Constantly on the Move

Well hello there! My poor little blog has been left alone for over a month due to me travelling around the world. (Well, America and Europe.)

First, I went to Florida to visit my 97 year old grandfather. Yes! 97!

Then I was back in NYC for a couple of days before I headed to Europe. First stop in Europe was London where I ran a 10K and goofed around with my best friend from college.

Next stop was Durham, UK, to see where my bestie was getting educated for the past nine months.

So, she's been going to Hogwarts. Cool.

Then we headed up to Edinburgh, Scotland, where I had some proper tea at Edinburgh Castle.

After many fun filled days, I said good bye to her and went to Trondheim, Norway, where the sun never set! It was beautiful and I had tons of fun with my Viking-tall friend and his pals.

No. No photoshop on the above photo. Norway is just that beautiful. And check out what one coffee shop called a blueberry muffin! 

Mmmm. It was delicious.

After floating down the river in Trondheim a couple of days, I bade farewell to my friend and went to Brussels, Belgium, to visit another good friend of mine.

He actually just became owner of La Reserve in Brussels, so if you're over there, check it out! Seeing he's in the restaurant business, he knew where to take me to eat and be merry. SO MUCH GOOD FOOD IN BELGIUM! I can't wait to go back. 

Brussels really enjoys comics which is great seeing I do, too! They paint many different sides of buildings with cute murals. Super cute, right? 

Something else that was super was the breakfast my amazing Belgian friend brought one morning. I think the photo speaks for itself:

After much fun in Belgium I boarded a train headed for Paris. Yes! Paris. The only place in Europe I've ever wanted to visit and I was finally there!

You can find many a blogpost on Paris food and tourist sites, so I will leave you with two things you can't find much of.

Me, singing again at Dîner en Blanc, but this time in PARIS!!!! (Here's my outfit followed by a little snippet of Que sera sera.)

And then, my wonderful vegan friend from Toulouse came up to Paris to take part in the diner and she made an amazing vegan dessert.

It was a cherry almond clafoutis and it made a really good meal into a really great meal.

After another fun and ethereal Dîner en Blanc, I headed back to NYC and ran a 10K the next day. (I have a problem and should seek help. I know.)

Then, 34 hours after landing in NYC, I was off to Pittsburgh which is where I've been for 2 weeks. And guess what! Today I baked. Check out the next post to see what I made. (It was yummy!!!!)

Bake well and prosper!



New Orleans

I didn't bake this past week because I was visiting the lovely, funky, jazz-filled city of New Orleans.

 

The weather was so lovely (especially after the 5 degree weather in NYC.) I spent a couple of afternoons in the sun in Jackson Square (photos below.)

That's Andrew Jackson, 7th president of the United States. If you want to know more about him, well, google him. Because I have more to talk about than history in this post. :)

I also sunbathed by the Mississippi River. I've been to the start of the Mississippi River many, many times. It has a humble, gentle start from a lake in MN. This riverboat is on the Mississippi near the end of it. Pretty mighty at the end, eh?

I also biked all over New Orleans. Seriously. All over. I biked every day I was there! Above is a photo from the pretty Audubon Park (which was 6.5 miles away from where I was staying. And I was on a cruiser. When I say I biked everywhere, I really did!)

Which brings me to biking to food. A couple of times I walked to restaurants, but I mainly biked. For lunch one day I biked to Mr. B's Bistro. My yoga instructor in NYC recommended it. Since it was Monday, I got the red beans and rice special. (This is traditionally a Monday dish in New Orleans, but you can find it on other days.) It. Was. AMAZING. It came with a lovely salad, bread straight from the oven, red beans with slightly spicy sausage, a small side of delicious pork chop, white rice, and corn bread. The mix of sweet cornbread and spicy sausage was so scrumptious. I enjoyed every bite. Also, the wait staff were all lovely. They didn't mind talking to me, a party of one. Since the meal was so good I just HAD to look at the dessert menu.

How cute is this menu?! I loved it.

 

I was pretty full from my meal so I kept my dessert order simple and went with the pear and ginger sorbet.

It was just as amazing as the meal and also complimented it very nicely. The ginger wasn't too strong, so the sorbet was a refreshing pear dessert.

If you are ever in NOLA, I highly suggest Mr. B's Bistro for lunch. You won't regret it!

Bake well and prosper!

Toulouse Revisited

Dear readers, do you remember my blog post from 2 years ago about Toulouse?  I quote, "Unfortunately this meant that I wouldn't have my nice camera for the second part of my European trip which was in France. :( This just means that I'll have to go back sometime soon with my nice camera to take better pictures, obviously. :)"

Well, guess what. I did just that! I took tons of photos to make up for not having my camera last time.

I took photos of the inside of my favorite church in Toulouse.

I took photos of my favorite street.

I took photos of my favorite boulangerie.

I also took photos while biking on the Canal du Midi. 

 

 

On the Canal du Midi, my Toulousienne friend and I ate a picnic we packed. Afterwards, we went to the nearby restaurant on the bike path for a glass of wine.  

When I was perusing the menu I just happened to inquire about dessert. Imagine that! And the most magical thing happened! I just happened to order the dessert sampler. 

