Would it be Thursday night without an Office quote? I think not.

First of all- thank you for all of your Chloe votes!!! She’s currently in 2nd place, behind Buster (said with disgust), but only trailing by THREE votes. So go vote if you haven’t, and pass the link along… Chloe’s oh so excited about the whole prospect.

Really, she is.

Again, here’s the link in case you haven’t voted yet:

http://www.dallasnews.com/perl/common/surveys/display_full.pl?poll_id=21478&site=DallasWebSites&vaction=voting&thissite=dallasnews

Today I had to work from 6am-noon. The highlight was the Thanksgiving meal that Whole Foods provided for the employees- it was great to actually get to try some of the prepared foods that always look so fabulous. The mashed potatoes (and mashed sweet taters) were the bomb. They even had a little vegan loaf for a turkey alternative. Sorry, no photo. Not only did I forget my camera, but it might have freaked out my coworkers if I’d just whipped it out and started shooting photos of my food. Too soon?

After work my mom and I headed to the Chi Omega Christmas Market downtown. It’s this giant gift/craft fair that we check out every year (I hate the term “craft fair”, by the way). I go for one reason only (other than the holiday food samples): The Cloverleaf, which is a really amazing store in Oklahoma that we used to pass on the way to visit my brother at OU. Since we don’t have occasion to drive through OK anymore, their booth at the Christmas Market is my annual fix. And this year it did not disappoint. Check out the funky earrings and necklace:

We had a “fend-for-yourself” night in terms of dinner. I had a big salad with butter lettuce, goat cheese, roasted red peppers, pickled asparagus, tomatoes, pine nuts, olive oil and balsamic.

The best part was Brian’s soup, though. His mom used to make those Lipton’s Chicken Noodle Soup packets and add in extra elbow macaroni, so now he makes the same thing every so often… and I get to reap the benefits. Look at all the carby goodness:

I’m actually really excited about class tomorrow. We’re preparing a 4-course meal, and everyone was assigned a course. I’m working on the dessert (apple crisp), along with a couple other classmates. The best part? We get to bring in WINE. Baking + Wine = Happy Heather.

OH, and you know what else I’m excited about? THIS:

Which will constitute my afternoon tomorrow. That and finally catching up on all of my blog reading. Do you see who’s on the cover of Self? Giada!! I actually read her interview right away. She makes a good point about trying to eat foods that are in season, because if you try to eat a fruit or veggie that happens to be out of season, it won’t taste nearly as good and you’ll end up drowning it in sugar or fat or whathaveyou. Very Alice Waters of her, no?

Okay, off to bed. But first…

SURVEY TIME!!

Weekend plans?

Does it creep you guys out that I ask what you’re doing all the time? It’s a combination of the fact that I’m nosy and YOU are interesting. True story.

Friday night I’m seeing Twilight, hopefully. I hear it’s supposed to be insane so I’m not sure I’ll even be able to get tickets. Saturday I work 6am-12, then run, then meeting some W&L friends for dinner. Sunday work 7-3, then probably collapsing in a heap of exhaustion and grouchiness.

Now I know how moms feel when their daughters win pageants… Chloe’s in the running for the Dallas Morning News Pet of the Week! I sent in her photo back in July and just got an email today that she’s up for the award. It’s based on votes, so PLEASE click on the link below to vote for her. Chloe’s photo is toward the bottom of the page- don’t be fooled by that sorry excuse for a pug, Piper, at the top. Although at the moment, Piper is kicking Chloe’s ass in the poll. Let’s change that, shall we??

http://www.dallasnews.com/perl/common/surveys/display_full.pl?poll_id=21478&site=DallasWebSites&vaction=voting&thissite=dallasnews

You’ll be required to register with dallasnews.com before submitting your vote- they just do that so you can’t vote multiple times (lame). You won’t be spammed or anything.

