Allison Cafe

Today we are fortunate enough to have our first guest writer, my sister and talented baker Summer. Enjoy!:

Baking can be so rewarding when it goes well, or so frustrating when a slaved-over dish turns out to be anything less than scrumptious. I sometimes take the gamble of using baking as an outlet to manage stress. Today, it worked.

Carrot Cake Take Me a Away!

The last couple of weeks have been choc-full of new experiences and predicaments providing my husband and myself with loads of knowledge and memories. We recently adopted a stray dog we found wandering the streets. As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, we took in another dog that circumstantially ended up in our home. (more…)

I love opportunities to support local businesses, and just to get outside and do something different. Oh, and my Mom and I tried a new cupcake, so that’s always fun too! The Encinitas Street Fair is in its 26th year and is going strong. There is wide array of crafts, artists, food vendors and music. Over 100,000 people are expected to attend the 2 day event this weekend. That’s a lot of people in just a few blocks! I discovered several unique vendors. I loved stumbling upon new things such as BackSeatDriverBaby.com. They had the most adorable handmade baby gifts. Since I seem to buying lots of baby gifts these days, I was so excited to find something unique. I found a baby onesie with a vespa on it, too cute!

Local artists and crafts

Pretty Ladies

My parents joined Hayley and I at the Encinitas Street Fair. Hayley enjoyed all the smells of the street fair. She scored several treats along the way – some offered to her and some she ate off the ground, gross! She met lots of other dog friends; it was amazing how many people had their dogs with them as they navigated the crowds. As a dog owner you relish the opportunities to do something social that allows your dog to join along.

We had lunch at a local eatery, the St. Tropez bakery. We had some tasty sandwiches and an even tastier vanilla cupcake with raspberry filling and white chocolate frosting, the Princess Cupcake. Yum! (more…)

Today I started my day with a new yoga class. A local retail store, Lululemon, regularly holds complimentary classes in their store. On Saturdays they have an 8:30am yoga class before the store opens. It’s amazing, they move all the product displays to the sides and they hold a class in the middle of the store. I walked in 10 minutes early and already the large room was almost full. The lights were dim and calm tropical music was playing.

take time to breathe, you'll thank yourself for it

I found a place to set down my yoga mat and as I looked around the room, I was struck by quotes and sayings written on the walls throughout the store. My favorite?

“…you can choose to throw in the towel, or you can pick it up and wipe your face with it.”

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As a newlywed I am always looking for new recipes to make for dinner. But not just any recipe. I strive to find a balance between tasty, healthy and easy. Oh yeah, and affordable. One of my recent discoveries is a great Giada recipe. I was able to buy all of the ingredients at Trader Joe’s, with the exception of the puff pastry, which I got at the grocery store. Not only is this recipe healthy, when I made it for my husband the other day we discovered an explosion of flavors in fresh taste of the pesto, the flakiness of the pastry, the sweetness of the salmon and crunchiness of the almonds. The best part? It’s quick and easy, it only took about 30 minutes to prepare.

Healthy and Tasty

Here is the recipe, enjoy! (more…)

Thought I would share a funny skit from SNL on dog training (Warning: do not try this at home!) Hayley declined to participate in today’s post, she was offended.

Someone asked me yesterday why I got involved with the American Cancer Society as a volunteer. (thanks Liz!) I guess in all my enthusiasm for the cause I forgot to share why I am involved. There are several reasons. For starters, a very good friend of ours was diagnosed with thyroid cancer several years ago and is battling it again, but he is a survivor! And one of the most positive people that I know. He and his wife are also very involved with the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life and asked me if I would like to volunteer. I said “yes”!

My friend Amy and little me

Cancer has affected my life in other ways too. (more…)

Normally when I get email forwards from friends I give them a quick glance, but I rarely forward them on. Especially those ones that end with a horrible guilt invoking message at the bottom about forwarding the message to 10 friends or else some bad fate awaits you. Seriously? Is our faith that weak that not forwarding an email affects our futures? Well, today I got a very simple text email with some great messages, and no guilty message at the bottom. I thought the message was so universal, that I would share it today with you.

Inspiration

A Birth Certificate shows that we were born.
A Death Certificate shows that we died.
What we believed shows how we lived.

I Believe…

You can keep going long after you think you can’t.

I Believe…

We are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

I Believe… (more…)

I wouldn’t consider myself to be an environmentalist and extremely “green” person, but lately I have started to make small changes in my every day routines in order to be more environmentally conscious. For example, we have started using canvas bags for our grocery store trips and religiously recycling the plastic bags that we do use by bringing them back to the grocery store. Earlier today I walked into a local retail store here in La Jolla, Lululemon, and they were giving away a free workout head band if you wrote down something you were going to do today for Earth Day to be green. Walking home inspired, I started thinking about all the little things that we have started doing lately that don’t take much effort but do make an impact on our environment.

Having fun with your food and using less plastic

Have you ever heard of Happy Sacks? They are a fabulous invention. They are reusable sandwich bags. They come in various sizes and they can be washed by hand, in the dishwasher or in the washing machine. That’s a few less plastic sandwich bags going to our landfills thanks to Happy Sacks.

Use less plastic with reusable water bottles

Another great product is Klean Kanteen. It is a reusable stainless steel water bottle. I use it every day and the water always tastes clean and stays cold. It not only helps me keep track of the 8 glasses of water I try to get in each day, it also means I don’t spend money on bottled water for my trips to the gym or just around town. Thanks to companies like Klean Kanteen, there are less plastic bottles going to our landfills.

There are so many little things that we all can do in our everyday lives to use less and save more. What will you do today? Here are a few more ideas: (more…)

Sangria Roja

As a young college student I had several retail and food service jobs; but the most memorable, and the one that had the most influence on my life, was as a sales associate at Market to Market, a Spanish and Portuguese ceramic import business. One of the owners, Frank, was originally from Cuba and had the best Sangria recipe I had ever tasted. I greatly treasure not only the beautiful ceramic Sangria pitcher I have from my Market to Market days, but also this fantastic recipe, which got great reviews at our recent Spanish Dinner Party. I hope I did you proud Frank, I guess I must have because people loved it! Here is the recipe, please enjoy responsibly! (more…)

Earth Fair 2009

Today I joined the tens of thousands of San Diegans and visitors at Earth Fair 2009 in Balboa Park. The wide variety of exhibitors was truly amazing. There was everything from large companies such as Qualcomm, to earth friendly products and service start-ups and non-profits, to pet adoptions and beyond. I hardly made it around to all the various different vendors, there was so much to take in and the heat of the sun put a damper on too much wandering around throughout Balboa Park.

I spent some time at ProQuo’s booth helping them spread their message about stopping junk mail. The response by people was amazing, a lot of people had junk mail stories to share and were eager to sign up for ProQuo’s services. ProQuo is offering a Earth Fair special that expires on Earth Day, enter promo code EARTHFAIR to get your special rate of $12.95/year for their time-saving junk mail service.

ProQuo helps save trees by fighting junk mail

One of my favorite discoveries of the day was a local non-profit, Plant With Purpose.

Plant with Purpose

Their clean and fresh design caught my eye. (more…)