Is This Thing On?

Oh, hi there! It’s me, Waspy. You may or may not remember me… as it’s been approximately 500 million years since I last blogged. Sorry about that. Well, I’m not sorry actually, because I’ve been having a pretty good time living my life. I do miss you though, so even if I don’t have a recipe to share or a make up product to recommend – I wanted to say hey.

What have I been up to?

Well, in January, I decided to take 60 days off from drinking in an effort to help my wallet and waistline. That went really well. It wasn’t even that difficult after the first 2 weeks or so. In 2 months I lost right around 23 lbs. Yay. It wasn’t just from passing on bubbly, I was also working out 6 times a week and logging everything I ate in MyFitnessPal.

Mean muggin post work out. Sporting Buy Me Brunch, naturally.

In March I “went off the wagon” and started drinking again. Not a ton, and just socially (read: at parties, on dates etc.).  I’ve tried to make the most of this time while I was reunited with bubbly. In addition to brunch’n it up all over San Antonio, Austin & Dallas, I attended the Austin Food & Wine Alliance event, Live Fire!

OhMyPuddin is always such a good sport when I make terrible duck faces in our photos.

This guy is also a good sport, like all of the time.

The food and drink at Live Fire were delicious! It was great to see so many amazing chefs and restaurateurs from Austin all in one place. I was super excited that two of my favorite San Antonio chefs, Jesse Perez of Arcade Midtown Kitchen, and Jason Dady of Dady Restaurant Group were there as well!

April in San Antonio means FIESTA!  This was my first year living downtown, directly on the parade route during this 2 week stretch of food, music, fun and ridiculousness. If you haven’t experienced Fiesta first hand, I don’t really know how to describe it to you. It is part of what makes San Antonio so fantastic, and you just have to live through one to get it.

You know you’re from San Antonio when you find confetti in strange places all throughout May. This week I have found confetti in my fridge, my pillow case, and a 5 lb bag of sugar. True story.

It was a nice two months back on the sauce, and I’ve tried to keep up the work out regimen .. but will admit that the intensity has fallen off a bit. On May 1st I decided to hop back on the sober train and kick off booze hiatus round dos. My last booze hiatus was inconveniently timed with the San Antonio Cocktail Conference… this booze hiatus is inconveniently timed with my birthday (I turn 31 on Monday, ouch). I haven’t decided if I’ll have a flute or two of champers on my birthday. Stay tuned. Regardless, I going to try and go another 60 days and see if I can drop another 20ish pounds. Fingers crossed.

What have you been up to, Internet friends?

Hi! Are You New Here?

This past weekend I attended an event in Austin for food bloggers called TECHmunch.  I figured several of the other attendees might be stopping by my corner of the interwebs for the first time, so I wanted to take a minute to introduce myself.

Hi! I’m Elizabeth.

My pal there on the left is Lauren. She was also at TECHmunch.  You may remember her, she told vegan cheese to #dieinafire. It was epic.

It’s entirely possible you don’t remember meeting us, or our friend Jessica who also made the trip up from San Antonio with us. We skipped out at lunch because it was such a pretty day outside that we thought it was irresponsible of us not to day drink on a patio.

So here’s a little bit about me:

• I’m from San Antonio, TX.
• I’m 30 years old.
• My favorite food is popcorn. I highly recommend you try this recipe. Popcorn will become your favorite food too.
• I love red lipstick, pearl earrings, cardigan sweaters, and Sperry Topsiders.
• Pretty much the only foods I don’t enjoy are beets and pizza.
• I used to think I was going to be a ballerina when I grew up – and not just when I was a little girl. I held on to that delusion for longer than is typical.
• Brunch is my favorite meal, and I fervently believe that almost any dish is made better by putting a runny egg on it.
• My favorite cities to visit are New Orleans, DC and Paris.
• I studied elementary education & child development in college. I now work in Marketing & PR. Go figure.
• I prefer baking to cooking, but I’m not actually a big baked goods consumer. Baking cakes and cupcakes is one of my favorite things to do… but then once they’re baked I feel compelled to push them off on other people.
• I’m kind of a terrible blogger, and I’ve never gotten serious about my frequency or editorial planning.
• I was once featured on the Huffington Post and Today Show because I threw a wedding shower/royal wedding watch party.
• Our family pet is a cocker spaniel named Kate Middleton.

Hope you’ll stick around and check out some of my recipes. Thanks for visiting!

Cheers

Waspy

San Antonio Home & Garden Show Giveaway

Happy Hump Day!  To take the edge off of your Wednesday, the folks at the San Antonio Home & Garden Show are offering my readers a pair of tickets to this weekends show. It’s the largest home and garden expo in the state, with vendors, seminars and DIY ideas.  If you’re a fan of Jeff Lewis from “Flipping Out” on Bravo, this is your chance to see him in person.

Complete this quick contest widget and you could win a pair of tickets to the expo this weekend. Winner will be selected and notified on Friday February 22nd,  and the tickets will be held at will call in your name.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
More about the San Antonio Home & Garden Show

The 33rd Annual San Antonio Home & Garden Show, an annual event featuring home and gardening seminars and vendors, kicks off this weekend Feb. 22-24. Highlights include:

•  Celebrity house-flipper and Bravo’s “Flipping Out” star Jeff Lewis and Brian Santos, “The Wall Wizard,” both offering creative solutions, tips and tricks for homeowners, builders and more will be leading live demonstrations at the show.
• Free tote bags until they run out, a chance to enter to win a Compost Tea Application worth $100 and free plants for the first 400 attendees through the door each day.
• Breathtaking gardens, landscapes & water features, along with other vendors. Meet with experts from San Antonio Builders Association and the National Kitchen and Bath Association, and get the latest trends in kitchens and baths.
• Unique gifts from local art and gourmet vendors, get a little taste of Texas in the Go Texan area and enjoy complimentary wine tastings.
• A Kids Zone for children to play safely, with a kids Lego challenge and kids-focused cooking classes.

