Hurricane day crepes

What happens when a hurricane rolls into town, shuts down everything, and leaves you with little to do?


Why, you make homemade crepes of course!


Except I didn't have any eggs on hand, and I kind of threw together the filling based off of what I had in the refrigerator at the moment.. but I think these little gems that we had as a midday snack turned out pretty darn good.


Eggless Crepes with Amaretto Ricotta filling 

Ingredients

• Crepes:
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 

Filling:

1 15oz container ricotta cheese (fat free, low fat or regular are fine)

1 cup powdered sugar, plus more for dusting

2 tablespoons amaretto flavored coffee creamer

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together milk, water, melted butter, and vanilla extract. In a small bowl, thoroughly mix flour, sugar, and salt. Whisk flour mixture into milk mixture until batter is smooth. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours.
2. Warm a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with a small amount of vegetable oil and pour in about 2 tablespoons of crepe batter. Swirl pan to allow batter to spread out thinly. Cook until edges are crispy and golden, then flip to cook other side until lightly browned. Repeat with remaining batter.
3. To make filling: combine the ricotta cheese and next 3 ingredients in a small bowl, stir together well. Fill each crepe with about 1/4 cup of filling, dust crepes with powdered sugar if desired. 

***Note: I used amaretto coffee creamer because it's what I had on hand, but you could use any flavor you want (french vanilla, hazelnut, or cinnamon would all be good). Or, you could also just replace the creamer with 2 tablespoons of milk to make the filling a little less sweet. 

(Eggless crepe recipe from allrecipes.com) 

Best. Dessert. Ever.

For many years I would order dessert almost every time that I went out to eat, mainly because it was always my favorite part of the meal. But in the last couple of years I've started to only order dessert on occasion, because frankly most restaurants do not have desserts that impress me. You will never see me order a regular piece of chocolate cake, cheesecake, key lime pie, etc. If a restaurant has done a special twist on those popular desserts, then ok maybe I'll try it.. but it's not that likely.

So it's not too often that I find a dessert that I think, "Oh, I HAVE to try that!". That was the case though recently at Otto in Greenwich Village, which is owned by Mario Batali. After a meal that consisted of Lardo (a bit too rich for our taste), fried sardines (meh) and duck and fig pizza (YUM), I was absolutely stuffed to the brim... until I read the dessert menu.

The description went a little something like this: Olive Oil Coppetta: olive oil gelato, passion fruit granita, basil syrup. It all sounded very interesting, but most importantly it had passion fruit, my all time favorite flavor. The dessert that I received also had strawberries on it, so I was curious if that was supposed to be on there or not (since it wasn't in the description), but either way it was fannnnnnntastic.

The gelato was slightly sweet, but mainly tasted of olive oil and was super creamy. The basil syrup was actually a bit salty, which although that was what MADE the dessert so amazing, I still wonder if it was supposed to be that way, or if there was a mix up in the kitchen and it was made with salt instead of sugar. So the combination of the tangy passion fruit granita, the salty basil syrup and the sweet strawberries all on top of the mellow, slightly savory gelato was in one word: perfection.

Since I'm curious as to whether or not the dessert was prepared how it was intended to be (were there really supposed to strawberries, and was the basil syrup supposed to be salty?), and since the dessert was so darn good that at one point I'm pretty sure I told Vlady to stop talking to me while I savored each bite, I'm considering going back asap to order it again.

Actually scratch that, I WILL go back to get it again. It was just that good, and I think it must be done in the name of research. I will report back to let y'all know if it's still the greatest dessert ever. Anyone care to join in on my research? Here's some more inspiration:

Mmmmmmm

Introducing: Tatum

This Sunday, August 21, my baby niece Tatum Skillman will be 1 month old. I can't believe that it's already been a whole month since she was born, and I feel like it was just yesterday that I was getting to hold her in my arms for the very first time.

