Obsessions + Confessions

I know, I know. I've been slacking on the recipes. Life is busy and crazy and exciting and filled with new things right now! Trying to get my counseling career started, but it means I have less time for recipe-making and blogging unfortunately. I hope to find some kind of rhythm so I can fit blogging back into my life.

But for now, I've always got my current obsessions that I wanna share with you!

Bacon crack. Lisa just may be my foodie soul mate.

Wow. Almost too pretty to eat. I said almost.

23 of the most perfect foods. Eva eva. Let's be real, I want them all, but that Mac and Cheese Bacon Lattice Pie is simply a masterpiece.

This needs to be all up in my belly. 

Savory s'mores? Ok I'm in. 

Don't go away, summer. I still need to make these Toasted Coconut Milkshakes. 

I refuse to accept that summer is almost over. I'm still all about chocolatey popsicles and tart popsicles and strawberry cheesecake popsicles and pink lemonade popsicles and margarita popsicles and frozen pies and grilled thingies and all things s'mores, even frozen s'mores ! Longest run-on sentence ever?

Ok let's talk ice cream for a minute. Before summer's gone! I'm craving burnt sugar ice cream and blueberry ice cream and s'mores ice cream and ice cream pies (with alcohol!) and ice cream sandwiches and ice cream sundaes and ice cream cups and sorbet. 2nd longest run-on sentence.

You know what else is great about summer! The fruit! Loving this peachy goodness and this gorgeous blueberry bread! 

Add peaches to your caprese salad. Do it!

More proof that summer shouldn't end? These homemade hot dog buns and summer corn dip. Yep, those will be made. 

Apparently I'm summer-obsessed. Summer salsa!

Betcha I could gulp this whole milkshake down in like 5 minutes.

Adorable DIY arm candy.  

Can we pretend that I'm all crafty and can make this DIY kitchen chalkboard? Cool thanks.

#13 and #17. That is all.

Cupcake ATMs? Backpack hammocks? Grilled Cheese Sandwich Buns?!?! Genius bookmarks?!? Cereal milk?!? Where in life are these things?!?!


Ladies, you're welcome. 


Live by this quote.

Peace, and bacon grease!

 

Restaurant Review: Bruster's in Western Hills

Time for more restaurant reviews.

This isn't really a restaurant, but it's worth reviewing.

Why? Because it has one of the most memorable, delicious... let's just put it this way, one of my fave ice cream flavors ever!

Ok I'm getting ahead of myself. As you can see, I'm talking about an ice cream joint called Bruster's Real Ice Cream over on the westside connected to Five Guys on Glenway.

PJ ordered a banana split. I tried a bite and it was good... can't really go wrong with a banana split, can you?

The main reason that I love this place for a perfect summertime ice cream cone?

Graham Cracker flavored ice cream.

It's called Graham Central Station, to be exact, and it's Graham Ice Cream with Graham Cracker and Chocolate Flakes.

Basically, it's perfection. I am obsessed with graham cracker crumbs in any kind of ice cream. And for this to be a graham cracker flavored ice cream + graham cracker crumbs throughout is just the icing on the cake.

Or the icing on the ice cream?

Not sure, but all I know is that this ice cream flavor keeps me coming back for more. No other place I've ever been to makes this kind of ice cream. I really need to learn how to make a homemade version! That would be ideal.

Until then, I'll be going to Bruster's throughout the summer to quench my graham cracker ice cream craving. It's so close to my house, and so worth it. Uh oh, I've only got a little bit of time left... fall is quickly approaching!


Peace, and bacon grease!

Obsessions + Confessions

I haven't done much of these posts this month and I dunno why because I have a bajillion links saved up for the sole purpose of these posts. Well back to my obsessions + confessions of the month!

Keep these lunch ideas in mind for back to school ease.

And for the teacher in your life... these adorable teacher gifts. 

Leopard is my thing.

So intimidated by the mere thought of making these glorious macarons. 

More macaron intimidation.

I'm not Brazilian but I KNOW this is good stuff. 

Can't get anymore summer than this. 

Need to get my peach fix before summer's over!

A healthy rainbow.

Not helping my "diet".

Melty ooey ice cream goodness.

Fancy schmancy hot dogs. 

Black pepper in popsicles?? Who knew?!? 

Are you kidding me???

Vegetarian goodness. 

What the what? I'm a buffalo+blue cheese freak!!!

Let's get chocolate wasted.

Speaking of cakes, is that frosting technique not the best?

This quote. Kinda life-changing.  

Love this perfect blend of edgy and soft. She is rockin that outfit. 

Can my fiancee be more handy so he can make me this gorgeous kitchen island? Oh, to dream.

