kevin & amanda { blog }

Shopping in Chicago

Amanda — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:00:08 +0000

On Friday morning, Kevin and I took a cab from our hotel in Chicago to a small bakery the Ukrainian Village, Shokolad Pastry & Cafe. We started the day with their crepes… glorious crepes. Chocolate & cinnamon for me, Nutella & banana for him. Heaven! Despite being *completely* stuffed, I couldn’t pass up this incredible looking Opera cake from the pastry case. With layers of chocolate, vanilla, almond biscuits and espresso buttercream, how could I resist?? :)

Of course after that, I totally deserved our 2 mile trek up Chicago Avenue.

We made our way through the Ukrainian Village to the trendy Wicker Park neighborhood. Our first stop was Pitaya, where I totally fell in love with this dress!

And these earrings! Had to grab these earrings. Only 5 bucks! Won’t they look nice with this ruffly top?

Pitaya has a few locations across the US, definitely check them out if you’re near one! Too bad the closest one to me is 5 hours away. I might have to consider driving there sometime!

We ran in the Marc Jacobs boutique, and look what I found! Yep, that stressed-out look is definitely the face of someone with two boston terriers. ;)

Right after that we ran into the sweetest, tiniest, fattest little BT I have ever seen. Totally scooped him up and got some kisses. I wanted to put him in my purse and run. Wicker Park was very dog-friendly. Most of the stores had water bowls out front for the thirsty pups.

Kevin tried to talk me into buying this shirt, but I resisted. But check out the back! It was hard. But then check out the price. Ack!

Oh man. Stopped in this cute store, M2 Boutique. Loved this place!

I was mesmerized by this necklace. It just so happened to go perfectly with the navy blue dress I was wearing. And the khaki dress I just bought. And that white top I brought with me. And everything else I own. Or have ever owned. In my entire life. Amen.

This bracelet was conveniently (and innocently) sitting right next to the necklace. I could get into some serious trouble if I lived in Chicago.

This cuff bracelet was calling out to me! Between this place, Sephora, and Sur La Table, I think I spent my entire life savings in Chicago.

Kevin’s a huge Braves fan, and it just so happened they were playing at Wrigley the weekend of his bday.

It was a pretty exciting game. The left fielder and third baseman had a huge collision going after a fly ball. The pitcher got beaned by a line drive. And the Braves came back to win it in the 9th inning!

And I finished off the rest of my Opera cake. :D

Chicago: Our View

Amanda — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:00:54 +0000

Last Thursday Kev and I got up bright and early, jumped in the car, and left for a 10-hour road trip to Chicago. It was our first visit to the Windy City and we spent a long weekend celebrating Kevin’s birthday, seeing a game at Wrigley Field, shopping in swanky boutiques and eating delicious meals.

And walking 5,672 miles a day!

Of course if I walked that far back home in Alabama, I wouldn’t even be to the nearest gas station.

We had some gorgeous views from our room on the Chicago River. We recognized the Sears Tower immediately! As we were driving into the city and first saw the skyline, it stood out head and shoulders above all the other buildings.

I’m pretty sure I should be able to see our hotel reflected in this building (it was right across the river), but I have yet to figure out which one was ours!

After making a quick stop for some doughnuts on our way up (more on those later!), we arrived in Chicago right at sunset… and right about dinner time.

We took a walk down the river to Portillo’s for a Chicago Dog, an Italian Beef, and their famous chocolate cake shake. It was an actual piece of fudgy, chocolate cake with frosting down at the bottom of a chocolate milkshake. Goodness gracious. Loved catching the moon peeking through the buildings on our walk.

24-70mm f/2.8 lens
ISO 400
f/16
20 sec

When we got back to the hotel I snapped this slow-release pic of all the cars and trains going by. One last view of the city before we fell into bed. More to come! :)

Weekend at Home

Amanda — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:00:16 +0000

Kevin’s got a new work schedule, and I now get him all to myself every other Friday. Glorious! I’m totally enjoying lounging around today and starting our weekend early. :)

We’ve been on the move a lot this summer (last weekend we were in Chicago) but a few weeks ago we stayed close to home and took off deep into the woods of Alabama to the Elk River.

