Birthday Vacation!

Apologies for the writing hiatus, as I mentioned in my last post, Wednesday the 13th happened to be my birthday! So of course, along with all the birthday shenanigans (including a surprise trip to Florida) I was unable to get much work done. But no fear, I am back in the land of internet access and here to share all my b-day food finds with yall! Get ready to get hungry.

To start off my birthday shenanigans I whipped up some incredible red velvet cupcakes with my roommate Mackenzie. I won't lie, though we are good cooks and not bad at baking, these were not from scratch, but they weren't any old Duncan Hines mix either! This was a fancy shmancy kit from Sprinkles cupcake (all the way in L.A.). Although I'm from L.A., we actually were able to find this lovely cupcake helper at William Sanoma. The directions were super easy to follow (although you do need a hand held mixer) and the cream cheese frosting was incredible!!!! I think I actually liked these homemade Sprinkles cupcakes better than the ones from the store, still rich and sweet, but not a sugar/butter overload.

After the cupcakes I was taken on a surprise picnic to a park near my house. Aside from the lovely destination, I was thrilled to find out what food had been packed for this secret outing. 1. We had pink Champagne aka Rose (pronounced Rose-AY) thanks to Whole Foods (of course) 2. We had brie, green apple, and honey pressed sandwiches, which are one my favorite summer time snacks 3. We had nutella dream cookies!!!!!! These cookies are some of the richest bite sized treats I've ever had but sooooo good! If you like nutella you will LOVE this.

Eric found the recipe from Serious Eats (one of my favorite food blogs) a little while back and knew they would be perfect for my birthday. He was right. They are AWESOME! But so filling, beware. Click on the link above to check out the recipe!

If you're more interested in making the sandwich it's pretty easy. All you need is brie, french bread, honey, and green apples. Simply slice the apples and brie and layer thick onto the french bread, then drizzle with honey (I like to use local Acadiana Honey) and pop it on to a hot pan/ panini press/ George Foreman and watch it melt. Leave it there till the bread is crispy and the brie is warm and shazaam: awesome sandwich. Happy Birthday me and happy eating to everyone else!