There’s a place three blocks from my apartment that has gelato and cupcakes. (I suspect they have a lot of other things as well, but I’ve never gotten past the gelato and cupcakes.)
This particular cupcake is a vanilla cupcake with lemon filling.
It was tasty.
Fortunately I have yoga class tonight to help burn off all the lemon-vanilla calories from my afternoon treat :)
Turkeys were on sale at the grocery store the day after Thanksgiving, so I picked one up and roasted it for Sunday dinner, along with a couple of the traditional accompaniments. The turkey was a relatively small (9lb) bird, but with only two of us eating it, I still ended up with plenty of leftovers to play around with.
So for lunch today I made turkey and dumplings, with leftover turkey and homemade turkey stock:
Had a lovely lovely time at Maureen’s ‘orphan Thanksgiving’ tonight. Good company, good food and drink. Food highlights included juicy delicious turkey, sausage-parsnip-apple stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes topped with brown sugar and pecans, pumpkin pie, deep-dish apple pie, and chocolate amaretto cake. (And I ate all of the above, including ALL THREE DESSERTS. It is Thanksgiving, after all.)
My contribution to the feast was French vanilla ice cream, spiced pumpkin seeds, and cinnamon-sugar coated roasted almonds:
The almonds came out …
I finally got around to ordering myself some business cards:
These half-size business cards came from http://moo.com — they have pictures on one side and contact info on the other side. You can pick out as many pictures as you want (straight from flickr, if you happen to have a flickr account). I picked out ten different designs, including colored pencils, gummy bears, plasma ball, fire, and (of course) tentacles.
Whole Foods sells vanilla beans — a single bean folded in half and placed in its very own little spice jar:
I bought one, so as to follow shelly_rae‘s suggestion that vanilla bean ice cream might make a good accompaniment the apple pie she’ll be bringing to Maureen’s “Orphan Thanksgiving.”
I’ve never worked with a whole vanilla bean before, but it’s kind of fun. You slice the bean open and scrape out the little tiny seeds inside:
…
Went out and snapped a few pictures at Bull Creek today, including this shot of the road that leads up to the park. The creek runs right over the road (this isn’t flooding or anything, it hasn’t rained in days). There’s a little sign post next to the road so that you can see how deep the water is. Today it was only about two inches deep.
The park was pretty scenic, and I got reasonably good shots of a grackle and a dragon fly. …
Coming late to the saga? Start at the beginning.
Now, as promised, the stunning conclusion of the Tow Truck Saga…
How many tow trucks does it take to haul away a dead garbage truck?
Answer: Five.
– A white semi truck, on which to load the garbage truck. (Dies)
– A red semi truck, to tow the white semi and attached garbage truck. (Dies)
– A black semi truck, to tow away the cab of the white semi truck.
– Another …
Around 9 o’clock this morning, in the apartment complex one over from mine, a garbage truck died. I heard the noise of the engine giving out — some pitiful whines and squeals and then nothing. The garbage truck guys called for a tow, and they loaded the garbage truck onto the bed of a semi. The semi truck, with garbage truck securely loaded on the back, attempted to go up the road (which involves a small, but steep, hill). The semi died.
So there was a dead white …
The air is finally starting to feel crisp in the mornings and evenings, so I can almost believe that it’s fall. Mid-afternoon is pleasantly warm weather for hiking, so this afternoon Peter and I went to McKinney Falls park:
The water level was pretty low so the falls themselves were not especially impressive, but the park had a lot of scenic spots along the creek, which made for a pleasant afternoon walk.
I had a pair of slightly overripe bananas:
So I decided to make banana pancakes this morning:
Recipe: Smash 2 very ripe bananas, stir until mostly smooth. Add vanilla extract, cinnamon, a tablespoon or two of sugar, and one egg. Mix together. Add about a cup of Bisquick. Stir to combine. At this point, my batter seemed a bit thick, so I added maybe a quarter cup of milk.
Serve with butter, and if you are a …