Tatum is the most beautiful, perfect little girl that I have ever seen, and I instantly fell in love with her the moment that I saw her. I have never been a "baby person", and I still don't consider myself one at all... but things are so much different when it comes to my niece. I feel more love for her than I ever could have imagined, and I can not wait to see how she's going to grow and mature to become her own person.

As her aunt I am looking forward to providing her with love and support throughout her life, through every step. She already has me wrapped around her little finger, and I admit that I will probably give her anything she asks for.. she even has a onesie from me that says, "Auntie Said I Could".

Although I may be far away from her and the rest of my family, I think about her every single day. And thanks to things such as Facebook, text messaging, emails, etc. I know that I can see her at almost any time.  I can't even begin to describe how much I look forward to getting to hold her again, and I often will shed a tear or two when thinking about her because I miss her that much.

My heart is so full, I think it just may burst with love!

So here she is, little miss Tatum, the new love of my life :)

Craving Fall

The other day while wandering through the Union Square farmers market I stopped to pick up a nice refreshing beverage to cool myself in the scorching sun. My drink of choice turned out to be some chilled apple cider, and it made me realize how much I am looking forward to fall!

Crisp, cool air... gorgeous colored leaves in the parks... no more sweating profusely while waiting in the subway... ahhhhh fall, please get here soon.

Here are some of the things that I can not WAIT to take advantage of in fall:

-Anything and everything pumpkin

Especially a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks.. can I get a countdown to when they'll be back, please?

Oh, and I'd prefer that it'd be served in this cup:

I know that I can't be the only one who looks forward to the Starbucks holiday cups.

- Football

I'm by no means a sports enthusiast, but my favorite sport by far is football and I enjoy spending my Saturdays, Sundays and Monday nights watching games. My teams may not exactly be the greatest ever (UNC and the Broncos... yeah..), but I still love plopping myself at a sports bar each weekend to cheer them on. Oh, and I will preferably have these in front of me as well:

- Fall fashion

Gah, I love fall clothes! Scarves, boots and comfy sweaters... oh my! While I have more than enough clothes to get me through the winter, I'm seriously coveting these items:

Aerosoles Wedges

Le Mode Purse

Anthropolgie Jacket

Forever 21 pants (at $14.50 a piece I want these in every color!)

This Adrianna Papell Dress

This Anthropologie Sweater

 And this J. Crew scarf

And oh my goodness do I ever want to own this watch!

Marc Jacobs watch

Now, who wants to give me their credit card number?

Shocking!

I meant to write about this a while ago, but with all of the new developments in my life (new niece, new upcoming job), and my love for sleeping in late and watching Food Network and HGTV all day I have just not had the time! ....

Most of the people who know me know that I am far from graceful: I often trip while walking, and I run into just about anything and everything (the hidden-under-the-duvet-cover corners of our bed have become the nemesis to my poor bruised shins).  But thankfully I have never considered myself to be accident prone. As in I've never had a broken bone, had to make a trip to the ER, etc. (knock on wood). Did that stop me from electrocuting myself though? NOPE, it didn't.

That's right, I electrocuted myself. It happened on Vlady's birthday as I was getting ready to take him uptown for a surprise get together with his family. Just as I was plugging in my hair dryer my fingernail ever so slightly went into the socket and ZAP, I got shocked! It was a very strange sensation, and after it happened I stood there for a second confused, then walked out of the bathroom, sat down on the bed (hair dryer still in hand) and ever so casually said to Vlady, "I just electrocuted myself". He quickly assessed that I was alright, and my hair wasn't sticking straight up on my head, so no need to worry.. but I think the look on my face had him concerned for a second.

Oh, and I killed my hairdryer. Which was a bummer because it was still in great working condition. On a positive note though, the new hairdryer that I ended up buying is awesome and I'm not missing the old one a bit! Here's the new one that I bought, I highly recommend it:

I can just see my mom now, head hanging down and shaking in concern... but don't worry mom, one electrocution was enough. I've learned my lesson: never stick your fingers into sockets. And I may start wearing a helmet and knee pads around the apartment just to be safe.