28Mar 2012

Positano, Italy: Honeymoon Part I

Our two week honeymoon began in Positano, Italy. It is towards the southern end of Italy and has some fantastic views of the Amalfi Coast! Positano also has beaches which was a must have for the first stop on our honeymoon.

Screen Shot of GoogleMaps

We decided to splurge a little in Positano. It was our time to relax, soak in being married and decompress after all that wedding planning. We spent an evening researching hotels in Positano using TripAdvisor and Rick Steve’s guide. When we finally stumbled upon Hotel Marincanto; I was immediately sold. The pictures showed phenomenal views and was within walking distance of the beach!

After a red eye flight from DC to Paris and finally to Naples we arrived excited, but exhausted. Luckily my husband had hired a driver to take us from Naples to Positano. The streets are crazy windy and narrow. I was VERY happy to not be driving myself in a foreign country while totally exhausted!! Hiring a driver was probably one of the best decisions we made.

Day 1:

We arrived in Positano and checked into the hotel. We were both STARVING so we changed quickly and walked down to the beach. Unfortunately we arrived at a weird time and had to walk around for a while before finding a place serving food. We stumbled upon Le Tre Sorelle. It had the MOST amazing pizza. The best pizza we had all vacation. Seriously I dream about this pizza it was so good. We went all three days for lunch. Ok I think you now get how amazing the pizza was!

Honeymoon in Positano Italy. Favorite restaurants and places to stay | Life's Tidbits

After lunch we walked around and then retired to our hotel for a siesta. After a much needed nap we watched the sunset on our balcony. Such an amazing view!

Honeymoon vacation Positano, Italy | Life's Tidbits

For dinner we went to Ristorante La Cambusa. It was okay, but nothing to write home about. For our first night it was fine, but I’m assuming there are other better options for your first evening in Italy! My husband had been instructed that when you pass a gelato place you stop … always. So as we strolled (or really rolled) back towards the hotel we stopped for our first taste of gelato.

OMG the lemon gelato was to die for and totally worth feeling extra stuffed. :) Off to bed we went excited to spend the entire next day at the pool or beach!

Day 2:

Reading, sun tanning and have a beer by the pool took up the whole day! We couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather. We chose to stay by the pool instead of going to the beach where we would have to rent mattalas. Considering the beach was rocky there wasn’t any real need to be there when we had a gorgeous pool at our disposal, plus the view is so perfect from the suntanning patio.

Honeymoon vacation Positano, Italy | Life's Tidbits

We made the trip down to the beach for lunch at Le Tre Sorelle. When it was time to make some decisions about dinner out came the iPhone and directly to Trip Advisor app we went. Buca di Bacco had some good reviews and we remembered walking past it the night before. Boy did it not disappoint. The mozzarella melted in our mouths and the gnocchi was the best we’ve ever had. If I remember correctly it was called Sorrento gnocchi. Either way have it if you ever go it was to die for.

Sorrento Gnocchi and tomato salad in Positano, Italy - Traveling, honeymooning, vacation | Life's Tidbits

The night ended with a “gelato cap” and was the perfect end to our second day.

Day 3:

The day was very much like day 2. Time at the pool and then off to our favorite (and only) lunch place in Positano. We were sad our time in Positano was coming to an end.

Our last dinner was at Ristorante Covo Dei Saraceni. It was an amazing choice for our last night with top notch seafood and pasta!

Food and wine in Positano, Italy - vacation, honeymoon, traveling | Life's Tidbits

We made friends with a couple who was also honeymooning at the table next to us. It turned out that the woman works in my hometown as a school teacher. What a small small world we live in! After dinner we hit up a new gelato place and ended up getting the lemon gelato for the third day in a row. Some how it just didn’t get old.

Ciao and see you in Sorrento!

Happy vacationing!!

