My Fast Likes Winning!

Hola lovers! I'm back! I'm sure you're thinking, where the EFF have I been? Or why the EFF am a week late announcing the giveaway winner? And I'm sure you're definitely thinking you don't want to hear about another damn rabbit hole for as long as you live and blog. Am I right? I know I'm so tired of falling down rabbit holes, I could vomit. But you know, life happens, and it turns out, I'm not as good at multitasking as I thought I was. But no worries, I'm here now, and I've got news! For starters, the winner of the oh so colorful kitchen set is Noelani from Mon Petit Chou Chou! Congrats lady, inbox me so I can snail mail you your gift :-)

And for my news....

From Spain with Love

I carry Spain in my heart. Every. Single. Day. This much, you know is true. Do you know how I know that you know this about me?

Because more than a few people have told me that whenever they hear or see some reference to Spain, they think of me. That makes me feel loved. And I need a lot of love these days. Lots of it. And I need a car. And a roommate. And a place to live. But I literally don't have the energy to talk about that sh*tf*ckery today. Ugh.

But back to you knowing me and my Spain.

So my friend and fellow epicurean blogger (and fellow Blue Hen, go UD!) Keeley over at My Life on a Plate totally put me on to my newest food tv obsession, From Spain with Love. It comes on the Cooking Channel, which is by and large 8 bajillion times better than the Food Network. The moment she told me about the show (and that it reminded her of me) I added it to my DVR. Because I DVR food shows all the time. That's totally normal, right?? *nervous laugh* This past weekend, the first in which I was not contractually obligated to be reading a Harry Potter book and/or celebrating a Leo's birthday, I finally  had the chance to watch the show. And sure enough, I LOVE it. But there's a twist to this story. You see, I don't actually have the Cooking Channel on my satellite f*ck comcast! package. When Keeley told me about it, I just happened to have a free preview of it for a few weeks. And then one day, like Kaizer Soze, the Cooking Channel was gone and I was left destitute and alone with only the Food Network to sustain yet not entertain me. Whatever is a Jersey girl, who is going to move to Spain, and totally obsessed with watching good food television to do?! Well it turns out, I can simply do laundry at my sister, Odichi's house and watch it there, because she also thought of me when she saw it, and promptly added it to her DVR! Now that, my friends is love. Hermanas rock!

{Source}

Open for Business and BiWinning!

Teenagers are stupid. Like, scary stupid. Teen Mom may be the most disturbing program I've ever seen, and I watched both seasons of Flavor of Love, so that saying a lot. The epic fail on the part of everyone whose featured on this show literally makes me fear for the future. I need to call my mother and tell her how much I love her, and thank her for not failing me as a parent. Seriously. This morning, as I was watching the train wreck that is the lives of these terrifyingly stupid teen parents, I realized I'm probably witnessing the early years of future strippers and murders of America, and a chill ran down my spine. I shudder to think what happens when the cameras aren't rolling. But there is a moral to this story that goes beyond sex education, and a well deserved back-hand to the face of all of these girls--especially Jenelle (Jesus be a fence!). I've realized that while there are many things to be legitimately afraid of, like parenting teenagers, crossing the streets in Baltimore, and the Republican agenda to defund Planned Parenthood (obviously they haven't seen this show), a small business venture on Etsy really should not be one of them. With that said, I'm proud to announce that I am officially open for business on Etsy!



You can click on the above link, or the button on the side bar, and it will take you right to my shop, were you can place an order.

And for the giveaway winners... Thank you to everyone who entered.

The winner of the Brownies is Chavonne from Like It's Golden!
The winner of the Blondies is Fugitivwits!

Congrats to both of you. Inbox me your addresses, and do me the biggest favor and share them with people who have money to burn, and refer them to my shop :-) I've got some baking to do this weekend, will ship on Monday!

Bourbon Vanilla Blondies + Giveaway= TGIF!

I don't know about you, but it's been quite a week for me. In the last five days, I have seriously considered quitting my job--twice, received my first acupuncture treatment, realized I have no choice but to pursue my plans for an Etsy shop lest I want to go to Spain with my old point n shoot, gotten about 20 hours of restful sleep, suffered through four nightmares, received my package for my CSN product review and found out that a 12" cast iron skillet is really fucking big, realized I lost my $10 bottle of mighty grip yet still attempted a pole split and didn't fall to my death (success pending on LOTS of stretching, mighty grip and a miracle), successfully made brownies and blondies of "insane greatness" and subsequently consumed half of each batch, thereby ingesting an estimated 3000 auxiliary calories that I'm sure will show up on my lower stomach three days before I leave for the beaches and men of Spain AND finally gave in to the feelings that I could no longer deny and admitted to myself and world via Facebook that I'm in love.........with Pauly D from Jersey Shore. Don't judge me.

So let's talk about those blondies. What's a blondie, you ask? Blondies are exactly what they sound like, which are a chocolate free, or "blonde" version of brownies. While a chocolate free version of any form of dessert may be considered sacrilege to some, it's a welcome variation on a American classic to others. I mean, even if you are a self proclaimed raging chocoholic connoisseur of fine cocoa based confections, can you really deny the awesomeness that results from combining browned butter is lust, brown sugar, bourbon, and vanilla extract?? I didn't think you could. Just admit it. It doesn't mean you love chocolate any less. I won't tell anyone. Scout's honor.



