Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream
My BFF, Alex, over at yumsandloves is a new Mom! Her beautiful daughter, Peyton, has been keeping her busy and she asked if I would do a guest blog for her. I told her of course I would love to! Alex and I love desserts and ice cream is no exception. The sun has finally come out here in the Emerald City and what a better way to celebrate than to eat ice cream. You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream!
Head over to yumsandloves and read more about this strawberry ice cream here!
High Park Fire Bake Sale
Yesterday I wrote about Peanut Butter Cup Cookies, this weekend is your chance to have them sent to your home as well as a number of other goodies.
Erin at Dinners, Dishes, and Desserts is hosting a bake sale this upcoming weekend to support the Colorado Wildfires.
The bidding will open on Sunday July 8th and will continue on until Monday July 9th. Find a list of all the goodies being auctioned by bloggers, etc here.
Happy 4th of July! And please, help support the people being affected by the Colorado Wildfires.
Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Peanut butter….Love! Chocolate….Love! Peanut butter AND chocolate……double love! I first made these a few years back for a holiday cookie exchange, they are easy, delicious, and easy to package up for sharing with friends, etc. Tomorrow is the 4th of July, or in Seattle, the official start of summer. True to Seattle form, it has been a downpour today, the streets are flooding and we’re just hoping that the “sunny” forecast for the 4th of July is actually true. We are heading south of Seattle tomorrow to spend the day with our friends. Our friends who are hosting live outside of city limits, fireworks are permitted in the area, so likely boys will be boys tomorrow with the pyrotechnics.
Peanut Butter Cup Cookies-adapted from allrecipes.com
Yields approximately 40 cookies
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups unwrapped (I always use Reese’s)
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
3. Cream together the butter, white sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk. Add the flour mixture; mix well.
4. Shape into 40 balls and place into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 min. Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball. Cool and remove from pan.
Flour, salt, baking soda
Peanut butter, butter, white and brown sugar-beat until fluffy
Dough formed into balls in mini muffin tin
Unwrapped Reese’s miniature peanut butter cups. So tempting!
Gently press peanut butter cup into warm cookie immediately after baking.
Best friends PB and chocolate united-yum!
Happy 4th of July!!! Hope you all are enjoying the day with people you love, good food, sunshine and fireworks!!
A NYC wedding and more food
I’m back with more pictures from our fabulous NYC trip. Like I said before, we were out in NYC for the wedding of friends, Ivan and Lexi. Ivan was a classmate of Hubby and I’s and he met wife Lexi while doing a residency in Buffalo, NY.
Their ceremony was at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox church and the reception was at the Tribeca Rooftop.
Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox church
Beautiful mosaics throughout the church.
View from inside the Tribeca rooftop.
After walking into the Tribeca rooftop building we rode an elevator up and were met with a martini bar, a sushi station, fresh seafood station, a buffet of amazing cheeses and passed hors d’ oeuvres. I was full before we even sat down to dinner, all of the food was amazing!
View from the rooftop terrace.
Gorgeous view from the rooftop, overlooking the Hudson river. They had perfect weather for their wedding day and a gorgeous sunset.
Dinner reception area.
Looking down on all of the reception tables for the sit down dinner.
The wedding party table.
Since Hubby was in the wedding, I was lucky enough to sit at the wedding party table, we met some really great people that evening.
First dance.
The bride’s dress was absolutely stunning, it was a blush color and she looked amazing!
Hubby and I on the rooftop.
Hubby was in the wedding party, he looked so handsome in his tux!
First course of dinner, caprese salad with dinner roll.
I chose the sea bass as my main course, Hubby had the filet. The fish was good, but I was definitely getting full. But not too full for dessert….
This was the wedding cake, served with berries and vanilla bean ice cream. But, before the cake was served they had brought out chocolate covered strawberries, homemade baklava, mini cannolis, cookies, and other mini desserts!
Hubby and Groom Ivan
The wedding and reception were both beautiful and felt very New York-stylish and elegant. We had a wonderful time celebrating their union and enjoyed dancing and eating the night away.
They even had hot dogs on our way out the door, as much as I love hot dogs, I just didn’t have room!
RedFarm
Like I said in my previous NYC post, friends from Point Pleasant, NJ came into the city for a night. We went to restaurant RedFarm in the West Village. The cuisine is Chinese, I’m not exactly sure what the name of the restaurant means.