So on to less exciting business… today was my one day off from work and school, so I got to sleep in! After dragging myself out of bed, I threw together a bowl of plain Chobani topped with Kashi Cinnamon Harvest, bananas, dried cherries, walnuts and honey.

That Kashi cereal is kind of amazing- it NEVER gets stale. We bought a huge box at Sam’s months ago and it still tastes fresh. After breakfast I did about 3 1/2 miles of hill runs, showered, and then met my parents for lunch at the Allgood Cafe in Deep Ellum. I started with the Lentil Soup:

Followed by the Main Street Salad, topped with goat cheese, rotisserie chicken and shrimp:

And I also talked the parentals into sharing an appetizer of Goat Cheese Ravioli. I probably wouldn’t have ordered it if I’d known it was in a cream sauce, but it was delicious- the sauce had a very fresh pesto flavor.

Right now I’m doing a test run of a Bacon Crumble Apple Pie that was in the Holiday edition of Everyday with Rachael Ray. I’m debating making this for Thanksgiving, but the ingredient list seemed a little odd- hence the dress rehearsal. The filling is pretty normal (golden delicious apples and lemon zest, plus I threw in some cinnamon), but the topping consists of flour, butter, brown sugar, extra sharp cheddar and bacon. I made the crust from scratch, but it had some major side-shrinkage in the oven… does anyone know how to prevent this? I’m sure we covered that in class, but it’s been a while.

The verdict? Um, not so good. The chewy texture of the bacon just does not belong here. I do like the cheese, though; even though I used extra-sharp cheddar, it’s pretty subtle. It might be a good idea to leave out the cinnamon, too… but apple pie without cinnamon just seems weird. Brian didn’t seem as appalled by the final product as I did.

THANK YOU to Marie for the donation!!! Woohoo!

SURVEY TIME:

What are your Thanksgiving plans? Staying home? Traveling? Working?

I’m guessing that I’ll probably have to work in the morning (I hear grocery stores do pretty well on Thanksgiving) but then heading over to mom and dad’s for Thanksgiving dinner. I usually run the Turkey Trot in the morning and am so sad I’m going to miss it this year

Gosh, I’m finding it really hard to type right now… I wonder why…

She’s so sweet and cuddly, but seriously, I’m left handed and this hunt-and-peck typing thing is kind of a beating. Good thing you’re cute, pug. Good thing.

Today I had to be at work at 6am. It is nice to be there for a couple of hours before the store opens; it’s much calmer so you can get a lot done. Oh, AND they were playing good music today- early 90’s- so I got to rock out to Blind Melon and the Proclaimers. Usually it’s an 80’s station, which is really fun until you hear Walking on Sunshine for the 592nd time.

Here’s how my shift went:

• Clock in
• Fill cookie case
• Ciabatta rolls
• Ciabatta bites
• Ciabatta garlic twists
• Foccacia, made from… ciabatta dough
• Ciabatta sandwich bread
• Fetch fruit from walk in
• Spill fruit on floor in front of customers and coworkers
• Clean up fruit
• Clock out

I’m all ciabatta’d out. Although the dough is fun to work with- it comes in these massive mounds that you kind of have to manhandle. Good thing I’m ALL MUSCLE. Booyah.

I’m spending waaaay too much money at Whole Foods now. It’s just easy to grab food on the way out… like today for instance:

So remember the monster sweet potato? Well we brought his brother home, too. We went ahead and cut it up the other night to use later on this week. The one potato filled an entire freezer bag:

I settled on a shepherd’s pie made with ground turkey and mashed sweet potatoes. I’ve never eaten, much less prepared, shepherd’s pie, so I kind of winged it. Here’s a general overview:

Cook the ground turkey with a chopped onion and celery. Drain the meat. Add some baby portabellas (on sale at Target) and saute until soft, then add half a bag or so of frozen mixed veggies, some chicken broth, and a equal parts butter and flour to thicken (a beurre manie, if you want to get all technical). Return the meat to the pan and heat through. Season with salt, pepper, sage, whathaveyou. I also had some leftover roasted garlic cloves, so I threw a few of those in there.