Dirt roads! A common site. All adventures in the south begin with a dirt road. Miley & Howie know when we get on a dirt road that something exciting is about to happen.

I was in serious need of some sun. And water. And sitting on my behind for 6 hours straight.

With plenty of space to stash ice-cold drinks, snacks, and maybe even a cell phone (if I can find a signal out here), a kayak is basically a recliner on water, right? I think so.

It could probably use a little more cushion in the seat department, though.

We met up with some sweet friends for the day. When you’re floating down an 8-mile stretch of a river in the Middle of Nowhere, Alabama, it’s important to have girlfriends you can talk beauty products with. They lent me a hairbrush after this pic. True friends.

Goodness gracious, the Elk River was gorgeous.

The water was so icy cold…

We saw cows.

And waterfalls.

And this creaky old bridge, that we all dared each other to walk across. Until we saw a four-wheeler drive over it.

Howie, the navigator.

Eventually he got a little squirmy in my, shall we say, less than spacious kayak. He needed more room for his little chunky sausage legs.

Howie! He completely and totally kicked Stephanie out of her kayak.

Here come my babes.

Kevin once introduced himself as “Kevin, from kevinandamanda.com.”

Then he added “Amanda’s husband.”

You know. To clarify.

We used the self-timer for this pic.

Just kidding! ;)

See you next week!! :)

Giveaway! Personalized Weathered Wood Signs (Winner Announced!)

Amanda — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:00:47 +0000

Time’s Up!! :) The winner of the personalized wood sign is comment #123, emilyjpaterson! Congrats Emily! :)

Don’t forget, now through the end of September, use the coupon code kandaBOGO when ordering from Signs by Andrea. It’s not too early to start thinking about Christmas Gifts! :) This coupon is good for Buy One, Get One 50% Off at Signs by Andrea (special order signs included! expires 9/30/10).

(more…)

Top of the Rock & The NYC Cupcake Challenge!

Amanda — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:00:50 +0000

On our last day in NYC, my awesome travel buddy and snacking partner-in-crime Jenny and I headed to Top of the Rock, the observation deck at Rockefeller Center.

What an incredible view of the city we had!

From up here, the island looked so small..

I just love the big green rectangle of Central Park. Looks so funny surrounded by all the buildings!

We got a huge kick out of seeing all the tiny cabs down below. :)

All weekend we had been meaning to go to Crumbs Bake Shop (which had a location right by our hotel) to continue our NYC Cupcake Challenge! :) Finally on Sunday afternoon we were able to make our way over there. We brought these goodies back to the Royalton lobby for testing. Don’t you just love their bags!

First… The Cinnamon Roll Cupcake with cream cheese icing. This was totally Jenny’s favorite!

Next… the decadent Brownie Cupcake.

Incredibly rich chocolate cupcake filled with chocolate fudge, drizzled with chocolate, and topped with little bites of brownies. I think this was my favorite!

Then… the Cookie Dough Cupcake.

Ooh, chocolate fudge filling! What a fun surprise. The icing was a cream cheese frosting mixed with chocolate chip cookie pieces.

And finally… the Cappuccino Cupcake!

A delicious chocolate cupcake filled a coffee cream cheese frosting and covered in mini chocolate chips.

Also very close to our hotel was Magnolia Bakery! We were in heaven surrounded by all these cupcakes! :) I got just a plain vanilla cupcake with buttercream icing.

Jenny got a Banana Cupcake with caramel meringue buttercream frosting. Tasted just like banana bread!

The Verdict? So, who was the winner of our NYC Battle of the Cupcakes?? Here’s the final rundown!

