My favorite way to spend a Sunday morning: wake up around 9-10am, check email/blogs/ims while lazing under heated blanket, watch some TV (Bravo usually has some kind of marathon of crappy shows I'm addicted to!), then think about making breakfast/brunch around 12pm.
Airborne (wooo staving off colds), coffee, plain yogurt w/honey and bananas, toast with apricot jam and SmartBalance, and omelette with sauteed tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini. Yummm!
After the series of ice storms at the end of the semester, we were lucky enough not to lose power, unlike the other half of the city. Over the course of the weekend a few friends ended up staying over because they didn't have power, and on Sunday morning Heather and I made pancakes for a bunch of our friends. There's no better way to spend a Sunday than with friends and breakfast foods! :D
(This is how I know we go to a tech school.......)
We used Joy the Baker's Oatmeal Raspberry Pancakes recipe, with a few substitutions. I had no buttermilk, so in place of that I used a mix of plain yogurt and regular milk. I also doubled the recipe, and used instant oats (the recipe doesn't specify), and it turned out great! I love pancake recipes because they're so flexible - almost all of the non-pantry ingredients (like milk, eggs, buttermilk) can be substituted with whatever you have in the fridge. It's so easy!
My friend Jeremy took over the reins in pancake-making during the second round. He claimed he never did this before, but take a look at some of the pancakes he made! ;) He had it down to a science, forming the shapes piece by piece so the layers cooked in order, and taking requests from the crowd. So cool!
Skull and crossbones
Flipping the dragon...
...and here it is! I need to learn how to do this stuff ;)
I may have had a 30 page paper hanging over my head that day, but for me it was one of the most memorable ways to end the semester. :)
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Oatmeal Raspberry Pancake recipe here, from Joy the Baker.
Last weekend one of my roommates (not the apple picking one :P) and I hosted a very classy party, in honor of the opening of a new performing arts center at our (engineering) school.
The opening of this performing arts center has been the topic of a lot of controversy lately, over many issues that generally center around the need for other improvements on campus, and the sheer amount of money being spent on this new building.
While I have my own opinions about this, I won't go into them in too much detail on this blog. However, as a club officer, I was invited to the invite-only Gala Opening Event last Friday night. I definitely wanted to go check it out, mainly because I was sure there would be good food there (and I was right!).
It was black-tie only - so sophisticated! I've never been to such a "grown up" event, so I was pretty excited to get to wear my black prom dress again ;). Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and didn't get any pictures of the night! I have some bad-quality cell phone pictures, but it doesn't do anything justice. The pictures you see now are from re-visiting the building the next morning, with my mom.
So, anyway, I spent most of the day on Friday preparing for our unofficial after-Gala event - the anti-event! Julie (my date for the evening!) and I really enjoyed the irony in the party hopping we did. I present to you our menu for the evening:
The petit fours took the longest to make - about 2 days. I deviated a bit from the original recipe listed above, starting with the Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcake recipe, baked as a sheet cake, as the base. From the birthday cake mentioned in a previous post, I found layers were extremely easy to cut when using this recipe, so I didn't want to risk anything new! Especially trying to balance making all of this between classes and meetings.
The focaccia recipe's already made a debut at the Apartment Warming party, made by Chris both times! It's a huge crowd pleaser every time - everyone's usually surprised that it tastes so good, since the idea of grapes on pizza dough is a bit strange at first. I LOVE this stuff, and it was definitely a hit at the party.
(Can't have a classy party without champagne!)
I was so inspired to post earlier, and I made the mistake of switching on the tv, turning on my electric blanket (we're holding out on the heat in the apartment), and cozying up with....the internet. *shame*
I wish I could say that I was distracted by a book (I've been meaning to start A Widow For One Year), or, you know, my grad class readings (uhoh), or even my homework. But no - it was the internet that got me. Oy.
