Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day mama!  Since I'm not home visiting you this weekend, I thought I would post some flowers for you. Because they are pretty and so are you!

Enjoy your day, I hope it doesn't really snow in Buffalo tomorrow. 

Wilde Week #16

1. Time for another book suggestion!  The Bakers Daughter by Sarah McCoy.  It's a historical fiction about a German bakers daughter in the last days of World War II and a writer in current day Texas.  I love historical fictions and this one was a great combination of story told through first person and letters.  They talk about German pastries and breads through the entire book and have included the recipes for most of them at the end!  Such a great book for the food lover too.

2. I love this nail polish.  They had me at Sprinkles.

3. Boyfriend and I are just a few days away from heading across the ocean to Morocco!  I've booked our camel trek through the Sahara, surfing lessons in Agadir and our rock climbing in the Atlas mountains.  I've packed my maxi skirts and TOMs, sunscreen and bathing suit.  I'm so ready for vacation!  Don't worry, I've been baking and cooking this weekend.  There will be plenty of treats so you won't miss me too much!

4. Last time I was at LUSH I bought a few things and spent all my money.  Never heard of LUSH?  They make all-natural, cruelty-free, amazing-smelling bath and body products.  Here are a few of my new favorites, I'm totally addicted to these sugar lip scrubs.

5. It has been another long week in the lab.  Nothing was going right.  I tried for two days to get one reaction to work.  I couldn't even form the catalyst!  Once I did, I took a picture because it was so pretty.

6. Baby animals are totally cuter than baby humans.  Sorry, you know it's true.  But seriously, what are those animals in number 3?  I'm not on board with them being called cute.  They are creepy.  I'd totally take a human baby over those guys.

7. So... last weekend BF and I were going to go for the first bike ride of the season.  We got ready, filled the water bottles and headed down to the garage.  When we got to the bikes I turned to him and said "Do you remember the combination to that lock, because I certainly don't."  I thought there was an 8 in the combo, the dials only go up to 6.  Time for a trip to Home Depot.

Keeping it Simple

Is it me, or has this been the longest week ever?  Usually I'm pretty excited once Wednesday rolls around.  After lunch on Wednesday, I'm cheerful and happy to be on my way out of the work week.  How different this is from my thoughts just a year and a half ago!  When I first got my job, I was just so happy to have weekends off, the work week flew by.  How quickly you get used to things!

I think this week has felt super long because nothing has been going right!  Reaction after reaction failed this week.  Thankfully I was able to figure out what was going wrong late last night.  Here's hoping I can parlay that bit of good science into more success today and tomorrow.

Today I've made you something super simple and delicious.  Roquefort potatoes!  Fingerling potatoes, Roquefort cheese and Bartlett pears.  Add a a little salt and pepper and you've got an amazing side!  Just be sure to watch your fingers when working with a mandoline.  My thumb is a little worse off after making these potatoes!

Wilde day in Brooklyn

This weekend I spent my Saturday in Brooklyn with a whole bunch of NYC area food bloggers!  It was the NYC bake sale for No Kid Hungry and the delicious treats were out in full effect.  For some reason I only took one photo, I must have been distracted by all the sweets.  

The crowds were great, thanks to the beautiful sunshine, and once people learned it was all for charity, they really opened up their pocketbooks.  With a plethora of sweet options from over twenty local bloggers and bakeries, along with some fun raffles and tote bags to promote big purchases!  I picked up a few treats for myself too!

Image via Tasty Pursuits
Meet @sweetsillianah, @Takethetoyz, me, @TheRescueBaker, and @ChipChipHooray

Last week I told you about the birthday cake mallomars that I brought to the bake sale.  I also made some raspberry macarons and these Gluten-Free Cookies & Cream Mallomars!  Lillian had suggested I give a gluten-free mallomar a try and I had to agree that was a great idea!

I took one of my classic dark chocolate cut out cookies and swapped out the traditional all-purpose wheat flour with Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour and some xantham gum.  Along with these cookies being gluten-free, they were made with the support of Divine Chocolate!

