Friends from London to New York

 

This past weekend I was ridiculously excited to meet a good friend of mine, Evie, in New York for some shopping and reminiscing. I first met Evie in London four years ago as baby college freshman, both of us living in the same house for our study abroad programme. Here we are back then on Southbank-- our favorite part of the city! At least once a week we'd walk up the canal behind our house and take the tube from Angel to St. Paul's, walk around the cathedral and across the Millennium Bridge, along the bank, and to Waterloo. She also wore a giant plant-helmet on her head at the Thames Festival.

Even though I haven't seen Evie for about two years,  she's one of those utterly lovely people who makes you feel as though no time has passed at all. We met at Topshop-- naturally-- and meandered around Soho. We split an AMAZEBALLS gluten free pesto and goat cheese pizza at Risotteria, which I hiiiiighly recommend for any Celiacs/gluten intolerant out there. Amaaaaaazing giant asiago breadsticks that just keep comin' and tons of GF goodies from their bakery. I can't wait to go back and try some of their "oreos"!

After lunch we paid quick respect to Stonewall and magically found ourselves inside the little pet shop next door. I'm ashamed of myself for giving a pet store any attention (adopt don't shop, people!!), but the tiny fat Frenchies in the window were just too much. So we ended up playing with little puppies for about an hour, and when I had to leave my new tiny friend-- the pudgy-fat faced boy below-- I got a tiny bit teary eyed. Ah, my fat little love.

We ended the night with a fabulous plate of steak frites at my favorite NYC restaurant, Les Halles. Seriously, this place is just too good. $21 for unbelievable steak on Park Avenue? Adorable french cafe decor? DONE. They recently redid the menus and now have little "gf" symbols next to everything that's safe, which is probably about 75% of the menu... score.

I was sat to part with Evie for our trains home, but had an incredible day with an incredible friend. I can't wait to conquer another city together!

Please excuse my crazy face in this one. Whateva, I was excited. Salted Caramel Froyo and a dear friend will do that to a girl.

xoxo, Molly

Christmas Snow(men cookies)

It isn't often that I venture into the land of domestic diva-dom, because usually it ends with disastrous results. Today, however, I challenged myself in the name of Christmas Cheer and whipped up some cookies for Christmas dinner that I decorated like melting snowmen! I'm pretty proud, I gotta say... even if some of the cookies broke, even if some of the snowmen look a little worse for wear, and eeeeeven if a good ten cookies disappeared before they could be decorated... oops? I have a weak will when it comes to cookies!

For those interested, I used this basic sugar cookie recipe, but made it Gluten Free by using Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Baking Flour!! For those who are curious, I've had really good luck with a lot of Bob's Red Mill products-- the texture and taste are pretty spot-on! Even better, products are popping up in discount stores like Ocean State Job Lot and the Christmas Tree Shop.

The most delicious part of the whole endeavour (the frosting, duh) is naturally gluten free, and CRAZY tasty. Thank you, Savory Sweet Life, for your awesome recipe! For the rest of the decorations, I just popped by the baking aisle in my local grocery store to find some glittery piping gel, iridescent flaky bits, and a couple packages of marshmallows.

Did any of you take on some festive projects this holiday? I'm getting so inspired by seeing everyone's creations!!

xxoo, Molly

(P.S. Remember: Stay away from yellow snow! Unless its made of buttercream and on top of a delicious cookie)