Lunchtime Links for February 28th, 2019

• The Kitchn: One-bowl desserts.
• Kirbie's Cravings: Korean beef lettuce wraps.
• Dessert for Two: Eggless banana bread. 
• Handle the Heat: Buttermilk biscuits.
• Damn Delicious: Sheet pan beef and broccoli.

Lunchtime Links for February 27th, 2019

• The Kitchn: Sheet pan dinners.
• Crazy for Crust: Peanut butter frosting. 
• Averie Cooks: Easy shrimp cakes.
• Love and Olive Oil: Sour cream chocolate chip coffee cake. 
• The First Year Blog: Cheesecake whipped cream.

Ice Skating at the Canopy by Hilton North Bethesda

Last night the Canopy by Hilton hotel at Pike & Rose hosted a fun event at the ice skating rink located on the roof terrace of the hotel.  What a great use of the open outdoor space during the winter! 

The ice skating rink is part of a partnership with Mel's Rink foundation, and it is a nice sized synthetic ice skating rink located just outside of the hotel's restaurant area.  There's a lot of comfortable seating both next to the skate rental area and around the rink as well - perfect for anyone that needs to take a break while skating around the rink, haha.  It's also a great area to sit and relax while you are looking out to the main streets of Pike and Rose - especially with the pretty holiday lights still up on the trees!  

The event had a great selection of food and drinks - perfectly sized little bites while enjoying the semi-private space in the restaurant area.  We got to try a number of seasonal dishes from the hotel's restaurant, including flatbread, potstickers, mac n' cheese bites, and potato puffs.  I especially liked the flavor of the chicken and lemongrass potstickers - delicious!  Of course I had to enjoy some sweets as well, and I love the hotel's presentation of cake pops in vases, along with hot cider and hot chocolate to drink.

This was a great opportunity to check out how the roof terrace has been transformed, and a creative way for the hotel to have the roof terrace space available for guests during the colder months!


Canopy by Hilton Washington DC - Bethesda North
940 Rose Avenue
North Bethesda, MD 20852  


Note: I was invited to the Canopy Hilton for the event but was not paid for this post.

Lunchtime Links for February 26th, 2019

• The Kitchn: Homemade peanut butter.
• Kirbie's Cravings: Wonton soup.
• Picky Palate: Funfetti cake. 
• Serious Eats: Sweet and savory waffles. 
• Dessert for Two: Eggless chocolate chip cookies.

Lunchtime Links for February 25th, 2019

• Creme de la Crumb: Red velvet cheesecake bites.
• The Kitchn: One pot creamy broccoli pasta.
• Damn Delicious: Mini Hasselback potatoes.
• Cookies and Cups: Chocolate peanut butter chip cookies. 
• Table for Two: Asian pork meatballs.

The Baked Bear - Strawberry Cheesecake Cookie

This past Saturday, The Baked Bear hosted a Customer Appreciation day with free scoops of ice cream - a delicious way to celebrate! In addition to my free scoop of the delicious Espresso Chip ice cream, I bought this month's cookie - Strawberry Cheesecake. 

The cookie is a bright pink color with matching pink sugar sprinkles on top.  I wasn't really sure what to expect to be honest, but I was very pleasantly surprised by this flavor.  The strawberry flavor is very strong, but there's a nice cream cheese/vanilla flavor throughout as well which was nice to balance things out.  I'm glad I tried this before it goes away at the end of February!

Lunchtime Links for February 22nd, 2019

• I Heart Naptime: Chicken and rice soup.
• Gimme Some Oven: Hummus toast.
• Handle the Heat: Pancake recipe.
• The Kitchn: 5 ingredient loaded totchos.
• Crazy for Crust: Parmesan roasted Brussels sprouts.

Lunchtime Links for February 21st, 2019

• The Kitchn: Taiwanese beef noodle soup.
• Crazy for Crust: Brownie recipe. 
• The Cozy Apron: Avocado toast. 
• The First Year Blog: Bakery style banana bread muffins.
• Two Peas and Their Pod: Garlic bread.

