Key Lime Whoopie Pies

There are four things that made this weekend just perfect.

1. Dogs in costumes.

This weekend was the 22nd annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade!  (procrastinate for a few more minutes and check out more pictures of the event!)  BF and I spent a good hour watching adorable golden retrievers in alien costumes, yorkies dressed up as bees, French bulldogs waddling about as hot dogs, hamburgers and lobsters.  It was hilarious to watch and there was not a gloomy person in the park.  How could you be anything but happy? 

2. Movies about food!

This past weekend was the Food Film Festival in New York City (it's coming to Chicago in November!) and BF and I got tickets to the Saturday afternon "Edible Adventure."  Short films about food and foodies paired with the very foods seen in the films!  I had a delicious apple dessert from Sidesaddle Kitchen and some of the smoothest maple syrup I've ever had from The Sugar Shack in Quebec.  Oh yeah, I had a few Bark dogs as well.  Maybe a few too many hot dogs, which made it difficult to eat...
3. S'Mac for dinner!

Saritas Mac and Cheese on 12th street is my favorite place to eat in the entire city.  It's not fancy pants food, with aged meats and hoity toity sauces.  It's good old comfort food.  Mac and cheese at its grandest.  You want four cheese?  Done.  How about cheeseburger?  Easy.  My favorite?  What else but Buffalo mac and cheese.

This place is always busy, from when the doors open until the shoo the last person out the door.  If you're lucky enough to see a table open, grab it!  Since there are only about seven tables in the little place, it is most likely that you won't find a place to sit.  Luckily, they have a take-out place right next door.  BF and I usually get it to go during the summer and eat it in the park down the street!

4. Key Lime Whoopie Pies.

Mmmm, super easy and my favorite flavor for desserts.  So, if you missed the doggy parade and aren't anywhere near 12th and 1st, you can still have a great day!  Just whip up a batch of these!

Why Bother? 2012 - Almond Milk

I can't believe that we're winding down the year of Why Bother challenges!  I feel like it was just a few weeks ago that I was making blueberry-oatmeal bagels.  That it wasn't that long ago that I was kneading my own fondant.  Weren't we just talking about making Greek yogurt?

The year really has gone fast and I've really liked knowing what I was blogging about until the end of the year!  We only have five more WB posts after today and I'm looking forward to all of them.  After weeks of difficult challenges (that's right coconut milk, I'm looking at you!) and busy days at work, I was happy to get to a simple and straightforward challenge. 

Almond milk, so much easier than you would think.  Listen up, there are three steps.

Step 1 - Soak almonds in water overnight in the fridge.

Step 2 - Working in batches, puree almonds with the water.

Step 3 - Strain the puree.

This was such an easy challenge, I set the almonds to soak before I left for work in the morning.  Once I got off the train last night I removed the soaked almonds from the fridge and pureed the almonds in the water.  Straining even took no time at all.  I had 8 cups of almond milk with so little effort!

Store in a screw top container and it will keep in the fridge for a week

 There is only one problem.  I really don't like the taste of almonds!  I don't plan on letting this healthy drink go to waste, don't worry.  This almond milk is destined for slow cooker oatmeal.  It's even better than storebought because you don't have any added sugars, perservatives or salts. 

Since I'm planning on adding my almond milk to oatmeal, I didn't strain it through a fine sieve.  If you want to make almond milk for drinking, I would suggest straining it through medium cheesecloth.  I did pour myself a glass of almond milk to test it out and found it to be a bit gritty.

 Give almond milk a try, it's so much easier than coconut milk.

Caramel Buttercream and Cookie Dough Dip

Every once and I while, you get lucky.  Recently, I was lucky enough to be chosen to test out some of Ghirardellis newest "Intense Dark" chocolate creations.  You should have seen me when I picked up my package of chocolate from my apartment office.  First, I thought how heavy it was (heavy with deliciousness).  Next, I wondered what exactly they sent me!  I'll tell you...

The Intense Dark line of Ghirardelli chocolates are as follows.  Sea Salt Caramel, Cabernet Matinee, Toffee Interlude, Hazelnut Heaven, Evening Dream, Twilight Delight and Midnight Reverie.  As a taste tester, I was asked to pair these chocolates with different foods and beverages, rather than use the chocolate in a baked good.  Boyfriend and I decided this would be the perfect thing for a dessert buffet.

I chose three of the chocolates and paired them with different dips, trying to play off of the flavors in each chocolate.  Midnight Reverie (86% Cacao Dark Chocolate), a rich and classy bar, was paired up with a homemade blackberry marshmallow fluff.  The sweet and tart blackberries really went well with the deep, dark chocolate.

Evening Dream (60% Cacao Dark Chocolate) went exquisitely with cookie dough dip.  The reason behind this pairing?  Chocolate chip cookie dough usually used a semi-sweet chocolate chip and the 60% Dark bar was like having a cookie with the best possible chocolate chips.

Hazelnut Heaven (Dark Chocolate with Hazelnuts), a semi-sweet and crunchy bar, went perfectly with a sweet, homemade caramel buttercream.  Caramel and hazelnut was the perfect pairing and this plate of chocolate was devoured first.

The remaining flavors were tested with less auspicious pairings.  I allowed a square of Cabernet Matinee (Dark Chocolate with Blackberry and Cabernet) to melt slowly over a warm piece of French bread.  Sea Salt Soiree (Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt and Almonds) was a surprising treat with leftover bacon from breakfast.  And Toffee Interlude (Dark Chocolate with Toffee)?  I just had that one with a bottle of sparkling water.

So next time you have a dinner party, don't worry about a tricky dessert.  Set out plates of chocolate and a few different dips and let everyone choose their favorite!

This post is brought to you by Ghirardelli Intense Dark™ Chocolate.