Zinque Craves and Savors

How many bottles of wine on the wall, how many bottles of wine? At Zinque in Venice, CA, when you take one down and pass it around, there’s that number minus one bottles of wine on the wall. After meeting up a group of pretty awesome friends at a house party in Venice to welcome back our fave New York couple, we took the party down the street to a French wine bar, Zinque, for a few bottles of wine and a bite to eat. I ordered the French fries and flatbread and our friend Bry, our Bartender for the night (and many other nights) ordered the wine. We all got to catch up and got to get to know a little more about friends that we didn’t know before. I didn’t count the number of bottles of wine on the wall or the number of glasses of wine that were poured. I can’t remember the number of conversations we all shared or the number of pictures we all took, but I do know that every minute was savored. And at the end of the night, when Denver hopped on the piano in the bar, I was reminded that in a year, there are five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes, five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear. We all had to join Denver to sing the lyrics of Rent’s Seasons of Love because, “It’s time now to sing out, Tho’ the story never ends. Let’s celebrate, remember a year in the life of friends. Remember the LOVE!” While we don’t usually count or remember each minute, it’s nice to know that we can always measure our life in love.

Craves and Savors From The Original Pantry Cafe

Who loves breakfast? I do! And so do a set of four year old twins that already know what their cravings are in the mornings. My bf, his sister, brother in-law, the kiddies and I went to The Original Pantry Cafe in Los Angeles for breakfast and there was a line that almost wrapped around the building, it was so long. It’s safe to assume that every one waiting to eat also loves breakfast, and they all must also love The Original Pantry. While waiting to get in the door, I hear Evita say, “I want pokey eggs” (eggs sunny-side up, that you can poke and the yoke runs out) and DeAngelo say, “I want pancakes.” After the wait, we all wanted anything and everything on the menu! We finally made our decisions, and ordered. My cravings for coffee, apple juice, two eggs over easy, breakfast potatoes, and French toast overpowered the other cravings, but having an option for a combination of three items and two beverages also helped. Those potatoes are honestly the best breakfast potatoes ever! I think I know why so many people were lined up out front. The French toast with maple syrup was also savory, but nothing was savored more than the time spent with the people I shared breakfast with. What’s not to love about a delicious breakfast when we’re with people we love?

Festival Craves & Savors

Doesn’t every one love festival season? It sure looked like it based on the number of happy festival goers who went to the San Manuel Amphitheater in San Bernardino this past weekend, where Mumford and Sons headlined. While I like the band, what really had my bf and I sold on the concert were the food trucks and the fact that we wanted to spend time with Jax and her husband Ste, our music festival partners. There were so many food trucks in this large outdoor amphitheater, and the first thing we did was eat at the Wicked Kitchen, which I had been craving since trying it for the first time at Coachella. I had the same thing I had before, “I Pity The Tofu’l.” Not long after, my bf and I shared some nachos at one of the taco stands. We also tried the Chunk-n-Chip Cookies Truck, which was my favorite. I had the pistachio ice cream in between two chocolate chip cookies. The ice cream was delicious, there were little chinks of pistachio mashed in the ice cream, and it was so good, I forgot about the cookies, and neglected them almost altogether. I always enjoy being able to try a variety of food cravings at the trucks and vendors that have become almost as popular at music festivals as the bands themselves. I enjoy savoring time with friends, the great music, and the great vibes from the people there having a good time. It’s also nice to be inspired by festival fashion, and there isn’t any one more fashionable that I know than my friend and festival partner, who can be followed on Instagram @Luna_spoon (named after her beloved Boston Terrier).

So, what festival or concert is next on the list? Which band or musician is a must-see this season and where?

Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

Don’t we just love being able to spend time with friends to celebrate good times together? In one week span, I was able to be with the best friends a person can have. We’ve all gotten together to celebrate a pregnancy, a birthday, and life! As the years go by, we celebrate more and more milestones together, and continue to learn about and learn from one another, and also learn about ourselves. In addition to savoring the fun times we share together, we are also able to truly appreciate the people in our lives and savor our friendships with them. Initially, I thought that this blog was going to be more centered around style and fashion. As we’ve all probably noticed, so many of the things I crave and savor are actually centered around the people in my life and all the amazing meals I share with them. So I have to give my thanks to all of you who style and accessories my world. You are all like the shoes to my outfits! (And you all know how much I love shoes).

