Groupon is mocking me

I've gotten in a terrible habit of buying Groupons for restaurants that I've been wanting to try and then never printing/using them. I keep getting emails from Groupon informing me of something to the extent of:

"What's for dinner tonight? You are aware that you have 7 Groupons waiting in the wings for you to use, correct?"

I'm pretty sure Groupon is mocking me.

We did recently try Garozzo's near the City Market in downtown Kansas City. Some friends at work had been talking about the magical pasta that is served here....and I only have to hear magical pasta once for me to need to try it. We waited nearly two hours for a table and spent another two hours soaking up every last drop with left over pieces of bread. Truly the work of a pasta magician.

Comedy of Errors

We've started a new thing at work that we fondly call "Tasty Tuesday." This week it was my turn to bring in lunch for the other three girls in my office. I had wonderful intentions of making lettuce wraps and cast-iron skillet pineapple cake. But sometimes my intentions get the best of me.

Yes, the last picture is JJ fanning the oven as billows of smoke are coming from the burning "second cake" on the bottom of the oven. I'm frantically running around opening all of the windows so our entire building doesn't have to be evacuated due to our smoke alarm.

Then I tried to shake up the bottle of sesame oil but {just my luck} the cap wasn't screwed on all the way. Every surface of our kitchen {and my body} became covered in a oily film that I'm not sure I'll ever truly be able to get off.

I considered just buying pizza to take to work for lunch after all of that. But, I am WAY too prideful to show up without home-cooked food so this is what they got to eat. I'm probably kicked out of Tasty Tuesday now.

I'm feeling much too domestic

This morning I got up {as usual} and transformed into domestic wife extraordinaire. I made a pot roast. Yes.

And it has become clear to me that my days as a care-free 24 year old {at least as I know them} are over.

Saturday at the City Market

Watch out!

I've always been terrible at checking the voicemails on my phone. I cannot work up motivation enough to sit through a 15 second message. It might be a disability.

Anyway, had I listened to my messages yesterday I would have found out that I had been accepted into the graduate school program I interviewed for a few weeks ago. I am very excited -- and a little sad that husband will be out of town for the next month. I need someone to celebrate with! Maybe I'll go crazy and break out the weight watchers fudgesicles from the freezer. Watch out.

Cinco De Mayo

Today my work cohorts and I celebrated Cinco De Mayo at the Olive garden. Then we came back to our office and ate strawberry shortcake. Ole! I don’t really think that is what the Mexican’s had in mind for the anniversary of their independence.

I’m confident husband will make us some margaritas tonight. That man loves margaritas. And white chocolate mochas. And diet coke. But mostly margaritas. Phony holidays like Cinco de Mayo make me miss being an undergraduate student- when everything litterly was a party.

I am anxious for tomorrow to come. This weekend is full of so many eventful and JOYFUL things. I am interviewing for grad school {what?!}, my little sister is graduating from college with about a million different awards for being a superstar, two of my childhood closest friends are getting married and I get to be at home with my Mom for mother’s day.

I’m sure I’ll have lots of good stories when I return. JJ and I will have 11 hours in the car together so pray for him!

Back to reality

We were back to work (back to reality?) today and I felt overwhelmed by the number of emails, voicemails, and stacks of papers that had piled up. During the last four days I have spent 25 hours in the car. Typically I'm not cool enough to know all of the current music on the radio but now I feel like I could probably karaoke the Billboard top 25 chart.


I had the pleasure of hosting a wedding shower for a long-time friend on Saturday. My mother and I had a lot of fun planning and decorating for the event, with lots of inspiration from a recent shower for Maggie's sister. 

We hung kitchen gadgets from a ficus branch in the center of the table. The guests wrote wishes and advice to the bride and hung them on the tree. 

 All of the guests got to chose a cupcake to take home with them. 

The bride and I

The cupcake went splat

This is a crazy busy week and,  when you add my crazy tooth problem, I have not been a pleasant person to live with.

After work today I stopped by the cute cupcake place near our apartment to order a few dozen cupcakes for a wedding shower I'm co-hosting with my mother next weekend. To make sure I wasn't going to poison the guests, I bought myself the most decant looking cupcake to devour when I completed all of my errands {and to try to bribe my sore tooth to shape up}. I drove like a mother taking her baby home from the hospital for the first time- not wanting to bump the cupcake in its little pink box. Just before I turned into our garage husband called so I had to make a decision: take my hand off the cupcake box answer the phone or ignore husband's possibly important call to protect my precious cargo.

