Heather Bakes

That’s What She Said…

Three Months March 5, 2010

Filed under: March 2010 — heatherwlu @ 4:32 am
Tags: , ,

It was another gorrrrgeous day here in Big D. After seeing how much Jack enjoyed hanging out outside yesterday, I decided to set up shop in the backyard this afternoon. My mom always talked about how special it was to see Zach and I getting along when we were little (she called it “Heart Medicine”- LOL). Now I understand:

Chloe’s such a protective big sis.

Breakfast- plain yogurt with strawberries, cereal, sliced almonds and honey:

We have NO food in the house. I debated dragging Jack to Subway but then ended up putting together the weirdest lunch ever… which surprisingly worked really well:

Leftover brown basmati rice mixed with chickpeas. I squeezed a lime on top and topped it with cheese, salsa, avocado and sour cream. It was filling and actually very tasty.

The days seem to be going so fast this week. I keep intending to make dinner and then finding better things to do (like laying on a blanket with Jack and Chloe). Oh well. Tonight we ended up heading to Mexicali for some cheap tex-mex. I had the tacos al carbon- one chicken and one steak.

So we FINALLY got around to taking Jack’s 3 month pictures. Look at how much he’s grown!

Okay, sorry. Brian thought that was hilarious.

Here he is:

The progression…

Three months has FLOWN by, and Jack’s just getting more and more fun every day. I think he’s a keeper.

Hope everyone has a fun weekend!

 

Take Cover January 29, 2010

Filed under: January 2010 — heatherwlu @ 3:55 am
Tags: ,

It is nasty outside. My mom watched Jack while I ran to Target today, and I seriously thought the roof was going to blow off the store. You know it’s a bad storm when you can hear the thunder inside Target. I hear we may be getting some ice, too.

Jack must be going through a growth spurt or something. Last night he slept for a 6-hour stretch, followed by a 4-hour stretch, then 2 more hours. I got him up at 9, fed him, then he immediately fell back asleep for an hour. I’m NOT complaining.

Breakfast was a whole wheat english muffin topped with crunchy PB and blueberry jam. Oh, and a ginormous apple.

For lunch Jack and I met my mom at El Fenix. I had the Combo Numero Dos, which is basically a chicken taco salad and tortilla soup.

I’m honestly not a huge El Fenix fan but their tortilla soup is really good. And I like the little rolls of mints that they sell next to the cash register. They taste like Pepto Bismol tablets (I secretly love Pepto Bismol tablets).

Jack fell asleep in the car and continued to nap for another hour and a half once we got home. I took advantage of the quiet by finishing our latest book club selection, The Help. I’m so sad to be finished with this book!! Now I need something else to read. Any suggestions?

Target had those Jennie-O preformed turkey burgers on sale, so that’s what we ended up having for dinner. I sprinkled them with seasoned salt and then cooked them on the stove in our grill pan. Honestly, they were pretty darn good for only 170 cals. They’re a little small but worked perfectly on an english muffin “bun.” Alongside I had some leftover tomato couscous and baby carrots.

Not the most exciting dinner, but at least it was pretty healthy.

A lot of people ask me how Chloe is doing with Jack. Sometimes I feel bad for her- like when he’s screaming his little head off and poor Chloe just lies on the couch and stares up at me with her sad pug eyes. But generally I think she really likes him. Whenever I’m holding him, she’ll come and snuggle up next to us on the couch and sniff at his ears. And Jack LOVES her. Her barking doesn’t phase him one bit, and whenever she sniffs at his face he breaks out in this huge grin. He’ll reach out and bat at her face from time to time. She takes it like a champ.

Jack’s finally started to enjoy his play mat, and he and Chloe have some good bonding time on there:

It’s amazing because she’ll (quite literally) walk all over Brian and me, but she’s SO careful around the baby- knock on wood. I think they’re going to be great friends.

So I was pretty sad to hear the news about J.D. Salinger today. He’s one of my favorite authors; Brian actually gave me a first edition of Franny and Zooey as a wedding gift. Actually, maybe I should re-read that for my next book selection.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

 

Gillllllyyyy December 18, 2009

Filed under: December 2009 — heatherwlu @ 3:47 am
Tags: , , ,

You know, it must kind of suck to be a newborn. People are always touching you, dressing you in stupid outfits, and you end up with a face full of baby acne. Today was a much better day with Jack. He wasn’t nearly as fussy as yesterday, and my mom came over to hang out with him so that I was actually able to shower (for those of you who are able to do this daily… CHERISH IT) and even make a quick shopping trip. Who would have ever thought I’d actually be excited to visit the mall a week before Christmas??  It was just really good to get out of the house for a bit.