Crumbs Bake Shop. These were good cupcakes, but I’m just not a huge cream cheese frosting fan. Seems like all the cupcakes we tested that day had cream cheese frosting. I’m definitely a buttercream frosting kinda gal!

Magnolia Bakery. If you’re a traditionalist looking for a plain vanilla cupcake, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed! My vanilla cupcake and the buttercream frosting were both delicious. I’m definitely going to be trying the Magnolia Bakery recipe. However we were not overly wowed with the “specialty” flavors they had that day.

Eleni’s Cupcakes. Hands down, these are the winner! :) We couldn’t stop talking about our Oreo and Peanut Butter Cup cupcakes. That buttercream frosting was just outta this world incredible. If you are ever in the area, definitely head over to Chelsea Market and check them out!

Thanks for sharing NYC with us!!

Meeting The Pioneer Woman . . .

Amanda — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:00:27 +0000

Saturday was an insanely crazy day in NYC! First I met Adam Gertler and won a new cell phone at the BlogHer expo. Next we had some deliciously decadent cookies from Levain Bakery. Then late Saturday afternoon I got a message on my phone saying I’d won a book from the expo. Jenny and I headed back to the Hilton to pick it up. We were standing in the hotel lobby, and you will never guess who walked through the doors…

Ree! The Pioneer Woman!

I had my back turned, and I heard Jenny say hi to someone. Jenny knew everyone at the event, so I wasn’t too surprised! :) But when I heard her say Ree my head whipped around so fast you would’ve thought it was going to pop off!

I was so surprised, I don’t think I could even remember my name, much less introduce myself. But Ree hugged us and said “It’s like meeting old friends!”

Then she turned to me… I still don’t think I had been able to utter an intelligible word out of my gaping mouth at this point… and she said,

“Amanda, your scarf tutorial changed my life!”

*Pick me up off the floor!*

The Pioneer Woman has seen my dorky little scarf tutorial?!! The one I only begrudgingly posted because you guys talked me into it?! She’s seen it and recognized me from it, and could immediately place me?? Oh my goodness, I think I just about fainted at that point.

Let me just say, Ree was so, so sweet. And beautiful. And sweet. So glad I got to meet her! She seemed to be in no hurry, she just stood around with us in the lobby, talking, making conversation, and gabbing like girlfriends. She told us about falafel, her Today Show appearance, and going out to dinner with her husband. She joked about wearing Spanx. She asked where we were off to next and we told her Sephora. She said, “Oh, Sephora, I love that place! I wish I could go with you girls!” I just love her. :)

Well, Jenny & Ree talked. I mostly just stood there with my mouth open.

Who knew I was the star-struck type!

Eating our way through Levain Bakery, NYC

Amanda — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:00:29 +0000

After all our fun at the BlogHer expo on Saturday morning, Jenny and I were so excited to head for the Upper West Side and sample some delicious cookies from the famous Levain Bakery. We were both surprised at its tiny, tucked away location! Hidden down a short flight of stairs, we missed it the first time we walked past- even with my GPS telling us exactly where it was!

Of course, once we finally got there, we had to sample all four of Levain’s highly touted cookies.

Here we go! First was the Chocolate Chip Walnut.

Left: Photo via Jenny

We dug right in! I like walnuts, but I’m a traditionalist when it comes to chocolate chip cookies. I prefer pretty much all desserts (cookies, brownies, ice cream sundaes) sans nuts. What about you?

Next was the Oatmeal Raisin.

Okay, we are so silly! Neither of us really like raisins, but we totally wanted to try it anyway! :)

Okay. Now for the good stuff. Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip.

Oh so warm and melty and gooey!

Extremely decadent and rich. Loved this one!

And the fourth and final cookie from Levain… The Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip.

Oh. my. gracious.

I really want to know how they got their peanut butter chips so smooth, and creamy, and melty!