Lunchtime Links for February 20th, 2019

• The Kitchn: Muffin tin desserts.
• Oh Sweet Basil: Hot cocoa mug brownie for one.
• Damn Delicious: Garlic butter steak bites and fries.
• Kirbie's Cravings: Fudgy brownies. 
• Crazy for Crust: 30 minute chicken and dumplings.

Christmas Mystery Grab Bag - Chalkfulloflove

I've been following Chalkfulloflove on Instagram for a while now, but it was her recent Mystery Grab Bag sale that prompted my first purchase from her online shop! And it is sort of funny that I happened to order the Christmas Mystery Grab Bag, and it arrived the night before a pretty significant snowstorm that started this morning.  It feels like Christmas all over again with these cute gifts!  I especially liked a lot of her mug designs when she posts them on Instagram, so I'm happy that this set came with a mug.  It's very sturdy and the lettering is too cute!  Be sure to follow her on Instagram or check out her page if you're also a fan of cute lettering-related gifts!

Lunchtime Links for February 19th, 2019

• The Kitchn: One-bowl blondies.
• How Sweet Eats: Chocolate sheet cake with peanut butter frosting.
• Brown Eyed Baker: Cake pops.
• Averie Cooks: Easy chocolate pots de creme.
• Smitten Kitchen: Chocolate puddle cakes.

Lunchtime Links for February 15th, 2019

• Damn Delicious: Skillet buttermilk biscuits.
• Oh Sweet Basil: Flourless chocolate cake.
• I Heart Naptime: Garlic bread. 
• Dessert for Two: Red velvet cake.
• The Kitchn: Chicken Parmesan.

Lunchtime Links for February 14th, 2019

• Averie Cooks: Valentine's day vanilla pudding sugar cookie bars.
• Serious Eats: Valentine's day gifts. 
• The Pioneer Woman: Chocolate recipes.
• Dessert for Two: Dessert board. 
• Buzzfeed: Valentine's day dinners.

Lunchtime Links for February 13th, 2019

• The Kitchn: Tator tot casserole.
• Oh Sweet Basil: Garlic butter steak. 
• Cookies and Cups: French onion soup.
• Damn Delicious: Tikka Masala.
• How Sweet Eats: Cheesy white pizza on garlic bread crust.

Table For Two's Everything But the Eggroll Bowl

During the month of January, I joined Table For Two's cooking challenge, which consisted of making a few meals a week based on her meal plans.  It was a great way to try new recipes and cook at home more regularly! 

One of my early favorites was this Everything But the Eggroll Bowl- essentially the meat and vegetables of a delicious egg roll, but deconstructed as a dish on its own.  It's a really quick recipe, especially with the use of a cole slaw/broccoli slaw (in my case) from the grocery store as the bulk of the vegetables.  Also, it's a great recipe for adapting to any vegetables that you might have in your kitchen - just chop them up and throw them in.  This is the only recipe from the January challenge that I have made twice so far, and I definitely will be adding it to my regular rotation! 

Lunchtime Links for February 12th, 2019

• The Kitchn: Creamy Parmesan shrimp.
• Sora News 24: Kit Kat makeup. 
• Oh Sweet Basil: One pan simple Asian shrimp noodles. 
• Dessert for Two: Lobster mac n' cheese.
• Table for Two: Copycat Trader Joe's pancake bread.

Lunchtime Links for February 11th, 2019

• Serious Eats: Hot chocolate from scratch.
• The Kitchn: Asiago garlic Alfredo pasta.
• Sora News 24: Marie Kondo. 
• The Cozy Apron: Baked mac and cheese.
• Crazy for Crust: Oven baked chicken tenders.

