Category Archives: Eating

Chomp it up.

menu plan Monday

Concerts, poor decisions and wildlife. And a menu plan.

We saw a lot of strange stuff this weekend.

Stuff like Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips.

And then after the show we saw a guy laying on the side of the road, barefoot and flanked by EMTs. He was weeping and shouting “Please, thank you, please, thank you.” He grew belligerent when the EMTs tried to strap him to the gurney, insisting that he was not, in fact, drunk. Maybe not, but he was something. He bit one of the EMTs just as the traffic started moving again. This is how the zombie apocalypse begins, if you believe Rockford.

On Saturday I walked around the front of the car and nearly stepped on a little bird in the driveway. I screamed and leapt away. We thought he was injured, so Rockford put on some gloves and put him in a box. But he jumped out of the box and ran under the car and then disappeared. I hope he’s alright.

These weren’t so strange, but they were delicious enough to mention: Last night we had Taco Cups for dinner. They’re a little fussy, but they’re worth the effort. And here’s what we’re having for the rest of the week:

Monday: Beef & Broccoli Stir-Fry

Tuesday: Out

Wednesday: Thai curried beef

Thursday: Honey Garlic Chicken

Friday: Pizza

recipes, sponsored

Here’s how I freeze the day

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Nice & Icy Creamy Caramel Toffee Coffee Supreme // Seattle's Best Caramel Frozen Blend

When Pete was a newborn and Poppy was still a toddler, I decided I needed to get out of the house on a regularly scheduled basis. So I applied for a weekend job at a locally owned coffee shop near the apartment we lived in at the time. I only worked there for a little while, but it was long enough to get hooked on those frosty blended coffee beverages. (You may be familiar with them if you’ve ever been to that coffee shop with the mermaid on the sign.) They’re refreshing and delicious, but they’re pricey and not what you’d call low-cal. So regardless of how much I’d like them to be, they’ve never been an “anytime food.”

Except that last week I discovered that I can make them at home — for way less money and fewer calories, too — using Seattle’s Best’s new Frozen Coffee Blend product. They sent me a few packs of the Creamy Caramel flavor to try out last week, and I was sitting next to our little pool enjoying what I like to call a Nice & Icy Creamy Caramel Toffee Coffee Supreme minutes after the FedEx guy left the driveway. That’s way less time than it would’ve taken to load the kids into the car for the drive to the coffee shop.

Nice & Icy Creamy Caramel Toffee Coffee Supreme
Author: Nichole @ ButterscotchSundae.com
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • 1/2 package Seattle’s Best Frozen Blend Creamy Caramel
  • 1/2 cup crushed ice
  • 8 ounces 1% milk
  • toffee bits
  • mini chocolate chips
  • whipped cream in a can
Instructions
  1. Put everything in a blender. Whir it up. Apply whipped cream. Kick back and enjoy.

 

The Frozen Coffee Blends also come in Coffee Chiller, Mega Mocha and Very Vanilla, and Seattle’s Best is looking forward to giving 50 of you the chance to try them out. Leave a comment here before noon EST on Friday, July 5. The first 50 commenters will get a coupon for a free Seattle’s Best Frozen Coffee Blends package! (One coupon per person; please don’t leave multiple comments. I’ll be emailing you for your mailing address, so make sure you leave a valid email address.) comments are closed!

Disclaimer: Seattle’s Best provided Nichole with free product for review purposes. All opinions expressed are solely her own.

baking, recipes

My favorite pie crusts involve crumbling cookies

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Momofuku Milk Bar Crack Pie @ ButterscotchSundae.com

Because I am on Pinterest and Pinterest loves an ooey-gooey pie, I have been aware for some time that something called “Crack Pie” exists. It’s served at Momofuku Milk Bar in NYC for $5.25 a slice or $44 for a whole pie. Forty-four dollars! That’s a lot of dough.

Cost aside, the last time I was in New York was something like 25 years ago, and I probably won’t be going back anytime soon. So I was intrigued to see that the much-heralded Crack Pie was one of the three options for this month’s Daring Bakers Challenge. The other two were a chocolate and caramel tart and a crostata, both of which sounded great but neither or which had “crack” in the name. And they also looked like the pastry/crust would be harder to make, and I’m kind of scared of pastry-making. So in retrospect I guess I didn’t exactly nail the “challenge” portion of this challenge, did I? I did make a creamy blueberry pie this month, but I bought the pastry for that. I also played a lot of Candy Crush Saga this month. So there’s that.

Anyway, back to the crack.

The Crack Pie recipe looks pretty long and involved, but it isn’t difficult at all. You start by making a giant oatmeal cookie, which you then crumble completely and turn into your crust. That’s the most involved part; after that, it’s just mixing a few things together and baking it.

It’s a very rich pie, so make sure you have a glass of milk on hand when you’re ready to try it. I’m not sure it really earns the “crack” rating — I haven’t had an overwhelming desire to make another one, and I’m pretty sure when they called it that they didn’t mean that the top of it might crack even though that’s what I told Poppy when she asked — but it is pretty tasty.

 

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