Detox is over but we are on week two of eating healthier. This week we are focusing on eating a "rainbow" of veggies and more whole grains. In regards to the whole grains I found a recipe for homemade multigrain English muffins. I never thought you could make your own English muffins but it wasn't too hard.
They are not baked! You cook them on a griddle, 7 minutes on each side. That's how they get that toasted mark on each side. I was so surprised I could make muffins with "nooks and crannies"!
After indulging over the holidays and in Las Vegas it was time for Aaron and I to detox. I decided we would start the Martha Steward body + soul magazine Whole Body Action Plan. We bought a juicer and Wii Fit Plus and we are on our way.
The plan starts with a four day detox diet of soup, juice and smoothies. The smoothie at the top is a mango smoothie... or so they claim.
The liquid on the right is how the mango smoothie we made turned out. Seeing as how it also has avocado and swiss chard in it, that shade of green is not surprising. I don't know how they got theirs to be such an appealing color. On the left is the cold cucumber and mint soup we had for lunch on day two of detox. It wasn't horrible - but I won't be craving it anytime soon. We are sticking with the plan - it is only four days. Four days of things like carrot/beet/cabbage/watercress juice.
Opened in 1958, Donuts Delite was a Rochester landmark. The donuts were pretty darn tasty too and Aaron I were frequent customers.
In 2005 - around the time of the Atkins Diet craze - Donuts Delite closed it's doors. This week, thanks to Salvatore's and the man whose grandfather started it all, Donuts Delite is back in business.
We went this morning to check it out. Sure enough they still had their classic banana creme filled and Flying Saucers!
I have to say I am pretty enamoured with the thought of this 5lb gummy bear. It is equal to 1,400 regular gummy bears and is 12,600 calories. You gotta watch this video about the huge gummy bear. It is hilarious!
I have a weakness for english muffins. Oh those nooks and crannies. I was walking through the bread aisle and I smelled these Season's Best Apple and Cinnamon english muffins. I could SMELL them! The entire stack smelled so applely cinnamony I couldn't resist.
I always look forward to getting the Wegmans Menu Magazine in the mail - there are usually lots of good recipes. The fall issue has crock pot recipes.
Fall is certainly crock pot weather and we kicked it off with this slow-cooked beef minestrone. There is a little more to it than just tossing all the ingredients into the crock pot but you can still time it that you get home and it is ready to eat with little effort.
Aaron and I have been stopping by the Irondequoit farmers market to pick up items from Pappardelle's Pasta and Small World Bakery. The Small World Bakery granola is quite tasty as you can see, the jar doesn't stay full long.
The sage, pumpkin and chestnut orzo was pretty tasty too... Aaron made a brown butter sage sauce for it and we grated fresh parmesean on top. Nom.
When I made the beet salad last weekend I made a balsamic sauce for on it. I was looking at the balsamic vinegar I bought at Wegmans a little more closely and noticed the three leaf mark. I have learned the importance of using the right kind of olive oil in cooking and was curious what the deal was with balsamic vinegar.
A little research showed that "Today, commercial production of authentic balsamic vinegar is governed by a consortium of producers, Consorzio Produttori Aceto Balsamico di Modena." Wow. That sounds super important. The best balsamic vinegar is called Tradizionale and Condimento balsamics. What I use is a Industriale or mass-produced balsamic which has a four leaf ranking system.
I used a three leaf balsamic vinegar for my sauce but one of these days I am going to try a Tradizionale and Condimento balsamic vinegar.
Aaron got me a popover pan awhile ago, but I haven't used it yet. I was thinking about getting the Barefoot Contessa Foolproof Popover Mix, but when I looked at a recipe for popovers and saw how simple the ingredients were I thought it would be ridiculous to not make them myself.
Hmmfff. My popovers were more like popunders. Very disappointing.
I made another batch and they started to pop a little but still not enough. I think it's all in the technique, so I will keep trying.
Both Aaron and I love beets. i picked these up at the Irondequoit Farmers Market. I had a beet salad at an Italian restaurant in Chicago that I wanted to recreate.
First I roasted the beets. This couldn't be easier. I wrapped them in aluminum foil and put them in the oven at 400 degrees for one hour.
I read a tip once that to easily skin roasted beets just rub them with a paper towel. It really works! I love the color of beets!
