I just made some amazing chili.
Followed this recipe for the chili, but substituted the ground beef with ground turkey, the beef broth with chicken broth, and green pepper with red. It still turned out so damn delicious.
And what would chili be without corn bread? Too bad I didn’t have corn meal, but I made it with mozzarella green onion biscuits instead.
So effing happy.
Saturday morning smelled amazing. The Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes were delicious, but sadly I had to have them without the syrup. The Sour Cream and Cheddar Biscuits should have been made with jalapenos instead of green onions, but I definitely did not mind. They’re also supposed to complement beef chili, but my lazy butt didn’t have enough energy to go that far. Anyhow, those are recipes to keep. So excited to bake more ahhhhhh.
7 days until withdrawal
So for the past couple of years, despite not being very religious (even then, more Buddhist than anything), I’ve tried to partake in Lent by giving something up. This year, I’m going to do the impossible (really, really impossible) and give up sweets. This is going to be tough given the fact that I don’t consider a meal to be finished until I end it with something sweet. Seriously.
Nella is going to take the leap with me and give up sweets too (on top of coffee and meat!!!) so I’m going to attempt to put some definition around what we’re considering sweets.
In a broad sense, anything that can be considered dessert.. and more:
- All candy
- Anything that has the word “cake” and “pie”
- Anything that is “meant” to be sweet
- Ice cream (including sorbet, gelato, and the works)
- Milkshakes
- Juice, soda, sparkling flavored sodas, lemonade
- Jamba Juice (save the all fruit smoothies)
- The sweet breakfast pastry variety: scones, doughnuts, coffee cakes, danishes, muffins, morning buns, fruity croissants, cinnamon rolls
- Flavored yogurt (save original tart)
- Flavored lattes (i.e., with syrups), coffee
- Frozen yogurt
- Cookies (oh no.. my ginger snaps..)
- Brownies
- Croissants (save the original without sweet, fruity cream cheese fillings)
- Dried fruit, raisins
- Granola and granola bars
- Sweet cereals (which I’m going to define as >5g sugar)
- Pudding
- Sweet sauces, dips, syrups and dressing: honey, teriyaki sauce, Nutella
- And hardest of all for me to give up: pearl tea
What doesn’t count:
- Chai lattes (ok, this is debatable, but I need some form of cold caffeine)
- Cereal <5g sugar
- Fresh squeezed juice
- Fruit
- Cha xiu bao (bbq pork buns)
Oh my goodness. Am I setting myself up for some major withdrawal? I’m sure. Pretty sure I’m going to load up on sodium during those 40 days. Damn this is going to be hard…
This is.. pretty much what we did in NY. This probably isn’t even half of it.
Pumpkin pie to welcome fall. It was delicious!
The Butler and the Chef in South Park, San Francisco.
As you can see, I have been on an Parisian rampage—if you can’t tell, I wanna go.. really badly. But until then, The Butler and the Chef did it for me. This place was everything I love. The interior was small, quaint, smelled like fresh baked deliciousness; the chef made his occasional rounds, and even an accordion player was there to sing La Vie En Rose. Highly recommend it. And aside from the actual cafe, South Park is a jewel in SF!
Had a 26 lb. turkey at the annual holiday party at my uncle’s house.
