Shopbop Love

Shopbop is truly shopping crack.  It's in my opinion the single best shopping website and I can always find something that I want.  Truly, my wish list is a little scary.  They are currently offering:

which has me thinking about shopping for my upcoming wedding (still need a rehearsal dinner dress) and honeymoon.  A few things I have my eye on are:

DVF - Perfect for the wedding weekend

Rag & Bone boots

Tibi top

Shoshana Dress

Wedding Wednesday: Make-up & Hair

I have my wedding make-up and hair trials this week and I'm so excited.  Fingers crossed I like this artist/stylist.  The look I'm going for make-up is a pink lip, pink cheeks and a little darker of an eye (but definitely not a smokey eye).

Then for hair I'm going for an updo with the option of doing a veil (I'm still undecided).  I'm not sure how I feel about the swoop along the forehead but am worried it would be annoying.  Some hair examples I love are:

Cotto Wine Bar, Stamford, CT

We moved out to CT in late November and I've been feeling lately that we just keep going to the same few restaurants that we know and love.  One of my favorite things about living in NYC for the past 8 years was that there were always so many new restaurants and bars to explore.  With that in mind, I wanted to try a new place for our date night this past weekend.  Enter, Cotto!

Cotto is an Italian tapas bar with a special mozzarella menu and homemade pastas and pizzas.  We stuck to the tapas and were not disappointed.  Between us, we split the hangar steak, mozzarella and prosciutto, brussell sprouts, fried eggplant with horseradish sauce, veal meatballs and a meat & cheese plate.  Mind you these were all tapas so the sizes weren't crazy, but we left very full and excited to go back.  I also had an amazing and crisp prosecco that I was thrilled.  My only complaint was our waiter seemed a little flakey, but otherwise, it was great.

Cotto Wine Bar & Pizzeria

51 Bank St

Stamford, CT

How to Make Spaghetti Squash

I've heard about spaghetti squash and been fascinated by it for a long time.  However, I was completely intimidated by the thought of actually making it.  It was only when Alex and I decided we needed to eat healthier and be a little more calorie-conscious before the wedding did I start to experiment with it.  I cooked this up for dinner and seeing as how Alex licked both our bowls clean, I think it was a success.

What you need:

1 Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti Sauce

4 chicken andouille sausages

First, heat the oven to 350.  Split the spaghetti squash in half, remove all the seeds and place face-down on an aluminum foil covered baking sheet and cook for 35 minutes roughly.   Then take a fork and scrape out the inside of the squash until the inside is clean.  It'll look amazingly like spaghetti!

Then what I did was in another pan, cook the sausages until they're hot (about 10-15 minutes).  In a separate pan, mix the sauce with the squash (as much sauce as you like) and let it simmer on a low heat.  Once the sausages are cooked, slice them up and add them to the sauce and let them cook for another 10-15 minutes.  Then serve with some yummy parmesan!

Friday Five

It's my first day back from vacation and I'm already missing the beach.  Which has definitely influenced my Friday five for this week.

This Prbal Gurung dress for Target has summer written all over it

Fun, summery wedges from DVF

Take me there please

yes, please!

and some homemade sangria please!

Best Restaurants in Paradise Island, Nassau, Bahamas

Every single February my family heads down to Paradise Island for a week of fun, sun, sand and surf.  I dream about this vacation all year and get more and more excited as the week approaches.  Sadly, today is our last day in the Bahamas.  We rent a house every year and have found local spots that we love.  A few of our favorites are:

Cafe Matisse

The Beach Club Cafe

Bimini Road

Goodfellows Farm (most amazing organic cafe)

Only 365 more days until....

