Pictorial Favorites

First two collages: photos courtesy of Tumblr

Instagram (left to right; top to bottom): alwaysjudging, beautyandtheblog, forever21, cristinaviseu, our_wonder, msy1515, hrhcollection, cristinaviseu, beautyandtheblog

Happy end of August, and beginning of September!

Love,

Sierra Anastasia 

Merry Happy Holi-New Year

So...it's officially been a long time.

A bit over two months to be exact, but it did feel like a lot longer.

So this will mostly be an update post.

The major changes, one of which kept me from blogging, was my new job. It's a temp position, but is 40 hours a week, and Monday through Friday. It's been really fun, and has gone by so fast! I now only have a few more weeks left, and am already looking for another job. Other than that, the only other exciting news is....I got an apartment!

This will be my very first ever. It is sooo tiny, but I am excited to make it mine. I already have so many decorating ideas, and clearly had no idea how much it costs to furnish a place! I don't move until the beginning of February (I literally CAN NOT wait...I'm too excited!), but will have pictures once I move in and start getting things together. So far, I've bought one thing for the apartment. A faux sheepskin rug, that cost way too much, and was completely necessary!

For the holidays, I kept it pretty quiet. On Christmas I went to the movies with my cousin and saw the new Catching Fire movie. It was pretty good, had a hot guy in it, and was really funny. 

Then for New Years, I went to Jersey to hang out with some Uni friends! Here's where the crap loads of pictures come in.

Enjoy.

On the way to Jersey. Some creepy scary bridge and a toll ticket.

We went to IchiUmi, a completely delish Japanese (real Japanese) buffet. They have real sushi, shabu shabu, chiffon cakes, tempura, miso etc. They have octopus, squid, fresh veggies, all the good stuff. Only thing I wish they had was some of the western influenced Japanese foods (omuraisu, Italian style pasta, cutlets), and some more Osakan foods (takoyaki, okonomiyaki). But this is pretty good for basic level Japanese foods. Tempura and actual Japanese sushi are what make it special. To my surprise they even had karage this time!

Preparing to make Shabu Shabu. Fresh shrimp, fish, squid, octopus, and mixed veggies!

Cooking time! My faves are shrimp (kinda creepy when it's fresh shrimp with eyes and antenna) and octopus!

Shabu Shabu aftermath

For New Years, we had some lovely red wine!
...And Paris Baguette!!!

Fresh fruit chiffon cake for New Years, and omg delish cream bread with strawberries and powdered sugar pastry. I wish I had bought like 5 of those pastries!

Lemon Blueberry Tart with greent tea chiffon cake layers (should be illegal) and the truest statement ever uttered on a receipt.

Omuraisu from Hmart, being reconnected with my love for Vitasoy coconut milk, and view from the train to New York.

Picked up some yummy macaroons from Tous les Jours, another nice Korean French bakery (though I prefer Paris Baguette). Must say though that these made me realize all the other macaroons I've eaten were so sub-par!

Lastly we went to Arisu, a Japanese sushi restauant. Sushi was pretty good, but the edamame were the best!

They also had cute decorations for the Holidays.

And lastly, photos of my friend's cat! He is so cuteeeee, but is getting pretty old. He is like 16 or something, so crazy! He is a killer cat, but very cute at it :)

Well that is finally it for now.
I will have another post soon perhaps on something I bought myself for Christmas, my Birthday, and surviving 2013 gift. I may add the goodies I bought in NY there as well.

Butt for now, peace and pastries,

Sierra Anastasia

A Bite of Food

Today's post is...

*Drum roll please*

.

.

.

.

.

Not a haul!

Whaaaat?!

No, it is not, but it does have to do with perhaps the one thing I like to do more than shop.

Eating.

This past week I had the chance to go to a food tasting at Carrabba's Italian restaurant.

To be honest, I'm not so sure if I've ever eaten at Carrabba's before...perhaps only once.

When it comes to Italian I usually am just fine with Olive Garden's delicious free salad!

But anyway, there was a tasting of their new "fire finished" menu that they are launching.

This was the tasting menu for the night that explained most of the dishes and their contents.

Overall the experience was nice. The ambiance was mild but comfortable, and it was seated semi cafeteria style. There were a cluster of tables in the back of the restaurant, and you had to sit with other parties if yours didn't fill the whole table (6 people). Can be a little awkward, but they did make it feel like an event instead of just giving you tiny plates of food. Other than that, we were served the dishes one at a time, while some varied from being served family style to individual plates.

Now on to the food!

While we waited for our courses to begin, we were served fresh bread with olive oil and pepper. I don't like to eat stand alone bread (unless at Olive Garden lol) so I'm guessing that this was good. It looked like the norm for an Italian place. After that we were served a tasting of their new mushroom and sausage appetizer. This was okay...but nothing too memorable. Not too much flavor, but not bad.

So I clearly fail. i forgot to take this pic before everyone jumped in! This was the Rigatoni al forno. Again, mildly likeable but didn't find it worth the calories lol...so I only had two bites. THEN there was the Testa baked pasta. Totally up my alley! I quite enjoyed it...though I'm easy to please. Anything with a creamy pesto sauce complete with spinach is a winner for me.

Just look at it! I still only had a tiny bit lol (I'm on a diet!) After that was the Salmon! I LOVE salmon! This was one of the few dishes with a distinct flavor. They added a bit of apple and honey to the salmon and it was baked within the layers...quite delish. And then it was topped with jumbo lump crab meat *no words*.

