Lunchtime Links for July 31st, 2012

• Serious Eats: 7 ice cream spots in DC.
• The Kitchn: Recipes using leftover coffee. 
• Kirbie's Cravings: Flourless peanut butter banana cookies.
• How Sweet It Is: Strawberry peach gazpacho.
• Million Dollar Listing LA: Recap from TVGasm.

Georgetown Cupcake - NY Pinstripe Pretzel + Boston Green Monstah Cupcakes

A few weeks ago, Georgetown Cupcake pitted the NY Yankees and Boston Red Sox against each other, which is nothing new, but this was way more tasty than a baseball game, haha.  Both flavors of cupcakes were sold at all Georgetown Cupcake locations, with the proceeds going to two charities.  Since I don't really have a preference for one team over another, it made it easier to just buy both, haha.   

Here we have the NY Pinstripe Pretzel: Chocolate cupcake baked with gourmet butterscotch chips and crushed pretzel and topped with a butterscotch-infused buttercream frosting.  As you can see there's a ton of butterscotch chips in the one I got - not so much pretzel pieces.  This was incredibly sweet, I think mainly due to the butterscotch buttercream frosting, but a fun cupcake nonetheless.

And here is the Boston Green Monstah: Green velvet cupcake topped with green vanilla cream cheese frosting and baseball fondant decorations.  Essentially, a red velvet cupcake that was bright green instead of red, haha.  Being a fan of their red velvet to begin with, clearly I enjoyed this one as well. 

Lunchtime Links for July 30th, 2012

• Serious Eats: Blackened burger at Beach Haven Fishery in NJ.
• The Kitchn: Pesto chicken tart.
• Kirbie's Cravings: Peanut butter cups.
• Steamy Kitchen: Mashed potatoes.
• Picky Palate: Chocolate peanut butter bundt cake with sweet peanut butter icing.

Sakuramen DC - Spicy Miso Ramen

A few weeks ago, my friend P and I met up in Adams Morgan to check out Sakuramen, a new ramen joint in DC.  A hot summer day may not seem like the best time to be eating a huge bowl of hot noodles and broth, but I love ramen any time of the year, haha. 

Sakuramen is tucked in the lower level of a building along 18th, street, surrounded by bars, restaurants, etc. that is packed into that area.  Side note: It was pretty funny to be walking down 18th street a) on a weekday; and b) while it was still light out, haha.

I went with the Spicy Miso ramen, which I really got more for the spicy aspect of it rather than the miso.  I almost always get shoyu (soy sauce)- based ramens, but I figured I would give this one a try.  It consists of "A spicy miso broth with chashu, menma, scallions, corn, nori, and Sakuramen’s original fireball (ask for extra spicy). Broth: Chicken Stock with Miso / Noodles: Thick & Curly".

This bowl of ramen did not disappoint!  I loved the pork, chewy noodles, corn, and the broth was delicious as well.  The spice ball (in the center-ish of my photo) was spicy but less so after a few minutes, probably because it got dissolved in the broth and/or my heat tolerance is increasing, haha.

I don't normally find myself in Adams Morgan just for a meal, but I'd definitely recommend Sakuramen if you're a fan of ramen and/or in the area.  There aren't too many places that serve decent ramen in the DC area, so I'm glad this place is around.  I hope to be back again soon for another bowl of ramen, and also to try out their pork buns.  Hopefully by then, they may have a liquor license? A cold glass of beer would've been perfect with this meal!


Sakuramen
2441 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 
202.656.5285

Lunchtime Links for July 27th, 2012

• Serious Eats: Starbucks mocha cookie crumble Frappuccino ice cream. 
• Miss Advised: Recap from TVGasm.
• How Sweet It Is: Graham cracker chocolate chip muffins.
• Kirbie's Cravings: Chocolate chip espresso shortbread cookies.
• The Kitchn: How to make homemade mozzarella.

Spring - Japanese Kit Kats

About a month ago, my mom mailed me a package packed to the gills with Japanese candy, food, and random sundries (such a funny word, sundries, haha).  I was especially excited for three new Kit Kat flavors to try out and review!

On the top left we have a Rilakkuma edition of Hotcake Kit Kats; on the right is an Orange flavor commemorating the new Tokyo Sky Tree; and on the bottom is a box of chili powder Kit Kats.  It's always fun to try new flavors, and luckily Japan never seems to run out of these new Kit Kat offerings, haha.

Lunchtime Links for July 26th, 2012

• Serious Eats: 10 pastries in Seattle.
• Buzzfeed: Bulldog puppies. 
• Picky Palate: Homemade magic shell.
• My Baking Addiction: Reese's cup stuffed chocolate chip cookies.
• How Sweet It Is: White pizza dip.

