Day 212: Raspberry Cake

I didn't expect much from this. I was able to pick up the ingredients last night. Liz found the recipe for the Raspberry Buttermilk Cake at Epicurious.

It was pretty easy to make. I'm use to making cakes with layers and icing. This felt a little weird. It smelled amazing though.

And the taste? Holy Crap! It's crazy good. I am definitely making this again. I seriously think you should try it too. Why aren't you going to your grocery store right now?

Day 211: Cheesecake

Plain cheesecake. Nothing fancy.  I stopped by Safeway and got a single slice to take it easy on cost and to prevent me from eating nothing but cheesecake, pie, and cake for the next few days.

Not the best I've had or the worst. Easily middle of the road cheesecake.

Day 210: Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day

This day is puzzling, mostly because nobody actually seems to know what it means. The best story I could find is that folks used to buy cheese and 'sacrifice' it to catch rodents in their house. Since we are currently rodent-free, we went with the alternative meaning of this day, which is to 'sacrifice' one's budget on a fancier-than-usual cheese. Alex purchased a lovely Gouda at Safeway. If you know Alex, this is pretty fancy for him.

Fun Gouda fact: It's named after a city in Holland, but only because that was where all of the Hollandic farmers used to trade their cheeses back in the Middle Ages. It's yellow, slightly creamy and delicious. I love the red wax! I asked Alex if it was "Gouda," (classic cheese-y joke) and he said it was okay-da. Ha!

Day 209: Milk Chocolate

To be honest I thought today was chocolate milk, but the reverse is just fine too. Liz picked up an endangered species milk chocolate bar. I'm assuming it's from New Seasons.

It pretty good. definitely milky. If it weren't so hot I'd have swallowed the whole thing. I threw it in the freezer for now so I don't have a mess on my hands.

Day 208: Crème Brûlée

Even though Crème Brûlée is basically sugar with sugar on top, Alex has never had it. Huh. Weird. We went to Papa Haydn for this treat.

It's one of my favorites, and I think it has become one of Alex's as well. His description: "it's like pudding with candy on top." Well said, sir!

Day 207: Coffee Milkshake

Poor milkshake. They ruined you. I love a milkshake and I hate coffee. It's like taking boardgame which I love and pouring coffee on it. Why?

I whipped it up quick. I only had to use the left over coffee Liz made in the morning.

The first half-second was nice, but then that flavor seeped in and it tarnished everything. I can still taste it after the mouthwash.

Day 206: Hot Fudge Sundae

So this is a lot like two days ago, but with hot fudge. So much better!

Day 205: Tequila

Nope!

Day 204: Vanilla Ice Cream

Say all you want about vanilla being the 'plain' flavour. When you work for a store like New Seasons Market (dot.com!), fancy vanilla ice creams abound. Our go-to brand is McConnell's fine ice cream Vanilla Bean Flavor.

 A blend of exotic vanillas and grass-fed milk makes for a delightful dessert. No toppings necessary.

Day 203: Penuche Fudge

I've done fudge about twice now and both times it was from a shoppe. This time I decided to make it. And by decided I mean Liz sent me the recipe from The Culinary Life and told me to pick up half-n-half.  I feel like I tried making this a long time ago. I hated what I got. Fudge is just so temperamental. How the hell am I suppose to know if the fudge is at 236 °F?

It wasn't that good. It was pretty grainy. I'm not sure where I went wrong, but I'm guess it was every step after putting thing in a pan. I don't mind though. I don't think I would have been a huge fan even if I had made it right. I don't really see the point in fudge if it's not chocolaty.

Day 202: Junk Food

What 20th-century decade was raging when Time magazine coined the term "junk food"? This a question on the last card I read from Trial Pursuit Genus 5. How timely. I pick up the game and a small pack of Combos from Goodwill.

If I don't get something sweet to snack on at a convenient store this is usually what I buy. I almost always get pizzeria flavor.

Day 201: Lollipop

Oh if only Alex had a propeller beanie, this day would be amazing. We got his lollipop at Cosmic Candy in SE, which has become our go-to place for sweets. It smells like sugar and turned his tongue bright purple.

By the way, my innocent mind thought of the Chordettes song, while Alex's depraved brain thought of Mika's song, which is clearly all about sex. Dirty boy.

Day 200: Daiquiri

We went to a new place for us called Pambiche. It a great little Cuban restaurant. Really good food.

You can watch the video to see how I liked the daiquiri.

Day 199: Caviar

Poor Alex has been having...er, stomach issues for the last few days. So the poor thing had to eat caviar today. I'm not gonna lie, it looks disgusting. I'm happy for the foodies that enjoy it, but huge globular salmon eggs just don't do it for me (or Alex).

At the risk of being gross here, I'll just say that Alex tried really hard to eat the canape, but regurgitated it shortly thereafter. I quickly whisked it away (boy, do I love him) and gave him water to cleanse his palate.

By the way, it was salmon eggs. Is anything technically better? We were expecting dark eggs. Obviously we know nothing about the finer things.