This DIY makeup table makes me wish I was more into mkaing my face all pretty. Apparently I've reached the point of not caring :) 

I start back to school today! Well technically I started Saturday. It just seems wrong for the first day of classes to be on a Saturday. My niece is starting as a freshman at Xavier too! I'm so excited to have her there with me and to watch her grow into more of an adult and live the college experience.  

  


























Oh, and I start at my practicum site this Thursday! Things are bout to get real! I'll be counseling actual clients. I just don't feel ready! Hope I don't mess anyone up :)


Whoa there's a ton of links in this post that I'm obsessin over. Confession: I spend way too much time on the internet.


Peace, and bacon grease!

Glazed Donut Strawberry Shortcake

Secret Recipe Club time again. Man it comes so fast! Months are just flying by. Oh, the truths of getting older.

This month I was assigned to Christina's blog, Mis-Cakes Oven Adventures. So many tasty desserts to choose to make! With recipes like PB Banana Brownies, No Bake Nutella Cookies, and Brown Butter Monkey Bread, she made it really hard for me to narrow it down to the perfect recipe. But when I saw this, I was done. Over. Finished. No more searching. I've found my calling. I've died and gone to heaven.

 
















































A strawberry shortcake simplified without all the cooking, and yet so amplified by the use of donuts. You'll have these desserts whipped up in a jiffy, and people will think you're all fancy schmancy when really all you had to do was slice some strawberries and have your mixer whip up some whipped cream. 

Done and done!

Glazed Donut Strawberry Shortcake
from Mis-Cakes Oven Adventures

• 4 fresh glazed donuts
• 1 cup sliced strawberries
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Place strawberries in a bowl. Top with sugar and mix. Let sit for a bit.

Add heavy whipping cream to electric mixer bowl and whisk on high until soft peaks form. Turn mixer to slow, adding powdered sugar and vanilla. Return to high speed and beat until stiff peaks form. 

Slice each donut and set top slices aside. On the bottom of each donut, place 1/4 of the strawberries and top with 1/4 of the whipped cream. Top with the top of the donut.


Printable Recipe








Forget slaving over a hot stove all day. These shortcakes are the perfect summer dessert. Quick, easy, no cooking required, no heat required, and just as delicious as the real thing. 

No cooking? Now you've got more time for summer fun. 

You're welcome. 

Check out my past Secret Recipe Club posts.



Linking up here.





Peace, and bacon grease!

Glazed Donut Strawberry Shortcake

Glazed Donut Strawberry Shortcake

Restaurant Review: Sushi Thai Restaurant and Bar

Hey there!

Those of you that are here for the recipes.... they'll return, promise.

But now's time for the restaurant reviews. It's time, people. I haven't posted a restaurant review in so long, so I think it's time to empty my camera phone of the tons of food pics piling on from a year+ of restaurant endeavors.

Groupons and Livingsocial deals are amazing, aren't they? And any other kinda deal I can get my hands on. Half price deals + it gives me the opportunity to try new restaurants I ordinarily wouldn't even know existed.

This time my Livingsocial deal enabled me to try a new-to-me sushi joint in Florence, KY called Sushi Thai Restaurant and Bar. Yep, that's the name. Kind of a lazy name, right? At least they let you know what they're serving!

We pulled up on a Friday night and the exterior wasn't anything special. It looked like a dinky bar you'd find in a plaza or strip mall. That's ok though, I don't like to judge books by their covers.

When we entered, it wasn't a whole lot better. It was pretty slow on a Friday night, with us and maybe two other tables. No reservation needed at all. It was small inside, with a whole back portion closed off. Small dark tables with pink folded cloth napkins displayed on top. Big flat screen tvs for cooking show watchage. Not a word, btw. Sorry, you'll have to get used to my very own Desi language.

We were greeted by our adorable and super sweet waitress. It took us a little minute to decide what to order, considering the sushi menu is quite expansive. I really like how they list all of the sauces with a description of each. I've never seen any other sushi place do that before. I also liked their coding, with a T for tempura, C for cooked, R for raw, and M for mixed. 

 




























































We ordered the Daniel Boone, Kentucky Roll, and Florence Roll. I could tell immediately when it was brought out to us that it wasn't going to be the best sushi I've had....

Let's start with the Daniel Boone ($10.95), which was tempura fried and had crawfish, asparagus, jalapeno, lemon, tobiko and served with sumo sauce (garlic ginger cream sauce). It was crazy spicy! Like uncomfortably spicy. I had to remove the jalapenos. We weren't expecting that. It was a different kind of tempura than I've ever tasted as well. The sauce on top was a bright yellow which resembled mustard. I'm not sure why there was a yellow and brown sauce on top, considering it only comes with sumo sauce. Also, they stacked the rolls so some of the ones on bottom didn't have any sauce on them at all. Boo to that.

