Day 243: Trail Mix

I quickly went to Trader Joe's to get trail mix. There were a number to choose from. I was tempted to get one with cashews, but the giant dried cranberries would have been annoying. I went with a plain Jane one call Rainbow's End.

It's good. It has peanuts, raisins, and M&M like things. It's all I could ask for. Except maybe cashews... and pistachios... and mini marshmallows...

Day 242: Toasted Marshmallow

Toasting marshmallows is hard in an apartment. I tried doing it with a lighter and an oven first. It's a lot more painful.  I then went with a non-scented candle. Easier, but you have to watch it very closely still. I'm still a little light headed from watching the under side of a marshmallow.

The oven ones were good. The first candle one tasted good but burnt. The second candle one was much better. I don't plan on trying to improve on candle toasting from here on out.

Day 241: Chop Suey

I ordered this for pick up from Golden Dynasty. It's not super close, but it's near a nice bike trail I haven't been on in a while.  They sure do give you a lot of food for your buck. I barely made a dent in the suey.

It's good. If I ever order it again I'd make sure to nix the mushrooms and onions. I didn't really look to see what might be in it. It sure looks pretty. I did kill the egg rolls. Actually, next time, I'm just getting egg rolls.

Day 240: Cherry Turnover

Liz thought she could get me turnovers at Safeway, but all she saw was raspberry. I think we've filled up on raspberries. She got me ingredients and a recipe. Not a problem this time.

I wasn't a huge fan, but I wasn't really expecting to be. I'm not much of a cherry filling fan. I mostly ate the crispy edges and trashed the rest. So for next time: less filling and cook for longer.

Day 239: Banana

There were a lot of options for bananas, but the first to come to both my mind and Liz's was a banana milkshake. This things was way more banana than ice cream mind you. It was also amazing.

Drunk on banana goodness

The first song to pop in my head:

Day 238: Cherry Popsicle

Liz brought home some Outshine popsicles from work. They came in three flavors: cherry, grape, and tangerine.  The first two are made with real fruit. The last is made with fruit juice. A very important distinction I guess.

It's damn good. It took a while for Liz to take the picture since she was messing with the settings. This meant I had to wait about 2 minute before actually eat it. I could have eaten three in that time.

Day 237: Whiskey Sour

I used to drink all of the whiskey sours. Now, I'm more partial to beer. Alex said this was a close second to the Margarita as the tastiest alcoholic drink so far.

According to traditional preparation recipes, this drink includes a splash of egg white. Ew. I've only ever had it this way, with Midori.

Day 236: Peach Pie

Finally a fruit that's in season, but silly us, we didn't have the foresight to buy peaches in advance for pie making. So we decided to find peach pie in SE Portland. After a filling meal at 24th & Meatballs, we headed round the corner to the Pie Spot. It's a super cute little artisan pie joint that plays the Clash (at least the whole time we were there) and serves little 'pie-holes.' In addition to our seasonal Peach Bourbon pie, we also selected a S'mores pie.

We had them both warmed and dug into bliss. Admittedly, the S'mores pie was ooey-gooey and delicious, but the Peach Bourbon was no slouch either. Alex had a few bite of peach and then gobbled the S'mores pie like a little kid on Christmas.

Pie Spot, we'll be back for a Hog in a Quilt and more S'mores pie...very soon. Oh, and here's a picture of the S'mores pie. Go. Now.

Day 235: Sponge Cake

Liz had picked up some angel food cake for this, but that is its own special day. I didn't have the time to make it, nor did I want to have the time. I'm a little sick of complicated baking projects for the next few weeks. We picked up a "Un fantôme, Un couteau, Une nuit ..." from Pix Pastissrie. It has a number of things in it, one of which is sponge cake.

I ended up tipping the to-go box a little so it doesn't look as cool in my picture. That yellow bit is actually from the treat Liz got for herself.

