Treat Yo'self

 

Image: here

As I am sure everyone reading this is 100 percent aware - Valentine's Day is this weekend. I would write a post about what to do, what to wear, what shoes are great for a special date with your significant other. But to be quite frank, I can't write what I don't know. Holla at all my single ladies on this one! My friends and I are annual celebrants of "Galentine's Day" instead. This year we have got quite the plan for an evening together!

This past Christmas, my mother had gifted me a super sweet cheese plate, which has since been on display as a tray in my bedroom and has not seen much more action. That will change on Sunday. We will be taking the plate for a drive for our own little wine and cheese party while watching either Valentine's Day or a violent horror film...we'll see. With an evening full of delicious cheeses, wine, chocolate, and lots of lady love what's not to be excited about?

<3 Ashley

What are your plans for Valentine's Day? Do you celebrate Galentine's Day?

February: A Lot to Love

 

Image: here

Greetings, everybody! And greetings to February! Is anyone else as confused as I am to see February here so soon? It seems like just yesterday that I was making my promises for the year (so far so good!)

Typically, I am not this month's biggest fan. Valentine's Day is not exactly my holiday of choice (see alternative: Galentine's Day). But this year, there is a bit more to look forward to. We will be filming another episode of Pitt Tonight, and this is the first full month of the running of Pitt Tonight blog, of which I am the mighty keeper.

My roommates and I also have many plans set to make this month a good one, so as to not get bogged down by winter and work. February is the month when we make good on our promises to leave the college neighborhood of Oakland in exchange for any evening Downtown. There are so many restaurants and bars that we have yet to try because we are so reliant on those $2 Blue Moons. But we must all grow up at some point. :P

February will also be spent planning our spring break trip, which was just booked yesterday. NYC here we come - if you have any suggestions for budget friendly activities and dining feel free to comment or email me! What seems to be the overarching theme of this month for me is friends. This month I am celebrating the relationships that I have built with some amazing young ladies.

<3 Ashley

What are you celebrating this month?

Sunday Brunch: Harris Grill

Yesterday, we went out to brunch for our friend's birthday. One thing I love about going out with these girls to celebrate is that we usually find some new and interesting places to dine. The Harris Grill on Ellsworth Ave was no exception. The atmosphere in the place is great; dim lighting, some odd kind of religious artwork and some crazy humor in the menu descriptions give this place its quirky-ness. The biggest draw for us to this place was the $14 brunch--basically everything is $14 and that includes coffee or tea, orange juice or a frozen mimosa (believe that the 21 year olds in the group proudly whipped out their IDs while us babies said "coffee please!") a fruit bowl and whatever entree you want. The set up around the table consisted of omelette, breakfast mac n cheese which looked heavenly, and sticky bun skillets. I was a sticky bun girl. The buns come in a personal sized cast iron skillet and are accompanied by the delicious home fries and bacon. I could not have asked for a better way to start a Sunday. The restaurant's proximity to the bus stop on this very icy day in Pittsburgh was also plus. The Harris Grill scored big in this group's opinion.

Galentine's Day Movie Date

We are about one week out from Valentine's Day and it's about that time where I have to accept the fact that there is a day of the year that has pretty much capitalized on couples and I am currently not part of that group. I'm not bitter though...seriously, I'm not!

Really, there is always a way to have fun on the day of love without being in a romantic relationship. My friends and I have replaced Valentine's Day with "Galentine's Day." A day to share even more love with the gals than you do any other day of the year! My one roommate and I like to go to the campus bakery and buy each other as pastry or get one big on to share. Plus, no lady date is complete without a chick flick marathon! Here are some great go-to films:

1. Love Actually. I think it is just as much a Valentine's movie as it is a Christmas movie. Seriously, if you just forget the fact that it's set during the Christmas season it totally fits!

2. The Holiday. See the above justification.

3. Valentine's Day. I guess this is pretty much the 'Love Actually' of Valentine's Day. You know...a bunch of well known celebrities falling in love with each other in one film.