Boil sweet potato slices until soft- about 20 minutes. Drain and return to pot. Mash with potato masher, and add milk to desired texture. Season with salt, cinnamon and brown sugar. Don’t tell Brian, but instead of regular milk, I used the Pumpkin Spice Silk soymilk…

Heat oven to 400. Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray, then add turkey mixture. Spread sweet potatoes on top of turkey and veggies. Bake for 30 minutes.

Et voila- eaten with lots of ketchup:

It was quite a tasty fall meal. Weirdly enough, I had on Food Network while cooking and Rachel Ray was making a turkey-sweet potato shepherd’s pie at the same time. She actually mashed her sweet potatoes with a banana… something about bananas adding to the texture. I wasn’t brave enough to try that.

Has anyone seen Tropic Thunder? We’re watching that right now and it surprisingly hilarious. It’s kind of making me like Tom Cruise just a little more.

SURVEY TIME!

Can I just say how much I enjoyed reading your comments today? You guys crack me up, and it’s so nice to “meet” those of you who haven’t commented before.

I love finding new blogs to read, so what’s your latest favorite and why? It doesn’t have to be food-related.

Bringing Up Shelby always cracks me up (how could you resist this?). I’ve been reading it since Chloe was a puppy, so it’s been fun to compare their antics. And although totally NSFW, What Would Tyler Durden Do is great. He’s very, VERY un-PC, but his commentary on Hollywood gossip is hilarious.

With this whole new job thing, running went sadly by the wayside last week. I had to work both Saturday and Sunday, so today was my first opportunity to get through a long run and I was definitely dreading it. From my house, to the lake, around and back is just over 13 miles. The first couple were spent negotiating with myself (just 10 miles… okay, maybe 8…) but then I resigned myself and actually kind of enjoyed it. OH, but guess what? I got hit by a cyclist. White Rock Lake is notorious for aggressive cyclists but I’d never had an issue before. Well today I heard an “On your left!” so I moved over… and then got smacked in the shoulder by what I can only assume was an elbow. What the hell?? There’s an entire lane for passing, dude. So I sputtered a few choice phrases at his spandex-ed behind (ew) and he whizzed off without even a wave. NICE.

Lunch was an Amy’s Tamale Pie along with leftover Sweet Potato Soup- even better the second day!

Then it was off to class. This was our last session before next week’s national ServSafe exam… we took a practice quiz and the questions seemed easy enough, but we’ll see.

For dinner we met my parents at a neighborhood pizza place, Picasso’s. I had a pear and gorgonzola salad with vidalia dressing:

And then Mom and I split a pizza with artichoke hearts, spinach and mushrooms:

So very exciting- I got this great Superior Scribbler blog award from Heather at HangryPants.

I’m so honored! I’ve never gotten a blog award before, so yea!! Thanks, Heather Here are the rules:

1. Post the award on your blog
2. Link to me for giving it to you
3. Link the originating post here
4. Pass it on to five deserving people
5. Post these rules for your recipients.

So five deserving people, eh? That’s hard! Okay, here goes:

*Sammie at Running With a Recipe- Sammie actually manages to come up with clever meals to post 3 TIMES a day (I get great ideas from her) while keeping up with the cutest kid ever AND fitting in workouts to boot.

*Shannon at Tri to Cook- This girl is quite the chef! Her meals always look pretty much amazing (hello, she made her own eggplant gnocchi) and constantly blow me away.

*Jenn at EatingBender- Jenn is absolutely adorable. She’s a journalism student who balances school, activities and food blogging, and is so darn cute and upbeat that you can’t help but love her. Plus her dad is a really good cook- it’s so fun to see what he comes up with on her visits home.

*RunJen at The Perfect Balance- This is another cool mommy who manages to be quite the kick-ass runner while raising a SUPER cute little girl. I’m so blown away by these women who can balance the career, kids, running, etc… I can only hope that some day I can do this half as well!

