Friday Quickie - Three Loves

1) The color combo of gray and coral. I am really into the color gray as a neutral lately and pairing cool aloof gray it with lovely warm coral is fanfreakingtastic.


2)Purse Hooks. I don't know who invented these but LOVE it. And love is, never having to decide between putting your beloved handbag on the floor and the security breach that is slinging it over the arm of a chair. Such a convenience when dining out. I got mine for $5 at TJ Maxx



3. Fresh Sugar Rose Lip Treatment. You already know I have a lip gloss problem. This is my latest fave. Ultra moisturizing. Tastes and smells divine. A hint of rosy colors (that deepens the more you reapply but never looks unnartural!). And SPF15! What's not to love?

Have a marvelous weekend!

Be The Match!

Adam and I like to do our part. We have donated blood. Donated platelets. We volunteer when we have time. We are happy to donate money when we can to a good cause. Recently we decided on another way to help out and give back. We decided to join the Be The Match registry and get tissue typed in order to potentially donate bone marrow to someone in need.

Every day, thousands of patients with leukemia and other life-threatening diseases hope for a marrow donor who can make their transplant possible. A whopping seventy percent of patients do not have a donor in their family. They depend on others to step up to the plate!

When you join the Be The Match registry – you become a part of every patients search for a donor. You have the incredible power to save someone’s life! The gift of knowing that a small part of you, has made it possible for someone else to go on.

To learn more about the great need for bone marrow donors, click here.
It’s a pretty easy process to get on the registry.

Visit the website and fill in some basic information and contact info.

You may have to pay a fee but in many cases there is a promotional code already filled in, paying for your testing kit, thanks to someone else’s generous donation. If you signed up today you wouldn't pay a dime (but consider making a donation of course)

Within a week or so you will receive your testing kit which contains 4 cotton swabs and a kit to mail them back.



All that is required to tissue type you is a swab of your inner cheek.



Then you send it off and after it’s typed you are then placed on the registry.





It couldn’t be more easy!

To learn more about the process or to sign up please visit the Be a Match website!

An Alternative to Weight Watchers

Seriously you know I love an animal print!

In a related story I think a Caftan Pub Crawl is (should be) in the near future.

Beauty and Main

I'm thirty.

You probably already know about it by now. What with the month long build-up in February and my posting pictures from my party and whatnot. And if you recall, one thing that came with being 30, for me, was starting (finally!) to take better care of my skin so that it will take care of me. (It knows that I am not above Botox at an early age so it better stay in line. You listening to me epidermis?)

Anyway!

This month brought with it a fantastic deal from BuyWithMe.com - a $50 gift card to my favorite cosmetic store, Beauty and Main, for only $20!

I have to say, while Sephora was the favorite beauty product store of my twenties I believe that Beauty and Main will be that of my thirties. I have been going there for a couple of years now and I just love the customer service, attention to detail of the staff. And everyone is so friendly and helpful. I once wanted to order a perfume for my mother that they no longer had at the Hingham store so the woman behind the counter called their Andover store and had it shipped right to me. Could not have been more convenient.

Not to mention the great brands they carry - Trish McEvoy, Murad, Too Faced, Cake, Mario Badescu and Laura Mercier (to name a few).

So I went to the Hingham store (At the Derby Street Shops) on Friday with my gift certificate and a desire for some great "day" makeup. Within a few minutes of entering the shop I was seated and receiving a makeover from a super nice sales associate (which I remembered her name) who did a great job of listening to what I wanted and also had some fantastic suggestions.

For instance, I really just do not like wearing foundation. I go through phases where I will wear it here and there but it just is not really for me. But I could use a little brightening/evening out so she suggested Trish McEvoy's Corrector and Brightener. She put some under my eyes and around my nose a little and it made a dramatic difference without looking makeup-py at all. I've been using it all week and still LOVE it.

I also picked up some Laura Mercier eye shadow as well as the powder liner, which I am newly obsessed with. I wear eyeliner basically every day and have been completely dedicated to liquid liner until trying out the powder. That + a little water + a fantastic little stiff brush = perfectly lined eyes every time. See, you can teach an old dog new tricks!

So if you are local and looking for a new place to buy your makeup, to learn how to craft a new look or just to browse some fantastic comsetics, you will want to check out Beauty and Main!

WW in the House

If you are in search of the perfect two recipes to use all the gorgeous cukes you have been seeing the supermarket lately - may I direct you over to The Pink Shoe Cookbook today?




With summer nearly upon us - I decided earlier this week to sign back up for Weight Watchers. This time, I opted for the online version because it's more suited to my lifestyle (I am weighing myself weekly on the WiiFit anyway!) and because I like all the tricks that come with the mobile app (tracking your points from your phone, the points calculator, etc). It makes everything so easy.

Not to mention I am OCD enough to actually LIKE counting points. I think it's kind of fun to see how much you can get out of your points! And it works for me.

I have scads of WW recipes to share and will be posting them over at The Pink Shoe Cookbook a few times a week so if you don't already have that site on your Google Reader, please feel free to add it! And of course my fellow WW-ers if you have a recipe you LOVE I would love to hear about it!