Savoring The Life Of The (Birthday) Party

Isn’t it easy to fall in love with the life of the party? I’ve known Jax for the past 15 years, but it was definitely love at first laugh. It doesn’t have to be her birthday (which it so happens to be today) nor does it have to be a party in order for her to bring life to any situation, no matter how crazy or how mundane. There are some very rare and very special people in this world that never fail to entertain, and if there was a reality show that I would actually watch, it would have to star this birthday girl. In addition to Jax being one of the most fun persons to be around, she is also an amazing friend, and an amazing person. She is a person that I look up to and look forward to being around and if you ever have the pleasure of meeting her, she will surely and easily sweep you off your feet too. I can honestly say that throughout the years, she has made countless and (already) unforgettable experiences that much more memorable. I can’t help but savor and be appreciative for the flavor and color she brings to my life, so I have to say Happy Happy Birthday to the beautiful, stylish, and irreplaceable Jax, the Life of the Party.

SW Steakhouse Craves and Savors

Doesn’t Las Vegas have some of the best fine dining restaurants jam packed in one city? With the amount of visitors that come to Sin City to gamble, shop, and indulge in a variety of adult entertainment, the Hotels and Restaurants make sure that guests are well fed and that any cravings that our hearts desire can be satisfied. My bf and I flew to Vegas today and had dinner with my bestie Dreams and her husband Ray, and I have been dying to see them. I was on the verge of tears this morning thinking about how excited I was this morning to get to spend time with one of my favorite people in the world, Dreams, who recently shared the news that she is pregnant! We needed to have a celebration dinner, and after some deliberation of where to eat (since there are so many options to chose from), we decided on the SW Steakhouse at the Wynn. During the beginning of the busy memorial weekend, many of the dining hot spots were fully committed, but we were able to get reservations at SW, one of the most popular and raved about restaurants at the Wynn. We started off with the Seafood Spectacular, a chilled selection of the ocean’s finest Maine lobster, king crab legs, jumbo shrimp, oysters, and crab cocktail, along with the BigEye Tuna Ceviche, mango-grapefruit salsa, smoked chile, avocado, and sesame crackers, and the Alaskan King Crab Pasta, made with oyster mushrooms, basil, and Meyer lemon sauce. We shared the Black Truffle Creamed Corn, Brussels Sprouts with Carrots, and SW French Fries side dishes. Dreams and I shared the Roasted Scottish Salmon. For Dessert, we had the Funnel Cake and Strawberries with anglaise, salty caramel and fudge sauce (that was presented like a piece of art, with 6 individual funnel cakes draped like flowers on branches), the Warm Dark Chocolate Brownie made with vanilla parfait, caramelized banana, banana ice cream, and drizzled in warn fudge sauce, and vanilla ice cream. Dinner was amazing, but what I savored more from the night was the time I got to spend with people I love, which I have been craving so much more than the food on the table. While tonight, we ate at what some would consider one of the best places to eat in the many fine dining restaurants in Vegas, the people we ate with were what made the night a dinner at SW to crave and savor.

Savoring Sobriety

What does May 18th mark for some one who is addicted to alcohol and substances? For my bf, it marks his ten year anniversary of being sober. We call it his birthday because prior this date ten years ago, during his battles with alcohol and substance abuse, he believed he was not really living at all. Some people may not understand what it’s like to be, be with, or even know, an alcoholic or addict, while other may know what’s it’s like all too well.

Alcohol and substances effect all walks of life, and while every one’s story is different, there can be certain aspects of these stories that sound eerily similar to one another. My bf’s story started out with drinking and abusing drugs at a very early age, getting three DUI’s before age 21 (the legal drinking age) and several visits to the Emergency Room, one of which left him in a coma for a week. One would think any one of those instances would be a wake up call, but for an alcoholic or addict, it’s not as easy as it seems to stop drinking or using as it may be for some one who isn’t afflicted with this disease or predisposition. Thank goodness for his family members (and especially his sister Evy), who made a final intervention and ultimatum to either get clean or get out of their lives as the life he was leading was headed in one of two directions, jail or an early grave. His mother could never get a good night’s sleep, as she thought she would one day get that call that her son was either dead or had killed some one. As the family and/or loved ones of some one is going down a path of destruction, we too have to make hard decisions of being an enabler or not. That ultimatum is what lead him to Las Encinas Rehab, which taught him the tools he needed to get and also remain clean and sober, which ultimately saved his life. While he considers himself one of the lucky ones, he also knows it doesn’t just take luck. He takes his sobriety one day at a time, waking up, thanking God for another day or being alive, and not taking anything for granted.