A lot of people have asked how Chloe is doing with the new baby. Here’s a good illustration of the dynamic around here:

I think Chloe likes Jack, but she does seem a little depressed about her change in status. On one hand, mom’s on the couch a lot more… but the prime lap real estate now goes to the little guy. She’s very interested in sniffing his ears, eyes and mouth, which doesn’t seem to bother him at all. And her barking doesn’t phase him one bit = huge relief.

This morning Jack screamed if I tried to put him down at all, so I made breakfast one-handed. Archer Farms Cherry-Vanilla Yogurt with Quaker Cinnamon Oatmeal Squares:

And COFFEE (chugged, not pictured).

The yogurt kind of had that too sweet, Splenda aftertaste. Not a fan.

On the way home from the Galleria it occurred to me that it was after 2 and I hadn’t eaten lunch. I stopped at Subway and grabbed a footlong turkey sub to split with my mom. I ate it while nursing and trying not to drop pickles on Jack’s head:

Why are the turkey footlongs not $5??? It was almost $10 for the sandwich and a drink. Lame.

This afternoon Jack slept in my arms while I SOBBED watching Oprah. It was a rerun featuring Stephanie Nielson (aka Nienie). OMG, what an inspiring story. It made me feel like an ass for every complaining about anything. I’m so glad that I caught the episode.

Guess what? I actually COOKED tonight! I know, I know. Crazy. My mom left some frozen chicken tenders in our freezer, so I decided to try a recipe for Lemon Brown Sugar Chicken from Eat Live Run. The only change I made was to deglaze the skillet with white wine instead of chicken stock.  We also had brown basmati rice and steamed broccoli:

The chicken was delicious. I’ll definitely be making this again! Although it’s technically “fried” (well, pan fried), the recipe doesn’t call for all that much oil. It’s very flavorful, especially if you squeeze a little extra lemon juice over the chicken once it comes out of the oven. Yum yum yum. I should do this whole cooking thing more often :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend! We have newborn photos of Jack scheduled (baby acne be damned) along with trying to hurry up and finish shopping. How is Christmas next week??

LOL at the SNL holiday special. I love Gilly.

 

Get Low November 2, 2009

Filed under: November 2009 — heatherwlu @ 4:57 am
Tags: , , ,

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m all candied out. Too bad we still have a giant bowl of sweets on our dining room table! Busy weekend…

*FRIDAY*

I was up early Friday morning because we had an appointment with the chimney sweep. Sadly enough he did not look like Dick Van Dyke, nor did he have a cockney accent. He did, however, tell us that the chimney looked faaabulous and gave us the go-ahead to use the fireplace- which we’ve never done, nor did the couple who lived here before us. So that was exciting.

After the appointment, my mom and I headed out to run some errands. We were on our way to Costco in Rockwall when we saw a billboard for- get ready for it- The Jerky Outlet. That’s right. Every kind of jerky you could ever want or need. Though I wasn’t particularly excited by the dried meat (we did stock up on a few things for Brian and my brother), I may have squealed a little when I saw the giant display of PB Loco in every flavor of peanut butter you could ever want: caramel apple, banana chocolate-chip, white chocolate raspberry, even curry. Did I mention that they also let you sample any flavor?? They also carried PB2, which I’ve NEVER seen in stores. So I walked out with these:

pb

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough PB Loco and Chocolate PB2.

Friday afternoon Brian called and asked if I wanted to have a “date night.” Ummm, yes. I’m usually the control freak planner in this house but every once in a while it’s exciting when someone else takes charge. So I actually showered, makeup-ed, and got dressed… here’s evidence:

35wks1

(On a side note: HOLY CRAP. How the hell do I still have 4+ more weeks?? There is no more room for this kid… though he does look a little lower, no? So maybe that’s progress.)