I couldn't find a recipe online for a beet salad that was just like the one I had in Chicago, so I sort of made it up as I went along. I sliced the cooled beets and arranged them on a plate with some baby salad greens. Next I sprinkled crumbled feta cheese and glazed walnuts on top. Then I drizzled some extra virgin olive oil and a balsamic vinegar sauce over everything. The sauce is just a quarter cup of balsamic vinegar and a quarter cup of sugar warmed on the stove until the sugar disolves and it is velvety smooth.
The salad was sooo good! We will definitely be having this again.
This week is Aaron's birthday week. Birthday week doesn't have to mean a gift each day, it could be a movie night, foot massage or special breakfast.
I asked Aaron what he wanted for his special birthday week breakfast and he came up with baked eggs. I made a version with sliced tomatoes, bacon, swiss cheese and eggs. The recipe also called for something I didn't have... smoked paprika.
Things have a way of popping up for me multiple times until I pay attention. There was a chapter in Amanda Hesser's book "Cooking for Mr. Latte" where she sings the praises of smoked paprika. Then I was looking for a recipe for corn fritters like the ones I had at dinner in San Jose and what I found was this recipe for Double Corn Fritter Cakes with Smoked Paprika Glazed BACON!. Finally this morning was the last straw when I was looking at recipes for baked eggs and the one I found called for... you guessed it... smoked paprika.
A little research revealed that the paprika I am used to, the paprika that I sprinkle on deviled eggs comes from Hungary. Smoked paprika comes from Spain and is traditionally smoked over oak fires. Apparently it can go on practically anything and tastes amazing.
I have been looking at sprouters for awhile and I finally settled on this one. I figured how could I go wrong with EasySprouter - The easiest sprouter ever!
The first seeds I tried were alfalfa sprouts.
It really was easy.
We ate some of the sprouts with avocado and tomato in pita pockets. Next up... bean sprouts!
We have been getting a lot of corn with our CSA veggies and I wanted to make something different. After a little poking around I decided on Mexican grilled corn.
I even got cotija cheese - a Mexican cheese.
It's pretty easy to make. Grill the ears of corn on the bbq grill. When it's nice and browned, roll the corn in melted butter, smear on some mayo, sprinkle with crumbled cotija cheese, sprinkle with cayenne pepper and then add a spritz of lime juice. That's it! Nom nom!
In our last batch of CSA veggies, we got some hot peppers.
I didn't know what to do with them until a friend on Facebook recommended hot pepper jelly. Perfect!
This will be so tasty on crackers with cream cheese or on toasted baguette with brie.
Here is my recipe:
1 cup chopped jalapenos peppers
2 cups chopped red bell peppers
5 lbs sugar
3 cups apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 packages Ball Fruit Jell Liquid Pectin
Disolve sugar in the vinegar and lemon juice. Add the peppers and let boil for 2 mintues. Add liquid pectin and let rest for 10 minutes. Fill the jelly jars and let them seal.
We have been getting fresh corn on the cob with our CSA veggies. Sometimes that is all I need for supper! I have been reading about Mexican Corn on the Cob. I think that is what I am going to try with the next batch we get.
I have walked by 'wichcraft in NYC many times and thought I might stop by someday when I was hungry for a sandwich. Little did I know one of their tastiest offerings are their cookies! They had them at the media event yesterday and I was hooked! The peanut butter cream'wich are my favorite.
Tina and I risked drowning and a potential lightning strike in Bryant Park during a torrential downpour in order to get some of these cookies to take home. I meant to take a picture of them, but alas, all that is left are the wrappers!
This summer there are three new flavors of Jell-O... Strawberry Daiquiri, Margarita and Pina Colada. I have been able to find the Strawberry Daiquiri and Margarita but cannot find my favorite flavor Pina Colada. It's always sold out! What the heck?
Oscar and Stewie wanted to make me breakfast for Mother's Day so they helped Aaron make mini dutch babies. After I broke our big cast iron pan *ahem* my mom found us a new big one and threw in an adorable tiny one to boot. It makes the cutest little dutch baby!
That's my mom for you. Thirty five years (and 364 days) later and she is still looking out for me.
Here is picture of me and my mom. Happy Mother's Day mom!!!
