New products!!!

I went to Target today to do my usual supplies replenishing, and I couldn't help but swing by the good old ice cream aisle. I was super excited to see most of my co-workers' new products are finally on the shelves!! After months of eating these awesome products and not being able to share them with anyone, I can finally talk about them!

First up, the Outshine Simply Yogurt bars. I hate eating yogurt a lot. I haven't eaten it since I interned working on yogurt. But I LOVE these bars. I can't stop eating them, which is good because they are only 90 calories. So eating 4 in a day really isn't that bad, right?? My personal flavor is the peach, but really all of them are amazing. And best of all, I can eat them for breakfast and it totally counts as healthy. 

Next up, the fully dipped Skinny Cow bars. Now I don't like Skinny Cow usually...I am more of full fat Haagen Dasz girl, but these are delicious. Which is good to know in case all the haagen dasz bars I eat finally catch up to me and I need a less fatty treat.

The Jersey girl in me is very excited about this new product, Frozen Custard! It is the first packaged frozen custard among the big ice cream companies. It reminds me of boardwalk Kohr Brother's, so naturally I am a big fan. The snicker doodle and salted caramel pretzel are personal favorites. 

The little kid in me is super excited by the new Wonka products. I especially love the Poppin' Pops, which have a core made of pop rocks! It's super weird to be licking the ice cream and suddenly feel the popping in your mouth. And unlike Popsicles, these don't have nasty artificial sweeteners and flavors.

I saved my favorite for last, the new Haagen Dasz artisan collection. These were made by Bridgett, who is my mentor and a fellow Penn Stater. She worked with artisans across the country to bring their ingredients to our ice cream. It is hard to pick a favorite, but mine is Spiced Pecan Turtle and the Applewood Smoked Caramel Almond (it tastes like bacon!!) But I could honestly eat any of these by the bucket full for the rest of my life. 

Soon I will be able to make posts about my own products! My first one should hit shelves around late April. But for now, it's very exciting to see my co-workers' hard work out on the shelves, and to see people buying them. You should probably try them when you see them in stores, you won't regret it :)

Adventure in LA

Work has been extra stressful lately, with long days and cranky co-workers. So my friend Justine and I decided we needed to get out of bakersfield today. So we jumped in the car with no plan or agenda, and headed for downtown LA.

First stop, naturally, was for food. 

Nothing better for Sunday brunch then a diner. The best part was the maple bacon donut 

So much deliciousness on one plate. 

We then heard about an ice cream shop that was right around the corner called Peddler's creamery. It has a pretty unique way of making ice cream so we had to check it out

Basically, you ride the bike, which powered the ice cream maker on the back. I had the lavender ice cream, which was delicious. It was no Haagen Dazs, but I still enjoyed it. 

The guy at the shop quickly realized we were food nerds, and told us about an indoor market just down the street. So we took off for our new destination.

It was a cool market, similar to Reading terminal is philly. Lots and lots of fresh fruit, cool little places to grab a bite, and lots of interesting people. 

Next stop on our tour was a pop up shopping location nearby. They had a bunch of buses that had been converted into boutique shops you could go in.

They had tons of cool stuff to look at and try on. It was hard to keep our wallet closed.

We walked around downtown LA a while longer. I really liked all the art on the sides of the buildings

We still had time left in the day so we decided to check out Venice beach for a while.

It turned out to be full of characters and questionable outfits. Not a place I would go back to. Although the boardwalk graffiti was pretty cool 

Finally we ended our day in Santa Monica with margaritas and tacos. It was a very successful, random adventure. We had a ton of fun and saw a lot for just a few hours.

Tomorrow starts up the work week again. Hopefully it calms down and isn't so stressful. But at least relaxed and stress-free after this awesome weekend! 

6 months!

I've been with nestle for 6 months now! 

To say thank you, I baked cupcakes in ice cream cones. Everyone loved them :) 

Oh man time flies. 

Saturday hike

So I was recently told by one of my friends about a website called meetup.com. It's basically a way for people of similar interests to meet up and do whatever. So, I went on and found a nice looking hiking group and decided to give it a go! 

We went on a 8 miles hike in the southern most tip of Sequioa national forest, on the whisky flat trail. It was very easy by my standards, but it was nice to walk and talk with my new found friends.

Everything was surprisingly very green and there was even water in the river.apparentmy in the spring, the river is popular for rafting. 

I really enjoyed meeting the mixed groups of people. There were 20 of us ranging in age from 20 to 58. There were two geologists, an au pair from Germany, some IT guys, a few oil workers, and a teacher. 

It was a different experience but I love meeting new people. I even got invited to some more events, so this random website really paid off!

And I got back in time for hockey, where the team won 4-0 against the best team in the league. It was a very exciting game that cracked a 10 game losing streak!

