Virginia Drader

On the weekends one of my favourite things to do is to try food spots around NY.  I have read about Abraco on a few different blogs and figured that this morning would be the perfect time to check it out.  Abraco is located in the East Village and is a very tiny little cafe.  There is only a counter and no where to sit.  The menu is very short and simple.  I decided to try a cafe latte and a lemon brioche bun.  The coffee was absolutely delicious.  I usually add 2 sugars to my coffee but today I only needed to add 1 because the coffee itself was so good, and did not have the bittter flavour that I usually try to hide with sugar.  The lemon brioche bun was perfect – it had just the right amount of lemony sweetness and the brioche itself was light and airy.  I can’t wait to go back next weekend and try more of the pastries and coffees that Abraco has to offer!

I just got back from a cooking school in Tuscany. It was truly an experience I will never forget. I saw so many beautiful things, ate amazing food, drank way too much wine and learned about Tuscan cuisine. Over the next couple of weeks I am going to be posting recipes that I learned while I was in Italy.

Tonight I just wanted to give you a sneak peak at some of my favorite photos so that you can get an idea of what is to come.

For our last day in London Nat and I decided to go shopping. We started at Libertys which was originally a fabric store but now carries all sorts of things from scarves to wedding dresses. It is housed in a 300 year old building and is a must visit while in London. We bought lots of gifts for friends from this store and I got some fabric to make a quilt when I get home. The next store we went to was Antropologie. This is an American chain but is one of my favourites so we had to go in and try on some of their vintage and retro inspired clothing. I ended up buying a new dress and some jewellery. By this point we were exhausted and needed some lunch so we headed over to Fortnum & Mason. This store is my version of heaven! They have every imaginable luxury item related to food. I could spent an entire day just simply walking around and looking at all the beautiful food items that they carry. There are also 3 restaurants in this store and we decided to go try The Parlour for lunch. They serve amazing ice cream sundaes, open faced sandwiches and of course scones. I could not resist the fruit scones served with clotted cream and strawberry jam. Before this vacation I had never tried clotted cream but now I have to say it is my new favourite condiment. It is so rich and decadent and you know it is going directly to your hips but that does not stop you from smothering you warm scone with it! After we were finished lunch we wandered around the store and bought ourselves some macarons. Oh how I love these! They are so beautiful to look at and you would not think that they could taste as good as they look. However you would be wrong, they are flavourful with a delicate crisp outside and a tender chewy filling. By this point we were stuffed so we went for a walk in Green Park. I love how London is filled with beautiful shaded parks that the locals and tourists go to relax and eat lunch in.

While driving around London the other day we saw a Marc by Marc Jacobs store and a Marc Jacobs store in Mayfair. We could not pass on the opportunity to go check them out. While in the Marc by Marc Jacobs I bought a new mustard coloured party dress and Nat got a red and navy polka dot backpack. We never usually go to the Marc Jacobs store because this is the designer collect and way out of our budgets. For fun though we went in to take a look, as luck would have it the entire store had a 70% sale. I am not going to lie I could barely contain my excitement. I started trying on different dresses and even though I would have loved to buy them all I finally decided on a colourful mini with ruffles and beads. I am going to wear it to my friend Jacqueline’s wedding rehearsal dinner and I am super excited to see what everyone thinks of it!

We leave for Calgary in only a few hours but I will always look back on this vacation with incredible memories and great times spent with my family.

On Thursday we went to the Cotswolds. They are a series of villages located just 3 hours outside of London. The villages are filled with antique shops, tea houses, picturesque stone cottages, and bed and breakfasts. This is one of my Mom’s favourite places that we visited while on this vacation. It was a really relaxing day and we even had a delicious English tea for lunch complete with fruit scones, clotted cream, strawberry jam and of course English breakfast tea. The cottages in the Cotswolds feel like they came right out of a fairytale, they even had thatched roofs and stone chimneys. If I ever come back to London I am going to make a weekend trip to the Cotswolds to do some antique shopping and to stay in one of the charming  bed and breakfasts.