Dessert Friday #18

Yeah, I know I've been kind of slacking with posts lately. However, I have not been slacking with the desserts .

Cream puff, anyone?

Yup, third week in a row. It happened.

Remember the filling? I do.

Maybe next week I'll try to be original and pick something else. Although the something else would most likely be cupcakes, so that's not exactly being original. What's the most extravagant dessert out there? (Please say red velvet cupcakes.)

To counter my endless ingestion of desserts, I made a healthy autumn salad last night for dinner.

Colors!

With Brussel sprouts. I swear, as I was chopping up the Brussel sprouts, I seriously considered just not including them at all because they smelled weird. I didn't like it.

And continuing with the healthy kick, homemade garlic bread on the side. Because everyone needs a little fat, right?

Right.

Thankfully the Brussel sprouts turned out edible. As long as I had squash on my fork as well. No, I'm kidding, they actually tasted good (Katelyn, you can make them for Thanksgiving now) and definitely smelled good in the oven.

Is that rum + Coke in the back? Yes it is.

And some Bailey pictures, of course. The best ones I had were on my phone, so I apologize for the graininess and small size (apparently I didn't want to email them to myself with the "large" size option).

I judge you. Who wouldn't want to see a big picture of me?

And then there's this gem. Hilarious to me, probably embarrassing to her.

Eh? What's over there? What was I doing again?

Hahahahahahahahaha.

In complete other news, continuing with the completely random post that this has become, I went to a Pilates class last Wednesday and discovered the joy of the foam roller.

<3!

Really, someone should have told me about this before. This thing basically gives you a massage. My back was practically dancing with joy after I used this. After class I immediately ordered one of my own, and ever since it arrived yesterday, I've basically been living on it. Regular 24-year-old back, here I come.

Dessert Friday #17

Happy Halloween! I'm incredibly late with this one. Apparently having a gimpy back makes me want to sit on the couch and do absolutely nothing. Or maybe it just makes me do everything twice as slowly, so I end up not feeling like I have enough time to do everything I want to, and then I get demoralized and do nothing instead. It's a tough call. In any case, my back still sucks, and I still haven't exercised despite having ingested more sweets than ever.

Last Friday: Beard Papa's cream puffs for Dessert Friday again.

Yup.

These things are so insanely good. Unbelievable really that I'd never heard of this place until two weeks ago. Despite lugging around two decently sized boxes with me for two miles, I still went and picked up a box of these (the boxes are a long story). Let's just say walking home was tricky and involved me using my chin as a third hand.

Strawberries and cream.

Nick likes the strawberry ones. So he got three of those. I prefer honey and pumpkin, myself.

Yes indeed.

Seriously, someone, get me the recipe for this filling. Or any recipe for a similar filling. Is it hard to make?

:D

I think I'd be happy if I could just have the filling in a cup.

Me too. Can I get some of that?

There was a plethora of sweets today at work, in the spirit of Halloween. I don't have any pictures, because I was too busy stuffing my face (but really, I was). Muffins, cookies, cake, everything pumpkin...etc. You get the gist. I kind of don't want to see sweets for the next month. Wait, no, I take that back already. I'll be good to go by tomorrow.

My cubicle row at work also won a Halloween cubicle decorating contest. Pictures to come. In short, it was an awesome victory because none of us really wanted to decorate in the first place, but then we kind of started and then...kind of took off with it. Apparently we're big on crafts, more so than the actual holiday.

So really what I'd like to do is take a week off work and lie in my bed with a heat pad on my 90-year-old back and not move.

Just like this one is doing.

Just hand me some water every half hour. I'll be here.

Macarons

Given my love of food and the fact that I work right in the middle of downtown Chicago, I follow more than a few food trucks on Twitter so I can see where they are. They're mostly cupcake trucks (are you surprised?), with a froyo truck and a mac and cheese truck thrown in. Last week, a friend of mine at work pointed me to a macaron (no, not macaroon, macaron) truck that I think is relatively new, so naturally, I freaked out with excitement and started following them (Sweet Spot Macarons). If you've ever been to Ladurée in Paris, you'd understand my excitement. Or if you've ever had a macaron at all, you'd understand my excitement.

