Algerian Sweets

A co-worker recently returned from a trip home. Home to him is Algeria. As is the custom in the office, he brought a little treat for everyone. Candy! This is like a Jordan Almond, but is very hard and has a groundnut/peanut inside. I might have eaten half the bag. But I really just can't get over the beautiful, bright colors. 

Banana Pudding Cupcake @ Sugar Moon Bakeshop

I dragged my sister to Oakhurst the other day, specifically to McKoy Park to check out the skate park. It's the only one in Atlanta that I can find that allows BMX bikes. The lovely, new and shiny park on the Beltline in Old Fourth Ward doesn't.

My sister is a sport. I swear she rolled her eyes at least once, but she came with me to explore. I don't ride BMX bikes, but I dream about it. I love watching them defy gravity. Everytime I catch X-treme Games, I'm glued to the TV.

It was a little anticlimatic, until we found these cupcakes. The skate park had a handful of teenage boys on boards so we decided to check out the shops around Oakhurst square. And what did we find there - Sugar Moon Bakeshop!

This is their best seller - Banana Pudding Cupcake.


Look - there's pudding inside! That was a very nice surprise.
Their coffee was also really good.

Happy Halloween - Black Cats Rule

Halloween is my favorite holiday.
You can be anyone or anything you want to be.
You get to play with knives and your food while carving up pumpkins.
You get to laugh and scare and have fun with people.
You get to eat candy and chocolate any time of the day.
What is not to like?

It's the most stress-free, hassle-free holiday there is.

I work at one of those places where "Halloween" is a bad word. Or used to be. Last year only one lonely soul dressed up. This year, it was all fun and games at our "Fall Festival." We had a chili cook-off and goodies. I made black cat cookies. The idea was to make the icing look like a skeleton, but that didn't quite work. So let's just say I was going for the mummy effect. Either way, they were yummy.

I made them by dressing up a sugar cookie recipe by adding cocoa powder, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and a little clove. They weren't overly sweet and were a cross between gingerbread and sugar cookie. 

Spaghetti Squash

I love the idea of spaghetti squash. It offers the comfort of a big bowl of hot pasta on a cold day. 

The last time I tried to make it I battled with the squash, first to cut it in half, and then to get it cooked through. It felt like it took all day to make. That was about five years ago. 

I decided it was time to take another go at it. I picked out the smallest spaghetti squash at the farmer's market. I picked out my sharpest butcher knife and went at it, chopping it in half, cleaning out the seeds and then cutting it in chucks about three inches by three inches. I put these in a pot with water covering the bottom so that wouldn't stick and turned on the heat to a boil. After about fifteen minutes, I checked and they were starting to get soft. I carefully took out each piece and cute away the peeling, which was super easy. I put the squash back over the heat and cooked until down. You end up with shorter "noodles" but it's so easy I'll definitely do it again.

For the sauce, I added a can of diced tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms, Chinese five-spice, fresh spinach, salt, and pepper to the cooked squash and cooked for an additional ten minutes. Serving it, I added a dusting of Parmesan cheese. This was so good and filling while low on calories and fat. 

Atlanta Beltline: Can man

FaceTime

Just a couple of cousins, hanging out on the FaceTime.

King Kong in Atlanta

Running along the Atlanta Beltline, I met this fine fellow hanging out catching a nice view of the skyline.