Ramekins rocks!

When I am not madly trying to stain 20 slides with 3 different stains all at once I will tell you all about the wonderful time I had Saturday afternoon at Ramekins cooking school in Sonoma, learning how to be a master sushi chef. It was an amazing class so I just wanted to put it out there in the foodblogworld - if you want to take a cooking class or buy somebody a cooking class as a gift, go to Ramekins!!

Website here.

Twinkies and cupcakes. Yum!

A long time ago I brought this "sushi" to a party. It was damn good. Yes, it is made out of twinkies. I love twinkies.

Last night I ate an amazing cupcake. A guy in my lab got married recently, and his mother-in-law made the wedding cupcakes. She made lots of test cupcakes and we were the lucky recipients of the extras. Unfortunately, I was on phase 1 of the south beach diet at that time, so those cupcakes were taunting me. They smelled amazing - and looked even yummier! White cupcakes with flecks of vanilla bean throughout, with a sweet glaze. Instead of caving in, I took one home and put it in my freezer to enjoy at a later time. Last night I needed a midnight snack so I defrosted it and gobbled it up. Yum. I think I will have cupcakes at my (hypothetical) wedding.

A few years ago I was wandering aorund Manhattan with my friend Jon (of stinky tofu fame) and he took me to the Buttercup Bake Shop. I think. I had an amazing banana pudding and we split a piece of hummingbird cake. Last summer I wanted to go back, but got confused and ended up at the Magnolia Bakery instead. I had the banana pudding (which seemed too sweet) and decided to try one of their famous cupcakes. I was disappointed. Maybe because of all the hype? The cupcake was a little on the dry side, and didn't have a significant flavor. And everybody gushes over the frosting, but really - you can do that yourself at home with some butter and powdered sugar. I consider something gush-worthy when even though the ingredients are simple, I'm pretty sure they put crack or something in there. Like the butter you get with your basket of bread at Ti Couz - pretty sure they put crack in it. I was eating that stuff by itself. Maybe I was just in a butter phase. But then our crepes came and I'm pretty sure they put crack in those too. I loved them so much I made crepes for breakfast the very next morning. I tried out the apple salsa recipe from the 101 Cookbooks site and it was really excellent with my ham and cheese crepe. The recipe works well with almonds as well - I didn't have walnuts.

No, I'm not on crack. It may seem that way because my post is so disjointed. I guess I just wanted to share my love for cupcakes. And the crepes at Ti Couz.

I need this cookie....

This past weekend I went to Boston for my cousin's wedding. This was the first time I've flown United as a revenue passenger - my mom works for United and until I turned 25, I was able to fly standby for a small fee. But they don't let you do that once you get too old (bah!) so I had to buy a ticket.
I've been flying standby my whole life, and there are pretty strict rules as to how it works, so I was pretty excited for this flight. I got to wear jeans. And sneakers. This is very exciting when you're used to an 11-hour flight wearing dress pants, pantyhose, and heels. And I got to order a special meal. Not that I'm vegetarian, diabetic, have high cholesterol, or keep kosher, but it was exciting to be *able* to order a special meal. So I ordered a diabetic meal because I'm trying to cut down on sugar anyway.
With the meal there was a pre-packaged vegan chocolate chip cookie. Normally I scoff at vegan products because, well, I like meat and cheese. But I'll try any kind of cookie, and I have to say, it was hands-down the best cookie, vegan or non, that I have eaten ever. It was really moist and cinnamony, and the chocolate chips were the perfect consistency. It was also made with whole wheat flour, so I didn't feel guilty eating it. So I saved the wrapper in order to find the cookie at home and then buy a whole case or something. I googled "Miyoko's Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie" and to my utter dismay came up with only 3 websites, two of which were press releases for something called an UnTurkey. After a little bit more investigation I found a phone number to call and beg for a place to find this cookie. It turns out they don't sell them to the public and only make them for airlines. "Thanks for you feedback though, I'm glad you enjoyed the cookie!" said the woman on the other line. Hmph. Yeah, I enjoyed the cookie. But if I knew it would be my frickin' *last one ever* - grrrrr.