Divine Chocolates was one of the sponsors of the NYC bake sale and donated several baking kits to the bloggers to help make some seriously chocolatey treats.  These mallomars wound up super chocolatey because they contained the Divine 70% dark chocolate bars and dark cocoa powder.  The rich chocolate offset the sweet vanilla marshmallow perfectly.

In addition to being able to bake with the Divine Chocolate, the actual farmers (and owners) of Divine were in town this weekend.  I got to meet with and share my mallomars with two of the Ghana farmers.  I'm fairly certain they thought they were a bit too sweet, which means they were perfect for the American palate!  Give them a try!

Disclaimer - I received a package of Divine chocolate for use in this post.  All opinions are my own.

Wilde Week #15

1. It has been a week full of baking!  I was making all sorts of fun sweet for the NYC bake sale for No Kid Hungry and went through pounds and pounds of sugar, chocolate, almond flour and butter.  It was an amazing day where I got to help out a great cause and meet so many NYC area bloggers!  Such a great group of ladies (and guy!).  I'm looking forward to making some savory treats over the next few weeks.

2.  This is the most amazing lip balm ever.  A little expensive for lip balm, but it's amazing!!!

3. While in Brooklyn yesterday, BF and I came upon the Bust Magazine craft fair.  There were so many amazing artists, jewelers, sewers and crafters from the area and I found a few amazing pieces.  Including this necklace!  I have been lusting after a geode necklace for months and this one really caught my eye. (You can find the super nice jeweler, Eileen, here on Etsy!)

4. I love this list.  And yes, it makes me feel old.  So very old.

5. Chemistry has been not only fruitful this week, but it has been fun to look at!  The first flask contains dry potassium dichromate, the second flask is after dissolving in hydrochloric acid and adding zinc dust.  Inorganic chemistry is so pretty.

6. I bought a container of dried kiwis are Fairway market the other day and I have no idea what to do with them!  Other than eat them all, of course.  They taste like candy.

7. Spring is slowly coming to the Tri-state area.  I'm looking forward to the hot days of summer when BF and I can get strawberry shakes at Shake Shack and sit in the park.  We spent some time at the Brooklyn Bridge park this weekend, napping on the lawn, it was fabulous.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend and decompressing for the week to come!

Restaurant Wars 2013 - Cheesecake Factory

I wonder why I don't make cheesecake very often.

No wait, I know exactly why I don't make cheesecake very often.  It's because I would weigh nine hundred pounds.  Cheesecake is delicious and I have no self control around it.  This is why I was so excited about having the Cheesecake factory next on my list.  I was looking forward to that cheesecake menu.

For the most part, I have never been that impressed with the Cheesecake Factory's food menu.  I think it's because they have way too many options.  I want a menu with ten to fifteen great options, not seven pages of  sandwiches, burgers, pasta and entrees.  The power that Cheesecake Factory holds over me is in their two page cheesecake menu.

Boyfriend and I enjoyed a pretty basic lunch.  Apparently Cheesecake Factory realized that most of their menu items were super high in calories and has introduced a Skillylicious menu.  I ordered a salad and BF got a lunch-sized portion of pasta carbonara.  (He really likes carbonara and will order it off of just about any menu)  Since it was lunchtime, there was no way I was going to be able to eat my salad and a slice of cheesecake.  Luckily, they have these great to go boxes!

I asked the waitress which two cheesecakes were their most popular.  She suggested their white chocolate-raspberry cheesecake and their limited edition Oreo cheesecake.  I took a slice of each home and found out that I would be eating all of this cheesecake myself.  Boyfriend apparently doesn't like cheese in his dessert.  And he was the whole reason I got the Oreo cheesecake!  I guess I'm still learning new things about the guy I've been with for over ten years!

And you would all be so proud of me!  I had total self control with these two slices of cheesecake.  I had a bite of each once we got home from our day out and promptly put them in the fridge.  It took me until the end of the week to finish eating them!  I think it took me so long, because they weren't mindblowingly delicious.  The limited edition Oreo cheesecake was uber rich and had four layers of mousse, cheesecake, ganache and crumb.  It was just too much, you can see how it was falling over after a short ride in the car.  The white chocolate-raspberry cheesecake was half and half.  The top layer was amazing, but the raspberry-less bottom layer was just meh.