Day 198: Peach Ice Cream

I went to Safeway and search the entire ice cream aisle. The closest I could find was peach sorbet or mango ice cream. Damn you mangos!

I have a trick jaw.

I just got some Haagen Daz vanilla ice cream and a peach and had Liz slap it together for me. Quite nice.

Day 197: Corn Fritters

We went to Delta Cafe. This wasn't our first stop there, but it's been a while. Their pulled pork po' boys are amazing.

The corn fritters are okay. I just don't think they are my style. It didn't stop me from eating two of them though.

Day 196: Tapioca Pudding

Aaaaaaand this day. I haven't had this since i was about seven. It's still just as disgusting. It's like pudding with cancer.

Bubble tea is so much better.

Day 195: Macaroni

Whenever I make macaroni like this, I feel like a kid again. Something about the elbow shape and the electric orange color. I'm just glad to say that Annie's Natural Foods makes a great boxed macaroni. No Kraft in this house!

And since Alex is basically just a big kid, he's right at home for this day.

Day 194: French Fries

We tried to go to the Savoy because we love the fries and cheese curds there, but they weren't open yet. We walked around for a bit until we found a place that was open. An what a great day to do that. Cool air, nice scenery, and thunder in the background, what could be better? We happened upon the Double Barrel Tavern which had kicking music the whole time.

There fries looked pretty cool to. Not may favorite, but still good. The little touch of spice on them was nice.

Day 193: Pecan Pie

I went back to Laurette Jean's for this. Of course, as I might have suspected then didn't have it. They said it's more of a fall pie. Then who was the idiot who made it a national food holiday in the summer. It wasn't a complete waste of time since I was able to update my voter info from one of those roving people on the street. I hadn't done anything about it since I last moved.

I quickly biked home and then got the ingredients I needed to make the pie. I was in a bit of a hurry since I had to get to softball. I had just enough time to bake it. And letting it cool would take all of softball. Perfect!

To be honest I wasn't really looking forward to this one, although I've never had pecan pie. I love it. It's basically pure sugar. And of course how could I not mention this:

Day 192: Blueberry Muffin

Top of the muffin to you! Got these at Safeway and they are mighty moist. Love'm There are to many good foods to eat.

Day 191: Piña Colada

Got this one at the nearby Gladstone Pub. And all I had to do was run to Safeway to get the Piña Colada mix.

Day 190: Sugar Cookie

There have been sightings of giant sugar cookies falling from the sky. Or me holding cookies from Safeway close to the camera. I'm not sure which, but You should probably prepare for both.

These were pretty soft. I doubt they'll stay that way if they don't get eaten fast. Back to work then.

Day 189: Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Omelette

Quick recap: I'm not a huge fan of other people's eggs. So I've never had an omelette before. Plus most things people put in omelettes i'd rather avoid. All I'd want in it is cheese and I can just make scrambled eggs with cheese for that.

For my version I made sure to cook both the inside and outside to prevent any ewwy gooey egginess.

I added Mexican shredded cheese and Sriracha. It's tastes a lot like a cheese chilito. Makes me wish I was eating a taco inside, which is great since that's what I plan to do for dinner.

Day 188: Strawberry Sundae

Here we are at Dairy Queen again, it's the old standby. I have a thing with mushy strawberries so Alex was on his own (happily).

Summer is easy but also slightly boring. Hopefully you like to look at Alex's face as much as I do.

Day 187: Fried Chicken

Finger lickin' good, it's not. Alex wanted to 'go to KFC,' but I quickly put the kibosh on that in favor of this:

C-Bar in SE knows their food. Fried chicken with mashed red potatoes, collard greens and lardons. Oh. My. Goodness. So delicious and so huge that I have a mini-meal coming to me tomorrow (or maybe tonight). Alex liked it, but he liked his chicken caesar salad better.

Day 186: Apple Turnover

We're fixin' to go camping, but first we stopped by the Whiffies food cart for an apple turnover. Hand-formed, hand-fried and delicious!

The only thing is, we decided to get lunch before we ate the pies and we were stuffed full of chili cheese fries. Ughhhh.

Alex ate it all anyway. What a champ.

Day 185: Barbecued Spare Ribs

Today is Alex's birthday, so I'll leave you friends with an image you won't soon forget:

Isn't that amazing? Happy Fourth, everyone!

Day 184: Chocolate Wafer

I love me some a deez! I'm a little confused about combinations of the wafer cookie at Safeway  though. You can get the assorted (strawberry, vanilla, chocolate), or just vanilla, or just lemon. I get the lemon. Lemon people are a different breed. But Vanilla instead of chocolate?! What up with that?

They actually go great with peanut butter, but it make your face smell.

Day 183: Anisette

Yuck, yuck, yuck. Black licorice is gross, and so is anisette.

Day 182: Gingersnaps

Love these! I'm not sure why Liz doesn't. It's like a sweet and tasty cookie that has an odd spicy after taste. I'm not sure if spice is the thing to go for on a hot summer day, but I'm willing to throw caution to the wind on this one.