Jack 'n' Jill Went to Beverly Hills to Fetch a Box of Crumbs

I love lazy Sundays, and Sundays without Mr. Monkey are the laziest of all. I love Sunday brunch, and Sunday brunch with girlfriends are even better!

I met six friends at Jack 'n' Jill's this morning. As I walked to the restaurant, I noticed this sign, which delighted me.

Jack 'n' Jill's is a cute little place on Beverly Drive in the heart of 90210. It serves California-fresh comfort food with a tinge of Southern charm, evidenced in delights such as grits, macaroni and cheese, banana cream pudding, and red velvet cake. Jack 'n' Jill's offers a wide array of baked goods.

Right when Nanette arrived, I turned around and greeted her and spotted Magic Johnson at a table not too far away! I was excited to see Nanette, but she will confirm that I was very excited to see Magic Johnson...so much so that I asked Nanette to pose for a picture when I was really sneaking a paparazzi shot of Magic. Thanks again, Nanette. Hee!

Jack 'n' Jill's serves breakfast all day. I ordered a Hi-Protein Scramble (egg whites, chicken, turkey bacon, spinach, tomato, onions, jack, cheddar, and mozzarella) with cheese grits and fresh mini blueberry muffins. The muffins were great. Warm, fluffy, light, and moist. I took most of my little muffins home with me. The cheese grits were pretty good but not extraordinary. I ended up eating just the top with cheese. I also enjoyed my scramble (which I doused with Cholula hot sauce), but I wasn't totally blown away. Even so, I would come back. Everything was good enough for a return visit.

My brunchmates' meals included Jack's Breakfast, omelets, and a ginger chicken mango salad.

After brunch, we headed to Crumbs to buy some cupcakes. I'd never been, so I was looking forward to this trip all week! What a rad store! Crumbs cupcakes are enormous. They look like cupcake giants that ate Sprinkles cupcakes. And there are so many different kinds!

Crumbs cupcakes certainly aren't as pretty as Sprinkles cupcakes. In fact, I think they are downright ugly. Nevertheless, I think I may be a convert. Appearance be damned. These cupcakes were more moist, more flavorful without being overly sweet, softer and fluffier, and just all around better. They were like homemade, but even better than homemade.

Crumbs also offers mini cupcake samples. Take that, Sprinkles! Two friends and I shared a free mini hostess (rich chocolate cake filled with vanilla buttercream topped with chocolate ganache) and a free mini fluffernutter (vanilla cake filled with marshmallow buttercream and frosted with vanilla buttercream mixed with peanut butter and topped with white sprinkles).

I bought a full-sized pumpkin and pistachio to take home. Full-sized cupcakes are $3.75 each. A box of 12 assorted mini cupcakes is $18.00. Check out the size comparison with the iPhone (and my reflection)!

Since it was so hot (84 degrees in late October!), we headed next door to Il Cono Gelateria. I had one scoop of hazelnut gelato on a sugar cone. The gelato was smooth and creamy, but, like Jack 'n' Jill's, nothing really out-of-this-world. It hit the spot, though, in light of this freakishly warm weather. If you look closely, you can see the best part of my gelato experience -- the cool paper drip-catcher around the cone. That was neato. Check out t.b.d. for a close-up!

After my little Beverly Hills jaunt, I did pretty much nothing all day, save one load of laundry. I have been watching E! and VH1 non-stop. It's after 7 p.m., and I'm still full. I think I may just skip dinner.

And, if you're wondering, I am still one pound away from wedding weight. Today will certainly slow the progress a bit, but I think it was worth it. You can't just do multigrain every day.