Georgetown Cupcake - Free Burger Cupcake

Georgetown Cupcake had this cupcake before as a free one on April Fool's Day, but I am happy to report that this version came out looking MUCH nicer than the first one, haha.

This time around, a specific item description was also provided, via their Facebook page: "A chocolate cupcake 'patty', two maple cupcake 'buns', and buttercream 'ketchup', 'mustard', and 'lettuce'. Our fun SWEET spin on a summer BBQ treat! Each cupcake burger is individually nestled in red-and-white checkered parchment paper in an individual pink box."

These burger cupcakes are available (special order only), and I think they'd be a really cute addition to a summer BBQ or dinner with family/friends.  Even better, if you have the time and resources, it would be a great little baking project for kids as well!  I'm a big fan of regular burgers but these burger cupcakes are a sweet and fun way to celebrate summer :o)

Lunchtime Links for July 25th, 2012

• Serious Eats: Sweetpress juices from Sweetgreen in DC. 
• Picky Palate: 60-second chocolate chip cookie a la mode.  
• Bakerella: Holiday cake pops book. 
• Smitten Kitchen: Bacon corn hash.
• Hey Love Designs: New online store on Storenvy.

Shake Shack - Beer Nuts Custard

Beer Nuts.  Yup, you read that correctly, beer nuts.  What a crazy flavor for a custard, right?  Oh Shake Shack, you always keep things interesting.

Here's the official description courtesy of the Shake Shack Facebook page:

BEER NUTS (Adults Only) - marries our frozen custard with the hoppy, fruit-like qualities of our ShackMeister Ale for a refreshing sweet & savory combo, with crunchy caramelized pecans added in for a sugary bite.

As you can tell from the photo, the custard doesn't really look all that different than their regular vanilla custard, haha.  However, once you take a bite, there's a faint hint of BEER which is bizarre and interesting all at once.  The crunchy sweet pecans added texture and a tasty flavor to this custard, I am glad they added those.  

And in case you were wondering, they really do stick with the "Adults Only" rule - I was carded for this cup of custard, haha!

Lunchtime Links for July 24th, 2012

• Serious Eats: Top 10 ice cream recipes.
• Baker's Royale: Brownie cookies with salted caramel creme filling.
• The Kitchn: Turn lemons into glowing candle centerpieces.
• Million Dollar Listing LA: Recap from TVGasm. 
• Buzzfeed: Baked alternatives to potato chips and French fries.

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

A while back I saw Claire Robinson making these flourless peanut btuter cookies on her Food Network show, and printed out the recipe to make them eventually.  I'm not sure why I waited so long to make them, but now, here we are, haha.

This recipe is very easy to make and requires only five ingredients - six in this case with the addition of the Scharffen Berger chocolate baking chunks.  I have all of the required ingredients on hand, and I'm sure most other bakers would too, so this is a great last-minute easy cookie recipe!

  

And here we have the finished cookies!  They were really rich and delicious, a powerful punch of peanut butter and chocolate.  Mine came out pretty crumbly but that may have been due to the baking time or how I formed them?  As you can tell I didn't really particularly take the time to roll each one into a nice ball before baking haha.  As an added bonus- these are gluten-free!  Give this recipe a try if you love peanut butter and want an easy, rich cookie!

Lunchtime Links for July 23rd, 2012

• Serious Eats: Warm Mexican street corn salad.
• Two Peas and Their Pod: Grilled pesto potatoes. 
• Big Girls Small Kitchen: Banh Mi dogs.  
• Kirbie's Cravings: Biscoff chocolate cups.
• Buzzfeed: 25 things that are kind of interesting, haha.

Peanut Butter Cheerios

I received a sample box of these new Peanut Butter Cheerios in the mail recently, and I had been looking forward to trying them out.  Just from opening the bag there was a strong peanut butter smell so there was no doubt about what flavor I got, haha. 

For as much as I assumed that these would be tooth-achingly sweet, they actually weren't AS sweet as I imagined they would be.  Now, this is coming from someone that loves sweets, so your actual experience with these might vary.  However, I thought these were tasty and would be a great option mixed into plain yogurt, or for cereal bars/other type of baked good that incorporated Cheerios, haha.  I'm not sure I'd buy these full-price (then again, I rarely do that with cereal in general), but I'd likely buy these again if they are on sale.

Seattle!

Hi everyone!  I'll in Seattle for a few days visiting my family, so the blog will be taking a little break. 

It's a quick trip, but I am looking forward to seeing my family of course, as well as dinner at Shiro's, a day trip to Leavenworth, WA, and of course lots of shopping and other foods as well.

See you all back here on Monday!