20Mar 2012

DIY Bottle Cap Cupcakes and Party Details

by Nicole ⋅ Leave a Comment

I planned a small/intimate surprise birthday party for my husband turning 30. And let me tell you he was SHOCKED when he walked in the front door. I decided early on that I wanted the party to be beer themed, which clearly meant the cake needed to go with the theme. I was very inspired by a bottle cap cake I found on a blog.

Unfortunately when it came time to making the cake I didn’t have enough time to make fondant. So I went with option B. Swiching from a cake to cupcakes. I mean cupcakes are in anyways so win! Then I made made little bottle cap decorations for each of the cupcakes. They are super easy to make. AND how cute are these???

What you need:

Toothpicks
Glue
Beer Bottle Caps

Place a small dot of your duco cement in the center of the bottle cap. Let it dry for 30 seconds or so.

Place the toothpick at an angle into the glue dot. Roll the toothpicks in the glue a little. Then hold it in place. Unlike my husband try to put the toothpick at an angle and against the bottle cap edge.

Instead of holding the toothpick while it drys, which takes FOREVER there’s a better option! This took me a while to figure out, but in the end it was a life saver. Put a second bottle cap on top of the bottle cap/toothpick like so …

Let dry for at least 15 minutes. The longer the better and depending on the glue you use they will dry at slower or faster rate than mine did. Then stick it into the cupcake and away you go. I think it would have been nice to have a few more different types of beer bottle caps, but over all I am very pleased with how they turned out! Check out the little display:

The color theme of the surprise party was yellow and chocolate brown. The cupcake liners had yellow stripes on them. You can find them here and they are pretty cheap and come in a lot of different colors.

Remember how much I wanted to use barbershop straws again? I got them for the surprise party!! The other small decoration included brown and yellow balloons.

Oh and one more fun little detail for the party … custom napkins! I had wanted to do custom napkins for our wedding, but it didn’t work out. I would never plan another party without custom napkins. I love how they turned out!!

Surprise parties are so much fun and all the little tidbits and extra details all the difference in making the party look so cute. :)

Happy DIY and party planning!

Don’t forget to leave your tidbit by commenting below :)

16Feb 2012

Recipe: Guinness Stout Brownie Bites

by Nicole ⋅ Leave a Comment

One of my favorite party planning blogs is Hostess with the Mostess. I recently browsing for fun party ideas and cam across this super fun blog for Guinness Stout Brownie Pretzel Bars. I thought these were perfect for our Super Bowl party (and my husband’s beer themed birthday). The recipe is by Esther Kang of Batch from Scratch.

Ingredients:

4 oz Bittersweet Chocolate
8 oz Butter
1 Egg
3/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Cocoa
1 1/4 cup Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Vanilla
1 cup Guinness
8 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
3.5 oz Butterscotch
2.5 oz White Chocolate Chips
1.4 oz Heavy Cream

Place the bittersweet chocolate & butter in a bowl.

Melt in microwave or double boiler.

Using a mixer beat egg, sugar and brown sugar for 3 minutes.

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl cocoa, flour, salt. Add the melted chocolate to egg mixture then mix in dry ingredients. Last add vanilla and beer mixing until incorporated. Pour into a 9×13 pan.

Sprinkle semi-sweet chocolate on top of the batter. Then pop it in the over at 350 for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

To make the butterscotch ganache combine butterscotch, white chocolate and heavy cream in a small bowl. Microwave in 30 second increments, stir until melted and smooth. I heated mine for a little over a minute, however make sure not to over heat them or it will go ALL over you microwave and you will loose a lot of the ganache (can you tell this happened to me?? Hahaha). Spread the ganache over the cooked brownie. Refrigerate until firm. Then cut into small bites and serve.

The blog suggests topping with 1/3 cup Crushed Pretzels and Flakey Sea Salt (maldon salt works well). I should have put the pretzels on while the ganache was still a little warm because I couldn’t get the pretzels to stay on the brownie bits after they were totally cooled.

Here are the YUMMY Guinness Brownie Bits …

The brownies were a big hit and perfect for both the super bowl and birthday parties.

Happy Cooking & Party Planning!