Chick Pea Cakes

After seeing something on the Travel Channel, I tried to make it. It was some sort of flat bread-ish looking thing made of chick pea, olive oil, and flour. Seemed easy enough, so, I made my own. I'm not sure if it had the correct texture or taste because it's hard to judge that just from watching a show, but everyone seemed to like it. I put 2 cans of chick peas (drained) in the food processor to grind them down to a paste. I added that to some olive oil, then gradually added flour till I got a consistency I liked. After that, I threw in some salt, pepper, cumin, onion powder and garlic powder. I grabbed small, round pieces of the dough and made them into flat little cakes and put them in the pan with some olive oil. They cooked for about 3 minutes on each side. They came out pretty good. I also made a spread for them with avocado, plain yogurt, minced garlic, onion powder, salt, paprika, and cumin. Very tasty.

Cupcakes and Cheese Steaks

Two weekends ago, I decided to make some cupcakes. Scratch baking these really wasn't an option, so I used a box mix with some modifications. First up were Golden Vanilla with Strawberry Frosting. I added a pinch more vanilla to the mix and after frosting them, I added some metallic sprinkles to the top. They looked.......cute. After that, I did Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting. For these I added a bit of ginger and cinnamon to the batter. I also put some heart shaped sprinkles on the top. Cute. I also made a batch of Double Chocolate Chip Cookies with Ginger and Black Pepper. These, surprisingly, came out great. The ginger was very lite, so next time I will increase to 3 tablespoons instead of 2.




August 16 was my first anniversary with Paul. We spent the day together and it was great. The day before that we took a day trip to Philly to see the Cleopatra exhibit at the Franklin Institute. The exhibit was great and I actually learned quite a bit. After that we took a walk over to the fountain, then to Ginos for cheese steaks. I've been there twice now and honestly I'm not impressed. I've gotten better cheese steak in a Jersey diner. In any case, it was a great trip with a great guy :)

Long Overdue Post

Yeah, I haven't posted in a long time. I'm an ass, I know. Here are some updates:

-Current weight loss is at 41 pounds.
-Mad that Aria and Brad got eliminated. Keeping my fingers crossed for Tom.
-Possibility of opening a bakery is somewhere on the horizon.
-Paul and I are coming up on 1 year.
-Pretzel MnM's are the shit.
-I've had multiple suggestions that I market my Paleo-friendly Spice Rub.
-Red Dead Redemption should be crowned Game Of The Decade.
-I was almost rendered unconscious by HORRIBLE tooth pain 2 weekends ago.

Anyway, I'm sure there's more but I can't remember. I've spent more time in the kitchen lately working on some stuff for this diet that actually tastes good. First thing I came up with was my Rub. People seem to really like it, and, it's sodium and sugar free. I also came up with some sort of Honey and 5 Spice Powder Glaze. Not bad either and mom loved it.

Recently I got Paul to watch an episode of No Reservations and he loved it (much to my surprise). We'll be sure to watch more of that sometime soon. That's it for now. I will try my best to update this beast more often for the 2 or 3 people that actually read it :)

Paleo Diet

So, I've been on a diet now for about....close to 3 weeks. At this point I've lost 16 pounds, which I don't think is too bad at all. It's the Paleo Diet and although your choices of what to eat can be somewhat limited, I'm finding it easy to follow. Basically you cut out things like bread, pasta, dairy, beans, sugar and salt. Things with natural sugar, like fruit, are just fine. A typical day of meals for me is:

Breakfast - 2 whole eggs, 2 egg whites scrambled with some fresh fruit or unsweetened applesauce.
Lunch - 2 pieces of fish (tilapia usually) with half an avocado.
Dinner - Lean steak or chicken breast with fresh vegetables.

During the course of the day I'll snack on things like fresh fruit, or unsalted cashews or almonds. Peanuts are a no since they are technically a bean and not a nut. Things are good so far, and the weight comes off really easy. There's a wealth of information online if anyone is interested.

"A Taste For Hotter, Mintier, Fruitier"

I just read a really good article on Yahoo by Miriam Gottfried about how Americans palates are changing and what food companies are doing to satisfy the need. You can link to the article HERE, but I will give some highlights:

• "The buttery taste found in packaged foods isn't just butter flavor anymore. Increasingly, it is browned-butter flavor, formulated to taste deeper and more savory than plain butter"

• "American cuisine is adrenaline cuisine"

• "Food companies describe some of their efforts as adding "umami," a Japanese word that, roughly translated, means good flavor"

• "As people crave intensity in flavor, some traditionalists are wondering if diners will become desensitized to natural flavors. Regular mangoes may taste bland when eaten next to mango-flavored gum or a mango energy drink, they say"

• "New flavors used to originate in fine dining kitchens and work their way down, but now they come just as often from the Food Network or from ethnic or international sources"

Certainly worth the read. There's a lot of interesting material there. Check it out.

China Fun

On Sunday, Paul and I went to the Museum Of Natural History in New York. Neither of us had been there in years, so we were pretty excited about going. We had a great time, and had some great conversations. After the museum, we took a short walk in Central Park, then looked for some place to have lunch. We (actually just Paul) decided on a little place on Columbus Ave that looked and smelled good, China Fun. We both ordered bubble tea. I got the coconut, Paul got honeydew. For our meal, we ordered Beef Pad Thai and Crispy Duck. The Pad Thai was good, but not as good as getting from an actual Thai place. The duck was fantastic. The skin was nice and crispy, and the five spice powder they used on it was delicious. Paul had a tough time removing the meat from the bones, so I had to help him with that. My babe can be so silly at times. In all, it was a great day and I'm looking forward to more.

Giant F'ing Marshmallows

Two weeks ago Kim and Kathleen came over with a bag of over sized marshmallows and really long skewers. The marshmallows were HUGE - probably the size of a baseball and contained 90 calories each. Massive. We traveled around my backyard and gathered downed branches and built a fire in the outdoor fireplace. After it was nice and hot, we started roasting our marshmallows. They were pretty good, but the only problem was their size. It wasn't exactly possible to cook them all the way through because the outside started to burn too badly. Still, we all had a good time and Kim and I were definitely tempted to build our very own Staypuft Marshmallow Man :)