Jerseylicious

I come from a long line of culinary prowess; every woman in my family is an amazing cook. From my aunt's Christmas lasagna, to my grandma's chocolate chip cookies, to my mom's, well, everything, there's a lot to live up to when you cook in my family.

And maybe it's just me, but homemade cooking just tastes better in Jersey. That's one thing I'm sorely missing while being out here; a lot of the foods that are a staple back home are harder to find or not as good here. Pizza is hard to come by, bagels I won't even touch, and Taylor ham? Forget about it. They never even heard of it.

So when I stumbled on some pretty awesome Italian sausage at Claro's Italian Market in Tustin, I was SO.EXCITED. I whipped up some classic sausage and peppers for some of my girlfriends.

Brown the sausage

Remove sausage and slice, and cook up your peppers. I add olive oil, a splash of white wine vinegar (seriously, a splash, like less than 1 T just to deglaze the pan), 1/4 of an onion, a clove of garlic, and some crushed red pepper.

Then mix it all together. What could be easier?

Needless to say, my Jersey classic was a hit!

Ashley visits OC!

My dear friend Ashley (who I met when we were in dropped out of the Wedding From Hell together) has been one of my most frequent OC visitors. She's awesome and we always have a blast.

We ate guac at El Torito Grill...

...where they have the cutest piggy bowls!

We went to the beach at Crystal Cove State Park...

 ...where I showed off my 25-lb weight loss...

...and I wore shorts for

one of the first times in about 10 years! Go me! :)

We checked out the tidepools...

...and met a crabby friend!

We went to dinner at The White House in Laguna Beach

And Ashley encouraged me to finally get some decorations up (red flower painting from Pier 1)

We bought Milo a bed...and this was the first and only time he slept in it :(

We went shopping.....

Pretty much that's what I do best, especially when Tara's in town.

She visited this past weekend, and we went to local boutique Madison Bleu, where I picked up this amazing summery dress.

Other items

Cardigan: Target

Belt: Shoedazzle

Shoes: Kohl's

An all-around super thrifty outfit, if I do say so!

Ok, ok...

So I've been a terrible blogger. I get it :)

I'm all settled in now so I'm going to start writing more regularly. In the meantime, here are some pictures from my Vegas adventure! I went to Vegas (for my first time ever!) for my birthday a couple weeks ago... Brought in the big 28 in style with my favorite ladies!

girls out to dinner at Sushi Samba

Ashley and me at the Wet Republic pool party

me overlooking the Vegas strip!

Christina, Michelle, and me

Sarah, me, and Ashley

Mount Palomar with mom

Mom visited me for a week, so we kept ourselves thoroughly occupied! One of the highlights was Mount Palomar Winery, where we tasted a series of yummy wines. It was really pretty there with great views. It's in Temecula, which I guess is SoCal's answer to Napa Valley. There are tons of wineries on one of the main roads there, so it would be easy to do a nice tour if you want to get really liquored up :)

The front gates

Apartment!!!

Found a great one in Irvine. It's on a hill and it's beautiful. 4 miles from the beach, 3rd floor with a balcony, private garage and driveway, washer, dryer, dishwasher, 680 square feet (yeah that's about TWICE the size of my Hoboken apartment...just sayin')

outdoor fireplace and the insane patio/pool

Livin' easy

The temporary housing situation is fantastic. I'm in a gorgeous apartment that I could never actually afford...the actual apartment is a 1br1ba with a walk-in closet, balcony, washer/dryer, and dishwasher in the unit. Amazing. The complex is even better...it has a gym, a pool, and a hot tub. Really, what else could you want from life? :) I start work on Monday, so I'm a little nervous about that, but being in such a great place with all this relaxing stuff to do has calmed me down a bit.

The time difference has also been a bit interesting. I was up and at the grocery store by 9:30 am. Soooo unlike me. Maybe if I never let myself fully adjust, I will become a morning person!

living room and balcony

where I spent my afternoon :)