THON Weekend

Hi everyone! Sorry I have been quiet lately. It's been a crazy couple of weeks at work so I have been very tired and boring. 

So, this is the first weekend where I realized how much I miss the east coast (although not the cold....) because its THON weekend at Penn State. I am really sad that I am 2,500 miles away from all of my friends and the families I supported for 4 years. 

It is crazy that it has been a full year since I danced in THON. It feels like yesterday. 

Luckily I have found a cure for my missing out, I recently joined the LA alumni Mini-THON, which is just in a few weeks! It is only 6 hours, which is a lot easier the 46, and all the money raised goes to the same charity as THON as well as a Children's Hospital in LA. I am glad I can still raise money to help the kids even after I left college.

If you want to help me out, I have a donation page to raise money :) 

http://lightscameracure.donorpages.com/LightsCameraCure2015/KatieBrase/

I am working on a fundraising at work and the hockey games as well! My goal is to reach $300.

I probably won't have much going on this weekend other then the usual soccer game and hockey game. Everything at work should calm down soon so I can get back my energy back and my adventures will start up again! 

Sunday Hiking

Slight delay on this post, but I was too tired to post yesterday. I have been wanting to go hiking for the past few weeks, and the beautiful weather has made me want to go even more. Add in the fact that it rained all Saturday, leading to clear skies, and I had to get outside Sunday.

Sadly, all of my friends were too busy or lazy to come with me, but I decided I wasn't going to sit around all day wishing I was hiking.

So, I hopped in my baby blue beetle and headed over to Pasedena, to hike Echo Mountain and Inspiration Point, which according to Yelp is the best post-rain hike. It was still a little hazy.

The trail was pretty busy, and I got my first glimpse into the hiking scene. There were tons of people with dogs, some running up the trail, and plenty of middle aged women gossiping. Because I was by myself, lots of people wanted to talk to me. I met a lot of characters a long the way. 

After an hour and half of a pretty easy hike up, I reached the peak of the mountain. I was a little disappointed, because I wasn't tired at all and I was promised a difficult hike. But there were some cool ruins of an old train line and hotel to check out.

I was sitting in the ruins of the ballroom of the hotel and two younger guys came and sat with me. They were two wild-firefighters who were in LA for the weekend. I mentioned how easy this trail was and they laughed. Turned out I was only halfway there. 

It's a two part trail. The first part, which I did, was easy and about 5000 people hiked it every weekend. The second part, which went to inspiration point, was for people in very good shape and only about 150 people completed it a weekend. Now that sounded more like it.

They were continuing up to inspiration point, and they seemed to doubt that I would make it, but nevertheless the 3 of us took off on the Castle Canyon trail. It started off easy enough, but within 20 minutes quickly became more of hike/climb. 

My new friends were in better shape then me, so I told them not to wait for me. I told them I would see them at the top, they seemed to doubt that I would make it. 

But two hours, a scrapped knee, sunburned shoulders, and sore legs later, I made it to the top! The two fire fighter guys gave me a road of applause as I walked up and gave me a cookie.

It was a 4000 ft elevation change, and I felt ever step of it. The air was clear and the sky was blue, and there was a nice cool breeze to cool me off. 

There were really cool telescopes that you could see different areas of LA though.

I could even see all the way to Catalina Island, 60 miles away! Sadly it didn't appear too well in pictures. 

My new friends were continuing on the next mountain peak but I was good for the day. Time to head back down the mountain...

Overall, my trip was just over 11 miles in four and half hours! The way down was a lot easier then the way up. I walked for a while with an older gentleman who gave a full list of the best hikes in the LA area. Definitely going to have to check most of them out.

Since, I was already in Pasedena, I also swung by the Rose Bowl to check it out. Sadly the gates were closed and I couldn't get any closer. 

I then cruised on over to Beverly Hills to meet up with my friend from high school for a celebratory meal/early birthday dinner of super delicious Salmon tacos. 

And for dessert: Maple Bacon Ice Cream with whisky caramel. Because I deserved it.

Update from Monday night: I could barely move my legs all day. Still worth it. 

Indoor flowers

The lilies in my dining room are going crazy! Maybe I should stop giving them miracle gro...

Summary of my Super Bowl

Yum yum Buff Chick Dip

Country Line Dancing Night

It was my co-workers last weekend in Bakersfield this weekend, and one of the things he really wanted to do before leaving was go country line dancing. So we put on our cowboy boots (actually converse....) and flannel shirts and went to Buck Owen's Crystal Palace, the pride of Bakersfield. 

It turns out, line dancing is no joke to these people. The regulars were intense and the dances were really hard to pick up. 

All in all it was an interesting cultural experience and a fun night! Some of my other friends want to go now so I guess I'll be going back some time soon!