Lunchtime Links for July 17th, 2012

• The Kitchn: Matcha tea lemonade.
• Teen Mom: Recap from TVGasm. 
• Serious Eats: Reese's peanut butter cup sundae.  
• Kirbie's Cravings: Hello Kitty at Yogurtland.
• The Style Dossier: Moon-a-rita. 

The Candy Store at Target Prize

A big "Thank you!" to the Target Style Twitter account for having a fun giveaway of The Shops at Target collection items! 

I received a jar of gummy fried eggs and jawbreakers from the candy store at Target - super cute!  I'm still trying to figure out how to use the fried eggs in a cupcake - maybe some sort of maple cupcake with an egg on top, like a breakfast cupcake?

These items (as well as the other Shops at Target collections) may be on sale by this point in local stores, so check it out if you're in Target!

Lunchtime Links for July 16th, 2012

• The Kitchn: Shucking corn using the microwave.
• Serious Eats: Where to get ramen in Seattle. 
• Picky Palate: Bakery-style XXL chocolate chip cookies.
• How Sweet It Is: Fresh New England clam chowder with brown butter garlic croutons.
• Two Peas and Their Pod: Strawberry Nutella milkshake.

CVS Deals - Week of 07/15/2012

I only had two deals at CVS for this week, but these are pretty great!

- Unreal candy bar: $0.75 on sale, $0.75 Extra Bucks back.
- 2 Colgate Max toothpastes: 2/$5.00 on sale, two $1 manufacturer's coupons, $3 Extra Bucks back.

Three items for free with coupons, can't beat that!

Happy shopping everyone!

Lunchtime Links for July 13th, 2012

• The Kitchn: Cappuccino-chip frappe.
• How Sweet It Is: Fudgesicle granitas. 
• Cupcakes for Breakfast: Mini shortbread cookies with Nutella and peanut butter.
• Bakerella: Beach ball cake pop. 
• Buzzfeed: How to dress for the airport by Lady Gaga.

Free Starbucks Refreshers Drink 12-3pm Today

Everyone likes a free drink, right?

Earlier this week I saw that Starbucks is promoting their Refreshers drink by giving them away today, from 12-3pm in participating stores. 

Here's the official information, although it doesn't have much more details than what I just wrote, haha.  If you're by a Starbucks between 12-3pm, might as well try one of these out!

Lunchtime Links for July 12th, 2012

• Raspberri Cupcakes: Milk and chocolate chip cookie cupcakes.
• Buzzfeed: 17 pugs with broken dreams. 
• Serious Eats: Ice cream sandwiches at Sugar Magnolia in DC. 
• Kirbie's Cravings: Healthier PB mug cake.
• Bakerella: Brownie sundae bon bons.

Georgetown Cupcake - Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcake

The Blueberry Cheesecake cupcake at Georgetown Cupcake doesn't officially come out until August this year, but luckily I was around to snag it when it was the free secret flavor of the day recently.

... or so I thought, until I opened up the bag and saw this cupcake, but then saw an entirely different cupcake on their online menu, haha.  The Blueberry Cheesecake cupcake in August is a "Fresh blueberry and mascarpone cheese cupcake topped with a vanilla icing and a blue fondant flower", which, as you can see, is not this cupcake, haha.

Either way, this cupcake clearly counts as a Blueberry Cheesecake as well, probably even more so than the one in August.  It's pretty much the same as the NY Cheesecake but with the addition of fresh blueberries mixed in.  I mainly ate around the blueberries since I don't like them, haha, but the cheesecake portion was rich and the graham cracker crust was tasty as well.  Now that I've tried this one, I look forward to comparing it to the one that is out in August!

Lunchtime Links for July 11th, 2012

• Kirbie's Cravings: Nutella fudgsicles.
• Raspberri Cupcakes: Ice cream cone macarons.
• The Pioneer Woman: Steak fingers with gravy. 
• The Little Kitchen: Dark chocolate Biscoff butter cups.
• Two Peas and Their Pod: Watermelon spritzers.

Summer Sandals from DSW

Hooray for new summer shoes!  As soon as I saw these in Mix No. 6 Chanel Wedges at DSW I knew I had to try them on.  I was a little iffy on the gold at first, but in person (after wearing them in the store for a few minutes) I found that it's a light enough gold to really be considered more of a neutral.

Yes, the heel is high, but the great thing about these is how lightweight these are.  That's probably one of the main reasons I won't buy wedges online - no matter how cute they are, some of them are SO heavy and feel like you're wearing ankle weights, haha.  These are light and comfy, with some elastic on the ankle and foot areas (you can see it on the top shoe in the photo above) which is a nice touch.

As a final bonus, they're on clearance, woohoo!  If you're a fan of fun summer wedges like I am, get these before they are gone!

