Keep Calm Carry On..

If you have a Royal Wedding party six days before the actual ceremony, remember to wave on the red carpet (vinyl table cover) as if it was from your chariot/Pope-mobile/carriage/Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade float. 

Remember also to thank your lovely Aunt Anne for hooking everyone up with such delicious treats.  Even if someone took a bite out of a shortbread jelly cookie and put it back (ahem sister). 

Remember also to tell Aunt Anne that she can seriously rock a Tiara. 

Remember to get your sister a cooler, and perhaps a snow suit, considering she ordered the Royal ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins only to discover the people there didn’t know what the heck she was talking about.  Perhaps they missed the memo from corporate? Instead they made her a cake that said: Will 4 Kate 4 Ever.  She picked that baby up and drove the three hours home with zip lock bags of ice on top of it and the air conditioning blowing full force despite the fact it was barely 50 degrees out.  A for effort Sister, A indeed.
Remember that its the thought that counts, not just the presentation.
 
Remember to wear your crown jewel replicas. (remember when I got that beauty?)

Remember to provide your guests with plenty of party flair.

   
Remember to NOT grab Prince Phillip’s face mask, since no one knows who he is anyway (the queen had a husband? Where have I been?)

Remember that if you’re going to a Royal party, it is appropriate to wear the Queen’s favorite jogging suit, especially if you have photo evidence of her wearing it (not at all photo-shopped).
 
Remember that if you are going to a party and stop by GoodWill just hours before, you can have the best outfit of all time.  Well played Theresa, well played. 

Remember that if you bring evidence of your lineage tracing back to the queen (there are a lot of cousins to keep track of), and Kevin Bacon, you are entitled to the most melty will & kate ice cream cake.  Fact.

Remember to tell your mom how rocking she looks with two boobs.  Also just in general :)
 

Remember to have pretty low expectations for the lifetime movie you watch at the party about Will & Kate, but secretly like it anyway.
    
Mostly I hope to remember these things for round two with Emily at 4AM on Friday.  See you there!

Fancy LA eats + IOWA awesomeness 5000

I went to LA recently and it was fabulous. I know, I know, you're thinking 'Lauren all you're going to talk about is how you and Justin Timberlake ran into each other and fell in love', well don't worry, I won't bore you with stories about how I hung out with my hollywood BFFs (I did not), or how JT fell in love with me (status pending).

Actually While I was there I stayed on the Anaheim side which means that instead of fancy cars and designer clothes I saw a lot of Disneyworld fanny packs and scrunched 80s tourist socks. You know the kind I'm referring to. That's right Dad, the ones I weaned you off of earlier this year.

I digress. I love traveling for work because I can order fabulous food that I would not have the resources or know how to make at home. Below was a once beautifully presented tower of fruit and seafood (mango, avocado, crab) from M&S grill. I remembered to take the picture post first bite. Just use your imagination. It tasted absolutely glorious.
I also ordered the red velvet cupcake because any slight reference to Steel Magnolias and the armadillo cake gets points in my book.

So I was in LA for a trade show and generally speaking trade show food is continental breakfast at the comfort-inn level in quality so pictures are not generally necessary. But there, out of the blue, came another installment of : ADVENTURES IN NEW FRUIT. I was intrigued. Apparently that fruit with the Encino man hairdo is called a Rambutan (similar to a lychee?) It was the same texture as a grape, with little to no flavor and with tons of work to get to the edible part.

It was gloriously sunny and perfect weather the entire time I was there. Ahh palm trees, so vacation-esque.

One of John's old roomies and friends from college lives in the area so we grabbed dinner one night at a fun Sushi place in downtown Fullerton.

Yummmm...... Sushi......

Except when they load it up with mayo-like substances. Dude, that ruins the flavor.

Although the majority of the rolls were DEE LISH, this one tasted like crab salad on top of the roll. Both hard to eat and kind of bland. Not my scene.

This was my date for the evening. Jackson, aren't you happy that I've showed the world such a completely flattering photo of you eating? It reminds me of the time I went to a sushi place for a first date. TERRIBLE idea. Not only is my hand tremor not conducive to graceful chopstick usage, but they make rolls the size of your fist, and you don't have much choice but to shove the whole thing in your mouth and hope you don't displace your jaw.

Soon after my return to the Show Me State, I left for the annual Carroll Sister's weekend. My mom and her SIX SISTERS have been having an annual sister's weekend every year since I was in junior high. The date and location changes, the jokes and the people are generally the same. a winning combo. This year there were 7 sisters + 4 nieces + 2 aunts + 2 sisters-in-law.

My godmother/aunt/summertime roomie hosted this year and made it so fabulous!

There was a murder mystery the first night. My character was Cinderella (Beth to her friends) which meant that I got to bring out my MORP dress from college. MORP = prom backwards, which we used as an 80s theme. Mom has been trying to get me to throw this out for years (as, obviously, I've been storing it at her house). By the grace of god it fit and if it wasn't so uncomfortable to sit down in it I'd wear it all the time.

What is a weekend together if not ALL about food! We had lots of healthy options this year, go us! (and go Aunt Anne for coordinating it!)