RedFarm doesn’t take reservations, but will put your name down on a list and you can give them an approximate time that you would like to be seated for dinner. They will do their best to accommodate that time. We wanted to eat around 7:30 PM, so we arrived at 7 and had drinks at their small bar and were seated very close to 7:30 PM, we definitely beat the dinner rush.
Menu at RedFarm
Our server was very helpful in navigating the menu, he gave us many great dinner suggestions.
Crispy Beef
Pac-man dumplings…..a novelty dish.
Yuzu-wasabi shrimp
Chinese broccoli with shiitake mushrooms
Lobster with egg
Grilled rib-eye with asparagus
Soft and crunchy vegetable fried rice
We enjoyed all of the dishes, the lobster was especially good. There are so many great restaurants in NYC, it’s hard to choose one, and since we hadn’t made reservations weeks in advance there were many restaurants that were booked solid.
I’m already dreaming of my next NYC trip-what restaurants to eat at? What desserts to enjoy? What shows to see? And where to shop!?
Sweets in NYC
***This post is a day late, had to post the IVF update first. More to come on our NYC trip soon!***
Hello again! I feel like I’ve been away for a while even though our NYC trip was only 5 days. Hubby and I were in Manhattan for a friend’s wedding. We stayed at the Millenium Hilton across from the World Trade Center. The view from our room was amazing, we could see the WTC from our room and could look down on the WTC memorial, which was amazing and a beautiful tribute to those who lost their lives on 9/11.
WTC-View from our room. Will be 104 floors upon completion.
Our friends, Ivan and Lexi, were married on June 15th at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox church and then had their reception at the Tribeca Rooftop. The Tribeca Rooftop was an absolutely gorgeous venue and the views were unbelievable. I’ll be posting more about that portion of our trip in my next post.
I love NYC, this was my third trip to the Big Apple and this time I was determined to visit some great food places, especially those dedicated to sweets. Even though the trend seems to be fading, I am and will always be a cupcake-lover. Here in Seattle my go-to cupcake is Trophy cupcakes. Hubby and I had Trophy cupcakes at our wedding and their cake/frosting is hard to beat. (No pun intended.)
We arrived late on Thursday, so we began exploring on Friday morning. The sun was shining and we made our way to Columbus Circle. We went to the Time Warner location of Bouchon Bakery. I would have loved to visit the Rockefeller Center location, but the Columbus Circle location allowed us to get our breakfast to go and head to Central Park to enjoy our pastries in the sun.
Pastry indulging in Central Park.
We both picked out the pastry/fruit or yogurt/coffee combo. I selected the raspberry almond croissant, fruit cup and small drip coffee. Hubby got the crumb cake, yogurt-granola cup and large drip coffee. I thought the croissant was just ok, it was overly sweet and didn’t have enough of the rich almond filling. I much prefer the almond croissants from Bakery Noveau or Cafe Besalu, both located here in Seattle.
From Bouchon we walked to Dylan’s Candy Bar, if you love candy, this will be heaven to you. I told Hubby that this place just makes you happy!
Love it!
Maybe all we need is a little candy and laughter to make our lives happier and sweeter.
Before leaving for our trip, I got some insights as to which cupcake places I should visit. Many friends and fellow bloggers recommended Crumbs. You’ll have to forgive me, but I think we ended up at the Lexington Avenue location, we happened upon it after our visit to Dylan’s.
The case of cupcakes was a little overwhelming at first, there were so many choices and everything looked tasty. Luckily the guy working at the counter asked if this was our first visit and offered his insights. After hearing which flavors were popular I picked out red velvet. Who can go wrong with a red velvet cupcake?! I was still pretty full from Bouchon, so I had my cupcake packed up for later.
So many choices!
Red Velvet from Crumbs
I am huge red velvet fan, but the Crumbs red velvet cupcake wasn’t my favorite. The cake was moist and flavorful, but one of my favorite parts of a red velvet cupcake is the cream cheese frosting. I thought the frosting on the Crumbs cupcake was a little too sweet and the cream cheese factor was lacking. I’m sure there are other varieties that I would love and the price was very reasonable, I would definitely go back and try another flavor.
