Portland, Professional Development and Peanut Butter

I shared the most ridiculous sandwich in Portland this weekend.

A grilled peanut butter sandwich on Challah bread with black cherry jam, jalapeno, and apple wood smoked bacon. There aren't words to describe this sandwich.

I left last Wednesday afternoon for Portland to help lead some professional development that was happening at Mt. Hood Community College. When I was asked if I was interested in helping out with this one, I nearly freaked because a good friend of mine lives in Portland.

Several years ago I biked cross-country and met an incredible girl, Taylor, on the trip. Maybe another day I'll post more about that trip, but I am so glad that her and I shared that experience together. We actually hadn't seen each other since our trip.

Her and I somewhere in the middle of  the country (2006).

Catching up this weekend (2012).

So now that you met Taylor, I can share the story of what happened while splitting our sandwich on the steps outside a little boutique. I finished snapping a couple pictures of the sandwich and we both grabbed our halves. As I was about to bite into it, a lady walked by and goes, "I know that sandwich!" We smiled and shes goes, "That's the Hot Hood sandwich. Where are you guys from?" and I responded "Austin" and she smiled and told us to enjoy it as she walked away.

It turns out she is the owner of the food truck! How neat and really cute that she stopped and talked to us.

m&m cookies

These are delicious. I brought a cookie to each of my tutors that help out in my class. One of them ate it and goes, "wow, the aftertaste is so awesome". I responded, "Butter!".

These are chewy and nutty. I didn't realize they would be quite this giant. Make sure to space them out quite a bit on your cookie sheets.

Recipe from Joyofbaking.com

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup m&ms

Preheat oven to 350F. Place one oven rack in the top third of the oven, and one oven rack in the bottom third of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and egg yolk, beating until well combined. Beat in the vanilla extract. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix until just incorporated.

Form large balls with the batter and flatten them on the baking sheets (they will spread a lot). The recipe then says to gently press the candies into the cookies - but my m&ms color shell melted off into the cookie. I would recommend waiting until the cookies have baked for 5-7 minutes, take them out, and then press in the candies.

The cookies bake for about 15 minutes. Rotate the pans halfway through. Makes 15 large (!!) cookies.

Friday!

Happy Friday! I think I'm mostly making preparations for my work trip to Portland later this week and on Sunday Meg and I are going to the Bridal Bash in Austin. My friend Kathy had some free tickets, so Meg and I will be eating free food and wedding cake (!!) while watching girls fight with their mothers about wedding decor. Hopefully it can inspire me to start calling venues, because I haven't done anything.

Happy Valentine's Day!

On Sunday I baked a bunch of mini-cupcakes to take to work today. I switched up from my usual cupcake recipe and switched to a Martha Stewart one. I can't decide which I like better; both are really good. I topped them with basic vanilla buttercream.

We aren't doing a whole lot for Valentine's Day, but I am making a spicy seafood pasta with scallops and shrimp, a crab salad for the starter, and dark chocolate covered strawberries. I found a $4 bottle of Andre, so we may have strawberry belinis too?

I think Eric has a lot of studying to do, but hopefully we can watch a couple episodes of Workaholics. I haven't watched a show that made me laugh so hard in a really long time.


Have a good V-day.




 (On the right is the chalkboard in our kitchen :)

Happy Birthday Peeper!

Tana, I will always view you as my sister and as a best friend. I am so lucky to have been able to grow up and share so much with you. I love you so much! Happy Birthday! xoxox

girl vs. boy dinner

I haven't made anything lately. I wanted to bake something the last couple days, but a load of work paperwork that's due and frequent trips to take care of friends' dogs have filled most of my time. Yesterday Eric and I walked to WF to eat dinner and I thought it was funny that we both went separately through the store and came back with almost identical meals in a girl version and a boy version. Eric got a creamy oyster chowder and I got a kale white bean soup. He picked out a fresh white ciabatta roll and mine was multigrain.

Hope your week is going well! I'm enjoying eating again, although my stupid rash has appeared on my face again. Sigh. Back to the doctor.

Happy Friday!

Um, this is a GREAT Friday because this means tomorrow I will be eating food again! Wooo!

Today marks Day#5 of my juice cleanse. Most was smooth sailing, but I had a terrible headache, fever, and nausea on Day#3. It started mid-day and went through the evening. I went to sleep at 7:30pm and woke up feeling normal the next day though.

I miss eating! I don't know how people do this for an entire month. crazy. I can't wait to cook and eat with Eric again. He may be eating some strange raw meals with me this weekend though.

P.S. My rash has been rapidly fading this week! It started a month ago and was showing little to no improvement prior to juicing.

Juicing Day #3

Juicing is going well. This morning my breakfast was blueberry, meyer lemon, and apple juice. Yum. Lunch will be tomato, cucumber, broccoli, kale, spinach, lemon, carrot, apple, cilantro and spirulina. Not the most delicious, but not too bad either. I had to go to Whole Foods to get some juicing ingredients and that was torture watching everyone eating. The worst was going to the bank and walking by pizza places.

I think Friday will be my last day juicing. This is so expensive and I miss cooking and eating with Eric.