We ended up at Cowboy Chow in Deep Ellum. We’d tried this place right after it opened and weren’t impressed, but so many people have raved about the food that we decided to give it another shot. I love the decor of this place, and the entire menu sounds delicious. I also like that they give you a giant bottomless carafe of iced tea (way better deal that the $2.50 bottle of soda, btw). We started out with the Navajo Fry Bread:

frybread

Basically a giant piece of fried bread, served with honey and black beans for dipping. Delicious. The bread is crisp on the outside and chewy/doughy (in a good way) on the inside- similar to a sopapilla, but without the cinnamon and sugar. It’s lightly coated in some kind of seasoned salt.

I had the brisket enchiladas with smoked cheddar queso for my entree:

brisket

Though the brisket was really good, the enchiladas came out cold and kind of tough. For some reason they don’t provide knives, either, so we spent the next 5 minutes trying to flag down our waiter to get one. I tried Brian’s grilled cheese and had immediate buyer’s remorse. Oh well- next time. I want to try the mash tater parfait, too. The prices at this place are great- most of the entrees are $10 and under.

After dinner we debated seeing either Paranormal Activity or Where the Wild Things Are. By the time we got to the theater, Paranormal Activity was sold out so the decision was made for us. I really, really wanted to love Wild Things… but notsomuch. Brian liked it. I’m usually a big Spike Jonze fan, but this just seemed way more dark and heavy than it needed to be. The beginning was depressing, the middle was visually interesting but plot-wise kind of boring, and the end was a little anticlimactic. Has anyone else seen this movie? What did you think?

*SATURDAY*

Halloween!!! We slept in then spent most of the day just doing random errands (Chloe nail trim, Target) then getting ready for trick-or-treaters. Brian carved our pumpkin and I made these:

ricekrispie

I forgot how EASY Rice Krispie treats are to make! And how delicious they are.

We had some very cute trick-or-treaters, particularly a Dallas Cowboy, a disco girl, Princess Jasmine and Raja. Even Chloe and Patty got into the act:

patty

Chloe recycled her pumpkin costume from a few years ago.

Brian and I were lazy and just hung out on the couch watching Elizabethtown. We actually had a ton of kids come by- we ran out of candy at one point and Brian had to make a quick Walgreen’s run to replenish. OH, and look!!!

fire

I’m a little obsessed. It makes the house 100x cozier. The fire freaks Piper out, though. She probably spent an hour last night just sitting in front of the fireplace, staring at the flames.

*SUNDAY*

My parents invited us, along with Zach and Laura, over for lunch during the Cowboys game. As usual, my mom went crazy with the food:

momlunch

Tons of BBQ (turkey, chicken, brisket, ribs, sausage), pasta salad, caprese salad, steamed veggies, fried okra, even creme brulee for dessert. Total food coma afterwards, though my mom and I did manage a short walk around the neighborhood.

Before we left, I snagged the leftover smoked chicken and tub of pesto… which made tonight’s dinner a snap. We just boiled some whole wheat linguine and tossed it with the chopped chicken, pesto, lemon juice and parmesan.

pasta

Gotta love the 10 minutes dinners.

Anyone else all off kilter from the time change?? I was exhausted by 8. Now that’s just sad. Maybe some M&M’s will perk me up…

-SURVEY-

Best costume you saw this year?

 

Couch Potatoes September 24, 2009

Filed under: September 2009 — heatherwlu @ 4:14 am
Tags: , ,

So last night was interesting. I fell asleep with Brian next to me and the dogs baby-gated in the living room, then woke up face to tiny flat face with a pug and no Brian. He was on the couch with the other dog. Poor guy. Apparently both Chloe and Sophie started raising hell around 1am… which I was oblivious to, thanks to my awesome ear plugs.

Breakfast this morning was Oroweat Double Fiber wheat toast spread with a new find:

pb

This cinnamon-raisin peanut butter was on sale at Target and it’s REALLY good. I love the texture (kind of crunchy-gritty, but in a good way) and the tiny raisins. Alongside I had plum. Did I mention that in an apparent moment of insanity I bought FOUR POUNDS of plums at Sam’s the other day? And I’m the only one that actually eats them around here. I think I had three today.

toast

I met Brian for lunch at Mattito’s. I ordered the light chicken fajitas, which apparently translated to “chicken with a crapload of broccoli.” I barely made a dent in this and took the rest home. I’ll be a lady and not repeat what Brian said my car smelled like with the leftovers.

fajita

After lunch I headed out to Rockwall to Old Navy. It’s one of maybe 2 ON’s in the Dallas area with a maternity section. The good news is that EVERYTHING is on sale right now, and most of the sale items are an additional 50% off. I bought 2 dresses, a sweater, a cute top and 2 pairs of shoes for about $50. The kicker was the cute pair of metallic flats for $5. Woohoo!