Hours:            

Friday, Feb. 22: 2pm-8pm

Saturday, Feb. 23: 10am-8pm

Sunday, Feb. 24: 11am-6pm

Nutella Cookies

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I made you  Nutella cookies!

Ok so it would be hard to actually deliver these cookies to you – so how about you use this recipe and make some for yourself?  They are super simple.  I basically changed up a traditional peanut butter cookie recipe and subbed in Nutella. If you’re into “cookie butter” which seems to be all the rage, that would work too.

Recipe:

Yields 3 dozen cookies

1/2 cup Nutella
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour

Directions

In the bowl of a stand mixer or with a pastry blender, mix the butter, peanut butter and sugars until creamy. Add the egg, then vanilla. Mix baking powder with flour, then add flour a cup at a time.
Roll dough out on lightly floured surface and cut into desired shape with cookie cutter dipped into flour. Bake at 350 for 10-13 minutes. To ensure you will not have a dry cookie, check them at 8ish minutes since everyone’s oven is different.

Whole Grain Pancakes

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner people. Have you made fancy dinner reservations for pre fixe menus that are marked up 30%? No, well good luck scoring a table now. Fear not. I’m actually of the opinion that eating out on Valentine’s Day is a rip off and not very romantic. If you really want to impress your suitor, make them breakfast for dinner. Specifically these whole grain pancakes.

Serve them with heart shaped bacon. Trust me.

(No pictures exist of the finished product, because we ate it so fast. Instructions below)

I made these for dinner last night for my gal pal’s weekly ritual of “hate watching” The Bachelor. In addition to the pancakes and bacon, I served Yukon gold homefries (roasted with salt, pepper and a little of the reserved bacon fat. OMG) and fruit salad. It was a nice little meal. Though I was making it for a crowd, the meal can easily be scaled back for two people. The pancake recipe I adapted from King Arthur Flour has a shelf stable mix so you can make pancakes at the drop of a hat. How genius is that? I have a jar of mix hanging out in my fridge, which in my head is super resourceful and kind of Martha Stewart meets Carrie Bradshaw. In the unlikely event that I meet a dashing man and need to throw together an impressive meal without much notice, I can nonchalantly whip up some whole grain pancakes in no time flat.

So these are whole grain pancakes with oatmeal, whole wheat flour, flax seed meal etc. They are very good, but lets be real… they are not the same as traditional enriched flour pancakes. The flavor is great, but if fluffy pancakes are your thing, stick with the real deal. To quote my friend Lauren of the blog Oh My Puddin, “I prefer a lighter pancake, but if you want to eat pancakes and also to have a healthy colon, these are great.”

Whole Grain Pancake Recipe

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Pancake Mix (makes several 1 cup batches that each yeild 6-8ish pancakes)

4 cups King Arthur white whole wheat flour
1 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
3 1/2 cups old-fashioned or rolled oats
4 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal* (not in original recipe, but adds nice nutty taste and extra omega 3 fatty acids)
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 cup coconut oil* (original recipe calls for vegetable oil, but coconut oil is healthier and tastier)

Prepared Pancakes

1 cup homemade mix
1 cup buttermilk
1 large egg

To make the mix: Grind the oats in a food processor until they’re chopped fine, but not a powder.  Put the flour, oats, and all other dry ingredients into a mixer with a paddle. Mix on slow speed, and drizzle the vegetable oil into the bowl slowly while the mixer is running.  Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks at room temperature, or indefinitely in the refrigerator or freezer.

To make pancakes: Whisk together 1 cup of mix, 1 cup of buttermilk (or a combination of half plain yogurt and half milk; or 3/4 cup liquid whey), and 1 large egg. Don’t worry if it seems thin at first: the oats will soak up the milk, and the mix will thicken a bit as it stands. Let the batter stand for at least 20 minutes before cooking. Heat a lightly greased griddle to 350°F (if you’ve got a griddle with a temperature setting; if not, medium-hot will do).  Drop the batter onto it in 1/4-cupfuls (a jumbo cookie scoop works well here) to make a 4″ diameter pancake. When the edges look dry and bubbles come to the surface without breaking (after about 2 minutes, if your griddle is the correct temperature), turn the pancake over to finish cooking on the second side, which will take about 2 minutes.

Heart Shaped Bacon

Preheat the oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with foil. Use the best bacon you can get your hands on – thick cut is preferable. Cut strips in half and fold into heart shape as pictured above. Bake at 400 for around 20 minutes or until crispy. Set aside on a paper towel. Toss foil in the trash, reserving a few tablespoons of the bacon grease in case you feel like roasting some potatoes.

Oven Roasted Homefries

You can make these in the same pan, just discard the foil and reserve some bacon grease.  Keep the oven at 400. Add lots of salt and pepper. Shake the pan every 3-5 minutes to ensure it the potatoes don’t stick. They should be golden brown in around 15-20 minutes depending on the type of potato you’re using.