October has come and gone..

Beer choices for the month. I love the fall seasonal beers. So. Good.

So, I had a craving for some pumpkin cheesecake and ended up making it with this recipe at my friend's house--SQUARE CHEESECAKE! I only had my camera phone to use to take these pics (sorry for the blurriness), but as you can see we didn't have a circular spring-form pan on hand so we ended up using a square pan that had a bottom you could push up. It was a bit more difficult to use, but I think it came out pretty well considering our last minute preparations and the fact that it was the first time either of us have made a cheesecake from scratch. I did leave the egg yolk out and eyeballed the spices (I love nutmeg so I probably put a little more of that in there than the recipe called for). I think the gingersnap crust really made this cheesecake wonderful and it wasn't too heavy like most cheesecakes are. It was kind of more like a mousse texture; we did eat it about an hour after letting it cool so I'm wondering how it would be if it had been refrigerated overnight. Oh! we also served this with some freshly whipped cream that had vanilla extract in it and we sweetened it with maple syrup instead of sugar. We are definitely considering making this again for Thanksgiving. It was truly a very simple recipe, especially with the aid of a food processor to make the crust and a stand mixer to mix the other ingredients together.

And then.. there are some things I have been loving this month -- recently acquired things.

New Shoes! Got these from Nordstrom Rack. I thought they were so cute -- I have been wanting some nude-colored shoes for a while now. I love the thick chunky heel on these.

Got another candle from Bath & Body Works..
this has such a refreshing smell  -- definitely brightens any day, being stuck indoors recently because of never-ending rain!

Coach Poppy Flower perfume. Being someone who never wears perfume, this one really caught my attention. I smelled it one day and for the rest of the week, I couldn't stop thinking about it so I had to go back an buy it. It is a definitely very light girly scent, a great combination of floral & fruity. It makes me feel very happy wearing it.

This Madison wristlet is so nice to have on hand. I love the bold red color and the soft material it is made of.  It is the perfect size to use as a clutch on a night out. It has a lot of pockets inside with compartments to put your ID/credit cards so there is no need to use a wallet in there. I've also been able to fit a small point-and-shoot camera, cell phone & car keys in here with no problem.

Fun & easy nail design I wore to a masquerade ball.
Zoya Helen is the nude color and OPI You Make Me Vroom is the red.

Masquerade! BOO!
I love Halloween particularly because you get to dress up. so much fun.

!HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Hope you all had a great Halloween despite the crazy weather Mother Nature has given us this weekend all over the country.

Halloween nails inspired by this.
The orange underneath the design is Hi Def from Sephora by OPI, and I used the Kiss Nail Art Paint polishes with the long skinny brushes to make the plaid design.

And I didn't forget my toes! Hehe if only my toenails were larger I could do more with them.

-J

This is what procrastination looks like

Got a mani/pedi with a friend on a rainy day, this was Essie's  Bangle Jangle from their winter 2011 collection

on my toes I picked Essie' Luxedo, which is actually from the winter 2010 collection

 Haha, just kidding. I've been sick and then had a round of testing at school, so I haven't been able to do much of anything else. Yet I have still found time to change up my nail colors (of course!).

French tip with the Art deco skinny brushes -- very easy to use!

Fishnet Stockings (Essie)

Jules (Zoya)

I purchased a new moisturizer; it was a bit of a splurge being $30 but doesn't everything listed on that bottle sound like it would be amazing? I've been using it for a little more than a week now and it is really not as mattifying as I had hoped it would be. Maybe I am putting too much on, or maybe because I am using it under my tinted moisturizer. It has made my skin feel softer than it did before. I guess I just need to be careful not to use a whole pump because that is way too much product for my face!

This is not really that exciting but one of my friends has never had a peanut butter-banana-and-honey sandwich before! I pretty much lived on this and butternut squash soup during the time when I was sick. It really did hit the spot and was filling enough to get me through the day.

Yes, I got my hands on something from the Missoni collection at Target. These are the ballerina flats from the little Girl's collection -- size 3! Sometimes it pays to have small feet :)

And finally, since fall doesn't really exist in south FL I got this "Leaves" candle from Bath & Body Works and now my room smells so autumnal! I LOVE IT. 

-J

Fall is here!?