Dinner was boring. Morningstar Farms Garden Veggie Patty on an Oroweat Sandwich Thin with hummus and baby spinach, a bowl of roasted red pepper and tomato soup (Pacific Natural brand) and baby carrots:

boringdinner

Not pictured: yet another plum.

After dinner we headed over to my parents’ to feed cats/bring in mail… and then ended up at Sonic on the way home for Brian’s dinner (two extra-long chili cheese coneys- I got heartburn watching him eat that) and my dessert (Diet Dr. Pepper float). Now we’re settled in watching a long list of tivo’d shows:

  • Modern Family: Funny
  • Cougar Town: Ehhhhhh. Jury’s still out.
  • Glee: I really didn’t want to like this show, but it’s pretty damn funny. “Prenatal vitamins… take them three times a day or your baby will be ugly.“
  • Top Chef: OH NO- Toby Young is back!!!!!!!! At least he held off on the metaphors tonight. I mean, aside from the bull testicle remark.

-SURVEY-

Favorite new show?

or alternatively,

Where did Heather put her sunglasses?

I’ve been looking for them ALL DAY. They are always in my purse and I’m starting to think that they fell out somewhere. It’s very, very sad.

 

Penny Pinchers August 17, 2009

Filed under: August 2009 — heatherwlu @ 2:53 am
Tags: , , ,

I’m not gonna lie, it was a pretty boring weekend around here. The theme seemed to be “Don’t Spend ANY Money”- which leaves pretty much nothing to do. Obviously we’re trying to save some before the little guy gets here, plus we went a tad overbudget on the nursery AND we’re going on vacation next month (Hilton Head & Savannah). We were actually pretty good, though.

-FRIDAY-

On Friday we headed to the JP Court to try and hash out this DART ticket. The court is in a super-sketchy area and unfortunately all we managed to do is get a court date set. October 20th- so I’ll be like 8 months preggo. Awesome.

Friday night we met my parents at Caravel for dinner. I stuck with my usual Vietnamese Charcoal-Broiled Pork with Vermicelli Noodles:

pork

I love all of the marinated veggies: daikon, carrots, cucumbers…

And guess what we did after dinner? Saw The Time Traveler’s Wife!!! It was really good. They left out a few major characters and scenes but still managed to stay pretty true to the book. Honestly, I don’t know how they could have fit everything into one movie. It made me want to go back and re-read the book.

-SATURDAY-

Slept in and then made scrambled eggs for breakfast/lunch. There’s something so great about getting up and heading out for brunch, but once again- not the best way to save cash.

I’ve always cooked scrambled eggs over high heat, which I recently learned (from an article about Julia Child, actually) is very, very wrong. Low and slow. We had them with english muffins: half with apple butter, half with cherry preserves.

scramble

Lauren and Robert are FINALLY back from NYC, so we met them for dinner at Matt’s Rancho Martinez. Brian and Robert made the executive decision to order the Bob Armstrong:

bob

Good decision. Cheese, guacamole, beef and sour cream = never a bad thing.

I ordered the “Special Dinner”: two crispy chicken tacos and a chicken enchilada with ranchero sauce.

special

One of Brian’s law school buddies was in from out of town, but I had him drop me off at home before he went out. Somehow the whole bar experience is just not as fun as it used to be. Sprite, anyone?

Don’t feel sorry for me though. I did a bad thing. It involved the Baked cookbook and the BEST BROWNIES EVER.

brownie1

Yep, 11pm and I was bakin’ brownies. To give you an idea, the recipe involves three-quarters of a pound of chocolate, 5 eggs and two sticks of butter. They are so rich and fudgy, it’s ridiculous. Remember how I went on and on about Miles of Chocolate a while back? These are as close to Miles as I’ve found.

brownie2

Oh man. I gave part of the batch to my parents, part went into the freezer (wrapped individually, as to ward off an inevitable chocolate bender) and left out about two brownies worth for us to munch on.

judge

Don’t you judge me, Chloe.

-SUNDAY-

Brunch at home again. Sigh.

