1. For the first time in… years? I didn’t get rainbow sprinkled cone on vacation. I’M GROWING UP.

2. Remember a few months ago when I talked about wanting these sunglasses and the vast majority of you told me I’d look ridiculous and if I had any fashion sense at all (which I don’t) that I shouldn’t do it? Well… I found them on sale this past week and – did it.

3. I want to go to this lady picnic and be best friends with them. I just hope I don’t really have to be a lady.

4. My brothers, cousins and I have a long running group text that is so atrocious that it gives me anxiety. Like instead of texting one of them back, I’ll accidentally tweet something horrific. This is my only exception to the group text rule as I generally think they are the most annoying things on Earth. Right next to the “reply all” function on email.

5. If Sookie and Eric don’t end up together by the end of the True Blood series (whenever that may be) I will probably hurt someone. I don’t care about ANYTHING else on that show and haven’t for about three years. Can’t it be the anna paquin/alex s show? Yes yes.

6. Spring garlic pancakes: for some reason I cannot stop thinking about these. Maybe it’s the whole pancake thing.

7. So. It’s quite possible that I have exhausted my buffalo chicken pizza obsession. Well – let me clarify. I haven’t exhausted the buffalo-style infatuation but just the specific pizza we have been getting, like, once a week. I can’t be sure though, so check up on me in seven days.

8. One thing that has not died down though is my burger obsession. Dying over these aloha sliders. So freaking cute and delicious.

9. Because I can’t share enough in my Tuesday things, I’ve started sharing some of my current favorite links on the weekend. Things like food and maybe even makeup and general internet crushes. !!!!

10. Oh look, it’s my life: what it’s like shopping at Sephora.

11. The above is a perfect example of why I make a terrible sales associate. Unless I’m selling something I believe in, like sprinkles or shoes – I just can’t push people to buy something. However, I on the other hand am a marketer’s dream. I want to try all the things.

12. This week’s things are brought to you by a rainbow sprinkle-less photo. My husband is concerned at the amount of sprinkled doughnuts and sprinkled ice cream cones I constantly share. Like as if I might be boring you. What is he? The instagram police?

©2012 How Sweet It Is

You only have to get through a few hours of the day before you can go home and make pizza. I want pizza Mondays to be real in my house. I think I said that a few weeks ago about tacos… but I mean I’m incredibly fickle to begin with so how can you be surprised. Regardless, nearly my entire life revolves around pizza and tacos. This is so very true that I even dedicated a portion of my book to such delicacies.

Well, they are delicacies to me. I’m simple.

ANYhoo.

I was shocked to find fresh figs in my local grocery store because they are only available here for about 3.6 seconds every year. Luckily, I can get dried figs every day of my life and consume those suckers like candy, but the fresh ones?… what a treat. I bought 12 of them for … 12 freaking dollars. Yes, like $12. One, two, dollar sign. One dollar per fig. You people with a fig tree are probably laughing in my face right now. I can’t help it though. I love them so much. 

The majority were sliced for this pizza (hi dinner) and I enjoyed the rest of them fresh and simple like a freak. That’s how it should be.

People always ask me how I come up with the flavor combinations that I do. Well, I don’t really know? I just put together flavors that I like. I’d love to say that I have a much more sophisticated palette and can taste undertones (are those a thing?) in certain foods and put things together because they universally belong and match, but that is not the case.

In fact, the way I combine flavors is exactly the way I obnoxiously sing Justin Timberlake’s Mirrors: skeptically and quite often – wrong.

Let me just get this out of the way: I have no idea what the heck the lyrics of that song are but I sure act like I do. And as a sidebar, I just googled the lyrics (which I probably haven’t done since my Napster days) and I still stand by my argument that those are TOUGH lines. How is anyone supposed to decipher those? I don’t care that JT’s voice is like angels singing in my ears. I’ll happily make up my own song.

So the moral of this story is that I just really adore figs, cheese and – obviously – bacon. And pizza. And even… arugula. If I love all of those things, how could they steer me in the wrong direction? Exactly.

That’s why I ate all this pizza by myself.

WORTH IT.

There’s a lot of green stuff on there, no?

©2012 How Sweet It Is

this awesome letter to her blogging self eight years ago. eight years?!

these oatmeal brownies. face meet chocolate.

this grilled mexican street corn salad. i think we all know about my obsession.

this summer reading list. oh… and this one too.

these (vegan + gluten free) peanut butter cup pancakes. what?

this strawberry coconut cream pie. and the best story ever.

this limemade cake. helloooooo margaritas.

this berry crumble ice cream. just stop it.

this salted honey ice cream. also: stop.

this strawberry meyer lemon marmalade. do i have the patience?

this brow school q + a. if you’re a makeup freak like me.