 There is kind of a cool breeze blowing through South Florida, especially after our daily torrential downpour in the thunderstorms that seem to pop up out of nowhere. This is the part of FL that no one really talks about, because it is probably the worst time to be here.. thanks, hurricane season. But, I have to say that the other night when I stepped outside, it was actually nice and I could breathe! Fall was probably my favorite season to live through in Chicago so the fact that pumpkin spice lattes have appeared once again at Starbucks and butternut squash have grown in abundance at the grocery store lately makes me super excited :) This also means it's time to switch over to fall/winter nail polish. Here are my picks:

L to R: Revlon Silver Screen, OPI: Dulce de leche & You make me vroom,
Sephora by OPI: Hi Def & Charge It!, love&beauty  M61 Yellow

L to R: Essie Chincilly, Sonia Kashuk Tauped, Zoya: Helen Caitlyn Jules Dove,
Sephora by OPI: Metro Chic, Run with It, Brunette on the Internet

This is what I currently have on my fingers: Essie Chinchilly and attempted nail design with the silver glitter Nail Art Paint by Kiss (I really like the texture of these glitters)

Sunglasses I picked up at Forever 21 the other day -- they actually do provide more shade than this photo would suggest; I was looking for a pair that had that gradient thing going on.

I also picked up the Mac Seasonally Supreme in Tea Ceremony. This lipstick is super creamy--I preferred to rub it into my lips with my finger after applying just so it blended in better with my face haha.

Swatch of Tea Ceremony -- lovely milky tan/beige color that is very neutral.
What you can't see is that there are tiny silver sparkles in the lipstick also (very subtle, but they are there)

-J

Happy Labor Day!

it came out so beautifully!

Hope everyone enjoyed their 3-day weekend. I went shopping and ended up cooking a roasted tomato sauce from scratch. I haven't made pasta in a really long time and I needed something for lunch this upcoming week, so I figured I had some extra time today to make some tomato sauce. Mmm.. plus I have a lot of pent up stress in me; thank goodness cooking allows me to take my mind off of other things. I have to say that as simple as this sauce is to make, it has a whole lot of flavor--it just takes a good amount of time to make it, that's all.

pasta always comes out better when you saute it in the pan with the sauce

INGREDIENTS: 6 vine-riped tomatoes, 1 head of garlic, 2 red peppers, 1/2 vidalia onion, dried oregano & basil (obviously you can use fresh but I didn't have any on hand), crushed red pepper flakes, olive oil, salt&pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Spread out veggies (leave the garlic inside their wrapping, just cut off the stem part) on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and liberally sprinkle with olive oil, salt & pepper. Use your hands to spread everything around the veggies until they are all coated. Lastly, sprinkle with your dried herbs.
3. Stick the veggies in the oven for about 40 minutes, until the skins of the tomatoes and peppers are wrinkly & split open. You will be able to smell the delicious garlic roasting that will tell you it's finished roasting. Usually you can't really ruin veggies too badly by roasting them too long, they get more and more delicious until the point where they get really burnt so just watch out for that!
4. After removing your veggies (you can leave the skins on or remove them; I removed the skins from the red peppers, which you obviously had to remove the seeds & stem from as well, but left the skins on my tomatoes) from the oven, stick everything except for the garlic into a food processor or blender to puree everything to your desired consistency. I left my sauce a bit more on the chunky side.
5. As for the garlic, squeeze the roasted goodness out of the paper that surrounds them & mash it all up with a fork.
6. Add everything back into a saucepan on medium heat to further reduce the mixture and further develop the flavors. Cook for 15-20 minutes until you get the desired thickness of your sauce. Add some crushed red pepper flakes if you want it to be spicy, and obviously salt & pepper as needed! Near the end, add a splash more of olive oil and any fresh herbs you would like to have in your sauce.
7. Cook your pasta al dente according to the directions on the package them came in. Add into sauce and cook it for 3-4 minutes to get all the flavors absorbed into your pasta. Add cheese in you'd like (I didn't have any cheese unfortunately). It is ok not to completely drain your pasta from the water it had boiled in. That water actually contains starches that will help thicken your sauce and bring the whole pasta together. What I did was just take a slotted spoon and transferred the pasta to my saucepan with my sauce in it.

[2 cups of Barilla mezze penne pasta] packed and ready to take for lunches!

-J

Nails of summer

Just wanted to share some nail polishes (that I haven't yet) that I frequented this summer.. these are just the few from whenever I remembered to take photos. Ready for autumn to arrive already, I will probably make a post later with nail polishes I've picked out in anticipation of "cooler" temperatures, not that we really experience any seasonal changes in south Florida. Also going through some new nail polish withdrawal so changing up colors for the fall season will be exciting! I have a feeling that I'm gonna have to bring back some of the brighter summer colors when school gets particularly depressing.. many of my tests are scheduled back to back so I foresee some painful, sleepless times ahead.

