Category: Food & Drinks

Every Thursday my boyfriend works from home, and every Thursday I wake up jealous and bitter. I love working from home so it’s hard for me to wake up and rush to get ready while watching him leisurely lounge, watch the news, eat his breakfast. I’m sure he knows this, and every once in a while he’ll do something sweet for me on a Thursday morning. A simple gesture that makes a morning not quite as unpleasant as others.

Like this one time, when I got out of the shower, stressed and still sleepy and found a bowl of yogurt, diced bananas and a hot cup of hazelnut coffee. Made and ready for me.

After traveling to the west coast for a week, returning to Boston, and immediately heading to Maine for a week, you shouldn’t be surprised that my refrigerator is running on empty. We made a quick trip to the marketing across the street, but since it’s small and local and therefore expensive, we opted for a few essentials to hold us over until we can make a big time trip to the grocery store. We grabbed the basics, like bread, fruit, milk but skipped over, oh I don’t know, dinner items! So tonight I’m doing the whole breakfast for dinner thing.

Waffles (yes, I’m ashamed to have these in our freezer), diced bananas, syrup.

Last month I shared photo of the pumpkin cream cheese cupcakes that I baked with my mum over Halloween weekend. The cupcakes didn’t last long in this house, but I honestly haven’t stopped thinking about them. Every day at lunch I think shit, why didn’t I bake those damn cupcakes again? I literally crave them. So I’m adding it to my to-do list this weekend. I must bake more!

I followed the recipe from Martha Stewart and found it super easy, super quick. I cut the recipe in half because I didn’t want to find myself eating all 18 cupcakes (big mistake, should have made them all) and the only thing I’d note if you plan to bake these is that the baking time might be more than Martha says. I left mine in the oven for 5 extra minutes, until the insides weren’t gooey.

Recipe according to Martha Stewart:

Ingredients
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin puree.

3. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

Who says you can’t eat pumpkin after Halloween?

Remember how last week my entire mood was brightened by the reemergence of Starbuck’s red cups? Well dear Starbucks, you’ve outdone yourself. One week, it’s the red cups back in action, this week, they’ve announced that Starbucks K-Cups have arrived.

Life just got freaking awesome. What’s your favorite brand of K-Cups?

Remember that new dining room that we just started setting up? Well good timing I suppose, because we recently had the chance to put it to use with a few close friends. I get an email at work that one of the boyfriend’s best friends is planning to visit in Boston for the night. Completely random, totally unexpected, and entirely entertaining.

We both rushed home from work, made a quick run to the grocery store, picked up a few bottles of wine, and grabbed a bouquet of fresh flowers. Nothing says welcome to Boston and make yourself at home in our new apartment like a fun, home-made meal and flowers on the table. Am I right, or am I right? We went with one of our favorite quick and easy meals. Soft shell tacos. It’s a great dish for our house, because given the whole make-you-own-taco deal, the boyfriend can easily enjoy chicken or beef, and I can use veggieburger meat.

The tacos were delicious (as always), the wine turned our cheeks pink, and the two vases filled with bright, white flowers made me feel… fantastic. A bundle of flowers from the market seriously makes any day or night better.

Spotted on Facebook today, November 1, 2011. The day these actually hit the stores, my life becomes noticeably better. Happier, cheerier, brighter. I’m still loving the salted caramel drinks for the fall, but nothing tops Starbucks winter flavors. Well, actually, nothing tops winter. Period.

I had so much fun making chocolate chip banana muffins last week, that I decided to make another batch of little bite sized deliciousness. This time, I went for cinnamon blueberry muffins. To quote my favorite movie of all time: “beautiful muffin for a beaaautiful lady!”

Nom, nom, nom. Now get in my tummy!

Good morning, muffin! I followed a simple recipe for banana nut muffins and swapped out the walnuts for chocolate chips, because let’s face it: everything is better with chocolate.

Recipe for Banana Nut muffins from SimpleRecipes.com

I spend a lot of my weekends in Maine.  Spring, summer, fall, winter – season doesn’t matter.  And no matter how many times I head north, there are some things about my weekends at home that just never get old.

Like driving over the Piscataqua River Bridge, crossing the border from New Hampshire to Maine.  I take a picture almost every time.  On the way north, I’m filled with joy, excitement, anticipation for the days ahead.  On the way south, sadness, exhaustion, a sense of desperation. Don’t make me leave.  Don’t make me go back to Boston. Back to work, the real world. Don’t make me leave my paradise.

The other routine that never gets old is weekend morning breakfast dates with my mom and dad. I love waking up early and heading out with mom and dad.  Ordering a cup of coffee from a diner and getting a breakfast bill of under $20.

Breakfast with my parents is just nice. It’s “me” time with my parents. Time to chat, catch up, and talk about what’s going on in our busy worlds.  It’s a weekend routine that started as a young child.  Of course back then, it was breakfast for our whole family. Now my sister is married, and weekend mornings mean time for me with my parents.

To add to the charm of this family routine, we have a few favorite spots, breakfast joints we rarely stray from. We love Bernie’s on the foreside, Porthole on the waterfront, and Steve and Renee’s by the boulevard. Mom always orders water. Dad one cup of hot coffee – but just one!  Me, I go for iced coffee almost every time. Mom and dad split a meal, typically an omelet off the special board. And I splurge when I can. Because that’s what’s so fun about being home with mom and dad. I’ll go for the lobster benedict. If not on the menu, yogurt, granola and fresh fruit.

We don’t change our routine much.  Same breakfast joints, same drinks, same meals.  But that’s what makes a routine so special. And this familiarity, the regularity of our weekend breakfast dates, just the three of us, makes me love the weekends in Maine that much more.

Since fall rolled into town this month, I’ve switched my iced drinks for hot. I actually don’t remember the first time I tried a salted caramel drink from Starbucks, but I’m obsessed. I started with the right-off-the-menu Salted Caramel Mocha. Too rich. I tried again with nonfat milk.  Still too rich. I lessened the mocha to just two pumps. But even the grande two pump nonfat salted caramel mocha was too much. Doesn’t mean I won’t order this occasionally, when I’m in the mood for a rich and heavy treat. But for the every day drink, I found a better way to get the perfectly sweet and salty taste.

Since the salted caramel is all in the toppings, not in the syrup, you can add it to any order. Meet my normal triple grande nonfat latte with salted caramel on top.  Hello, heaven.