[I'm going to be sharing these posts once a week or every other week because I have so many things to freak out over. Leave any current links you're loving!]

©2012 How Sweet It Is

Don’t you just want to rip off a piece of that sugar bomb up there?

Pull-apart breads have taken Pinterest by storm and even though that stresses me out, I still wanna have my bread and eat it too.

You may remember a few years ago when I made a cheesy version of this bread. Ugh. That stuff was unreal.

This is just as delicious, in a sweet kinda way.

You can find the step-by-step photos + recipe on the Tasty Kitchen Blog. Get you some.

©2012 How Sweet It Is

This popcorn is… addicting.

And you know? I’ve always claimed I was never a huge popcorn person, but lately it’s been all I’ve wanted. I think it started with those popcorn crunch brownies. Oomph.

This is my second recipe to pair with Pavan - and this time around we it’s going with the signature Mediterranean cocktail. I mentioned last week that Pavan is made with grapes – it’s actually like a white wine liqueur that makes you want to set up home on the french riviera (they actually have a contest going on right now to win a trip there!… ugh, I’m so in); so this cocktail is made with a little vodka and lemon juice. It’s so simple but just perfect! I always love (and need) some extra flavor in my vodka and this is just to die for.  As a side note: last night my uncle deglazed a pan of chorizo + jalapeño littleneck clams with Pavan. Uh huh. No words.

The popcorn is (…wait for it) popped in bacon grease and tossed with a few smoky spices and a burnt sugar glaze. It’s the perfect combo of salty and sweet.

Yeah. See? Can’t even.

Love.it.

©2012 How Sweet It Is

I mean, pancakes are always breakfast. Right?

And bacon is always breakfast.

And bourbon is usually not breakfast, unless… nevermind.

I’m pretty sure that this is my ULTIMATE breakfast. Whatever that means.

The breakfast that I’d choose as my last meal? Maybe with an egg.

Now I’m really making things complicated.

A few days ago we went to a brunch preview at the aviary (which goodness gracious, was unreal) and had a few mini buckwheat pancakes. They were incredibly delicious and so much more flavorful than I ever thought itty bitty buckwheat pancakes could be. Ever ever.

So of course, leave it up to me to trash such pancakes up.

But what else would you expect?

You know what mini things mean!

©2012 How Sweet It Is

As you read my rambling words, I’m currently somewhere en route (with a few detours) to the Jersey shore for a few days and… maybe my 30th summer there? I can remember when the two weeks between the end of school and beach used to DRAG on, and now here I am are feeling like the summer is over.

OMG CAN’T I JUST ENJOY LIFE FOR A MINUTE.

I spent countless Junes stealing my mom’s ban de soleil orange gelee sunscreen (please tell me someone remembers this) and riding bikes on the boardwalk. Which means that since it’s that time, it is now officially summer for the 13th time on this blog even though it still isn’t officially summer in the real world.

But this is so the real world. Right? whatever.

So, summer crostini!

I don’t JUST think about smearing orange gel sunscreen on my body and sandy beaches when summer comes along – I sorta think about food too. Yeah. I mean, it’s only the best time ever to eat corn, tomatoes, more corn and more tomatoes. Lots of salt, pepper, corn and tomatoes. Uh huh. It doesn’t get any better than that.

This whipped goat cheese was inspired by my whipped feta, and while the latter is completely perfect, I just didn’t have any feta. So I whipped my goat cheese. With roasted garlic for tonnnnns of flavor. It’s so simple but the flavors are just so good together. They make for an excellent sort of sandwich too, if you’re into that kind of thing.

And it’s still only the beginning of my obnoxious, ridiculous corn obsession. If you think I can’t get enough? Times that by twenty. Grilled, caramelized, fresh – I want it every way. And when it’s combined with some cherry tomatoes, cheese and fresh basil? Yikes. Can’t take it.

Newsflash: apparently this orange gelee stuff is still around and I can buy some, therefor enabling my can-it-please-be-1995-forever attitude. Mind -> blown.

©2012 How Sweet It Is

More CHOPPED salad, to be exact. My favorite kind. Everything is in little bits and oh-so cute.  

However… if you came over for lunch, I doubt I’d ever make salad because entertaining people is the perfect excuse to eat something rich and delicious. Calories don’t count when eaten with friends. I’m thinking pizza.

Yes, pizza.