Lunchtime Links for July 10th, 2012

• Miss Advised: Recap from TVGasm. 
• Big Girls Small Kitchen: Avocado hummus.
• The Kitchn: Bringing back old reusable shopping bags.
• How Sweet It Is: Sour cream and onion oven fries. 
• Serious Eats: Pizza at Teresa Caffe in Princeton, NJ.

CVS Deals - Week of 07/08/2012

We're back with some great deals from CVS this week!

First, some great candy deals:

- Hershey's Simple Pleasures: $0.67 on sale, $0.67 Extra Bucks back.

- 2 Skittles/Starburst candies: 4/$2 on sale, $0.50/2 manufacturer's coupon.

There's also a few deals on household/toiletries:

- 4 Kleenex tissues: Buy one get one free, $1/4 manufacturer's coupon.

- Gillette Venus & Olay razor: $9.99 on sale, $4 manufacturer's coupon, $4 Extra Bucks back.

- 2 Colgate Total toothpastes, 2/$5.98 on sale, $1 manufacturer's coupon, $2 Extra Bucks back.

- Listerine Total Care Zero mouthwash: $3.99 on sale, $1 manufacturer's coupon, $1 Extra Bucks back.


Happy shopping everyone!

Lunchtime Links for July 9th, 2012

• Miss Advised: Recap from TVGasm.
• Kirbie's Cravings: Pepperoni pizza waffles. 
• Betty Crocker: Strawberry green smoothie pops. 
• The Kitchn: Patriotic cheesecake flag.
• Serious Eats: Japanese vegetables you should know.

Dunkin Donuts Giveaway Winners!

It's time to announce the two winners of my Blog Birthday/Dunkin' Donuts giveaway!

It was really fun to read everyone's favorite menu items from Dunkin' Donuts, it definitely made me hungry reading them all!

And the winners are....

Prize 1:

amyorvin June 26, 2012 6:13 PM

Thank you for the giveaway. I love the Chocolate Frosted Cocoa Donuts!!

Prize 2:

Rachel June 29, 2012 11:13 AM

Happy anniversary! I have to say, their new Oreo donut looks amazing. I'm a sucker for a good old glazed old fashioned, though--

Congratulations to you both, I hope you enjoy your prizes!!

Thank you to everyone for entering, it made my 3rd blog birthday lots of fun! 

Lunchtime Links for July 6th, 2012

• Kirbie's Cravings: Healthier fudgy Nutella mug cake.
• Serious Eats: Espresso chocolate muffins. 
• Real Housewives of OC: Recap from TVGasm.
• How Sweet It Is: Peanut butter drizzled chewy milk chocolate chunk cookies.
• Washingtonian: East Pearl restaurant in Rockville, MD.

Georgetown Cupcake - Lavender Earl Grey Teacake

June brings us a new monthly cupcake flavor at Georgetown Cupcake, woo!  This Lavender Earl Grey Teacake was originally created for co-owner Katherine's tea-themed bridal shower.  It is a "Classic Madagascar Bourbon vanilla cupcake infused with lavender and earl grey tea, topped with a lavender infused buttercream frosting, a fondant flower, and a sprinkle of lavender sugar".

I was cautiously excited to try out this new cupcake flavor once it was available.  I say "cautiously" because for as much as I LOVE tea-flavored baked goods, lavender makes me think of soap. And scented candles. And basically anything floral and not edible, haha.

It could've been this particular cupcake that I got, but luckily this one did not remind me of soap at all, haha.  There was a strong tea flavor that I really enjoyed, with little pockets of a lavender taste, just enough that I knew it was there.  The frosting is a really pretty light purple color, and this would be a great addition to a tea-themed party!

Lunchtime Links for July 5th, 2012

• My Baking Addiction: Mallo cup cupcakes.
• Steamy Kitchen: Pork belly buns. 
• Kirbie's Cravings: Double Nutella chunk cookies.
• Serious Eats: BBQ pulled pork cupcake at Bourbonsteak in DC. 
• Picky Palate: Chocolate chip pan "cakes" with cookie dough crumble.

Shake Shack - July Custard Calendar

Once again, there are lots of fun, summery custard flavors this month at Shake Shack!

Monday: Caramelized Peach
Tuesday: Derby Walnut Pie
Wednesday: Blueberry Lime
Thursday: Boston Creme Pie
Friday: Beer Nuts (adults only)
Saturday: Cherry Chip
Sunday: Sweet Corn

I have to say, the Beer Nuts and Sweet Corn sound pretty intriguing to me, haha!

Power Outage = Blog Break

Hi everyone! Due to a crazy-ass storm that blew through the DC area on Friday evening, I've been without power since the storm came through.  I'll be taking a little break here until the power comes back - have a great day everyone!!!

PS - I'll be contacting the winners of the Dunkin' Donuts giveaway hopefully by the end of this week!