Just When I Thought I’d Seen It All: Yet Another Pumpkin Spice Something

January 3, 2011

How do you like that?

I discovered this Pumpkin Spice Caramel Ghirardelli Chocolate Square (whew!) in our office candy bin today. I didn’t know that this flavor existed! And I’d already eaten one of those white chocolate & peppermint thingies… among other chocolates.

As if I didn’t eat enough chocolate over the holiday. A workplace with year-round candy is a dangerous place.

But I HAD to try this, because I leave no pumpkin spice anything unturned. I think the caramel might have been a bit salty, but overall– nice work.

So now you know that the Ghirardelli Pumpkin Spice Caramel Chocolate Square (seriously long name!) is a thing. And you can look out for it when your very own co-worker brings a big bucket of candy leftovers to work. Or you can probably find it in the post-holiday bargain bin at your nearest grocery.

Pumpkin spice season is starting to feel a little long in the tooth, but I know I’ll miss it when it’s over.

Speaking of long spans of time– since I started Flickr-ing my blog photos, I’ve been posting them on the blog via URL links. The other day I realized that if I ever stop paying for Flickr premium, everything except the most recent 100 pictures will likely disappear. Does anybody have any evidence to refute this? Does WordPress save the pictures somehow? Or am I doomed to pay for Flickr for the rest of my life, and maybe posthumously? (Will this blog even last that long?) (Cue sad, deep thoughts about my own mortality and the impermanence of all things.)

Oh wait, I think I’m going to pay anyway, because I have personal pictures up there, too. Oh well, $24 a year… I guess I can live with that. (Until they raise it.) And after I die… I won’t care. Problem solved!

Okay, I think it’s time to go home and eat some hummus.

xoxo…

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Do It Yourself: Baby Banana Snack for All Ages (Crave! at Work)

December 22, 2010

Mommy & babies.

Hello, all! Have you heard about the rain in Southern California? Madness. Holiday madness. Luckily I survived it and am now watching “Man vs. Food” (yucky food) and “Top Chef: Just Desserts” (yucky people) with my sister and a snoozin’ puppy.

This post is a shout-out to everyone who can’t hide indoors or skip town yet– that’s right, the people who are still working. Here’s a little snack idea for you hard-working folks, utilizing foods that are probably sitting around your office kitchen. I used Crave’s baby bananas (yes, these are from the Holiday Challenge), but you can use adult bananas.

The ingredients:

Various nut butters.

-Pita, tortilla, or whatever bread you need to use up.

-Nutella, peanut butter… anything you think goes delicious with bananas, really. (Not pictured: Raisins.)

-Bananas!

Of course, because I’m me and I like my snacks to be fun and/or adorable, I decided to make my snack heart-shaped.

Pita my heart.

Then I pretty much went to town, trying to alternate stripes of Nutella and peanut butter– so that it would be evenly distributed when I closed the wrap.

I would normally slice a banana into little circles against the grain, but the baby bananas were so small that I just halved them, length-wise.

See the secret smile?

It ain’t pretty, but it tastes good. I mean, banana, Nutella, and peanut butter… it’s hard to go wrong.

Voila.

Does that count as a recipe? Haha. That’s it for my Crave! stuff, hope you enjoyed my fruity snacking/cooking.

Okay, I have to go focus on this commercial for Pajama Jeans.

xoxo…

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Snack [Trek] of the Afternoon, 12/13/10: THE BOBA TRUCK!

December 13, 2010

Boba fete.

Although I grew up in boba-friendly Orange County, I don’t recall ever ordering/drinking boba. Like, maybe I had a sip of somebody else’s once, but I’ve basically never had it before.

So when The Boba Truck! showed up this afternoon and people were excited and I saw that Yelpers highly endorsed it, I figured– this is my time.

Co-worker Charlie and I went out to the truck and smelled a few samples, and settled on the Cherry Blossom Green Milk Tea, which the Yelpers seemed to love. I was a little worried because I can be finicky about tea– I don’t like fruit teas, or mint teas, or… any tea I don’t like–but it turned out that the Cherry Blossom was a solid choice. Subtly spicy, not too sweet.

Purple straw!

“Your boba * your life,” just makes me think… “Your boba OR your life.” CREEPY CHOICE. (I choose life.)