*Rose at On A Lobster Placemat- I know that Heather already awarded Rose, but I don’t care. She rocks. Rose is an amazing writer and I can’t think of anyone who deserves a “Superior Scribbler” award more. Her daily oatmeal creations crack me up and I’m (not so) secretly jealous of her creativity.

Finally- Thanks to Jenn (of Eating Bender) and my parents for their donations!!!! My dad asked for a “shout out” (his words, not mine) on the blog, so here it is… and for those of you who have yet to check it out:

http://www.active.com/donate/tsrh08/heatherbakes

We’re up to $250 and there’s still almost a month to go

SURVEY TIME!

I saw several bloggers do this a few weeks ago and thought it was a great idea:

Based on the blog stats, I know there are lots of lurkers out there who might be reading but don’t comment… just post a comment with your name and where you’re from (or anything else interesting you might want to share). I want to get to know you guys!!

Here- I’ll start:

My name is HEATHER and I’m from DALLAS, TX. See? Easy, right? Now… GO

Haha- that song just makes me think of Zoolander.

“I just thank the lord that she didn’t live to see her son as a mermaid.”

“Mer-man.” *cough* “MER-MAN!”

Gosh, this was such a relaxing weekend. I’m ready to get up early tomorrow morning and start the week running…

Hahaha, that was funny! This weekend was, as Brian says, “bat-nuts crazy.” I don’t know where he gets that potty mouth. I didn’t really take any photos until today, so let’s start with tonight’s dinner and work backwards. I cracked open the old Eat, Drink and Be Vegan cookbook and settled on the Pureed Spicy Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew with Chickpeas alond with Coconut Lime Basmati Rice.

I know a lot of people are turned off by the whole vegan thing, but if you’re looking to eat CHEAP, this is the way to go. The soup probably cost about $1/serving and consisted of pureed onions, garlic, celery, sweet potato, chicken broth, peanut butter, and lots of spices. You stir in a can of chickpeas at the very end and garnish with lime juice and cilantro. I also added some sriracha, fish sauce and extra PB. For the rice we used plain brown rice instead of basmati, but that turned out great too- I kept dipping my spoon into the rice and then the soup and it actually worked really well together. The coconut milk and lime provide a good balance of tart and creamy.

Even Brian loved the meal and commented on how filling it was… plus we have LOTS of leftover soup.

Want to see something crazy? We found the largest sweet potato in the history of mankind. Seriously, this one yielded 6 CUPS of peeled, diced potato- enough for the entire pot of soup. Here’s a frame of reference for you:

The thing is as tall as the pug. Clearly Chloe was not impressed.

Here’s the weekend rundown:

*FRIDAY*

Class: The class as a whole made about 8 different salads and sandwiches- panzanella, Waldorf salad, turkey-bacon wrap, chicken avocado sandwich, french potato salad, homemade chips, Pacific Rim salad and probably others that I can’t recall. Our group was assigned the Pacific Rim salad and panzanella (I mainly worked on the panzanella). The salad was topped with steak, which I DID try and WAS yummy… but even after a decade without beef, I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything.

Friday night Brian and I tried a Mexican restaurant that my brother’s always raving about, Avila’s. Can’t find a website, but you can read the Guidelive review here. It’s kind of a little hole-in-the-wall place in a rough area, but the food was great and it’s deceptively cozy inside. Given my love of mole sauce, I had to order the pollo con mole- very good, although the best mole award still goes to Cafe San Miguel. Yum.

*SATURDAY*

I was up at 5 to be at work by 6. It was COLD and I had a very warm and snuggly pug to leave. Work was fine, nothing terribly exciting. My schedule this week has me starting no later than 7am, but I usually get out just after lunchtime- so that’s kind of nice. Anyway, after work I headed home, ate a quick lunch, showered, dressed and headed out to Keller with Brian to have to dinner with his family and hold babies. Well, just one baby. Samantha’s already grown so much and seems really alert. I wish I’d gotten pictures- she’s a blond haired, blue eyed cutie.

