Lunchtime Links for September 6th, 2022

• Table for Two: Baked chicken spaghetti.  
• The Kitchn: Asian sesame seed garlic dressing.
• I Heart Naptime: Coffee cake. 
• Creme de la Crumb: Homemade Buffalo sauce.
• Just One Cookbook: Shio Ramen.

Takeout Tuesday - Sweets By Caroline's Macarons at URBNmarket Pike and Rose

There were a lot of great vendors at the URBNmarket held in Pike and Rose recently, including Sweets By Caroline's amazing macarons!  The "regular" macarons all look great but the character ones are on another level - so cute!  I'm glad I got there early to get my pick of the whole selection, especially since it looked like she sold out in two hours.  I could see why she sold out so quickly - the macarons were all so fun to look at and the character ones were so detailed.

 

The macarons all tasted as good as they looked and were the perfect afternoon treat in the middle of my work days.  This URBNmarket was a great chance to check out vendors that I haven't seen in person before like this one, and try out some delicious treats at the same time! 

 

Lunchtime Links for December 3rd, 2020

• The Kitchn: Carla Hall's stovetop mac and cheese. 
• Food52: Kabocha, olive oil, and bittersweet chocolate cake.
• Cookies and Cups: Fudge recipe.
• I Heart Naptime: Christmas Chex mix.
• Table for Two: Gingerbread man cookies.

Lunchtime Links for August 12th, 2020

• Dessert for Two: Chocolate chip banana muffins. 
• Love and Lemons: Cucumber tomato salad. 
• Crazy for Crust: Pumpkin cream cheese muffins.
• Apartment Therapy: Pop culture quote candles. 
• Creme de la Crumb: Chicken tacos. 

Lunchtime Links for April 29th, 2020

• Picky Palate: Churro chocolate chip banana bread.
• The Impulsive Buy: Ben & Jerry's Chip Happens ice cream. 
• The Kitchn: Double chocolate fudge-stuffed loaf cake.
• Oh Sweet Basil: Chopped Tex-Mex ground beef taco salad.
• I Heart Naptime: Homemade brownies.

Lunchtime Links for February 19th, 2020

• Two Peas and Their Pod: Chocolate chip pancakes.
• Love and Lemons: Steamed Bao buns.
• Cookies and Cups: Eclair cake. 
• Just One Cookbook: Chicken cheese Katsu.
• The Kitchn: Ina Garten's chocolate cake.

Lunchtime Links for February 6th, 2020

• Seasons and Suppers: 15 minute spicy chicken.
• Cookies and Cups: Easy pork ramen noodles.
• Bakerella: Baby Yoda cake pops. 
• A Spicy Perspective: Easy Tiramisu.
• Serious Eats: Gimbap rolls.

Lunchtime Links for January 29th, 2020

• Cookies and Cups: Cheesy chili mac casserole.
• The Impulsive Buy: Ben & Jerry's Netflix & Chilll'd ice cream. 
• I Heart Naptime: Bacon wrapped dates.
• Love and Lemons: Brownies.
• Two Peas and Their Pod: Guacamole.

Georgetown Cupcake - October Flavors

October is a great month for lots of fall themed cupcake flavors at Georgetown Cupcake!

