Cookies!

I am housesitting for friends this week and came across a bag of Gharidilli white chocolate chips and Cocoa powder. It got thinking what could I make with these? For someone who loves to bake as much as I do, you should be surprised to know I have never made anything with white chocolate chips. So I turned to the Gharidilli website and found nothing interesting, but I realized hmmm these ingredients would make perfect reverse chocolate chip cookies. I love Tollhouse cookies, so I went onto the Nestle website and look what I found...

White Chip Chocolate Cookies

Can you say yummmmmm?

Ingredients:

   2 1/4 cups flour

   1 tsp baking soda

   2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

   1/2 tsp salt

   1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, softened

   2/3 cup brown sugar

   3/4 cup granulated sugar

   1 tsp vanilla 

   2 eggs

   1 (12 oz) bag of white chocolate chips

Directions:

   1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

   2.  In a small bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt together

   3. In an electric mixer cream together butter and both sugars until fluffy. Beat in 1 egg at a time. Add  

       vanilla and mix until fully combined. 

   4. Slowly add dry ingredients to butter and sugar mixture. Mix until fully combined, scraping down  

       sides to ensure everything is fully mixed. Add chocolate chips and mix until evenly distributed.

   5. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until just set. Let cool for 2 minutes then transfer to cooling rack.

Recipe via Very Best Baking

Enjoy!

xx Katelynn

Poison: A Novel of the Renaissance

When it comes to history, I am the first person to tell you I am a history nerd. I would have loved to major in it in college but there just weren't enough jobs out there for history majors so I minored in it and got my fill. So needless to say, I love reading historical fiction books. I decided to check out amazon.com so I could download it onto my kindle and came across a book called Poison: A Novel of the Renaissance by Sarah Poole. 

In the simmering hot summer of 1492, a monstrous evil is stirring within the Eternal City of Rome. The brutal murder of an alchemist sets off a desperate race to uncover the plot that threatens to extinguish the light of the Renaissance and plunge Europe back into medieval darkness.

Navigating a web of treachery and deceit, Francesca pursues her father’s killer from the depths of Rome’s Jewish ghetto to the heights of the Vatican itself. In so doing, she sets the stage for the ultimate confrontation with ancient forces that will seek to use her darkest desires to achieve their own catastrophic ends.

Determined to avenge the killing of her father, Francesca Giordano defies all convention to claim for herself the position of poisoner serving Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, head of the most notorious and dangerous family in Italy. She becomes the confidante of Lucrezia Borgia and the lover of Cesare Borgia. At the same time, she is drawn to the young renegade monk who yearns to save her life and her soul. (via medievalists.net)

This book was fantastic and its part of a trilogy so there is more to come! The second book in the series is called The Borgia Betrayal: A Novel, which I have already started and can't put down, and due out in May is the third installment called The Borgia Mistress: A Novel. Hope you give them a try! You won't be disappointed

xoxo Katelynn

Missing Italy!

I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to study abroad my junior year of college and even luckier to study in ITALY! I can't believe its been over two years since I left for my European Adventure. I'm feeling a little nostalgic right now because Easter just passed and two years ago I spent my Easter holiday on the Amalfi Coast, how spoiled was I?!
Hope you enjoy my little trip down memory lane....

First stop....Florence. Taken on the Ponte Vecchio. Can't wait to go back some day!

Next stop...Possitano! This place was absolutely beautiful! We spent the whole entire day on the beach eating gelato. It was perfect to say the least. 

Ps. that's me in my Jcrew shorts and Vineyard Vines bag in hand haha

Finally we made it to Capri! This was take on our way to the Blue Grotto which was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. I highly suggest if you ever get the chance to spend some time in Italy you travel to the Amalifi Coast, and Carpi in particular, and do the Blue Grotto tour

Happy Easter! All of us on the island of Capri with our Kinder Egg! Its a giant egg plastic egg covered in chocolate that is filled with a toy on the inside. This is what Italian kids get instead of Easter baskets. How cute?! And not to mention that the chocolate is amazing as well

Missing Italy so much right now. Take me back please!
xoxo Katelynn

Saturday please come faster!

I know its only Monday but I cannot WAIT for the weekend to be here because I am going back up to UCONN for weekend! In college I was part of Phi Sigma Pi, the National Honors fraternity (sounds dorky I know) and am lucky that I still have a ton of friends in college so I will get to one last semi-formal. And then I am staying Sunday night as well for Sunday fun-day with a few of my friends. 

This is my semi dress! Isn't it adorable?! I was not sure how I felt about the peplum on the sides but this is my kind of dress and I just couldn't pass it up. And of course it is a Lilly Dress, would you expect anything less from me haha.

This is the necklace I plan on wearing (no these are not my initials lol). I got mine for my 21st birthday last December from a jewelry store in town but this one is from a great website called Marley Lilly. Its the best website for anyone who is obsessed with monogram because they monogram about everything you can think of!

I can't believe I found a picture of the wedges I am going to wear! They are Michael Kors but they are from last summer (and stolen from my sister haha) but I think they will work perfectly with the dress and that way I won't have to buy new shoes. 

Hope you like my outfit!

xoxo Katelynn

Newest Edition!

I have been putting off buying shorts for the summer at work because we can't exactly wear them yet, but today I finally did it and thank god I did because we had a few customers ask for the same ones I bought and we only had one! Take a look

I can't wait for the weather to get warm so I can start wearing these shorts! I always joke about how I hate pants and truly I do. If it were up to me, I would be in shorts or a skirt and a little t-shirt every day. 

Buttercup Shorts in Shorely Blue Lucky Seersucker ($74)

I also bought this Lexie Crew T-shirt. I had no intention of buying it to wear with the shorts but one of my friends pointed out it would look so cute with my new Buttercup Shorts!

I bought this Murfee the other day and can't wait to pair it with my new yellow Lexie Crew and my white eyelet Tate skirt! 

Hope you like and approve of my new clothes!

xoxo Katelynn

Tax Refund= New Shoes!

Don't you just love when tax season rolls around and you get that lovely little pay check in the mail, its like free money (even though its not haha) but its a welcome surprise. So with my return this year I plan on buying these....

Jack Roger's Monogrammed Sandals!

Shockingly I don't own the pink and white so I am definitely getting this pair! They are the perfect way to untie two of my favorite things...Jack roger sandals and monogram. 

There are tons of other colors that they come in and they even make them in wide now! 

Enjoy!

xoxo Katelynn

UCONN

So last weekend I got the chance to go back and visit UCONN for the night for my friend Katie's birthday and let me tell you it was AWESOME! It was me and 4 of my other friend's who went up for the night and it was like we never left. I miss it so much. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Me and Lauren at dinner- what better way to celebrate a birthday than Italian!

All the girls! From left to right: Megan, Katie (the birthday girl!), Lauren, Me, Alyssa and Kelsie!

Matching!

Haha roles are reversed- usually I'm the short stack- love you Kelsie!

Me and the birthday girl!

All the girls at the bar! Note the bunny ears hahaha

At the end of the night- yeppp that's us digging into the neon pink birthday cake I made for Katie haha

Can't wait to visit for my semi-formal in 2 weeks! 

xoxo Katelynn