It was more mousse than sponge cake really. It was all tasty. If you eat things like this as fast as I do it seems a little... all over the place. I mean it even has a plastic sword in it. Every bite has a different topping. It's kind of like when you drink a soda thinking it's Pespi and it ends up being root beer. You still like it, but it throws you off a bit. Now imagine every time you sipped, the flavor was different. This cake is like that, but the texture is really the thing that never stays the same. Still nice, but you're never expecting it.

Day 234: Spumoni

The only place I'm sure that has spumoni is The Old Spaghetti Factory. So I walked there. The back tire was flat.

I got a meal so the spumoni was complimentary. I'm assuming the green part is pistachio. It's really best if you get a little of both.

Day 233: Pecan Torte

Or how I learned to really mess up a pecan torte. This was doomed to fail from the beginning. Blame can be placed all around, but most of it goes on me. Liz sent me an "easy" recipe. Had I actually read the recipe for Frosty Caramel, Chocolate, and Pecan Torte from Better Homes and Gardens, I might have changed my choice.
I got out of work late since I had to wait for meeting to end. I stopped by Fred Meyer to get supplies only to find I could only find half the things I needed. After dropping off the goods I got and fixing the bike (I messed up the shifter on the way back), I went to get the rest at Safeway.

This recipe requires 24 chocolate wafer cookies which, as I have pointed out before, don't come in there own packages. I now have 2 packs of vanilla and strawberry wafer cookie left over (1 really, I ate at least 1 pack. I'm not sure if I'm complaining about this part). In mixing everything together I didn't notice that a lot of the ingredients went in multiple parts of the cake. This meant I didn't have the chocolate chips in the cream cheese mixture. I had a hell of a time getting the layers to spread nicely. This wouldn't look pretty. When I got to the end is where I knew this was all a bad idea. I had to let it freeze for 4 to 24 hours. How about and hour and a half? This really wouldn't look pretty.

The torte is less intense than I make it look.

I pulled as late as I could. And it held up well enough. A lot better than the cashew whatevers I tried to freeze. It tastes good too. Kind of like a chunky mud pie. I would never bother making this recipe again: bad memories, too much time, and too much work. I am glad to have the springform pans though.

Day 232: Lemonade

Nada nada limonada. Hola hola Coca-cola.  I always bike past Burgerville on the way home so I stopped to pickup a lemonade. This is Liz's drink of choice when we get anything at Burgerville. The seasonal lemonade was blackberry lemonade, but I went with the standard. It's nice and sugary. Just like I like it.

I would have loved to get lemonade from a stand, but I didn't see any on my way home. Too bad.

Day 231: Hot And Spicy Food

Here we are at Fire On The Mountain (I put the kibosh on Buffalo Wild Wings) ordering 5 boneless wings with El Jefe sauce. The cashier says "Are you sure?" That should have been a warning to Alex, but he just said "Yep!"
So the wings get to our table and instantly my eyes are assaulted with the spice emanating from Alex's wings. El Jefe is not to be taken lightly. It is a venomous mixture of, oh just let me allow them to describe: Habaneros, jalapenos, cajun spice, capsicum and Frank's Red Hot are just a few ingredients in this sauce that also doubles as bear-repellent. Yikes!
Alex does not seem deterred. He digs in.

Almost instantly his eyes begin to water and he starts chugging his drink in between bites. Even though we ordered only five, they gave him six honkin' huge, ridiculously spicy wings. I failed to mention that there is a challenge at FOTM: If you can eat 13 (13!) of these wings in less than two minutes, you get a t-shirt. I wanted Alex to try but after he ate two I decided I would never subject him to such pain. He finished the wings and probably five glasses of water and then instructed me to drive him to Dairy Queen for soft serve. How could I say no to my overspiced boyfriend?

Day 230: Soft Ice Cream

A little bit a weird day to have, but no weirder than some others. I went to DQ to get a twist cone, but this time I changed my usual location. It's too damn hot to be sitting outside. I when to a DQ with air conditioning.  Much better.

