springtime favs

It's been rainy (and - with Stefan and I both a tad bit under the weather - kind of gloomy) here this week, so this Friday I'm bringing you some favs for spring in hopes that San Francisco will bless us with a sunny weekend around these parts.

For wearing:

Or anything in Emerson Fry's spring line

yes dress

For decorating:

easy Easter decoration = succulents in eggs

from 79 ideas

For going:

Cherry Blossom Avenue in Bonn, Germany

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For eating:

feta zucchini pea mint tarts

mini pancake + strawberry sandwiches

For driving:

I've always had a soft spot for punch buggies

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And just for fun:

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Have a fabulous weekend!

xoxo

KK

thrifty thursday: kitchen towels

I LOVE pretty towels hung all around the house.  They're such a perfect and practical way of adding a punch of color to an otherwise dull hanging rod, especially in the kitchen.

And while I love Williams-Sonoma's classic assorted varieties, at $19.95 for four, they're not exactly the cheapest in the world.

And if you have them, you know they get dirty real fast (at least the way I do cooking).  So while we have a stack, I always avoid actually using them - opting for a paper towel instead of dirtying their beautiful white and blue cloth.  So since this totally rids the item of any practical nature (and hurts the environment - I am a San Franciscan after all), I've been on the hunt for a new, cheaper option which I don't have to feel guilty about using to mop up that mushed up avocado I accidentally smeared all over our counter.

Enter: Target Clearance Rack.

Yep, you read that right - $1.98 a pop,
so that's $7.92 for four!
A savings of 60%!

And I would say they look pretty darn good in our blue-and-white-dressed kitchen.

Don't get me wrong - we still love and hang our Williams-Sonoma beauties, now we just have another towel right by its side that is for actual use.

Another thrifty tip?  Have a super stylish mom who sends you gorgeous gifts like that lovely woven cotton rug.

xoxo
KK

rain rain

Like so much of the nation, we've been spoiled with an insanely mild winter around these parts.  So much so that I had gotten used to soaking in sunshine everyday on my way to work.  The past few weeks, however, have been rain, drizzles, and more rain - not exactly an elixir for an excellent mood.

This morning was no different: we woke to the patter of rain drops on our window and were greeted with messy, wet streets as we left. 

Normally, this somber weather does me in.  I complain as I pull on my wellies and mop my hair under a hood.  But this morning, something was different.  Instead of a mess, the rain was refreshing - a cleansing of the city and of the past. 

Instead of gloomy, it was peaceful - especially as its vehicle (the sullen yet silky cloud) curled itself around the Golden Gate.

  
And instead of saddening, it was uplifting - a reminder that not every day will be summer-like.  And that's okay because there's still beauty and value in each.

xoxo
KK

the wine winner

So despite all the rain here this past Saturday, Stefan and I braved a trip out to Sonoma to do a few wedding to-dos: nailing down our rehearsal dinner locale, scoping out some other hotel options, and tasting a final catering contender with some friends. 

Since these two new-to-the-Bay-Area pals hadn't been up in wine country before, we suggested a quick stop-over at a near-by tasting room to sample the region's sweet nectar.  After google-mapping our surroundings, we decided upon Stag's Leap - a winery we've been meaning to try ever since learning about their Cab winning the 1976 Paris Wine Tasting after watching Bottle Shock.

When we arrived, however, we realized we weren't the only ones interested in learning what all the fuss was about.  After we shook off our soaking coats, the friendly hostess shuffled us through the sea of visitors to an empty wine barrel table and presented us with the spot's wine tasting menu. 

Our mouths dropped when we saw their prices - $30 for a tasting?  And only waived with a purchase of two bottles of $100+ wine?  We've done a lot of these and this seemed steep, but we reserved judgment.  Perhaps their wines warranted such a cost.  We ordered our tastings and waited for them to bring us a bountiful basket of crostinis for us to munch on while we sipped.

The snacks, however, never came.  And the glasses were a sip or two at best.  And the wine?  The wine was good, but not great.  And nowhere near what a $195 price tag would suggest.  I would take our 8 euro Burgundy over their $125 S.L.V Cab any day. 

And that's before taking into account the cost. 

 

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We watched as the table next to us purchased three bottles of the CASK 23 and the couple across the room bought two cases of the FAY and the five-some in the corner signed up for the quarterly wine club. 

Now I don't doubt that a good number of people really do adore these vintages, but I wonder whether all purchases are based on personal preference alone.  For me, wine is an incredibly personal (and even situational) preference. The wine that tastes best to me today might not be the wine that tastes best to me tomorrow. (I should note that the same is true of the experts - studies have shown that professional wine tasters do not pick the same wines as best two days in a row.)

It's just amazing how powerful the opinion of important people (i.e., the 1976 French judges) can be on one's own selections.  Whether conscious or subconscious. 

