Heather Bakes

That’s What She Said…

We Have Ghosts June 19, 2008

Filed under: June 2008 — heatherwlu @ 12:01 pm
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Thanks to everyone for the anniversary wishes! :)

Yesterday was a nice, relatively low key day. Dropped the kiddos off at camp and went for a run (we’ve already hit 100 degrees twice and summer hasn’t even officially started… I didn’t know it was even possible to sweat that much). Finally got to try my Chickpea Ratatouille as a legitimate meal! I had it over a cup of whole wheat couscous while catching up on What Not to Wear:

With some parm on top. The ratatouille tasted better yesterday than on Monday- a very filling and fiber-ific lunch. Loves me some fiber.

Kid-I-Babysit #1 gets out of camp 3 hours before Kid-I-Babysit #2, so she and I headed to the mall for a little girl time. I dragged her in Sephora (whatever, she loves it- they did her makeup and it was very cute) so I could check out the new Benefit Posie Tint. LOOOVE IT. Afterwards we headed to Sam’s Club to pick up some flowers and headed to my house for a little “redecorating”. Our dining room has been depressing me lately, what with the black furniture, beige walls and cat hair-embellished runner (lovely). I forgot to take a before picture, but here is the “after”… Joy, you have excellent taste in vases :)

Cheerful, no? Bri and I found the placemats at Anthropologie marked down to like $3 last week. Another pic; kindly ignore the fact that we have no candles in the candlesticks AND I’m missing one napkin. The plates and chargers were the kid’s idea. Perhaps we have a future designer on our hands??

Creepy- that pic has one of those “floating orbs” that ghost hunters look for… oooooh. See it in the top left?

Brian and I decided to wait until Saturday to really celebrate our anniversary (we have a gift certificate to Trece, so that’s where we’re going… anybody been there?). Last night we headed to our favorite little Thai restaurant, Tukta Thai. It’s our favorite because: 1. It’s in the neighborhood, 2. It’s BYOB, and 3. They have a putting green in the back. Seriously. Beat that. It’s also the kind of place where Brian will actually let me take pictures of my food without hiding under the table.

So I started with the Tom Yam… straw mushrooms are the bomb. Yeah, I said it.:

And then the CRAZY Noodles (I guess you can’t call them Drunken Noodles in a dry area) with veggies and tofu:

And we split a bottle of one of our favorite Chardonnays, Toasted Head.  So all in all, a lovely little mid-week date!

 

So Tired… Must Keep Typing… Zzzzz June 11, 2008

Filed under: June 2008 — heatherwlu @ 3:59 am
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Is it weird that since starting culinary school, my own meals have become progressively crappier? Granted, it’s only been two days- but I see a bad pattern starting here.

Case in point… my dinner:

Dehydrated thai noodles eaten at the computer while blogging. Like right now. At 10:30.

Class was kind of a snooze-fest. We went over measurements, conversions, and every detail you could ever want to know about flours, shortenings, thickening agents, milk, sugar, cheese and eggs. I realize that this is basic first week of class stuff, but after 4 hours I was about to die.

I did learn 2 interesting things:

  1. All honey contains a miniscule amount of botulism, which is why you can’t feed it to babies.
  2. There is an emergency doorhandle on the inside of the school’s industrial oven. So if I ever get locked in there, it’s all good…

Since obviously no cooking was done in this house tonight, I thought I might share with you a few products that have made me VERY happy this summer.

1. Whole Food’s Lime Bars

These are the best frozen fruit bars ever. I scored the last box at WF last night. They are pretty substantial, last a while, and taste just like a margarita on a stick. And just ask Brian- any food is better on a stick.

2. Cedar’s Garlic Artichoke Salsa

I don’t have a picture of this because I ate the entire tub in one sitting last weekend and then buried it at the bottom of the trash in shame. This is almost more of a bruschetta than a salsa- lots of big chunks of tomato, garlic and artichokes. It would be amazing over grilled fish. I found it in the refridgerated deli section at Sprouts but I think WF carries it too.

3. Method Olive Leaf Body Wash

I’ve shared my obsession with all things Method, but this is my favorite. I bought this shower gel religiously up until about a year ago, when it disappeared from the Target shelves :( But now it’s back! And in a bigger bottle with a pump top! It has a great light, non-girly scent (Brian uses it too) that lasts all day. I know this doesn’t really fit in with the food theme of this post, but go buy some and you’ll understand.

Okay, off to bed… after a lime bar.

PS- No class tomorrow night! Done for the week. Hopefully I’ll have an exciting dinner post for you.

PSS- WOOT! I just went to post this and we’re officially over 5000 views!

 

So Fresh And So Clean April 14, 2008

Filed under: April 2008 — heatherwlu @ 3:38 pm
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For years I’ve been a loyal Dr. Bronner’s fan, and I don’t often stray from their peppermint castile liquid soap.  It smells fabulous, is all natural and free-trade, and apparently has a whopping 18 different uses.  According to the bottle, you can use it for everything from shower gel, to mouthwash (no thanks), to laundry detergent. And if you get bored in the shower, the novel’s worth of text on the label makes for a good read.

We attended an “event” at Bath and Body Works this weekend.  The store opened early and you got a free gift for showing up: full-sized bottles of their aromatherapy shower gel and lotion.  Not bad.  I got the “energizing” mandarin lime scent, which I really liked.  It’s more grapefruity than anything.

My favorite find, though, was this:

Hello Sugar! Shower Sugar- the scent is mostly lemon with a hint of vanilla frosting. SO GOOD.  The Vargas Girl bottle is super cute, too.  Anyway, it’s now in the rotation for when I’m not in the mood for extreme peppermint. It smells exactly like the lemon cupcakes from last week.

They had some other products available in the same scent, but BEWARE of the lotion. It’s full of shimmer– which I didn’t realize until after trying it on and getting glitter all over everything. Super.

Busy Monday… more later!