Weekend Ramblings

1. EEEEE!!!!! I can’t believe it!! I’ve been nominated for Arizona Foothills Magazine’s Battle of the Blogs!

This is the first time my little blog has been nominated for anything like this, and the prize is incredible–a feature with the magazine, guest posts, dying of happiness…you know, the usual. 😉 It would mean sososo much to me if you would take a moment and vote for Ari’s Menu. The contest goes until April 15th, and voting is unlimited. So if you’re feeling extra generous, you can vote multiple times, and share with all your friends.

2. I LEAVE FOR NEW ORLEANS IN ONE WEEK!!!! A real vacation! No to do list. No work. No outside world. Just me, and my cute husband. Oh, and tons of beignets. Duh. I started a pinterest board for the trip, and right now it’s pretty much all food. I’m sure that comes as no surprise. 😉

3. For months, and months I’ve been searching for cute little ceramic spoons like some of my favorite bloggers use in their photos, and I finally found some cute ones at World Market! They were just sets of measuring spoons, but they work perfectly, and were only like $5 per set. Look how much better they make things look!!! So cute.

4. Speaking of World Market, is it now just the most amazing store on the planet??? Every time Nicole and I go in, we can’t leave without looking at allllll the pretty food photography props. So many pretty things. So cheap. Also, they have things like potato chip chocolate, and some kind of chocolate bar with pop rocks in it. Hello childhood. Why yes, I’d love to go back.

5. You know those weeks where it seems like everything you do is 5 billion times harder? Well, this was one of those weeks. I may have cried a little over photos of one of my new fav meals not working out for the second time in a row. Then, I had some Drink & Dish technical difficulties, and it was just one of those weeks. All of this was made better by #1, though. And I feel like it just means next week is going to be really great!

6. I beat my Bop It. Or at least the first level. You see, I was having a really good go around with it, and then all the sudden, it did this happy little beep, and told me I passed the novice round because I got to 100. Then it moved on to some harder round which I didn’t understand at all because it doesn’t tell you what to do! It just makes the noises, and I was all kinds of confused. I got a zero in that round, and I haven’t played since. Maybe I’ll bring it on the plane to New Orleans. That would certainly win me a lot of friends. 😉

7. One of my favorite bloggers-turned-friends Sally is in a really awesome contest with Nestle. The prize is super amazing, and she totally deserves it. Please go show her some love. All you have to do is go here and repin her salted caramel dark chocolate cookies.

8.  Recipes that made my jaw drop this week include these brownie peanut butter cup cookie bars, this pistachio cardamom hot chocolate, and this spaghetti squash baked eggs.