Dessert Friday #16

It's late, but don't think it didn't happen.

Nick discovered this amazing place yesterday close to where we work, called Beard Papa's (I think he was desperate to step away from cupcakes and eat some other form of dessert).

AAH!

How I've never heard of this place, I don't know. But they sell cream puffs. And I'm not talking about that bulk, size-of-a-quarter cream puffs you get in a box at Costco or something (not saying that Costco is bad...I love Costco). These were the size of my hand, and so fresh that they don't even put the cream in until you order and tell them exactly what kind of cream you want, and then they inject the cream into the puff right in front of you.

Naturally, we got six (IT WAS THE BEST DEAL).

:DDD

That's one chocolate, one vanilla, two strawberries and cream, and two honey and pumpkin (a special flavor they had, because fall = PUMPKIN).

Since they only put the cream in the pastry puffs after you order them, this meant that the puffs themselves were wonderfully crispy and not at all soggy.

OMG

In my excitement, seriously all the pictures I took of the insides of the puffs were blurry. Yeah. They were that good, I couldn't even hold my camera still long enough to get a clear picture. Needless to say, we'll probably be going back, SOON. Cupcakes...watch out. You've got some competition.

And the best part? It's made with all-natural ingredients (so it says on the box). Quick, someone get me this recipe.

In continuing with the healthy/vegetarian kick that I've been on lately, I made Nick and myself some Southwestern Stuffed Spaghetti Squash for dinner last night. I'm starting to love spaghetti squash, even though it takes forever to cook (I choose to bake it instead of microwave it, because I have an irrational fear that my microwave would explode if I tried to cook a squash in it).

Yum.

There was a generous sprinkling of cheese on top, because...cheese is healthy, too. I gotta get that protein somehow.

:DDD

I kiiiind of messed up with this (even though it was still delicious), because it calls for a can of black beans, and for some reason, I looked at the one can of beans I had on hand, which were canned chili beans, and decided that it was a suitable substitute. Well, the recipe itself already called for chili powder, which I also put in, not thinking about the fact that I'd get plenty of chili flavor from the beans...so basically, Nick cried tears from spiciness while eating this, and my taste buds rejoiced because I love anything spicy.

Worth it.

Bailey has been an absolute devil in the mornings, because she discovered the tag on the quilt I use for sleeping, and she has a strange obsession with tags. So basically I wake up to her trying to rip off the tag, and then I scold her, and then she scampers away, only to come back 30 seconds later and start the process all over again.

What tag? Oh, you mean the one I ate?

I might possibly consider cutting off the tag. For some reason, I can't bring myself to do it, because it's embroidered all pretty with Martha Stewart's logo. What would Martha think if I cut it off?!

Going Vegetarian

Well...not really completely. But lately I'm realizing that I've been gravitating towards dishes that don't have meat (with the exception of my delicious chicken salad lunch today from Roti). There was the time I picked out about 80% of the chicken in the quinoa/chicken salad Nick made (although he didn't really enjoy it at all, so he wasn't offended). Then when Nick said he wanted to cook dinner last Sunday, I basically vetoed every suggestion he made that had meat in it, and was delighted when he suggested a southwestern vegetarian pasta dish.

No meat.

This dish was insanely good - make it. We used wheat pasta, which I think made it even better. You just feel so healthy eating it. And the best part? Plenty of leftovers for meals the next day.

Handy.

Courtesy of Chef Nick.

Last night I bought this vegetarian e-book from AllRecipes.com, and I immediately found this recipe for baked falafel that I obviously just had to try tonight. So, tonight, yet again, a meatless meal of baby greens, homemade falafel, and some hummus.

Yum.

The hummus was definitely just right for this (I thought), although I'm not particularly fond of salad dressing, so I hardly ever have salad with dressing. Hummus is always good enough for me, and I looooove giardiniera mix on just about anything (except maybe a cupcake), so I'll take that over dressing any day.

I still haven't gotten around to making a DIY Pumpkin Spice Latte because, let's face it, I've only been getting up later and later since it's now actually getting cold outside (boooooo) and until daylight savings time hits, it's still pitch dark in my room when my alarm goes off, and then I think it can't be much later than 3am and that I should definitely go back to sleep, which doesn't help my cause in any way. Soon.

Apparently I had nothing more interesting to talk about than eating meatless dishes and not being able to get up early enough for coffee. Oh well.

Next topic please. Look how pretty my tail is.

Dessert Friday #15

Since we still have about five pounds of apples left over from our apple picking excursion a couple weeks ago, I decided to make apple pie last night for Dessert Friday.