Photo via Jenny

By the number of pictures we took of this one…

I’ll just let you guess which one was our favorite. ;)

Levain cookie massacre! There were no survivors.

New York City, Day 3: Unilever Pampering & BlogHer Expo

Amanda — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:00:20 +0000

On Saturday morning (and day 3 of our NYC trip) Jenny and I headed up to the penthouse of the Royalton for the next Unilever pampering event! They had flown in red-carpet stylists from LA and set up 2 salon chairs in the penthouse where they would style our hair and make sure we were ready for the day! :) I posted this pic to Facebook while I was getting my hair done…

And here we are after! :)

The weather was absolutely gorgeous that day. We stepped out on the penthouse balcony for a pic!

The first thing we wanted to do on Saturday was head over to the BlogHer ‘10 expo and check it out. Jenny had friends from the Pillsbury & McDonalds booths that she wanted to say hi to! :) Let me see if I can describe the expo to you.. The expo was insane! :) It was two stories of gigantic ballrooms filled with booths from different vendors. The first floor was everyday, name-brand products you are probably familiar with like Febreeze, Eucerin, and White House Black Market. The second floor was all food! :) You could go from booth to booth and most of them had those reusable canvas shopping bags filled with full-sized samples of their new products that they were handing out. The second floor booths all had yummy samples of their new food lines! We tried chocolate milk & milkshakes from the Got Milk booth, cupcakes, brownies & cookies from the Pillsbury booth, and some really yummy new breakfast products from the Jimmy Dean Booth. My favorite was the Butterfinger booth… They gave me 6 (yes 6!) full-sized Butterfinger bars and and entire bag (like you would buy at Halloween) of their new Butterfinger Snackerz. Talk about trick or treating for adults! Kevin’s been making Butterfinger milkshakes every night since I’ve been back. I’m now addicted to them.

Oh! And guess who we met at the Pillsbury booth… Adam Gertler from Food Network! I love him from “The Best Thing I Ever Ate!” What a cutie and a sweetie! I had messed with the settings on my camera and couldn’t stop giggling like a school girl, so I turned out kinda blurry in all the pics. Oops!

We were almost ready to leave, but I saw the T-mobile booth on our way out and wanted to stop by real quick. They asked us if we wanted to play a game for a chance to win a free cell phone! I have the pretty cool T-mobile G1 Android phone, and I figured these would just be one of their regular cell phones that they give out free to new customers anyway… but we decided, what the heck! We’ll give it a shot! :) The game was TXT TRANSL8… They showed us texting acronyms like LOL and we had to guess what they stood for.

Jenny went first and her first one was PZA. She guessed pizza! I would’ve *never* gotten that. Her last one was HAGS. Have a great summer!

These are the three I got. They got progressively harder! Jenny totally had to help me with that first one. I probably would’ve guessed voodoo. But then after seeing her whip out four in a row without breaking a sweat, I started to get the hang of it! :) I got the second one right off the bat. PLMK. And then the third one… don’t ask me how I knew that one!!

Photo via T-Mobile

Low and behold.. We won!! :) And we were so surprised to see that they were giving out some of their really cool phones! Jenny picked the MyTouch and I picked the Motorola Cliq XT. It has a 5 MP camera with a flash. Seriously.

Here are all the texting acronyms and their translations from the game. I love the *$ one! I could use some *$ right about now! ;)

Later that same day…

Levain Bakery! After having a total blast at the Expo we were ready for some cookies!

Check out Jenny’s awesome post about all the Unilever pampering and the BlogHer expo!

Talk soon! :)

New York City, Day 2: Doughnuts, Cupcakes & Gelato Milkshakes!

