Thursday, July 8, 2010

the long weekend and other stuff (mostly food related)

We had a pretty foody long weekend here for the 4th of July. It was also Jon's birthday, and good birthdays usually involve indulging in great food – and cake,
of course!

We spent the evening of the 4th in downtown BR, on the bank of the Mississippi. We ran into some friends from Jon's work, and ended up sitting with them. We listened to music, shared plates of funnel cakes, drank beer and enjoyed the fireworks after the sun went down. The show finished around 9.30, so we all went out for one more round of drinks, and finished with giant slices of pizza from Schlittz & Giggles (sort of dinner, as we hadn't eaten anything except the funnel cake), before heading home.

For Jon's bday, we went out for a nice dinner at Ruffino's Saturday night. We shared a ridiculously rich pork belly dish, and had some lovely creme brulee. With dessert, Jon ordered a scotch, and was surprised when he was brought a full glass (about four shots)! At home, we made a layer cake using recipes from the King Arthur book we got. Our yellow cake turned out nicely, quite dense and moist. For the icing, we thought we'd try the silky buttercream (sugar syrup poured into whisked egg whites, with a heap of butter whipped in). It sure turned out silky smooth, and very buttery. Pretty good though. (Here's a pic.)

While I'm on the subject of food, last night I made double broccoli quinoa for dinner. With the chilli oil, avocado and feta on top – deeelicious! I've tried a couple of recipes from 101 cookbooks now, and they are really good. Would definitely recommend taking a look if you're in need of any tasty vegetarian recipes.

Also, this afternoon I baked some banana bread (recipe here, but I added chopped dates and fresh blueberries). Fortunately/unfortunately (I'm not sure which), I'm the only one 'round here who likes banana bread, so I'm going to slice and freeze it. When I feel like some for breakfast or lunch, I can just pull out a slice or two, pop into the toaster and enjoy with a cup of tea. Very nice.

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