Food Blogger Bake Sale!!!!

What are you doing this weekend? 
Personally, this weekend is set out to be pretty epic for me. Let's talk details.

1. I'm going to the Girlled Cheese Festival. You heard it!  It exists and I am going and eating as many cheese and carb conglomerations as I can.

2.  I'm going to a birthday party where at the same party last year someone I did not know who was wearing a metallic blazer bought everyone at the party 3 rounds of shots.  Needless to say, I'm a little nervous.

3.  At 8 AM the day after said Cheese Fest and said party I am running a 5K.  This could be dangerous and painful. 

4.  Most Importantly!  I am going to and participating in the Los Angeles Food Blogger Bake Sale!!!!
Come join me on Saturday, April 28th from 11:30AM to 2:00PM at BLD Restaurant (7450 Beverly Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90036) to support Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale for the No Kid Hungry Campaign.
Everything is donation based and there are a lot of talented bakers that will be attending, so you will be able to score some awesome goodies!  It is a fun event for a good cause so come join us!


and yes, that means I'm running a 5K after copious baked goods and grilled cheese, and with a possible hangover.  We'll see how this goes.  Overall, I'm excited! 

  

Three Veggie Servings

Life is about balance.  At least that is what my mom tells me.  I think it's open to interpretation.  When applied to food, balance I guess is having salad every once in a while.  Maybe after you have cake for breakfast.  This week I had oatmeal for breakfast.  But then last minute, I put nutella in it.  Balance!

Although my mom tells me to find balance in my life, she usually isn't referring to food.  Or if she is, she didn't do a good job instilling good values in me at a young age.  When my sister and I were little, my mom was unconventional in her breakfast ways.  Some days would be by the book, cereal and OJ.  But most days we would have whatever my mom felt like making us.  Ham and Cheese Omelette?  Okay.  Grilled Cheese?  Wavering.  Brownie Sundaes?  A teacher's worst nightmare.  In first grade when we were learning the food pyramid, Mrs. Hackett went around asking us what we had for breakfast.  When she asked me, I responded truthfully and innocently not knowing my mother's indecency, "Apple pie a la mode".  It happened.  I think about it now, and my mom was mischievous!  Filling us with sugar and then sending us off to school for our teachers to deal with!  Overall awesome for me, but probably not Mrs. Hackett.

Even though my mom may have trained us to crave brownies in the AM, sometimes after way too many baked goods, I only wanna eat kale salads with dried cranberries in them.  I make smoothies and put some leafy greens in them and try to feel better about the strawberry shortcake I ate the night before.  I eat only roasted brussels sprouts for dinner (this happens all the time because I love them so).  The trouble is, sometimes healthy things we should be eating, aren't as delicious as the bagels or strawberry cupcakes we would rather be having.

That's where balance comes in!  After I've had one too many salads, I've taken to finding largely vegetable based meals or recipes, that have some element of deliciousness. Some of my favorites lately: Zucchini Potato Pancakes, Green Bean Fries, and a Cheesy Asparagus Tart.  I feel like if my meal is mostly vegetables I don't feel as bad, even if there is puff pastry involved.  All are extremely delicious!  The green beans are for real healthy, and the other two aren't bad.  See the recipes below and start cooking!

Peanut Butter Bundt Cake

 

I've acquired a bundt.  It has been my dream for a few months, but haven't actually taken the time to go buy one.  Lucky for me, my friend's mom gave me her extra bundt pan!

I've googled some history of the bundt.  Not only do they make a beautiful cake, there is a method to their madness.  The bundt was formed so that it could cook a denser cake batter.  The hole in the middle allows heat to penetrate heavy cake batters from all sides.  Smart!  Supposedly, the word bundt comes from the German word "bund" which means a gathering of people, or a bond.  The t was added for good form, and to trademark the dish.

This history is fitting for my first bundt.  Hannah and I made it together in Baltimore.  Hannah's and my bond of friendship is pretty grade A in my book.  We roughed it up in Africa and spent almost every day together for 4 months in a village where no one speaks your language, you do your bathroom business in a hole in the ground, and you have no water or electricity.  You try to spend 24/7 with a stranger in the village and not get sick of them! For Hannah and I, and most of our program luckily, it worked.  The bond between us was clearly pretty strong.  You know when people say that stronger relationships form after extreme situations?  Try 4 months of extreme.

One way we've kept it up is with our love for food and baking, as stated before.  Hannah and I send each other drool worthy recipes daily.  We oo and aaahh over tastespotting.  We talk about our woes of our lackluster healthy lunches and not having daily sweet treats in the office. We link each other to joythebaker.com and wish that she was our friend! We both were anxiously waiting her cookbook's debut and bought it within the first week!

Since my Baltimore trip was coming up, we decided it would be fitting to bake one of Joy's recipes.  It happened.  It was glorious.  It was Joy's Peanut Butter Birthday Cake with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting. Peanut Butter + Cream Cheese.  How great of a bond is that?  Go make it.  Now.  I'm not even one of those crazy peanut butter people and this cake is obsess-worthy.

Bundts are inviting. Their ring form and pretty edges are for sharing.  With this peanut butter cake, everyone will want to be your friend. You'll create bonds with all the neighbors.  Remember that bond that arises from sharing extreme experiences?  Get ready for it. It's gonna happen. This cake is for real!