Forgive my man hands

It's December and it's 60 degrees out.

Is there something wrong with this picture?

I won't complain too much because it means

I can still walk for coffee. And along the way

see an albino squirrel.

A furry fall friend hanging out.

Well I enjoyed my coffee but today I was so

hungry and the coffee wasn't supressing my hunger.

I was ravenous. Nothing could stop it.

The reason for my hunger is because of 2 things:

1- eating a healthy choice frozen meal for lunch

will mean you are hungry 20 mins after completion.

2- Running. I always want to eat my weight in food

when I run more. It's true. Proven science.

Anyways- I got home and made...

Mexican Lasagna!

I gathered the ingredients. Here is the list:

1- refried beans

2- black beans

3- enchilada sauce

4- Tomato

5- cheese

6- tortillas (I used corn)

Black olives and lettuce are optional.

ok here are the super simple steps:

1- heat up enchilada sauce. True story- I added

2 tbsp ketchup to mine to add more flavor.

2- crisp tortillas in pan.

3- get layering.

I coated the bottom of my pan with the sauce.

4- Take tortilla and spread refried on top.

5- then black beans on top.

6- add cheese. black olives. tomato.

7- repeat 2 through 6.

I had a total of 4 tortillas. Here it is before the oven.

Back at 350 for 10-15 minutes.

It was made for two. I shared with Ashly.

I put mine on top of lettuce and more tomato. I'm always

trying to get more veggies in my life.

I'm finishing my night with the Rockefeller Lighting.

It is official... Christmas is here.

And I'm painting my nails Essie's "cocktail bling"

to celebrate the season for shining.

(Forgive my man hands and my chewed nails. I'm trying

to stop biting. Lay off me.)

Eat your heart out... literally!

How was your Thanksgiving? Mine was great!

I ate my heart out and spent time with family

and friends. I helped my mom cook and I made

one of the desserts. I present- Chocolate

Pecan Tartlets.

Recipe:

Makes 24

Crust-

5-ish tbsp of butter (I  used margarine)

4 oz light cream cheese

1 cup flour

1 tbsp confectioners sugar

pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients together and form into a ball.

Refrigerate for 3ish hours.

Filling-

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup semi sweet choco chips

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup pecans

1 tbsp melted butter

Mix ingredients. Then take the dough and use

a mini muffin tin. Use muffin/cupcake wrappers if you

have them. Take the dough and press into the bottom of

each cup. Place filling on top of each. Bake at 325 for 20 minutes.

They have about 112 calories per tartlet.

I'm feeling kind of large and in charge from all the eating and

booze. But here is my mini vaca in pictures.

It started with a foot of snow.

And time with friends.

I had lots of wine with Amanda.

I also had some serious Lily time. She was her usual charming

self with witty comments. Plus she has a killer head of hair.

It was a great Thanksgiving and I have so much to be

thankful for. I have a wonderful family, fantastic friends and

a pretty good life. I'm also thankful for the gym since

I now need to work off this gut I've acquired.

What are you thankful for?

Eye candy, crazy muscles and blood shed.

I had to bid farewell to Lucerne and the lion.

He is the saddest lion ever.

Luckily- I was able to find my way home from Lucerne.

Yes- I love chocolates and cliches.

It was a long week of catching up but I enjoyed my

weekend very much. On Friday I went out for a

couple of drinks at Howl. Saturday was a day for

working out and dinner at the Burren. A personal

favorite of mine! And today was a rando day.

It started with a gym sesh and little nap. Then I asked

Alex to get some fro-yo with me and JP Licks. First

we had to stop so she could eat lunch at Anna's. Ok

fine. Then she was too full for fro-yo right away so we

walked around and checked out some of the thrift shops.

Look at the beauties I found-

I think they were made from horse hair?

Finally, fro-yo time. I had vanilla twist with choco

chip cookie. Holy delicious!

I love JP Licks!

After fro-yo we decided we both wanted to see

Immortals. Guess what- it started at 5pm. Ok-

it was 5:07 but we were game!

There was plenty of eye candy, crazy muscles and blood

shed. A lot of blood. I had to turn my head away.. a

few times. But I am a serious history/mythology lover so

it was totally worth it. This movie was perfect. And so

was Theseus.

This week is a short 2 day work week for me.

I'm looking forward to lots of food and friends.

I also love, love, love cooking. I'll try and come

up with some serious recipes since I've been kind

of sucking lately at recipe posting.

