Valentine's Day: Now With Truffles

The Food

Sorry this is coming so late.  I have been so busy the passed few weeks that having time to even use the bathroom has become difficult.  But I am back (sort of).  I may write another entry this coming week, but I have so much work that I am taking time out to remember that I am a person and not just a study bot.

But my Valentine's Day was marvelous.  Matt and I were all romantical and took time to appreciate each other.  One of those things was shrimp tacos.  The other was truffles.  And here's the process we used to make them.

TRUFFLE INGREDIENTS: Cocoa powder, cinnamon sticks, whipping cream, cinnamon, and chocolate chips.

The cinnamon sticks made a face.

The smell of heavy creaming being cooked with cinnamon is unlike any other.  I was so excited about that alone that I wanted to eat the heavy cream.  But then I remembered that I had truffles to make.

We thought mixing the heated cream with the chocolate chips would melt them.  Nope.

The return of the ghetto college double-broiler.

Waiting for this to solidify for 3 hours was the hardest part.  But the hanging out while waiting was totally worth it.  You didn't want it to be gooey and sticky, but that ganache was so delicious, I wanted to die.

We decided to roll them up in hazelnuts to help maintain the shape.

I was going to take more pictures.  But our mouths beat my camera to the truffles.

The Fashion
I  like to think of burgundy as pink for girls who don't want to admit they like pink.  There, I said it.  I wear a lot of burgundy because it has the delicateness of a pink but the fierceness of a red.  But it can also be super romantic.  Which is why I wore two different burgundy dresses for my Valentine's day events.

Sweater (from a neighbor), dress (H&M), accessories (H&M), hat (sparkle and fade), slippers (gift from my cousin)

The above outfit is what I wore on actual Valentine's Day.  I love that dress because it is so dang cute.  Since the hem is longer in the front, I feel so much more modest wearing it.  But since Valentine's Day feel on a Thursday, I had to bike to classes.  So I'm pretty sure I flashed half of campus.

Me and Matt at his Valentine's Day formal.  Dress (Free People), necklace (he bough it from Kohl's)

Matt's fraternity had a Valentine's Day formal at a swanky Italian restaurant.  I love getting dressed up and he looks so dapper in a suit that I died.

On Thursday, look forward to a post about the awesomeness of sports bras and trying to cook Asian meals as a European when I attempt to make Peking duck.

Keep it yummy,

Jo

Cupcake Bouquet

Sorry about being a butt and not posting on Sunday!  I'm feeling somewhat better, but I'm really just using my blog as stress.

Anyway, I saw this post on Tumblr and was absolutely inspired.  I really wanted to do this one day, but did not have the resources.  On the day celebrating our first month together, Matt and I decided that we wanted to get crafty.  So we went to A.C. Moore, and later Wegmans, to acquire supplies with which to make a Cupcake Bouquet.  I also really wanted to make cupcakes anyway, but he took it the extra step.

Gluten-free chocolate cake mix.  More on this later.

Milk, eggs, butter, and cake mix.

Matt adding the mix to the dry ingredients.

No blog entry is complete without a picture of me eating something.  H&M beanie, AE blue tank top, pink ring that I got from Tobi

Cupcakes, cupcakes, CUPCAKES.

The cupcakes were delightful.  The cake mix had the prefect consistently.  Though, I will be honest, baking non-vegan was different for me.  I hadn't done it in a while, but thank God that this mix was so easy to use, because I would not have been able to figure out how to use eggs.  Then again, that was Matt's problem, since he was doing most of the baking.

We also bought a fancy pastry bag with tips in order to the frosting on artfully.  Matt is pretty boss at frosting, but unfortunately, we were completely winging the recipe and it got really runny and, after adding more confectioner's sugar, super tough.  You can't have all the nice things, can you?

Here we have the Matt in his natural habitat of frosting.

Close enough.  But the wrappers are cute.

Finished product and I look so happy.

Unfortunately, I got a phone call from Wegman's indicating soy lecithin in the cake mix that was not previously listed as an ingredient.  Excuse me while we bury yet another fantastic product on the long list of things I can't eat.  Lovely.

Keep it yummy,
Jo

Late Night Tom-Foodery: Chocolate Almond Spread

Happy Halloween, everyone!

My parents came up to visit on Sunday and, prior to visiting, they usually ask for a list of groceries or foodstuffs that I want.  Unfortunately, my life sucks, and most spreads have soy lecithin as an emulsifier (I will do a post next week on a chocolate cake mix that unfortunately got recalled because of the presence of soy lecithin that wasn't previously labeled.  Boo).  Since these products have more than 2% soy lecithin per volume, my parents did not want to risk buying it and making me sick.  So, I had to come up with something new.

The lovely Nicole Hunn at Gluten-Free on a Shoestring provided a recipe for bittersweet chocolate almond spread.  It seemed so easy, I just HAD to try it.  Being that I am a broke-ass college student, I had to modify the recipe a bit.  And by a bit, I mean, I just used cocoa powder and a blender because the food processor might as well had been created by this little pony:

Not just muffins, but also food processors. (Source: My Little  Brony Wikia)

The should-probably-start-paying-rent-at-my-house-but-not-really-because-he's-adorable Matt came over to do some studying and what better study-break than making yummy food that can easily be spread on toast.

