Lunchtime Links for July 31st, 2013

• Serious Eats: S'mores variations.
• How Sweet It Is: Stovetop Buffalo chicken shells and cheese.
• The Kitchn: Creative s'mores ideas.
• Cookies & Cups: Coffee cake cookies.
• I Heart Naptime: S'mores bars.

Tarte Cosmetics - 30% Off Online Sale

Starting today through August 4th, you can get Tarte Cosmetics for 30% off on their online store, woohoo!  Just use the code "TARTEFF" at checkout.

Some of my favorite products from this brand are:

- Amazonian clay 12-hour blush
- Amazonian clay mineral bronzer
- multiplEYE lash enhancing primer

I would definitely recommend checking out their sale if you're in the market for some new makeup!

Lunchtime Links for July 30th, 2013

• Averie Cooks: Softbatch Funfetti sugar cookies.
• Picky Palate: Slow cooker white chicken chili mac.
• How Sweet It Is: Fluffernutter chip ice cream. 
• The Pioneer Woman: Skillet chicken lasagna.
• What's Cooking, Love?: Funfetti cake cheese ball.

Georgetown Cupcake - Neapolitan Cupcake

Yay for a new flavor! This Neapolitan cupcake from Georgetown Cupcake was offered as a free secret flavor recently and I more or less ran over to get my hands on it, haha.

This cupcake is a Classic Madagascar Bourbon vanilla cupcake with “twisted” chocolate buttercream and strawberry buttercream with a pink fondant flower

The colors remind me of the bizarre astronaut ice cream that I used to buy at museums as a kid, but trust me it's much much better than freeze-dried ice cream haha.  The strawberry and chocolate frosting twisted together was fantastic!! I also love the color combination of the three flavors, very pretty! 

Lunchtime Links for July 29th, 2013

• Serious Eats: Crisp and chewy chocolate chip cookies. 
• Brown Eyed Baker: Peanut butter lover's ice cream.
• The Kitchn: Watermelon popsicles.
• Thought Catalog: Signs you're addicted to Starbucks.
• Averie Cooks: Triple peanut butter monster cookie bars.

Shake Shack F Street Concretes

One of the main reasons why I was excited for the F Street DC Shake Shack  is that each location has their own concrete flavors - so of course I had to try them out right away! 

My friend M and I met up for dinner, and it didn't take much to convince her to get one too so we could try two in one trip, haha. 

Doughnuts are Forever: Vanilla custard, Astro Doughnuts coconut doughnut, strawberry jam and rainbow sprinkles.  

If you know me at all you will know why I had to have someone else buy and eat most of this one, haha.

Beltway Blonde: Vanilla custard, cheesecake blondie, salted caramel sauce and banana

And here we have both of the concretes sitting pretty on my tray.  For obvious (COCONUT) reasons, the Beltway Blonde was my favorite of the two, with big chunks of blondie mixed in, and the salted caramel was a delicious touch as well.  However, the Doughnuts are Forever concrete is an awesome idea, and I love that they utilize a local restaurant's doughnuts for the custard.  Maybe one day they will switch to a different doughnut flavor....?

We went for dinner on opening day, which meant a nice bonus of free samples being passed around.  I tried the Buttery Caramel Cocoa Nib, the featured custard flavor of that day, and I really liked the rich caramel with the little tiny cocoa nibs mixed liberally throughout.  We also tried some of their beverages as samples as well. I'm so happy to have another Shake Shack in DC!!

Lunchtime Links for July 26th, 2013

• Serious Eats: Chocolate chip Bundt cake.
• Eat, Live, Run: Peanut butter cup ice cream.
• The Live-In Kitchen: Parmesan potato rounds.
• Cookies & Cups: Nutella-filled chocolate chocolate chip cookies.
• Kirbie's Cravings: No-bake Oreo cheesecake.