Amanda — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:00:34 +0000

Good morning, friends! This is a pic of me and Jenny bright and early on Friday morning in the hotel lobby. Our first full day in NYC! Unilever invited us to stay at the Royalton during the big blogging conference that was going on in NYC that weekend, BlogHer ‘10. But Jenny and I didn’t have tickets to the conference, so we just got to run around Manhattan all day! We shopped, did some sight-seeing, and ate a whole lot! :) In the morning and evenings, Unilever had their very cool events going on in the penthouse suite that we could attend. Everyone at BlogHer was talking about them! In the morning they had celebrity hairstylists and makeup artists that they *flew in* from LA that would style your hair and get you ready for the day. And in the evenings, they had reflexology massage therapists who would massage your feet and arms after a long day of walking! There were also some really cool people there. I got to meet Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bees and Wannabes. That’s the book the movie Mean Girls was based on! Oh, and of course the events were catered! :) Oh my goodness, there was so much food, I can’t even remember what all we had! I definitely remember the blueberry muffins and scones in the morning, and the lavender chocolate truffles we had during our foot massages! Oh, and PF Changs was there!

But more on that later! :)

Our first stop was the Lower East Side for breakfast at Doughnut Plant!

BTW, why do I always type doughBUT when I mean doughnut? Is my keyboard trying to tell me something??

Nevermind that. Look at this cute sign with their fresh “doughnuts du jour“…

Photo via Jenny

Oh yeah, you know we had to try a bunch. I love traveling with friends who have excellent taste and will split everything with you. :D

Oh my gosh. The Peanut Butter & Jelly doughnut. The doughnut was peanut butter. Yes. A peanut butter doughnut. With an incredible, peanut-buttery glaze. And blackberry jam piped throughout the square shaped doughnut. Perfect!

Oh, the Carrot Cake Doughnut with cream cheese icing filling. I loved this one! And I’m not even a huge carrot cake or cream cheese frosting fan. What is up with that?? And the sweet little doughnut man accidentally gave us two instead of one. Score!

The Tres Leches Cake Doughnut was sweet, buttery, and extremely indulgent. Loved it!

Photo via Jenny

And the tiiiiny Crème Brûlée Doughnut. Sorry! I snarfed it down too quickly to get a pic of the silky vanilla custard inside. You’ll just have to take my word for it. :D But just look at that incredible, crackly, sugary crust! *crunch!*

After completely filling up on doughnuts, what do you think we wanted to do next? Eat cupcakes of course! ;)

Just kidding! We headed over to Chelsea Market and shopped off all our doughnuts first! :) The had the most incredible Anthropologie store there and I wanted to buy one of every. single. thing. I refrained. But since I’m addicted to strawberry jam, I definitely picked up this yummy-sounding Strawberry Raspberry jam from Sarabeth’s Kitchen.

But eventually the cupcakes from Eleni’s were calling out to us!

Photo via Jenny

How could we not stop in this adorable bakery?? :)

We decided on the Oreo Cookie Madness Cupcake… (look at those tiny toasted marshmallows!)

And the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cupcake.

Okay, first let me say, we went to 2 other well-known cupcake bakeries while in NYC, including Magnolia Bakery. Should I tell you the Battle of the Cupcakes verdict now or wait until the end to announce the winner??! :)

Okay, I will at least tell you this! :D Oh my gosh. This icing? Was incredible. Unlike anything I have ever tasted. All icing will now be held to this standard, and I’m afraid I’m going to be very, very disappointed from now on! :) The vanilla buttercream on the Oreo cookie cupcake was just totally outta this world. And the peanut butter buttercream on the Reese’s cupcake??

I think my mouth is watering right now.

So, after doughnuts and cupcakes, what do you think we chose to finish off our trifecta of sweetness?? Gelato Milkshakes from Stand of course! Okay, I promise we had a real lunch and did lots of walking in between all these sugary confections! :D And look how tiny they are… they did have a larger sizes available. We totally could’ve gotten much larger gelato shakes. But it’s all about making healthy choices. Right?? ;) Jenny had the honey lavender milkshake, and let me just say it tasted *just* like lavender smells. Just in case you have ever wondered what this new honey-lavender thing is about?? It tastes just like lavender! lol! :) And I had the famous toasted marshmallow gelato milkshake. Delish!