After that we headed home. I was in bed by 9:30, asleep by 10. How lame is that? This schedule is kind of kicking my ass right now.

*SUNDAY*

Back up at 5 to be at work by 6. Meh. Got home from work at 12:30 and made a quick lunch of roasted red peppers, goat cheese, spinach, capers and balsamic vinegar on an Ezekiel hamburger bun:

And then I napped on the couch with the pug for like 3 hours while Brian watched football. All of a sudden I opened my eyes and it was 5 o’clock. You know what our big, exciting event of the day was? Visiting the brand, spanking new Wal-Mart that just opened near our house. That place was INSANE. There was actually a line to get into the parking lot. Anyway, it was nothing special and I’m afraid that it’s going to get trashed out like most of the other Wal-Marts around here. We grabbed our dinner supplies and booked it out of there ASAP.

(I love you Target. I’ll never cheat on you again.)

SURVEY TIME!

What’s the best dish you’re making for Thanksgiving? Or if you’re just mooching off of someone else’s cooking (thanks, mom!), what are you most looking forward to?

I’m trying to figure out what to make. My mom hates anything ORANGE (where the hell did I come from?) so that rules out pumpkin, sweet potato and butternut squash. Hrmm. The Rachael Ray holiday issue does have an intriguing recipe for an apple pie with bacon and cheddar, so I may give that a shot.

PS- THANK YOU SUSAN for the donation to Scottish Rite Hospital!!! You rock! For the rest of you, don’t forget to check out my donation page before the marathon- it’s up through December 14th:

http://www.active.com/donate/tsrh08/heatherbakes

I remember in college when Thursday nights meant great TV- all the roommates would watch Friends and Will & Grace before going out. And now once again Thursday is beginning to redeem itself. Kath & Kim cracks me up, LOVE The Office and 30 Rock. Hooray!

Today was my day off from work, but I still had to be at the store for a meeting from 6-8am. I’m running on about 5 hours of sleep right now After the meeting I put together a random breakfast quesadilla: egg whites and cheese on an Ezekiel tortilla, and a side of salsa.

Chloe reminded me today that she hasn’t made an appearance in a while. Here’s what I found when I got home from my meeting this morning:

You know those dogs that wake you up in the mornings and immediately want to play? No? Yeah, me neither.

The day was spent catching up on all the stuff I’ve been neglecting around the house. I did get a little shopping done with my mom and then grabbed a quick lunch at Tin Star. I had a grilled vegetable taco with pesto and picked at one with grilled chicken, black beans and sweet potato strips (too salty):

Tonight Joy came over for dinner. I made Giada’s Lemon Risotto recipe again… you guys need to try this one. It’s so easy to make (just a lot of stirring) but tastes amazing. The main dish was a roasted chicken based on Alice Water’s recipe in The Art of Simple Food. Very “Simple”- just rubbed some olive oil on the bird, seasoned with salt, pepper, and herbes de provence, stuck a lemon up its butt (I mean, “into the cavity”), and roasted at 400 for about an hour. You flip the chicken a few times during roasting to evenly distribute the juices and then let it rest for 15 minutes after removing from the oven. I also threw several cloves of unpeeled garlic into the roasting pan… not sure what to do with those, but roasted garlic is probably a good thing to have on hand, right?

Off to bed for some much needed sleep before my 8am class. Hrmph. Oh, Brian took a photo for the blog. He’s very excited about a Target purchase today:

Egg nog! With bourbon. That stuff grosses me out to no end, but he and Joy both had a glass after dinner. I’m all for holiday beverages- but I’ll stick with hot chocolate and gingerbread lattes. Nice, eggless options.

SURVEY TIME!

