• small boutique shops: area of chelsea, area of soho, camden, covent garden, neal’s yard
• obnoxiously expensive stores: harrods, harvey nicols
• mall like shopping: sheppards bush westfield mall, selfridges
• farmers market type shopping: portabello, brick lane
• shopping with the crowds: topshop on oxford st, and actually, just walk up and down oxford st.
• favorite garden/parks: hyde park, kew gardens, battersea park
• cheap but tasty eating: EAT, masala zone, and my boyfriend is in LOVE with BYRON burgers
• great museums: british museum, the natural history museum and the science museum
• take a ride on the london eye, you’ll see a lot of the touristy spots from above
• run across the tower bridge and walk around the tower of london (VERY touristy but still interesting)

UGH, see, I’m already making this list waaaay too long. You really can’t go wrong when visiting London for the first time. Whenever we go back there, its like seeing everything for the first time. Its one of my favorite places to get fat in, and YES, London has GREAT FOOD! (Los Angeles has AMAZING food though…but that’s a whole otha’ post.) Even if you do experience a little gloom, and a little rain, its LONDON!!! You’re in LONDON! Buy some cute Wellington Boots and a fancy umbrella!

Wake up early, fight that jet lag, and visit Paul’s for some great, fresh, Brioche bread. Pack some in a backpack and walk along the River Thames….get lost in the neighborhoods and in the crowds. Appreciate the history in the beautiful architecture, ask a local, a friendly local, where the best coffee is. If they say, “Nero,” ask someone else. -__-

Regardless of the sights you choose, you’ll have a great time. Don’t be lazy- take lots of photos, eat lots of food, send tons of postcards and try to meet the Queen, let me know if she’s really as nice as she puts out to be!I STILL haven’t met her…that sneaky little Queen…I just want to try on her crown.

Tried to find some snap shots, but my folders are a mess….shame on me. I’ll add more as I find them. Have a safe trip to all those visiting London!!!

xo,

Rodene

P.S. Careful of those Brit boys, you’ll end up falling in LOVE! They are quite smooth. I TOTALLY did, but brought him back home to the U.S. *SWOOOOOOOON.

P.P.S. Stay away from the Phoenix. LOL. *I’m kidding?

This is such a FOOL PROOF, RODENE PROOF dessert – try it if you love apples. WE love apples over here….might have to blog a Blueberry  version.

xo,

Rodene

I have a long list of recipes to try, but am pacing myself here….don’t want to unhealthily fatten up my bf. There’s this root vegetable stew I hear is tasty, so I’m thinking of alternating between vegetarian and meaty dishes. We use quite a bit of chicken breasts in the house, so its important to keep things fresh and new…there is no specific name for this dish…..I just used seasonings I thought would go with the cajun rice.

Happy slow cooking! More to come.

xo,

Rodene

Nothing like a nice, chunky oatmeal cookie on a Sunday night, Monday morning, or Tuesday afternoon, actually, ANYTIME is the right time for an oatmeal cookie. We’ve made them before, but never this thick and delicious. Oatmeal cookies have an incredible texture, and the way we make ‘em, pack a big punch of flavor with every bite.

This was such a simple recipe, its quite dangerous…dangerous in that, if you’re ever craving them, it’d only be but a hop, skip, and a jump away to make. Did that make sense? No, but you get it. Didn’t mean to make you do all that cardio. Anyway, we used the following: cup of all purpose flour, stick of butter, 2/3 cup brown sugar, an egg, teaspoon of vanilla extract, teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, a cup or so of quick oats, and depending on your taste, add some chocolate chips, and or your favorite nuts. Didn’t use raisins, I’m not a fan. As far as baking times, really depends on how thick and powerful your oven is…we baked at a temperature of 330 degrees and they were done in about 20mins.

Happy baking!

xo,

Rodene

P.S. Sorry about the inconsistent colors in the photos..the lighting isn’t ideal in our kitchen in the evening.

P.P.S. These are so great crumbled over ice cream and oatmeal….droool.