The milk in the tea was non-dairy creamer, but they also have 2% Lactaid and soy milk. In case you were wondering. I’ve always wondered. That’s been part of my trepidation about the boba experience. (I drank WHAT? FULL-FAT BUTTERMILK?)

The tapioca pearls (boba balls?) were described to me as tasting like black licorice, and I can’t think of a better way of putting it. (They probably taste like tapioca, but I don’t really know what that tastes like…) They’re kinda… cold and squishy? And chewy. I don’t know, this is all going to sound really “that’s what she said.”

You should know this about boba balls: There are many of them. (The photo is deceptive.) And with every sip you sip, they will travel up your large special straw and try to jump into your mouth. (I know, I know…) Which is cool for the first few. But after a while… I was over the boba. Occasionally some sort of crazy suction trick would happen, and the balls will be suspended in the straw, defying both science and religion. (But mostly gravity.)

What WITCH conjured this spell?!

In high school I was in a Jewish leadership program that met in Irvine (very boba-friendly), and I remember some program-mates getting boba in a nearby outdoor mall and using the boba balls as awesome spitballs. I thought it looked SUPER fun. And they stuck to walls like a charm. (I bet the mall people LOVED us.)

Seeing as how I drank this in my cubicle, I resisted spitballing all the boba balls that I didn’t want to eat– but I did end up spitting the majority them onto a napkin. Better all that crazy gel on my napkin than in my easily upset stomach.

Shiny.

That’s the beginning. The pile got intense. There was a LOT of boba in there. This reminds me of really large caviar, and also of these cannonball piles I once saw at an old fort in Puerto Rico. (And maybe other old forts, too. Old forts… they all look the same!)

In conclusion, I liked the milk tea. The boba balls were a novelty but it got kinda tiresome having to deal with them. Maybe next time I’ll try the lychee jelly… or just hold the boba balls. (Yeah, yeah… hold the balls.) (Maybe THIS is why weird Google creepers are hitting my site.)

But I’m glad I tried them once. Cool experience, really nice guy working the truck… and really nice Charlie bought my tea for me. Inter-coworker chivalry is not dead!

Okay okay, time to shut this one down while I’m ahead. (I’m not ahead…)

xoxo…

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Snack of the Afternoon, 12/7/10: CHERRIES!!!

December 7, 2010

I'm so excited/And I just can't hide it.

Today I opened the office fridge and– much to my surprise and delight– encountered a bag of cherries. Big, ripe cherries. The best kind. (I think size does matter, with cherries.) (This whole post is a fantasia of “that’s what she said.”)

This is not the kind of thing I expect on a random Tuesday in December. (Is this cherry season?) (Does it matter, in these modern times?) I was VERY happy. So excited. It doesn’t take much, on a Tuesday.

Also, the cherries were adjacent to some “virgin lemonade.” That kinda made me giggle. (And smile because I like lemonade… not sure what makes it virgin, though. Pure lemons?) (Not sure if I’ve had “virgin lemonade” before. HA.)

Don’t read this, moms.

xoxo…

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Snacks of the (Halloween) Weekend

November 1, 2010

Eat at your own risk.

Hope you had a most excellent Halloween! Here are some pictures I took especially for you. Sort of.

I had never seen Monster Munch before, and I hope I never see it again. I encountered this snack at a Halloween party, and decided to give it a taste… you know, for science.

Remember (on “30 Rock”) when Liz Lemon used to snack on Sabor de Soledad cheese puffs? And it turned out that one of the ingredients was bull semen? I’m pretty sure the (imaginary) makers of Sabor de Soledad are also the makers of Monster Mash. The crackerpuff things tasted really funky, and made my fingers smell bad.

Boo.

After a looong Saturday night of festivities, I looked forward to Sunday brunch. We ended up at Le Pain Quotidien, which I would describe as an upscale European version of Panera.

Why European? Where else would a (wild mushroom) omelet come with French bread and salad?

I am happy to see my omelet, and it's happy to see me.

I did that to the tomatoes. In case you’re wondering.

The bread was awesome. The omelet was cold, and the mushrooms made me feel a bit sick. Luckily Cole and I split our omelets (his was tomato and avocado), so I only felt half as sick as I would have.

All (well… some) was forgiven when they gave us free chocolates with our check! I was all over the chai.

Chocolat.

