Tasty Tuesday

Here's a random selection of cute food!

It's a busy day, so this will have to be short and sweet!

This is what I look like when I get excited for grocery shopping:

A really pretty way to decorate gingerbread:

These cupcakes remind me of Ukrainian Easter Eggs and I found them here

Cute hamburger cupcakes found here

"Chihuahua with Cheeseburgers"by William Hundley

Cute tree stump cake made by Heidi Kenney of My Paper Crane

I bought some chocolate chips the other day. They are great when you crave chocolate because they are REALLY TEENY! and you just need a few.

That's all for now! Au Revoir, and have an awesome Tuesday!

Tasty Tuesday - CUPCAKES

Busy as a BEE

Busy as a BEAVER

Everything I'm cooking today is veggies so here are some pastel pictures to satisfy your sweet-tooth:

A beautiful assortment of sweets by leele129 on Flickr

Les petits fours

Bird nest cupcake found on Martha Stewart's website

Cute bird cheese ball! found here

Fairy Girl Cake found here

Mossy's Masterpiece cake & cupcake designs

Tasty Tuesday

Today I'll post a bunch of cute Bento Boxes. 

I am super busy and in a rush, so this is going to be a fun picture post with info courtesy of Wikipedia:

Bento (弁当, bentō^?)^[1] is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container.

Bento can be very elaborately arranged in a style called kyaraben or "character bento". Kyaraben is typically decorated to look like popular Japanese cartoon characters (anime), characters from comic books (manga), or video game characters.

Amy gifted me with some incredible bento supplies a while back, 

so I'm planning on making a bento, Andy McParrot style.

Another popular bento style is "oekakiben" or "picture bento", which is decorated to look like people, animals, buildings and monuments, or items such as flowers and plants.

"The Great Wave" by Katsushika

And since this is playing on my computer I'm going to gift you with this "way back play back" from 2002.

MEMORIES!!!

Plaintain Sandwich

Today I went to the grocery store and stocked up on fruits and veggies and nuts.

 See that thing that looks like a banana? It's NOT a banana, it's a plantain.

I cut it up into long slices and fried it in a pan.

And I had some pork and fried that up too.

Then I added some spicy hot mango chutney and made plantain sandwiches.

Spicy sweet tropical piggy bites?

They are nameless thus far (maybe you can think of something good) and they are truly tasty!

They remind me of being in tropical places where all I ate was mango and papaya and melon...

and played in the sand, and made friends, and drank nasty gross mamajuana...

MAN do I ever need a vacation. 

 The last one I had was the Pool Party in Dominican.

I miss that week. It was fun. 

I was surrounded by awesome positive crazy mo' fo's!!!

Derek Heisler and Joey Camacho started

Studio Coalition, based out of Calgary. 

Check out their SUPER HOT vid from their photoshoots in the Dominican!!
Three cheers for all of our girls too! xxoo

I would just like to take this moment to say (looking up, with one hand on my chest)

"Canadians are SO TALENTED..." and so sexy!! 

Dominican Republic Teaser Video from Studio Coalition on Vimeo.

www.Facebook.com/studiocoalition and www.twitter.com/studiocoalition

Back to work for me. Have a great evening guys!

Love, Andy

Ants on a Log

Ants on a Log!

Ants on a Log!

every day it's Ants on a Log!

Peanuts on a log would have been better.

But since there were no peanuts to be had, I had to satisfy myself with ants.

Indulgence

Sometimes, once in a while, every blue moon, 

we stray from our health-intentioned paths and

make culinary exceptions that are FULL OF WIN.

Such as today, at Harbour Sixty Steak House.

Be prepared to drool all over your computer screen!!

THIS SALAD WAS AWESOME

Spinach and Arugula salad with slivered pear, 

Monte Enebro goat cheese, toasted walnuts, and roasted apple vinaigrette

Delicious scrumptious steak was next... 

I recently finished a book called STEAK by Mark Schatzker and I've been craving steak since.

You should read this book. 

It is wonderfully written: witty and informative, and it'll have you craving 

dripping delectable meats straight from the grill...

In my steak this afternoon, there were these delectable juicy pieces near the bone. 

When I put the first piece in my mouth I lost all sense of space and time and the flavor just existed and floated around in my head. A moment later I was brought back to the real world and I just started to laugh... 

like WHOAH...

Lobster and Brie mashed potatoes, and garlic mushrooms were the sides. 

I know. I shouldn't have. But I did. 

And I'm damn well pleased about it too.

Dessert? 

I've been so good, eating healthy things, not going overboard, exercise, etc. Why not?

Lemon tart with lemon gelato

and mind-blowing Banana Crepes!

I hope I've succeeded in making you all green with envy or growling with hunger.

Every once in a while you've gotta throw caution to the wind and indulge in really yummy things!

Now I'm going to try and reproduce that salad. When I perfect the recipe, I'll let you know!

Grocery Day

Grocery Day is nice.

Other people dislike grocery day,

but I really love obtaining all my ingredients, bringing them home, and prepping the ingredients for the coming week. Then I put them into containers in the fridge. This is useful because the work is already done (pre-wash and chop celery, peppers, carrots, etc). I also like making most of the week's meals ahead of time.

 

What's on the menu for this week?

Veggie Soup

My soups often turn out like stews because they are so hearty.

I add the beans at the end so they don't turn to mush. You can also add small pasta noodles.

Roasted Vegetables

I could eat roasted veggies all day long and never get tired of them.

Today I sliced and roasted fennel, zucchini, eggplant, and acorn squash. 

The squash was SO HARD TO CUT!

Baked Sweet Potato 

So delicious. I was tempted to make sweet potato pie but that's a project for another day.

Hard-boiled eggs

Eggs are nice. They're great in a lunch, and are portable! 

I mark them with pencil to tell them apart from raw eggs.

Salmon Salad 

I've used hummus as a substitute for mayonnaise and I added hot sliced peppers in oil.

It tastes amazing spread on romaine lettuce leaves.

Chai Tea and Coffee with Almond Milk

I've started using almond milk in my coffee and tea which is really nice. And I've developed a new affinity for chai tea. Yesterday I had some chai and some coffee so I mixed them and added the almond milk and sprinkled some cinnamon on top.

Pumpkin Bread

Today I'm experimenting with this new recipe. 

This is the batter in the pan, and I'm heading out now for coffee with my friend and fellow blogger Aret! 

When I'm back I'll take another pic, and then everyone can drool and gaze in awe at the deliciousness!!

I'm back after a fun coffee and tons of chatting with Aret.
Man, do we ever talk!
And here is the finished pumpkin bread (who are we kidding, this is a cake!)

It's absolutely delicious, but I can imagine it being even better, so I'll make it again with some changes.

ALSO
To make it crazy good I'll use cream cheese icing and top it with walnuts!!

At the grocery store I love exploring and finding new things. Actually, when ever I'm having a terrible day or if I have a big decision ahead of me I go to the grocery store to zone out and think.