Saturday morning after the wedding we headed to Nolita (took me a minute to figure out that means North of Little Italy), we had breakfast at Spring Street Natural Restaurant, it was a decent basic breakfast. After breakfast we wandered the streets of Nolita and found Billy’s Bakery (perfect-as it was on my list!)
Billy’s Bakery-Nolita location
Billy’s is pretty small, not much seating, but very cute. I selected the Yellow Daisy cupcake, a yellow buttercake with vanilla frosting. Hubby didn’t have one, so we sat inside while I devoured mine.
I loved this cupcake, it was simple yet very flavorful and exactly the taste I like for a vanilla/vanilla type cupcake. The cake was slightly moist, freckled with vanilla bean and the frosting had the perfect butter/sugar combination. My favorite cupcake of the trip.
Saturday evening we went to dinner with our friends who came into the city from Point Pleasant, NJ. We went to dinner at RedFarm in the West Village, more about this place soon. After dinner we were walking back to the subway and ran into the original Magnolia Bakery on Bleeker St. in the West Village. I originally had this on the top of my list for finding the perfect cupcake, but then many people told me it was overrated and not the “best” cupcake in NYC. But fate brought us to the original location and it was so cute from the outside, I couldn’t resist.
Bleeker St. Magnolia Bakery
Lots of people were still gathered round and the soft yellow glow from the window was begging me to take a closer peek.
Even though I was there for a classic vanilla cupcake, I was tempted by all of the gorgeous layer cakes and treats behind the counter. I stuck to my guns and got the classic vanilla, Hubby got Magnolia’s Famous Banana Pudding. Wow….I didn’t even try my cupcake before I was spooning mouthful after mouthful of Hubby’s banana pudding into my pie hole. It was delicious! I wish I would have gotten a picture of it, but we had eaten it too fast.
Classic Vanilla cupcake from Magnolia Bakery
I had a bite of my cupcake later in the evening right before bed and had the rest of it Sunday after our pizza lunch. The cake was tasty, but the frosting was just too overwhelming. The cupcake would have been better with about a third of the frosting. A friend told me that Billy’s is the same recipe as Magnolia, they definitely were similar, but I thought the cake-to-frosting ratio at Billy’s was better. Magnolia had a lot of other great desserts and next time I’ll try something other than the cupcake, or maybe just have the banana pudding again!
On our last day in NYC we headed to the Chelsea Market. The weather was slightly cooler and I was pretty much cupcaked-out!
Inside I stopped by FatWitch to pick up a small souvenir for bestie Alex and then was tempted by Eleni’s, but only stopped in for a picture. I wish I had room for one more cupcake, but I just didn’t. I was ready for a big slice of NY pizza instead.
Eleni’s in Chelsea Market
We had a wonderful trip to NYC, congrats to our friend’s Ivan and Lexi on their wedding!!! Hope to be back soon, there are many other food destinations in Manhattan that I’m still waiting to try!
***Some photos were enhanced using Snapseed. I used my iPhone 4S for all photos on this post, I didn’t want to look like too much of a tourist carrying around my SLR camera.***
IVF Postponed…..indefinitely?
Life can shift in an instant. Yesterday morning I was happily typing away my post about the fabulous places we visited in NYC in search of delectable sweet treats and at the next moment I feel like I’m in a surreal universe.
Yesterday afternoon I went into our fertility clinic for my suppression check. I had been on birth control for 2 months (in hopes of stabilizing my endometrioma cysts) and had started Lupron the previous week (I had been injecting 10 units subcutaneous since 6/12). The sonographer shared the good news that my cysts were stable and had not increased in size, but she was searching and searching to find follicles surrounding my cysts. She finally was able to detect a mere 3 on my left ovary and only a single follicle on my right ovary. She started talking about how we might not be able to move forward with the IVF and could maybe do an IUI instead. My mind started racing, but I wasn’t fully comprehending what was going on. I previously had 12-13 follicles in the past, where did they go?
The nurse on staff at SRM Bellevue said that my ovaries were suppressed and that it was possible that some of the follicles were too small or dormant to visualize, that maybe we could increase my dose of Follistim and all would be alright. I left feeling a little worried, but figuring that we would move ahead.
About an hour and a half later my phone rings……it’s Dr. Thyer on the line. “We don’t have enough follicles, the IVF is cancelled.” I’m numb, I’m saying “yes”, “okay”, but I’m not fully comprehending what’s happening. My ovaries have been over-suppressed. She tells me that we’ll do a “natural cycle start”, discontinue birth control, discontinue Lupron, and wait…..