Walmart - February Beauty Box

I've been receiving the $5 Walmart seasonal beauty boxes for a while now, and I have generally been pretty happy with the selection of samples.  The one I just received especially is great!  It has a number of items that I know I'll use very soon, especially the Pantene rescue shots and the Curel moisturizer.  It's a fun way to try out new products, and to have some items on hand that are useful for traveling as well.  Sometimes the other high end beauty boxes wind up having samples that you don't use, but I like that the Walmart one usually has pretty useful items!

Lunchtime Links for February 8th, 2019

• The Kitchn: Korean chicken dumpling soup.
• Crazy for Crust: Red velvet blossoms cookies.
• Damn Delicious: Garlic butter shrimp Scampi.
• Cookies and Cups: Banana muffins.
• Kirbie's Cravings: Honey garlic butter steak lettuce wraps meal prep.

Kristin Ess at Target - Wide Tooth Detangling Hair Comb

I'm a big fan of the Kristin Ess line at Target - especially the new scalp care products! - so I was very excited to see that she also recently came out with some hair styling products.  There's a few different varieties of pins and brushes in the collection, but I definitely had my eye on the detangling comb.  The comb and the packaging first of all are so pretty, which definitely made this an easy purchase, haha.  The comb itself is very lightweight, and the wide teeth work well on my long hair without any hard tugging.  I'm very excited to see what else she comes out with in her growing collections!

Lunchtime Links for February 7th, 2019

• A Spicy Perspective: Healthy Italian wedding soup.
• Cookies and Cups: Chocolate cheesecake. 
• How Sweet Eats: Ginger scallion noodle bowls.
• Love and Olive Oil: Chocolate blackout sheet cake with chocolate cookie crumbs.
• Averie Cooks: One-pot beef and bow tie soup.

Lunchtime Links for February 6th, 2019

• The Kitchn: Meatball recipes.
• I Heart Naptime: No-bake cheesecake. 
• Brown Eyed Baker: Chocolate Souffle.
• Oh Sweet Basil: Crispy Pancetta Ravioli with sun dried tomatoes and spinach. 
• The Pioneer Woman: Chocolate peanut butter lava cakes.

Friendly's Nor'Easter Pothole Ice Cream

I just had to share this because this is definitely one of the more random ice cream flavors that I have seen, haha!  The Friendly's Nor'Easter Pothole consists of "chocolate ice cream swirled with black tar fudge with crushed chocolate creme cookie gravel and asphalt chocolate chips" - how's that for a chocolate-filled mouthful!  It sounds delicious though and I am definitely planning on trying it soon - hopefully without any post-snowstorm potholes in real life, haha.

Lunchtime Links for February 5th, 2019

• The Kitchn: Shrimp tacos.
• Two Peas and Their Pod: Ultimate chocolate cookies.
• Oh Sweet Basil: Nutella stuffed strawberry chocolate cupcakes. 
• Gimme Some Oven: Sesame beef and cabbage stir fry.
• A Kitchen Addiction: Salted dark chocolate cookies.

Lunchtime Links for February 4th, 2019

• I Heart Naptime: Pizookie.
• A Spicy Perspective: Smoked salmon dip.
• Creme de la Crumb: Salted caramel brownies. 
• Kirbie's Cravings: Sichuan spicy wontons.
• Averie Cooks: Valentine's frosted sugar cookie bars.

TJ Maxx - Valentine Mug

I always enjoy seeing holiday-specific items in stores, and right now there are so many cute Valentine's day-themed goodies at HomeGoods/Marshalls/TJMaxx!  I love all of the different kitchen items most of all, like this salt and pepper mug I saw on the shelf recently.  Those little faces on the shakers are too cute :o) If you're a fan of pink/red/heart decorations be sure to get over to these stores soon because Easter items are already starting to fill up the shelves!

Lunchtime Links for February 1st, 2019

• I Heart Naptime: Chicken and vegetable stir fry.
• Damn Delicious: Creamy Tortellini soup. 
• SoraNews24: Starbucks Japan's cherry blossom drink.
• The Kitchn: Chocolate brownies.
• Crazy for Crust: BBQ chicken pizza.