Green Velvet Cupcakes

Sorry mom, I’ve been bad this week. I haven’t eaten dinner all week. I know, I know, I’m terrible but I have some really good excuses! Let’s go through my week.

Sunday – Travelling back from New Jersey after a long weekend of unpacking boxes and moving furniture. My huge, strong, girl muscles were tired and it was all I could do not to fall asleep on the train. Making dinner was near impossible, so I decided to eat a brownie. Not even a good brownie, one that I had bought on Friday and was in my purse all weekend. I’m gross, I know.

Monday – Girls night! Okay, I actually did eat dinner Monday night, but it was not of my own doing. Recently I’ve been hanging out Monday nights with some awesome ladies from my department. We eat dinner, we gab and we watch silly girl TV. It’s excellent and a fantastic way to start the week. There are usually baked goods too, awesomeness.

Tuesday – I finally made it to the grocery store! I had big plans to leave work by six o’clock. This way I could walk home, get my car and be to the grocery store by six thirty. Thanks to a major accident on the highway, (right before my desired exit!) I didn’t make it to the store until seven thirty. Grocery shopping (plus a much needed trip to TJ Maxx!) done and I’m home by nine. Dinner was a banana. No, I’m lying; it was those rice crispy treats I showed you on Wednesday. They were delicious.

Wednesday - I’m now halfway through the week and you’re thinking I haven’t had a single real meal. Not true! The first two days of the week I had lunch at the food carts. Chicken and veggies over rice , it’s like having dinner for lunch. Which is good, because Wednesday I had Lettuce for dinner. The reason? I had grand plans of heading to the gym. With my gyms shoes on I get ready to head out the door and I glance at my computer. At some point in the evening I had picked up some malware and my computer was all jacked up. I spent the next two hours trying to restore my computer. Gym and dinner plans are thrown out the window.

Thursday – I decided I’m just going to start over next week with real food and I had toast for dinner. I slathered it with my own raspberry-peach jam. Then I made these, which will be quickly devoured by my coworkers. Then everyone will have green tongues. So festive!

Don’t worry mom, Friday comes with big plans! I’m taking the train to visit boyfriend and we’ll go out to dinner. I’ll have some protein and a whole lot of vegetables. I’ll even pay! I’m such a good girlfriend. Let’s not pretend that we’re going somewhere fancy though. Boyfriends new apartment is right around the corner from Panera and I’m going to get a salad.

Apple Marshmallows & Apple-Cinnamon Crispy Treats

I’m going to be honest with you, I’ve had these marshmallows in my house for three weeks. I would come home from work and have one, you know, a little sugar to fuel my workout. Each marshmallow tasting like a fluffy apple pie. Now, doesn’t that sound tempting?

A big slab of happiness!

I have become addicted to making marshmallows. This is mostly due to Eileen Talanian’s book – Marshmallows. These marshmallows were to most fun batch yet, they are fluffy, springy and bouncy. They are so full of air and flavor. These little pillows have a hint of cinnamon and a subtle tartness.

Once I finished preparing, cutting and coating the marshmallows I had to decide what to do with them. These apple marshmallows were too fun to let them just exist as marshmallows. Sure, they make a wonderful candy, but I thought they could be even better. Then it came to me, in a rush of sugar-induced giddiness… Rice crispy treats! Apple-cinnamon rice crispy treats, drizzled in caramel.

And that’s just what I did. Let me tell you, these will rock your world. Now I’m sitting, leafing through Eileen’s cookbook, thinking of all the amazing flavors of crispy treats that I can make. Chocolate, honey, matcha, dulce de leche, the options go on and on. I’m also wishing I hadn’t shared my cooking plans with my coworkers, because I want to hoard these treats and eat them all myself.

Sugar Crisps

It’s official, I’m a professional train rider. It’s true, I can ride a train with the best of them and 99% of the time I’ll wind up in my desired location! I even just returned from a trip to New Jersey, via train. I’m pretty awesome at train travel. A few years ago I wouldn’t have been able to call myself a professional, trains were a mystery to me. My first real train experience was in France, while on vacation with boyfriend.

For our first trip abroad, boyfriend and I decided to take a Mediterranean cruise. It was a safe choice because even though you were wandering through foreign countries by day, you could come back to the ship and be in a little slice of English-speaking territory by night. Not that we couldn’t manage to get along in Spain, France and Italy. Boyfriend pretends like he can speak Spanish (FACT – he cannot. I speak as much Spanish as the guy who took eight years of the language). I speak French fairly well and can stutter along in Italian until I find someone who speaks a little English. (My favorite phrase is “Mi dispiace! Io non parlo Italiano! I love the way it sounds.)

Anyways… While in port in Villefranche sur Mer, we decided that we would take the train to Nice, then on to Monaco. Supposedly the train station was easy to find and it was a few stops to Nice. First know this, when presented with two directional options, boyfriend will inevitably choose the wrong one. Should we turn right and walk along the boardwalk or should we go straight up these millions of stairs? Up it is. Right it should have been.

Luckily we were in port for many, many hours because while we did a fine job of buying tickets (Bonjour!) and getting to Nice and Monaco. Getting back was a bit tricky. Did you know that the ticket salespeople in Monaco aren’t nearly as helpful as those in Villefranche? And you should also know that the express train does not stop in Villefranche sur Mer, you need the local train. We spent a good half hour extra passing the port and then backtracking on a return train. This was after we walked up a million stairs in Monaco, searching for the train station (again, not my fault).

I’ve come a long way from that first train trip four years ago. I’ll regale you more fabulous train stories in the future, until then know this… I wanted cookies after I got back from my trip to NJ and these only took a few minutes to throw together. They are sweet, crunchy and I think they look like platelets once they cool (notice the little dimple in the center?).

Anyone else have train troubles as a beginner or while travelling abroad?