Self-Portrait with Craving

This morning they mentioned Shredded Wheat on NPR. I guess it was probably an advertisement ("sponsorship"). I just remember hearing that it has no added sugar or salt.

So, naturally, I immediately began craving Frosted Mini-Wheats (Bite Size) cereal, and all that lovely added sugar. And then I just had to stop on my way to work so that I could pick up a box. I'm about to have them for breakfast in three...two...one.

p.s. I overexposed/blurred this photo on purpose for those of you alarmed by photos with visible toes. You're welcome. I can't promise I'll always do you that courtesy when I wear open-toed shoes, but it's still pretty early in the morning.

[Skirt by JCrew, Tee and tank from I can't see the tags while I'm wearing them (Forever 21?). Shoes by Blowfish Malibu from DSW.]  

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For God's Sake, Don't Toast Them!

While I definitely encourage the words "frosted" and "organic" to come together on as many products' packages as possible, Nature's Path Organic Frosted Toaster Pastries are not quite perfect as a supposedly "healthier" alternative to Pop-Tarts.

The filling in the Nature's Path version is far, far superior in flavor to the classic cherry Pop-Tart (my favorite P-T flavor).  There just isn't enough inside the NP for it to become gooey when toasted. And the icing on the outside is more a glaze than a true frosting. So eat them raw, and you should enjoy the tart cherry pomegranate flavor inside. Raw, they rule.

But toast them at your own peril!

I have always preferred to have my Pop-Tarts raw, too, but it's actually more wrong to toast Nature's Path Toaster Pastries. They burn too easily, and become hard and extra-crunchy. Toasting them in my office toaster oven left them tasting something like a cardboard graham cracker and completely overwhelmed the fruit inside.

So, for me, it's eat -- but do not heat.  I repeat: do not heat.

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From the Vaults: Doughnut Teaser

I keep eating doughnuts.  Here are a few.




Doughnuts by Pies 'n' Thighs, via Gimme Coffee





Doughnuts by Dough, via Gimme Coffee

Now that Gimme has switched over to doughnuts from "Dough" in Bushwick, I have to say I like the change.  Pictured above are a blood orange doughnut (anybody else reading Tyra Banks' Modelland? If so, you'll know why I am nuts over blood orange anything), a mixed-berry doughnut, and a chocolate chip and sea salt scone.  I found them superior in flavor to the dense and sometimes greasy Pies 'n' Thighs doughnuts.  I'll still eat PnT's flavors, especially lemon poppyseed, but I'm more often in the mood for a "Dough" frosted glazed.

p.s. Pies 'n' Thighs doughnuts are good if you're looking for the "window to weight gain" pictured below:



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New Years Resolution

 
(photos by Dan)

More of everything!

Happy New Year, y'all.

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Your Final Clue

Kara and Melissa brought me some congratulatory brownies when they came over to knit the other night.  I know I've gone on and on about how boxed brownies win over homemade brownies nearly every time, but these were further proof of that rule.  In fact, these were so soft and gooey and perfect, I asked Kara if she remembered which brand mix she used.  She did:

Good ol' Duncan Hines Chewy Fudge!  Although the recipe calls for 25min cook time, I think I made it like 18 min.

Somebody get me to the brownie mix store! I've still got plenty of that frosting left over (they were kind enough to leave the can).

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Two for dinner; one for breakfast.

In Pittsburgh, PA?  Need cupcakes?  I have to recommend Graham's Bakery on Mt. Lebanon Blvd..



This shop makes the perfect chocolate frosting, as far as I'm concerned -- and that's hard to achieve.  The box had assorted vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, with both vanilla and chocolate frosting.  Of course, chocolate + chocolate was my favorite, but I liked the vanilla, too. 

To make sure they were as good as I thought they were, I ate three. 

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Almost forgot to tell you.

A while back, this one guy at my parents' church gave my sister a slice of cake to take home from Pennsylvania to Boston. But she met me in New York city to change trains and gave the cake to me (she'd had a slice while at the church, so she knew how good it was). Isn't she nice?

It was dark and deep -- like chocolate and chocolate again. Thanks, sis.

Twin Peaks, Triplet Cupcakes

So, I know this other Jenny. Other Jenny is pretty smart. She's awful crafty and nice and lovely. She knits and sews and cooks and takes photos and lives in my neighborhood. And she brings presents some evenings when she and Melissa and I knit and watch Twin Peaks together.





Last week, the Other Jenny brought pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting from a place named Billy's. I've never been to Billy's, but the cupcake I ate was delicious.

I think Agent Cooper would have enjoyed eating one of these moist, pumpkin-y, cup-shaped cakes. He'd probably like the Other Jenny, too. I know I do.


p.s. There is a Billy's cupcake recipe here.

Houseguests and Cupcakes: still sweet after 4 days.

One of the things that kept me from blogging this week was the fact that our friend Laura was visiting from Chicago and staying with us. There was a lot of eating and talking, but little tip-tap-typing on the computer.

Laura bravely trekked in some of the most delightful cupcakes from Taste of Heaven in Andersonville to share with us. They got a little damaged in the hand-off, but remained delicious and moist. The frosting was superior -- not greasy or heavy as some cupcake icing is. I know little about the ranking of cupcakes in the Chicago area, and haven't had the pleasure of trying Taste of Heaven's competitors' c.cakes, but these were terrific.