If you haven’t figured it out already, this is sort of my copycat version of Chili’s quesadilla explosion salad, which I haven’t had in eons but used to loooooove. I mean, I was eating that back in the day long before I was consuming vegetables, which makes perfect sense since it now always tops the lists of those “highest calorie foods” and “things to avoid at chain restaurants” and [insert scary music here] “salads that aren’t what they seem.” Whatever. That’s why it was so good.

I used to love going to Chili’s for the chips and salsa but three or four years ago, after driving around for an hour and not really knowing what we wanted to eat (know that feeling?), my husband and I ended up there and had one of the worst meals of our lives. Which rarely happens because surprisingly, I am not a high-maintenance restaurant eater. Unless it’s at brunch.

So we haven’t been back since and more than once I have wanted one of those salads. Mainly for the quesadillas. Of course.

Also, don’t listen to me, because this isn’t a copycat version at all, it’s just my version. You know I like to make stuff up.

There are a ton of ingredients here, but I find they are all pretty necessary and “a ton” does not always equal “time consuming.” You’re gonna marinate you’re chicken overnight (or not), add your salad junk together, toss in a little dressing and crush tortilla chips over top.

Now we are best friends. Right?

Thought so.

©2012 How Sweet It Is

1. I sense that I’ve become soooo predictable that if you follow me on twitter or instagram, you probably knew the above picture would be my standard omg-sprinkles-in-my-tuesday-things photo. Wah!

2. I’m having a minor (read: major) meltdown that I’m not going to the Boyz II Men, 98 degrees, etc concert tonight. I was supposed to be on vacation… which I’m clearly not (but will be later this week, yay Jersey Shore) and can’t even stand it. My husband has been sending me pictures of their tour buses that he has spied on walks at lunchtime. I hate life.

3. Giant girl crush on this one here. I’ve got it.

4. I love that 20 years later, I’m picking all the cake out of cake batter ice cream instead of all the cookie dough out of cookie dough ice cream. Things never change.

5. There are two women I look up to who inspire me in but also out of the kitchen, and I am absolutely loving this summer bucket list idea from Kristen. So cool.

6. Sriracha peas! OMG. Freaking out. Favorite snack. Can I make these at home? Halp me.

7. I have so much clutter to get rid of that I’ve devised a plan. I need a candle that smells like Target so when people come over they just want to take everything in my house home with them.

8. Oh and speaking of sprinkles, you know I really don’t like ice cream THAT much? I definitely just use it as a vehicle for the colorful things.

9. Wait. I retract my last statement. Please look at this.

10. Please tell me what your favorite AT&T commercial is? I’ve been hooked on the puppy brother one for the last month. Especially because the girl that sits across from her looks like she has just heard the most brilliant thing ever. I basically walk around my house and randomly shout “this is my puppy brother.”

11. Should I take my real camera to the beach this weekend? Would you like to see some pics? I would like to make a fun beachy video but ummmm I can’t even install a plugin so, yeah. Life problems.

©2012 How Sweet It Is

I know. Odd.

But don’ freak out – I think you all know what kind of salads I like to eat. The vegetableless kind. Or the kind with the fewest vegetables possible. The kind with lots of cheese and chips and bacon and cheese. I have another one coming your way and, well… it feels like a copout but is just so darn good.

So it makes complete sense that I want something hearty and soul warming. Right? That’s how I’m justifying it. That’s how I’m justifying that I made freaking lasagna in the SUMMER. Time consuming, cheesy comfort food that takes an hour or more. In the summer.

I’m clueless.

Also, this lasagna was a complete rip off of my white pizza dip. You know, the dip that four of us ate in one sitting? Yeah. That. I freaking love that stuff. I freaking love those flavors.

I also made it because lasagna isn’t a frequent meal around here… whatsoever. If you’ve been reading along then you may know that italian food is my least favorite cuisine due to my lack of love for tomato sauce. And then there is this whole thing where my husband claimed that he hated ricotta cheese, blah blah blah, but over the last few years he’s accidentally eaten so much of it that the argument no longer stands.

Marriage secret: trick your spouse into eating things. 

This might be the worst time ever to share lasagna, after all so many of my Junes have been consumed with graduation parties and the standard rigatoni, lasagna and fried chicken that I am over anything even remotely close to that. BUT! It may also be the best time. It works for Sunday dinners and you can even just prep a big pan and freeze some leftovers and have a meal in a minute. Or ten.

This big dish of love is made with whole wheat lasagna noodles, my favorite roasted grape tomatoes, tons of garlic and basil and oodles of cheese. We are talking, like – tons of cheese. Tons of different cheeses. It’s a total cheese fest.

Get on board.

Major hearts.

©2012 How Sweet It Is