What are your favorite Thanksgiving recipes?

Oh- and there was Wine.

Hello Hello my friends from the other

side of the world! I am having a blast

here in Lucerne. I've been super busy

with work and catching up with my

european friends. This has included mass

amounts of wine, cheese and chocolate.

This is ideal in my life. So let's catch up

shall we?

Fondue. I went to fondue with Remi and Giada

Thursday night.

The place was very Swiss.

We ordered fondue with truffles and champagne.

Giada ordered the raclette.

Me and Remi also ordered wine.

I dipped a pickle in the fondue. It wasn't tasty.

This is the raclette. You scrap the melted cheese off

the top. It was the best part!

 Potatoes and bread in cheese. YUM!

On Friday night Remi cooked me dinner after work.

We traveled to Budapest together last March and I loved the food

He once lived there so he made me Chicken Paprika.

Oh- and we had Hungarian Wine.

He cooked and he made my spatzle! Yum!!

Finished product. So tasty!

He convinced me that polish vodka would help

us digest our dinner. I'm not sure I believe this trick.



 Today I went to Zurich with Miriam.

They are occupying Zurich as well. There was a funny

poster that said "UBS did it again" and there was a

picture of Britney Spears under it. The Swiss have a

nice sense of humor.

We stumbled upon the "Cupcake Affair" and had to

stop for one and a coffee. It was a nice break.



We walked around Zurich a little bit more. There were

clocks and churches everywhere.

All the churches were so beautiful. I fell in love with

Zurich.

We stopped at a world famous place for hot chocolate.

Guess what? I'm glad it's famous and that we went because

it was heavenly!

This place had lots of amazing cakes.

And lots of smiling men.

I very much enjoyed it!

We had plans to visit the spa in Zurich. It is a thermal spa.

We walked along the lake since it was a beautiful day.

The spa was amazing. I don't have any photos because

I can't take photos of people walking around in their bathing

suits. But check out the spa here.

We had to head back to Lucerne.

We finished our day with a combo of espresso and

hot chocolate. It was ok but the cookie with it

was better.

Tomorrow will include some hiking and lake walks.

I need it after the amount of chocolates and glasses

of wine I've consumed since my arrival to the land

of chocolate, army knives and watches.

 

Boston to Zurich to Lucerne

Greetings from Lucerne, Switzerland!

Phew- it was a journey to get here.

It started at 7:00ish yesterday by car.

Ashly dropped me at the airport and I

checked in for my flight. I love airports!

I walk around until it's pretty much time

to board the flight.

 I looked at food and watches while waiting to board.

I also looked at some chocolate.

It's giant chocolate at the airport!

Then it was time to board. I flew Swiss Air to Zurich.

I personally love Swiss and think there is no better

way to fly... unless it's first class.

I left around 9:30pm Boston time and arrived

at 10:30am-ish Switzerland time. There is a 6 hour

difference between me and the East Coast right

now. I then took the train from Zurich to Lucerne.

 In total I've had about 2 hours of sleep. So that meant

drinking lots of espresso upon arrival!

Good thing the office here has a coffee/espresso/cappuccino

maker. I would be dead if it didn't.

I hurried out of work at 5:30 to unpack and walk

around to burn some energy. Instead it turned into

a night run. Lucerne is so beautiful and right out of a fairy tale.

And at night- even more picturesque.

This is the church near my hotel.The photos would

be better but it's pitch black here at 5pm.

I ran down the trail that hugs the Lake Lucerne. It was a perfect

night for running. There were some people out but it

was quiet on my run. The swans were already sleeping.

No joke- there are beautiful, white swans everywhere here.

I think Walt Disney came here and based every fairy tale

and movie on this place.

Here is Lucerne at night. You can

see some sailboats if you squint.

And the amphitheater stage near work. I love this park.

There are always old men playing Bocce here in the

mornings.

I'm super lucky to travel for work. Although it is for

work, I'm still lucky to see so many beautiful places.

Whether I'm traveling for business or pleassure, I love to run

in new places.You never know what is around each corner.

I don't suggest running everywhere but Lucerne is

extremely safe so you can be out pretty much any

time of day.

I am off to take a bubble bath and get ready for bed.

Yes- it's 7:30 here. I don't care. I'm tired.

funny side note- my computer is putting everything

in German. It's very confusing and it won't translate to

english. At least it's entertaining.