prickly pear margaritas

I was first introduced to prickly pear by my future mother-in-law, Jan, on my first visit to Austin... naturally, in the form of a margarita. Instantly, I was in love. The prickly pear syrup adds not only eye-catching color, but also a unique flavor that doesn't pollute the deliciously tart, salty drink with saccharin sweetness. I decided to buy a bottle of the syrup, and was pleased to find that one bottle goes a long way. I proceeded to make a classic margarita, with a little cactus twist. They were absolutely delicious, and I could have slugged back about ten of these cheerful little glasses. You may be wondering: are these frozen or on-the-rocks? The answer is somewhere in between, and the reason is both impatience in the freezing process, and inability to take photos before devouring a cocktail first. I told you they were good.

Prickly Pear Margaritas
Serves 2 (cocktails, not people... you'll want more than one)

4 oz. white tequila
1.5 oz. Cointreau
1 oz. prickly pear syrup, or to taste


1 oz. fresh lime juice
Coarse salt and lime wedge for garnish, if desired

On the Rocks:  Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, shake and pour.

Frozen:  Combine all ingredients with ice in a blender, blend until desired consistency. Warning: this takes a lot more ice than I anticipated.

bold baubles

So called "exclusive" shopping sites that require registration and a log-in are a dime a dozen these days, and there are quite a few I have regretted joining over the years (mostly thanks to their daily sale e-mails). However, Bauble Bar is not one of those sites. This is no get-it-now-or-we'll-keep-flooding-your-inbox-website; it's a fantastically diverse jewelry website with no markups, and amazing prices. From classy and chic studs to wild, on trend neon statement pieces, they've got quite a lot to peruse. They feature a lot of designer collaborations, and even blogger-curated collections. They even have a dead-ringer copy of the Anthropologie necklace I last wore here. Check it out, and you won't be disappointed!

engagement photo shoot

I can't even begin to describe how excited I am to share this post with you. Yesterday, Adam and I had our engagement photos taken by our amazingly talented wedding photographer, Leah Hewitt. We spent the afternoon at the Howard County Conservancy, which is a shockingly beautiful and unique piece of land outside of Baltimore. Leah not only immediately made us feel comfortable and relaxed, but also was both wonderfully professional and fun. Her eye for natural sunlight and scenery made for the most beautiful engagement photos I could have imagined. Just hours after the shoot, Leah already had several "preview" photos for us to fall in love with before the collection of final hi res images come soon. I am so thrilled to see how they all turn out. Until then, here are a few photos from our shoot.

All photos © 2012 L Hewitt Photography.

seaside "silk"

There are few things in the fashion world that I enjoy more than finding an amazing and surprising bargain. This shirt, which not only looks and feels like silk, but also has an adorably nautical pattern in an interesting color combo, was one of those finds. Surprisingly, this little gem costs less than $20 from Old Navy of all places. The top is the perfect compromise between flowy and structured, and looks amazing when showing off a little leg, whether in shorts or skinny jeans. It made for a perfect outfit for a bayside dinner with friends.

Top: Old Navy, Shorts: Madewell, Shoes: Cynthia Vincent for Target, Sunglasses: ASOS

white pizza with roasted garlic & truffle oil

While I love coming up with my own recipes or ideas for dinner, it rarely ends up happening. The reason being that I have over 1000 recipes bookmarked online that I have been dying to try, so there's always a list of must-make-soon dishes of which I barely ever even scrape the surface. I had some pizza dough that was teetering on it's expiration date (aka a little past it), so I wanted to whip up something cheap and easy to make use of the yummy Harry & David dough. I came up with this White Pizza with Roasted Garlic and Truffle Oil, and it was delicious. I've been working on ways to improve homemade pizza crust, and I think I've figured it out with this one. Check out the recipe below, which is loose on measurements, but infinitely adaptable to your tastes.

