Adventure Time: Sister Tries Sushi

Have you ever been so excited to share a new experience with someone but also feared their potential hatred for said experience? Welp, I feel like ever sushi lover has felt that when convincing someone skeptical to try it out.

Years ago we would go to sushi places with friends and I kid you not, she would bring a tupperware of chicken and just order a miso soup. I of course would try to coax her with the fact that i really don't like seafood and sushi doesn't taste like other fish.

Turns out she really likes it. Yay!

But that's not all we did that day. She was officially our first overnight guest in the new apartment. We had a busy night planned helping a friend in Greenwich film his music video. Before we headed over I had errands to run and I was itching to check out the farmer's market up the road. It was super cute; I'm pretty excited to have one so close by!

It's on the smaller side, but it had all the essentials and was very affordable. I had already done enough grocery shopping for the week, but I wanted to see what was there since i never really been to a farmer's market.

What was really great is that it's right next to the community garden. The gate was closed but at some point I definitely want to find out more about it and see if I can participate.

Lastly, the Sugar bakery truck was there! They won  Cupcake Wars on the Food Network. I can taste why. I got a chocolate salted caramel cupcake and my sister got a peanut butter snickers cupcake. She wasn't as impressed but she also doesn't care for sweets. Let me tell you, these little things are heaven.

TTFN

Reindeer Poop: vegan and GF cookie dough bites

This has been my super quick go to recipe for the holiday season since I came up with it; the great thing about this is it's something you can do all year round, vegan and gluten free friends can enjoy them, and they're so good no one can resist them. They're kinda like reese's peanut butter cups in cookie dough form. I found this lovely recipe over on momables but ended up tweaking it so much I think it qualifies as a different recipe. Here's the lowdown of what I did, but if you're feeling creative let me know what changes you made in the comments! I couldn't think of a better name for it but I think it's cute, no?

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup crushed almonds
• 1 to 2 tablespoons maple syrup to bind

Directions

1. Mix ingredients in a in a bowl with a fork until it resembles cookie dough. if it doesn't stick together, add more syrup. If it's too sticky, add a bit more flour.
2. roll into one inch balls (about a teaspoon of dough)
3. chill in the fridge for about an hour
4. enjoy!

this recipe makes about a dozen balls. I've made this recipe once with regular flour and once with coconut. Both times it came out great! If you would like it to look marbled like the photo, add the cocoa powder after everything else has been mixed. 

Other substitute ideas: almond butter, whole wheat flour, nutella, agave nectar, walnuts, peanuts, gosh the possibilites are endless...

The Food in Philadelphia

...Deserved it's own post. Zack and I ate so well, it's easily the one thing we both miss about Philadelphia. We became avid yelpers on this trip; writing reviews, checking in, and looking up ratings before we decide. Although it was annoying at times, it was definitely worth it.

Philly cheesesteaks at Geno's

Of course, when in Philly we had to try the cheesesteaks. We wanted to try Pat's too but time escaped us. I'm convinced there's better cheesesteaks than theirs, though. I'd have to say of all the food we ate, this was the most underwhelming. They were so quick to get out orders it wasn't very welcoming.

Rybread

This little cafe really packs a punch! it's about a block away from the Eastern State Penitentiary. We had breakfast AND lunch here it was so good. Everything on their menu is super creative. They're all named after places and the flavors follow suite. I ordered an Austin salad, my first time having avocado and tortilla chips in my salad. Needless to say I had no idea what I was missing.

Alma de Cuba

This was a beautiful find. Alma de Cuba is a bit more upscale than Zack and I are used to, but it was suggested by one of his relatives and we had to give it a try. The ambiance is, for lack of a better word seductive. I ordered the chicken imperial on top of a bed of rice and fiancé got the honey mustard glazed salmon. Both of us can agree that when we visit Philadelphia again we will absolutely be returning. The food was mind blowing--everything was fresh, the chicken was juicy and tender, the rice was soft and pillowy, and although it doesn't look like much food when first presented, it was just enough. For dessert we split a peanut butter bombe, which is a chocolate and peanut butter mousse covered in dark chocolate ganache, with marshmallow ice cream and caramelized bananas. Pure. Bliss. This restaurant really made us want to find food this good in our area.

Reading Terminal Market

Excuse our partially eaten pieces of heaven I mean doughnuts. This place is an absolute MUST when in philly. My cousin along with several others were pretty adamant about that. The best way to describe it is a huge indoor farmer's market with every food imaginable. The Amish have a very strong presence here and everything they made was glorious. I could assume it would be because everything they made truly is "farm to table." It's easy to spend the whole day here just to eat everything. My suggestions would be to definitely try Beiler's Donuts and Famous 4th Street Cookies (which you can order online whaaaaat).

