Plum Fruit Leather

I’ve gotten into a show called Sweets Made Simple on BBC Two. It’s a show where a quirky married couple makes candy. I want to make everything on that show. Boozy chocolates, rose flavored turkish delight, salted caramel! They recently made fruit leather and I was so excited. I love fruit leather.

Fruit leather also makes me feel a little nostalgic for back to school and my colleagues at Live It Learn It who are back in the US. My coworker Erica and I were a little crazy for fruit leather at the end of last school year. It was our snack of choice during the many meetings we were having. She’d have a big stash in her backpack and I’d peak through and pull out my favorite flavors. Snacks are always a nice way to pep up the workday. 

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Reese’s Pieces Cookies

I’m moving to London later today. Officially and for real. The last week or so has been really busy and fun as I said goodbye and prepared for this move. Let me tell you about my last few days and then at the end I’ll give you a cookie recipe.

My 29th  birthday was a little over a week ago! I went to New York to have a last hurrah. I actually hadn’t been to New York since my graduation, and I was excited to go back and see the city one more time. On Friday (the 20th) I went to Staten Island and stayed with my friend Inga (who also has the same birthday as me). It was so great to catch up with her. She and I were roommates years ago when we studied abroad in Rome. Visiting her, I got to see her new house, meet her  beautiful daughter, and celebrate our birthdays. We had sushi and cake and it was wonderful.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Our flat is starting to feel more like a home! On Friday, I baked peanut butter cookies and it made the apartment smell wonderful. Baking, the yummy smells, and having home made food made the apartment feel more like mine. We’re also starting to get settled by putting our knickknacks out and decorating our place.

We can finally start decorating because on Saturday, our landlord came and furnished our apartment! Yes, to answer your unspoken question, we’d been living in our apartment for a week without furniture. Now, it’s starting to feel more like a real place to live because we can put things away and actually sit and relax other places besides the air mattress.

Halloween Themed Rice Crispy Treats

I wanted to make something youthful, sugary, and Halloween themed to help get me in the Halloween spirit. For some reason, I wasn’t feeling excited for Halloween. Maybe it’s because I don’t have plans to dress up and we never get any trick-or-treaters. But that’s never stopped me before. And I know that it sounds ridiculous that I could be out of the holiday spirit. Earlier this month I told you all  about my decorations and my Halloween shaped brown sugar cookies. And I carved pumpkins with my friends at the beginning of October. I’ve had bazillion pumpkin spice lattes and I’ve tested out three different recipes using squash. I’m wearing scarves and boots and sweaters. I’m totally embracing fall, but somehow I still feel like the end of October snuck-up on me.  I wasn’t ready!! So I needed a sugary pick-me-up, so I could feel like an enthusiastic child ready to bound through the neighborhood, in an awesome costume, collecting candy.

Grapefruit Brûlée

I set fire to a grapefruit! It was awesome. And also delicious and fancy. And the fire was totally safe.  Let me tell you about it.

Over the weekend Ryan and I had dinner with some friends who were visiting from out of town, and they were telling us all the DC things they were going to do before they left. The next day they were going to Farmers, Fishers, Bakers on the Georgetown waterfront, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I was jealous. I know some people who had just ok experiences there, but I really loved their brunch. I think it’s a pretty sizable buffet with a diverse array of choices. For example, there’s chocolate chip waffles, carved meats, Bloody Mary’s, chips and guacamole, and brûléed grapefruit.