Lastly was the Sirloin. This was the second dish of the night that really caught my eye...slightly. It came topped with bleu cheese and sweet roasted peppers. Now, while the rest of my table did not really appreciate the bleu cheese, I actually like it. I don't really eat beef, so it made it more tolerable for me than trying to eat stiff meat alone. But the roasted peppers didn't sit well with me. I prefer my sweets separate :) I feel like they're always showing up uninvited when placed on a savory plate! 

Next to last was this creme brulee. I thought it was DELISH. I am a sweets person though...but it was nice and rich and very creamy. But, I don't know if it was just a mistake that night, or how the dish will always be made, it was not firm...like at all. So I actually heard one of the waiters refer to it as creme flan! It was totally a pudding...but had bits of cinnamon or nutmeg and I really enjoyed!

Last up was this uh...drink? I'm pretty sure there was some time of alcohol in it, and half of a moon pie lol, but other than that...I have no idea what it was. It wasn't on the menu so, your guess is as good as mine. But whatever it was, it was quite tasty and added a little warmth for when we left the restaurant :)

Whelp,

That's it for Carrabba's. If you like "fire cooked" items I'd say give it a try, but don't get your hopes up too high. The food was good but not mind blowing. Definitely a safe choice for decent fare though.

Until next time,

Love and nibbles,

Sierra Anastasia

My Week (End of May)

Here for a quick update on my past week.

Since I actually did stuff, 

why not share?

To sum it up in one or two words, last week was "happy hour" week. That sounds bad, but I *only* went to happy hour twice...Tuesday and Thursday. But in my defense I didn't drink at either one! Just got some nice cheap foods :) 

Tuesday, my friend and I went to Cheesecake factory for some food after work (sorry no pix), and then Thursday with my cousin I went to La Tasca (also no pix because you can find any of the millions of posts I do of La Tasca and view their delish food).

Theeeeen on Saturday, I was able to meet up with one of my high school buddies! So this is going to totally tell my age (although it's probably posted somewhere), but I graduated high school officially 5 years ago! How crazy is that?!

It makes me really sad to realize that I'm one year out of college, and 5 years out of high school. Life is going by too quickly! But anyway, back to the actual point lol. 

I met up with a friend I haven't seen in like a year and a half! And it was so fun! We went downtown for a movie, some dinner, and some shopping!

As clearly seen from this movie stub, we saw the new film Now You See Me. 

I had seen the commercials and thought it looked really good and it was! The graphics are amazing and soooo uber shiny (I have a thing with shiny things/films with all of those non existent cool technologies)! I think that anyone who likes action and mystery movies will really like it. And the surprise ending really came out of nowhere to me, although my friend claims she saw it coming (lies I'm sure). 

After that, we went to a Thai Restaurant. I clearly fail as I do not remember the name of the place, but it was delish!

I had Curry egg noodle soup with chicken and veggies. Was super yum!

After that, I had some baked custard thing which was also pretty good. 

Will definitely go back!

After eating we walked around and shopped a bit. At H&M, I picked up a skirt for only $15 full price, but I will not post a pic yet so that I am forced to take an outfit pic :)

As for other updates, last Friday I got my nails done again. 

This time I went for a more edgy look:

Well that's all for now,

more posts soon!

Love and yummie food,

Sierra Anastasia

Sangria, My Love

So this may be a really random/longish post but whatevz!

As I mentioned in another post, I'm completely obsessed and consumed with spring.

I just love it!

Redid my blog too to include even more flowers and in your face pink-titude. 

The goal was basically to have it look as if a garden threw up on your screen!

Would you call it a success? 

Moving along though, this is just an update post and then my haul post will be up next.

Basically this is my food post! 

So last week my mum took me to one of her new fave restaurants called Hank's Tavern. 

I had super yummy chicken quesadillas (that I forgot to take a pic of I totes fail) and a mango margarita (also no pic). But for dessert I had oreo cake (of course there's a pic of that!).

After that night, I just had more work blah blah blah. 

Then more fun when I went to my favorite restaurant everrrr with my cousin. We went to La Tasca's happy hour and dare I say we left elated!

From the pics you can probably tell it's a tapas bar. Tapas can be pretty expensive but this place has tapas during happy hour for around $4-$5 a plate! And they give you loads of food. I have never been able to eat more than two plates. But enough of going on an on about them (my friends always say it's as if I work for them lol...I like to get them addicted to it).

***The left pic is of sangria (duh, but don't remember which flavors I think cava and tinta and the right are las gambas (shrimp), pan con salmon (bread with smoked salmon), and las berenjenas (eggplant with creamy cheese sauce)***

After that we dipped into our fave Cupcake shop downtown called Crumbs Bake Shop!
They make so many different types of cupcakes, which all seem to be uber sweet and pretty. This time I decided on my favorite flavor from them, the Blueberry Cream Cheese.
*yuuuuum*

On Friday, I went to my old University's fashion show. While I was kind of disappointed in the show, I was really happy to meet up with friends I hadn't seen in a while! And after the show we decided to go to the club...was like being in school again! Especially since I was stuck in the city after that and ended up crashing at my friends the next two nights. Sleep over!!!

^^^Donuts she bought us for breakfast^^^

Between giggles we decided to go to *shock and amazement* La Tasca! I told you I love that place!!! So more eggplant (las berenjenas) for me *spirit fingers* Then us geniuses decided to order a full pitcher of sangria and to be honest, I didn't think I'd be able to walk for three days lol. But we banded together, and with teamwork totally vanquished the pitcher! 

***Happy Hour Menu, Empanadas and Gambas, Croquetas and Berenjenas***
***Empty glasses of sangria...we had like four each!***

After heading home Sunday, my weekend was over but not all fun was lost. 

My package from ebay arrived *yaaaay* So guess what's up next!

Loving food forever,

Sierra Anastasia