We left without buying a thing and we weren't the least bit sad.  Here's to staying true to your own tastes and desires, even when it might not be what all the cool kids are doing.

xoxo

KK

reaping favs

So last night as I was driving home from work, Stefan called to let me know that there'd been a change of plans: instead of cooking at home, he had a surprise for me, and I needed to pick him up right this second so the event(s) could begin.

As I tried to nail him with questions, he drove us back to our neighborhood, parked off California Street, and escorted me to Delfina Pizzeria.  At 5:45pm. 

Now we both love the spot (and know it's impossible to get in without at least an hour wait anytime after six), but all this hoopla for pizza?  I was suspicious.

He then revealed the most delightful surprise that this teen-fiction-loving gal has ever heard: he had secured us coveted tickets to the midnight showing of The Hunger Games, and our early bird dinner special was so I could nap in preparation.

It. was. awesome.

Totally, totally worth the late night (and let me make it clear: sleep is VERY important to me).  So today I'm bringing you my Hunger Game favs, so you can get excited for when you see it oh-so-soon.  (Because you absolutely must.)

For eating:

Katniss' favorite legendary lamb stew with dried plums

recipe

from confessions of a cookbook queen

For drinking:

the girl on fire cocktail

from everyday food blog

For wearing:

farfetch carven oxford dress

more ideas here

For decorating:

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For marrying:

from green wedding shoes

And just for fun:

From Zucchero Zucchero

Happy Hunger Games!

xoxo

KK

thirfty thursday: vaca

So all this talk of spring break is making me think about the next big adventure in the cards for us.  Problem is - exotic vacations don't exactly come in cheap.  It's not just the plane ticket and the hotel rooms that empty pockets, it's the food, the drinks, the kite-surfing lessons, the kayaking tour, and we can't forget the brand new wardrobe you obviously have to purchase so you look the part.
So that's why you need to take a vaca you don't have to pay for.

How exactly does one do that without randomly making bank in one of those silly sweepstakes? 
Well, by raking up some points of course.

Stefan and I LOVE to use points for trips.  We spent our first New Years' Eve together in Mexico - flying in on United miles and staying in a 5-star resort with Starwood Points.

Breakfast on our balcony

Clearly, my love for mango margaritas

cannot be contained

Thanks to the boatload of points I had raked up, we were also upgraded to an extra large suite which came with a huge kitchen and lovely dining room.  For New Year's Eve dinner we skipped the expensive prix fixe out and cooked at home: homemade guac and chips at our dining room table, and then fresh fish and champagne on the balcony.  It was perfect.

Now, I see you sitting there reading this saying: "well, I just don't have THAT many points..." but the truth is: YOU DO!  You just don't know who they're with, what they're worth, and when they expire.

Enter: www.milewise.com

(I wish I could take credit, but this was a Stefan find.)

This genius of a site allows you to track any and all point-collecting mechanisms you subscribe to.  We're talking airline miles, hotel points, credit card rewards, you name it.  You simply enter in all your different programs and the site tracks where you are towards achieving your goals.  It evens tells you when those points expire, so you don't accidentally miss out on that free airline ticket on the carrier you used to fly.

Then when you're shopping around for, say, an airline ticket, you can put in your itinerary and the site tells you how to optimize the purchase - be it by cashing in on airline miles, credit card points, or just plain cash.

tech crunch

And if you REALLY don't have any points, I'd highly recommend you consider switching your method of payment to optimize around this dimension.  Mint.com has excellent information on which credit card might be best for your lifestyle.  (And excellent tools for you to track your thriftiness otherwise.)

My two favorite (and excellent reward-getting) cards are the usbank FlexPerks Travel Rewards (more information here) and the American Express Starwoods card (more information here).  Feel free to tell them I sent you.  Because you know what that means: more points for me. :)  

Happy vaca-ing!

xoxo

KK

middle namesake

So my mom's best childhood friend (and my middle namesake) happens to be in town this week for work. 

What kind of work, you ask?  Well only about the coolest stuff ever.  Not only is she staying at the gorgeous and luxurious St. Regis Hotel, her days of "work" are spent shopping San Francisco's coolest boutique-lined streets for inspiration, listening into focus groups of her company's customers, and dining with colleagues at one of San Francisco's finest: the Slanted Door. 

Last night, she was uber generous and offered to take Stefan and me out to dinner, despite her being extra jet-lagged from a long flight from the East Coast.  We headed to the Salt House, another fav, to enjoy some delicious wine, amazing salads, and fresh fish.

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As we sipped and munched, we chatted about her high-powered career (she basically runs the show at J. Jill), heard about her two fabulous kids, and laughed over stories of when her and my mom used to chow down on milkshakes, pizza burgers, and Ding-Dongs at their weekly Friday night sleepovers as middle schoolers.

