sick!

Why haven't there been any updates? Because I've been sick for a week and a half and eating and cooking require too much energy. However, I've started taking these:

Drugs? No....vitamins!! I hope they ward off sickness.

Carrot cake

I tried making a carrot cake on Sunday and what I got was a carrot blob :(

As you can see, one layer of the cake stuck to the pan...a lot! And I am sure I greased the pan.

The second layer was better, but this is still how the end product turned out:

Fortunately, it tasted good. I followed the recipe above, except I used 1 cup of white sugar and 1 cup of brown sugar, added a little nutmeg and I used walnuts instead of pecans. I think the cream cheese frosting was a little wet...maybe I didn't add enough sugar? Not my best creation....

Tour de Cupcake!

Tour de Cupcake may be my greatest food-related fantasy ever imagined...and on Saturday it became a reality! Biking, 3 cupcake stops, friends and grilling! What else could you want? A sunny day? We had that too!

Stage 1: Bike 4.5 miles
Stop 1: Cake Love, Shirlington
Here I had a vanilla cupcake with lime frosting. It was good except it cost over $3!




Stage 2: Bike 4.4 miles
Stop 2: Buzz, Slaters Lane, Alexandria
Here I had a red velvet cake-a-roon, kind of like a cupcake sandwich!

Stage 3: Bike 1.3 miles
Stop 3: Bittersweet, Old Town Alexandria
Here I had a carrot cake cupcake with a mystery, non-cream cheese frosting. I was too full to finish it :(

Stage 4: Bike 1.5 miles
Stop 4: My house for some grilling!!!

Next year will be bigger and better!!

Thai-spiced pumpkin/carrot soup!

I've been fantasizing about this recipe for Thai-spice sweet potato soup for quite awhile. Tonight I finally got all the ingredients to make it! Except, I used pumpkin and carrots instead of sweet potato :)

I used a whole can of coconut milk, a 15 oz can of pumpkin, about a cup of chopped carrots (leftover from carrot cake!!), more red curry paste, more garlic, some salt and one less cup of broth than the recipe called for. It was a little bland until I added the extra spice, but afterwards it turned out pretty well :) Despite all the coconut milk, it is healthier than what I usually eat :P

New discovery: Cake batter ice cream!!

Today I discovered a simple, delicious way to enhance ice cream! Putting dry cake mix on top of it! Wow! It tastes like cake batter ice cream :D I also started eating dry cake mix....

Dusty Road Sundaes!

Dusty road sundaes are the greatest creation ever!! They must be Pennsylvanian because no one I've talked to has has heard of them. They consist of ice cream topped with chocolate syrup and malted milk powder :D It is a fantastic combination that I highly recommend. I prefer mine with soft serve vanilla, or grasshopper pie ice cream (by Hood: mint ice cream with oreos and fudge!!! Wow! Too bad they don't make it anymore :(

It's hard to find malted milk powder in the store and in a desperate moment I ordered some on Amazon. Unfortunately, they are only sold in 4 packs. Seriously. I love dusty roads, but I still only go through about one container a year. So now I have a 3 extra containers of malted milk powder. I will need to increase my ice cream consumption just to eat it all before the expiration date! Dusty roads anyone? :D

Dukem!

I love Ethiopian food. Is it the delicious flavor? Is it the wide variety of stews that I can get with each meal? Is it the fact that a giant plate of delicious food is set in front of me and I'm expected to dig in...with my hands? It's probably all of these things, but I am always up for some Ethiopian. Fortunately, DC has a lot of Ethiopian restaurants :)

A little while ago, I went to Dukem on U St. We ordered four entrees: lamb special tibs, doro wat, a meat combo with lamb wot and minchet abesh, and a veggie combo with spicy split lentil, yellow peas, greens, cabbage, shiro, salad and potato in spicy sauce. It was the perfect amount for five people.

Our meal cost $15 per person, including tip.

We ate it all, which isn't that impressive, since there were five us :P

Turkey Hill - Special Edition!!

If you know me, you know I love Turkey Hill ice cream. It is not as expensive as the other good brands of ice cream, but its even more delicious plus it comes from Pennsylvania :D Each month they have a special, limited edition flavor. And each month I have a new favorite ice cream flavor :D

This month its "Gertrude Hawk's Box of Chocolates"! Gertrude Hawk is a chocolate maker in Pennsylvania - I eat their Smidgens and Reindeer Food regularly :D

The flavor is premium milk chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate raspberry cups, chocolate almonds, white chocolate chunks, and swirled with chocolate chips. Wow! What else could you want? This may sound overwhelming, but it's not. Turkey Hill knows how to control themselves. I highly recommend you pick some of this up before it's gone!! In DC, Turkey Hill is available at Giant and Shopper's. And, its on sale for $2.50 at Giant this week!! Hurry!