After brunch, Cole and I wandered around at The Grove (it’s an outdoor mall… just like everything else in Southern California) for a bit. I saw a few people wearing Justin Bieber shirts, and couldn’t figure out if they were in costume or had bad taste. Turned out that the Beeb was about to do a book signing at the Barnes & Noble. As we continued toward the bookstore, we encountered a cluster of screaming teens, holding shoddily constructed signs.

Of all the times to go to The Grove. Ugh.

We went to Sur la Table to get a belated birthday gift for my sister, and ended up giving the whole store a once-over. Cooking stuff is so fascinating to me, even though I rarely cook. They had donut pans! And mini donut pans! And brownie pop pans! (Are brownie pops that popular? Are they even a thing??)

Also, I thought donuts were made via boiling, not baking. Maybe I was thinking of bagels? I don’t know.

The cookie cutters were fascinating. They had everything you could imagine, and more– dinosaurs, musical instruments, letters of the alphabet, etc. I saw the rhinoceros and hippopotamus next to each other, and immediately thought of “Jersey Shore.”

Grab a few gorillas for Snooki and J-Woww.

Keep that in mind for your next “Jersey Shore” party. No grenades!

For several years I’ve intended to go to the WeHo parade, but I never actually make it over there. This year I decided to go home and visit my dog. (And my parents, because they also happened to be there.) Daisy turned out to be almost alarmingly fatigued… like, she wouldn’t even jump up on the couch to say hi. She just fell to the floor, stomach-up. Lazy Daisy.

My mom wanted to make some sort of pumpkin dessert. We vetoed pie because it’s really best if it sets overnight. I ended up baking pumpkin muffins (using the Trader Joe’s mix… just add eggs, oil and water) and icing them with cream cheese frosting. They were pumpkin spicy and delightful. And I think the frosting turned them into cupcakes? Maybe.

Good call.

I wish I’d brought a few back to LA. Would have made a nice (unhealthy) breakfast today.

I’d been looking forward to ordering from our favorite Thai place for dinner, but it was closed… and so was the other Thai place we called. We settled on Chinese from China Panda. People think I’m crazy (or racist?) because I sometimes say “China Panda” when I mean to say “Panda Express,” but it’s because I grew up ordering from China Panda.

I DID bring those leftovers back, and they made a delightful lunch today. I thought I brought more than enough to work, but my eyes were actually smaller than my stomach. (I think that’s biologically true, as well.)

Everything in its place.

I guess the stereotype is true… Jews eating Chinese food on American holidays.

During dinner the trick or treaters began to arrive, and Daisy regained her energy. I had to chase her into the street to prevent her from… running into the street. (So… I failed.)

I get creeped out when I’m the giver of candy, because I don’t like opening the door to strangers. The general feeling that people are lurking out in the dark is one of my biggest blechs. So how to I feel about trick or treating? You do the math.

And as a kid, I always felt awkward about taking the candy, because it seemed greedy. And saying “thank you” didn’t remedy my guilt/shame about being a little brat. (And then my mom would only let us keep a few pieces… so it was all so futile!)

So… I came home for Daisy and Thai, and got a little of one and none of the other. And had to deal with my trick or treat anxiety. Maybe I should have gone to the parade.

NEXT YEAR! (Or not… again.)

In the meantime, keep your hippos on a leash.

xoxo…

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Frost in Peace: GRAVEYARD CAKE

October 30, 2010

A grave situation...

Here are the pictures of Daphne’s graveyard cake. You guys, she make it from scratch! The dark chocolate cake, the raspberry filling, and the buttercream frosting.

I didn’t get a picture of my individual slice (don’t worry, it didn’t contain any coffins or dead bodies), but here are some other angles of the decorations. She spent hours and hours on this, as you can probably guess from the details.

From the top!

Halloween coincides with an office birthday, so we candled this baby up. I think it really adds to the spooky Halloween effect. Torches in the dark graveyard…

I like the rainbows in the fire.

In a few hours my Halloween weekend festivities will be in full swing.

I don’t want to give away what my costume is, but here’s a hint:

Sort of.

Be safe, kids. Don’t eat too much candy while you’re drinking. Don’t ask me why. Just trust me.

xoxo…

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Snack of the Afternoon, 10/19/10: MANGO & PINEAPPLE

October 19, 2010

Smells like Hawaiian spirit.

I was totally delighted when I spied sliced mango and pineapple in the fridge. They smell like Hawaii, and I keep dreaming that I’m in Hawaii. (Usually in the dreams something anxious or crazy is happening, but that’s not Hawaii’s fault.) (Why won’t my subconscious just shut up and let me enjoy Hawaii?)