Dr. Thyer says we are battling between keeping the cysts at bay, but making sure that I’m producing enough follicles to proceed with the stimulation meds and ultimately egg retrieval and embryo transfer. She says we need at least 8 follicles to move ahead.
I have another ultrasound and blood draw on July 13th (the time I thought I would be having my embryos transferred). I’m scared I won’t have enough follicles, but I know that I have to stay optimistic and to have faith.
One minute I’m reminiscing about cupcakes and the next I’m waking up realizing that I’m not starting the IVF process like I believed I would be. Have faith, have hope, and remember that sometimes life happens how it does for a reason. This is what I’m trying to tell myself.
Cranberry and Pecan Flapjack
I love a hearty cookie and in my cupboard is a Costco size bag of rolled oats, therefore, I decided to put those oats to good use in an oatmeal cookie. Monster cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip, oatmeal scotchies…..I love them all, but I wanted to make something a little different this Tuesday afternoon.
I opened up my “Cookie” recipe book and flipped to oatmeal in the index. Under oatmeal was a recipe for “flapjacks”, sounded like a pancake to me…..but I discovered something even more delightful.
Cranberry and Pecan Flapjacks-from Cookie recipe book
Makes 10
- 2/3 cup sweet butter, diced
- 2/3 cup light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 1/2 cup pecan nuts, chopped (you can substitute another nut, but pecans give an intense nutty flavor)
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries (or any variety of dried fruit)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a 7-inch square shallow baking pan (I used an 8×8 glass baking dish lined with parchment paper).
Yummy pecans
Put the butter, sugar, and maple syrup in a large heavy pan and heat gently until butter has melted. Remove from the heat and stir in oats, nuts and cranberries until well combined.
Spread evenly in the prepared pan and using a knife, score the mixture into ten bars. Bake for 25-30 min, or until golden.
I scored into 12 bars
Remove from the oven and cut through scored lines. Leave until completely cold before removing from the pan. (This is important, I tried to remove a bar while warm and it crumbled immediately.)
These flapjacks are a very rich and buttery delight. I served them last night for a BBQ with friends with a scoop of simple vanilla bean ice cream. I’m sure the secret is the butter, but between you and me, I’ll still think of this as a hearty/healthy cookie filled with rolled oats.
Injections
Last night I started my IVF injectable medications. My protocol starts with 10 units of Lupron placed subcutaneously for approximately three weeks nightly. It wasn’t the pain from the needle that bothered me so much (which turned out to not be painful at all) but rather actually gathering up the nerve to “dart” (how it was actually described!) an entire needle into my abdomen. There is just something counterintuitive about placing a needle into one’s own body. This is the beginning of my injections, so hopefully it’ll get easier each time.
Hubby and I are leaving for NYC tomorrow, so I’ll need to pack my Lupron and syringes….fun times!! We are spending a long weekend there for a wedding.
I’m hoping to visit lots of places that cater to my sweet tooth. I was inspired after reading this post on Kevin and Amanda‘s blog.
Any suggestions?!?!!
Lemon Cream Pie
Summer is almost here, I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that it’s June 6th. Where has this year gone so far? I’m having mixed emotions about time right now, I’m wanting July to come soon as we are scheduled to retrieve eggs for our first round of IVF, but sometimes I feel that life just goes by too fast. Time on Earth is short…..it’s true.
I’ve been reading a lot of posts on rhubarb, I do love rhubarb. Last year a friend gave me an armful of rhubarb stalks from her garden and I was making strawberry-rhubarb crisp for several outdoor gatherings. This year since I haven’t been thoughtfully given any rhubarb, I’ve decided on the lemon as my fruit for a summer dessert.
I love lemon desserts-lemon bars, lemon poppy seed cake, lemon meringue pie (my late Grandmother’s favorite). They are light and refreshing to my palate.
I love how these store-bought gingersnaps have texture embossed onto the surface, obviously machine-made (next time I would make my own).