Out of the sampler of six (and over the course of a couple of days), I had the whole Whoopie Pie cupcake (my fave), half a Vanilla-Vanilla (my least favorite, but that was after a few days of refrigeration), half a Hazelnut cupcake, a bite of Malted Milk Ball, and a taste of orange-creamsicle-tasting icing that remained in the carton.

Cupcakes and friends are sweet.

Spring is Sprung?

I am sure that we're still in for another round or two of cold weather before Spring really takes hold of the city, but I took advantage of this weekend's beautiful, mild weather to stroll my neighborhood with friends.

On our way back from the park, I stopped at Caffe Capri for "NYC's Best Iced Coffee!" It is, indeed, delicious (and I don't even particularly like coffee unless a non-literal ton of sugar and milk is involved). A small is $2.50, which seems reasonable, and Caffe Capri smells like a really nice grandma's house. A woman who might be someone's really nice grandma works behind the counter, alongside a man I suspect is her husband (and someone's really nice grandpa?). They've got a good thing going on.

Further down Graham Avenue, I bought the last chocolate whoopie pie on display at Variety Cafe. It was much nicer than the whoopie pies that are sold at Whole Foods. The outsides tasted like good chocolate cake (but were firmer). The frosting layer in the middle was not greasy, heavy, nor too sweet.

Also, good news! Ralph's (which has been closed all winter) is open for business!

You remind me of the babe.

What babe?

The babe with the power.



What power?




The power of voodoo.



Who do?



You do.



Do what?



Remind me of the babe.




Okay. Enough lyrical silliness.

Several people told me to check out Voodoo Doughnut while in Portland (even Matthew, though he did not seem to recommend the Tang-encrusted donut). The Voodoo Doughnut location I found (looks like there are two now) is located at 22 SW 3rd Avenue and is, according to the website, open a whole 24 hours. It is a tiny, hole-in-the-wall dive of a donut shop that is really-and-truly-would-I-lie-to-you-about-donuts worth a trip.

Pictured: Butterfinger topping on a devil's food cake donut, an "Old Dirty Bastard" oreo and peanut butter on devil's food, a "Maltnomah" glazed with malted milk balls and very fudgey frosting, and the classic glazed "Voodoo Doughnut" with jelly blood filling and pretzel stake through the heart. All gimmicks aside, the donuts are so delicious that they'd be worth eating without any toppings/fillings - especially the glazed - but since the toppings/fillings are impressively inventive it's worth trying a few. Alas, the bacon-topped maple donut was not available when I was there. And, perhaps less sadly, the Nyquil Glazed and Pepto-Bismol donuts have apparently been put on hold indefinitely.

Also, my Voodoo Donut (in the shape of a gingerbread person made of a jelly-filled glazed donut) was gorgeous and fully-frosted. Then it spent the evening in a bag within a bag at Ground Kontrol (and got just a tad smooshed in a photo booth pile-up) and the rest of the night in Andre's fridge (because I became full eating the Maltnomah donut), which is why a lot of the frosting has come off in these pictures. It was still fabulous the next morning, if somewhat less photogenic.

What have I done?

I might have fallen under a diabolical spell that forced me to buy a container of "Chipwich Cookies" from WholeFoods. Not since 20-odd years ago, when I occasionally used a knife to sneak a curl of butter from the stick set out on the table before our family's dinner so that I could eat it plain, have I reached such heights of buttery excess. Maybe Paula Deen could produce something more buttery than these dangerous chocolate chip cookie sandwiches, but I have my doubts.

I do enjoy trying new snacks in the "things that carry a pile of frosting smooshed in the middle of two baked-good disks of some sort" category, including (so far) Whoopie Pies and Blondie Whoopie Pies (the former is better), but these Chipwiches were a little insane. I think Jane, who was sitting next to me at work, may even hold a grudge regarding my pressuring her into trying one. Let's just say she didn't finish it, but we did discuss its evil nature at length.

Simply put, they're extravagantly, alarmingly buttery. All signs point to butter. "Butter me up" is not just an expression here. Etc.

First of all, the cookies are so soft our first two chipwiches wouldn't come out of the container in one piece (and though they were not refrigerated in the display at the grocery store, and though it happens to be over 90 degrees F. outside today, I can't completely blame the temperature they were being held at). I did refrigerate the one pictured so that it would be represented in its original state, but whoever made these must have realized how gushy they are. Once retrieved in pieces from the package, the snack continues to fall apart as you hold it in your hand. One can't eat the mess quickly enough to avoid any fallout -- they're that sweet and that soft.

Texture is almost nonexistent, apart from the chocolate chips. Jane wondered if they might just be unbaked dough, the cookies are so soft. And the icing sandwiched between tastes like nearly pure butter with a hint of sugar mixed into it. It started to melt and drip buttery splashes onto everything underneath it almost with my first bite. And there's a lot of it.

Having eaten more than one today (only in the interest of reporting to you via this site, of course), I won't need another for, oh...probably ever. Okay, I can't promise I'll never eat one again (I have a short memory when it comes to the realization that massive amounts of icing can be bad for my health), but I have concluded that I shouldn't. Eat one. Ever. Again. Sandwiched cookies are simply too dangerous a vehicle when their passenger is buttercream frosting. Maybe I'd be safer switching over to "frosting-on-the-top" items next time I'm perusing desserts at WholeFoods.


One last observation from the ever-wise Jane: "maybe these aren't a summer snack."



p.s. I had to eat some savory Nic Nacs to clear my palate before moving on to dinner.