4. Titanic. I have seen this one on a bunch of 'Valentine's Movies' list, though I personally don't think I will be watching it. It's kind of a sad route to go I think. He dies WHEN HE TOTALLY DIDN'T HAVE TO! ...just saying.

5. The Notebook. #thestandard

<3 Ashley

Do you celebrate Galentine's Day? What's your go-to movie on V-Day?

Sunday Brunch: Crustless Veggie Quiche

Sunday brunch is coming to you late today because, well...brunch came to us a little late today. I actually went out for breakfast this morning with my family who was visiting this weekend, and Michelle had a friend from home here as well. This is was the weekend to have visitors too! It was Light Up Night here in Pittsburgh, the Penguins played some hockey (they did lose in the shoot-out unfortunately!) and our Pitt Panthers finally pulled out a win for our last home game against Syracuse. With the determination to make brunch happen still, we elected to have brunch for dinner. After the sweetness that was the stuffed French toast last weekend we opted for savory this time around with a crustless veggie quiche.

Ingredients:
- 3 egg white
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 c skim milk
- salt & pepper
- veggies of your choosing
- spinach
- mozzarella cheese
- parmesan cheese

Step by Step:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Cook veggies (we used onion, garlic, mushroom, tomato) on the stove until tender
- In a medium bowl mix eggs, egg white, milk, salt and pepper
- Spray a pie plate and arrange veggie layer. Arrange spinach layer Sprinkle mozzarella cheese then pour egg mixture over top. Sprinkle top with parmesan.
-  Bake for 45 minutes.

As I look back on my blog content thus far, I see a lot of food. Is there anything else you guys would like to see me talk about? Not that food is a bad thing!

<3 Ashley

Are you a quiche fan? Did you have a good weekend?

Sunday Brunch: Stuffed French Toast

Look at that little piece of heaven

After talking back and forth and canceling on each other last minute for the past two weeks, Sunday brunch finally happened and the ladies reconvened to talk predominately about the disappointment that is our football team and the consistent issue that is the male population. This morning we trekked out into the cold to buy a loaf of sourdough from Panera for our stuffed French toast. I am very happy to say that it was very much a success!

There was no set recipe for this since we all wanted to stuff ours with different things. Michelle and I found happiness in cream cheese and raspberries, while Megan most definitely suggests cream cheese and bananas--never really considered that combo before! I will share the basics of what we did.

Ingredients
- 2 slices of sourdough per serving
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup skim milk
- cinnamon
- cream cheese (or peanut butter or Nutella!)
- fruit

Step by step
- Slice sourdough to the desired thickness
- In a bowl, mix eggs, milk and cinnamon
- Spread cream cheese on one side of both slices of bread, arrange fruit on one slice and make a sandwich
- Soak both sides in the egg mixture--let each side sit for a bit to soak the mixture in
- Heat oil or butter in a skillet and cook French toast approximately 30 seconds on both sides or to your liking
- Enjoy!

<3 Ashley

What do you enjoy in your stuffed French toast? 

The Potato Party

One thing that my roommates and I have established within these past few months living together in this apartment is that we throw some fantastic parties. If any readers here remember from All That Glitters, we had a fun '90s themed slumber party for Allison and Abby's joint birthday party back in September that included face masks from Seventeen magazine, homemade popsicles and popcorn, a playlist with the best of the '90s and early 2000s and 3 large pizzas. Sounds like a good time right? We have also hosted a dinner party and a pretty standard party which turned into a great Mario Party competition. This past weekend we struck again with another wonderful party. I bet you've never been to this kind of party; it was a potato party. Yeah, you read that correctly. This invite only party required that all guests contribute their own homemade potato dish to this very starchy potluck. Our friends did not disappoint. We had white cheddar mashed potatoes (the clear winner!) loaded sweet potato boats (a close runner up) sweet potato fries, tater tots, roasted garlic and parmesan potatoes and the interesting potato chip and Nutella combo that turned out the be pretty much the greatest thing EVER!