• Pumpkin Cheesecake: Pumpkin cheesecake cupcake with a graham cracker crust, topped with maple cream cheese frosting and a fondant maple leaf
• Pumpkin Spice: Pumpkin spice cupcake with a maple-infused cream cheese frosting topped with a fondant maple leaf 
• Chocolate Ghost: Valrhona Chocolate cupcake topped with whipped Callebaut chocolate ganache frosting and decorated with a white fondant ghost 
• Vanilla Bat: Classic Madagascar vanilla cupcake topped with orange buttercream frosting and a black fondant bat 
• Vanilla Candy Spider: Classic Madagascar vanilla cupcake baked with chocolate candy pieces, topped with orange buttercream frosting and a black fondant spider 
• Chocolate Toffee Spider Web: Valrhona chocolate cupcake baked with crushed toffee pieces, topped with purple buttercream frosting and a fudge spider web drizzle 
• Halloween Surprise: Madagascar vanilla cupcake infused with orange and black non-pareils, topped with a whipped Callebaut chocolate frosting and decorated with a white fondant ghost 
• Vampire Red Velvet: Red Velvet cupcake decorated with a black fondant bat 
• Midnight Cookies and Creme: Valrhona chocolate cupcake topped with a milk chocolate cookies & crème buttercream frosting and cookie crumbles 
• Haunted Chocolate Cheesecake: Valrhona chocolate cheesecake with a cookie crust, topped with a whipped Callebaut chocolate frosting and decorated with a green fondant ghost 
• TLC "Give a Little" Red Velvet: Red Velvet cupcakes with vanilla cream cheese frosting, decorated with a sprinkling of gold sanding sugar and red confetti hearts, topped with coordinating “Give A Little TLC” and “Stand Up Against Bullying” logo fondant. These cupcakes are available for in-store purchase only from October 1st – October 31st.

Starbucks - "The Gary" Drink

If you're a fan of Brad Goreski and his husband Gary Janetti like I am, you probably have seen a million photos of an iced Starbucks drink on social media linked to the two of them, haha.  Brad recently posted a montage of Gary ordering the same drink at Starbucks at a bunch of locations while on vacation, and some versions of the drink seemed to fare better than others based on Gary's reaction.  Of course I wasn't the only one that went out and tried "The Gary" shortly after seeing these posts!

Based on the videos, "The Gary" is:
- Starbucks Grande Iced Mocha
- 2 pumps of Mocha
- Almond Milk
- No whipped cream

I got the Tall version of "The Gary" and I loved it!  I like almond milk to begin with and I think it adds a little extra flavor to the drink as well.  I love that this fun and silly social media post got so many people to try Gary's Starbucks drink of choice :o)  I also posted on Instagram that I wondered if my pre-order of Gary's book (Do You Mind if I Cancel?) would come with "The Gary", and he replied that it sadly does not, haha!

USPS - Sesame Street Stamps

With the amount of cards that I send out, I'm always happy to see new stamp designs come out from USPS.  Especially if they're fun designs like these Sesame Street stamps!  These would be super cute to send out to family or friends with little ones that love Sesame Street.  I only wish they had come out with extra versions that have multiples of certain characters - the Cookie Monster one especially would be fun to send, haha.  Be sure to check these out if you're looking for cute new stamps! 

Lunchtime Links for June 27th, 2019

• Crazy for Crust: 4th of July M&M cookies.
• The Kitchn: Homemade hummus. 
• Apartment Therapy: Netflix updates in July.
• The Impulsive Buy: Dunkin' Hershey's candy coffee flavors.
• Creme de la Crumb: Banana bars with cream cheese frosting.

Georgetown Cupcake - Coffee Toffee + Chocolate Cubed Cupcakes

I recently tried the Coffee Toffee cupcake from Georgetown Cupcake, just before the menu switched over to the holiday flavors.  I also made it in time to get the free flavor as well - the Chocolate Cubed - which was a nice little bonus!

The Coffee Toffee cupcake consists of a "Coffee cupcake infused with crushed toffee and topped with a mocha frosting and crushed toffee".  In other words, if you like either of the main flavors, you will love this cupcake!  I especially loved the mocha frosting - so creamy and really delicious! The toffee bits were in both the cake and the frosting, so it was a great bit of texture in every bite.  I hope they bring this one back, maybe with other crushed candy combinations too.

Recent Book Purchases

Read any good books lately?  I already have a stack of books that I've been meaning to get to, but I couldn't resist using a gift card on these books to read as well.  So far I have finished Call Me By Your Name, and just started China Rich Girlfriend a few days ago.

