I woke up this morning feeling hungover. And when you didn’t have a drop of alcohol the night before, that’s clearly a problem.

You see, my weekend was filled with too much awesome. So much that I’m hungover from it.

(Or not enough water, whatever)

At first I was kinda sick and that was just not going to go well with my plans. I had to cancel dinner with Jessica Maria, who was in town, and Ang on Thursday night. And then missed Friday night’s Motion City Soundtrack show and one of the outside pockets of my Marc Jacobs bag got completely soaked on the outside and I had a three minute meltdown in the Target parking lot that included freaking out on Twitter and me being very close to tears because YOU JUST DON’T FUCK WITH A GIRL’S MARC JACOBS.

(Yeah, I’m talking to you, Target carts)

That night after a little bit of  a late start, I met up with an old acquaintance, who I haven’t seen in about four years. Personally, I’m a fan of spending my Friday night talking to a cute boy and eating soup until 2AM. So here’s to new friends!

The following day, I spent it mainly in bed with Barney Stinson and making out Christmas cards which was great until I got a paper cut on my lip. Who does that? Apparently, I do.

(I’m sorry if your Christmas card has blood on it)

But yesterday was a pretty fantastic way to round out an amazing weekend. I was just minding my own business when I see a tweet from Whitney (who has an excellent fashion blog you should check out) that Rodarte for Target was out and I was all HJASDLAK and ran out wearing leggings as pants and my ugly boots. All my clothes were in the laundry and it was CLEARLY A FASHION EMERGENCY so I made an exception to my rule.

Bad fashion for the sake of good fashion. Duh.

Here is my good fashion: crepe lace print dress and this cardigan. The cardigan (mine is grey) is amazing which is to be expected if you are familiar with Rodarte knits. AMAZING.

And then I found out that Brittany Murphy died. WAY HARSH, TAI. But seriously, I need to go buy Clueless and watch on repeat to honor her memory because it’s really one of the best movies ever. She was way too young to come to an end so soon.

My sister, Sara, is also home for the holidays so she was my partner in crime for the night. Then I got a text saying Jessica’s flight got canceled and Sarah flew in from Detroit for the night and we all hung out at the Motion City Soundtrack show! I haven’t really listened to them too much but after seeing them live, they definitely have a new fan.  After we got to run backstage and say hi to Jesse (Jessica’s husband) and it was pretty cool being able to meet one of the people I’ve read about for so long.

The show itself was fantastic even if it made me feel totally old. I use to be the one bouncing around in the crowd freaking out to my favorite songs and this time I was up in the side balcony checking everything out from up top. Regardless, I need more rock shows in my life.

There is only one way to wrap a night of good fashion, music and friends: GRILLED CHEESE. So the sister and I headed to The 44th Ward Dinner Party to grab a Belmont Harbor which is basically the sandwich dreams are made of. No joke, come to Chicago and I will take you there.

And the winner for most awesome weekend ever goes to me.

A couple weeks ago, I was invited to tour The Pampered Chef’s kitchens along with the rest of Chicagonista. We got to meet their chefs, check out new products, learn some new and yummy recipes and eat!

(Hopefully I’ll be posting more on that soonish and have some goodies for you guys too over on my review blog)

But I literally raved on and on about one of the appetizers we helped make all over twitter and to many people I talked to because it was just that good. And when I mentioned the name of it, a lot of you were like OMG WANT! so I thought I’d share the recipe.

What I like best about the recipes they showed us was that they were quick, easy and pretty much idiot proof. I think one of the reasons I’m not much of a cook is I’m convinced I’d be a disaster in the kitchen. But I was a little bit inspired that day so I’m kind of excited about branching out and trying new things now.

Anyway, on to the recipe!

Honey-Apple Brie Bites
1 lemon
1 cup toasted walnuts
2 medium red baking apples such as Jonathan (2 cups finely diced)
1/4 cup honey
1 4in. round (8oz) Brie or Camembert cheese with rind
2 pkg (1.9 oz each) prepared mini phyllo shells (30 shells total)

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Zest lemon to measure 1tsp zest. Coarsly chop walnuts. Finely dice apple. Combine zest, walnuts, apple and honey in batter bowl; mix gently.