My bf describes himself during those “dark years” as a “shell of himself,” with no morals, no values, or without ambition to live. While I didn’t know him during the the time before his sobriety, I know that time is a big part of what makes him who he is today, one of the best persons I know, the man I love and who I can’t imagine my life without. Although every day can be considered a day to savor and celebrate his sobriety, I am so proud him and happy that we can celebrate this special milestone of his tenth birthday together.

(Amazing Banana Creme Cake Courtesy of my bf’s sister Evy, so gooooood!)

We are Family, I Got All My Sisters With Me

Aren’t girlfriends the sisters that we choose? After a fun-filled vacation with my girlfriends and our family members, I felt extremely grateful of all of the people in my life and all of the time I was able to savor with what I think of as my extended family. My girlfriends are like my sisters, and their family members, I also consider my family members as well. Although a few of my sisters were missing from the trip, I know they were there in spirit. On our, what seemed like a very short, trip together, we were able to eat, shop, and talk together. We shared rooms, stories, and experiences of a lifetime. We participated in water sports, laid out on the beach, enjoyed happy hour at sunset, walked around Boracay’s Zone One, and sang karaoke until we were falling asleep from exhaustion. No matter what the activity, the most important part of it all was the love we felt for one another and the simple joy of being together. Despite everything that we’ve been through with one another though out the years, we have always found time and ways to make each other feel important and despite the amount of time between seeing one another, we have always picked up where we left off.

Savoring The Dive At Baling Hai

Is it weird to wonder, while scuba diving, why Sebastian from the movie The Little Mermaid looked so much more like a lobster instead of like a crab? While diving the Baling Hai site off of Boracay, Philippines, a lobster was one of the many things that I had to pleasure of seeing and I couldn’t help but be reminded of Sebastian, the lobster-looking crab, who had me singing in my head, “Just look at the world around you, right here on the ocean floor. Such wonderful things surround you, what more is you lookin’ for? Under the sea, under the sea, Darling it’s better, down where it’s wetter, take it from me…” With so many amazing sights to see in the ocean, but not much to listen to, I was left with my own thoughts and tunes to narrate my experience in the depths of the ocean.

After gearing up and doing a back-roll off of the side ledge of our boat, my dive buddy, Randy from Scotty’s Dive Center, guided us down the coral wall to an unforgettable underwater adventure. There is so much to see in the ocean. Most times, when looking one way to see something, we miss seeing something else. That’s why it’s best to dive with some one who can point things out, even when it’s to let me know that I missed a stingray. There was; however, so much that I was able to see, like a huge sponge, tons of different types of fish, and coral. The best part of the dive was seeing a school of fish completely still and sleeping, and now I can actually say I know what it’s like to sleep with the fishes.

Savoring the Sights and Sounds of Coachella

Where do an estimated 90,000 people go every April for an unforgettable music experience of a lifetime? Indio, which is the home to Coachella’s annual music festival, where for two consecutive weekends, bands play from day to night on the polo grounds in the dessert. I along with my favorite guys, my bf and my brother, went to the first day of weekend two and entered into another, yet familiar, world filled with music, art, and hoards upon hoards of people. In addition to the option of non-stop people watching entertainment, Coachella provides visual stimulation at every turn: the projector art, the giant moving snail, the Coachella Factory filled with masked men, etc. The sights are definitely something to behold; however, the artists are really what music-lovers come to see. On day one, the bands we watched were Of Monsters and Men, Passion Pit, Modesto Mouse, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Stone Roses, Jurassic 5, and Blur. Day one was filled with sights and sounds to savor, and am sure days two and three will be just as amazing.