Graceful Eats

Hi Everyone! In honor of my much needed spring break I’ve been busy stuffing my face and finding new things to share with you all. So get ready for some exciting treats for the eyes and ears and mark your Yelp lists to check out my new findings!

Thursday night after my last final of the quarter, a bunch of the FEMBA 14′s met up at Dave and Busters @ Irvine Spectrum to celebrate the ending to our horrible quarter with a nightmare professor for accounting. Dislike. Anyway, if you don’t know, Dave and Busters has an awesome Late-Night Happy Hour where drinks are half-price from 10 p.m. – close. We rendez-vous’ed at the bar which has super slow service, but hey, cheap drinks. They also have a  few tasty menu items to try if you get those munchies from drinking.

Friday night, we headed to The Auld Dubliner in Tustin where I was introduced to the coolest Irish Car Bomb contraption ever:

Irish Car Bomb Contraption @ The Auld Dubliner

There’s a push lever in the center (similar to how you would set off TNT) and once you push that lever down, the shots get released into the cups and all 4 participants can pound their drinks back. I didn’t get to try much of the tasty treats I was eye-balling on their menu but I did catch that they had some type of chips with truffle oil and goat cheese (yum!), and corned beef street tacos! (double yum!) I will definitely be back to check those out, you can look forward to pictures of those! This is a picture of Karl, it was his birthday and the reason why there about half a dozen of these Irish Car Bombs ordered.

Next up, I went to brunch with some dear friends of mine on Saturday at a cute cafe called The Crema Cafe in Seal Beach. I found it on Yelp of course so it was busy, much like most of the brunch joints in the area. The Creme Cafe is located on Main Street, a quaint little beach city street with small shops, cafes, & restaurants with difficult to find parking but not impossible. I ended up parking in a metered lot not too far away while my friends parked in the CVS across the street and all was OK (no tow! – whew!) The Creme Cafe was good. Their food is pretty tasty but they are definitely top notch on the coffee and tea. I had a Vanilla Latte, and if you think you love Starbucks, you’ve got another thing coming. But if you aren’t into sweet latte’s, this will not be your forte. I felt like I was drinking a Vanilla Hot Chocolate, if that makes any sense but definitely had the coffee undertones. It was Ah-Maz-Ing! I wish you could get refills, but I suppose it’s better that I limit myself to 1 cup of coffee a day, especially on a weekend. One of my gf’s ordered the Jasmin Green Tea that came in a cool tea contraption where you place it on your tea cup and it drains into the cup. (drink contraptions are obviously the new thing!):

Jasmine Green Tea @ The Creme Cafe in Seal Beach

Caprese Omelette @ The Crema Cafe in Seal Beach

We sampled 3 dishes: the Caprese Omelette which had Prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, fresh tomato, and topped with pesto sauce.

The Seal Beach Omelette: Bacon, avocado, tomato, cilantro,cheddar jack cheese (pictured below):

Seal Beach Omelette @ The Creme Cafe in Seal Beach

And the Caramelized Apple & Pear with raisins, brown sugar (pictured below):

Caramelized Apple & Pear @ The Creme Cafe in Seal Beach

And we shared an order of the Sweet Potato Fries from the recommendations I saw on Yelp (only served after 11 a.m.). On a scale from 1-10, the food was about a 6. Meh, nothing too special. But the service was a perfect 10! And I would highly recommend their coffees!

There’s much more to share but I will save it for a later time. Here’s a picture of my perm I got on Friday to kick off a new hair style for spring – with bangs!

Digital Perm with bangs from Fanny @ Universal Beauty Salon in Rowland Heights

It has been one of those weeks… and I’m not talking about the good kind. It’s been rough waters for me in every aspect and I can’t wait for it to subside. Work has been very busy but it’s been hectic and when things get hectic, people get mood swings, myself included. Sometimes it’s great to work with family, but others, not so much.

It just so happens that my rough work week coincides with finals. Not that I put too much stress into it, but mainly because I am so pooped from work that by the end of the day, I just don’t have the energy to muster up the brain power to study. The stress that I actually experience stems from the fact that I don’t study and that makes me anxious about my understanding of the material. I’m not too worried about grades, though I am aiming to get straight A’s from my MBA program, but it boils down to whether or not I’m squeezing the value of $5k from every class I’m taking. Yeah, $5k is roughly what each course works out cost me. Highway robbery if you ask me.

Meh.

Sometimes, life gives you lemon and you just gotta learn how to make lemonade but then other things pop up like you don’t have a knife to puncture the skin or something. Man oh man.

MPAD #20: “Before and after”

Found this on pinterest and had to post for my MPAD. This was too cool, I want to make one!!!

http://dee-construction.blogspot.com/2011/08/tutorial-sweater-restyle.html

How cool!

Last night, Flex Force Five, my MBA team members, had a meeting at Panera Bread and I thought I should share my findings. Panera Bread bakes bread and has a cafe and is usually found around college campuses supplying free internet. The one I went to last night was on Bison in Costa Mesa.

Panera Bread

I ordered a Limited Time Vinegrette Steak Panini with spinach and provolone. For my soup I chose the Creamy Tomato and a side of chips. I also opted to get a pastry for an additional $0.99. Total meal cost was $12.69 with a drink.

While my panini was good, the best part was the bread and flavorful steak. The creamy tomatosoup was not exciting at all and the pastry “The Crumble” was not warm and soft and gooey as I hoped. Overall it was a good meal and a great meeting spot for UCI students.

MPAD #9 – “Red”

Red nails – Essie “Geranium”

Photo A Day 9 - "Red"

Born Concept - Orianna Flower

Finally back on the horse and putting up a picture. “Something you wore” is my beloved Born Concept Orianna flats that I picked up at a local TJ Maxx. I never heard of this brand before but when I laid my eyes on them I knew I had to have them. What’s great about these flats other than the beautiful tropical flower with it’s details is that it also comes with cushioned insoles for comfort which is much welcomed in the world of flats. I’ve decided I would never purchase another pair of flats because of the lack of support they offer, though it is more comfortable than walking in pumps for 8 hours, is also quite strenuous because of the flat soles that don’t offer any support for our feet and impacts your back/posture.

March Photo A Day #2: Fruit

Feast your eyes on these beauties… the box was from a case I ordered from Speck and it just match so well with the fresh oranges my mom bought at the Mexican market… something like 8 lbs. for $1. Happy Vitamin C-ing!

In my quest to take up the Photo A Day challenge I started to seek some new photo apps for my Samsung smart phone after constantly seeing instagram pictures on Facebook and I think Vignette puts up a good fight… You take a picture and then you can alter it, add more contrast, make it look like a Polaroid, fade out the edges, etc…

My favorite one:

Vignette Demo - Adjusted

Vignette Demo Standard

This one was taken just with the regular camera on my phone:

Oh hey there! Fruit!

I’m pretty happy with Vignette and recommend it to people who are looking for that Instagram effect but haven’t jumped on the iPhone bandwagon Enjoy!