Dear guy in the blue gingham shirt...

Hi. How’s your day? If it's anything like your afternoon last Thursday, which looked to me like it was pretty good—leaving work at 4pm, windows down and sunroof open, just enjoying some Classical Minnesota Public Radio in traffic on 94-W...then it must be going well. I liked how your shirt color-coordinated with your Mazda...nothing like a guy rocking the gingham in early spring to make my heart skip a beat. I also liked the moment of eye contact and adorable smile you gave me when we realized we were both listening to MPR. Pretty sure that Classical MPR wouldn’t be the only thing we had in common...

Bummer that you exited on 5th…I felt like we had a really good thing going. Looking forward to potential future traffic jams, where we can discuss Orchestra Hall’s spring programming through our open windows. Or, you know, just grab a latte at Spyhouse and discuss all the other things I’m sure we’ll have to talk about.

Til then, keep an eye out for the girl in the gray dress driving the white Toyota…I exit on 11th Street and I’ll keep my classical on extra-loud so you don’t miss me.

Yours affectionately,

Lizzie

(Sarcasm, mostly. But just in case…any Minneapolitans know a guy with an affinity for Tchaikovsky and J.Crew button-downs driving a Mazda? Hook a single girl up.)

Sunday Brunch: Harriet Brasserie

With the recent stretch of beautiful spring weather, it finally feels like everyone in Minneapolis has hit that fever pitch of needing to be outside. After a long (albeit more temperate than usual) winter, nothing sounds better to me than soaking up as much Vitamin D as possible. Claire, Eva, and I took full advantage of a gorgeous Sunday a few weeks ago with one of the most charming brunches ever at Harriet Brasserie!

Location/Ambiance:

The Harriet Brasserie is located in a beautiful old firehouse in the Linden Hills neighborhood on the west side of Lake Harriet. The neighborhood itself couldn’t be more charming, boasting one of my favorite bookstores, The Wild Rumpus, along with gorgeous old homes and tall, wide-branched trees. We were lucky enough to score a prime patio location…intimate wrought-iron tables and chairs looking over a busy sidewalk. I got to spend my entire meal flirting with babies and petting dogs at neighboring tables, and the entire atmosphere just felt totally congenial and chic in the best way.

Score: 10/10

Beverage:

Having played a bit too hard on the Saturday preceding, none of us were really in the mood to Sunday Funday. I treated myself to the Nutella Mocha instead, and it was overwhelmingly decadent. Think dark chocolate ganache-y magic. Adding Nutella put it over the top. One of those beverages where you know you should chain yourself to the treadmill afterward, and still don’t care, because it’s SO GOOD.

Score: 10/10

Food:

The best thing about brunch with Claire, and now Eva, is getting to go splitsies on dishes and try more! Eva and I were both torn between the crab cake Benedict and the pancakes, so obviously the solution was to get both. The Benedict was perfect…crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside crab cakes, a great, super-light poblano Hollandaise, and amazing avocado lime crema. The pancakes, similarly, blew me away…made with browned butter and with cacao nibs and bananas, they weren’t overly sweet, but made the perfect contrast to the savory Benedict. We cleaned (both) plates. Claire ordered a “Bauru,” a Brazilian-inspired steak sandwich, that also looked amazing.

Score: 10/10

Enough gushing to convince you that Harriet Brasserie should rocket to the top of your brunch list? Check it out here, or pick another place off my brunch list! Happy patio brunching, campers!

Inventory: Spring 2015

Making: updates to the epic spreadsheet my mom, Emily and I have been working on in advance of our trip to Paris! 

Cooking: an absolutely massive batch of quinoa to mix into everything I eat, basically. 

Drinking: Grey Goose and grapefruit, Kelsie's and my Mexican addiction! (Anyone interested? I'll share, come on over!)

Reading: TripAdvisor reviews of of Parisian restaurants, and Princess Diana's biography.

Wanting: Kaitlin to come visit, but...

Looking: forward to numerous trips to Boston starting this fall to see her!

Playing: Jimmy Buffett on Spotify and...

Wasting: away again in Margaritaville. (Duh, it's Jimmy Buffett.)

Wishing: my boss wasn't leaving me!

Enjoying: that spring has finally come to Minnesota. 

Waiting: for my tax return, awwww yeah. 

Liking: every Instagram of spring flowers I come across. 

Wondering: WHEN KATE MIDDLETON IS GOING TO HAVE HER BABY. Obviously. 

Loving: the cute updates I'm getting from my parents in California!

Hoping: I can find my Twins shirt before tomorrow. 

Marveling: at Emily's amazing hand-drawn lettering (which I shamelessly Snapchat screenshot). 

Needing: to get majorly caught up on this blog, yikes. 

Smelling: the Pistachio Macaron candle I can't stop burning through (I'm on my second already and they smell crack-delicious.)

