{ molly's }

there aren't very many fancy restaurants in my hometown.  usually when we want to go out to dinner we only have the choice of franchise chains, such as logans, buffalo wild wings, benigans and ruby tuesdays.  as i had said here, i was able to force my father to deviate from the norm and take us to a quaint restaurant down on main street called mollys.  the food was absolutely fabulous as we dined with molly, herself, entertaining us with the small band that consisted of a piano and a bass.  

{ mediterranean chicken soup with kalamata olives}

{ coconut encrusted tilapia with apple chutney }

{ almond encrusted mahi mahi }

{ pumpkin and ricotta ravioli with a white wine sauce }

just { relax }

{ vintage sweater, forever 21 jeans, handmade necklaces }

this weekend was a very relaxing weekend. a friend came to visit me but he spent most of his time with my father sampling port wine and sake, leaving me and my ipad in solitude on the couch (and no, i wasn't etrading). we did eventually go out shopping to the outlet mall and dinner downtown, which allowed me to test out the family heirlooms i had gotten the weekend prior. although i had to deal with the two bumbling drunks, we still had a great weekend catching up and laughing.

just in { case }

i had gotten an ipad for christmas from dad for the upcoming start of medical school. it will allow me to watch lectures on the go and keep me up to date with my hectic schedule.  therefore, i want to keep this little bad boy safe.  i've been deeply torn between the hard cases below.  i don't know if i should go with the elegant gold and black:

{ elegant french flourish ipad case black and gold $57 }

or the one that will allow me to spot it mid-night when i pop up in bed needed to double check a medical term or pathway:

{ hypersheild 'glow in the dark' soft back cover $10 (down from $20) }

what do you think? any other suggestions?

legs of { color }

hot trend that is blossoming right into spring: colored jeans.  i am absolutely in love with this trend as it is an easy way to add brightness to rather dreary days.  i have a few colored leg options but not in the bright colors seen below (obviously its a must have on my spring shopping list).

{ from top left to right: }

joes jeanst the skinny colored jean $165

just in colored denim jean $130

topshop moto turquoise skinny leigh jeans $60

true religion billy neon jeans $300

true religion super skinny 'halle' jeans $315

miss selfridge short apple green super skinny jeans $53 (down from $60)

monkee genes organic cotton sateen super skinny jeans $73

joe's jeans the skinny colored jean $165

the skinny crop jean $90 (down from $130)

hudson nicro midrise lavender slim super skinny jeans $260

stuffed { chicken } breasts

my mom left us this weekend to take my grandmother back to the u.p. (for those who don't know what that is: the upper peninsula... don't make me pull out the hand gesture).  finally, the kitchen was all, and only, mine to use for new concoctions.  usually when shes home she always tries to take over whatever i meal i am making.  this, my friends, is a horrible thing since everything she touches burns to charcoal.  so,with her gone, i got slightly creative this past weekend and made these spinach and ricotta stuffed chicken breasts.

ingredients: chicken breasts, mushrooms, ricotta cheese and spinach (no specific measurements as i always alter the recipes to the way i would prefer them.  in this case... more ricotta!!)

chop the spinach and mushrooms.

mix the ricotta with the chopped spinach and mushrooms (i didn't mix mine with the mushrooms because, well, i hate mushrooms.  i only wanted to put mushrooms in my dad's so i just sprinkled them on the spread as seen below:)

now stuff them all!

after i stuffed all of the chicken breasts, i sprinkled the basic spices atop: black pepper, salt and a little garlic.  i also had drizzled olive oil across the tops of all of them to give them a small golden brown crisp surface once they are finished. 

now, i had originally seen this recipe where they wrapped the breasts in bacon to hold them together.  however, were trying to be healthy conscience in this family so i deducted that ingredient out.

it turned out to be very pretty.  however, i was disappointed that the ricotta didn't provide enough flavoring for my taste... so i added a little mozzarella on top before finishing the rest.  that was exactly what it was missing.   

{ heirlooms }

as I had pointed out here, my grandmother had passed a year and a half ago. the christmas following her death, my grandfather sent down her jewelry collection with my father to give to me as a gift.  i spent days digging through the gaudy jewels and sparkling gems picking out my favorites that would become everyday staples. this weekend, my parents had handed me over a plastic bag and box explaining it as a late christmas gift that they had left in the u.p. until this weekend when my mother went up there to visit my relatives. this is what was in them:

the chanel bag was a christmas gift to her about three years ago when her and grandpa were down to spend the holidays with us.  she had always wanted one and so when my dad and i spotted it at saks, we knew we couldn't pass it up.

the mink coat was a gift from my grandpa for her before i was born.  my aunt's family owned a mink farm back in the day and so she got to design the jacket herself, making it even more special.  best part: it fits like a glove. 

{ love and miss you grandma }

{ sisterly } love

although about halfway through the trip i was pretty much over the idea of going to any of the disney parks , i coulnd't resist the time i got to spend with my sister doing something she thoroughly enjoyed. she has an extremely short attention span so getting her to do anything for longer than 15 minutes or even talking about one topic is pretty much impossible... except at disney. she wouldn't stop talking about finding aladdin pins nor spaceship earth, her favorite ride. even though it sometimes got annoying when i tried to talk to other people, anyone who knows her and my family knows how happy we were to see her so excited.

on the { savana }

so the bright colors was one of my three favorite things about disney.  sure the characters and rides are fun too, but i honestly felt a little old for the magic as i was surrounded by non-housebroken toddlers and crying infants. rather, being the little wilderness adventurer that i am, another favorite of mine was disney's animal kingdom... specifically the safari ride.  each day that we took the 'two week' vacation into the savana the animals got livelier.  at one point, we were almost ran off the road by a charging rhino! okay, not really but he ran out right in front of us truck and trotted up the road as we followed close behind.  by the last day, i could practically touch them... you have no idea how hard it was for me to resist the urge to reach out and pet the baby giraffe or ostrich that stood at arms length from the vehicle (sigh). 

{ highlights }

i came home from disney with so much inspiration.  one (of my three) favorite parts of disney is the color.  good ol' walt really knew how to attract the common eye with his neon brights and black lights.  no matter what park you are in, you are always faced with the enticing color scheme only thought to be used for highlighters (until recent advances in fashion as of this past year where neon colors shot to be the number one staple to partake in a girl's everyday wardrobe).

{ photo-phrenzy }

yea, yea... so i went a little overboard with the photos last week. im sorry!! i just couldn't help it!! here are a few of my favorites that deserve a post on their own: