2006 November

Candy Cane Lane…cookie exchange #4

November 21, 2006 by Peabody · 23 Comments

Living in the land of Starbucks often brings you to one. Last year they were having a holiday open house and I happened to stop by that day. They were giving out free drinks and free cookies. I fell in love with these little peppermint cookies they had and immediately went home and tried to replicate it. The peppermint definitely came from candy canes, so that is what I used....in both the cookie and the powdered sugar "icing". The best part is smashing the heck out of the candy canes...gets rid of any aggravation you might have. They aren't exact, but they are close enough for me. I will be bringing these to my cookie exchange because they say Christmas to me. Although almost anything candy cane, egg nog or gingerbread says Christmas to me. :) Candy Cane Meltaways 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 1/2 cup sugar 1 tsp vanilla 2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp salt 3/4 cup peppermint crunch chips 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1/4 cup crushed candy canes Preheat oven … [Read more...]

Filed Under: baked goods ·

Purple Cafe and Wine Bar(Downtown)

November 21, 2006 by Peabody · 4 Comments

I am no stranger to the Purple Cafe and Wine bar, I can recite to you most of the menu...and it's a big menu. However, we always go to the one in Kirkland and Woodenville. So when one opened up in Seattle I thought nothing of it, until I saw they had a tasting menu. I am such a sucker for tasting menus....I love to get to sample lots of different types of food. So I had to go and check it out. Luckily my Newleywed Girlie Group that I hang out with had organized a get together there. It was my first venture out since being sick so unfortunately I did not get to have any wine, since wine and codeine don't mix well. But if you go to Purple you must have the wine, I especailly love their wine flights where they offer 4 samplings of wine...that all in all only equal about 1 1/2 glasses of wine. It is a great way to discover new wines though. Since no wine, I had to solely concentrate on food. I could have ordered almost everything on that menu but I had to realize that though small, at … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Restaurant Review ·

Soup is good food

November 19, 2006 by Peabody · 15 Comments

To say that my diet is currently out the window is an understatement. I have a feeling it will stay that way until after Thanksgiving, sigh. So since I have not be dieting while sick I thought I would throw caution to the wind and make potato cheese soup that no doubt clogged my arteries by just inhaling it. I also made the rolls(something to do when I am up at 3am coughing) but I will highlight those another day. For now I will just focus on my soup. I like texture to my soup, so instead of cubing all the potatoes I reserve one cup of potato to be shredded(like if you were making hash browns). I boil those separately and reserve them to add to the soup after it has been pureed. This soup is pretty simple with just the flavors of the potato, onion and cheese coming through. I know some people are not fans of parsley but I like what it adds to the color of the soup, feel free to just ignore it if you want. Thanks again for all the well wishing. I feel much better, though I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: soup ·

It’s Official…

November 17, 2006 by Peabody · 16 Comments

...my food blog is running my life. Here I am sicker than sick laying in bed and I'll I can obsess about is that I am not going to meet my goal of 3 new things a week on my blog. If you are old like me you might remember the "Time to Make the Dough Nuts" commerical that Dunkin Dounuts had many years back. That is what I felt like. Getting out of bed with my head in the clouds trying to read the recipe "Must Make Something For Blog." A little harder than I thought since I have not been grocery shopping in a few. I had apples though and I have not done much apples except for my caramel apple cake. I ran across a recipe on Canadian Living for apple and almond bars. I didn't have a 9 X 13 inch pan since I had made brownies for my hubby and the pan was still occupied with those, so I had to make them in a 9 inch round. There was nothing bar like about these...they are definitely more cake than bar.....but tasty none the less. It also calls for almonds, since it is called apple and almond … [Read more...]