Call Me By Your Name was a great movie, and I liked how the original story was compared to the movie version.  It was a quick read for me, and I loved how well the author describes the long and lazy days of summer in Italy.  If anyone has read Crazy Rich Asians, the next book in the series is China Rich Girlfriend, and it's again filled with LOTS of characters, delicious-sounding food, and extravagant name-dropping throughout, haha.  Finally, I haven't read too much about The Actor's Life by Jenna Fischer previously, but I always enjoy reading "behind the scenes"-type books about Hollywood and actors.  I think it'd be unfair to automatically compare it to one of Mindy Kaling's books, but I hope there's some The Office tidbits in this one as well!

Lunchtime Links for January 17th, 2018

• The Kitchn: 20 make-ahead lunches. 
• Brown Eyed Baker: Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting. 
• Buzzfeed: 50 screenshots from "The Office". 
• Cookies and Cups: 20 peanut butter desserts.
• My Baking Addiction: Rosé cheesecake.

2017 Christmas Tree (with Andy Cohen)

I'm not sure if there's any sort of "official" time to start decorating for Christmas, but since my tree is tiny and takes about 5 minutes to decorate I figured I might as well start now, haha.  When do you all put up your holiday decorations? 

As you might notice from the photos above, there's a general sweets/food theme to my Christmas tree, and over the years it has started to look like a big advertisement for various brands, haha.  Some of those include my favorites, like Shake Shack, Starbucks, and Dunkin Donuts. 

After decorating my tree last night, I realized that I had a Facebook memory from 2012 and realized that I was basically doing the same thing 5 years ago - hah!  I'm glad that Andy himself enjoyed this Christmas moment with me too :o)

11/27/2012 - Andy on Watch What Happens Live:

 11/27/2017 - Andy on the RHOC reunion part 2:

Hearth & Hand with Magnolia at Target

I admittedly don't know much at all about the Magnolia brand, or the tv show (that's now ending) with Chip and Joanna Gaines - except I've heard they use shiplap on everything, haha.  However, I was curious enough about a new collaboration with Target to go check it out while I was running errands last weekend.  

The collection is called Hearth & Hand with Magnolia and if I had to describe it in a few words, the collection is very: Lite Rustic, Neutral, Wood, Cabin-y, haha.  So, not entirely my style, but there were a few pieces that I thought were cute:

- Dollhouse: Ok so clearly not anything near practical but I thought this was super cute and seemed all nostalgic being made out of wood and everything.

- Bud Vase: This little house works great as just decoration, but is listed as a bud vase which is very cute as well. 

- Cocoa Pot: Anything with hot cocoa is good in my book, haha.  I liked the warm wood accents and how it comes with a matching base.  

In the end, I did actually wind up buying the Acacia Wood Round Footed Tray (Medium) shown in the photo above.  I liked the sturdy feet first, weirdly enough - I've been looking for some decorative trays but a lot of them had wobbly wire feet, metal ball bottoms that could scratch surfaces, or no feet at all.  This one is perfect for decorating my new place, and also works as a serving tray for food whenever I have people over.  

So even if you're not a huge Chip and Joanna fan, it might be worth checking out their collection next time you're in Target to find a little something new for your home!

Lunchtime Links for August 9th, 2016

• Damn Delicious: Baked popcorn chicken.
• The Pioneer Woman: Ice cream cookie sandwiches.
• Buzzfeed: Simpsons moments.
• Gimme Some Oven: Mango Chipotle fish tacos.
• Table for Two: Salted lime butter grilled shrimp skewers.

Lunchtime Links for August 3rd, 2016

• Bake at 350: S'mores brownies.
• The Pioneer Woman: Baked Parmesan herb tomatoes.
• Crazy for Crust: Banana chocolate chip pancake cake.
• Buzzfeed: Hilarious moments from "The Office".
• The Kitchn: Rose lemonade.

Lunchtime Links for March 25th, 2016

• Crazy for Crust: Cinnamon roll blondies.
• Buzzfeed: "The Office" moments.
• Cookies and Cups: Cookie butter pie with cream cheese crust.
• Averie Cooks: Browned butter chocolate chip blondies.
• Bake at 350: Neiman Marcus cake.