Cut Brie into thirty 1/2in. cubes. Arrange phyllo cups on large sheet pan. lace one Brie cube in each cup. Using a small scoop, top Brie with a level scoop of apple mixture. Bake 6-8 minutes or until cheese is melted.

And there you have it. Heaven in bite sized form!

In effort to be serious about this whole expanding my food horizons thing and trying new things, I accepted an invitation. Earlier this week I attended a dinner for Cruzan Rum at Sushi Samba here in Chicago.

I’m not going to lie, the “sushi” in the name of the restaurant kinda intimidated me and I almost said no. But then they were all, RUM cocktails paired with every course and then I couldn’t refuse. Hell, if the food sucked and they refused to serve me chicken fingers, at least I could probably get drunk.

Then I got there and was a little confused. All the others who were attending were big Chicago bloggers, like Gapers Block or Chicago Foodies. Here I am surrounded by food bloggers and club/bar owners and answering the “oh your part of the media?” question with “Hi, I’m Jamie. I have a blog called Oh! How Lovely! and I write about my puppy, fictional vampires, Lady Gaga’s ass and hating sushi”. I really doubt I was the only one a tad bit confused by that.

But whatever, I ran with it.

Our table was covered with glasses. There were probably at least three different drinks at my table setting at once. It was kind of ridiculous but I was NOT about to give up my raspberry mojito until I was done with it, dammit.

And the food? Well, I tried lots of things I never had before.

Here’s a breakdown of the courses that I yanked from the chef’s twitter account. Yes, he tweeted the courses as they came out with photos. Pretty neat, huh?

Cruzan rum dinner scallops watermelon chili (pic)
Rum dinner tuna sevieche malaguta coconut and key lime (pic)
Blackstrap glazed salmon (pic)
Beef short rib and single barrel demi arepa roasted corn (pic)
Chocolate banana cake. Banana rum ice cream. Maple and plantain chip. (pic)

As for what I thought:

The scallops were kind of salty. They were okay but I’m not a huge fan. I definitely did not like the sevieche. The cold, the coconut and the tuna just did not work for me. The salmon was okay. I’m not a huge fish person so whatever but it was good. The short rib was fantastic! If they hadn’t of given us huge portions of each course, I easily could have finished this but I was stuffed. The dessert was nice. I liked the ice cream a lot. I’m not a huge chocolate cake fan and it was pretty rich but it was good if you’re a chocolate cake kind of person.

All in all, my first step into being more adventurous with my eating went well. I’m proud of myself that I least tried everything, even if it looked or sounded weird because I didn’t know what the hell was in it. Maybe I can bump myself up to eating like an 8 year old now.

I’m now taking recommendations for my next Chicago spot to try.

Preferably a place with raspberry mojitos.

Sexy, huh?

Yesterday I made a trip to my favorite cupcake spot, Swirlz Cupcakes (where Pam happened to remember me from this day) to pick up some minis. Obviously, I had to get a cupcake for myself so I chose red velvet. My frosting got a little messed up on the way home but I can assure you it tastes just as amazing. I’m a fan of cupcakes for breakfast.

If you’re coming to my pre-BlogHer meet up today, there will be a few mini cupcakes there. Hopefully the make the trip safely without tipping over or um… accidentally eaten on the way there!

Saturday night I went to go hang out with Maggie, Emily and Brittany and we played with fondant. Check out our awesome cake. Red velvet and yellow cake layered with butter cream frosting and topped with purple fondant.

and I decorated one lone cupcake

Yes, we will be accepting orders for weddings and birthdays soon.

Well, I ended up cancelling my birthday plans because I wasn’t feeling good. That sucked a lot. I’m hoping to reschedule soon and get all my girls out!