How can I say anything bad about the cone. It was great. Maybe I should have had it dipped in chocolate.

Day 229: Vanilla Custard

I got the recipe from food.com. As it's states, this really goes best in or on something. That is very true. It's not disgusting, but I wouldn't eat a bowl of it. It'd be great in a dount.

Day 228: Rum

Day 227: Lemon Meringue Pie

I'm not a fan of the lemony desserts. I was hoping to go to Lauretta's and get a quick slice. Unfortunately, they only had a lemon sour cream pie. I picked up what I needed at Safeway and got to work. I screwed up the meringue and had to start that part over. I added the sugar to soon.

In the end, it looked good until I cut into it. There was a very large pool of liquid at the bottom. It still tasted fine. And by fine I mean fine for a lemon meringue pie. I still didn't care much for it. Liz likes lemon stuff, but apparently her and meringue are in a mortal feud right now.

I didn't finish eating the slice. I'll probably throw the entire pie away. I'm not willing to subject this to anyone else. It's not my finest work.

Day 226: Creamsicle

I don't remember the last time I had one of these. I love them. After a long and hot walk back from work, I ate 2 on the way back from Safeway to home.

This is my fourth one today!

Day 225: Filet Mignon

'Cute' or dainty filet is the literal translation of this prime cut of beef. Alex surprised me with a reservation at Portland City Grill, which he had never been to. We took in the amazing view as we were seated at a 5-top(!?) round booth. No bother. More room to stretch, I guess. Alex ordered the 7 oz. Filet Mignon, which was quite spendy.

It was like butter. Despite his medium well order, the filet came out more medium, which made it super tasty. Totally worth the high price. Delicious.

Day 224: Julienne Fries

I've done french fries, but now I needed julienne fries. What is the difference? Most resources describe them as  thinly cut strips. That seems like a french fry. To be safe I went with the thinnest of the thinly sliced known as the shoestring fry. On my way home, I stopped by the Migration Brewing Co. to get their loaded fries. On the menu it is described as "large bowl of shoestring fries with cheese, pork shoulder and BBQ sauce". Sounded good to me.

Well, when they say loaded they mean loaded. The entire bike ride home I felt like I had a medicine ball on my back. It will fill you up. The fries were great; not over cooked and just salty enough. As for the meal as a whole, It was good, but I kind wished the sauce would have been more on the sweeter side than the sour side. Although that is coming from me so take it with a grain of sugar. I would gladly eat it again as I'm sure I will. Something tells me that when Liz's find out I've been to a pub without her, she's going to want to stop there herself.

Day 223: Raspberry Tart

Could we stop it with the raspberries? I believe this is at least the third or fourth raspberry item this month. Raspberries are delicious, but they certainly aren't the only berries out there...
Anyway, we got tiny, itsy bitsy tarts for today. They were utterly popable and delicious.

Also, just for fun, here's another picture of Alex eating a raspberry tart way back in May. That was the day we thought was raspberry tart but was really raspberry popover.

Day 222: S'more (and Banana Splits)

So this is two days and I couldn't pick one. It's like Sophie's Choice, so I did both. I did a little double checking and some resource claim that banana splits would be August 25. I never said this was an exact science. I don't regret anything. It was soooo good. Liz was disgusted ever step of the way. She thought it was over kill.

Day 221: Rice Pudding

This is a lot like tapioca pudding. Why does this exist? In all honesty, it is better than tapioca pudding. It's like someone said, "I like the idea of lumpy pudding. I just don't like tapioca.:" No thank you.

Artsy or off balance camera woman?

