A Bite of Food

Today's post is...

*Drum roll please*

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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

ZOMG?!

Okay! So it's been like a whole other month of emptiness on my blog ;o

It's just been super hectic and blah...I've been doing a lot of shopping though!

So pics and etc. coming soon...I pwomises :)

Until then, my current musical obsession:

More soon, 

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

Marching On

I was doing so good! 

And then work got busy, which means that life got super boring/mundane.

But I'm back to give more blah updates with a splash of obsessions (basically what I was up to).

First things first...Nikita!!! I've been watching it non stop in my free time on Netflix. It's so action-y and completely awesome!!! I watched the entire first season within two weeks and am almost done with the second :)

Second obsession...and perhaps quite dorky...is reading. Don't get me wrong, reading is extremely important (I feel my English getting better already) and totes awesome, but it's the book I'm reading. *Shameful sigh* Sherlock Holmes. This is a book I randomly bought in Japan before I left to go home. I wanted something to read while on the plane (which failed btw) but anyway, now two years later I finally picked it up again and I'm addicted! I like to read it on the way to and from work and basically anywhere else I can sit and focus. 

The book itself is just a compilation of many of his mysteries/stories and is so interesting! But I find myself imagining him looking like Robert Downy Junior from the films lol...dunno if that's a serious problem or not?

Whew...ok time for last obsession!

***Gummy***

Gummy bears you say?

No! The fab Gummy from YG family of course :) I have loved her since her mini album a few years back, and now she has a new Japanese mini album *yaaaaay*

The title or single track is Shinjiteru, which I think is being used in some drama or movie. To be honest I paid no attention to that but just sat and repeated the short 2 minutes of the song in her mv.

After about a week or two of that the album is finally out and it's great!

Always love her soulful and elegant voice.

And even more soul and emotion can be found in Lee Hi's new song and mv, Rose.

I am really a huge fan of the new star because she's so cute (and awkward on programs) and nice. Doesn't hurt that she's also YG (they seriously do a great job). But anyway, enough blabbering...here's the vid :)

Ok, I think that will be it for tonight.

Sorry if there are more typos than usual, I have a dangerous mix of sleepy/tiredness going on as well as a new set of claws. I would take a pic of the nails, but frankly I don't really like them. The guy did a pretty hack job and they didn't have rhinestones or pearls (what tha?!). So epic amounts of glitter had to try to make up for it. And even if they were drop dead gorge, my phone is seriously on the fritz and well, I find it easier not to use it unless absolutely necessary lol.

But until next time,

Peace and love,

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 

My Weekend Adventure

Another post already?

Yaaay I'm starting to feel accomplished!

Today's post is about my awesome fantastical weekend :)

I got to hang out with a close cousin of mine (who I consider more like a sister) and we did lots of fun stuff.

In my last post I mentioned that we did Zumba Saturday morning and it was totes awesome. I got really tired  not even halfway through though and so didn't even do it 100% *not surprising*. I'm going to get into shape soon though! Then that night, we went to go see Oz the Great and Powerful.

*Pictures from Google*

I don't want to do a full review of the movie, but overall it was pretty good. The graphics and scenery were what really made the movie because of all of the breathtaking views and vibrant colors. The story line was pretty good, yet predictable (but it is a prequel/slight remake of a famous movie), and the acting was okay but nothing too special. In the end, it is a solid family film with plenty of laughs and gorgeous views of James Franco :)

Then Sunday, after a few errands, we went to Outback! 

As you can see I'm super easy to please, any weekend becomes awesome with a touch of good food.

To put it plainly...we ate A LOT.

We had crab stuffed mushrooms for appetizer and then buffalo chicken strips for lunch :)

Aaaand, for the most important part! There's this new strawberry shortcake 

french toast creation there that comes complete with cream cheese topping and whipped cream with shaved almond slices *goes wild*

To say the least...totes delish!

We also had Chipotle on Saturday but I forgot to take a photo :( 

It was exciting too since I tried something new by adding pico de gallo and guacamole to my usual 

boring rice/cheese/lettuce/sour cream burrito.

*living dangerously*

And now for the random/gross/scary pic of the week (drum roll please)

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What thaaaa?!

Lol we found this joy in the back of her car near the trunk D:

Well that's all for now. 

Although it's now Wednesday (*-*)...hope you all had a great weekend too!

Peace and love 

(and sweet desserts),

Sierra Anastasia

Puppies in Cups

Soooo it's been a week :(

Again, nothing really happened this week besides me working, but I figure I'll make a post anyway so that I feel like I haven't been neglecting my blog. 

Currently I'm just listening to Krewella's Alive. I quite love this song it's so rocking awesome and makes you want to jump around!

But anyway, here are a few pix I found on facebook that make me want to squeal!

Tiny puppies!!!! They are just sooooo adorbs!

I really want that one in the cup!

*screams*

Regaining composure, I also found this AMAZING bracelet that is of course sold out!

This is so absolutely upsetting, but I'm going to have to move on or maybe make my own version. 

The bracelet is from Cecil McBee (Japanese fashion brand) and the pic is from their website.

I't just so pretty and dainty, and was only like 1,995 yen (about $21, $22?)!

 Guess that's why it sold out. 

Besides this, I made a pretty big order (well 4 items) on ebay...so there will be a post on that stuff soon.

Also went into Forever21 like a dummie and of course bought stuff (so disgusted with myself). But in my defense I own like the tiniest amount of clothes...like legit. Guess I'll do that post then but also will try to take pictures of my outfits...which I keep saying I'll do but I'm lazy :)

Ohhhh and exciting! I will be jogging this week. Getting myself re-addicted to exercise because I'm so fat now (another reason I haven't taken outfit pictures). I actually just got back Zumba class with my cousin. Honestly, I almost had a panic attack and died within 20 minutes! Guess I'm horribly out of shape *lol* About to get ready and go run errands with my cousin now and then we're gonna go see The Oz

 (or stare at James Franco)!

Oki done rambling.

Peace out with love!

-Sierra Anastasia