Ingredients (clockwise): Raw almonds, canola oil, powdered sugar, Hershey's cocao

Toasted almonds.  YUM!

Me chopping up some almonds because the food processor is made by Derpy.

 Given the fact that we were late-night cooking, glamour was not something I really focused on.  Hence why I am in a tee shirt I got at my neighbor's art show, American Eagle pajama pants, and my hair is all disheveled.  I guess I could be one of those girls who dresses like a princess before bed, but to me that is just silly.

Blend, my almonds, BLEEEENNNNDDDDDD.

All the other ingredients added and then you wait for it to become paste.

My boyfriend being cute and mixing.  He's in his pink IFC shirt.

SPEAKING OF TOAST, my parents also bought me spelt bread to try.  According to BabyCakes: Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery, spelt is a product that for some indiscernible reason is totally fine for people like me to consume, so I decided to give this bread a whirl.

On the left, we have the spelt bread.  On the right, we have regular white toast.   Both have been through the toaster.

Though soy flour and soy lecithin are present, it falls towards the end of the "less than two percent of the following" category of the ingredients list, and my allergy has never been that strong, so I have been eating it and so far so good.

More horrendously attractive pictures of me eating things.

So that's my foray into home-made nut butters.  Also, since it is Halloween, here is a picture of me and Matt in our couple's costume.  Enjoy!

Matt's Little Red Riding Hood and I'm the Big Bad (Were)Wolf.  I'm wearing a SpiritHood, my ripped white shirt, and Lululemon sports bra. Glamour life.

Keep it yummy (and spooky!),
Jo

P.S.: I am going to try to post something every Wednesday and Sunday.  I usually don't have much work those days and have made something at some point by then.

Bonjour, Montreal!

Taken from: BRFC

Sorry I've been MIA for the passed few weeks.  This school year has been hella busy and I honestly can barely find the time think and breathe for a moment (I was taking 7 classes and 6 of them had something due in one week, for example).  But I am back to blogging (I hope)!  During a long weekend we had at school, instead of going back to my first love, New York City, I went to a new place: Montreal, Quebec.  For some completely, previously uninformed reason, I had been a lover of all things Canadian (except for Beiber and Nickleback, but we can ignore those), so I was majorly excited to see everything that Montreal had to offer me for three days.

The weather was a factor that my friends and I completely forgot to prepare for.  I just brought clothes that worked for me during the mild fall temperatures of Ithaca, NY, not realizing that Canada had actually been located some...oh, I don't know...4 to 5 hours North-ward.  As you can imagine, this caused problems.  But I still managed to layer and dress adorably while eating some of the best food ever.

The first night, I did not take an outfit photo, but we went to this lovely sushi place called Ginger.  We found it completely by accident, too, which was fine, considering everything was amazing.

Our lovely sushi plate.

Lychee sour.  Best cocktail ever.

Given the fact that all we did was explore the neighborhood we stayed in.  For dessert, we found this beautiful pastry shop called Juliette + Chocolat, which had the best brownies ever.  Has a brownie ever melted in your lips like chocolate does?  Nope, not until you've had these.  They also had a gluten-free option, which made my heart sing.

My lovely friend Katharine sitting under the sign.

Mine is the one closest to the front.  But it was so good!

The breakfast I got here two days later.  Peanut butter, banana, milk chocolate on a gluten-free crepe with a double espresso machiatto.

For clothing, I wore a leather vest from H&M, a white shirt with a blue cat on it with the words "Casse Toi" from Urban Outfitters, BDG black skinnies, Minnetonka moccasins, and my grey snood. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but after 7 hours of traveling, taking pics is the last thing you want to do.

And since this entry is so long and involved, I will write it in installments.  Part two (day two) will come out sometime before Friday (maybe even ON Friday, who knows).

Keep it yummy,
Jo

Thin Mints!

Due to the fact that Girl Scout Cookies have crack in them (not really, at least, I hope not) and wheat flour, I can't eat them.  So I was so happy that BabyCakes came out with a recipe.  And what better way to surprise someone for their birthday besides baking them cookies!  Matt's birthday was last week (I am the worst blogger; the passed two weeks have been super busy and rough) so I decided to bake him thin mints.

The recipe!

Dry ingredients

Dylan trying to do soil science over a cup of oolong tea

Wet and dry ingredients together!

Makeshift double-boiler for melting chocolate.  It worked, so whatever.

The cover of the plastic case with the thin mints.

Making these was a lot of fun.  But it took about an hour and a half because I was trying to do too many things at once and even though I have a bigger kitchen, there never seems to be enough space.  But they received rave reviews from Matt, my housemates, and Dylan.  So, I'd call it a success!

Dress from Tobi, tights from Steve Madden, boots from Steve Madden, socks from Urban Outfitters, and the hat is from H&M

Since black is associated with dark chocolate and green is associated with mint, this dress I think goes with the concept of thin mints.  I was pretty excited that it was the first day of fall weather, because I love boots and tights.  It makes me feel more stylish and creative than just wearing a dress with sandals.  Bring on the cold, Ithaca!

Keep it yummy,
Jo