This time a spinach-cheddar omelet with a blueberry Alternative Bagel on the side:

omelet

The omelet was just meh. Have I mentioned that I don’t even really like eggs? The bagel was good, though. They’re only 110 cals (and 7g of fiber!) for the entire bagel. I think this package was from Sprouts, though I may have spotted them at Newflower as well.

For dinner I tried out a recipe from the new Everyday with Rachael Ray (I know, I know- I can’t help it): Curried Chicken and Cider Soup.

soup1

It’s pretty simple. You saute onions and ginger, add in some curry and cumin, pour in water, sweet potatoes and cauliflower, then simmer. The only semi-complicated part is pureeing the soup, after which you return it to the pot and add shredded rotisserie chicken. I topped mine with plain yogurt. Alongside was my favorite salad (arugula topped with shaved parmesan, lemon juice, olive oil and a little red wine vinegar) and some whole wheat naan.

soup2

So I had planned on posting the big 100K Hit Giveaway on Monday afternoon, but I’m still collecting goodies!! I have a few stops to make tomorrow to gather the rest and then I will post the details on Tuesday. If you’ve seen any products on the blog that you’ve been dying to try, speak now or forever hold your peace…

Other exciting stuff to come: A guest post, plus another giveaway next week! I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but it involves everyone’s favorite breakfast (…or snack, or dessert). Is that specific enough for you??

Tomorrow I start a 2-week nanny stint for a new family. Wish me luck!

-SURVEY-

What’s your favorite money-saving tip?

Me: Meal planning. If I can sit down on Sunday and come up with a menu for the week, we usually do pretty well. Otherwise it’s WAY too tempting to go out to eat.

 

Wacky Wednesday. February 19, 2009

Filed under: February 2009 — heatherwlu @ 5:20 am
Tags: ,

That’s an awful title, but Wednesday has always been my favorite day of the week. I was born on a Wednesday (May 26, 1982- FYI); in grade school, Wednesdays were our early-release days and in high school it was late-start; and NOW it’s my no class day. Woohoo!

I had a fabulous night of sleep last night, thanks to my handy dandy earplugs. These things are amazing. I can still hear my alarm go off if I need to, but didn’t even stir when Brian came to bed or when my mom called early this morning. Perfecto.

Not feeling the oats this morning, so I had a couple of Kashi Go Lean waffles with maple syrup and apple slices:

waffle1

After breakfast I went to make the bed- and my pillow moved:

piper

Well hello there, Piper. She NEVER gets in our bed. Weird.

My mom and I took my Grandmother to Barnes & Noble to spend a gift card (The only woman I know who can buy 5 books and only spend like $25. Nicely done, Grandma.), then headed to Panera for lunch. I had the You Pick Two combo with a Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich and Vegetable Soup:

panera

After lunch we caught a showing of Last Chance Harvey. It was cute; the first 30 minutes or so are pretty depressing, but then it gets much better. Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman had a sweet little thing going.

Today was GORGEOUS- almost 80 degrees and sunny. I managed to get in a quick run before dinner, which featured yet another recipe from Veganomicon: Seitanic Red and White Bean Jambalaya. I altered the recipe a little because I couldn’t find any seitan at Central Market. Instead I used about 12 oz of andouille sausage, diced into bite-sized pieces. I’ve read a few reviews of this recipe online and many of them said that the dish was too bland. I think the andouille really helped with the spice because the flavor was excellent.

This dish takes a little while to make. You have to cook the sausage, saute the veggies until they are soft, add tomato paste, deglaze, add spices/beans/tomatoes/brown rice, simmer, transfer to baking dish, and bake for almost an hour. If you make this recipe, plan on adding about 20-30 minutes to the bake time. The dish had me concerned because up until about 10 minutes before we pulled it from the oven, it looked like soup… but the rice eventually absorbed the juices and all was well in the world.

It makes a HUGE pan:

jambalayawhole

Yum.

jambalayabowl

With Crystal, of course. Can’t beat $.50/bottle. And that’s at Central Market, so they must give it away at normal grocery stores.

crystal

Well worth the time- and we’ll be eating this meal for a while (I’m freezing half).