Today, they were parked about a block away from my office. I was out of the building and next to their truck as fast as my crippled back (it's getting better) would allow me to move.

Oh yes.

I only got two, because...actually, I don't know why I only got two and not everything they had on the truck. It's a fair question. I need to reconsider for the next time they're around my office building.

:D

I ate all of the hazelnut one (sorry Nick) but because I'm such a nice person (apparently with a lot of self-control, too), I saved the salted caramel for Nick (okay, most of it - I requested a nibble or two).

I'm just realizing that despite not being able to do yoga or any form of physical activity outside of walking for the past few days, my dessert intake has not slowed down at all. It's all good.

Last night my parents came over to the apartment for a bit to visit, and my dad brought along a cupcake that he picked up from work.

:DDD

Luckily Nick was willing to split it with me (it was tough convincing him to), since I apparently wasn't willing to wait a day to eat it and instead chose to eat it at 10pm last night. Good life choices.

Yes.

Tonight's been a quiet night. Nick went rock climbing (I would've gone, but my back whined and said no thanks) so I've mostly been sitting in my desk watching this one prowl around my room.

Can I mess up whatever is in this drawer?

And also watching her do this.

What's in here?

Of course she's down there trying to eat the zippers off my suitcase and the buckles off my bag.

Nothing to see down here. I've got it covered.

Working from Home

I threw out my back last weekend. No, I'm not 90 years old. I have a partially herniated disc, back from my volleyball days, and it flares up from time to time (okay, it flares up when I make stupid decisions like thinking it was a good idea to sit on a hardwood floor for 1.5 hours without back support). This time it was so bad that I requested to work from home today (as in, I lumbered around at my office yesterday like an overdue pregnant woman, so I felt like it was better for my integrity that I just do this in the privacy of my own home).

I love the idea of working from home, especially since it saves me about 1.5 hours of commute time. That, and the fact that I get to wear a t-shirt that says "Just Loafin'" on the front (this is true: I picked out this shirt to wear today specifically because of the fact that I was working from home), and my pajama pants.

And the fact that I actually had time to make a DIY Pumpkin Spice Latte (see point about commute time) for myself!

I had enough time to use the stove!

I substituted pumpkin pie spice with allspice (thanks Caren & Cody!) since apparently pumpkin pie spice has gold flakes in it, judging from its price at my local grocery store. In any case, it was still delicious, so I'll never know the difference.

Better than Starbucks.

Yeah, that's right. I liked it better than the one from Starbucks (and trust me, I usually love Starbucks, as I have a gold rewards card for it).

Since I didn't have to wake up as early as usual, I also had the pleasure of experiencing being stepped on the face by this creature.

Hello is it feed me time?

However, I also got to see her in all her cuteness while she napped the day away.

I'm going to fall over. All I want to do is sleep.

Sadly, most days when I get home from work, she's a nut. Probably from sleeping the entire day while I'm not around. It's a conspiracy.

The one bad thing about working from home is that by the end of the day, my desk usually looks like this.

SNACKS

Since my kitchen is approximately 15 feet away, I'm pretty much snacking constantly. It's something I'm willing to deal with.

Despite my marathon snacking, dinner tonight was still delicious. We tried out this place called HomeMade Pizza Co., where you tell them the kind of pizza you want, they put it together, and then you take it home to bake and eat.

Bake me.

We (okay, I, because I basically vetoed anything Nick suggested and just put down what I wanted) got BBQ chicken with onions. I thought it was kind of a pain to have to bake it, especially because the BBQ sauce dripped everywhere when I took off the plastic wrap, but the end result was pretty good.

Hello I will drip everywhere and you will have to clean me up.

Alright, it's better than any pizza I've ever made.

:D

But honestly, it wasn't so insanely delicious that I'd pay $18 on a regular basis to eat it. Don't get me wrong, it was definitely tasty, but not worth the amount of money it costs. Or the time spent cleaning up after you cook it.

I wouldn't know, because you didn't let me eat any. What's that over there?