Isalita

        This past Sunday my brother and I were keen to check out a brand new Mexican restaurant in Ann Arbor that we kept hearing good things about.  We were both a little apprehensive because we heard their Sunday hours are limited and it was still early in the afternoon. We were determined to see if they were open. Conveniently for us, as we approached the building we heard lots of chatter, and it just happened to be Cinco De Mayo so they were open for a special lunch (we found out from the hostess that usually on Sunday's they don't open til 4). Isalita is a name that holds a certain charm, and the charm of the name reflects the atmosphere of the restaurant. For Cinco De Mayo Isalita had group seating to promote a neighborhood atmosphere.  I thought that was a really fun touch.   And all I can say is WOW.  Seriously the best Mexican food I have ever had, and I don't throw those types of comments around at whim.


The restaurant was packed (not only was it Cinco De Mayo but it was also UofM's graduation weekend), lots of maze and blue floating around.  Despite the crowd, the service was friendly and up-beat from the moment we walked in.

We started off with Isalita's traditional guacamole appetizer. YUM!  Sorry, we forgot to get a picture. You can also choose a truffle guacamole, which I am dying to try next time!  My brother and I love guacamole, so we're a bit critical, but we were both impressed with the freshness.  Lots of lime flavor packed into this recipe.


For the entree, Luke ordered under the Ceviche portion of the menu and got the Spicy Tuna.  There's green onion, tomato, and toasted coconut in the mix here.  He loved it.  At first glance the dish seems a bit pricey for the portion, but it is fresh tuna, which is pricey in the first place.

I ordered the Carne Nachos.  I'm not the biggest fan of nachos, but the ingredients were what convinced me:  skirt steak topped with jalapeno's, refried beans, crema and tomato.  There was also a slight amount of "heat" to this dish.  Yum!

Luke had to help me eat this because even after just a few bites, I already felt full.  It's THAT packed with flavor.  A little chat from our server and I found out that the steak is first prepared on a hot skillet with all spice, garlic and a dash of cinnamon.  Don't let the sound of cinnamon in nachos throw you off.  It's subtle, delicious, and very much worth the try!

I generally judge restaurants not only on the quality and freshness of the food, (along with the service), but also on the overall atmosphere.  The decor is vibrant and fun.  On a trip downstairs to find the restroom, there was a whole other section to the restaurant for larger parties.  Murals and pictures of famous Mexican's cover the walls.  The bathrooms are nicely kept and decorated (I have a thing with pretty bathrooms, anyone else?).  Overall Isalita was a great dining experience and I can't wait to try that truffle guacamole.  Anything that mixes avocado and chocolate sounds right up my alley!

If you want to check out the hours and get an idea of the menu options check out their website: Isalita

The Cabbage Family

Lately I have been craving brussel sprouts. One of the better things I have craved, so I'm not complaining! This vegetable is packed with vitamins: A, K, C, B6, and B1.  It's also been known to help fight cancer and it's full of fiber which will aid in digestion. It's also a low calorie veggie! This is a simple snack or side that you can make with little effort.  I got this whipped up in under 15 minutes, so it's perfect if you don't have a ton of time to spare!

What you'll need:
Skillet
Brussel Sprouts (Organic is best!)
Olive Oil
Garlic
Parsley leaves (chopped)
Tomatoes

Pour 3 table spoons of olive oil into a skillet and put your burner on medium heat.  After about a minute, place your brussel sprouts in the skillet, stirring and flipping over your brussel sprouts so they do not burn.  After another 2-3 minutes, turn down the heat to low.

Add your garlic and parsley leaves, and continue to stir and flip the brussel sprouts for another 5 minutes on low heat.

Stir in freshly chopped tomatoes, and continue the "stirring and flipping" for another 2 minutes.

And that's it!  Pretty simple, and really good!

P.S.  If you want your brussel sprouts more cooked in the middle, try steaming them first and then sautee.  :)

Delicious Farl Soda Bread

      It's a tradition in our family to make soda bread for St. Patrick's Day, (actually it's so good we make it year round!).  My grandmother is from Ireland, so I grew up eating a fair amount of Irish food, and this recipe is no doubt one of my favorites.  This bread is different than a lot of soda bread served in American-Irish pubs (which I have found tends to be of the baked brown variety).  There are many soda bread recipes, my grandmother happens to be from Northern Ireland, so I grew up eating "farl" soda bread.  This soda bread is cooked on a griddle, more savory tasting than sweet, it's also very dense...and very delicious!  My grandmother and I got together last weekend to bring our recipe to you.  Hope you enjoy!