I made a little Top Chef snack after dinner: a 100 cal pack of Kettle Corn topped with M&M’s:

kettle

Chloe was dubious about the popcorn, but then decided she liked it and ate half the bowl (no M&M’s, obviously). Behold the progression…

chloecorn1

chloetongue1

chloedone

I read in the latest Rachael Ray mag that there’s a new flavor of the Orville Redenbacher Naturals 100 calorie bags: Salt and Lime!!! Sounds right up my alley.

*Survey Time*

Are you as annoyed as I am at Top Chef right now?

I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but grrr. At least Toby’s gone and Gail’s back.

 

Sugar Sugar January 28, 2009

Filed under: January 2009 — heatherwlu @ 4:02 am
Tags: , , ,

Wishful thinking on the no class thing. But don’t worry- they shut down the school at 3! One hour after my class ended. Super.

No time for oats this morning, though it would have been the perfect day for them. Instead I cracked open the container of Fage that somehow made it into my cart at Target yesterday (I heart you, greek yogurt… though not the price) and topped it with fresh blueberries, honey and Kashi Cinnamon Harvest:

fage

Pastry class was fun today, so I guess it’s good that the weather held off. We prepared a Creme Anglaise, Raspberry Coulis and a Fruit Bavarian and then finished off the Creme Brulee, Chocolate Mousse and Bavarian Cream.

Fun with fire… blowtorching the top of our creme brulee:

torch

brulee

The Fruit Bavarian: raspberry puree combined with gelatin and heavy cream, garnished with raspberry coulis.

fruitbavar

(Obviously we have yet to cover plating…)

Chocolate Mousse in a ramekin with creme anglaise and a little coulis. I don’t know what the “Z” is all about.

finalmousse

Bavarian Cream w/ more anglaise and coulis… this was my least favorite taste-wise.

bavariancrm

I was starving in class- and while I just tried bites of each of these desserts, by the end I felt sick. Empty tummy + lots of sugar and eggs = bad idea. Blech.
By the time I time I caught the train (brrr, damn it) and made it home, it was almost 3. Lunch was an easy omelette with orange peppers, spinach, mozzarella and LOTS of ketchup. Plus wheat toast and an apple.

omelette1

For dinner we braved the not-so-treacherous roads and headed to Mariano’s. I had the combination fajita lights- chicken and beef with lots of veggies. I only ate about 1/4 of this and was stuffed to the gills. Probably thanks to the 2984 chips I had before the entree.

fajita

Chloe mentioned that she hadn’t made an appearance on the blog in a while, so here’s a photo to appease her. This is what I found last night when I started to get ready for bed. Apparently Brian’s been voted off the island and Chloe’s taken his spot.

chloebed

Hope you guys are all warm and cozy! It just started sleeting here as I blogged. Brian’s office closes based on DISD, so maybe I’ll have a buddy on my day off.

*Survey Time*

(By the way- glad to hear I’m not the only one who slacks off on laundry!)

What’s your favorite football-watching (or just general TV munchie) snack?

We’re having people over for the Superbowl, which of course is really all about the food. I’m making turkey chili but need some other ideas. Thanks, kids. You’re the best.

 

Ah. Choo. January 14, 2009

Filed under: January 2009 — heatherwlu @ 3:57 pm
Tags: , ,

Hope everyone is having a lovely morning! Is anyone else having crazy allergy problems? I woke up sneezing, and Chloe’s fighting some kind of upper respiratory infection right now, too. It’s so sad- I took her to the vet yesterday morning and they gave her a couple injections of antibiotics and kept her there all day. She had a high fever that started to go down and then went back up again. She’s back home now and we have her on two different types of antibiotics. Poor little puglet. She’s so mopey and is obviously having a really hard time breathing through her nose (breathing through her mouth and snoring MUCH more than usual). She also won’t take her pills, despite us hiding them in peanut butter, cheese, ice cream and a Wendy’s hamburger.