Marrakesh

This place is definitely for the adventurous foodies. You should know that the front door doesn't have a knob and you have to knock and wait for the owner to let you in. The idea behind this whole experience is this is how you would be served if you were to have dinner at a Moroccan home. This includes seven courses of delectable traditional Moroccan food. You get to choose the meat for two of the courses, but otherwise everything is already decided. Make sure you're starving, and you go with at least one or two other people since you will be served tons of food to be shared amongst everyone. After the owner seats you he goes over all of this with you as you wash your hands under the elaborate kettle he provides. Why you may ask? because you eat everything with your hands. The decor is also elaborate and inviting, surrounding you with vibrant colors and patterns. Everything I ate was like nothing I've ever eaten before. It was so tasty we were disappointed that we couldn't finish.

So not only was our time in Philadelphia fun, but it was quite delicious. Zack and I are definitely interested in finding more local foodie experiences after this venture. I never realized just how good food can be! 

TOTORO Cupcakes! // Snickerdoodle recipe

As you may or may not know, I love to bake. Mostly cookies, but these cupcakes were the bombdiggity so I had to share! I've debated whether or not adding a food component to this blog and decided what the heck, it's bound to happen sooner or later.

For my Asian art history class, we had a project in which we had to pick something artistic and Japanese and do a presentation on it. I chose to do the film My Neighbor Totoro, focusing on O Totoro because he's just so loveable (and my professor's favorite *brownie points*). Since he is the inspiration for many culinary artists, I baked cupcakes to go along with my slide show. The presentation went great!

YOU WILL NEED

• 1 box of vanilla cake, and all it requires
• cinnamon ~ approx. 1tbsp
• nutmeg ~ approx 1 tsp
• cloves and/or allspice ~ approx 1 tsp
• optional: pumpkin or apple pie spice
• 1 tsp of almond extract
• for frosting: cream cheese, butter, confectioner's sugar, vanilla extract 
• chocolate frosting ~ approx 2 tbsp
• plastic baggies
• food coloring

INSTRUCTIONS

Follow the directions on the box for the cake. Add the almond extract and the seasonings while mixing to taste. I understand that snickerdoodle is a fancy way to say with cinnamon, but that's boring by itself! So i always accompany cinnamon with nutmeg and cloves (allspice if I don't have cloves). Cloves really brings the taste of fall. To be honest I'm not entirely sure just how much of each spice I put in, but the ratio is about right (3 parts cinnamon, 1 part each of every other spice) I tasted the batter (alot) as I went along. The almond extract is a great undertone to round out these flavors *yum.*

I used this recipe from allrecipes.com for the cream cheese frosting. It's super great as is but a bit too tangy for this cupcake, so I added an extra half cup of the confectioner's sugar. I also halved this recipe which was just enough for 20 cupcakes/1 box of cake.

FOR TOTORO: 

1. Assuming you mixed the frosting in a bowl, put half of the frosting in a baggie and set it aside.
2. For the frosting left in the bowl, add one drop of red, blue, and yellow each to achieve the grey depicted (i wish I made it darker, so maybe two drops each next time)
3. place that batch in a baggie. Get the chocolate frosting in a baggie too.
4. In the white and grey baggie, snip a larger corner to squeeze out of. For the chocolate baggie, snip a tiny corner (for the detail :3)
5. Start with the bellies. You want a semicircle that goes a little more than half way up the cupcake.
6. fill the rest of the space with grey.
7. Add the whites of the eyes!
8. with chocolate, add nose, pupils, whiskers, and the iconic arrows on the belly that make it Totoro.
9. ENJOY!

This was a super fun cupcake to make (and eat). If you don't want to go with Totoro for the cupcakes, I'd suggest the cream cheese frosting with a simple chocolate design like a swirl; the bit of chocolate with all the other flavors was perfect! I was glad I got to experience and research a bit of the magic that is Totoro :) I'll be sure to watch some more Miyazaki films over winter break!

Durham Fair!

Long ago before school smacked me in the face, I went to the Durham fair with my friend Danisha! Neither of us have ever been but it's one of the biggest fairs in Connecticut so we had to check it out. Best decision! Tons of animals, vendors, and yummy things to try. OH YEAH and LOTS of pumpkins.

1st place for painted pumpkins!

1st place pumpkin!

1st place for watermelon! My brothers would have loved this.

 Danisha and I bonded with this particular llama in the petting zoo. He was pretty rad! We also made friends with a camel named Polly. At one point I had taken her picture to post on instagram (of course) and as I was adding the caption looking at my phone, Polly comes within inches of my face and my phone like "hey, whatcha doin' there?" It shocked me but it was pretty funny!

