strawberries in paris

A long time coming…

June 7, 2015 at 7:26 pm | Posted in Dessert | Leave a comment

Life these days is consisting of quality time with my someone very special and mi familia. Not so much cooking, but still lots of photography and fun events.

I think I originally started this blog to document my joys in life. It’s funny how you find yourself in a totally new scenario every couple of years and the joy is different but always very good.

My life has taken a turn onto a path with someone especially good at soaring over the jumps and holding on tight in the curves. It will be fun to see how this path winds. 😁

College Park, MD

Baltimore Country Club, Baltimore, MD

Camden Yards, Baltimore, MD

O-mazing 31st birthday with friends

September 8, 2013 at 9:07 pm | Posted in Entertainment, Pinterest, Travels | Leave a comment

To sum up this weekend, I might venture to use the single word: Amazing.

The amount of love I receive from my friends is downright staggering. We went to a baseball game, we took in the Baltimore sites, we went to some of my favorite places in Baltimore to eat and drink and there was gut wrenching, smiling so much my cheeks hurt, hilarious shenanigans all the weekend through.

Beautiful women, loving, supportive, hilarious, beautiful women in my life (seen above and below and some not pictured, but were there in spirit).

Two videos that also added to some of the hilarity of the weekend –

If you’ve ever seen my Pinterest boards, you will know that I love inspirational quotes.

This one spoke to me today. Being around an insane amount of awesome people in just one day reminds me how much I love humanity. My job and purpose in life, is to really seek out the awesome in people, and I am so thankful how perfectly that is working right now in my life. Have a great week ya’ll!

Fully Stepping into my Thirties…

September 3, 2013 at 7:00 am | Posted in Entertainment, Pinterest, Travels | 3 Comments

Well Hello there world!

There’s something about birthdays that makes me sentimental… which makes me want to write… Maybe its all of the candles I have and will blow out in the next couple of days and the past wishes that have or have not been granted to me. I am turning 31 today and I am excited. I feel like that number sounds old, but I don’t feel particularly old, so I think that means I am good to go. 😀

I’ve been looking at clouds longingly alot this past month. Listening to this song and staring off into the stratosphere has given me alot of solace. It really brings me peace and gratitude when I’m in that mindset.

Remember in July when I was declaring that “I’ve been saying to myself – this – this life right now – it can stay just as it is. There is nothing else I could ask for right now…”

Well destiny went ahead and improved it for me. My situation at my work is beyond my wildest expectations… the times I have been having with my cherished friends and family are as good as ever.. And my ability to run far distances is back on track.

Believe you me, I know things could change for bad or good. Could change in an instant! But I’m going to keep taking some leaps of faith and see where it takes me! Huzzah 31! Bring it!

And because I like to read and study quotes like its my job… I wanted to pull one from this Blog Levo League… Here is an apropos one of late regarding turning 30 or being in your early thirties.

“Lastly, please don’t forget that this is your journey. This is your path. This is your practice. This is your life, and there is enough success and love in the world to go around. Take your time, build a life that you love and one that delights you. Engage in your work with intention. Make sure to laugh enough, and don’t forget to be silly. And if all else fails, remember it’s OK to have a Nutella and Netflix night every once in a while.”

Checking in and My Essentials

July 13, 2013 at 11:39 am | Posted in Dinner | 2 Comments

Well hello there!!! Isn’t this fun to be waiting four months between posts, ha! Yup, it is what it is. I can assure you and myself that I’ve been having a grand ol time in between all of these sporadic posts. What motivated me to write today was a delicious dinner I made some Saturdays ago thanks to Food Lion. Other than that meal, I’ve been making mostly simple things with lots of veggies, still packing up huge salads for lunch, and even started making kale smoothies last week for breakfast? And what does this mean? I’m eating vegetables for every single meal!! And what else does this mean? My clean eating is showing on me everywhere! It’s a beautiful thing when you have energy, like a lot of it, all day long, My bod is getting toned and my skin is pretty darn clear. It sounds cliche, but I think I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in and I have the most challenging and rewarding job now. I’ve been saying to myself – this – this life right now – it can stay just as it is. There is nothing else I could ask for right now. 😀

And how happy was I, when I got an email from Food Lion PR saying, we would love for you to cook something up with our new line, on us! My buddy Anna and I went strolling throughout the aisles of Food Lion that Friday night and had a grand ol time. There are so many things that the My Essentials brand encompasses. I would say this meal that I made was fun and tasty.

Go for the jump to see the recipe….

Continue Reading Checking in and My Essentials…

Five Years.

March 16, 2013 at 12:55 pm | Posted in Dessert | 5 Comments

Here I sit in one of the most French laden establishments in Baltimore. Patisserie Poupon! I’ve been here before when my fancy camera was still exciting and novel and took some fun pictures.

This post is all about reflection. Two days from now is Five Years of Strawberries in Paris. It has been a sweet, fun, fast paced, sorrowful and joyful ride.

It’s amazing how much I have grown up in five years. I finally feel like my head is on straight and my priorities are falling into place as they finally should be. Hard work, good health, lots of love to and from my family and cherished times with my true friends. There really is one word to sum it all up: Gratitude.

I am grateful for all of this. I’m grateful for the energy I have to keep on going. I’m grateful for my readers and my supporters. I’m grateful that my cousin is two miles from here in the best hospital in the world and is healing slowly but surely. I’m grateful that I am finally in a place in my career when I can be sending emails at 11 pm for a clinical trial setup and have the biggest smile inside. The Lord takes us on a path and it is always much later do we see his reasons and wisdom.

I can’t wait to see where I am in 5 more years. But there is no rushing that!

So if you are reading this, I hope you as well can have some time today to sit back and see how things have changed in the past five years for yourself. I hope that your ride has also been amazing, not necessarily happy at all times, but still amazing.