It all started with this book, "Cooking for Mr. Latte". I read an article by NY Tmes food writer Amanda Hesser about how she prepared meals for flying and it was enough to make me get this book. (I'm not sure why there are two different book covers out there) I like to read about her cooking adventures and run ins with foodies, of which have convinced me I am not a true foodie. There are some hard core foodies out there. The book is a collection of stories around food and cooking during the time she met her boyfriend Mr. Latte. Each story is accompanied by recipes of the food mentioned.
Amanda mentions Julia Child frequently which led me to to this book Julie and Julia based on the blog called The Julie/Julia Project. Julie Powell started the blog as a record of her plan to set her life right by cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking".
The hardcover is called "Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen" and the soft cover is named "Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously". Again I am baffled as to why this is but I digress.
Julie Powell's book has been combined with Julia Child's book "My Life in France" to create the movie Julie and Julia.
The movie chronicles both Julie's endevours (played by Amy Adams) and the life of Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep). I can attest that reading about food and watching movies about food can make you very hungry. I am looking forward to this movie though, because as my mom says, "Meryl never disapoints".
Aprille did me a favor and has been stalking Genesee Bakery to let me know when they have tea leaf pastries available. As soon as she tweeted me, I stopped by after work and picked up a few.
I don't know how to describe them... they are light and crispy and sweet. I have never had anything like them. I can't find out anything about them online either. Only on the Genesee Bakery website... tea leaves... $1.35.
Genesee Bakery also has a Facebook Fan Page! Now I can drool over their baked goods on Facebook too.
Aaron and I are in Boston for a couple days. We are stopping in at all our favorite spots. Had to stop at Mike's Pastry for creme filled lobster tails.
Many people asked me what recipe I used for the French Macarons I made for Easter gifts. It was a recipe from this cookie book... and it worked well the first time I tried it.
If you would like to try it, here it is.
3 egg whites
3 tablespoons sugar
pink food coloring (mine didn't turn out pink tho)
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup almond meal (found some in the gluten free section of natural foods)
3 tablespoons extra powdered sugar
3 1/2 white chocolate chopped coarsely
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1. Make a white chocolate ganache by melting white chocolate and cream together in a small pot over low heat until smooth. Move mixture to a small bowl, cover and put in the fridge.
2. Grease baking sheets, line with parchment paper
3. Beat egg whites in small bowl with mixer until soft peaks form. Add sugar and food coloring, beat until sugar dissolves. Move mixture to large bowl and fold in powdered sugar and almond meal, in two batches.
4. Spoon mixture into large piping bag with 1/2 inch plain tube. Pice thirty six 1 1/2 inch rounds, 3/4 inches apart onto baking sheets. Tap sheets on counter, dust with sifted extra powdered sugar and let stand for 15 minutes.
5. Pre heat oven to 300 degrees.
6. Bake macarons 20 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes, transfer to wire rack to cool.
I had been eyeballing these Sustainable Sourcing gift box sets of that showed up at Wegmans around the holidays. The sets of Pink Peppercorns and pink HimalaSalt Zen Cubes are pretty pricey, but they finally went on clearance.
Really, it was the HimalaSalt Zen Cube I was most interested in. I love salt! It's like a mini salt lick! You use the grater to create a super fine powder like powdered sugar. They suggest adding it to edamame, salads, watermelon and even sweets like ice cream and chocolate ganache!
I heard they had some nice amenities in the terminal. I was super excited to see they have a Muji to Go and a Jamba Juice there! I already love to fly Jet Blue (tv's and blue potato chips!) but this really seals the deal for any trip to NYC.
Aaron was busy talking to a friend at Wegmans and left me unattended for too long. As a result I wandered off and found a chocolate bar with bacon in it.
Today was my friends Sarah and Denis' annual St. Patrick's Day party. I was sporting my shamrock shades. I don't know why Tina and i look so serious.
There was corned beef and cabbage aplenty.
Aaron and I brought a bean salad my grandma gave me the recipe for. Here it is if you would like to try it out. If you like sweet pickely things you will like this. It's pretty tasty.
3/4 cup sugar, 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 1/3 cup oil, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 can green beans, 1 can yellow beans, 1 can kidney beans, 1/2 cup inch slices of onion.
Heat sugar, vinegar and oil together until sugar is dissolved. Cool and poor over beans. The longer they soak, the better they taste.
Aaron found these pretzel rolls at Wegmans. It's a pretzel. It's a roll. What's not to like? Especially when you make it into an egg salad sandwich. Yumms.
Aaron surprised me with a pan to make ebleskiver aka Danish aka filled pancakes.