You can’t take an imaginary snack-trip to Hawaii without making a joke about getting lei’d.

You got lei'd!

In comparison, the weather in LA is rainy and dreary. This morning the sun was out, but when I stepped outside my apartment I found that the rain had upgraded from the previous days’ drizzle to Big Fat Drops. But where there’s sun and rain, there’s a rainbow!

Birds fly over the rainbow...

That was today at about 8:15am. I tried to enhance the rainbow, but instead I accidentally obliterated it and made a much artsier pic.

But yeah, Hawaii in my mind. And I love pineapple and mango.

And I couldn’t find any Kit Kat bars.

xoxo…

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Snack of the Afternoon, 10/5/10: DONUT ICE CREAM (Lake Street Creamery Truck)

October 7, 2010

Caught in the act.

Last time a dessert truck graced our lot, it was a-kabillion degrees out. When the Lake Street Creamery came a-knockin’ this past Tuesday, the weather had taken a turn for the… cold and rainy. But despite the lack of ideal ice creaming conditions, I was down to buy.

Why?

For one thing, look at these flavors. (Click to enlarge.) (That’s what she said?)

Dollar bill action shot!

I love the dollar bill in the picture. Happy accident. Looks like they can’t take the money fast enough!

Also: Waffle cone bowls!

Love me some waffle cone.

The top scoop in the bowl on the right is the pancake/bacon flavor. I mistook the Nutella swirl in the bottom scoop for bacon. (In fact, the bottom scoop was a special banana ice cream/Nutella flavor, dubbed Bananarella.) (But when I jotted down my orders, I called it “bannatula,” which sounds like… bananas and Dracula? Bananas and spatulas?)

The other special flavor-of-the-day was a strong coffee ice cream (and the pancake/bacon scoop is sprinkled in coffee grounds), so you could have a whole breakfast in ice cream form. If you were so inclined. (I just have regular dessert ice cream for breakfast sometimes…)

I didn’t try the flavor with bacon for obvious I-don’t-eat-bacon reasons, but the people in front of me at the truck were raving about the bacon taste/quality. (Which makes it even odder that I couldn’t see any bacon in the scoop…)

The bowl on the left contains Donut and Bananarella. But that’s not my bowl! TWIST.

I only intended to get one scoop (two scoops is $6!), and sampled Donut and Holiday Chocolate. In a fit of indecision, I ended up getting both.

Ironically, I don’t usually eat donuts. Growing up, they were regarded as an arch villain. So I get guilt-hives just thinking of them. But for some reason I could justify eating a donut in ice cream form. Go figure.

I expected Donut to be vanilla ice cream filled with donut chunks (as was the case with Coolhaus), but it was more subtle than that. There seemed to be a bit of donut texture in the scoop, but I think the donut flavor was achieved through… chemicals? (That’s what my dad would say.)

Rainy day lunch.

I picked Holiday Chocolate because it sounded like it had a lot of those pumpkin spice spices goin’ on. Co-worker Bryan tried a bite and was overwhelmed by the nutmeg. (He is really good at picking out flavors in foods!) To this day, I think he’s still haunted by the ghost of Holiday Chocolate.

Random nutmeg fact I heard a long time ago, might not be true: If you inject nutmeg into your bloodstream, it will kill you.

Chilling.

(I’m waiting for Thomas to refute that.)

I didn’t end up finishing the Holiday Chocolate scoop, but it was partly because I felt gross/guilty about eating that much ice cream. I should have gone with my gut and done a single scoop, and it probably should have been Donut… or maybe the vanilla one, a lot of Yelpers loved it.

Live and learn!

And even though I didn’t finish the ice cream, I ate the whole waffle bowl. I love cones! Sometimes I get ice cream just for the cone! CRAZYVILLE.

(Double CRAZYVILLE: I know people who don’t like cones.) (Whaaaa?)

Okay, back to your day.

xoxo…

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Thank Goodness It’s Friday.

October 1, 2010

This is how you know it's time for the weekend.

Remember when TGIF was ABC’s awesome kid-friendly Friday lineup? (Remember when people watched TV on Friday nights?)

Everybody remembers “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “Boy Meets World,” but nobody ever seems to recall one of my favorites: “Teen Angel.” Boy eats old rotten hamburger, dies instantly, and becomes his best friend’s guardian angel.

