Spring Scouting

Hi spring! You are welcomed here with open arms. If you are like me you are so ready for some fresh new spring clothes and products. I'm at that point where I wake up to get ready and everything in my closet is so tired and blah. I'm ready for bright spring colors to come back into my life. A few ways I'm copying with my dreary winter duds is by adding a little color through my bags and accessories. My dear friends at Scout are fueling this fire with their bright and stylish spring line. 

If you know me or have read this blog at all over the past few years, you know my love for Scout and how I spent a summer interning for them. Cue my D.C. Diary posts if you need a recap. They recently launched their new spring collection and I am falling hard for it. The styles are perfectly crafted and the designs are chic as ever. 

My absolute favorite bag/pattern from the new collection is the Golden Girl Grande in Diamond Ink. It has been toted all around town with me the past couple weeks. It's the perfect bag for happy hour drinks or a night out, but casual enough for breakfast with friends. I love a good clutch because you can always throw it into your larger bag and still have everything you need with out having to switch from bag to bag. 

I rounded up more of my favorite styles in my favorite new patterns. Click through to start scouting out your new spring pieces! Take a minute or two to notice each pattern name and bag description. The crew at Scout HQ is insanely witty! They kill me with their punny names such as Fleetwood Black and Reef Witherspoon.  

The BJ Bag // Duffy //  3-Way // Sprit Chillah // Original Deano // Golden Girl Grande // Golden Girl Medio // Pleasure Chest // Trash Cache // Carry'All Bin // Big Draw // Bacall // Nooner // Hang-10 // Two Plate Special // Junque Trunk

Scout is constantly creating and designing more and more functional bags to fit every nitch of your life. From the office to the gym, to your lunch hour to backyard cookouts, to moving to a new house to just taking a weekend trip. When I think they've done it all, they do it again. Hence why my collection is ever growing. Below is just a glimpse at my personal collection, junque trunks, trash cache, deano, 3-way and hang-10 not pictured... #scoutbags #myscoutbag #SCOUTern.

Annie

Bites of My Life

-Ready for fall, but holding on to summer by snacking on a big juicy watermelon.

-Can't wait to dig into this cookbook c/o Blogging for Books!

-A getaway weekend back to D.C. calls for nothing but SCOUT bags to help me pack!

-So Georgetown U. has this incredible grilling club; I'm tossing around the idea of bringing it to OU because it is just too wonderful. I pretended to be a Georgetown student on Friday so I could chow down on one of their incredible GUGS (Georgetown University Grilling Society) burgers. 

-One tacky bridesmaid coming up! I've always loved a good theme party. 

-#GOBO2014, the point of my trip back to D.C. Best night getting dressed up in ridiculous outfits, eating and drinking tacky themed wedding food, and dancing and sweating with the SCOUT team.

-My free birthday drink. LOL at the time I signed up to be a gold member a few Septembers ago and thought it would be convenient to get a free drink that week. Starbucks does not let you change when you say your birthday is, so now I celebrate in May and September.

-MASA 14 brunch. Favorite area of D.C. and favorite meal of the weekend. Curry potato pancake, sautéed spinach, poached egg and chipotle hollandaise. 

-Sunday brunch at a Cafe Bonaparte. A frenchie spot in Gtown I wanted to try all summer. My egg and sausage crepe was the perfect finale to my weekend in the district; followed by shopping on M St. and picking up goodies from Trader Joe's and Baked and Wired!

A weekend well spent in my favorite place. Now for a week of sticking my nose in my school books to get caught up!

Annie

p.s. A return of D.C. Diary is happening tomorrow! 

Cooking From Scratch

I'm about to tell you how I used the contents in this box, to make this...(see below)

Brined Chicken with a Strawberry Basil Reduction and Zucchini Cakes topped with Yogurt Dill Sauce.

ScratchDC is a company serving up hand-prepared dinner kits that come "chopped, measured, marinated, and delivered ready to cook!" Perfect for working parents, newlyweds, busy professionals or those who typically get lost in the kitchen. Also perfect for foodies spending their summers working in DC:)

I first heard about Scratch when my boss came into work one day raving about the meal she had for dinner the night before. Her roommate owns a cafe/coffee/wine bar that is now a retailer for Scratch. They tested out the product and decided it was good enough to sell in his store.

Scratch sells their kits through retailers or delivers them to you office, home or doorman. After reading up on it, I knew I wanted to try it out. They have a different meal every Monday-Thursday and provide the menu to order from for up to two weeks. This cute brown box was delivered right to my office desk completely prepared for me to take home and cook up in about 40 minutes!