This is inspired by Heather at Hangry Pants’ post today. She blogged about how she wished she could write a letter to her younger self…

If you could go back in time and give yourself some advice, what would it be?

Me:

• Think REALLY HARD before declaring a major- and possibly save yourself 2 semesters of Calc I (F and D, thankyouverymuch).
• Stop being so self-conscious.
• Reconsider those bangs.
• Diet Coke = crack. Once you start, you’ll never stop… even 10 years later…
• Blind dates aren’t always bad

Challah!!

(Get it? Like “Holla”?? Every time we pull a loaf of challah bread out of the oven at work, I want to yell that… sad but true.)

Anyhoo, today was busybusybusy. Track workout at 5:45- 6 x 1200’s. Honestly, I felt I was going to hurl the entire time. Got home and took a mini-nap in the guest room until Brian decided to drop a very chunky yet excited pug on top of me before he left for work.

Breakfast was a bowl of plain Chobani with sliced bananas, walnuts and dried cherries. I also crumbled half of a Whole Foods’ Athlete’s Choice cookie on top… alongside a MUCH needed cup of coffee with Silk Pumpkin Spice soymilk:

I had to work at 12, so I puttered around, read blogs and showered. I was still feeling sub-par at lunchtime, so I made a bowl of Pacific Natural Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato soup, along with the rest of last night’s ciabatta and some cheese. Tres French, oui?

Work was good… my job was basically to fill the patisserie case. LOTS of decorating- cheesecakes, pies, chocolate tarts, chantilly cakes, etc. At one point I was covered in ganache. But decorating is still by far my favorite part of the whole pastry process. I guess it’s my little artistic outlet… some people paint, others write music, some knit with dog hair- I pipe buttercream.

Brian talked me out of going out for Mexican for dinner (BOO) in lieu of eating leftovers. Boring. Instead of eating the leftover turkey wheatberry chili straight, I really wanted it on a baked potato. So where do you go to get a baked potato at 9pm? WENDY’S, duh. Chloe got a Junior Hamburger off the Super Value Menu. She knows exactly what’s going on when we pull up at a drive-thru, too. The whining commences as soon as Brian places the order and doesn’t stop until she gets her burger/ice cream/whathaveyou.

Here’s my baked potato, topped with chili, cheese and sour cream:

Along with the rest of last night’s salad topped with Woodstock Dressing:

And an after-dinner beverage of bourbon and Coke Zero. We’re very obviously out of wine:

Hey, did you know that there’s actually a Larabar blog? And that Heather Bakes is mentioned on it? Check it out (5 stars, 5 stars…).

Also, I almost forgot that Runjen at The Perfect Balance tagged me last week. I think I’ve done this a few months ago and therefore am out of people to tag back. But here are a few more random facts for you:

• I constantly pick at my cuticles. It drives Brian nuts.
• I say the word “both” weird- like bowlth.
• Am addicted to: magazines, Diet Coke, and crappy TV (Jon & Kate Plus 8, MTV True Life, Rob & Big, Wife Swap).
• Am NOT a morning person. Or a late night person. Am obviously prematurely geriatric as evidenced by abundance of gray hair at age 26.

That’s all I got… but wait:

Survey Time!!

What did you think of the Top Chef premier? Who’s your money on this season?

I think the Finnish guy, Stefan, is obviously a strong contender, as is Hosea. Radhika looks eerily like an Indian version of Helena Bonham Carter. Danny is already getting on my nerves. Was anyone surprised by Patrick leaving? He just seemed so young and maybe a wee bit overconfident.

PS- THANK YOU JILL for your donation!!! Here’s the link again:

http://www.active.com/donate/tsrh08/heatherbakes

Thank you thank you THANK YOU to Tammy, Lauren and Robert, and Aunt Kathy for donating to TX Scottish Rite Hospital! As a reminder, the link is:

http://www.active.com/donate/tsrh08/heatherbakes

I’ll put it on the sidebar, too. Don’t forget to check it out between now and December 14th!