I'm Wired (Sephora by OPI) with a multicolored glitter on the pointer finger that I tried on at the store

Sand Tropez (Essie)

Sun Worshiper (China Glaze)

Ate Berries in the Canaries (OPI)

Slushied (Sephora by OPI, Glee collection)

Lilacism (Essie) with silver metallic shatter (Sephora by OPI) on top, which I don't own--I tried it on at Sephora

-J

Quinoa Lunch

So.. school started this week. As I sort my new schedule out, I am also trying to think of some new ideas for lunches. I want something hearty but also healthy. I have gotten really into quinoa--it is an awesome source of protein and very filling! I did make a lunch with it last school year and I tried to use it in a different way -- so I was inspired by this recipe for a kind of quinoa quiche/frittata. I was too lazy to actually go to the grocery store to get the ingredients from that recipe so I just used whatever vegetables I had lying around the fridge. It was tricky for me to figure out how much quinoa to actually cook. The original recipe said 1 cup precooked quinoa, but I took 1 cup of dry quinoa & cooked that -- which resulted in like 4 cups of quinoa. I forgot how much bigger it gets after it's cooked!

Ingredients: 4 eggs, 2 cups cooked quinoa, shredded carrot, diced onions, diced tomato, 2 hot peppers, 1 ear of corn, cooked salmon, 2 cloves of garlic minced -- I was able to make 12 muffin sized portions with these ingredients.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Beat eggs and stir into cooked quinoa.
3. Mix everything else in there, add some salt & pepper to your taste.
4. Generously butter muffin tin and fill with mixture.
5. Bake 20 minutes.

I think 2 of these muffin sized quinoa cakes or whatever you wanna call them make a perfect serving for a meal. I like to eat mine with ketchup :) I also have a side of pickled cucumbers here.

Thoughts: These turned out kind of crumbly and a lot of the bottoms stuck to the pan, which was annoying. I think maybe I put way too much corn in there or not enough egg to hold it all together. Other than that I really enjoyed the flavor & texture, and think it's a really awesome way to change up how you eat quinoa!

Here it is all packed for the week! I brought it for breakfast and lunch since one meal for the amount of time I'm at school usually leaves my tummy grumbling by the end of the day.

-J

August obsessions

Our orchid plants have been flowering like crazy lately!! These were some we cut off since they were weighing the plant down, and shockingly, new bud have appeared where we cut these off from! Who knew?

Anyways, I just wanted to share some things that I have recently purchased (yea.. make up ban broken.. but I have yet to buy any nail polish!). I made my first Nars purchase for myself: Grand Palais eyeshadow duo and their eyeshadow primer. I got 20% off and free 2-day shipping, so it was a good of a time as any to get these :)

Mac Prep+Prime transparent finishing powder/pressed - awesome! Although I haven't used it enough to make a final verdict on it. I do like how the compact has a mirror in it.

Jergens Skin Firming Daily Toning Moisturizer--nice scent that is not overpowering, easily absorbs into the skin.. has glycerin (sucks in moisture from your suroundings) & collagen (firms skin) in it. I've been using this for about 2 weeks now, and I have to say that I have noticed a very slight firming of my skin, but it is not too significant.

Now, onto some food items I have been enjoying lately. First I've been drinking a lot more tea than coffee and in attempt to save money from going to Starbucks all the time, I got the Stash Double Spice Chai, Tazo Zen & Passion Teas at Target. Starbucks brews these same exact Tazo teas in their store so the Zen is the green tea they use and the Passion is the passion tea they have. I've just been brewing them in batches (no sugar added), storing it in the fridge and drinking to my hearts content! I add lemonade to them sometimes as well, which adds some sweetness since lemonade that you buy in store has sugar in it (I've been getting the Simply Lemonade). This Chai is not the same as Starbucks, but does the trick just fine. I do add sugar to this when I brew it; unsweetened Chai tastes pretty nasty to me. Store it in the fridge, and then when I drink it I add some milk to it to make my own Iced Chai Latte.

Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt--OBSESSED! These yogurts with the fruit ont he bottom are so delicious. They really hit the spot when you're craving desserts and so far I have tried the chocolate, lemon, blueberry & strawberry flavors. Chocolate yogurt is not really my favorite; I shall stick with fruit with my yogurt. These were 2 flavors that stuck out to me so I'm excited to try them out. I think I'm gonna take them to school with me to have with my lunch.

Fresh Express Sweet Butter is the best! My grocery store tends to sell these buy one get one free, so whenever I see that I have to get it. Yea, I know, bagged salad what a waste of money but it's so convenient and this lettuce is really really good with balsamic vinaigrette.

I have also been trying to eat more fruit lately, even though I do eat enough on a normal basis. Over the summer it's been mostly watermelon. I've always been a fan of bananas and clementines. One of our neighbors has a longan tree so we have a stash of them in the freezer right now; I have to be careful eating those because one too many and I get nauseous/break out. Recently cherries & peaches have been on my favored fruit list. I'm guessing that cherries are in season right now since they are more prominent in the store and they're freaking huge! And i just had to take a photo of this beautiful humongous peach. I prefer white peaches or nectarines, but peaches are fine too I guess :).

Alrighty, hope everyone had a great summer.. not really ready to go back to school, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

-J