Daily brunches for us consists of: carrots, apples, peppers, ginger, and sometimes a slice of toast. And if I’m feeling really guilty about not eating enough greens, I’ll go ahead and juice: broccoli, fennel, parsley, mustard greens, kale, spinach, lemon, celery, cucumbers and just about anything. If you can’t stand the taste of “dirt,” then throw in some kiwi, unless you hate that as well, I’d suggest skip juicing, go with steaming. Also, we drink our juice soon after we’ve made it, I hear that the nutrients in the juiced fruit and veges are sensitive to air, heat, time and light….so the sooner you drink, the better the benefits! Don’t let it slip away.

Breville is my brand when juicing, toasting, grilling, woking, or blending. They are so awesome, hands down my favorite kitchen appliance brand so far. Kinda pricey, but a good investment, for quality & longevity “tools.” I just wish they would clean themselves, it SUCKS bananas keeping these things clean, but maybe I’m just too o.c.d. when it comes to cleaning.

Hope you have fun juicing, don’t get stuck using the same ingredients, making the same juices, mix and match so you don’t get sick of it. Here’s to a long, healthy, happy life!

xo,

Rodene

Until then, baking it was. Gave ‘em a good wash, threw ‘em in a slightly beaten egg, tossed ‘em around in some panko bread crumbs, and laid ‘em out. Because I was trying to be SOMEWHAT healthy, I didn’t add any salt, etc. Instead, served ‘em with a little chili sauce.

Supposedly, asparagus is a great source of Vitamins A, C, E, B, potassium and zinc. And I’ve heard it does something to your pee…or was someone lying to me?  -__- Does it matter? No.

Try making them, they’re good and so easy breezy to bake. Happy Friday.

xo,

Rodene

Also, be prepared to use your hands, you’ll be shelling these poor little ocean roaches yourself. (I did feel terrible about ripping the heads off of the little crawfish, so to my defense, I only had like two….)  UGH! Pescatarianism is NOT fun sometimes, esp. because I LOVE to eat. -_-

Why didn’t we order the crab? Because we are piggies and want a lot of meat in our meals….even in the lobster and crawfish the meat is sparse. The oysters are okay, not juicy as the ones from other places we’ve been…they are big in size but small in flavor.

Order the sweet potato AND cajun fries,  and make sure you tell them to throw in a couple of corn on the cobs. The bf ordered their sausages and had NO complaints.

Go during the week, avoid the crazy lines…AND, don’t wear anything you wouldn’t want to stain!  OH OH and if you have a nice thick Sharpie Marker on hand, like I do because I carry around a little mobile office for business at any moment, they let you leave your mark on the walls. FUN.

xo,

Rodene

My boyfriend is British, and has taken me over to London so many times within the last two years, that I think its accurate to say its our second home. I actually like it more than New York, and I love that city. London is a cleaner, more friendly version of New York, but I LOVE both. The only thing missing from London would be the people I love, so, if we ever decided to move there, I’d have to figure out a way to drag everyone else along. They are pretty darned important to me you know.

One of my favorite places in London is Brick Lane – like farmer’s market times 100. Its kinda better than Portabello Market…. anyway posted a really bad video online, and there it is, up above. If you’re ever in London and have time after seeing the Tower of London, Soho, London Eye, Hyde Park etc. etc. visit Brick Lane.

xo,

Rodene

xo,

Rodene

I love making cake pops, but can I just share that I hate melting white chocolate. I can only remember melting white chocolate successfully maybe…twice or something? The time before this was when I was trying to melt white chocolate chips for cake batter popcorn. Not SO sure what I did wrong, but microwaving them did NOT work, nor did double broiling. Maybe it was because the girls were here and we were too busy catching up, not paying attention to anything else? But melting chocolate, does it REALLY need THAT much attention? The answer is yes, when I do it, it does.

Vowing now not to make the same mistake twice…I did learn that if the white chocolate melting chips are overheated and are not smoothing out, add some vegetable shortening. Worked like a charm.

SO, I made chocolate cake pops with a white chocolate candy shell. Originally they were supposed to be happy, fat bear heads, but over the course of dipping and dripping, they morphed into scared and anxious bears.

xo,

Rodene