As an aside: we determined that the product-name-maker at Hostess must have had a laugh or two when deciding upon titles for those processed pastries - Ding Dong, Ho-Ho, Twinkie, Suzy Q - what kind of women did that guy date?

Anyway, the night just FLEW by, but it wasn't until my run this morning that I realized that Claire is one of those friends. 
You know, the kind you can not see for ages and just suddenly pick right back up where you left off. 
The kind spending time with is effortless, relaxed, and rejuvenating. 
The kind who you're really, really sad to say good-bye to at the end of the night.

And I'm not even the friend, I'm the daughter of the friend. 
I'd say Mom has good taste - not just in clothes and decorating and shoes, but in people. 

xoxo
KK

simplicity

Like most young twenty-somethings who are learning to take care of themselves and save money, I am trying to take up cooking. (My days right out of undergrad working at a management consulting firm did not afford me much time to spend money nor prepare meals.  Breakfast, lunch and dinner were eaten desk-side.  So my coming of age in this manner is fairly new.) 

My tendency is to attempt overly ambitious, clearly complicated cuisines destined for failure.

Not too long ago, however, while Stefan and I were grabbing an early dinner at one of our favorite Sonoma spots - the girl & the fig - we had the most delectable dish with a mere three ingredients.

Fresh radishes from their garden,

a sprinkling of micro greens,

and just a touch of salt

Clearly if a first-class restaurant could make simple scrumptious, it couldn't be all that bad.

So this past weekend, I attempted a simple French country meal: Chicken Palliard with mixed spring greens. Only eight ingredients (including S&P): Chicken, mushrooms, greens, olive oil, balsamic, mustard, salt, pepper.

And the result could not have been more delicious. We enjoyed it with a simple bottle of $11 red from a winery we'd visited in Sonoma. 

paired with Cline Cellars Oakley Five Reds

(Anyone can buy good expensive wine - it takes a real expert to buy good cheap wine.)

There really is something to be said for the loveliness of simplicity.

And I'd say the same is true for gardens. 

I'd take a simple lemon tree over a plethora of bushes and blooms any day.

xoxo
KK

expectations erased

So I happen to be an extreme planner.  And I don't just make the plans, I also think through everything in my head beforehand - not just where I'll go and who I'll meet but what I'll like and how I'll feel.

With my grandparents in town to help Stefan and I do some trying out of potential caterers (read: eating and drinking way too much insanely delicious and decadent food and wine), this past weekend was no exception. Long before we hopped in the car to drive out to wine country, I had already decided which hors d'oeuvres would please my palate and which fish would steal my heart and which caterer would ultimately reign supreme.  But somehow in that whirlwind of a day, I was proven all wrong - just the things I thought I'd love were sub par and just the things I thought I'd despise were oh-so-lovable. It was amazing to me how wrong my expectations could be.

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The same was true when we headed over to Kunde to taste a few of their delicious wines, again as contenders for the wedding menu. With the valley buzzing with Savor Sonoma and celebration o' the Irish underway, the tasting room was decked out in St. Patty's Day style - including their bottle of Sauvignon blanc, which was colored green.

We all peered at it in disgust - this could not taste good.

But as I closed my eyes and took a sip, my expectations were defied again - it tasted just as light and refreshing as the version I'd tried with friends just a month before.

Then the same happened again when they brought out their signature dark chocolate and sea salt treats to taste with their cab - chocolate and salt? That couldn't be good.

But wrong again I was - delicious, silky, rich, and decadent was wrapped up in that pretty little paper.

But isn't that true of so much of life - we have a set expectation of something and so, so often the truth defies our best laid plans.

So (with my green colored wine) I am toasting to letting go of those so often wrong expectations and letting life come at me without pre-determined judgment.

xoxo
KK

wine country weekend favs

So despite the non-stop rain here of late, we're all smiles as my fabulous grandparents, Dickie Boy and Judy, are in town for a long weekend.  We had an incredible dinner with an old friend of DB's last night and are headed up to wine country tomorrow to do a bit of wedding weekend planning and prep.  (We still can't get over the fact that lots of eating and drinking of delicious food and wine qualifies as wedding weekend work, but we're going with it until someone tells us there's been a mistake.)

So this Friday, I'm bringing you my favs for a weekend in wine country.

For biking:

Total necessity

get yours here

For eating:

There's just something about figs

that screams wine country to me

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And what's wine country

(or a weekend with Stefan for that matter)

without some cheese

learn how to pair wine and cheese perfectly here

For drinking:

Because you just can't have a beer in Sonoma

do your own wine tasting at home with this little guy

For wearing:

Just because it's cold doesn't mean

you can't wear shorts

more inspiration here

For going:

There's just something charming yet modern about the

El Dorado Hotel & Kitchen

in downtown Sonoma

And just for fun:

from oh happy day

Have a fabulous weekend!

xoxo

KK