What you'll need:
A griddle (pre-heated to 350 degrees F.)
Large Bowl
Wood mixing spoon (important that it's wood*)
1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp of salt
1 1/2 cups of cultured low fat buttermilk
2 1/2 cups of Flour (gold medal is best, and should be for bread making)

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl

Make a well in the dry mixture and pour the buttermilk in, using a wooden spoon to mix

Keep mixing!

Sorry for the blurry picture, but I hope you can get the idea...you want to form the dough into a ball.

Place the dough on a lightly floured flat surface and kneed about 8-10 times and form into a circle.  When you've made your circle, cut the dough with a knife into four equal pieces...these are your farls!

Gently place each piece on your pre-heated griddle.  You may have to adjust the heat, as griddles can be a bit fickle at times and you don't want to burn your bread.  Generally speaking, it takes about 7-8 minutes for each side to cook.

If it's looking like this...you're on the right track, the bread is already turning a bit gold in color, it just needs a few more minutes!  If you have cracks in the bread like we did...it's normal, just as long as the cracks are not too deep that the bread is falling apart.

Make sure you cook the sides...this can be a bit of a balancing act.  For this step it's best to prop them up along side each other.

To be safe, you might want to stick a toothpick in the bread to make sure it has thoroughly cooked.  If the toothpick comes out clean, you're good!

After you've finished, place the bread on a cooling rack and let the farls cool for a few minutes before serving.

Top with butter and serve with a hot cup of tea!  

If you want to save the bread for later, you can always put it in the toaster on low to re-heat.

By the way...Happy Saint Patrick's Day everyone!!

Real Deal Hot Chocolate

      Here's the deal:  I can't stand most hot chocolate.  For some reason a lot of us tend to make our hot chocolate with water (not always, but much of the time) and we wonder why it's just not creamy tasting.  Basically making it with milk makes all the difference, but I have come up with my own recipe that is simple yet packs a lot of sweeeet chocolaty goodness.

Two, well...three things I love about Dove Dark Chocolate: 1). It's really smooth and rich, not grainy in the least.  2). It's not bitter.  3). It's about $.89 cents per bar.

If you please, my own Dove dark hot chocolate recipe:

For one serving, you'll need: 

                   Small sauce-pan

                   1 cup of 2% milk (one cup per serving)  *vegan option: replace with vanilla rice milk

                   Half a bar of Dove Dark Chocolate

                   Vanilla Extract

                   Cinnamon

                 

                 
Mix one cup of milk with half a bar of Dove dark chocolate on low heat.

Stir continuously on low heat to melt the chocolate.  It will be a bit grainy at first, but keep stirring.

After about 5 minutes of stirring the mixture will definitely start to look more "chocolaty", so don't be too concerned with adding more chocolate.  At this point you're going to add a drop of vanilla extract, (a little goes a long way!) and stir for another minute.

Pour the mixture into a glass or mug and add a dash of cinnamon!

Another thing I love about this recipe, is that you only need half a bar of this chocolate per serving, so you can easily do two servings with one bar!

Enjoy!!

A Comfy Cozy Winter

By now we are on the better side of Winter (near the end, snark).  Although spring is coming up fairly soon it's still quite chilly, so I still need something that keeps me warm yet looks chic. I love the look of cozy sweaters and a simple pair of black yoga pants with boots.  I don't know what it is about the color gray, but I'm always drawn to it, and it happens to be my best neutral besides white.  If you're not into gray, then just choose a favorite neutral of your own!

I love the knit of this sweater because it's warm, but fine, so you can definitely carry this look into spring.

The sweater is a high-low style (which I am loving right now!) and it's from Forever 21. Unfortunately I couldn't find the exact sweater on the website for you, but here's a similar style.  Yoga pants are from Marshalls.  Boots are by Bare Traps and you can find them here.  They also come in a wide calf size.

