Thursday, January 29, 2009

I just ate a lime...

So. After doing some research, I decided to try out miracle fruit. I ordered the freeze dried berries about 2 weeks ago and they came last week. We had been looking forward to trying these out since we have heard so much buzz about them. Well, since all the crazy car stuff was happening, we had to wait a few days to try them out since we were in Virginia until 930pm most nights this week (plus a hour drive home...) visiting car dealers *sigh*. Oh! and we did get a car- a 2004 Toyota corolla, woop woop!

So, back to the berries. When we opened the package from Slovenia, there was a container that looked much like a package of hard candies or gum. The little pills of freeze dried berry tasted similar to bland cranberries with oatmeal. We let the berry dissolve in our mouth for about 2 minutes while we prepared the food for tasting. Since the berries temporarily numb all receptors on your tongue but the sweet ones, we had an arrangement of sour, bitter and unripe things to try out. Lemon, lime, salt and vinegar chips, goat cheese, dark chocolate, unripe strawberries, and granny smith apples were on the menu. Weird right? right.

So we both decided to try out the lime first...ah! It smelled the same and looked the same...but would it taste the same? NOPE! it tasted like candy!! delicious, flavorful candy! So good! We ripped through everything on the plate, chips tasted creamy, lemons like lemonade, unripe strawberries tasted like the most luscious strawberry's you could imagine, 70% dark chocolate was sweet milky chocolate, goat cheese was like sweet cream cheese, and the apple! OH, the apple- delicious! You got the crispness of a granny smith but the sweetness of a Fuji. You can order some here...they are so cool! You should give them a try!


The package


The candies



The platter of sour


OMG! So good!

My look of disbelief!

Here are some more pictures of things that have been going on...

Shotzye gets so bored of us sometimes...


My new ring for school since I don't want to ruin my nice one at work.

180 teenage students+art supplies= not good for expensive ring.

(isn't it cute though?? A bow! love it.)

Makin' some butter-less chocolate cupcakes with real strawberry buttercream (what can I say I only had one stick of butter and I figured butter in the frosting was better than butter in the cake) :D

turned out just beautifully. I made up the recipe :) I am so good.

These things are so good. Paul is NOT allowed to take them to work.

These are ours only...maybe if I open my bakery you can try one :D

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Oh no!

We woke up this morning, excited to take a trip downtown D.C, to spend our only day of the week where we both have off from work. We were going to get some sushi for lunch, then cupcakes from one of our fav spots, Lavender Moon, in Alexandria. We were also going to go to Dupont Circle to set up appointments to get tattoo's next weekend (!!!) . We decided to take Pauls car since mine is awaiting MD registration.



Well, we were about 15 miles away from home when Paul'a car made a weird gritty noise. Then it jolted really bad. Then is stopped driving........we were on the highway going around 65 when this happened. So we pulled over, found out we dont have roadside assistance, waited an hour and a half and got towed back to Waldorf for $125. Sucks. Well, it seems we are going to be car shopping this week for a new car- even though we still have a loan on Pauls car. I dont like these things.



Anyways, we decided we needed a happy ending to the day, so I made some honeycomb candy ice cream with my new ice cream maker! AH! Exciting. Well...now time to watch some more Extreme Home Makeover- the car situation seems less horrible when you watch a show about a family, where the dad was shot in the neck in Iraq.



So excited for the day
I had no idea...
A hour later, a smile was not to be seen.
See.
No smiles.

Yay! The tow truck came...time to warm up in the truck!
Oh, and we were starving since we haden't eaten yet when we left for Alexandria! (We finally had our first meal at 4:30 pm)

There she goes...all boo-boo'ed

Yay! Sponge/Honeycomb Candy

Sweet cream ice cream with vanilla bean and honeycomb candy!
Time to go scoop some up to have while I watch the sadness.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Mixer

Well my dad's Christmas present for me finally came! He got me a Kitchenaid mixer!! I am so excited to make a million delish things with my new, beautiful mixer :D

Oh- and it matches all of the new dishes! *more excitment fills my heart* haha.

How can you deny it's beauty!? (It is the Martha Stewart edition)
on the left is an ice cream maker for it :)

Vogue!


And for the heck of it, since the mixer is in the background, my breakfast...
steel cut oats and flax with some green juice. Mmmm.









Thursday, January 22, 2009

In action!

Here are the new plates with our Thursday dinner on them:

Yum! Mushroom-truffle flatbread and olive tapenade

The camera we got for free!

(it was left in the safe at Paul's work and they wanted to get rid of it! So they said Paul could have it-SWEET!)



A leeloo with the new camera

...a little fuzzy because the lens was dirty...it is clean now :)

And leeloo with the Nikon D40...so much nicer but hey, the free camera is so easy to just throw in the purse or pocket and take somewhere!

Well, have a good one!

Monday, January 19, 2009

Dishes.

I love Ikea. We took a drive over to Ikea today (which was better than I expected being the day before the inauguration...) on the mission to get some new dishes. Well- we found some! We got some awesome plates, bowls, and cups that are very contemporary and were relatively CHEAP *yesss*



So I think I will show them to you now.


Cool plate that fits the bowl

These colors match our place perfect! And our silverware!!

LOVED these cups.


Saturday, January 17, 2009

Camera Crisis!

So we had a mini camera meltdown here in the Haggerty household! We thought we had lost the battery charger for our beloved Nikon D40...however, tonight after making the most gorgeous cupcakes in my whole lifetime, I was distraught and wasn't able to give up hope. So I made a camera charger search effort take place. Still no avail. I couldn't find it anywhere- I looked in boxes, in drawers, in nooks and cranny's, in Tupperware*, so yeah, everywhere. So as I sat on the floor, in near tears...pleading with Paul to look again, he decided to take me up on the offer and took one last look. Well he walks into the bedroom and looks right in front of my dresser. And it is laying there.

IN PLAIN SIGHT.

So yeah...a Christmas without a camera, a month without pictures (in this normally camera active home), a month with no blog posts, a month where family visited this very apartment and knew of the lost charger...NO ONE SAW IT.

But here is the good news. I made earl grey cupcakes tonight that are the prettiest, yummiest, nicest cupcakes ever. AND- I have pictures to prove it :D

*I was desperate. What can I say...

A Christmas present my sister knitted for Paul! He loves this thing.

Here I am modeling the hat my sister made me! I love it- colors, fit...everything! Go Mandie!!

The awesome new decorations I got for our place. Courtesy of TJ Maxx and Target babe. (Goooooooo BARGAIN!)

Me showing scale...Excuse my dirty gym clothes.
Leeloo still life

Our new electric tea kettle and amber sugar crystals for tea.
Let me reassure you that these little sugar pebbles make tea taste so clear and perfect. I have had 3 cups of tea already today.
SO GOOD!
Close up. Gorgeous.

Earl grey cupcakes...yesyesyesyes.

The recipe actually calls for ripping open tea bags and pouring the leaves into the batter. Mmmmm. Then the frosting is vanilla bean with orange essence buttercream.
Tis been a tea day.