I decided to neglect the entire food menu of Cheesecake factory and try to recreate their white chocolate-raspberry cheesecake, in miniature form.  There was no way that I was going to have an entire 10-inch cheesecake sitting in my house, so my recipe makes six cupcake sized cakes!  I can handle having that many cute little cheesecakes in the house (especially since I'm the only one living in this apartment who likes cheesecake!).

Make these mini cheesecakes at home and enjoy the best part of going out to dinner at the Factory.

NYC Food Blogger Bake Sale

Are you going to be in New York City this weekend?  If you are, you should come out and see me in Brooklyn!  I'm so excited to be in town and free to participate in the NYC Bake Sale for No Kid Hungry.  I was out of the country last year, so I made sure to plan my spring vacation after I found out when the bake sale was!

But it's not just me!  I'll be joining 35 other NYC area bloggers at the Brooklyn Flea with homemade treats from our kitchens.  I've spent the past few weeks trying to decide what to make for the bake sale.  I wanted something that would just scream WITK.  I came up with - Mallomars.

I've made many different varieties of mallomars here at WITK.  From simple flavors like key lime and blueberry flavors to holiday flavors like peppermint and pumpkin.  For the NYC bake sale, I decided to give everyone what they want - Funfetti!

I used my classic almond sugar cookie base and swapped out the vanilla extract for cake batter flavoring (I got it at my local gourmet food shop) and added a copious amount of rainbow sprinkles.  My classic vanilla marshmallow was also pumped up with the cake batter flavoring.  The marshmallow batter smelled Ah-mazing.  I was seriously licking it off the spoon (after I was done piping the cookies).  The whole shebang was topped off with a coating of rainbow sprinkles.

If you can make it to the city this weekend, come visit me and taste test these bad boys!  If you can't make it out/across the country for the bake sale, I included the recipe for you to try at home.  Be sure to buy this cake batter flavoring, you can also add it to milkshakes and ice cream (which I totally plan on doing this summer).

Don't worry, even if you can't come out and visit us at the Brooklyn Flea this weekend, you can still take part in the NYC bake sale for No Kid Hungry.  You can enter to win a whole bunch of different raffles!  From Divine chocolate to Le Creuset stoneware, amazing cookbooks to sweet gift boxes.  You can win these without even being in New York City!  Enter them all!

Wilde Week #14

1. It's been a long week in the lab.  I've been working on a tricky new synthesis and have spent the majority of my time on my feet, running around the labs.  As of Friday, I'm happy to report that I completed the synthesis and made my project leader and boss very happy.  Along the way I ran a nickel reduction and during the course of the reaction, the nickel became magnetic.  Enjoy the magnetic lines formed as my newly magnetized nickel dances around my magnetic stir bar.

2. It was a week of ups and downs.  Like Sunday, when I discovered my iPad screen had shattered somehow.  It's still a mystery to me.  Then moments later I noticed there was a Groupon for iPad screen replacement.  

3. Why Jimmy Fallon was so good and so terrible on SNL.  Enjoy the top 10 crack-ups of SNL.  Love it.

4. I wore these shoes to work Friday.  The only thing most people said to me was "Whoa!  Those shoes are bright!"  My girlfriends told me they were awesome.  I believe both groups of people were correct!  Please note, these are just hot pink ballet flats.  Not hot pink four inch heels.  Wait till they see my lime green Sperry wedges this summer!

5. Why yes magazine, I am grossed out by walking around the yoga studio in my bare feet.  Am I willing to drop $110 for some adorable pink and orange polka dotted foot wraps?  Maybe...

6. If I could, I would make everything in a muffin tin.  You too?  Here are some cool ideas, some that I'd never even thought of before.  Love the mini lasagnas.

7. I'm spending this weekend prepping for the NYC bake sale that is happening next Saturday at the Brooklyn Flea.  If you're in the city next weekend, stop by and support No Kid Hungry by picking up some tasty treats made by some of your favorite NYC area food bloggers and bakeries!  There are some raffles you can enter, even if you aren't in the NYC area!  Enter Here!

Have yourself a great week and hopefully I'll see you next weekend at the Brooklyn Flea!

Cute, Colorful and French

I know, I know.  Macarons are so 2012.

