Birthday dinner at Kokkari, North Beach/Embarcadero, SF.

The whole party! Thanks so much for coming, everyone! I had a wonderful evening! :) And thank you, Kokkari, for being so great! Kokkari is one of my new favorite spots in SF. It's completely fabulous! :)

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Sweet treat birthday party favors.

I got a few different assortments of chocolates and put a single chocolate with a mini chocolate & butterscotch chip cookie in each party favor.

I wrapped them in issue paper and tied them with green bows because green is my favorite color! :)

These place cards on the front doubled as thank you cards (on the back). This one of course, was just a place card for myself. Haha. I used different colors and had different little drawing on each one. Everyone seemed to like them a lot! :)

This is how it'll look at the restaurant. Yay!

Good eats at the SF Symphony Black & White Ball.

This was one classy street party.

Tons of amazing food by McCalls. They had a lovely couscous, a gorgonzola pecan tart, super tender sliders, yummy toasted ham & cheese sandwiches, pupusas, empanadas, lamb... Mmmmm! So much amazing food!

The sushi bar had great variety, with tons of vegetarian options, but the rice was a bit dry.

These sashimi wraps were great!

One of the party halls. Beautiful and the open bar was so great. You know it's a classy party when the open bar doesn't even have tip jars--love that.

The midnight surprise was an amazing light show projected onto City Hall! So neat!

I had amazing amounts of fun getting all done up, eating, dancing, and laughing the night away! I HIGHLY recommend the Black & White Ball. SF knows how throw one heckuva fancy party! :) It happens every other year and while it is pricey, it's really amazing partying in all of the beautiful buildings at Civic Center and up and down Van Ness! :)

Bday Brunch 1: La Boulange, Hayes Valley, SF.

Mmmm! Everything in the case always looks so fantastic.

I LOVE those mini baguette sandwiches! For a size reference, next to them on the right are normal sized chocolate Madeleine's! Those baguette sandwiches were the cutest!

When you order a normal coffee it comes out in this bowl! Love it. We got a chocolate snickerdoodle and it was amazing.

This was AMAZING. It was a savory veggie croissant of some sort.. soooooo yummy!

This quiche was NOT delicious. Bland, a bit too eggy and just very disappointing. Still a fun brunch though! :)

Thanks so much, Christina!! Now off for a little shopping and then my 2nd birthday brunch! Haha--what can I say, my friends know brunch is my favorite! :)

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Godiva birthday treat.

Dark chocolate covered Oreo cookie! Yum!

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Bday brunch 2: Absinthe, Hayes, Valley, SF.

CROQUE MONSIEUR 11.5 Black Forest ham, gruyère, Dijon mustard, toasted levain, mixed green salad

My favorite French breaky. Mmmmm! Matt had never had this before and he loved it, too, although he's not a fan of runny eggs. ;)

GRILLED FLAT IRON STEAK FRITES 22. red-wine butter, mixed green salad

Mmmm! Just look at that red-wine butter! Amazing. The fries were perfectly crisp, too. :)

Thanks so much for brunch, Matt!

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Birthday chocolates from Fran's of Seattle.

A birthday surprise came for me today! They were these wonderful Fran's Chocolates from my friend C in Seattle!

Dark chocolate truffle collection. Mmmm! I just tried the dark chocolate and the espresso--both were very good. Thanks so much, C! :)

Kiddie treats for Tenderloin Toyland.

I just started co-curating for the gallery at Public Barber Salon. We had an opening reception for our new show, Tenderloin Toyland, featuring new work by Scott Hammel. I thought I'd bring some yummy treats! I decided to go with the "Toyland" theme and do some of my favorite kid treats in miniature form. :)

On the menu:

• Puppy chow
• Rice crispy treat balls
• Mini chocolate and butterscotch chip cookies

Plated and served at the gallery. These went SO fast!

Plated and served! :) The rice crispy balls were the first to go, but everything was a hit! :)

The show was wonderful, too--it was my kick off to my birthday weekend, which I'm very excited for. :) Thank you to everyone who came out tonight!

Mini chocolate & butterscotch chip cookies.

I didn't take photos of the batter, but I used a 1 teaspoon measuring spoon to make the nice mini cookie size. :) I'm REALLY happy with how these turned out. :)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups butter, melted
• 1 cup dark brown sugar (can use light)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used Burbon Vanilla)
• 1/2 bag of chocolate chips (or however many you'd like)
• 1/2 bag butterscotch chips (or however many you'd like)

Recipe:

1. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
2. Mix sugar, brown sugar, butter, vanilla, eggs in another bowl.
3. Pour wet mix into the dry mix and with with a large spoon or hands.
4. Add in chocolate and butterscotch chips.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. (8 minutes for mini cookies, or just keep and eye on them.)

Rice crispy balls.

A bag of melted marshmallows with butter. I've actually never made rice crispy treats before so I wasn't sure about technique.. I just winged it and it turned out okay, although I feel like the marshmallows were burning a little bit..

Instead of pressing into a pan I decided to make little two-bite balls so they would be easier to eat! I hate when rice crispy treats are too thick for you to even bite into. These were delicious. :)