Okay. Real food time! :) Jenny had been telling me about Artisanal Fromagerie and Bistro and their life-changing mac and cheese for weeks before our trip.

I was pumped. We started off with some very yummy fondue…

My gracious, look at that bubbly goodness!

And the Salade Frisée. Let me tell you about this salad. If I could only have salad for the rest of my life, I think I could handle it. I would totally eat this salad every day for the rest of my life! Oh, the bacon. It had super thick crumbles of bacon- see that bite right in the middle?? That’s not a crouton.. that’s bacon!! :) And that beautiful white dollop in the middle is not sour cream… it’s a poached egg, folks. Oh yes. Indeed.

The mac & cheese was definitely the star of the show.

So smooth & creamy, with a buttery panko crust. And guess what! Jenny has this famous gourmet mac and cheese recipe from Chef Brennan himself up on her blog! Artisanal mac and cheese at home? I will totally be trying this.

Can’t forget our side of pomme frites. :)

After dinner we walked around Times Square before heading back to the hotel. So gorgeous and magical at night! It was about 11 o’clock at night and everything was still open and packed with people!

More soon!

Kevin has the day off so we’re starting our weekend early. Woohoo!

Definitely check out this super sweet post from Jenny on our adventures in NYC.

See you Monday! :)

New York City, Day 1: Rice Pudding, Bike Taxis, and Martha Stewart!

Amanda — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:20:03 +0000

Left: Photo via Jenny

After settling in at the Royalton, the first thing we wanted to do on our whirlwind, 4 day trip to NYC was eat!! :) We acted liked locals, hopped on the train, and headed down to SoHo. Thanks to the Google Maps app on my phone, we were able to navigate the subway system like we knew what we were doing! It told us how to get to the nearest subway station, which train to get on, and which stop to get off. Some of the trains were extremely nice, clean, and air conditioned, with electronic maps telling you everything you needed to know. But there were a few that were not air conditioned.. yikes!!

Photos via Jenny

It was just about lunchtime and I could not wait to try one of these famous little Liège waffles from the Wafels & Dinges food truck!

I would totally describe this as a doughnut waffle!! :)

It’s made with a unique pearl sugar that melts within the waffle. The pearls burst and caramelize when the dough hits the iron, resulting in a dense, sugary and ultra rich waffle!! :)

Photo via Jenny

Oh yes, we were… :)

After shopping in SoHo and on Canal Street, (I got shoes, a scarf, and the Satsuma Shimmer Lotion Stefani suggested) we were ready to cool down with another sweet afternoon snack…

Rice Pudding from Rice to Riches! You know we couldn’t pick just one! :) We got Chocolate Chip Flirt and French Toast with a buttery graham crumble topping. Seriously yum! It was soo sweet and sooooo cold. Just what we needed! Thursday was definitely our hottest day there!

Photo via Jenny

After all that running around, it was so nice to come back to Unilever Penthouse for a divine reflexology foot & arm massage! A gal could get used to that! :)

Photo via Jenny

After chillin’ at the penthouse, and freshening up a bit, we headed to a Pillsbury & Smuckers dinner, then a Martha Stewart party after. We were going to walk, but we saw this cute little bike taxi flying down the streets and hopped on for a ride! So much for being locals! ;)

We heard Martha Stewart herself was there! But we arrived a little late and didn’t get to meet her. Next time! :)

They did have some delicious sushi and these adorable little sliders! Look at the pink onions.. they were so feminine & cute!

Recipe from the July/August 2010 issue of Everyday Food

I am totally making these tiny bistro bugers for the next girly event I go to. How cute would these be for a baby shower?? :)

Next up!

Dougnuts, cupcakes, gelato milkshakes & decadent fondue & macaroni and cheese from Artisanal!

And check out Jenny’s account of our first day in NYC!

Thanks for looking!! :)