Wedding Wednesday: The Music

I love music.  I think great music at a wedding can really make or break the wedding.  I've been to weddings with amazing bands and DJ's and had a blast.  But equally, there are always those stories about DJ's and bands just doing whatever they want and making a less than fun environment.  This is why Alex and I put a lot of time into finding the right band and string quartet for our wedding (thanks Mom and Kate for your help on these two!).  So for our wedding night, we will be listening to:

And then at the ceremony we'll be hearing:

Philly Cheese Steak Stuffed Peppers

I have seen this recipe pop-up now multiple times on blogs and pinterest and I am DYING to make this.  It just looks so amazing and so easy.  Alex, I think this will have to be dinner one night this week.

via

INGREDIENTS

8 oz. Thinly Sliced Roast Beef (I used Boars Head London Broil - more flava)

8 Slices Provolone Cheese

2 Large Green Bell Peppers

1 Medium Sweet Onion

6 oz. Baby Bella Mushrooms

2 Tbs. Butter (omitted)

2 Tbs. Olive Oil

1 Tbs. Garlic - Minced

Salt and Pepper - to taste

DIRECTIONS

Slice peppers in half lengthwise, remove ribs and seeds.

Slice onions and mushrooms. Saute over medium heat with butter, olive oil, minced garlic and a little salt and pepper. Saute until onions and mushroom are nice and caramelized. About 25-30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400*

Slice roast beef into thin strips and add to the onion/mushroom mixture. Allow to cook 5-10 minutes

Line the inside of each pepper with a slice of provolone cheese.

Fill each pepper with meat mixture until they are nearly overflowing.

Top each pepper with another slice of provolone cheese.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the cheese on top is golden brown.

Serve and Enjoy!

Makes 4 servings - 6 net carbs per serving 

Friday Five

Hopefully I'm sitting in the Bahamas now working on my tan!!  In the meantime though, the 5 things I'm loving this week are:

Love this Valentine's Day offer I received from Veuve Cliquot (my fav champagne) at 3pm on a workday -

 made me thirsty for happy hour!

Bar Taco has quickly become Alex's and my favorite neighborhood restaurant - 

we will pop in for a quick (and cheap) dinner rather than go grocery shopping on occasions

I love macrons, especially those from Ladure, ever since my brother and sister-in-law 

took me there in Paris.  Now there's a Ladure in NYC and I'm still addicted.

Dune Bar at the One & Only Ocean Club in Nassau - 

I will hopefully be having many cocktails here next week

Green juice from Blue Print Cleanse!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love Valentine's Day.  Any excuse to celebrate the people you love most that also happens to include flowers, chocolate and candles?? Sign me up!  We're on a plane now to the Bahamas for the week (but there are posts still everyday so keep checking in).  

Happy Valentine's Day to all!  I hope everyone feels loved. xoxo

Wedding Wednesday: Rehearsal Dinner Dresses

Wedding planning so far has been really fun.  It's been so great thinking about our future and planning all the details around our special day.  Of course, part of thinking about the weekend, is also thinking about what you're going to wear.  One of the things I haven't found yet is a dress to wear for our rehearsal dinner.  While our dinner is going to be pretty casual (it's at a brewhouse), I still want to wear a pretty cocktail dress that feels special.  Some ones that have caught my eye are:

Shoshana Jolie Dress from Piperlime

Milly Isabelle Dress from Piperlime

Black Halo Eddie Sheath Dress from Piperlime

Tibi Cinta Beading Dress from Piperlime

Shoshana Dress from Neiman Marcus

Shoshana Val Strapless Dress from Neiman Marcus

Monique Lhuillier Strapless Cocktail Dress

Monique Lhuillier Overlay Dress

Let Them Eat Cake

On Sunday afternoon, Alex, my parents and I got to do our wedding cake tasting!!  Our amazing baker made 3 mini cakes in different flavors (carrot, lemon and raspberry) for us to try with various icing combinations.  Additionally, each cake was decorated in a style similar to ones I had seen online and loved.  While I won't reveal what we went with, I can say we all were a little hungover from sugar that night.  So much so that this morning, I'm sticking to green juice and water until my body feels normal again.

Love the little beads around the base

Beautiful flowers on top - for the actual cake would be way less gloppy

Fun ruffled edges around the cake

YUM

So good we attacked the slices before actually photographing them

Detox: green juice and water