Scratch was started by foodies who have a passion for quality meals and awesome ingredients. Each kit is hand packed daily with pre-measured containers including everything you need. They even give you olive oil and salt and pepper. All you need are a few pans and kitchen knives.

Step-by-step instructions lead you through each dish. The kits serve two people. That being said, you could definitely stretch it two three people, we had tons of leftovers. They only thing is one person will be left out from the two chocolate chip cookies that each kit comes with to finish off your meal! How sweet is that! 

I wanted to test the product and make sure my meal turned out exactly as expected. I made sure to follow the instructions closely, especially the part where it says pour glass of wine while you wait 10 minutes. 

It really can't get easier that dumping pre-portioned containers into a bowl to be mixed up in to a gourmet dish.

The zucchini cakes cooked up quick and easy. Just heat a little oil in a pan and drop about three to four large spoonfuls of the mixture. Flatten them out and let them brown, give them a flip and they are done. 

This strawberry basil sauce was out of this world. I was licking the bowl and wanted to put it on everything. It was made from chopped strawberries, a little OJ, coconut oil and chopped basil. It was the cherry on-top of the meal!

I mean, I can't even tell you how amazing this meal was. I have strict plans to recreate this meal at home, so I will be sure to post the recipe. It won't be as convenient as using Scratch's kit but I'll see how it goes. If you are in the DC area you must give Scratch a try. This is another amazing Washington novelty I wish I could franchise to Oklahoma! 

Thank you to ScrachDC for the chance at letting me try your amazing product! Read more about their food and how it works on their website and Facebook page. 

Annie

D.C. Diary: The Conclusion

It's been a week since I've been home. I'm not going to lie, it's nice to be home, but not a day goes by that I don't think of something in D.C, get reminded of something, or feel like I'm missing out on things going on in the city. I'm super busy in the muck of sorority recruitment, so luckily I have that to keep my mind preoccupied.

I drug Anna and Emily to July's Truckeroo. It's a food truck festival at the Bullpen outside the National's stadium. It was a beautiful night with live music, drinks and food trucks for days. I chose the crepe truck! I ordered my veggie crepe while a tub of Nutella bigger than my head stared me down in line. 

Continued perusing the streets of Georgetown to find my dream house.

Loved getting to show Kathleen Barre 3 Georgetown! We took two classes over the weekend and loved obnoxiously matching. 

Visited Union Market for the second time. Sampled yummy treats, shopped around and...

...happened to visit the same day DC Scoops was going on! An ice cream tasting event with all different local ice cream vendors!

Shopped around in the fabulous Salt and Saudry inside Union Market. A unique home goods store filled with locally made goods, specialty foods, glassware and cookbooks. 

Finished our day at Union Market outside at the picnic tables enjoying the beautiful day. 

Checked walking the monuments at night off my D.C. bucket list. If you visit D.C, you have to go see these beauties at night.

Everything is more grand and aw worthy under the moonlight. 

I was surprised by the amount of people there at night, but now I know why. 

I'll be honest, I'm not a huge WWII memorial fan, but it looks sooooo cool at night. 

Climbed up and around to snag a pic with the home state!

From dark to light, the monuments are cliche, one of the coolest things in D.C.

Our last morning, we woke up at 5:15 to watch the sunrise! I loved seeing runners go by, stop in front of the Washington, take a picture, then run off. Locals still find beauty in their city. 

The cutest little housing building on GWU's campus I stumbled upon on our way back from the morning at the monuments. 

I'm going to miss my little walk through the farmer's market after work on Wednesdays. 

If you follow me on insta you know my food grams are slightly out of control. They only heightened in D.C. and I then made it a goal to get regrammed by @dcdining. It happened a few times and it sadly would make my day every time.

My goal is to make brunch much more of a thing in Norman. My Saturdays and Sundays lived for brunch. I can't claim this as mine, but my friend's eggs chesapeake were too pretty not to take a pic of. Toasted baguette, crab meat, poached eggs and hollandaise. 

The Matchbox cinnamon rolls finally happened. I followed them with the egg frittata making it one of my favorite brunches. 

Quinoa, asparagus arugula goodness. 

Smoked Salmon Pizzetta at Kafe Leopold. 

Nutella for days at my favorite ice cream shop.

Seared Tuna salad at El Centro for lunch with my fellow interns and boss. 

Our spread at Birch and Barley officially made it my favorite restaurant in D.C. The food, the drinks, the atmosphere and the fact that my sis was there made it one of the best!

Came home with two bags of Hippie Crack. Oh how I will miss you Baked and Wired. 

Colorful add-ins to my mediterranean bowl at Cava Grill. 

A much anticipated meal. 