He made half with cream inside and half with chocolate.
In the evening we went to dinner at The Melting Pot and went to see Coraline.
I think the highlight was when we discovered we got each other the same Valentines card. It's the third time we have done this! Once at Christmas and again on our anniversary.
A little bit ago the Pittsford Wegmans got an interesting addition to their tea bar.
It's a Coco Pop Machine that pops out yummy corn/wheat/rice cakes. It's really entertaining to watch... they really do pop out of the machine... so much so that there are plastic guards to keep them from flying across the store.
The machine website says a characteristic is "show and tell"... that it attracts customers via all 5 senses. This is so true. You cannot help but be drawn in by the loud popping noise and popping action. Aaron and I stood and watched it for quite awhile.
They are so tasty too. Our favorite way to eat them is with peanut butter and sliced bananas on top.
They are low calorie, no preservatives, zero fat/cholesterol and no sugar. Nice!
Madison Avenue was closed yesterday for a street market and I spotted a table with candy apples and this brilliant twist on the concept.. candy strawberries and cherries! This sounds soooo good to me!
Today is the NYC Marathon and there are runners everywhere. I guess they are on the hunt for carbs.
The last time Aaron and I went to the movies, I was excited to discover you could buy a mini shaker of white cheddar seasoning for your popcorn. I love cheese popcorn so now I love getting popcorn at the movies even more.
This evening I walked across the bridge with some fun coworkers to find dinner. I also had Domo and Piglet stashed in my purse. They couldn't miss Germany!
Domo was happy to get out.
Piglet enjoyed the walk.
All the buildings look so charming.
Here is where we settled on dinner.
Inside I ordered the world's largest frankfurter. Honestly... I had to chop it up so it fit on the plate. Oh and since I was in Cologne I felt obligated and I drank 1/3 of a Kölsch. Didn't get sick but it's still not my thing.
Despite how optimistic I look, I was only able to finish half of the frankfurter. I had to leave room for apple struesel of course. I also discovered I like red cabbage.
We are loving the veggie haul we are getting from our co-op farm.
This is what we got today... see those two green peppers?
We made them into stuffed peppers for dinner. I don't even like green peppers, but I like stuffed peppers. I just eat the guts out of them and leave the pepper carcass behind. Cheese is also key.
Several people have asked me about pictures of the food I have eaten here in China. One of the best meals I have had was Peking Duck. It is slices of crispy duck that you place on a thin pancake with slices of cucumber, onion and a sweet sauce. I love the lazy susans they use here so everyone can help themselves.
I have had lots of dumplings... steamed and pan fried.
This is "vegetarian shrimp" with deep fried tea leaves. The shrimp are actually made of yam and taste surprisingly like real shrimp. I really liked the tea leaves too, they were salty and sort of like crispy seaweed.
And of course I have had lots of noodles.
I love how the Coke cans are in Chinese. They have special designs for the Olympics too. I have been drinking more orange juice and tea than Coke though.
Today I had a girls day out in Buffalo. We ate at Melting Pot (3 pots of cheese!) and shopped. We also had a bananas foster flambe fondue for dessert. Most exciting was the news that there is a Melting Pot planned for Rochester. It hasn't been decided if it should be at Eastview Mall or Pittsford Plaza. If you live in Rochester, what do you think?
Aaron bought a pizza pan for the grill on sale at Wegmans and we finally decided to try it out. We made the pizza on a peel...
... and then slid it onto the hot pan. We forgot the mozzarella cheese and had to throw it on top in a hurry.
Turned out great! A little thicker than I generally like my pizza (I'm a thin crust gal) but it was nice and crispy. It was nice to have pizza without heating up the kitchen with the oven.
We were driving the wrong direction to the tournament this morning when I spotted The Melting Pot. We decided to go there for dinner. So good. Melted cheese, lobster and steak cooked in broth, melted chocolate. Heaven. Am already plotting to visit The Melting Pot in Buffalo.
I have been very good about remembering my reusable shopping bags lately and plastic bags hardly ever make their way into our house. I was still collecting the occasonal plastic produce bag though, so I ordered these reusable produce bags from ecobags.
They are super light so they don't affect the total weight of your produce. I used to only have to remember my shopping list when I went to the grocery store. I am accumilating more and more things I have take with me!