The following day, William took me out to dinner for my birthday. I chose Hot Chocolate. Let me start off by saying, I’m not much of a foodie. I don’t have a refined palate. I’m a simple girl, I don’t need fancy stuff. But OMG, can we pretend I do more often? Seriously, I don’t think I have ever moaned and groaned while eating before. It was delicious. I’m planning on going back soon to try their mac and cheese and another dessert I missed out on.

Anyone in Chicago up for a Hot Chocolate date when I get back?

Get back from where you ask?

On Thursday, I leave for Florida for a few days. I’m really excited about getting out of Chicago for a little while and into some warm weather. And obviously, Mickey Mouse and roller coasters. Duh. Jenn hasn’t been there since she was little so it’s time to show her the way of the Mouse. We don’t do that space center bullshit (ahem).

Also, I’ll be (hopefully) meeting up with a few of you Orlando people. If you haven’t heard from me and would like to grab dinner or drinks, email me!

There will be a few guest posters while I’m away too so play nice.

Time to pack.

(And by pack I obviously mean: time to put in Twilight and laugh at the ridiculousness of it. It’s just so bad it’s good.)

No, you sicko. It’s an ice cream parlor!

I’ve passed this place a million times on my WP excursions and that Coming Soon sign has always been in the window. Well by the end of the week, it should be open. Yeah, the name is pretty suggestive but they make ice cream! You choose what kind of dairy and toppings and they make it in a mixer right there for you. With liquid nitrogen!

Ice cream.

LIQUID NITROGEN.

ICE CREAM!

I will personally be checking this place and reporting back because hi! Have you heard? Ice cream made with liquid nitrogen!

If that isn’t cool (gimmicky or not), I don’t know what is.

(sorry, dirty minded people. only ice cream here)

source.

What do you do when friends are in town?

Take them to get cupcakes, of course!

When Deutlich and Maxie were in town last month, we had a mini cupcake crawl. First, we hit up Sweet Mandy B’s first but I settled for a cookie there. I’m so glad I did! Our next stop was Swirlz cupcakes and I could not get enough!

Swirlz is in Lincoln Park, right off of Clark on Belden. Now let me tell you, I’m super picky about cake and cupcakes because a lot of frosting is just too sweet for me. Swirlz cupcakes were to die for though! The frosting was just right and the cupcakes tasted amazing.

Pam was such a sweetheart and hooked us up! We had a taste of just about every cupcake that was in store, I think. There is a such a great variety. I also think it is pretty fantastic that they have gluten-free* cupcakes. I really didn’t know much about what gluten free means, but Pam took the time to explain to us. I had a regular Red Velvet cupcake and then tried the gluten-free Red Velvet, seriously, you could not tell the difference! Moist cake and yummy cream cheese and butter cream frosting. It was delicious.

These are all the cupcakes we ended up getting. I was a big fan of the Red Velvet and Peanut Butter! I ended up bring a chocolate cupcake and a vanilla cupcake home for boyfriend. The frosting melted a bit from my day outside but that didn’t stop him from taking them down in oh, about 3.2 seconds.

Also, I couldn’t forget about my adorable dog so when I see pupcakes on the counter, you just know I picked some up! Swirlz also got Edie’s bark of approval. I forgot to take a picture of these but I’ll be back soon enough to get her more.

Swirlz motto: Cupcakes make people happy.

Never has a more true word been spoken!

Coming to Chicago? Definitely make this one of your stops. I know I will be there next time I’m in Lincoln Park!

* Don’t know what gluten-free is either? Check it out.
** I slacked on the photo front so these are from Jess and Jenn.

I forgot to add this in my last entry, but it was so amazing, it deserves an entry all in it’s own. This was my birthday cake. We skipped candles and happy birthday and dug right in.

Instead of pie crust, it was brownie. Ice cream filling (half chocolate and half vanilla) with bits of brownie thrown in. Whip cream, more brownie bits and hot fudge.  I was going to take a picture of a slice so you could see the inside, but it was devoured in 3.2 seconds.

 I am ready to go back to the ice cream shop and eat a brownie hot fudge sundae.

It was absolutely sinful.