Anyway, last Sunday my mom and I went out to brunch at the aforementioned Flavour Cafe. We both ordered The F Bomb breakfast sandwich, described on their menu as "Flavour's very own breakfast sandwich.. 2 eggs, provolone cheese, our special sauce on a hard roll". It was delicious! The roll was what got me. Rolls can make or break a sandwich for me. I hate the really bready, starchy, almost tough rolls that are sometimes passed off as hard rolls. I'm the girl who only uses half a hamburger bun for hamburgers. But this roll was much more of a croissant/hard roll hybrid in terms of its texture and taste....deliciously flaky and tender. Yum!
I also ordered the Pumpkin Spice Latte to add to my now-growing list of fall-themed beverages that were had. The presentation was lovely, I'm a huge fan of whipped cream, as are most people! And the drink itself was not overly sweet, which I'm always afraid of when drinking a flavored coffee drink. I'll definitely be going back for more of this one as well. I love anything pumpkin flavored! Next up on the list is one of the campus cafe's drinks - Pumpkin Chai Latte.
Now, time to get to bed...working out with Julie at 7:30am tomorrow. Eek!
So, this post is a bit overdue. And by a bit, I mean extremely. BUT now that that's over with, let me tell you a story!
I am a normal college student; by normal, I mean that I could not WAIT to get out of the dorms and into an apartment with an actual kitchen (of course that's what I would look forward to the most!) So, I was super excited when Chris told me he and all of his roommates were moving out of their (gorgeous!) apartment last year and that I could call dibs.
And so that is how I signed the lease for my first apartment back in April or so, with 3 close girlfriends from RPI. I am still really excited to have the place, but I never thought about the amount of responsibility that comes with living on your own. The knowledge that if the toilet breaks or floods, it's solely our responsibility to clean it up, is terrifying! I'm a girl, I don't know how to deal with that...(and I don't mean that in a sexist way at all, it's just that I am not interested whatsoever in sticking my hand into the toilet tank if the chain falls off (it's held on by a paperclip in the downstairs bathroom), or dealing with a toilet bowl covered in mold after a long, humid weekend.)
I guess that makes me sound like a bit of a baby.
But moving on! The best part (in my opinion) of having an apartment is the endless opportunities I now have to entertain. I have a kitchen! A living room! A kitchen table that won't be covered in disgusting unidentifiable pieces of food! (Hopefully!!) HALLELUJAH!
Perhaps I sound a bit too enthused by these ideas, but let me have my moment of happiness please. (Notice that I'm refraining from discussing the two DISGUSTING GIANT AWFUL house centipedes that we found this summer. MOVING ON.....)
I recently had some family over to partake in an absolutely delicious Sunday Apartment Warming Brunch (if I do say so myself).
The menu was: Cinnamon Bun French Toast (me), Grape Foccacia (Chris), Egg and Veggie Breakfast Casserole (my mom), Fresh Tomato Citrus Basil salad (my aunt), Guacamole (Chris), and Fruit and Yogurt Parfait (me). Mmmmmm!
I've made my Cinnamon Bun French Toast for 2 brunches now - it's the perfect amount of sweetness to be considered breakfast, but rich enough for lunch. I find that you don't even need to use syrup with this, since it's so gooey from the frosting and filling already. I always use pre-made Freihoffer's Cinnamon Buns as the base, but if you want to make your own, I'm sure it'd be that much better!
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Cinnamon Bun French Toast
1 pckg Freihoffer's Cinnamon Buns (or 6 cinnamon buns of choice)
5 eggs
2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup heavy cream
Butter or oil for pan
Slice cinnamon buns horizontally, so you have 12 pieces. Combine eggs, vanilla, spices, and heavy cream in a large bowl. Whisk together until mixed.
Heat a butter or oil in a large frying pan or skillet on medium heat. Working in batches of 2-3 at a time, dip cinnamon bun slices in egg mixture, making sure to get both sides. Place slices in frying pan and cook until golden on each side - about 3-4 minutes per side. Remove from pan when done, and prepare next batch.
Serves 6
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