I love cheese so when it comes to stay with me I want to give it the very best. I ordered these sheets of Formaticum cheese papers. Proper storage and handling can help cheese live longer. This cheese paper is specially designed to help.
Only the best for my cheese.
I also got a cheese journal so I can chronicle each kind of cheese that I encounter.
Ok, I realize that this is a lot of packaging for blueberries. But when I spotted these Fresh Blueberry Blasters made by Nature's Partner at Wegman's I could not resist. I tell myself I can reuse them.
There are holes in the packaging so you can flip open the lid and run water through to wash them.
Why am I such a sucker for this kind of thing? Next I will be buying individually wrapped blueberries.
Like Ultimate Chocolate Cake and Ultimate Carrot Cake, Wegmans now makes Ultimate Brownies! And they come in single servings! I think they are so cute!
And they are really tasty warmed up in the microwave. So much so, i felt the need to warn people off at the office.
We did some experimental camp cooking this weekend.
First we wrapped hot dogs in refridgerated bisquit dough.
When you grill the hot dog over hot coals, the bisquit bakes. Big pig in a blanket. Dip in ketchup. Dip in mustard. Yummers.
We also made special toasted marshmallows. You know how sometimes when you pull a toasted marshmallow off a stick all you get is the toasted "sleeve". That can work to your advantage.
While toasting the marshmallows, add mini candy bars to the end of the stick.
When you pull the marshmallow "sleeve" off, grab the candy bar inside of it.
I almost forgot to report back on the Friendship Bread. I really didn't know what to expect, but we baked it and it was DELICIOUS! Turns out it is a sweet bread... kind of like a coffee cake.
I took the starters to work to give out and everyone was suspicous until they tasted the bread. Joel and Shruti each got one. I had one for Tina or Aprille but another coworker tasted the bread and got it before they did.
That's okay, because contrary to what I previously stated... I kept one bag of starter for myself. So in ten days I will have more to give Tina and Aprille. It's that good. Soon we will all have gurgling bubbling bags slowly taking over our kitchens.
It's grilling season again! We were picking up the steaks at Wegmans when we tried a sample of grilled baby portabella mushrooms and grape tomatoes. I think we have a new favorite summer side dish.
I am also into cooking our corn on the cob on the grill wrapped in foil.
I had a brainstorm last night. We were getting ready to make banana bread with four bananas that were over ripe. Usually we add chocolate chips, but this time I thought... let's add peanut butter chips and mini marshmallows! Combined with the banana it will be like a fluffer nutter baked into bread!
I present to you Jenny's Fluffer Nutter Bread.
I also got to use the Martha Stewart silicone bread pan I got for Christmas. The loaf popped right out. Very nice.
Here is the recipe.
Ljc's Fluffernutter Bread
4 over ripe bananas
1/3 cup melted butter
1 beaten egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup of sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup peanut butter chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Smash together bananas and butter in a large bowl with a spoon. Mix egg,vanilla and sugar into bananas. Mix in baking soda and salt. Mix in flour. Mix in peanut butter chips and marshmallows. Butter and flour a 4x8 in loaf pan. Pour mixture into loaf pan and bake for one hour.
As demonstrated here... Dutch Babies are pretty easy to make. But I thought I should point out that Williams Sonoma sells an organic Dutch Baby mix now.
I like mine with berries and cream, but the apples look good too.
When I was in high school, someone gave me a zip lock baggie of oozing friendship bread starter. The idea is you let the goo age for 10 days, add ingredients and then you bake it into a loaf of bread. The friendship part comes in when you separate a portion of that aged starter into other bags and give it to friends to make their own bread. And so on. And so forth.
I was obsessed with it. I kept making it. And it kept growing more. Soon we ran out of family members to give the bubbling bags of starter to, but I couldn't bring myself to throw them out. Throw out friendship?! There were gurgling, burping zip lock bags all over our kitchen and my mom finally had to throw them out bringing an end to my manaical bread production streak.
When I came home last week, this was on our kitchen counter. Ack! A coworker bequeathed Aaron with a gooey bag of friendship bread starter. We have begun the process of Day 1 - mush bag, Day 2 - mush bag, Day 3 - mush bag... etc.
This time I am giving away all the starter. I cannot allow our house to become a friendship bread breeding ground.
Tina, Shruti, Aprille and Joel. Prepare yourselves. In a few days you've got some friendship coming your way.