The Birds of Baltimore

February 6, 2013 at 1:13 am | Posted in Entertainment | 1 Comment

Have sustained me like no other this year. The Orioles and the RAVENS!!!!! Those teams have given my momma and I so much excitement, so much happiness, so many reasons to look forward to each new day.

Many years ago, I would scream at the television if sports were on and say “SPORTS!” cause I did not understand why paying attention was more important than whatever else I was doing…. It took these past seasons to understand what the love of a hometown team can truly do to your heart. This is it! I am a fan for life! No matter if they win or lose. I UNDERSTAND NOW. So Thank you Sports Teams for reinvigorating my life.

http://www.baltimoreravens.com/videos/videos/Watch_The_Ravens_Celebrate_In_MT_Bank_Stadium/c61f6fed-defd-4f09-9084-63bb2155a08d

Go check out the videos on the Ravens website from the Parade, etc today. They made me laugh and cry.

In other news, my new vocation in the biopharma world is keeping me on my toes, stretching my skills and pushing my abilities to a new level. This also means that those hours I used to be cooking and blogging after work are now filled with work activities. We’ll see if that changes, but for now I am uber thankful I have something amazing to be contributing my time to. This new vocation is going to give me the funds to purchase my own place and for that I am thankful. Happy Ravens Purple Parade Tuesday BALTIMORE!!!

Happy New Year & Sitting in Spaces

January 1, 2013 at 11:25 am | Posted in Entertainment | Leave a comment

From the words of Jillian Michaels…

“Be brave and be patient. Have faith in yourself; trust in the significance of your life and the purpose of your passion. You are strong enough to sit in the space between spaces and allow divine inspiration to shed some light. When you put positive energy and productive effort into the world it will come back to you. Occasionally in ways you might not immediately understand and on a time frame you didn’t expect. Look. Listen. Learn. Stay open. Your destiny is awaiting you.”

So glad I got to ring in the new year with some of my best girls! Here’s to Health and Happiness all year long. 😀

Wordless Wednesday: Thanksgiving Delights

November 28, 2012 at 9:11 am | Posted in Entertainment, Travels | 1 Comment

Friday Morning Runs

November 16, 2012 at 8:07 am | Posted in Entertainment, Travels | 4 Comments

WOOOOOOT. Just logged another set of miles this morning! Totals 15 miles from Sunday! Hot damn!

So if that is not evidence enough, my goals are being achieved. I have found a way to enjoy eating low salt food on 90% of my days (fyi, nutella is low salt :P) and I have gotten up before the crack of dawn to hit the gym or hit the pavement EVERY DAY and it has been GLORIOUS. My brain is working, I don’t feel tired during the day, the BP is sitting right on the edge of the healthy range and the new job has been great. Just great. The people are awesome, the work is stimulating and I know I am going to learn a ton about the business of project management from my new team.

Look at beautiful Carroll Creek….

So enough about that, the real inspiration for this post comes from a certain set of people. Those people are the Women in my Life.

I am here to say that I am thankful for each and every Woman in my life. The women who inspire me, the women who check up on me, the women who tell it like it is, the women who bring laughter to my life, the women who brought adorable babies and doggies into my life, the women who cheer me on, the women who nag me, the women who love me and really to the women who believe in me. It makes me cry as I write this, but I AM SO THANKFUL.

I have recently become addicted to Cher Lloyd music and this song is perfect to fit these words…

Happy Friday wonderful Women!

Time to Hit Refresh

November 2, 2012 at 11:08 am | Posted in Travels | 1 Comment

Holla. I just got back from a lovely jaunt to Denver to see my cousins! It was just what the doctor ordered. Spending time with Marfi and Jen is like staring into a mirror sometimes, because they know me to my core and because they love me so much, they really know how to get me to evaluate things in my life as to improve them.

I would say I am on the cusp of four major changes right now and all of them relate to how I am finally going to step up and take care of myself for once in my life. The first is a new career option. I’m venturing into the biomedical field as a project manager and am really excited to learn the nuances of this new field and to finally be challenged in a healthy working environment. The second is singledom. In the past weeks I was turning into someone I did not like and although the man I was dating was a good man, being in a relationship was keeping me from paying attention to the person that matters most…. myself. The third and fourth are related to that and each other. I went to give blood (O negative! What what!) a week ago and was turned away. High blood pressure was the reason and it has really scared me. Scared me because now I have a glaring neon sign screaming, cut out the salt and start exercising, every day.

It makes me sad that I had not gotten to this point already where I was taking care of my body and mind, but that’s my problem with myself. People and events in my past have treated me and made me feel not good enough. Because of that I had not seen a good reason to treat myself well. I feel silly writing this, but of course I am good enough, I am kind and thoughtful and smart and funny and loving. I’ve been taking on tasks, favors or creations for other people for a long time and although it is nice getting that feeling of appreciation, I have been denying myself attention. And I’m here to declare that I am going to push those obsessive tasks aside to pay attention to the two things that are going to keep me alive longer: working on this low salt diet and creating time in my day, every day, to exercise.

I started this blog to give me something to do and to also seek some praise and validation for the things I was creating in the kitchen. I don’t want to seek out praise and appreciation anymore on this thing, it feels annoying and fake. I don’t know if I feel like writing about food anymore, well maybe if I start to enjoy my new salt-less creations I will document those. I sure know I like taking instagram pictures, so count on that from me! If all goes well in the next six months, I will have a real permanent career path, a lower blood pressure, a more energized and stronger body and a calmer mind that is focused on good treatment of myself. I would love to be able to purchase a home of my own at some point in the next year so if that happens, I can’t wait to show off some home DIY.

Toot a loo friends, hope you have a wonderful weekend.