White Pizza with Roasted Garlic & Truffle Oil

1 lb. pizza dough (I used Harry & David's boxed mix)

1 head garlic

Olive oil (preferably of good quality)

White truffle oil

2 - 2.5 cups Italian mix shredded cheese, or mozzarella

1/2 cup ricotta cheese

3 t. fresh oregano, chopped

Italian seasoning

Salt and pepper

1. Follow steps for roasting garlic. Allow to cool, and squeeze out approximately 3 - 4 softened cloves of garlic into small bowl of olive oil (approx 1/4 cup) and muddle together. Add white truffle oil to taste. Truffle is a bit of an acquired taste, so taste as you go.

2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees (with pizza stone, if available). Sprinkle work surface with cornmeal or flour (I used cornmeal), and roll dough into one large or two small pizza crusts.

3. I have found the key to homemade pizza is in pre-baking the crust before adding toppings. Brush the top of the crust liberally with the olive oil mixture from step 1. Bake on pizza stone or non-stick pan for 8 minutes. 

4. Remove pan or stone from oven. Brush again with olive oil mixture. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Using a spoon, dollop ricotta in small heaps evenly over surface of pizza. {I used huge dollops simply because I like ricotta, and it looked nice for pictures, but you would probably want smaller mounds than this}. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Return to oven and bake until cheese and crust are golden brown.

5. Remove from oven, sprinkle with chopped oregano. Cut and serve.

june preview

After a totally lackluster May, I started debating whether or not Gingersnaps would return at all after graduation. Now that I'm officially a doctor, I started wondering if it's a little weird/unprofessional to continue blogging. But then I realized that I really couldn't care less. Considering I wore a pair of jean shorts called "super shorties" to an outdoor Zac Brown Band concert last night (so good!), I guess I'm holding onto my early... ok mid... twenties. 

I can't imagine that anyone, including patients, could find Gingersnaps offensive in any way, and frankly if my doctors had any sort of flair or personality, it would be a welcome change from the norm. So the point is, it's June! For me, this is the start of a whole new year, despite what the calendar says. Here's a little glimpse into what's coming up this month.

Engagement Photos

Adam and I are finally having some engagement photos taken, and I'm surprisingly excited. The idea of this session seems so awkward to me, but our photographer is fantastic, and full of the most fun ideas for a beautifully natural shoot at the Howard County Conservancy (seen here).

Siesta, Fiesta!

Somehow, in over four years together, Adam and I have never been on a beach vacation together. The time has finally come! We'll be headed to this amazing spot on June 6th for a week, so posts will be sparse for that week. Can you blame me?

Food, Glorious Food

I'll of course be "cooking" as usual, but I'm even more excited to try out some summertime treats and refreshments from two of my newer cookbooks.

and more...

I've been getting more than a little addicted to photo editing lately, and I have so many fun discoveries, programs, apps, tips and tricks that I'm excited to share. You know I can't help but focus on fashion, so some clothing and outfit posts will sneak their way into the mix as well. I hope you're happy that Gingersnaps is back, because I'm definitely happy to keep it running for another fun year.

safe to say they're catching on...

If this school picnic photo doesn't prove how much the colored skinnies trend has spread like wildfire, I don't know what would. Doesn't everyone look so colorful and cute? Senior year has been very bittersweet; as the most arduous four years of our lives have come to an end, so have many of the good times and yearly traditions that made this time so special to me.

At our final spring picnic, I pulled on my mint jeans, but wanted to wear them with something a little more unexpected than the usual white slouchy top I've worn 1,001 times. Last month, I rounded up some ways to wear this season's mint trend (mostly to get myself out of the aforementioned white-tee-over-mint-jeans rut), but I hadn't considered this stripes + statement necklace combo until I grabbed this shirt off of the top of my clothes heap/excessive hoard on the floor of our bedroom. But I swear it was clean... sort of.

Necklace: Anthropologie (no longer available), Tee: UO, Jeans: Siwy, Fiance: Austin, TX