thursday things – an alpacalypse in phoenix and other news

10958474_1376361089349191_1302946257_n

Phoenix has had a busy week, with some raindrops falling, people freaking out about pink clouds, and a near ALPACA-LYPSE. A couple of llamas escaped from their owner’s yard and took the interwebs by storm while our local police spent several hours chasing them down. The llamas were eventually caught, but not before Buzzfeed had time to make a “Which Runaway Llama Are You?” quiz.

Movita shared a super awesome coloring page with me, so I’m basically going to get nothing else done today.

Shannon made us Baymax cookies because she’s amazing.

Speaking of amazing things, I forgot to share with you all last week the awesome shirt and notepad that Mr. Eats got me for Valentine’s Day! Continue reading

thursday things

sunset

Another Thursday is upon us so, LET’S DO THIS!

I did not get to celebrate Fat Tuesday because the Polish population here in Phoenix is abysmally low, meaning that my beloved paczki are nowhere to be found. Instead I read this double vanilla jam donut recipe and just pretended like I could taste them.

Serious Eats is helping us to demystify our poultry labels.

Nestle has announced their plan to remove all artificial ingredients by the end of 2015, which I think is a rather noble quest.

I was able to find two of the three new Cookie Core flavors at my local Target…

Continue reading

thursday things – a quesalupa, red velvet oreos, and my hollywood hubby

feb morning sky

Happy Thursday and congratulations to Nicole who won the Peanut Butter Lover’s giveaway! There are two containers of PB2 en route to her home in Michigan as I type this. I hope that she shares what she makes with us!

Last week, my current home hosted the Super Bowl and the Phoenix Open and Phoenix gave all of our tourists a big, fat middle finger by being (relatively) cold, rainy, and foggy… for the whole week. Now we are back to normal, which is WAY TOO HOT for me already… clearly I live in the wrong state.

weather feb 15

For those of you who are buried in snow, quit your whining and do something awesome with it. Like the best snowman ever or this giant Star Wars equivalent of Mt. Rushmore, out of snow.

According to Epicurious, “Gluten Free” is the most annoying dietary consideration, 42% of their readers are cooking 7 days a week, and a disturbing 15% of people are eating food IN THE BATHROOM.

diet restrictions

I assume that 15% of people are supporters of Senator Tillis, who has recently been advocating for restaurant employee’s rights to not wash their hands. Jon Stewart summed up pretty much everything there was to say on the matter.

I found out that my Hollywood Hubby (Timothy Olyphant) makes his wife cappuccino with latte art I immediately shared with Mr. Eats how lucky she was. Although, Mr. Olyphant discourages instagraming my dinner pictures, so maybe we aren’t soul mates after all.

While Tim Olymphant is eating fried chicken, Beyonce wants us all to go vegan with her vegan delivery service. It involves a 22-day vegan challenge and honestly, if I can do a whole 30, I’m sure I can kick the crap out of 22 days of veganism. But am I going to pay for it to be delivered to my door? Probably not.

quesalupa

What I would pay for, sadly, is the new QUESALUPA at Taco Bell! It’s a cheese-stuffed chalupa shell and, unfortunately, it is only available back in my hometown of Toledo, Ohio. Which is super unfair. Once I factor in the $400 plane ticket, it becomes an awfully expensive chalupa.

Starbucks is going to start slinging coconut milk nationwide starting Feb 17th, so get your mugs ready!

And of course, Oreos released their new red velvet flavor on Feb 2nd and I picked up a package to be your guinea pig. I will preface this by saying that I was actually not that excited for red velvet oreos. Much like actual red velvet cake, I feel like I could just eat the chocolate version and save myself the food coloring…

But I was put in my place by some of my closest friends so I felt obliged to pick up a pack and give them a try.

red velvet oreos

The verdict? They are good, but they don’t taste THAT different from a regular Oreo… but they definitely didn’t taste like a regular Oreo.

The chocolate isn’t as dark as the regular Oreo cookie, so the chocolate flavor is definitely muted, which meant it was a winner for Mr. Eats who is not a huge fan of Oreo’s regular cookie. While the filling was creamier and less grainy than the standard Oreo filling, it didn’t have a strong cream cheese “tang” to it.