Wearing: a sweaty post-gym pair of track shorts and a tank top, and already thinking about what to change into post-shower for this evening's shenanigans...

Following: up with little baby prospective band members in Notre Dame's Class of 2019 (holy crap, we're officially old), who I was lucky enough to meet at Tuesday's ND-MN Club Admitted Students Reception!

Noticing: cute boys coming out of the woodwork now that it's warm and beautiful out ;)

Knowing: how lucky I am. 

Thinking: about the logistics of procuring this year's The Shirt. 

Bookmarking: vintage wrought-iron headboards to finish off my bedroom-decorating spurt. 

Opening: myself up to a summer of possibility and fun and devil-may-caredom. 

Giggling: at Jimmy Buffett's "Why Don't We Get Drunk (and Screw)," which just came on Spotify. 

Feeling: 100% happy with where life is THIS April, compared to last :)

Recipe Round-up: Margaritas!

I have a confession to make. That amazing, over-the-top wonderful Mexican vacation I just went on and have been rhapsodizing over for like ever? There was one thing about it that actually really sucked. 

The margaritas were TERRIBLE. 

Oh my god, I know, how dare I complain after the best tropical vacay in the world, but seriously. Kels and I both agreed. They were near-undrinkable. It tasted like they were made with lemonade concentrate...super-sweet, you could hardly taste the tequila, just the weirdest chemical aftertaste. We tried valiantly at least three times, and just gave up and switched to Grey Goose and grapefruit, gin and tonic, or caipirinhas (mojitos with double the rum and no mint, a drink I discovered in Brazil!) and never looked back. 

But. BUT. 

There's something about a Mexican girls' trip that flips the margarita switch to "ON," no matter how good the alternatives are, and I'm still craving them even after having been back Stateside for a solid week. So I dove into the annals of Pinterest and searched out a few (a lot of) recipes to assuage my tequila craving. And I'm so excited about it, I'm pretty sure I'll be making Kelsie recreate Mexico on my roof with me all summer! Here are a few that made my list: 

This clean, classic recipe from Flourishing Foodie. 

These pretty-in-pink lemonade babies from The Incredible Sometimes Edible Egg. 

These low-cal, cucumber-lime guys from TastesLovely. 

These blood-orange beauties by DesignLoveFest.

And last but not least...how fun do these margarita popsicles by Emeril Lagasse look?! 

And if doing-it-yourself isn't your thing, here are a few of my favorite Twin Cities spots to get my tequila on!

Barrio (the blood-orange jalapeño is a spicy-sweet kick in the pants.)

Rosa Mexicano (true smarties go for the pomegranate margarita and bottomless guacamole at happy hour.)

MASA (stick with the Tradicional, it's delicious.)

La Cucaracha (Upgrade to "The Bullfighter" and make sure to get the fresh-baked chips.)

and, of course, duh, Rojo (one margarita will get you buzzed, two will get you wasted and three will leave you flat on your ass. No shame in this game.)

Salud, amigos! 

6 critically important Mexico tips.

That didn't make it into the last post!

1. If you are going to a secluded, stunning, all-inclusive resort in Mexico, note one thing that is 99% for sure NOT included in your all-inclusive: sunscreen. Ellie brought 2 small tubes, Kels brought a couple cans and I brought three aerosol spray screens. Ellie planned to buy more at the resort. Until the resort slapped her proverbially across her pale Irish face with the $34 price tag for one tiny bottle!! And that's American dollars, not pesos, amigos. PSA: CHECK A BAG AND BRING YO' OWN SCREEN.

2.  The very best thing to do when poolside-wasted at 4pm in Mexico is to leave the pool (so you don't accidentally drunk-pee in it), take foot selfies and face selfies in your patio's hammock, then go take a shower and go to bed really, really early. 

3. If you have always had a burning desire to learn to dance, by all means befriend the resort's resident dance dude. You will come home with a sweet, sweet smooth choreographed routine that you and all your friends can bust out at the clubs whenever you feel like it. Hair-tossing optional. 

4. When on vacation in a foreign locale, become one with the locals. This means, mostly, the golf cart drivers who drive very, very fast and frighten you, the wild cats that hide in the bushes on the way to the spa, and, of course, the plethora of resort iguanas. We named all the men Iggy and all the girls Azalea, because we're crazy-clever like that. 

5. ​We learned about a lovely new shot this week. It's called a "Shit on the Grass," and entails either Midori and vanilla vodka, or peppermint schnapps and Bailey's, topped with a tiny dollop of Hershey's so it looks like...well...a shit on the grass. We took them in the pool with new friends we made because of one gentleman's Cretin-Derham Hall t-shirt. Said friends proceeded to become our poolside besties.

6. This probably goes without saying, but when in doubt, double-fist.