Parmesan potatoes

If I haven't made it clear yet, cheese and potatoes are two of my favorite things in life. I've been meaning to make one of the many recipes that combine the two that you'll find on my Pinterest (look for anything that's not Nutella-based on my recipes board and it's probably potatoes), but never got around to it between all the pasta that consumes most of my meals. 

Anyway. Last night I really stepped up my game. Not only did I make these parmesan roasted potatoes to have along with my veggie burger, but I ran (ok, power walked) to the store to buy the potatoes first. Let's put it in perspective by considering that I counted Monday night as productive because I made cookies and caught up on The Office. 

The point is, these are amazing. And crazy easy. I'm not a food photographer (/not a photographer at all), but if they look this good in iPhone pictures with dismal lighting, imagine how good they are in real life. Biggest tip I can offer: don't imagine that there's no such thing as too much cheese (I know, I know, it feels wrong even to type it) because the excess parmesan won't stick to the potatoes and you'll just get a messy pan. Also, I substituted rosemary for paprika, and it was deeeeelish.

Happy Wednesday, friends!

San Diego

Hi, buddy!

In addition to traveling out of state and country as much as possible, I've been trying to acclimate to and explore the Southern California area I actually live in a bit as well. By which I mean I go to San Diego like every other weekend and pretend that I really live there.

Between Christmas and New Years, a few of my best friends from high school gathered in SD together at Fiona's apartment downtown. This was my first introduction to Gaslamp post being 21...love at first drink. Is that appropriate to say? 

We feel seriously about San Diaaago. 

On my next trip in early January, I met up with my parents for the weekend, who were there for the math meetings (it's a real thing). Since their hotel was conveniently about a block from aforementioned Fiona's, we also met up and, along with Gaslamp bars take two, checked out the farmers market in Little Italy after some morning yoga at Lululemon (it's free!!?). As a longtime lover of all things Italian and free cheese and bread samples (which we took every opportunity to shamelessly devour before skulking away), I was similarly smitten. 

Then my mom and I headed over to the San Diego Zoo, the real highlight of the weekend (/my life)! 

I made some new friends, including this friendly fellow. 

And these nuzzling zebra lovers!

That night, after dinner at Neighborhood in downtown SD, I went out in Pacific Beach for the first time with Fiona.

The next morning dawned bright and early (by which I mean my mom faced the challenge of getting me out of bed around 8 am for the zoo part 2 after I had stumbled back to the hotel a few hours earlier. Oops.). On our second zoo trip, we started by taking the airway tram (I have no idea what it's really called) for some gorgeous views of the city and zoo below us. I'm a huge sucker for any form of faux-flying, so I was all over it. 

Hangin out with my favorite lady and animal! (Mom, and elephant. If you were unclear.)

 Aaaand most recently, I spent the last weekend beer tasting around San Diego breweries (Stone, Ballast Point, and Green Flash) with a big group of friends, including Kaley, one of my closest friends from SLO. This is at the first brewery (Stone), which was set in a beautiful garden. 

 We also got a tour of how the beer's made at Ballast Point with the whole group, which required some super snazzy safety goggles. I can't say I wasn't into them. 

Suffice to say, after hanging out in Little Italy, at the zoo, multiple breweries, delicious restaurants, and a variety of nightlife, I'm even more into San Diego than ever before. 

Stay tuned for updates on my actual city of residence with some fab roommates, including my best friend from, well, forever, Kenda (check out her amazing blog here!).