balboa park

what a beautiful day at balboa park and coronado. my word. i'm so lucky to be living in paradise. there was not a cloud in the sky and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. this was my first time to both balboa park and coronado and i'm pretty sure i fell in love with coronado!

mootime ice cream is pretty famous for being sooo good, and SO EXPENSIVE. $10 for 2 scoops???? really????

sheerwater cafe at hotel del. omg. best dinner ever. the view couldn't have been any better either.

hotel del

balboa park to see the titanic exhibit. SO COOL.

balboa gardens

farrell's for the februarys

there happen to be quite a few february birthdays in our family. this sister (and the one in brazil) are included. so where did we go??? farrell's ice cream parlour. have you ever been there??? 2 words . . .

heart. attack.

because of the food? maybe. but i'd say it's the constant noise, beating of drums, yelling, shouting, running through the restaurant. let's just say it's a birthday to remember and something you have to experience for yourself! LOL.

a banana royal. divineeee.

papa's cimenos (chee-main-oh-s)

(gram tells me as a little girl I couldn't say "tomatoes" so I said "cheemainos")

you can seriously get lost in these plants. grandma threw a tomato party for family and friends this past weekend. she told me that we have been having this annual party for at least 20 years. what happens is once the tomatoes are ripe enough, we pick them, clean them, and package them up for people to take home and make a marinara or insalata. i've never been a fan of fresh tomatoes, but i'll make a fresh sauce any day. there really is no comparison to the store bought tomatoes. they're just not the same.

the menu must always include a pasta with marinara sauce to showcase the tomatoes. this time we did a baked penne with tre formaggi. buona let me tell you. we also had red pepper, onion, and sausage sandwiches (a typical food item that you can get from a street vendor in italy), swiss chard and cannellini beans, an insalata del balsamico, and some biscotti.

basilico. mamma mia, there is no question that this plant is flourishing.

pepperoni

have you ever seen a hot pink and orange cactus?

jigga's wedding

the wonderful thing about going to salt lake city for your friend's wedding (besides the wedding) is eating at all those places that you've missed and loved so much.

take for example kneaders. my word i don't think i've tasted better french toast in my life. i even went back for seconds and that never. happens. oh well. sooo worth it. then i got to try moochies (guy fieri's fav in slc) and ordered a philly cheesesteak. . . the bomb. of course we also had some costa vida and the cocoa bean. best cupcakes EVER. i swear im sounding like the biggest fatty, but im a foodie. . . what can i say :)

jigga 1 and jigga 2 (by association)

amanda and brad

love this one of her. totally captures her personality.

it's always a joy and honor to be asked to sing someone's wedding song.

pizza out of a vending machine???

did you know that you can now get a freshly cooked pizza of your choice in only 2.5 minutes??? genious. this product let's pizza was on how it's made and how it works is purely fascinating. the machine kneads the pizza dough, adds tomato sauce, cheese, and select other toppings and then cooks all under 3 minutes. plus, the pizza only costs about $5. you can even satisfy your pizza craving in the middle of the night. sounds like a deal to me. i'd like one of these in my area. so far i think these machines are only in europe and asia...

http://letspizzaamerica.com/

you know you're a foodie when. . .

you save pictures of food on your desktop from a show that you watched on a popular restaurant and have it on your bucket list as one of the places to visit. . . heaven help me. . .

if someone ever goes to denver, co make sure you stop by the restaurant "colt and gray" and make sure you order the sticky toffee pudding. just do it for me please because i can't stand to look at these pictures without salivating!

temple night and phil's

one of the perks of going to the sd temple is having phil's approximately 10 minutes away. that means everything bbq. and we all know how much i love bbq.

so pretty at night

my FAVORITE bbq joint ever.

keithy, bro and sis smith

some of the gang

.hannah.

this is about where we were ready to eat whatever we could get our hands on. because phil's is so popular the line is usually way out the door and this was around 10:30 pm.

patty's bom viagem party

before patty left for her mission, our family wanted to throw her a 'bom viagem' party or a going away party in portuguese. we were able to have her party at the castle, a previous b & b in wine country.

patty. sister borcherds. keith.

sister borcherds has to be the sweetest most courageous woman i've met in a long time. she went through the most horrific event of her life, but she still continues to carry on and put a smile on her face. she was so gracious enough to let us use her home with such short notice. she also has the cutest accent (she's south african).

dad and some of the kiddies

some of the desserts.

i ordered 4 different kinds of cupcakes from a local bakery that i heard was outstanding.

well, they seriously didn't disappoint because they were AMAZING.

we had red velvet, carrot cake, boston cream pie, and strawberry shortcake

my g-ma also brought beautiful edible arrangements that were so delicious! they added the perfect touch to the table.

and onto the cake. . .

this cake was a.maz.ing. i am not a cake lover, but this was definitely worth every penny and mile driven. the bakery, flour power bakery, was all the way in el cajon which is really far from my house. the cake is a soft white cake with bavarian cream and a thin layer of raspberry and lemon. the frosting was whipped cream with shaved white chocolate. i had them put the brazilian flag on top and have it say "boa viagem irma ricchio!" or "good journey sister ricchio!"

2 of the kiddies eating le lasagne. for the food we had two large lasagne trays, sandwiches, pasta salads, antipasti trays, and salads.

the bar

we had to add the brazilian flag

the best bbq i've ever eaten

so i heard about this place in san diego from a couple friends of mine. since i absolutely love bbq, i wanted to go with patty and try it before she was shipped off to brazil.

we had an opportunity to go for dinner since we were already in san diego.

best decision ever.

can i tell you how good this place was??? i think it's been ranked for years as the best bbq in the city. it definitely lived up to the hype. check out what i ordered.

big broham. omg. AMAZING. smoked pulled pork shoulder doused in bbq sauce on a special bun. i was in hea.ven.

patty ordered these amazingly large beef ribs with sweet baked beans and colossal onion rings.

i think this was definitely worth every calorie and mile driven.

the summit house

we celebrated my uncle's birthday at the summit house in orange county...

me.patty.nicoli.

they had a live piano player the whole night. we were in the restaurant for 3 hours eating and chatting.

the restaurant was very quaint and felt like home. fireplaces, dimmed lights, comfy chairs...loved it.

patty. me. snooki.

this was the front door. you can't really see, but there's a lion door knocker on a red door. it was so cool.

edible art

how cool is this picture?? i made this all out of chocolate! tonight we had a little RS activity where one of our girls who went to le cordon bleu in london taught us how to make chocolate pieces for cakes, pastries, sculptures, etc. more picts to come. the chocolate has to be tempered correctly before you can make your design. it's a tedious job to outline every specific detail in your picture, but obviously the outcome is so worth it.

ketchup!

i'm so glad that i was able to go to Ketchup in LA. the weather was so gorgeous! going for lunch was the best idea for sure. we ended up getting to sit right on sunset and enjoy the loud construction going on down the street. we were all so hoping to run into audrina or lc while we were there, but to no avail :)

the interior was so unique and there was not a soul in the restaurant

me and mel

right above sunset (rin, me, mel, and jami)

these are the parmesan, cajun, and sweet potato fries that they serve (the sweet potato fries were covered in cinnamon sugar!) you can try the different kinds of ketchups they have such as chipotle, bbq, ranch, banana, and wasabi ketchups. it was so good! i'm totally going back.

halloween food labels

'Putrid Pumpkin Pie'

'Catastrophic Caramel Corn'

'Rancid Rootbeer'

i am having the greatest time with this adobe illustrator program. honestly, it's amazing at what this program can do. i took a regular martha stewart halloween label and made it my own. aren't these to die for?!