Hey, if y’all are bored at work (and I know you are because you’re reading this right now), check out this site where you can can South Park yourself.  Here’s me… heehee

It’s a dead ringer. Except that I have a nose.

Last night Brian picked me up from class and we finally tried a restaurant that I’ve been wanting to visit for years: Taverna. Their specialty is risotto but pretty much everything on the menu looked good. We ended up splitting the Risotto al Parmigiano All’ Olio Tartufato (we just pointed)- Risotto with Parmesan Cheese and Truffle Oil.

And the Mare Monti pizza, with 3 of my favorite things as toppings: shrimp, arugula and mushrooms…

The risotto was AMAZING. It’s so rich that we both had two little spoonfuls and were fat and happy. Some people will tell you that truffle oil is overrated… I’m here to say that it most certainly is NOT. The pizza was delicious as well. A lot of restaurants with woodburning ovens tend to burn the crust, but this was thin and perfect. It’s a great date location, too- the lighting is so dim that it was super obvious when I shot the photos. Last night we had crazy weather (windy, cold and rainy) and it was definitely a cozy place to eat dinner.

Today I had to work from 12-8, so I got up, went for a fast run and grabbed a quick breakfast of a Chocolate Brownie Z-Bar and milk:

Lunch was a couple slices of leftover pizza and an apple:

Work was good but I’m tired. Is it bad that as I’m working I’m mentally taking stock of all of the stuff I want to buy that night? Tonight I came home with yet another flavor of tea (Sugar Cookie), clementines, oats, a Kashi Black Bean and Mango frozen meal, cheese, salad, and a corn muffin for Brian.

Guess what today was? SLOW COOKER TUESDAY!! I’ve been slacking off on the slow cooker Monday recently. My parents go to Michigan every year for vacation and about 2 years ago my mom brought me back this package of Wheatberry Chili Mix:

It’s been sitting in the pantry ever since. Many people would have thrown this away looooong ago, but not us! It basically consisted of about a cup of dried wheatberries and a packet of spices- including a GIANT dried chili pepper. I tossed that in the crock pot with some browned ground turkey (cooked with garlic, onion and green pepper), a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes and some chicken broth and cooked it on low for 8 hours.

Turned out great! Here it is topped with cheese and sour cream, ciabatta bread (it’s the bakery specialty at our Whole Foods- we always have hot ciabatta and people go insane if we run out), and salad with Annie’s Woodstock dressing:

Hope everyone has had a great Tuesday!

SURVEY TIME!

This is a selfish one:

What are your favorite snacks (preferably portable)?

I have an 8 hour shift with a 30 minute break, so I’m trying to come up with healthy snacks (other than bars) that can stay in my bag without refrigeration. I bought some Newman’s Own pretzels, but those seem to disappear reallllllly fast in our house. Hmm…

For all of you guys who were expecting the usual sparkling wit and fascinating food commentary, I apologize… but today’s post is dedicated to a much more worthy cause. As many of you know from my near-constant bitching and moaning, I’m currently training for the White Rock Marathon coming up on December 14. What you may not know is that the marathon benefits Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. Not only is Scottish Rite renowned for their excellent care, but they treat children with orthopedic and neurological conditions at no charge to the patient’s family. As you might imagine, they rely heavily on donations to continue their mission- and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to raise funds for such a great institution. Can you think of a better reason to run those 26.2 miles??

You can check out my donation page here:

http://www.active.com/donate/tsrh08/heatherbakes

There is no minimum amount to donate and every little bit helps! Even if you’re unable to contribute financially, please consider passing along the link to anyone you think might be interested.

Thanks for reading! You guys inspire me daily and I’m excited to be able to share this with you. I have photos and restaurant reviews ready to go for tomorrow, so it will be back to Heather Bakes business as usual.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at heatherbakes@gmail.com.

xoxo,

HB

It’s Sunday night already??? This weekend flew.