And I just HAD to take photos of it for my blog. 

There was a nice blackberry cobbler, vanilla ice cream with the thinnest slivered candied almonds, custard, super chocolaty cake, an apple tart, and whip cream to put on whichever dessert I wanted to put it on. Oh, and a glass of muscat.

I was in heaven. 

The other heavenly thing about this dessert sampling? It was very reasonably priced!

 

After my nice, quick jaunt over to France, I'm ready to get back into my kitchen and bake. Fall's right around the corner which means heavier desserts will be made soon. Yay!

 

Oh, by the way, I was back in Toulouse for a coworker's wedding in the countryside nearby. I got to sing at her wedding. Isn't this one of the loveliest settings for a wedding?!

Bake well and prosper!



The Best Donut in America

I know my blogs usually contain recipes of desserts I bake. But when I travel it's nice to share some dessert I just eat with no assembly required. Today I would like to share with you the BEST DONUT IN THE NATION. Meet a Round Rock Donut:

I know what you're thinking. That's just my opinion that it's the best. Au contraire. It's always in the top 10 donut lists that I've seen and has been ranked #1 in many polls. I've seen them featured on the Food Network, Travel Channel (Man vs Food), and on yahoo news.

What makes these so good? I'm not really sure, but I think it has something to do with the weird yellow orange color of the donuts. My favorite is the chocolate covered one (featured in this blog.) The chocolate isn't too fake or too sweet. It's just perfect with a great texture (as in not waxy). And the donut itself is always pure bliss with its wonderful light, fluffy dough and scrumptious flavor. In fact, when I was taking some quick pictures to share with y'all, I couldn't help but take a bite out of one. They are just THAT irresistible!

The only problem is that you can only get them in Round Rock, TX and various shops that sell them in Austin, TX. So, whenever I visit my parents, it's one of the to dos on my trip. (And, since I get them about once a year, I also have to gobble down tons in one sitting. You know, to make up for lost time...)

To find out more, visit their website: Round Rock Donuts

Bake well and prosper!

Ireland - Part 4 - Scary Roads and Pretty Flowers

DISCLAIMER: The blogs about Ireland do not have recipes. *GASP*

This is the last post about my trip to Ireland and the dessert I had while there. Aw...stop crying. I know you're sad.

Here's a pretty flower to cheer you up.

That's from the glorious gardens of the Muckross House in Killarney. Of course, to get to this house (or ANYWHERE in Ireland), one must travel the scary roads.

They were very windy and knowing there were steep hills beyond the curves didn't help. Here, have another flower to calm your nerves.

What's that you say? Ah, yes. The roads WERE tiny. In fact, sometimes cars/trucks had to crawl by each other.But sometimes the roads were fun, like when I drove through a tunnel.

And what's consolatory is the fact that pretty flowers grew by the roads. So if you weren't driving, you at least could focus on nature's beauty and not the frightening roads.

When I was in Kilkenny, I stopped at a cute cafe across from Kilkenny Castle, and this dessert caught my eye.
I HAD to ask....what in the world was it?

Gooseberries and custard! I've never had a gooseberry! Of COURSE I had to try it. I mean, look at the weird hairs on it!

The gooseberries were very tart, but in a good way, and the custard evened it out very nicely. If I had access to gooseberries here, I would make this as a perfect lite summer sweet. Yummy!

Bake well and propser!

Ireland - Part 3 - Crosses, Cliffs, and Castles OH MY!

DISCLAIMER: The blogs about Ireland do not have recipes. *GASP*

Besides green, one thing Ireland has tons of is Celtic crosses (and I kinda fell in love with them!)The one above and below are from Clonmacnoise (which was founded in 545 AD.)
This one is from the Rock of Cashel (which is a castle, but we're not to that subject yet.)
Then there are cliffs. Beautiful and majestic and ruggedThe above cliffs are the Cliffs of Moher. For the more adventurous, the below are Slieve League (Cliffs of Slieve - slieve = mountain.) They are almost three times higher than the cliffs of Moher.
Check out the pieced together panoramic.

With all this majestic land around them, I can see why people in Ireland built castles. They had to try to be as wonderful as the cliffs!

Above is what's left of the Rock of Cashel and below is taken from the inside. It must have been quite an impressive castle back in the days.

Below is Kilkenny Castle. Can you believe people still lived here in the 1900s?! The last family to live here was the Butler Family.

Speaking of Butlers....I read in my guidebook that Butler's Chocolate Cafe (Butler's) in Dublin was a chocoholics paradise.

I picked an assortment of chocolates and regrettably I have to say that none of them wowed me. The Bailey's cream filled one was the best and most enjoyable, but nothing to write home about.

Grant it...I've recently been spoiled with amazing chocolate in Charleston, SC (Christophe Artisan Chocolatier), so Butler's had a lot to live up to.

I also spotted a brownie that I HAD to try.

Unfortunately, I learned after taking this photo that this was the BOTTOM of the brownie, and not the top. It didn't have a very good chocolate flavor (and personally, the supernatural brownies I make are TONS better.)

Ah well. One not so amazing dessert on my trip did not make me turn my back on desserts for good. :)

Bake well and prosper!