Sadly I made this decision at about 9pm, and I had never made apple pie in my life. It wasn't hard or anything, but it was also my first time making a lattice-top pie crust, so I basically just stressed out the entire time because for some reason it never looked "right" to me.

But the end result was great. Can't really go wrong with a butter, brown sugar, and white sugar syrup.

The recipe called for six Granny Smiths, but I didn't have Granny Smiths. I have no idea what kind of apples I used. But they worked just fine.

Not Granny Smiths.

I tried peeling them first with a paring knife, and I quickly learned (in about two seconds) that I am horrible at peeling apples with knives. So my potato peeler did the rest of the work. It was great.

Lots o' apples.

And then I attempted to make a lattice-top pie crust. I learned that I'm bad at cutting in straight lines.

Not straight.

For some reason, despite Nick's claims that the pie looked fine, it just looked off to me. Maybe next time I shouldn't take shortcuts (and maybe next time I won't be making an apple pie at 10pm) and cut thinner strips?

Meh.

BUT. The syrup you drizzle over that. Was. So. Good.

Main ingredients.

I'd already melted the butter by this point...but there was a stick of butter there too. You know you can't go wrong when you've got that and two kinds of sugar.

The pie came out looking just fine (the lattice top could probably use some work--next time).

Yum!

And it tasted fantastic.

:DDD

Extra fantastic, because any dessert eaten at 11pm is better than normal.

Nick certainly enjoyed it.

Yup.

Bailey certainly did not enjoy being left out of the midnight snack party.

Go away.

On a completely different note...I got an iPhone! And I can't put it down. No, it's not a 4S (although it was kind of amusing seeing the reactions of the two guys in front of me in line at the Verizon store when they were told there was just one 4S left). It's just a regular iPhone 4 8GB. Which I'm completely fine with, since it's got enough space for me and I didn't have to weep for the sake of my bank account as I handed over my credit card to the Verizon lady who rang me up.

Apparently I've been converted over to the world of Apple (Aly, please don't hate me...let's still be friends). First iPad, now iPhone...

Look, they match!

It's like they're breeding.

Just like with the iPad, Bailey has absolutely zero interest in my new phone.

Please stop talking.

It's apparently the weekend of new things. Nick and I ordered a rug for our living room last week, and it came yesterday. Since the time we set it up last night at 6pm, we've basically forgotten that we own couches or chairs. This is my new spot in the living room.

Comfy.

I have finally found a use for those decorative and formerly utterly useless pillows that I put on our couch. I knew they'd be handy one day.

Bailey likes our spots on the floor, because now she feels even higher up when she looks at us from her tower. And thinks about taking over the apartment, judging from the looks of this picture.

Soon.

Dear Oven

Last weekend, when Sam and I made the pumpkin chocolate chip cookie pie, some of the filling spilled over in the oven onto the bottom of it. I made a mental note to clean it up afterwards, but of course, I never did.

Last night, I made pumpkin bread. Ten minutes after I started preheating the oven, I saw smoke coming out of the stove vents and through the sides of the oven door and realized that I never cleaned up the oven from the pie. So, dear oven, here is an apology.

Sorry I never cleaned you. In fact, sorry I've never cleaned you in the three years that I've lived here (in my defense, I didn't use you a lot before). Thanks for surviving that little mental slip of mine.

Also, thank you for turning this unidentifiable gooey mess:

???

Into this beautiful, deliciously edible loaf of pumpkin bread, even after you threw a smokey tantrum.

Yum.

I'm also going to have to give a shout out to my candles for making my apartment smell decent after it was filled with smoke.

Thanks candle (one of four that I used).

So there was that.

Nick made this lovely chicken/quinoa dish last night, which he ended up not really liking (boooo) and which I ended up really liking...after picking my way around the chicken. Am I slowly becoming a vegetarian?!

Yay.

Probably not. I think it was just because the chicken had been frozen for awhile, so I found it a little unsatisfactory. I'm not becoming a vegetarian, but apparently I'm developing more expensive taste buds. Cool...

Bailey as usual took up her regular post behind our chairs and watched us during dinner.

Aaanytime you want to feed me guys. I'm right here.

This morning, she was unusually calm after I gave her wet food breakfast. Usually after she eats, she scampers around the apartment while Nick and I get ready to leave for work. Today, she opted to sit on my bed while I changed and got ready.

Are you sure you want to wear that?

As judgmental as she was, I have to say it was a nice change from the running around she usually does. I could use this more often.

Balderdash. I'm never judgmental.