An Eggcellent Evening

A few weeks ago I recieved an invitation to attend a blogger's dinner hosted by Kitchenbelle.com and Eggland's Best Eggs at Stella in the South End. Now, I don't know really anything about eggs other than I like them scambled with goat cheese and scallions. And here is another thing. I actually buy my eggs in a carton. Eggbeaters in the house! So the chance to learn more about Eggland's Best Eggs, eat some delicious food, sip a cocktail or two, and mingle with other Boston area bloggers appealed to me!

I met lady friend Peter a bit earlier at the bar for a pre-dinner cocktail (a Stella 75 for me and a Bellini for him). I had never been to Stella before but I was struck by all of the crisp, pristine whiteness and the niceness of the staff. Not to mention the scads of street parking. I made a promise to myself to come back soon for dinner.

As the sixth hour struck, we and the other local foodie bloggers attending the event filed into the swank private room in the back. As we sipped mimosas and bloody maries, everyone mingled and got to know each other. I greeted the lovely Mary Kate of Kitchenbelle.com (whom I also went to high school with) and she ensured us we were in for a real treat.

The perfect bloody mary I had led me to believe she was right.



The passed appetizer was deviled eggs and they were DIVINE. Ibegan to realize that maybe by getting my eggs out of a cardboard carton I was missing out on something delicious.



There was tons of Eggland's Best swag decorating the venue.



Peter and I smoozed and boozed a little and then made our way to a table to take our seats for dinner and some good old fashioned egg chat.



We chatted with our charming and entertaining table mates (Shout out to April, Susan, Nicole ,
Janice and Liz, Finance Foodie, and William ! And then the first course was served. A delicious chopped salad with a side of chopped Egglands Best Eggs as well as a refresing fruit salad.




Please note the huge crouton. LOVE a huge crouton.

Then Lainie, EB's marketing assistant, came up to tell us all about their marketing efforts, they are all over facebook and twitter and constantly offering contests. Their website is updated all the time with interesting articles, stories from bloggers, and more contests.

Then came the main courses of the night.



Hello Omelet with duck, goat cheese and mushrooms. And hello you to you too insanely decadent Carbonara. The omelet was light and fluffy and incredibly tasty. The carbonara was rich and ectstasy inducing. Sigh. Neither would have been half as tasty made with what I had been using at home. Wow.

Then Roger, the marketing manager for Eggland's Best, stood up and sold us even more on the brand. As I mentioned before I had been content thus far to buy my eggs shell-less in a carton and never new what I was missing. But the taste and the obvious quality of the Eggland's Best Eggs really made an impression on me. Not to mention Roger's enthusiasm and the info he gave us!



Some food for thought:

Eggland’s Best eggs have incredible nutritional value compared to generic eggs including:

o 25% less saturated fat per egg
o 10 times more vitamin E (“excellent source” category) per egg
o 2.5 times more iodine per egg
o 115 mg of omega-3 fatty acids per egg
o 200 mcg of lutein per egg
o 20% of the Required Daily Value for vitamins D and B 12 and selenium per egg
o 10% of the Daily Value for vitamin A, riboflavin and folate per egg

Fun fact, Another good source of lutein? Marigolds!



We also learned that while some egg companies feed their hens leftover fat/grease from fast food restaurants (sick!), EB's hens are fed an all vegetarian diet comprised of healthy grains, canola oil, rice bran, sea kelp, alfalfa and Vitamin E. That is some healthy-@ss chickens if you ask me.

We were then treated to dessert ( a decadent chocolate tort) which I confess I barely touched since I was stuffed from that uh-mazing omelet and pasta course. My mind still reels with joy,
when I think about it.

We then heard from Bart, the Director of Quality for Eggland's Best and got even more down to the nitty gritty.

Some more fun facts from Bart.

- Regulatory guidelines imposed by the USDA for generic eggs allow storage for up to 21 days before packing. Eggland’s Best imposes a maximum pre-storage period of 7 days. Reduced storage time helps to preserve the safety, quality and flavor of the product.

- The Eggland’s Best Quality Assurance Laboratory conducts over 45,000 individual analyses and quality evaluations each year. The results are subject to routine validation using reference laboratories

So you can see they mean business about providing a great product - and it's always inspiring to see people so enthusiastic about what they do. Not to mention getting a chance to sample their product in so many different dishes really showed off it's superior taste and made fans of all of us!

We each left the party with a goody bag filled with coupons, a cookbook, a spatula, an umbrella as well as an adorbable stuffed Egg (which i confess I gave to Bodhi and he promptly ripped the poor thing's eyes out - so he is clearly a fan as well!). I have already used Eggland's Best Eggs, hardboiled, in a pasta salad I made this weekend and it earned rave reviews. I can't wait to try them in even more recipes/dishes.

Thanks Eggland's Best and Kitchenbelle for a fantastic event (and Peter for being as always a fantastic date).

The Deadbeat Blogger Returns....

...to share a vegetarian lasagna recipe with you!



Do you like any of the following?
Caramelized Onions
Portobello mushrooms
Spinach
Gorgonzola
Vegetarian dishes that don't make you miss meat?

Then you will want to check out the Caramelized Onion and Spring Spinach Lasagna recipe over at The Pink Shoe Cookbook!