Granted I’ve only eaten one cookie so far, but I’m sure I’ll “test” more later tonight. You know, for science. If you have tried them, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!

Now, time to await Oreo’s next creation: THE S’MOREO. That’s one Ill definitely have to try.

I’ll just watch this owl on a loop while I wait…

owl bath

thursday things

xnxiKtr

When I logged in this morning I noticed an unusual amount of traffic from Reddit. When I followed the trail to the source I discovered this picture… featuring a League of Legends character running across my biscotti. And it made my mother-freaking day. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting into LoL lately and it might have just given me the push I need to start…

Other things that made my day this week include this tiny human who for some god-forsaken reason decided to turn Oreos into mascara… WHY ON EARTH you would waste PERFECTLY GOOD Oreos to make cosmetics is beyond me… Unless you wanted an excuse to to eat your eyelashes….

After the cronut and the cragel our slutty friend, the croissant, is at it again by now breeding with a cookie to create the “crookie”… WHEN WILL THE MADNESS END!?

cheetos-sweetos

Cheetos has created a sweet cinnamon snack, aptly named “Sweetos” which I can only assume is essentially a bag of cinna-twists (in untwisted form). I’m so down.

Although I’ve mentioned it with basil before, we finally have a definitive list of foods that will magically regrow themselves.

Scientists have found a way to let our astronauts enjoy espresso in space. Next up, maybe we will cure world hunger… but at least we found a way to fix space caffeine-withdrawal in the mean time.

The Super Bowl is taking place in my general vicinity this year, but I would be much more excited to score tickets to the Puppy Bowl. And by “score tickets” I really mean just roll around in the pile of Puppy Bowl pups.

And I could give you a super bowl round up but first I want to let you see this video of Will Ferrell blasting this cheerleader in the face with a basketball. I could watch this freaking loop ALL. DAY. LONG.

Super Bowl Recipe Round Up

Pretzel Bites from Yours Truly (cut the ropes into 2-inch pieces for bites)

soft pretzel main

Hot & Cheesy Crab Dip from Foodness Gracious

crab-dip-01-600x900

Sugar & Spice Cocktail Nuts from Some Kitchen Stories

sugar_pecans1

Make some chili to eat as-is or to put on hot dogs, or even some chili-cheese tots!

photo(9)

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Dip from FoodieCrush

Slow-Cooker-Buffalo-Chicken-Dip-foodiecrush.com-019

Spinach-Ricotta Turnovers from A Periodic Table

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Fig & Prosciutto Flatbread from right here

DSC_7846edit

Popcorn Party Mix from Smitten Kitchen

popcorn-party-mix

thursday things

whole 30 chipotle steak salad

Cooks & Books rounded up some of the internet’s healthy and delicious recipes and was sweet enough to include my barbacoa steak salad (pictured above). You can see that recipe and more on their website!

Nigella Lawson is now on instagram.

F&W claimed they were showing us how to poach a dozen eggs at once… although it’s actually more of “how to bake a dozen eggs at once” but who’s really paying attention anyway?

Nabisco has outdone themselves again with Red Velvet Oreos – which will be made available to us normies on Feb 2nd. At which time, as your faithful Oreo tester, I will promptly scoop some up and let you know how they are.

red velvet oreo

Matthew Inman created a Kickstarter campaign to launch the best card game since Cards Against Humanity… and reached 10,000% of their goal in less than 7 hours.

Conan O’Brien visited the Taco Bell HQ and created a few of his own menu items.

Meanwhile Japan taught 100 robots how to do the robot and revolutionized the dessert world with clear mochi cake.

As I’ve been approaching the end of yet another Whole 30, I feel healthy and energized! I’ve been eating lots of whole-30-approved things like stuffed peppers, lettuce wraps, steak salad, and healthy stir fry

All while experiencing some serious cravings for things like…

This poblano mac and cheese from Annie’s Eats

annie's eats poblano mac

A Periodic Table’s mochi cake.

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Movita’s finnish pulla

finnish-pulla-baked

These multigrain pancakes with bananas foster syrup from Crumb.

bananas foster pancake

And this meatball sub from Serious Eats

20150107-italian-american-meatballs-sandwich-vicky-wasik-2

Are you sensing a theme here?