Naturally.

I think it lasted one season, but I will always remember “Teen Angel” for teaching me the phrase, “Smooth move, Ex Lax.”

BURN.

In order of appearance in my day, here are some THINGS.

At lunchtime I went on a Subway run, and I witnessed some actual DOUGH being readied for the oven. They really do bake their own bread! (The lights reflecting on the glass make it look like the bread’s being made on the ceiling. Like it should be!)

My mind, it is blown.

The bread reminds me of those Pillsbury Dough tins of ready-to-bake biscuits, where you twist and pop them. LOVE those.

Incidentally, when you open a new jar of Wheat Germ and the seal unseals, it creates a vortex in the bottle. And it makes a really cool suction noise. I got to experience that this week! (Jealous?)

I wish that happened every time I opened the Wheat Germ. Somebody get on that.

Hurricane Wheat.

Today marked the return of the Mandoline Grill truck, and I made good on my vow to try the bun this time around.

I took a little bit too long at Subway, and I think my noodles overheated a bit in their sealed container. Despite slight over-softness in the noodle dept, I was pleased. But after I was very thirsty and a little bit sick-feeling. I shouldn’t have eaten the whole thing. (It looked a lot smaller than previous buns, but was still really filling.)

The fish sauce was very potent. Good taste, strong smell. (But I washed my hands a lot after.) (Hear that, boyz?)

Noodle doodle do.

But the real Friday-ness of a Friday is the late afternoon, which is when the remaining Friday-work turns into Monday-work.

You guys: I don’t really like Jello. Especially sugar free. It tastes like soft plastic. Not even sure why I even sought it out, but I ended up making wacky tableaux. The one at the top is… sort of a chocolate hot tub, or a Noah’s ark of Jello.

This one is a La Brea Tar Pit of Jello. I find the Tar Pits to be one of the more depressing and smelly tourist attractions in LA. So I guess I went to a dark place with my food art. Well, the adorable happy face tempers it.

We're drowning in tar. Help.

There are actually statues in the tar pits of mother and baby animals, drowning and looking sad. That is not my idea of a good 4th grade field trip! (I was traumatized.)

On a more pleasant note, those are Trader Joe’s Organic Animal Crackers. They taste just a bit lemon-y, and they are my cracker crack.

And now I’m staying at work EXTRA to blog. What’s up with that?

Hope everybody has a great Friday night, despite a lack of “Teen Angel” on the airwaves. I’m going to see the Social Network, with my Facebook friends. Well, I guess if I’m going to a movie with them, they’re just my friend friends.

And I’m a bit backlogged due to actual WORK work ethic, so… look forward to funny-flavored tea and nauseatingly large burgers (get your minds out of the gutter, gutter-rats!), among other things. At some point in the future.

All right, Apple out!

xoxo…

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Snack of the Afternoon, 9/29/10: TERRA SWEET POTATO CHIPS

September 29, 2010

Sweet.

These are new to the kitchen. YES! We usually get the Terra chips that are more of a variety and I just pick out the red and orange ones. (Sorry… I’m THAT jerk.) So I’m glad to have the ALL ORANGE (aka, just sweet potato) chips.

I tried to resist putting ketchup on these, but I had to give in to the power of ketchup. Malcolm Gladwell knows what I’m talking about. (Thanks for sending me that article, Thomas!) (Everybody read it!)

The chips look a little different on the bag. The orange looks like cheese, as in, Doritos.

Orange alert!

Apropos of nothing, I’m really excited about tonight’s “Modern Family” episode. According to Movieline, it’s the one where Mitchell and Cameron finally kiss!

In the episode entitled “The Kiss” (!!!!!), Mitchell’s steadfast refusal to show affection in public turns into a tiff with Cameron.

I know I’m going to identify with this BIG TIME. I’m always negotiating how I feel about PDA (public displays of affection), re: myself and re: other couples. Sometimes I see a couple kissing and love them so much, and sometimes I see a couple holding hands and think, You clingy bastards!

And who knows what people are thinking about ME? (And… who cares?) (To clarify: I mean me kissing other people. Not myself. Then I’d KNOW what they were thinking: Weirdo.)

I wonder what Malcolm Gladwell has to say about PDA? (Speaking of taste buds and kisses, what is the taste of a tongue? Umami? Whatever you ate last?) (Yuck.)

xoxo…

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