On our way back to Rochester, I spotted this Chipotle sign being hauled north on 390. We should have followed it. I am dying to know where it was going. I can only hope we are getting one in Rochester.
Back in February I read about these solid honey drops called honibe. I thought it was brililant. I love honey in my tea, but bringing it to work inevitably means getting all over my keyboard.
Now I am seeing them mentioned on blogs everywhere. Time to put in an order.
Dutch baby! This is the first time he's made it in the cast iron skillet my mom found for us.
It think it makes the Dutch Baby super poofy which is the cool thing about Dutch Babies.
Oh and the song I like to sing when we have one... (to the tune of Beach Boys "Beach Baby")
*Dutch Baby, Dutch Baby hot in the pan, Gonna taste so good with powdered sugar!*
Here is the Dutch Baby recipe...
4 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter
Cut butter into a cast iron pan and heat in a 400 degree oven until the butter melts. While butter is melting, mix other ingredients together. Pull the pan out of oven, pour batter into it and return to the oven. Bake until puffy and browned, about twenty minutes.
These last few bone chilling days, I have abandoned my tea for cups of cocoa. Specifically these single serving packets of holiday cocoa a friend gave me for Christmas.
They are quite possibly the best instant serve cocoa I have had. I typically prefer the work intensive hot chocolate where you heat up milk and melt chunks of chocolate, but that method isn't so great when I am running from meeting to meeting.
These packets were easy but yummy. I think I am going to have to place an online order. If anyone has other recommendations, I would love to hear them.
We are home in PA for Thanksgiving. I wish our drive to my parent's
house took us past Erie. On our way back from Cleveland a few months
ago, we were going through Erie where I noticed a
sign for a Steak 'n
Shake.
It sounded good I persuaded Tina to stop. Apparently Steak 'n Shake
was founded in Normal, Illinois in 1934. (I wish I could say I was from
Normal, Illinois)
The burgers were good, but what really blew me away was their
shakes. I especially liked the Side-by-Side Shake. It's two flavors in
one glass! Brilliant! I had dark chocolate shake and banana shake. By
merely moving my straw from one side of the glass to the other I could
switch flavors. Genius.
When I go to NYC there are certain places I just HAVE to go
to... Jamba Juice,
Pomme Frites
and Secret
Burger Joint. Thanks to some suggestions and wandering
around... I have three more.
This year instead of a typical Halloween party, Aaron and I threw a sit
down dinner party. I cleared the furniture out of the living room and
set up a dinner table with candlelight.
The theme was "mad science" so the table had beakers with dry
ice putting off foggy mist, test tubes strewn about and wine bottles
with POISON labels.
Aaron and I even dressed the part. These were our badges.
I got the laboratory invitations, test tube party favors and
POISON wine bottle labels from Martha Stewart's line of crafts at
Michaels.
Here is a shot of the jelly bean filled test tubes with our guests
names on them.
Aaron made the cornmeal encrusted goat cheese with warm tomato salsa
appetizer. He later served up little petri dishes with green jello in
them for an aperitif.
It was a great evening. More pictures of the Halloween dinner
party are on My
Gallery. Matt took some great pictures too.
I never really thought about my spices being organic or not, so I have
to confess that my real attraction to the Simply Organic
Spices
is the packaging. There, I said it. They look cute in my cupboard and
on the counter next to my freshly baked pumpkin pie. And the fact that
they don't have pesticide or chemicals in them... well that's just a
plus.
I had to try a Cider Slushie of course. It was delicious! This
was the closest
recipe I could find online. I may have to experiment with
this one myself.
Autumn means firing up the crock pot. I picked up a Rita's
Ragin' Cajun Bean Soup mix from the Healthy
Sisters’ Soup & Bean Works booth at the
wool festival.
All I have to do is add it to chicken broth in the morning and
let it stew away while I am work. We come home to a big yummy pot of
soup for dinner.
Today was Aaron's birthday and we went to the Naples
Grape Festival. The best thing I found there was candy apple
with a GRAPE candy coating. They called them grapples. Not to be
confused the the grapples
I have written about here before.
By the way... if you put a singing sparkling candle on
someone's birthday cake, be sure you don't have other candles on the
cake that the singing sparking candle may pop open and be melted by.
Heh heh.
I got into Boston last night and already I have had lobster and the
yummiest clam chowder at the Union Oyster House
and an ice cream injected cupcake at Trani. Thank you
to everyone who has left me recommendations! You are the best! I can
tell this is going to be an awesome weekend.