Lemon Cream Pie-from Real Simple magazine
- 9 oz gingersnaps (about 35)
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest, plus more for serving, plus 1/2 c lemon juice
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, process the gingersnaps, until fine crumbs form. Add the melted butter, granulated sugar and 1/2 tsp salt and pulse until moistened. Press the mixture firmly into the bottom and sides of a 9 inch pie plate. Place on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until edges are dry and set, about 16-18 min. This is a crunchy cookie crust. Let cool.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, condensed milk, lemon zest and juice, and the remaining 1/2 tsp of salt. Pour the mixture into the crust and bake until set in the center, 18-20 min. Let cool and then refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours. (I chilled mine overnight and added the whipped cream before serving).
Using an electric mixer, whip the cream and confectioners’ sugar on medium until soft peaks form, 2-3 min. Spread on the pie, sprinkle with additional zest, and serve immediately.
Window courtesy of Tribby (a friend and fellow bookie), I wanted to get some natural light (it’s been June gloom in Seattle lately).
I was happy with the way the pie turned out, I think next time I will make homemade gingersnaps and will bake the crust for less time.
Eat pie and take time to slow down and enjoy some precious summertime.
Whole Wheat Pasta Puttanesca
I love to cook, but sometimes I get home from work and I’m tired and don’t want to have to do much work to get dinner on the table. Compared to baking which is more of a precise science, cooking allows for more creativity and using ingredients that are on-hand. A couple of weeks ago I was craving a salty, flavorful pasta dish. I had just bought some raw tail-on shrimp and decided to make a healthier version of a Pasta Puttanesca.
I gathered up ingredients that were already in my kitchen:
1 lb. raw tail-on shrimp
3 Roma tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp capers
2 cups of button mushrooms
1/2 cup good white wine
2 tbsp olive oil (2 turns in the pan)
salt and pepper to taste
chili flakes to taste
6-8 oz. whole wheat spaghetti
Mince garlic, dice Roma tomatoes, half button mushrooms-set aside
Heat olive oil in a large pot, add garlic, saute lightly, add raw shrimp, quickly cook until just pink, remove and set aside. Heat additional olive oil, add Roma tomatoes, mushrooms, capers and continue to saute over medium heat.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt if desired-boil spaghetti noodles according to package directions. I usually like my pasta on the al dente side.
As the spaghetti cooks, add back the lightly cooked shrimp and white wine, continue to simmer over low heat.
Once spaghetti is at desired doneness , drain but reserve about 1/4 cup of pasta water. Add spaghetti and pasta water to the pot. Stir together sauce and pasta and add salt, pepper and chili flakes to taste. Pasta Puttanesca typically calls for both anchovies and oregano. I didn’t want an overpowering “fishy” flavor, so I substituted the shrimp and I didn’t have any oregano on-hand, so left it out. I added extra chili flakes for additional heat and thought the sauce turned out flavorful.
This is an easy dinner dish, great for a weeknight when time is of the essence. And with summer right around the corner, this lighter version of Pasta Puttanesca would be great for al fresco dining. Enjoy!
The Rx list
I’ve been on birth control for the last 7 weeks and will continue on for another 3 weeks or so. Like I’ve said before, it’s a total oxymoron to be taking birth control in preparation for conceiving a baby. But, I guess when it’s not being done naturally and you have modern medicine intervening then it makes sense…..right?
Hubby and I have been in island paradise recently and haven’t had to think about the IVF too much or actually deal with everything that comes with IVF-including big charges to our credit card.
Well, back to reality……….we got our med list and had to make our payment this month so that next month we can pay for the actual IVF procedures (I won’t even tell you how much that will be yet!).
Here is the list:
Eeek! About half way down that list is the Follistim “pen” kit…..$2540! I would have needed smelling salts if I hadn’t been forwarned by friends who have gone through fertility treatments and been semi-prepared for the shock of how expensive IVF meds are. My protocol calls for 375 IU of the Follistim, as you can see above the pens are only 300 IU, but my nurse clarified that they are usually overfilled, thank goodness! Otherwise, we’d need 2 more pens. But, luckily we saved about $500 and we can sock it away for the next hit!
We are going to participate in the Attain Refund program through our fertility clinic (SRM), so we are going to buy a package deal for 3 fresh cycles and 3 frozen cycles. Unfortunately, this package does not include meds, so that $3613.63 is only for one round!!!
As much as I’m complaining about the high cost of IVF, we will be overjoyed to get pregnant and have a healthy, happy baby or babies! The outcome will be priceless.
Blogs I Follow
Liebster Blog
Bakin’ Friends
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hopefulandhungry 