Blog Hop: Cheese Please

My dear friend of Sybaritic Pleasures is trying to start an international foodie blog hop after becoming frustrated that the many she encountered were goofily limited to a specific region or country. I thought I'd try to tackle these as another creative endeavor and hopefully start stretching my kitchen skills again. The challenge is simply enough: Cheese, Please

 I'm a day late getting this post up to actually participate but I'm not going to worry about it. I played with my new camera for the photos so it made me late while I figured out how to use the new software to get the photos OFF the camera. I still have quite a bit to learn.

Boozie Blackforest Brownies

Every year for our Oktoberfest party, I make some kind of dessert. I never make up my mind about what I want to make until a few days before the party, so it's always the guaranteed surprise. (Beer, brats, obatzda, and homemade soft pretzels are always a given.) I have made blackforest inspired cupcakes a few times, German chocolate cupcakes, and faux apple strudel in the past. This year, I had a lot of personal family things I had to deal with during the two weeks leading up to the party and was feeling stressed, so we decided to scale back a bit. I decided brownies would be a quick and tasty dessert for this year. However, being me, could I just make regular brownies? Of COURSE not! Thus I give you: Boozie Blackforest Brownies.

Roasted Tomato Quinoa Salad

Sometimes you come across a recipe that is a game changer. Two summers ago, I came across a recipe from Martha Stewart and fell in love.

Still Mourning From the Bayou

Ok, this post is probably more for me as I need some lunch and am not bothering to reread/edit, so read at your own peril.

From the Bayou was this AMAZINGLY EXCELLENT cajun food restaurant just one little ol' block from my college campus. I can't handle spice heat very well, but their food was SOOO GOOD it was worth suffering some of the burn and they had a salad that was so awesome that I would crave it! It had the best smoked almonds ever found (and if you know me, you know I'm not actually a big fan of smokey flavor so these HAD to be that good for me to crave them!) Yes, it's been closed several years now and the restaurant that took it's place (ostensibly with same chef and several of the same recipes) is now closed as well. On a lark, I hunted through the tangled webs of the inter as I knew the restaurant had shared some of it's recipes at one point. I managed to find some, and I'm copying them here below. On my search, apparently I ate there during it's early hey-day as Yelp reviews are bad, but all from several years after I left. Sadly, I never took pictures of their decor, I loved it. I wish I could have bought one of their artistic chairs! Wish I had found their red beans & rice recipe...and what those darn almonds were.

Snowpocalypse 2012 - Part 1

The Puget Sound area was hit with a snowfall on Sunday, Jan 15. We had about 2-3 inches at our house, had fun playing in it and seeing how Ivan liked the snow on the deck (he didn't, it was too deep for his liking). Monday we bravely drove off to work in the slush. A larger dump was forecasted for Tuesday night/Wednesday day, but I scoffed and said I'd believe it when I saw it...and woke up to a beautiful wonderland of white everywhere and thick flakes falling from the sky. I made myself a tasty cup of Theo Sipping Chocolate and after a quick picture, settled at the table to watch the the magic fall from the sky and drink the molten goodness.


Feeling so inspired, I decided to finally try my hand at making homemade marshmallows!