*FRIDAY*

It was pasta day in class. We made homemade egg pasta, which was turned into fettucini and spinach-ricotta ravioli, along with pasta salad, tomato coulis, and basil pesto. I had no idea that pasta was that easy to create- you just put a big pile of flour on the table, crack some eggs into a “well” on top, pour on a little oil, and then gradually mix it into a dough. Bench, roll, cut, boil. And then EAT.

Sorry, I forgot my camera… so no photo.

*SATURDAY*

Got up early for an 18 mile run. It sucked, though I was still mobile on Saturday night- so that’s an improvement. Think my time was about 2:55. Meh.

Lauren was throwing a bachelorette party for our friend Tara, so I whipped up some vanilla cupcakes with pink buttercream frosting….

Saturday night we attended a wedding for Brian’s law school friend, Alden, and his fiancee-now-wife Elizabeth. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception (held at the Melrose Hotel) was gorgeous too.
I looked like a freak taking photos of all of the food- but hey, it’s a small sacrifice for the good of the blog, right? Before we were let into the dining room, they passed around little spoons of salmon ceviche (modeled by the lovely Brian):

And these cool plastic to-go containers of calamari with greens and jalapenos:

Dinner began with caesar salad, followed by fruit sorbet garnished with micromint:

The main course was steak and salmon over mascarpone polenta, served with some type of onion-artichoke side:

Brian was sweet enough to trade me his salmon for my steak. Nice.

OH- can’t forget the cake:

And the happy couple… congratulations! Sorry for the blurry photo:

Aww, that makes me want to get married all over again.

*SUNDAY*

I had to work from 12-8 at Whole Foods- first real, non-training day on the job. I’m NOT used to being on my feet for 8 hours straight and I am beat. The day consisted of lots of cookie baking (and burning, oops), restocking, bread slicing, customer chatting. Sadly, no sampling. Afterwards I cruised through the store and picked up a few goodies…

Turkey meatloaf for dinner (along with steamed brussels sprouts and leftover pumpkin pasta):

And ANOTHER type of pumpkin beer: Wolaver’s Will Stevens’ Pumpkin Ale

It’s much more pumpkin-y than the Dogfish Head. Yum. I also got a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie from the bakery to try- we were selling out of those like crazy. My bedtime snack is going to be the cookie and a cup of Celestial Seasonings Gingerbread Spice Tea. We used to have bedtime snacks EVERY NIGHT as kids- usually either a chocolate milkshake or popcorn. Isn’t that nuts? God, to have that metabolism again…

Hey, remember when I had to go the ER for pink eye a couple of months ago? And my eye was all red and ridiculously swollen yet fine the next morning? Well this was what was right in my face while we watched Family Guy tonight (I did NOT zoom… she was thisclose):

And now my eye is bright red and puffed up EXACTLY like it was that night in the ER. So yeeeeah- thinking that I may be more allergic to cats than I realized.

Okay, so you know how the other day I mentioned that vanilla hempmilk wasn’t mixing well with my coffee? Well I got a very helpful email from CJ at Living Harvest Conscious Nutrition (the company that produces the hempmilk) with the following explanation:

You are quite right that when you add our milk to a regular cup of Joe it will often separate as this is due to the PH in our hemp nut reacting to the acidity of coffee. However, due to the naturally occurring omegas or good fats, when steamed, our hemp milk performs beautifully with a frothy head of foam, rich, breve like mouth feel and flavor profile.

She also goes on to say that they are currently reformulating their hempmilk so that it will blend smoothly with coffee- yea!! So thanks, CJ! Good to know.

Off to bed. Guess what I have tomorrow? JURY DUTY. I’m supposed to call in at 11:00 to see if I have to be there at 1, but hoping that they either won’t need me or will let me out because I have class. Yeah, I’m a bad civil servant.

SURVEY TIME!

What are you most looking forward to this week?

I can’t wait for the Top Chef premier!! But no Texans this season… boo hisssss.