After a slight run-in with peanut butter, it was necessary to wash it down with a cone of pistachio ice cream. Pistachio has quickly become my favorite ice cream flavor. 

A boozy blondie, just like me. Totally kidding, but this blondie was delish. 

Bruschetta to start our italian feast at Lavagna on Barracks Row.

Two bowls of pesto pasta for the table, because sometimes you just need a big bowl of pasta. 

A loaded plate after going through the Famers Fishers Bakers buffet line. Highlight was the bruleed grapefruit. 

A plate of biscuits and cinnamon rolls for every table at brunch. Plates of benedict, pizza and sushi also went by. It was an array of fabulous food. I'll be honest, it was delicious but I like my brunches heavy on the breakfast and it leaned more toward lunch. 

Homemade crab cakes, slaw and corn alfresco. I love a good meal outside. 

Tried my first Acai Bowl. I went for the "Coco Bowl" with strawberries, bananas, coconut, and acai juice, all topped with granola. It was basically and overpriced smoothie bowl I could make at home, but it was worth it. 

Free 'secret' flavor Georgetown Cupcakes. This was post-dropping the box head first, but hey, they were free. 

A farewell breakfast at First Bake. My Egg in a Nest consisted of two eggs nesting inside chili cheese bread topped with hot sauce of course. 

The epitome of my summer internship. Doing anything to get the perfect instagram shot, I constantly asked myself how this could really be work. 

My social media creeping came back to bite me in the butt when my co-workers made me match names with instagrams of people from the office at my going away party. I worked with some of the best people around that I miss so much.

My two SCOUT sidekicks. 

A little Nutty Professor shake at Ted's Bulletin to round out our summer in D.C.

To D.C,

Thank you for allowing me to live in your city for a summer, make memories I'l never forget, eat your amazing food that is better than any other city (you can mark my word on it), have the best internship that was more rewarding than I could have ever imagined, and for making it the best summer of my life. 

Sincerely,

-Annie

Bites of My Life

Summer official came and went. I could gab for hours about how fabulous it was, but I think I've already covered that. Today is the last bites post with D.C. pics. It's the most bittersweet feeling being home and knowing my summer is over, but now it's time senior year and all that this year holds! 

I have one more D.C. Diary post in store and I can promise it's not the last you'll hear of my favorite city!

-Homemade crab cakes, coleslaw and corn outside on a beautiful Monday night. 

-Trader Joe's=cookie butter, which=me finally purchasing cookie butter and becoming utterly obsessed with it. A spoonful of cookie butter, dunked in granola makes me slightly weak at the knees. I brought a whole jar home with me. 

-Fulfilled my camo craving and pulled the plug on these Wamo Camo inspire crops from Lululemon. 

-Seeing the monuments at night sounds kind of touristy but it was highly recommend as something I must do. I think it was my favorite thing I did all summer. They look so much more grand in the moonlight. View from the side of Lincoln looking at the Washington with the capitol peeking around the corner. 

-When you work about 5 steps away from Georgetown Cupcakes it's just nonsense to not take advantage of their secret free flavor. Each day they make a secret flavor cupcake then tweet about it allowing the first 100 customers a chance at one if they mention the secret flavor. We stood in a semi long line in the rain Wednesday morning for free cupcakes. Worth it, until I dropped the box right on it's head...

-Took my last B3 Georgetown class on Thursday with one of my favorite teachers! Stole this pic from Kerry's insta to share! Going to miss Kerry, KQ, Vicky, Courtney and Stevie! Until next time!

-Cooked a delicious meal from the components inside this little box! Stay tuned for a full post on what it is and how I did it! 

-After the monuments at night, the monuments by sunrise were still a must! Anna and I woke up at 5:15 on our last day in D.C. to see the city in all it's glory. It was wonderful, but my favorite thing was seeing all the runners run by, stop right in front of the Washington, snap a pic, then run off! Even the locals still find beauty in their city!

-Last day breakfast at FFB's First Bake with my intern bestie! Scrambled eggs with bacon, Bird in the nest (in their chili cheese bread) and warm chai tea! I'll miss you Farmers Fishers!

-Not legit SCOUT employees till you get your t-shirt!

-The best summer with these two crazies! The most bittersweet last day full of presents, Baked and Wired treats, silly games, and sad goodbyes:( Wish more than anything I was walking into the East Wing this a.m.!

-Home Sweet Home and you all know what that means, food. Homemade burrata for a side along side short ribs, corn on the cob, and cantaloupe proscuitto appetizers! 

Can say firmly it was the best summer thus far. Filled with unforgettable experiences and memories. I'm home now, moved into my Norman house and start recruitment work week this afternoon. Goodbye summer, you were too good. 

Annie