Day 220: Frozen Custard

If I lived in Eau Claire still this would have been easy. I'd go to my old place of work Culver's. But this is not the midwest. I rarely pay any attention to the specifics of the frozen treat I'm eating. Call it what you want; I call it tasty. Frozen custard is not the same as ice cream. That was made very appoint when I worked at Culver's. I never did really learn the difference. I think custard has egg in it.  A quick google and it seems that's right. I found 2 places that seemed to "for sure" sell frozen custard. I didn't know how to bike to Vancouver so I took a 7.5 mile bike south to J Gelati Italian Ice Frozen Custard in Milwaukie. I nearly missed it when I got down there. If it weren't for the classic red/green table umbrellas I might not have see it at all.

They had over 50 flavors to choose from. I decided on egg nog since I love that stuff and I only get to drink it in December. Plus it seemed a fitting flavor for this treat. If I had to go back, I'd pick the same thing. Now I know where to feed my non-December egg nog fix. It was very sweet and not too heavy. After the trek home, my stomach still doesn't hate me. Thumbs up.

Day 219: Raspberries in Cream

More raspberries.  This was not as complicated as the last two. Just raspberries and whip cream. It's also nothing to shout about. It's good, don't get me wrong, but nothing that makes my tongue scream for more. I'm not even sure it was better than peaches and cream.

Day 218: Root Beer Float

My second favorite dessert of all time. I love it. I got ice cream from the plaid pantry and used root beer (A&W, duh) from Liz's picnic. So so good! If I had more root beer and another stomach I'd make another.

My favorite part? The semi ice-cream root beer slushy part. I know some people are crazy about the foam, but that just seems like a annoyance that prevents me from filling up the entire cup with root beer.

Day 217: Oyster

The only time I've ever enjoyed oysters (enjoysters?) is when I have had a lot of wine, or beer, or other alcoholic beverage. I considered taking Alex to Montage for an oyster shooter but I knew he wouldn't want to be in public for such a disgusting thing.

I also opted for pan-frying the oyster instead of giving him a raw, gelatinous mess. I soaked the sucker in buttermilk and Sriracha, and then dredged it in seasoned flour and cornmeal. I'm sure it was totally legit as far as pan fried oysters go.

It made Alex want to die. He kept it in his mouth much longer than I thought he would. But soon, he spit it out and ran off to chug mouthwash. He hated the briny, fishy taste. At least the shell was pretty.

Day 216: Lasagna

Or is it Lasagne? Or is it Lasigaga, as Alex put it? Only the Italians know. Mmmmm, Garfield's favourite: delicious noodles layered with cheese and meat. Om nom nom. We went to Piazza Italia in NW, and boy, are we glad we called ahead for a reservation! Super packed, super small, super cute. The lasagna(e)(sigaga) took 15 minutes and the waiter seemed super worried that we might leave.

We didn't, obviously. I had no Lasigaga, because it seems like a weird time to have a heavy Italian treat. I had wine and Spaghetti Pomodoro, which was delicioso.

Alex loved it. After the burning subsided. He was way impatient and ate several steaming hot bites before declaring that he burned his tongue. Well, duh, tesoro. Good things come to those who wait.

Day 215: Watermelon

It's Liz's birthday! We had a lovely picnic in the park with friends and family. I brought the watermelon. I may have over done it. I bought 3, cut up 2, and we still have about a whole one left that is cut up. The night isn't over yet though. It's really juicy.

Day 214: Ice Cream Sandwich

I love these. I picked up a bunch at Safeway on the way to the softball chumpionship. I got enough for the whole team. Little did I know that trying to give these away would be like offering water to a drowning man.

I had three and only two other people had any. By the end of the day, we won both games and moved on to the championships and I had 13 very melty ice cream sandwiches in my cooler. They'll recover.

Day 213: Raspberry Cream Pie

More Raspberries.I already finished the last one. Let's hope this is just as good. I found the recipe on Jamie Cooks It Up! I got the few ingredients I needed after work. I still had raspberries left over.

This had very little baking which was nice since I was already sweating from baking the pie crust 8 minutes. Most of it is letting things cool. I like cool.

How does it compare to yesterday?  It's really good too. Perfect for a hot day. I'm not sure which I like better though.