Also party of the evening were some very competitive potato themed games. We had half a round of hot potato which did not last very long before the potato exploded all over the carpet. Everyone split up into two teams for a cutthroat potato relay race which attracted the concerned attention of a few of our neighbors. The evening was closed by a round of "pin the face on Mr. PotatoHead" which was probably the funniest thing ever.

Mark that down as another success!

<3 Ashley

What are some other great party ideas? 

Sunday Brunch: The Weekend We Had No Brunch

Unfortunately today did not work out for our group Sunday brunch. I will admit that it was my fault...I slept in way too late and at that point no one was too committed to making our stuffed french toast. Perhaps next week we will have more success! There are some fantastic things to talk about though:

Movin' on in: Well...not until August. The girls and I got our first off campus house! It is actually nice and homey too--unlike many of the dumpy places in South Oakland. We are meeting with the landlord tomorrow to sign the lease!

A+: Out of all of the stress and constant work that I have endured through this semester, it finally feels like it is paying off. We got our midterm papers back in History of Mass Media and guess who got a perfect score....THIS GIRL!

Let's hope that all of this is all continues into this week to make it a good one too!

<3 Ashley

What good has happened to you this week?

Letter From the Editor: November

I don't know about my fellow students, but I feel like this semester has absolutely flown by! It's already November. I have a tendency to see Halloween as the official kick off to the holiday season (whether it is or not...I don't particularly care) and as of November 1st have dived head first into holiday planning. An example of this? I've got my pumpkin pie recipe ready to go and my roommates and I have discussed at which point it is acceptable to start playing Christmas music--very soon!

This month on the blog look for a lot of fun holiday themed posts! When I first started blogging I had a tendency of posting a lot of holiday recipes and think now is as good a time as any to bring that back. I will be sharing some of my favorite holiday dishes with you and also posting some other fantastic pieces of holiday inspiration. I will also begin rolling out some of the exciting weekly features that I have planned for Sunday Brunch. What do these include? Well when I first started out blogging, fashion was the topic of choice. I kinda would like to get back to those roots and do a post each week highlighting one outfit that I have worn in the past week--come back tomorrow for the first of these posts featuring my Halloween costume this year! Another thing I would like to do is a small Sunday post. Sunday brunches are a fixture in my group of friends and I would like to share our creations with you. This coming Sunday has stuffed french toast on the menu and surely some great conversation!

I hope you are as excited as I am for this month!
<3 Ashley

What do you look forward to in November?

Welcome to Sunday Brunch

Well hello there! It is me...Ashley...from All That Glitters? Don't recognize me? I can't blame you; I have rebranded and found my way back to Blogger. After spending around three years as All That Glitters I began to feel a little bit of disconnect with the blog and everything that I put into it. However, I still wanted to blog. I get some crazy high off of blogging I guess; I just have to do it.

I decided that I wasn't All That Glitters anymore. I created ATG in the summer between high school and college and just picked a cute sounding name. This time around I wanted to name my blog something that I could connect to and reflected me in some kind of way. Sunday Brunch...who doesn't love it? Since coming to college if there is one thing I can count on it's a brunch on Sunday with my girls where we recount the events of the past week and the weekend. It is always a great time that ends up stretching from 11am until sometimes 2pm! This year we all have our own kitchens so Sunday brunch has only improved in quality now that we are making the food ourselves and experimenting with different recipes. The conversations are still interesting, hilarious and sometimes revealing. So why not name my blog after the setting of some of the best talks?!

Don't get confused, this is not a food blog (though there will probably be a ton of food on it!) In keeping with what I did with All That Glitters, it is a lifestyle blog. Expect a little bit of everything! I hope that you will join me on this new blogging journey that I am embarking on and love everything that goes into it.

<3 Ashley

Do you have Sunday brunches?

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