otherwise enjoyable experience.


Friday the 14th - Part 1: Native Foods Cafe at The Camp-Costa Mesa

Friday March 14th - Part 1: 
Native Foods Edition.

Friday morning I had a follow up with my new diabetes doctors. In short, I was nervous, I got good/bad news, and all in all the doctors visit went quick and well. 
Thankfully I think I like my new doctor and nurse practitioner, so things have been better.


Since Michael had to take off work to take me, afterwords we decided to grab lunch before he goes back to work, and all things considered, we wanted to try someplace new. 
Since 'The Camp' is right down the road from us and has many food places we haven't tried yet, we figured it was the best place to go, and in the middle of the camp is the round metal building made into a cafe.
Native Foods Cafe to be exact.
We had never been there before, nor had we heard anything about it, but its an interesting looking place, and we thought the placed looked healthy. After reading the menu, we found out why: apparently native foods cafe is a vegan place, or as far as we can tell, they serve 5 different meats, and none have actual meat in it; just cheese with some kind of crushed nuts.
If your not vegan, it sounds pretty crazy.
We actually didn't know any of that until we ordered and sat down.
Not that it would have changed our minds, I had ordered the Bombastic Tofu Wrap, and I already knew tofu was not meat. I wanted to try it, since I had never had tofu before. seemed like the right time, and Michael ordered the Super Italian Meatball Sub.
which we didn't know actually had no meat in it, until taking our first bite, thinking it was weird, reading the menu more, and finding out it was actually meatless "sausage", then being very much in fact impressed.
Although being pretty good for vegan food, I was very disappointed that it seemed most the menu was spicy, I didn't think my wrap was supposed to be spicy, and even though it was absolutely delicious, I do have to comment on how there was a bit too much sauce, and it was soooooo spicy. -keep in mind, I'm really sensitive to spices, so while for me it felt like i was being stabbed by thousands of needles in my mouth, for Michael it was only a small warmth. So with that note, don't feel swayed from it, unless you are sensitive to spices like I am, I'm sure you will love it!
I kept eating it until I just couldn't take it anymore, lol which for me is saying something. 
The other flavors were just so unique to me, it was fabulous.


The meatball sub, not so much, the meatballs were in fact impressive considering they were meatless, the peppers were just the right touch and the bread was flavorful in itself, but it was lacking in substance, it felt like more then anything you were getting very big mouthfuls of bread.


Now considering I knew all the desserts at least were vegan before we ordered, and they had a great selection at only $2.50 each, I had to try more then one.
So we got 4 different desserts.


Zucchini Date Cake, Oatmeal Cream Pie, Carrot Cream Cheese Cupcake and peanut butter parfait.
My least favorite was the oatmeal cream pie. Its two oatmeal cookies with a cream filling (although not real cream because its vegan) It was ok, but I found the cream to be a bit sour, which was too off-putting for me.
The rest were outstanding, I never EVER thought I would like something called a zucchini date cake, but it was fabulous, and the peanut butter parfait, although mostly for Michael, I did try a bite and it was surprisingly good, but the best was the Carrot Cake cupcake. Now I'm sure we will go back to native foods in the future, but if not for the food, it will for sure be for the cupcake. The texture was fantastic, and idk how you make a vegan cream cheese frosting, but it was spot on. 
definitely worth trying, whether your vegan or not.

All in all it was a nice experience, very new and I'm glad we tried it :) my first time eating tofu was a good one, yay!

(Website with menu and locations listed Below) 

https://www.nativefoods.com/menu/

Thursday, March 13, 2014

BIRCHBOX - March 2014 Edition

My March BirchBox came tuesday, always a exciting thing :)
Spring Forward-


One of the items I was excited to receive was the Gilchrist & Soames, London Body Lotion.
I'm one of those people that loves body lotion, buys it, and never uses it. But now that I'm switching up my routines and trying new things, I'm getting used to what good products are, and what crappy products are. I notices that all my Bath and Body Works lotions, leave a greasy feeling for quite awhile, and I dont think I like that. This stuff doesn't. It soaks into your skin pretty fast, so if you put it on, afterwards your hands are soft, but can still open bottles or jar caps without any problems :p
what originally drew me to it, was the smell. At first I thought it smelled wonderful, but I smelled it so much, I'm not sure if I like it as much anymore, haha.
but its a nice clean smell, after smelling it so much, it does smell a little like a laundry dryer sheet. but still a nice clean subtle scent, that I find to be quite pleasant.
I would also just like to note, that I love the size they sent me, it fits nicely in my purse :)
So all in all, I actually like using this stuff. Makes me want to throw out all my Bath and Body Works lotions, and keep this with me until the next best thing


 For my Lifestyle Extra, they sent Tea Forte - Minteas.
Sugar free, all natural mints infused with wellness-promoting organic green tea and herbs.
I want to say I like them, but they taste way to much like cinnamon to me, and I don't do well with cinnamon, it burns my tongue. So if you like cinnamon, and natural things, these minds are probably for you.
Next in my box, was a sample of Harvey Prince, Cherie Blossom perfume.
Funny thing, in the Box description list, the smell is listed as - Sparkling cherry blossom, with romantic vanilla and musk, but the marketing pamphlet it came in lists it as: a burst of Somei Sakura,  pink grapefruit and cool musk. So I'm not really sure.
My opinion of it was not fond at first, I'm not a huge cherry blossom scent fan, and its very strong. but I wore it out one day, and actually liked it on me. Which was surprising.
One thing I like about it, is it seems to actually last for most the day, where as a lot of scents, where off.
Not sure if I would buy the whole bottle, but for now, I think I like it. For sure, if you like Bath and Body Works Japanese Cherry Blossom scent, I'm sure you would like this stuff, because I like it better.
 I haven't tried this next one yet, simply because, with my hair being fine (its thick but still very fine) it gets greasy easier/quicker and so anything thats adding extra shine/silkiness/ softness can often just make me feel like my hair gets greasier that much faster. 
But Beauty Protector- Protect and detangle, is supposedly a best selling elixir that locks in color, protects from heat damage and adds silkiness.
from what I've read, a lot of people really like it and are already switching up their routine and buying the full bottle.