I should move on to whatever this years big dessert treat is!  (actually, I have no idea what is supposed to be "IN" in 2013.  The internet says it's fancy popcorn, figs and push-pops.)  But you know what?  I love macs.  I think that they are cute and colorful and French, so I will go on making macarons until I run out of flavors to make!  Especially now that I've found my method for macs that works consistently without all the fuss.

First, I got these handy egg tools from OXO (through their blogger outreach program).  OXO suggested I make myself a nice omelet, but quite frankly, I don't really go for omelets.  I'm much more of a cinnamon bun for breakfast kind of girl.  If I'm going to eat eggs, they are going to be scrambled and it is going to be after six pm.  Worry not OXO, these egg tools fit perfectly for my other egg related plan - macarons!

I received an egg separator - perfect for separating those whites from yolks.  I also got a person powered hand mixer - just what my tired arms need for whisking sugar into egg whites over a simmering pot of water.  Finally I got a fancy spatula.  The tag said it was an omelet turner.  I put mine to use in the oh so important macaronage step of macaron making.  These tools should be remarketed to the macaron maker.  They worked perfectly!

The other reason I decided to make macs?  I found these freeze-dried raspberries at a gourmet grocery store in South Orange, NJ.  I knew they would make an amazing ingredient to a macaron, since the best way to flavor the cookie itself is with dry ingredients.  If you find freeze-dried mangos, let me know.  I totally want a mango-flavored mac.  How the French would sneer at a mango macaron!

With the tools and the cookies taken care of, there was just one thing left to deal with.  The filling.  Searching my cabinets I happened upon a block of Callebaut white chocolate.  Raspberry macarons filled with white chocolate buttercream?  That sounds just delicious enough to work.  (Would I rather have filled them with white chocolate ganache?  Yes, but I was out of heavy cream and I wanted to eat the cookies ASAP.)

So now we have raspberry and white chocolate macarons, OXO has a new marketing campaign for their egg tools and my pantry is cleared of two of the more eccentric items.  All in all, a good day!

See, so cute.  So colorful.  Bonjour macarons.

Wilde Week #13

It's been a wild week for everyone, I'm glad the weekend has arrived.  Here are a few things that will hopefully make you smile and ease you into a low-stress weekend.

1. Cat comics!  Nothing is better than cat comics!  Makes me want a cat.  And not want a cat at the same time.

2. Crazy skirts!  Apparently Lucky magazine thinks I can wear a wicker lampshade as a skirt.  My only question, what if I want to sit down?

3. Disney Princesses in sloth form.  Go ahead and look, it's silly.

4. Green hair!  Do you think I can pull off this look at work?  I wonder how many people would come up to me and say "Your hair is green!"

5. Layer cakes.  So pretty.  This one is so simple too!  Bonus?  Sweetapolita is working on a baking cookbook!  So excited!

6. Spring has finally shown its face here in the Tri-state area.  As memories of winter fade away, I'm looking forward to walking through New York City in my cork wedges, sipping an iced tea.  Spring makes me smile.

7. Go ahead and watch all the episodes of Better off Ted.  It will take you all afternoon, but you'll enjoy laughing all afternoon long.  Tweet me with your favorite moment.  I have so many!

Restaurant Wars 2013 - California Pizza Kitchen

First off today, I have to say Happy Anniversary!!! to Boyfriend.  It's been ten years since our first date.  Ten years, seven cities, nine different apartments, over twenty different countries, we're like our own little Amazing Race.  That's right, BF and I have been a couple for a whole decade.  You might ask why we aren't yet engaged or married.  My answers generally vary from 'We've only been living together for 2 years' to 'We're really busy' to 'If I get engaged, then I have to plan a wedding.'  We'll get around to it before all this food blogging catches up to us and I can't fit into a size 4 wedding dress!

Now, back to the reason for todays post - Restaurant Wars 2013!  It's been almost a month since my last RW post because I've been out of town so much recently!  March and April found be travelling to my hometown for a long weekend and to Washington, DC for a work conference.  I also spent my weekend mornings training for my half marathon.  I reorganized my RW schedule based on restaurants that are close to our apartment and therefore easy weeknight meals!