The pumpkins weren't the only compositions going on. They had needle work, paintings, knitting, and all sorts of arts and crafts to be judged. However, my favorite would have to be the tractor pull. These tractors were pimped out painted like monster trucks :O) The task was to pull a truck as far as they can. This one here is doing a pop-a-wheelie.

Of all the food we devoured, the one I absolutely must mention is the deep fried cheesecake. I cannot express how heavenly this was! probably terrible for me but with each bite, the calorie count mattered less and less. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was a bit like fried ice cream. The cheesecake was still cold and pretty solid, while the crust on the outside was light, warm, and delectable. The chocolate drizzle sent my taste buds over the top.

Lastly, I should probably mention how much I love llamas. I don't really have a reason other than I think they're awesome. At the fair, there was several buildings and one was dedicated to just llamas. Each farm had their own little section to show off their llamas. SO MANY LLAMAS

So glad I got the chance to go this year! There was so much there that I could do (and eat) it all, so I definitely can't wait till next year.

TTFN <3
-Avé

Insta-roundup: food, friends, etc.

Night one of the Greek Odyssey festival was just me and the fiancé....And his family. He and his family go every night to help out with various tables and jobs. I got a classic gyro complete with tzatziki sauce and a delish slice of spanakopita. Looking back at these pics makes me so hungry!

Night two of the festival of COURSE I instagrammed my precious loukoumades. I also had a frappé, yummmmmm. I took my friend Danisha since we both want to make it to more festivals and fairs this season.

This bag was definitely my splurge of the month. Even though it was only $35, I'm trying my best to stick with a stricter budget. BUT this was justified because although I loved my book bag, It couldn't fit my MacBook Pro 15" circa 2008. I have to bring my computer on campus and this bag can fit that and so much more. Bottomless. Pit.

This is the type of burger my brothers eat. I was in awe of it's size; they finished it in about 10 minutes like, NBD.

Moose owns a tux. He's all set for the wedding.

Me on the homepage of LookSoup while the promotion week was in effect :3

I post on instagram all the time! If you want to see 'em before they make it to the blog, follow me @averenee

TTFN!<3
-Avé

Greek Odyssey Festival

FUN FACT: My fiancé is Greek! Every Labor Day weekend his church hosts a huge Greek Festival filled with food, vendors, dancing, and LOUKOUMADES! I look forward to it every year and I usually go two or three nights out of the four, since it's free parking and it's the only time of the year to get Greek food this good.

Here's a basic breakdown of what they have at the festival--this is just what's inside the church! Outside there's three food tents, two live bands, two dance areas, and seating scattered about. They have a couple of events too. Every day of the festival, the priest does a presentation on the iconography shown in the art in the sanctuary. This picture really doesn't do the beauty of the paintings justice. Also, every night they have a group of talented kids and teens dress up in traditional clothes and do traditional dances. Not gonna lie, their moves make me a bit jealous.

Although there's lots to enjoy at the festival, my main reason for going is loukoumades. What are they? Sweet delicious balls of fried honey dough with cinnamon sugar on top *drools* They make them fresh, so they're always hot. When you bite into them, sometimes they burst with honey. I seriously have to learn how to make these!

 If you're in the southern CT area around Labor Day weekend be sure to stop by the Greek Odyssey Festival. If for nothing else, the food! You'll definitely find me there next year (probably in line to get more loukoumades. or a gyro. or spanikopita. )

TTFN! <3
-Avé

Potato and Corn Festival!

I've been so busy with work, I'm glad I'm finally getting to this post as I watch the closing ceremony for the Olympics (btw, OMG SPICE GIRLS INNER CHILD SO HAPPY). Anyways, the Potato and Corn Festival was great! I go for the food, of course, but there's plenty more to see and do there. They have corn eating contests, sack races, carnival rides, and vendors to shop.

As it was the Potato and Corn Festival, one would expect to eat potatoes and uhh...corn Although they are delicious, I had that last year. So I went for the Thai food from Thai Awesome. My veggie pad thai with garlic chicken was the best. ESPECIALLY with the sriracha sauce. Noms.

The Thai food was awesome, but the star of the evening was Big Couzin's Doughnuts, made fresh to order. Not gonna lie, these doughnuts are reason enough to go to the festival. I could eat them forever. These doughnuts were love at first bite. They cook them right in front of you, flipping them with dowels to golden perfection as you salvate buckets. Then you get the choice of sugar or cinnamon sugar, they shake it in a big bag of your choice, wrap a napkin around it and send you on your way to pure doughnut bliss.

I look forward to going again next year, and I shall buy many doughnuts. Nom nom nom.

TTFN!<3