Coola- Tinted Matte SPF 30 for face is an organic moisturizer with lasting sun protection that is supposed to even tones and mask flaws.
I haven't tried it out or in full force, but in trying a bit here or there it seems nice.
I'm not used to products like these, so I'm not even particularly sure what I'm supposed to be looking for/at when I use something like this. 
But I would like to say, it seemed to mask my blackheads a bit, and even though it has a somewhat greasy texture, I actually liked it because once it seeped into my pores, it was very smooth. Also the color didn't look like it would match, but it blended in just fine.
Last and in my opinion, least. They dropped in a Ghirardelli Intense Dark, Cherry Tango Chocolate.
The only reason I say least, is because I don't like cherry flavored stuff and I hate almonds. So this one goes to the hubby :p

Monday, March 10, 2014

Bruxie

Earlier in the week we had tried a place called Bruxie (you might remember from my last post) its a waffle sandwich place, we came back saturday because we wanted to try it again, and get a good full rounded opinion of the place.
2 Visits, 1 Review.


Our first time, earlier last week -


 We had the Pastrami, and Michael had the Prosciutto & Gruyere.
The pastrami was really good but the P&G was very weak, I guess it was ok, but there wasn't much taste or much in it at all. Pretty disappointing.
Second time - 

I got the Turkey Club and Michael got the Special of the day, which was a BBQ Pulled Pork.
I loved the turkey club, the crunch exterior and soft inside of the waffle was pretty amazing with all the sandwiches, but for me, the turkey club was the best. It comes with a very tasty and unexpected pesto sauce, which with the waffle really makes it.
The pulled pork was good as well, although I'm not a fan of the coleslaw, the not too sweet, not too spicy BBQ sauce on the pulled pork made it quite delicious.
After we shared 2 sweet waffle sandwiches, Seasonal Creme Brûlée and S'more .
The creme brûlée one was actually really good, my only problem was it made the waffle pretty soggy, So I wasn't a fan of that. But the S'more was bad, I don't think Michael minded it as much, but we both agreed that the chocolate had a really weird taste, there was too much of it, and in a couple of the bites I ate tasted like someone crushed a piece of coal into it, I couldn't even finish my slice.
Even though the creme brulee sandwich was good at the time, I probably wouldn't order it again.
So all together i would say our Bruxie experience was good, but I would venture more towards the savory sandwiches then the sweet.
.................................

Right next door to our local Bruxie is a Yogurtland, I'm sure its nothing new to talk about, but it was to us. Back in Michigan, people are mostly into ice cream, and visiting family in Wisconsin, I was very familiar with frozen custard, and they do have yogurt places back home, but its not as big of a craze as it is out here.
So I hadn't really had gelato or frozen yogurt till recently.
I think I like Gelato more, but we got Coffee, and maple cookie frozen yogurt, sprinkled with yogurt chips and Nilla wafers, and I admit the maple cookie was pretty amazing.
Strong, but anyone who has ever had real maple syrup could tell you that its supposed to be.
It was a nice experience.


Sunday, March 9, 2014

Ever Have One of Those Days? - Proof of How Awesome my Mother Is

You ever had one of those wonderful days, when your mother comes to visit for a sleepover, and you take a road trip to long beach to check out a random designer jewelry store who's stuff your mom loves so, and she found out is within driving distance, and since she looking at replacing her wedding ring, you figure, why not. So you go, and on the way you stop at a little french bakery and pick up a dozen macarons, because she's never had any, and of course you have to correct that mistake by eating delicious french confections. 


As it turned out, you may have made a friend while at the jewelers, and your mother may have found her new wedding ring. 


Then head back to what you think is the best burger joint in the world, hoping she might like it too, because of course you want to bless your mother by taking her out to get good food, but sometimes her idea of good food is not the same, so you're nervous. But in fact you have a fantastic time, having never seen your mother gawk and rave about a burger like that before. Feeling completely satisfied with you day, after grabbing lavender lattes, 


you then pass by a tattoo and piercing shop and she just happens to say "haha what a great adventurous day, wouldn't it be wild if I got my nose pierced" and you just stop dead in your tracks and go...."well it wouldn't hurt to check out the prices" :)
Then crazy enough, she ACTUALLY gets her nose pierced! For no other reason other then its fun, and adventurous, and she wanted to! HA



You both go home, get in PJ's and drink Smirnoff's while watching movies until the early morning and just marvel at what a wonderful day it was....

You ever have one of those days? Well I did, just last thursday.


Of course the next day was good, but not as good. I had to go get bloodwork done, that for the life of me, I have no clue why it took so long, upon entering the lab office and finally leaving, I think it took about 2-3 hours. Since I hadn't eaten, I was pretty hungry at that point. So we picked up a couple muffin's at French's Bakery right next door to the medical offices, then headed to meet up with my husband for lunch at a place called Bruxie.
it's a waffle sandwich place, that was actually very good.
(see next blog post for further details about Bruxie)
I was so drained and exhausted that my wonderful mother took me home so I could rest, then started making us lasagna for dinner.
Which was in fact amazing.
Sadly after relaxing and watching a couple movies to top the night off, my Madre had to go home.

Thankfully we had a great time together! With pictures and a nose stud to prove it :)