(My) Summer in (mostly food) pics

In honor of Labor Day, and the last official weekend of the summer, this was the way that felt least daunting to post again. Post a bunch of pics that represent my summer, in no order whatsoever.

This one's from last night! Homemade whole wheat chicken quesadilla with homemade guac and... (drumroll please) homemade mango/yellow tomato salsa!

Ok. This looks weird, but this is one of my new fav snacks/lunches from The Green Planet (down the block from my school). It literally tastes exactly like chicken/turkey salad, is only about 120 calories for the whole container, and is meat/dairy free. This one is not my fav because it has "smoked turkey flavor" as one of the ingredients, but the regular chicken one has all natural ingredients.

One of the best bowls of New England clam chowder I've head, at Betsy's wedding in Newburyport.

Crabbies alcoholic Ginger Beer, that Marvin and I tried when a promotion was going on at The Montrose during 5th Ave Summer Stroll.

An awesome salad from one of my new favorite seamless places to order salads: Canteen

Katie's centerpieces at her wedding at The Red Barn in South Berwick, Maine. Loved them.

Delicious double latte from Uncle John's bakery before me and Marvin's Prospect Park Zoo adventure.

One of my favorite pics of us - Laura's graduation Party

Another one of my new seamless staples - Tilapia steamed in banana leaves with veggies and rice from Columbia Park Slope.

One of my many summer lunches from Union Market salad bar. This one... olives, smoked gouda cheese, summer faro salad, blistered cauliflower with turmeric (and some of my own pita chips).

Brick Oven Grandma Pizza with house made sweet Italian sausage from another newly discovered neighborhood gem, La Villa Pizza.

Lunch from Whole Foods Salad Bar, another summer regular.

Sorrel Margarita from "Limin at the bar" at Sugarcane. YUM.

His & Hers (or her & his) homemade pizza

Complimentary frozen Margaritas at Rachel's Taqueria while waiting for our laundry next door.

Another summer lunch from Union Market salad bar: raw brussel sprout salad, summar faro, and orzo salad

The best part of this summer... our PERFECT engagement party!!!!

We drank this all summer long thanks to Key Foods: Bell's Oberon Ale

View of lower Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge Park

WTC Memorial

Coney Island boardwalk on a perfect beach day

Summer strolls - South slope

One of (many) indulgent ring pics :D

And.... that's it!!! Onwards to a labor free Labor Day and back the grind tomorrow morning. Here's to updating a little more regularly??!?!

-1 year Anniversary!

In exactly 365 times, at approximately this time in the evening, I am going to become Mrs. Clement!!!!!! CRAZY! Time has already flown by since March, and I know its going to fly even faster. That is fine with me though because I cannot wait to marry the love of my life.

To honor our -1 year anni, I bought myself a Bride shirt from Target :-)

You can also see the cute polka dot tankini I bought behind it. Sadly, my first tankini. It makes me feel like I am officially growing up. Last fourth of July, I wore a bikini to Marvin's bros house and the whole time I couldn't help feeling exposed!

Life has been pretty quiet lately... I have greatly been taking advantage of my first official week of summer break by doing NOTHING. I feel zero guilt though, because its rare I can do nothing. And it feels great waking up with no agenda every day. Ok. So the rest of this post is going to be a bit all over the place. I uploaded some pics in no order whatsoever so lets just see where it takes us.

I have been experimenting with some homemade Frappacinos. This one came out good but I definitely need a new magic bullet



My little baby sister graduated HS! I honestly hate this pic of me, I was sweating and exhausted (and its blurry) but I felt I needed to include at least one of us at her graduation.



And of course one with Laura and her bro-to-be :)



I snagged one of her before she took off her cap and gown (she only kept it on for about 1 minute)



I tried making some baked zucchini fries. They were yummy but I think the bread crumbs were actually kind of stale, so they didn't get that crunchy.



During my last week of work, I pretty much did absolutely nothing. Literally one day I spent 5 hours tanning on the roof while reading The Bronx Masquerade (a young adult novel I had to write lessons for). It was awesome.



First oysters of the summer! These babies cost $3.25 each at Whole foods. A total rip-off but completely worth it.

This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment.

Tomorrow is the first day of summer.

Today, I am sad because I have a headache that will not go away. I am very unhappy with how I look and feel. I do not feel motivated to make any changes. I also have PMS.

Life: 

-I met Brooklyn last weekend. She's so precious and I just can't wait to have one of my own! :P

-Marvin asked Dennie to be his best man. It was adorable and spur-of-the-moment and I couldn't help myself from tearing up.

-We got to hang out with my neighbors dog since he was away at a conference. Walking the dog together on a breezy night made me want a dog! For about one minute. 

-It became cherry season. Yum. Can never have enough.

Brooklyn at brunch!

Marvin & Brooklyn

Dennie saying "yes."

Higgins and Marvin on the stoop

Cherries galore

I carry your heart.

It's been awhile! Life in pictures over the past.. month (time flies!)

Me and Jackie and baby Nicky. He's home now!

I

Marvin graduated!! It was a rainy crazy night at Nassau Coliseum but fun times afterwards. I'm SO proud of him.

Marvin came to help out at my school during their Portfolio presentations. Here he is with some of my favs

Marvin's graduation party... all the men (and boys) passed out after a night of partying.

We picked a venue!!! Here's Marvin signing the contract :):):)

Our wedding will be at the lovely Chateau at Coindre Hall - on July 3th 2015 <3333

As the weather has been getting warmer, I have just been loving Brooklyn even more. Here are some pics from around the neighborhood...

Rose gardens on Brownstone patios are everywhere...

One of the parks nearby, kids playing in the sprinklers

One of the menu community gardens that are open to the public to just walk around and peruse

Makes you forget its Brooklyn...

Homemade pizza!!

These gorgeous peonies I picked up at the farmers market this morning

And some other farmer's market delights... freshly made mozzarella  (was literally made seconds before I bought it) Tarallis (literally just took me five minutes to look up the correct spelling of this, considering I pronounce it "tadoll"), local vine tomatoes, sugar snap peas & strawberries. Some organic maple glazed nuts... and some of my favorite Momo's carrot ginger dressing in the fridge!

Other significant life events:

- We choose our wedding venue and date! I know this was already mentioned but I feel sooo relieved.

- I picked my bridesmaids!

- We got a nice camera, and have been loving playing with it

- We payed a woman $80 to clean our apartment. While I felt sort of guilty, it was sooo worth it. She cleaned EVERYTHING, including the inside of the oven and refrigerator. We will definitely be using her from now on! Its not that I feel like I'm "above" cleaning my own house, or even too busy for it. Its just that I honestly feel that it is so worth the money. Every time I clean I feel I cannot get it clean enough, and I never even know the right stuff to use.

- We're having an engagement BBQ! I'm so excited to get all the family together and I just can't wait.