Breakfast yesterday was a litle rushed, given the vet visit. I bought Brian a few frozen breakfast sandwiches at Target and then “forgot” to tell him about them… so I had one yesterday:

florentine

Egg whites, spinach, and cheese on some kind of whole wheat wrap. It was actually not bad at all, though not all that filling either. But good in a pinch.

florentine2

A few of the Dallas food blogs I read (Dallas Eats had a full review, and Gammypie also mentioned eating there) had rave reviews about the new Chocolate Angel Too at Preston & Forest. My mom and I ventured over there for lunch yesterday. I ordered the Angel Trio with Chicken and Rice Soup, Chicken Salad Sandwich and Nana’s Strawberry Pretzel Congealed Salad.

angel

The soup was amazing. I thought it would be a healthy choice but was obviously mistaken on that one. No broth base here. It’s super creamy; picture chicken and dumplings minus the dumpling. The chicken salad was good too (lots of curry), though I had buyers remorse for not ordering pimento cheese instead. Although it’s generally best to avoid anything containing the word “congealed” (IMO), the strawberry salad is actually the best part. The top layer is strawberry gelatin, followed by cream cheese, and then my fave: a sweet-salty layer of crunchy pretzels. Mmmm. I went in with the intention of ordering a slice of Coca-Cola Cake, too- but I didn’t see it out on display and the strawberry salad was a good enough dessert for me.

Despite the intent to eat at home more, yesterday was a day of restaurants. Because of everything going on with my grandmother, the family hadn’t had a chance to celebrate Brian’s birthday… so we met my parents, grandparents, brother and his girlfriend at Sevan G&G Cafe, a Mediterranean hole-in-the-wall on Greenville Ave. My parents love it because it “reminds them of Chicago.” We love it because it’s BYOB. And the food is good, too.

We started with the Mazza Plate: Hummus, Baba Ghanoush (amazing), Tabbouleh, Dolmas and Pita.

mazza

Brian and I split a Greek Salad:

greek

And then I had the Pistachio Chicken for my entree. If you eat here, you must try this. It’s a chicken breast stuffed with feta and coated in pistachio pieces, then topped with tomato sauce. The vermicelli rice is delicious, too.

pistachio

Hope everyone has a great day! I’ll keep you guys posted on Chloe.

*Survey Time*

What’s your all-time favorite candy?

Full disclosure: I just started reading Candyfreak so I have sweets on the brain. The book is hilarious, by the way. (I like all candy- Skittles, Hot Tamales, M&M’s, Hershey Kisses…)

 

It’s Cookie Time, It’s Cookie Time… December 17, 2008

Filed under: December 2008 — heatherwlu @ 4:27 am
Tags: , ,

It’s cookie tii-iime!

Troop Beverly Hills: Best. Movie. Ever.

Anyway, so yes- it was in fact cookie time in the HeatherBakes household today. But first…

**SNOW**

Imagine my surprise this morning to wake up and see this:

house

View from our house:

street

Pretty, right? You East Coasters/Midwesterners (and even West Texans) are probably rolling your eyes right now. But we NEVER get snow. In honor of the occasion, Chloe and I headed over to visit the May family. Chloe’s not a fan of snow, but she is a fan of small children. Like sometimes too much of a fan. Here she is playing with Molly:

chloemolly

LOVE the pink ensemble. Especially the hat.

pink

Gabe wasn’t sure what to make of the white stuff. He did try to eat his mitten, though:

gabe

Back to the cookies. I tried out a couple of recipes for Christmas gifts. The first was for Dark-Chocolate-Ginger Crinkles from the December/January issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray.

crinkles

These were SUPER easy and turned out great. The crystallized ginger adds just a hint of spice. Cinnamon probably would have worked well, too. I should have used more powdered sugar… it kind of dissolves as they bake.

The second recipe- for Monster Cookies- started with a major brain fart for me. First lesson of cooking? Mise en place. Measure and lay out all of your ingredients before you start. Because you know what happens if you don’t? You forget the butter. And then you end up with mounds:

nobutter

Instead of cookies:

butter

Butter is kind of imperative if you want your cookies to actually spread. Luckily this was a Paula Deen recipe, and you know my girl Paula made sure there was LOTS and LOTS of fat in it. Like 12 oz of peanut butter in addition to the stick of plain butter. So the butter-free cookies actually taste just fine. If you’re looking for an easy holiday cookie, I would highly recommend this recipe- and you can find it here. How can you go wrong with oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate chips, raisins AND M&M’s?? You can’t.

And finally, I will leave you with an illustration of how Chloe and Piper spent most of their snow day:

cp

*SURVEY TIME*

Favorite 80’s movie?

Oh gosh, this is a hard one. Troop Beverly Hills, of course. Howard the Duck, PeeWee’s Big Adventure, Overboard, Steel Magnolias, Beetlejuice… and the list goes on…