This week brought us to California Pizza Kitchen, on a surprisingly busy night.  Our CPK is located inside of a mall, like most locations these days, and tends to be a popular place for dinner.  It would be forty-five minutes if we wanted a table.  How long for the bar?  You can sit down right now!  I highly reccommend sitting at the bar at CPK.  The bartenders are fun and lead to quick drink service.  You can also watch all the pizzas being made and get good views of the TVs.

Personally, I love all of the unusual pizzas at CPK.  I always wind up with their pear & gorgonzola, spicy Korean BBQ or Jamaican Jerk pizza.  BF is more of a classic pizza fan.  Meat and cheese is his go to pizza.  This trip to CPK was no different - I went with the Thai chicken pizza and BF got the Meat cravers.  Apparently vegetables have no place on a pizza in BFs world. 

When it came to reproducing CPK at home, I had a little leg up.  While browsing the local bookstore in Montclair, I stumbled upon this book.  Published in 1996, previously owned, this cookbook cost me $8.  Deal.  The best thing about this version of the cookbook (they have updated it twice since the original was published), this book contains several pizzas that are no longer offered on the CPK menu.  Like BF's favorite - The Rosemary Chicken and Potato Pizza.

 I remember heading to CPK in the early years of our relationship and ordering this pizza.  He's been upset ever since it was pulled from the menu.  When I discovered the recipe in my new cookbook, I knew this would be the recipe to make for RW - CPK.  The only problem, this recipe is so involved.

It took me almost two hours from chopping the first clove of garlic to when I pulled the pizza out of the oven.  You can prepare some things in advance (which I should have done, but I neglected to read the recipe ahead of time, bad blogger) and shave some time off of the prep.  I have also reorganized the directions, to allow you to multitask during the cooking process.

Make this pizza, it is delicious.  And according to Boyfriend, very close to the original.

A Wilde Half Marathon

This weekend, all of my weeks of training culminated in my first half marathon!  It was six weeks ago that I decided to sign up for and seriously train for 13.1 miles through Central Park.  I have always wanted to complete a half marathon.  I realized that I would never train for it, unless I made the commitment and signed up for a race.  It was paying that entry fee that made me stick to the training schedule. 

Boyfriend and I woke up at 6:00 am, Sunday morning, and got dressed in our finest running gear.  Boyfriend was not officially signed up for the race, as it was a ladies only half marathon, but he planned to run along with me as long as he could.  I loaded up my running belt with Clif bloks and lip balm and tossed extra clothes and water in my tagged baggage.  We headed off into the sunrise toward New York City.

You want to head into the city?  There really isn't any traffic at 6:30 on a Sunday morning.  You might be a bit early for brunch though.  We parked our car around 72nd st (right near the finish line of the race) and walked into the park with hundreds of other ladies, already wearing their running bibs.  By 8:00am BF was waiting at mile 1 for me and I was waiting at the starting line, nervous energy coursing through my body.

When my seed corral was finally at the start line, all 1,000 women were packed tightly together.  After I crossed the starting line I was ready to go.  The first mile I spent on the outer edge of the course, passing everyone in my corral.  Apparently I underestimated my running pace at 9:40/mile, after my six weeks of training I was running closer to 8:20/mile.  I spent the majority of the race passing everyone in front of me, it felt good.

BF met up with me at mile 1 and kept up until his shoes came untied around mile 4.  I was on my own, with 10,000 women, running the Central Park loop.  The loop is 6 miles around, which meant I would be making two full loops and one mile of a third.  I knew that once I passed the 6-mile marker, I would be much happier the next time around.

And I certainly was.  I was so thrilled that I reached up and tapped the mile marker, only 1.1 miles left to run.  Gradually I increased my pace until I was at a full out sprint to cross the finish line at 1 hour 55 minutes, five minutes shy of my two hour goal.  Do I think I could do better?  Yes.  Do I plan to run more half marathons?  You bet.

Finally, my heart goes out to those that have been affected by the tragic events at the Boston marathon yesterday.  It's unbelievable what occurred and so surreal that something like this could happen.  I have several friends that were running in the marathon this year and thankfully have heard from all of them.  Here's hoping for a swift recovery for those injured yesterday as well as the city of Boston.