Love thy French Press.

Recently I have discovered cold brew coffee in my french press. As if I didn't love this thing with every fiber of my being already, I re-fell in love. I guess it should be common sense: put some grounds and cold water in your french press, let it hangout in the fridge for 14+ hours and you will have cold brew. But to me, it was revolutionary. It's so easy to go to the kitchen in the morning, pour myself some delicious cold brew, splash some agave nectar & almond milk in it and be out the door in under 2 minutes.

(PS: To make cold brew, its a good idea to mix your water and grounds together before putting them in the fridge overnight.)

Now I'm wondering what ELSE can be done with the French press?!

I made a thing.

Usually I'm a hater when it comes to Starbucks. Simply because I think their coffee sucks. One day I was in a hurry and decided to grab some drip coffee (because you can't screw that up) and picked up one of their lemon raspberry parfaits. The girl that handed it to me said, "you're gonna be addicted now" and I thought, "whatever starbucks girl."

Turns out she was right. But it was still a rip off. So I decided to buy some ingredients & make it myself.

Here's what you need:

1. 12 oz of raspberries (so you can eat it a few times)

2. Granola (I used apple cinnamon - yum)

3. Non-fat vanilla greek yogurt

4. Sugar

5. Lemon Curd.

Mix 6 oz of raspberries with 2 tablespoons of sugar, in a mixer. (this creates the raspberry puree) - you will have more than enough to last you a few servings.
Mix the rest together in a ratio that looks good to you.
I would reccommend a tablespoon or less of lemon curd because it goes a long way. Also, be sure that you mix the lemon curd extra well because it tends to be clumpy.

If you're going to San...Diego

(It would still probably be a good idea to wear some flowers in your hair.)

I just spent a little over a week in San Diego. I explored some neat places, more local spots than the last time I visited. Here are some things I did that I would recommend - my entire roll of film was a dud this time, so I lost a lot of my photos.

Do you like sunbathing? Boardwalks? Happiness? Sandy toes? Surfing? Swimming? Partying with a bunch of randoms and getting hit on by men name Sancho? Yes, You do.

You can do dreamy things at pacific beach. Like share a bottle of champagne and go swimming with old friends. Or try to surf and have your boobs show to your boyfriend's friend. There are palm trees & succulents everywhere. Life pretty much rules when you're here.

If you end up at Pacific Beach and want a diva drink, PB Ale House has pretty/fruity girl drinks. I can't guarantee you will leave with any money in your wallet because they're outrageously priced. But hey! Maybe you can hitch hike home. I would also recommend Cabo Cantina in PB because they have delicious Blood Orange Moscow Mules, and giant games of Jenga & Connect Four you can play. 

La Jolla is more uppity than PB, but it has got some awesome spots. There are caves on the beach, and you can snorkel with sea lions and fish. I didn't spend a ton of time here but came here to go snorkeling one day and almost became one with San Diego if you catch my drift. Word from the unwise: don't snorkel when there are huge waves.

My friend Charity works at this lovely place called Nine-Ten Restaurant & Bar in La Jolla. Here I had Brioche French toast which was actually kind of unfair to all other foods. Bourbon Butterscotch, Mexican Chocolate, Candied Pecans and Whipped Cream. You Kitten me? The only way I can justify it is "treat yourself."

Balboa Park is beautiful. Plain and simple. The architecture is insane, flowers everywhere, and the botanical building is the business. It's such a nice, free, touristy thing to do. And If you're trying to get all romantic you can hold hands or whatever.

Okay how are you gonna go to San Diego and not see this famous zoo? Here I saw a mother orangutan holding a tiny new baby orangutan and it was unreasonable. And pandas. This is an entire day thing, but you're on vaca and you have the entire day anyway.

The SkyFari is perfect. You can see all of San Diego and probably most of the world from up there in the trees. 

PS: A quick way to ruin your trip to California is allowing your boyfriend to grow a mustache.

(Not my photo). This is where you go to be a tourist. We rode the roller coaster, ate authentic Mexican food, got giant scoops of ice cream from the little sweet shop and took photobooth pictures. Sometimes you just have to be that guy.

 (Also not my photo). Ocean Beach has a lot of neat little shops. It's kind of the hippie part of San Diego. My favorite part of OB was the farmer's market, and watching the sunset afterward. Also, you have to dry Hodad's for a bomb/cheap burger.

Hillcrest is supposed to be San Diego's Capital Hill. We went thrifting here and visited the cutest paper store ever. You can write on this "Before I die" wall. I wrote "Get a weave."

(Not my photo.)  If you do one thing while you're in SD, visit Pigment in North Park. Okay, maybe visit the beach. But still, I wanted everything, and needed none of it. All I left with was the simplest, cutest Birthday Card for my friend.You can go to Pigment for all of your terrarium, stationary, rosewater needs. I am considering even ordering things online because I loved it that much.