Pair with a simple statement piece of jewelry. Bracelet by Michael Kors

If you're wanting to add a pop of color, try a bright scarf, which also adds to the cozy factor.  :D

What are your winter style staples to keep you warm?

Cake Stand Hunting

On Saturday I went "thrifting", as I like to call it, with my mom.  I was looking for a couple crystal or glass cake stands in order to make a sort of decorative and organizational piece for all my makeup/hair stuff. I didn't end up finding exactly what I was looking for (seems to be the nature of thrift shopping sometimes), but I did find a couple awesome things while I was out.  There are some truly fantastic antique and consignment shops in Ann Arbor, you just need to know where to look.  Without further adieu here are a couple of the places my mom and I ended up at this weekend!


Such-A-Find

This place has been around for a while, (years ago I found a great vintage swimsuit here), and they specialize in estate liquidations. They also have an Ebay site you can shop. This place is small, with lots of heart. Their collection is researched and reasonably priced.

I love love love old books, and I found a very adorable copy of Little Women, Volume I.

Looked inside to see how old the book was; it was published in 1869, just a year after volume I was originally published. Yes I bought it! 

This little blue plate was only $2.00, and I figured it would make a great addition to my organizational scheme.  Love the color!

Another great place we visited was West Side Furniture Consignment Emporium.  The cool thing about this place, is they want to see all their stuff go, so if an item doesn't sell they lower the price every couple of weeks. It's a mix of antique items and (relatively) newer high quality furniture. The prices are already reasonable, so if you keep an eye out, you can snag some great deals.  If you're like me, and want to furnish your home with vintage furniture, this is the first place to check out.

In case you're wondering, they DO sell other items besides furniture.  You'll find a lot in this place.

One of the things I like about this place, other than the awesome prices, is the organization of the place.  It's clean and well kept, mixing old and newer pieces.  

I loved this old desk with it's paper compartment for letter writing.  Fantastic find, wish I needed a desk!

Well, that's it for this thrifting weekend, hopefully I can find my cake stands soon!

All Natural Hair Mask

I love do it yourself beauty treatments.  The good ones can save you money, because most of the time the ingredients are simple (usually only 2-3 ingredients needed at most) and many of the items are already home necessities, so chances are high that you already have the stuff you need.  I had heard about the conditioning benefits of coconut oil and honey for hair and face. I read that this particular mask makes the hair very shiny. Yes, I'll take that! The recipe for the hair mask, I found online.  You only need the two ingredients; coconut oil and honey (two teaspoons of coconut oil and two teaspoons of honey), as well as a microwave to heat the two ingredients for 30 seconds.

*Make sure the bowl is microwavable, I used a small Pyrex bowl.

Be very careful when you take the bowl out of the microwave, the oil is going to be very hot.

You want the mixture to be hot, but not so hot that it's going to scald your scalp. You might need to wait a few minutes for it to cool a bit.  The recipe stated that you need to remix the oil and honey before applying, as the oil and honey will naturally separate.  I did mix, but waited a few more minutes for the mixture to cool off a bit more (it was still too hot).  After these few minutes *I should have mixed again, as the oil and honey started to separate yet again, bahh!*  I ended up getting more oil in my roots (which proved quite difficult to thoroughly rinse out) and more honey saturating the ends of my hair.  The woman who had posted the recipe I followed used apple cider vinegar to "restore the natural PH in the hair".  I skipped this step, but I might try it next time.  Overall the hair mask worked pretty well.  I rinsed the mask out, then shampooed as usual. *Make sure to really concentrate at the roots to get all the oil out*. I didn't use conditioner afterwards.


I used a detangler before combing through my hair and using the hair dryer. The results of the mask were most noticable at the ends of my hair.

I have fine hair, so I get split ends very easily.  This mask sealed a lot of my split ends (must have been the honey!) By the way, it was hard getting a good shot of my hair, how do other bloggers take pictures of their hair?

Overall I didn't think my hair wasn't noticibly more shiny after using this mask, which dissapointed me a little. But I do think the mask helped to strengthen my hair and add moisture, which is something I needed from this nasty winter weather!


*P.S. A word of warning: From what I have read, this mask can lighten your hair over time.  Especially if you're in an area with a lot of sun.  I like to use a hair spray with a UV protection ingredient.

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