Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Walnut Squares

These things are addictive. My sis had a home party and made them. Of course, they were all gone. So what do you do when that happens-make another batch! Well here they are:Checking to see how much longer they need to bake!

They are done! She's taking them out the oven!

All sliced up! They were so moist and melted in your mouth!

You must make them! They are a Martha Stewert creation but I grabbed the recipe from www.wearenotmartha.com ! Enjoy!

Cupcake Crawl Chicago

Ok, I'm going through a cupcake frenzy and did research as to what cupcake places to hit up. So here's a list of the places I found:

Fox & Obel Cafe - great red velvet cupcakes www.fox-obel.com

The Bent Fork - my source indicates that this is the best EVER! www.thebentfork.com

Swirlz - great buttercream frostings. try the honey orange cinnamon, banana-nutella, and the red velvet cupcakes is suppose to be fantastic! www.swirlzcupcakes.com

Sweet Mandy B's - good red velvet cupcakes 1208 W. Webster in LP

Cupcakes- www.chicagocupcakes.com

Dinkel's - supposed to be really good and old school atmosphere feel. www.dinkels.com

Cupcakes 'N' More - located in Skokie

Taste of Heaven - located in Andersonville

Food Life, Watertower - huge, delicious, yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting

Sarah's - located in the Gold Coast. great chocolate buttercream cupcakes and carrot cream cheese cupcakes www.sarahscandies.com

Bittersweet - located in the Lakeview neighborhood www.bittersweetpastry.com

Molly's - Clark St. (2500 blk) added bonus: mini's for a buck. they even have swings at the counter..i know! how cute and romantic! www.mollyscupcakes.com

Sensational Bites- located on Southport Ave. in the Lakeport neighborhood www.sensationalbites.com

Taste of Heaven - notables: almond joy & whoopie pie cupcake. Both are made with delicious buttercream filling! located in Andersonville

Sweet Cakes - located on N. Damen Ave., Ukrainian Village www.sweetcakeschicago.com

Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique - 24 cupcake flavors. delivers in and around downtown. www.sugarblisscakes.com

Southport Grocery & Cafe - enormous chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting. located in the Lakeview neighborhood www.southportgrocery.com

Also! Williams-Sonoma has a great mix sold on their web site and stores featuring red velvet, lemon, and a host of others. My favorite cupcake is red velvet and hummingbird! As I start my haul of cupcaking, I'll come back and post what I liked the best! Let me know what's your favorite! Happy cupcaking:-D

Pies, Donuts, & Such!

Ok, I'm wishing I was close to my parents house these days because they are baking and eating -I might add, some of my favorite desserts ever!

These donuts are soooo delicious! I grew up on these things! My Dad would leave them at our placemats in the morning when he'd leave out the house to work. They are huge and he knew how greedy and hoggish we were so he'd leave 2 of those glazed nuggets up there and sometimes a chocolate one would be left unexpectedly another morning! He knew our fave was glazed though!















Homemade Sweet Potato Pie...UMPH! This is always a favorite during Thanksgiving & sometimes the Christmas holiday. Doesn't it look amazing?!?

I'll Trade You For Some Spinach

Man, Trader Joe's is the place to be..they never fell me! Just when you think you've tried everything this place has to offer or that you're even interested in, here comes something else! The Spinach & Artichoke Dip is the dip you can take to a friendly get together and pretend like you're the one who made it, or the dip you prepare when you're trying to impress a special someone that gets to your house for dinner and it's not quite ready, or it's the dip you prepare for a late night snack with an ice cold beer and you pretty much devour the whole thing in one sitting! Well, that's what I almost did. HA

If you have ever eaten at Houston's Restaurant, then you will know about the ever popular Chicago Style Spinach Dip they serve up on their menu. It taste very similar yet almost the same actually! You'll probably get more for your buck by picking up this delectable treat out of the frozen section of your neighborhood Trader Joe's. Heat it up in the microwave for 3 minutes tops and have some salsa and greek style yogurt to go with and you'll be in Houston's heaven! Beware though...it's that addictive! Don't say I didn't tell you so! ENJOY~

A Tin, Tin, Tin

There's this new spot in town-Tin Drum. I went there with my best homegirl in the whole wide world and had a delicious penang curry dish with chicken. The curry was red and of course had a coconutty flavor base (yummy) and the veggies that accompanied the dish were green peppers and broccoli. My friend had the basil fried rice with chicken which came in a big ole huge bowl enough to feed 2 people! Our dishes were less than $7 a piece and it was of course..slammin! HA It was so delicious and cheap! We also shared a chicken curry egg roll and veggie samosas. It was definitely what the tin drum ordered! LOL

The Cheesecaked Salmon Squared...HUH???

My sis sent me this pic here of her firecracker salmon dish with red cabbage and a tossed spinach salad inspired by her meal of the firecracker salmon rolls at the infamous Cheesecake Factory. Doesn't this look as we would say, "FYE!?!?!" It looks like it came straight out of the restaurant! Sis, I wanna try this ASAP! Just lovely~

It's A Fiesta!

Ok..so today, I had a taste for tacos! I had some ground turkey in the freeza-ha! for what seemed to be like a year since it's been in there. When I fried it up, it smelled ok then the feeling of it not being so good to eat creeped up on me...so I decided to throw it out! Nonetheless, I did go out to get some fresh turkey and managed to fry it up and satisfy my craving for tacos! Oh, and added some blackbeans to the turkey to give it a twist and it was so slammin! Here's what I topped it with: hot salsa, arugula, and honey flavored greek style yogurt. The yogurt is new for me and I absolutely will not be using sour cream ever in life again! I couldn't tell the difference whatsoever and aside from that, I cut my calories in half... Wooohooo!!!

Spaghetti for Everyone

Pasta Spaghetti





Raw Spaghetti








The pasta spaghetti was of course boiled and topped with a tomato basil sauce followed by turkey meatballs and parmesean cheese. All from Trader Joe's!

Now for the raw spaghetti. I sliced up zucchini to resemble spaghetti. Topped it off with some fresh tomatoes, garlic, fresh squeezed lime juice, oregano, and thyme all liquified in the blender. Then I made 'parmesean cheese' using soaked raw cashews, nutritional yeast, a little garlic and some water to make it smoother. Boy oh boy was I in for for a surprise when I tried this! First of all, it tasted much better than the regular pasta I've eaten since I was a child. It was much flavorful and I got full pretty quick! Definitely will be making this again as it's much better for you and even more satisfying.

Have you ever tried raw spaghetti? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section!

Eat The Flag!

Fruit Pizza

Strawberries and blueberries with a cool whip/cream cheese spread on top of a sugar cookie crust! Didn't realize I was paying homage to the holiday with the color scheme of this delicious favorite. Happy Belated 4th of July!! HA