Afternoon Crumbs...

Hola guapas!! I'm such a wayward blogger, I don't know why you even tolerate me. I know I'm supposed to have a Meatless Monday post for you today, buuuuut unfortunately, I'm suffering a terrible case of blogger's block, and my sad and pathetic half written MM post is still being "worked on", and I would rather not share it with the world just yet. I may hate my job, but I love this blog, and you guys deserve the best I can be. Which brings me to my next point.
For sometime, I've been contemplating ways to bring in a little extra cash in my pockets. I finally settled on the idea of opening a shop on Etsy and selling some sweet edibles, but have been wary about it because, well, I'm a self proclaimed NON baker. Or at least I thought I was, until I came across a recipes for brownies that just screamed "sell me on Etsy...and while you're at it, sell blondies too!" So a few weeks ago, I decided that I was definitely going to do it, and would preview the brownies and blondies on this here blog, while sharing said brownies with friends and coworkers, to gauge their sell ability.

So where are these brownies, you ask? Well, I made them both, but I fudged the recipe on the brownies, and wasn't blown away by the blondies, and have been avoiding remaking them for fear that this is a massively bad idea. BUT I don't "do" fear for very long, because I just don't have the patience for it, and it's non productive. I've also realized that I leave for Spain (again) in two months, having any extra cash on hand would be exceptionally helpful. Sooo with that said, I'm forcing myself, by way of this blog post, to try TRY again with each of these recipes this week and post them to the blog.

And here's where things get interesting. I've decided to do a GIVEAWAY for each recipe. Since I'm thinking about selling these goodies on Etsy, packing and shipping them are an equally important part of the process, and what better test audience for such an endeavor than you guys?! It's a win-win, and totally makes up for some of my broken blog resolutions.

So here goes...wish me luck...

For the Win!

So I'm way late and wrong for just getting around to posting the winners of the giveaway. But it's Monday, I happily have a lot of shit going on at work for once, AND I have a double networking date in D.C. this evening. I had a feeling that making the giveaway announcement date on a Monday was probably a bad idea...and as it turns out, I was right. Oh well, nobody's really complaining when they're getting free awesome stuff from España or Morocco, right? So without further adieu..

The winner of the bread bag from Barcelona is:
Keeley from My Life on a Plate!

The winner of the Spice Tangine from Morocco is:

Maddy from the Maddy Chronicles!

Congratulations, ladies! Inbox me your addresses!

Thank you to all who entered! To all my new readers, welcome, so glad to have you and can't wait to hear more from you! I loved reading about your travels, glad to see you're all getting in your international mileage. I promise I will have some new food posts soon, I'm hoping to resume Soap Box Wednesdays this week or next, and promise a policy post in the next two weeks!

¡Ciao!

Vacation Giveaway Extravaganza!

Hola Rant Followers! The time has finally come for my first giveaway! Having spent two magnificent weeks in España and Morocco, I felt it was only appropriate to get two gifts, one from each country, to share with my readers! So now your odds of winning have doubled!

I know you're probably dying to know what the gifts are. But I like to build people's anticipation. You should be at my house at Christmas, it's kind of a family tradition for everyone to unintentionally move as slowly as possible to all get seated before we open gifts. First I have to walk the poodle and get him settled with water and food. And my mom is notorious for being distracted somewhere in the kitchen dealing with the food. And when finally get around to opening gifts, it's even funnier because we always tape all four sides of the boxes shut, and watching each other struggle trying to rip it off never gets old. See how I just made you wait even longer to see the gifts? It was funny. It's like my virtual way of taping the wrapping paper to the box, and then taping all four sides of the box closed. Lol. You love me for it.

Gift #1

It's a bread bag that I bought in Barcelona. It was actually an accidental purchase. See right what had happened...was that I thought I was buying this really really cute apron, that had a flamenco dancer on it, said Barcelona, and even had a little skirt ruffle on it.  But when I opened the package back at our apartment, far far away from the souvenir shop I bought it from, I discovered that it was in fact a bread bad and not that adorable apron, that by the way I never saw in any other of the dozens of touristy shops in the rest of España. FAIL...or so I thought. But then I got to thinking, that it's really cute, and really practical. It's a total space saver, and it's long enough to accommodate long french baguettes, and would be a really cute and practical giveaway. And then I got back home and seriously considered keeping it for myself. But I didn't, so you're welcome.

Gift #2

It's a spice tangine from Morocco. During our wonderful stay in Marrakech, every meal that we were served was accompanied by a tangine of various spices.  I just loved the look of them, and considered getting one for myself, but after realizing that I don't have any space for anything in my "cozy" kitchen, I thought it better to make it a blog gift. I searched high and low for a really pretty one that was well made, and finally found this one. I hope you like it!


How to enter:
1. You must be a follower of the blog or a fan on facebook. Bloglovin' followers are anonymous, so feel free to follow via bloglovin' but I can't verify your status if you do.
2. Leave a comment below either about your favorite international travel experience OR what you like best from what you've seen from my trip thus far. [more vacay posts coming soon] *Please indicate your mode of blog following in your comment*
3. You must live in the U.S. or Canada to win.
4. I will use a random generator to pick the winner.

The deadline for comments is Sunday August 8th
Winners will be announced Monday August 9th!