I went with option A: answer the call. My cupcake went splat and my husband had to listen to a ridiculously dramatic rant about how my life ended the moment I lost out on the cupcake. Poor husband.



Oh, and, Those of you who plan on reminding me that I gave up sweets for lent are obviously not true friends!

I wouldn't tell just anyone about my problem

I have a problem saying no to a little thing called CHIPS and SALSA. It's a slippery slope into salty over-eating once I've started. If salsa were illegal or dangerous to my health in any way I would need an intervention before the sun comes up. My favorite is to use Tostitos Scoops because its as close as I can come to a socially acceptable way to shovel salsa into my mouth. Just wait until shovel chips are invented...

I've always said that tacos are one of my favorite foods but when I made one for dinner last night {and noticed that it was 3/4 made of salsa} I'm now wondering if maybe its only an excuse to incorporate salsa into the meal.

Are you aware that there are entire facebook groups dedicated to addicts of chips and salsa? Yes, there are more like out there like me. My homies, if you will. Ugh, I have issues.

Fat Wednesday

I totally forgot that yesterday was Fat Tuesday and since I sweated out any and all fun in my stupid hot yoga class, I'm going to celebrate today. This fits better into my schedule anyway because I have today off from work so I can truly be a glutenous bum. This is what I try to do with most holidays- rework them into my schedule so they fit better for ME. Because, it is all about me, after all!

I've decided to give up sweets for lent. This is because of two reasons:
1. I've secretly been hiding Hershey's hugs in my drawer at work and eating them all day every day and I'm concerned that I'm rotting my teeth
2. Today I ran out of Hershey's hugs so this seems like the logical thing to give up for lent

I'm pretty sure I will be able to make it until Easter without any sweets if I stay away from the grocery store, my freezer, my office, my car and any restaurant.

Let the smell in

I've been trying to place the smell that lingers in the air near our apartment. It's extremely strong and kind of smells like a basement.

But a few days ago I figured it out. I drove past this beauty and the smell finally clicked. 

The "basement" smell was really COFFEE! I feel like the worst coffee addict ever that I didn't recognize it. Ever since then I've been leaving my windows open to let the basement {er, I mean coffee!} smell in.

Cabin Fever

We've been stuck inside so much lately this is what I've resorted to...

Homemade Valentine's Day cards. Like elementary school but less fun because you don't get to make your "mailbox" out of a shoe box and spend a day eating heart shaped cupcakes.

I do have one leftover cinnamon muffin from when I had a NINE person sleep-over at my apartment this past weekend. I guess that is sort of like a heart shaped cupcake only not shaped like a heart and not sweet. I'm really going to need spring to come sometime soon or I might go crazy!

Truth Pillow

If I had listened to this pillow I wouldn't be so embarrassed to be putting on a bathing suit on Saturday...

Via Jonathan Adler

I've moved from packing boxes to packing my mouth full of reddi-whip

I don't so much mind the winter, or the cold, but today the yoga pants and extra hot coffee just weren't cutting it. According to the local weatherman we got a "nice dusting of snow" this weekend. He makes it sound pleasant. To me, it looks like a white nightmare outside.

Wrapping up every glass we own in newspaper {which I had to have my mom bring me from Kansas because JJ and I haven't read a print version of a newspaper since we graduated high school} got really, really old so I moved on to cleaning out the fridge. I knew I had hit a low point when I was sticking the nozzle of reddi-whip in my mouth and seeing how much I could squirt in there before my cheeks buldged. JJ didn't dare take the bottle away.

I'm pretty sure I need some entertainment {or a multi vitamin} in my life.  Next on my agenda: making the batter for some home-made cinnamon rolls for the work Christmas brunch. Just three more days of work left before the big move. We're down to paper plates and reject tshirts at this point.

we eat at the Happenin' places

We rarely go out to eat because that requires money. But last week, the Mr. and I ventured out of our apartment not once but twice to pay someone to cook us food.

I worked late one night so we decided to just go out to dinner instead of having to get creative at home with the few groceries we did have. We have lived near a Crackle Barrel for nearly two years now and have never once ventured inside (probably for good reason) but my dear husband had his mind set on some chicken friend steak. Could he be more back-woods? We were litterly the ONLY people in the restaurant- as you can see from the photos JJ took on his iphone. We are really good at picking all the "happenin'" places.

And on the opposite end of the spectrum-
A White Castle just opened a few blocks from us. The way people are flocking to it you would think they hide diamonds in their hamburgers. Which, actually, is a glorious idea! JJ and his friends drug me with them to the drive thru where we were the 27th car back and had to wait ONE HOUR to get some greasy onion burgers. You can imagine how much fun I was waiting in the car.