The Kentucky Roll ($8.95) was the most disappointing. The menu describes it as a fancy roll with real crab meat, avocado, masago, asparagus, and tempura flake. These were pretty bland without any sauce. Also, we purposefully ordered rolls without cucumber and this was supposed to have asparagus but there was definitely cucumber in it. Yes, it was real crab instead of that imitation stuff but still, not impressed.

Last but not least was The Florence Roll ($12.95). This "super deluxe roll" had real crab meat, cream cheese, avocado, scallion, tobiko, and tempura flake topped with baked spicy scallop and sumo sauce. This was my fave of the three we tried because of the topping. I like a little less cream cheese in my rolls but that's a personal preference. I loved the spicy baked scallop topping though. I wish we had ordered more of this roll!

























































Oh, one other strange thing. Once the discount was applied, the waitress brought us a machine thingy to pay the remaining balance by credit card, and I was trying to leave a tip on the original total before discount, but it wouldn't let me leave more than 100% tip! So my remaining balance was $6.72 and so I couldn't leave a tip higher than that, even though I wanted to leave 20% of the total bill. Seems like they may wanna get that together because they are shorting their waitresses out of higher tips! 

We eat a ton of sushi, and this was probably my least favorite sushi joint we've tried so far. Needless to say, we won't be going back. We were a bit surprised at the high ratings on Urbanspoon and Yelp. To each his/her own I guess. I was still happy to try a new place thanks to my Livingsocial deal though.


Peace, and bacon grease!

Pineapple Salsa

This is everything that's good about summer.















































Fresh juicy pineapple paired with the spicy bite of jalapeno and the sweet crisp of red onion. Lime juice and cilantro.

It's simple, right? I know! But I feel like people just don't know about the greatness that is this salsa. 

And I want them to! 
























































All it requires is some dicing along with some mid-prep pineapple snackage.

The pineapple is sweet and tart and bursts in your mouth, and the jalapeno adds a nice contrasting heat and crunch. Red onions make all things better. And though I used to think that cilantro tasted like wet rag, I do enjoy it in salsas and other Mexican inspired recipes.

I welcome the cilantro in this keeper!
 

 



Pineapple Salsa
from the kitchen of SteakNPotatoesKindaGurl

• 2 cups fresh pineapple, diced
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped
• Juice and zest of 1 lime
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt

Add all ingredients to a large bowl and toss together. Salsa can be served immediately or covered and chilled until ready to use.


Printable Recipe

























































This salsa is perfect as a dip or appetizer with chips or tortillas. Or most definitely as a topping on fish, pork, chicken, or anything else you can think of.

Or just served straight up on a spoon. Whatever floats your boat! 



Linking up here.


Peace, and bacon grease!

Grilled Mexican Pizza

I made a meatless meal...

And loved it!

I mean, I knew I loved the ingredients involved. But I didn't know I liked them that much that I wouldn't even miss the meat. 

You see, I've been trying to eat a little better these days. And this recipe was packed full of bright and flavorful veggies, + I got it from Cooking Light which means it's gotta be better than scarfing down a huge burger or fried chicken, right? 

 















































Please don't hold this healthy thing against me though, k? Especially if you're following my instagram...  you may or may not see endless photos of margaritas and frozen yogurt and starchy chips and loaded sweets and sushi and... you get my drift.
 
But this recipe though... 

If this is what health{ier} looks like, I'm on board.

 

Grilled Mexican Pizza
adapted from Good Housekeeping

• 10-12 inch ready-made thin pizza crust
• 1/2 can refried beans (or however much you like to cover the crust)
• 1/2 cup (or more) shredded Mexican cheese
• 1 corn on the cob 
• 1/2 a red onion, diced and divided 
• 1 avocado, diced
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon lime zest
• 1 cup shredded romaine lettuce
• 1 medium tomato, diced 

Prepare outdoor grill for covered, direct grilling on medium. 

Grill corn until charred and cooked. Using a knife, cut off grilled corn kernels into a bowl.

You can grill one side of the crust first, if desired. Spread refried beans evenly on one side of the crust, leaving 1/2-inch border; sprinkle with cheese and half of the diced red onions. Place crust on hot grill rack; cover and grill until grill marks appear, about 8 to 9 minutes.  

Meanwhile, gently stir avocado with 1 tablespoon lime juice. Toss corn with lime zest and remaining lime juice. 

Top grilled pizza with romaine, tomato, avocado, remaining diced onions, and corn mixture. 


*Note: The measurements can be adjusted depending on your preference. 

Printable Recipe

 



Rainbow pizza, is what I should call this. 

So many things going on! Creamy avocados soaked in lime juice, grilled corn, fresh romaine, juicy tomatoes, and sweet red onions atop refried beans and that crispy crust. Exactly.

This was my first time grilling a pizza, and it surely won't be the last. I've gotta eventually move up to making my own pizza dough and crust! That's on one of my bucket lists.


Linking up here.




Peace, and bacon grease!