Other highlights of the trip include: Yoga, taught by yours truly (mostly stretching, but it counts), water color lessons, decoupage art time, a HILARIOUS talent show where I played the spoons. As usual, my great Aunt Marilyn steals the show and I even videoed but I couldn't get it to post here so just imagine Betty white dancing to NOW that's what I call music 2010.

We went to a charming house on a charming street in a charming town (star's hollow, anyone?) that a Russian family had converted into a restaurant. I suppose there is a reason that the Russians aren't known for their culinary skills (or healthy eating, yikes), but the ambiance and the company made it a thousand times better than any chain restaurant we could have gone to. Below were our Russian eats.
A potato salad in a kaiser bun that had Beet eyes that stared at me. Plus a cream of mushroom soup that was SO SO SO GOOD. I'm pretty sure it was heavy cream with mushroom flavor, but I'm not complaining.

I got the vegetarian option and am so glad I did. I hadn't had acorn squash in forever! It had honey, brown sugar, butter and cheese on it. I picked around the cheese as the squash was plenty flavorful with out it. Also the asparagus came wrapped in a puff pastry, cute and delicious! That other thing was a combination of four cheeses and was uber heavy. Lots of flavor but after a couple of bites I literally had to get up and walk around the block.

Can't wait for next year's Wisconsin adventure!!

In other news, I have been playing Words with Friends like it's going out of style. I play John, my brother, my cousins, my college buds, and John's sister. I freaking love it. I also documented my highest scoring game to date, where I got nearly 600 points. Nerdy scrabble high five!

Also last week I made Jenna's (of Eat Live Run) Vegan Lentil Loaf and it was SOOOOO GOOD. Even John begrudgingly approved. It made an awesome weeknight meal in the following days too.
Two thumbs up!

Currently it is 85 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, my calendar is chalk full of fun stuff going on and I am happy as a clam. YAY summer!

Cook Shmook

So I have been traveling (and lazy) and haven't exactly made anything new or notable. However according to my phone I've been eating and taking photos of miscellaneous things, like how a storm took the stucco (how do you spell that? I think i've been using the 'student council' abbreviation since junior high.. hmmm) off the back of my parents house. That stuff is supposed to be bullet proof!

John in his own beginner cooking adventures, decide to substitute plain macaroni noodles when the recipe called for rice (or so he thought)... When he wondered why there was no flavor, it was because the recipe was actually using the ingredient below. Cooking Fail.

I sent my sister a picture of this dress to confirm if it had her stamp of approval. Too bad when I actually wore it my strapless bra was ever shifting towards the visible center and kind of ruined the effect of looking nice/classy. Underwear Fail.

Bret and John had birthdays YAY 29!

The Royals haven't been doing so hot, but the weather was fabulous at the game and the beer was cold. No fail in my opinon.

I made a trip back to my alma matter for giving out an alumni scholarship, and I got to see my godfather and my favorite furniture store ever!

Alisa was hands down the classiest, most sophisticated girl in her entire school's prom. Obviously I'm biased, but some of the others have visible underwear lines and so much tacky bling it would blind elton John. She was in brown strapless with some silver sequin pattern. Take my word for it, beauteous!

I also saw my BFF from high school..... in all her glory.

Got some MONSTER bananas from sam's club.

And went to Baltimore for work. I sat outside staring at the harbor at sunset at M&S Grill, and my life was complete! Holy scallops in butter!

The strawberry/spinach salad had nuts with some sort of SPICY seasoning. Yummy flavor combo. I nixed the red onions though, bleh)

The waiter talked me into the tiny dessert which happened to be a miniature version of McCormick's chocolate box. I died and went to heaven. Best decision I ever made.

While working, I had some of the food that was provided. This particular conference was environmentally friendly and therefore had organic and healthy food AWESOME! Below is some sort of roast beef on polenta, grilled vegetables, and chicken/bruschetta. Yum.

We went out one night and had steamed muscles.

Not those muscles. Oh brother.

We sampled the local beer (the brother, above, is a pseudo local there). It was he kind of beer that had riddles in the cap..... we couldn't get any of them. Clever fail.

On my way out of town I got a tuna steak at the airport. EPIC Fail for every reason you can imagine.

The high school graduate, looking aloof and disiniterested. Good preparation for college and her early twenties.

The parents had 50 people in town for my sister's graduation (sorry no crowd pictures, I didn't steal any photos from Dad's camera like I usually do). Food aunt Anne prepared some YUMMY meals! P.S. that Sam's club chipotle slaw is phenomenal. I'm bringing that the next time I go anywhere and plan to claim all creative rights to it.

Aunt Theresa made her fabulous and creative cookies... matching all of Alisa's activities. FFA, FCCLA, lifeguarding, pigs (eye roll), Relay for Life, and other delicous additions. It pays to stay in school.

I was waving all of my Alisa flair, cheering, and attempting a photo with no zoom. She's the tiny one on stage in white.

And last and definitely least... the photo I sent to my sister yesterday as she had her first day of interning in my brother's office in DC, and I was attempting to recap to her the terrible acting/singing happening at the LLanview Prom over my lunch break (that's One life to Live for those of you without Soapnet or with lives).

Leaving for Los Angeles in T minus 4 hours!