My May 2015 Birchbox + Cupcakes and Cashmere collab arrived yesterday and it’s a good one! I started following Cupcakes and Cashmere awhile back (probably waaaaay after everyone else did) so I was excited to hear about Emily’s collaboration with Birchbox. The box design, as always, is on point, with a cute peachy graphic and a golden logo:
1. Ooey Gooey Butter Cake Ice Cream from Ample Hills Creamery. I’m originally from St. Louis (born and raised). There’s this thing in St. Louis called gooey butter cake, and it is ridiculous and magical. It is the unicorn of baked goods. Gooey butter cake is in no way, shape, or form good for you because it’s basically a bunch of butter and sugar. You rarely encounter gooey butter cake outside St. Louis, but Ample Hills is a Brooklyn ice cream joint that makes an ice cream with chunks of the cake mixed in, and I’ve been meaning to try it for quite awhile. A couple days ago we had REALLY nice weather so I walked on up to the Gowanus location and treated myself to a cup of the stuff while soaking up a little vitamin D on the roof deck. What I learned is that next time I need to order a large instead of a small. YES. 
Continue Reading…
In our quest to find a meal subscription service that works best for our two-person household, we’ve tried Blue Apron, Plated, and HelloFresh. I’ve already detailed why we canceled our Blue Apron subscription, and now I’ll talk a little bit about why we decided to cancel Plated as well.
To be fair, we only used Plated four times. The first Plated meal I ever cooked was my favorite (Spicy Coconut Rice Noodles with Kale and Basil) and nothing we got from them afterward ever really lived up to it.
Last week, we got two vegetarian plates: 1) Fettucine with Ricotta, Fava Beans, and Mint and 2) Spring Veggie Burgers with Carrot Chips and Aioli.
Happy May! Is it just me, or did April last about three years?
1. “Girl, You Don’t Need Makeup”: Inside Amy Schumer‘s brilliant boy band video parody-slash-commentary on all the crap women paint our faces with every day before leaving the house. I know I talk a lot about makeup and beauty products here, but I don’t wear as much of it or apply it as often as you might think. However, if I have a social outing I do put some effort into makeup because 1) I legitimately enjoy the process of applying makeup and 2) I too feel the need to present myself as somewhat polished/less corpse-like. Anyway—I love this video for its on-point skewering of our society’s beauty standards. Also, the #girlyoudontneedmakeup movement inspired me to tweet my own makeup-free selfie. Amy Schumer is a genius. Genius!
I know you’ve been waiting with bated breath for me to receive my jane iredale Just Kissed Lip and Cheek Stain from Birchbox! ‘Cuz there’s definitely nothing else happening around the world right now.  /sarcasm
My lip and cheek stain in the shade “Forever Pink” finally arrived today, box slightly squished, and I was so excited to try this stuff on! This is one of those “adjusts to your own chemistry” products that goes on almost clear but deepens to a custom color that works with your skin tone.
But first, some light packaging porn:
A couple Fridays ago I talked about Sephora’s rare 15% off VIB sale in which I ordered a few beauty goodies for myself. Well, it took awhile for me to receive said goodies because my package supposedly got delivered by UPS on April 17th. However, I never got that shipment so I had to ask Sephora had to re-send it.*
Needless to say, I was verrrry excited to FINALLY get my order the other day! Want to see what I got?
1. Daryl Dixon: everyone’s favorite crossbow-toting badass from The Walking Dead! My friend gave me this awesome action figure set that comes with Daryl’s chopper and, of course, his crossbow. We had both been hunting for a Daryl action figure at San Diego Comic-Con last year and were never able to find one. Now I have one of my own and he is WAY too cool to take out of the box!
While scrolling through all the food porn on Pinterest in search of interesting recipes, I came across this gorgeous-looking dish on Eat, Live, Run: Beet Pesto Pasta. (The blogger got the recipe from Heather Christo‘s cookbook Generous Table.) I immediately pinned it and kept coming back to the link, drooling at that luscious pink spaghetti. I decided to make it for dinner last night, with some of my own additions, and it did not disappoint!
Beets used to be intimidating to me, because you typically have to roast or boil and then peel them before you can actually start cooking with them. I’ve gotten over it, though, and they’re worth the extra effort!* I made the beet pesto ahead of time, figuring that it would only taste better if I allowed the flavors time to come together.
This recipe was super easy to make: all you have to do is boil the beets until they’re fork tender, then throw the ingredients into your food processor or blender and pulse until you have a pretty pink PESTO!
Lately I’ve been in the mood to make food from scratch. I feel like when you do this, it helps put you in better touch with what you put in your mouth, and it also gives you a better appreciation for all the work that goes into quality cooking and baking. For example, a couple weeks ago I was all MUST MAKE PIZZA DOUGH FROM SCRATCH! So I tried, and I failed so hard that we had to run out and buy frozen crusts from Whole Foods at the last minute because we getting hangry. (I blame the yeast that I used—it was a bad batch that didn’t rise, even though it was a year from its expiration date.) I now have a much greater appreciation for pizza that’s done right—dough seems like a simple thing to make, but it requires plenty of finesse and, of course, the right ingredients.
I didn’t let the #pizzafail get me down, though. I got on a MUST BAKE BREAD FROM SCRATCH kick, and—Spoiler Alert!—this time it worked out pretty well. Here’s a peek:
I received my April 2015 Birchbox a couple days ago, and I have to say that this month’s box design is my new favorite (I know, I said last month was my favorite). When I opened the outer box and saw the Birchbox, I recognized the Rifle Paper Co. design immediately. I mean, how freaking adorable is this box?!