We are in the North End and I love it. There is a cute
cobblestone street with pubs and cafes around every corner. Couldn't be
cuter or more charming. Heading out now to explore...
On our last day in Toronto we went into a grocery store and bought food
for a quick little picnic. Tina and I each got one of these petite
baguettes and split a block of brie.
I think it is the cutest little baguette ever. I just love
miniature food. In fact I started a Flickr
group for pictures of miniature food. Check it out, coo over
the itty bitty food items and add your own pictures if you have them.
When I was in LA I got one of these Bear Paws from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.
A marshmallow coated in caramel, rolled in rice krispies, covered in
white chocolate. Be still my beating heart.
I saw these chips in the check out line at Target. I knew Ming Tsai
made Blue Ginger gourmet food products for Target, but this was the
first I had seen the chips. They didn't have full size bags... just the
snack size. The Hot Tamari Rice Corn Chips are de-li-cious! I had to
buy five of the little bags.
Aprille brought in these delicious pastries from Genesee
Bakery called Tea Leaves.
Now I have had elephant
ears and beavers
tails, and that is what I though these would be like. Oh no.
They are a crispy puff pastry with a sugary glaze on top. They are
heavenly.
I have done some extensive googling and I cannot find anything
like them online. I briefly thought they might be like Palm
Leaves or Palmiers (also called elephant ears) but I don't
think they are.
I did however stumble upon Fried Coke
while I was searching so it was somewhat productive.
(almost simultaneously Aprille emailed me about Deep
Fried Pepsi... freaky)
Our CSA farmer told us he dehydrated watermelon and it turned out like
delicious fruit leather. We have successfully dried bananas and apples
in our food dehydrator so we were pretty excited. Aaron sliced up half
a watermelon and it sat in the hydrator for 24 hours.
It tasted horrible. It tasted like rotten watermelon. Anyone
out there ever dehydrate watermelon with better results? Or have other
good dehydrating ideas/recipes?
Remember the strawberry
popcorn I planted in my garden last year? Well, we were
sitting around the firepit when I got the bright idea to pop it in our
outdoor popcorn popper.
It popped... quietly and without much gusto. Look at the tiny
little kernels we ended up with.
We won't be putting Orville Redenbacher out of business
anytime soon. (check out Orville's gourmet
recipes!)
This weekend we went to the Taste of Rochester.
They close down a street and there are restaurants set up with $1, $2,
$3 and $4 offerings. I was totally into eating all the $1
foods. You get small portions, but you get to try all kinds of stuff. I
could eat like that all the time. In the $1 range I had crab meat
rangoons, bruchetta, a maple crepette, a homemade meatball, a slider
burger, corn on the cob, a spring roll and a banana strawberry
smoothie.
It was a fun evening but I only have pictures of us with the
Geico Gecko. Once we started eating I was too busy to take pictures.
This evening we hit up two concerts... Cherry Poppin' Daddies
at the Party in the
Park and Michelle Shocked at Big City Summer Fest.
We probably would not have thought to go to Michelle's concert but Joel
is a toe tappin, finger snappin' Shocked groupie with contagious
enthusiasm.
Of course one of my favorite things about the Party in the
Park
concerts is getting the Salt Potatoes. But really... look close...
don't you think they should be called Butter Potatoes? Oh happy day!
(I had never had Salt
Potatoes until I moved to Rochester... apparently they are a
regional thing)
I was disapointed to discover that Jamba Juice was no longer
in Atlanta. Today on our way to the office we found a different
smoothie place called Robeks.
I was amazed at how much it looked like Jamba.
Back in the rental with our smoothies, Joel took a slurp and
announced... "It's good but it's not Jamba". I had say "Look it's all
I've got. Can you just let me pretend!?"
So sad.
We are flying back to Rochester tonight. No cupcakes. No
Jamba.
I am in Atlanta a couple days for work and we have hit the
ground running.
Joel found Varsity,
The World's Largest Drive-in Restaurant. It has been in Atlanta since
1928. The cheeseburgers were okay, the fries good and the chocolate
shake fantastic. I love the tray they hook onto your window.
I made a mess of myself eating in the car however. When
we got to our hotel I discovered I had ketchup and chocolate shake all
over the front of my shirt.
We don't have much time here... but are there any "must see's"?
