Welcome to April, everyone! We love the idea of April showers (although it doesn’t much rain around these parts in this month) and we can’t wait for summer’s good graces. The sun’s out late, the temperatures are perfect, and picnic season is upon us. We thought this sprinkle-focused desktop calendar would be a perfect representation of spring! Grab your free download below, and enjoy this rain storm!

Hey y’all, today I wanted to share another great on-the-go breakfast recipe with you. This recipe is inspired by the Wild Palms Hotel in Sunnyvale, CA. This bright and colorful hotel has bungalow-style rooms that are eclectic – a retro vibe with all the amenities of a modern hotel.

The hotel’s location allows you to explore much of Silicon Valley (anyone headed to a day tour of the Winchester Mystery House?!) or San Francisco, or head to the bay for a day, but one thing’s for sure – you want to be on the go! Here’s a breakfast that’ll help you get up and out the door to adventure a little faster – and come back to the hotel a little early to enjoy the pool, hot tub, courtyards, or just lounge in your room.

For the full recipe, head over to Joie de Vivre’s blog, here!

We posted this a couple years ago as a remedy to all those leftover eggs from Easter…and then I made two dozen eggs to dye yesterday and only Ana and I ended up dying them, so now I have a dozen eggs and need to take my own advice and make this salad. I thought it’d be a helpful thing for anyone who has a fridge full of colorful eggs – enjoy!

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For a lot of people, us included, the week after Easter means finding ways to eat through all those hard-boiled eggs that you dyed on Sunday. If you’re struggling to incorporate eggs into your meals and the thought of another egg salad sandwich just doesn’t excite you, may we suggest a California Cobb Salad?

The basics of a Cobb salad are hard-boiled egg, chicken, avocado, tomato, blue cheese and bacon. In this variation, we swapped out sunflower seeds for the bacon to mimic that salty crunch in slightly healthier way.

The Cobb salad is a true California invention, so we recommend enjoying this outside in the sunshine if at all possible!

What other ways do you use up all your leftover eggs?

GUYS. Recently, in case you didn’t know, I went to NYC to see Hamilton, and it was the very, very best thing. I spent a day with my sister and my bests, then got to see Lin-Manuel perform (with a slew of others I love).

BUT also, while I was in NY, specifically in Brooklyn and my friend Sierra’s gorgeous apartment, I got to see my friend Dan. I know him from college, and I am luckily enough that he stuck around (and ended up marrying one of my best girls) and am so fortunate to see him now and again when I make my way to NYC for 36 hours.

Last time Dan found me on his couch watching HGTV and SVU reruns (or the time before? One can’t always remember) he made this risotto that was one of the best GD things I’ve ever eaten. So creamy! So delicious! It sears my memory with its goodness. However, I am not here to talk about risotto. I am here to talk about some KICK ASS compote that he made with cranberries and blood oranges that made my mouth drop open when I tasted it.

It was the last breakfast I had before Hamilton Changed My Life. And, obviously, this compote also Changed My Life, too. I’m not even kidding, you guys. Compote on toast with a layer of goat cheese? Why wasn’t I eating this for breakfast/snacks/dessert for all the years of my life?

Now, I got back to California, and I couldn’t find cranberries. And I couldn’t find blood oranges. But I did find lemons and oranges in my backyard, so that’s what we went with. And I will say, this is still pretty effing good. The recipe is right here. But it’s very basic. Wash your lemon and orange. Dice (and deseed) with the peel still on. Then add to a pan with sugar, and allow to dissolve and melt down until the peels are soft and the compote thickens. Remove from heat and allow to cool – store in the fridge!

Serve that badass compote on sourdough toast, with a smear of goat cheese, and a drizzle of honey. It is a perfect breakfast that will have you dreaming of getting up (I promise, I swear!) Thanks, Dan, for Changing My Life, and for being my friend, and for always managing to feed me something amazing when I see you for 20 minutes at a time every six months.

Hey folks, and Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In the holiday’s honor, I’m reposting this Irish Soda Bread that I usually make this time of year (and really, should make more often.) I hope it finds its way into your dinner, or evening celebrations, or maybe is your breakfast tomorrow after one-too-many! Sláinte!

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Happy St. Paddy’s Day, everyone! We hope that you found some time in your weekend to have a Guinness or eat some corned beef and cabbage, or that you found a decent piece of soda bread. If you didn’t, we’re here to give you another recipe for delicious soda bread – this year, with currants I actually found at Whole Foods.

Growing up on the east coast, St. Patrick’s Day usually meant a parade and maybe some delicious food but always we had soda bread (on the holiday and just throughout the year.) I love it, and I stated making it in college. Then, upon moving to California, I found it really hard to find currants (aka tiny raisins). On the east coast, and in the midwest, they are in every grocery store you go to, but in Los Angeles they’re quite foreign.

This soda bread is delicious for breakfast, and should definitely be eaten with a generous amount of butter.

Recipe:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 cup currants
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups buttermilk
2 tbsp melted butter

1. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. Add currants.
3. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, add melted butter and buttermilk, stir.
4. Slowly add to flour mixture. Stir until combined, but don’t over beat.
5. Put in greased loaf pans.
6. Bake at 30-45 minutes at 375.

Just a note: we just switched to Kerrygold butter, and we want you to know if you’re going to be eating some butter, this is the butter to be eating. It’s delicious, it’s from grass-fed cows, and it’s a lovely consistency. No one paid us to say that, Kerrygold probably doesn’t know we exist (but if they do, hi guys!) but we think you should know it’s a delight.

Happy St. Paddy’s day from us to you – what are you doing today to celebrate?