Perhaps I am missing something about White Castle but the two little hamburgers I ate were most definitely not worth being at the "happenin'" place in town.

Hembakat är Bäst looks YUMMY

Yet another reason why I wish I lived in a city with an IKEA.

Carl Kleiner was hired by IKEA to shoot the recipes for their new baking book called Hembakat är Bäst [Homemade is Best]. The amazing food styling has been created by Evelina Bratell. New York Magazine just wrote about it and gave credit to photographer, when I think the credit should definitely go to the stylist!

I feel like these recipes need to be framed and hung up in my kitchen.
Original Article

No More Cupcakes

After a stressful day at work yesterday, I spent a few hours by the pool with the latest IKEA catelog and a margarita popsicle. It was bliss.

Then I ran over to a friend's house to eat a celebratory cupcake for a friend's wedding this weekend. It was a lovely cupcake- chocolate with funfetti icing- and I enjoyed every bite of it. That is, until I sat down on the couch and it went crashing to the ground from my weight. Perhaps "crashing" is a bit too strong of a word but I wanted to convey my embarrassment.

If that's not a sign I don't know what is.

The only way to cheer me up after that was to try to find an appropriate place in the apartment for the Justin Bieber poster I was gifted at our couples shower on Sunday.

A taste of Jerusalem

This time last week I was having my first alterations appointment for my wedding dress. Since I gave up long ago at losing weight before the wedding, I met a good friend for dinner the night before at this cute middle eastern restaurant in Kansas City's Westport neighborhood. We ordered lots of falafel and hummus...and flamming cheese! Today I am really craving some more of that falafel so I did a little researching (and by that I mean Googling) and found celebrity chef Bobby Flay's Falafel recipe. I think this is what I'll make for dinner tonight.

Falafel:
2 cups soaked chickpeas (chickpeas need to be soaked in cold water for at least 18 hours and up to 24 hours)
Peanut or vegetable oil, for frying
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 or 2 serrano chiles, chopped
2 green onions (white and green part) finely chopped
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, toasted and ground
3 teaspoons coriander seeds, toasted and ground
Scant 2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Piquillo Pepper Yogurt Sauce:
2 cups thick Greek yogurt
3 piquillo or 2 roasted red peppers
1 teaspoon smoked sweet Spanish paprika
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions For the Falafel:
Drain the chickpeas through a colander then place on a baking sheet lined with paper towels to absorb any excess moisture. Chickpeas should be totally dry.
Heat 4-inches peanut or vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat until it reaches 330 degrees F on a deep-fry thermometer.
While the oil is heating, heat the olive oil in a small saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and serrano chiles and cook until soft, about 3 minutes.
Transfer the chickpeas to a food processor, add the garlic mixture, green onions, parsley, mint, cilantro, lemon juice, cumin, coriander, baking powder, salt and pepper and process until the mixture is finely ground, stopping to scrape the bowl every 30 seconds. Transfer the mixture to a bowl.
Line a baking sheet with paper towels. Form the mixture into balls the size of ping pong balls and place on a plate. Fry in batches at 330 degrees F until a pale blonde color, about 45 seconds, spooning oil over the falafel constantly. Remove with a slotted spoon to the baking sheet. Increase the heat of the oil to 350 degrees F. Return the falafel to the oil, in batches, cover the pan with a lid for 30 seconds and fry until a deep brown color, spooning the oil over the falafel constantly. Remove with a slotted spoon to baking sheet lined with paper towels, and immediately season with salt.

Directions For the yogurt sauce:
Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth; season with salt and pepper to taste and transfer to a small bowl. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, covered, to allow the flavors to meld. Variation: Substitute 2 cups feta cheese for the yogurt, and add 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley.



Bobby Flay also gives a Hummus recipe too but it looks hard and store bought hummus is delish!

Have a happy (calorie-filled) weekend!

Fresher than Fresh

I read a feature this morning on a snowcone stand in Kansas City that is apparently "the talk of the food blogosphere." The best part is that these yummy treats are served out of a renovated 1957 trailer! It must be a coincidence that I am going to be in Kansas City this weekend. Fresher than fresh...here I come!

(photos by fresher than fresh via Oh Joy Eats)

BeneWine

Tonight I asked my roommate if she thought it was ok for me to put BeneFiber in my wine. I guess there is an old man living inside of my body that I was unaware of.

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