So how does one really know when it's fall? Well, this year I learned fall is marked by the re-release of Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. Or at least that's what their campaign led me to believe. Seriously folks... what is up with the pumpkin craze? I like a gourd just as much as the next lady but we all do realize most of these pumpkin drinks and foods don't include actual pumpkin. Just the spice... Right?

All that said, I did fall for it again this year. I spied some pumpkin spice body butter at Trader Joe's and thought, "I want to smell like pie." Bought it. I also got myself some of their frozen pumpkin waffles. Sadly, I have not been as happy with that purchase as the former. I keep trying to get my nephew to eat them. But, as I am his Aunt he's been spoiled and doesn't enjoy frozen waffles as much as other 10 year old kid. He just looks at me, "Ummm... where's the griddle? I want more of those cinnamon roll pancakes you made 2 week ago."

Sometimes I think I need to lay off the carbs and refined sugar. But then a recipe like this falls into my lap! Suddenly, all that attempt to be more disciplined disappears. I know it's been a while but I have been busy! Post BaByQ I took a mini-vacay with some friends up North for the 4th. Before I knew it fall was calling and school began again. I took the ghosts of summers past and used them in this recipe for a s'more bundt cake.

Yes, that's right. All the flavors of a campfire baked into a cake with a hole in the middle!!!!

I found this recipe over on thecakeblog.com and it liked the idea of adding crushed graham crackers into the cake batter. Also, can you say oats?! Who doesn't like a little oatmeal in the fall? I did a little more tweeking and just used regular old powdered sugar glaze instead of topping it with a thinned out marshmallow fluff.

And it was good! I think I ended up eating maybe 2 pieces out of the whole cake. My mom and gramps wouldn't even wait for it to cool enough to glaze. They wanted to taste test while it was still warm. That food close-up is from a day later when I went to get a piece and realized it was almost gone!

Another year... another birthday for my gramps. This year he turned the big 90!!! Almost a century old. My PaPa started from the bottom and is now livin' on top. It amazes me to think he's seen so many changes, from indoor plumbing to Skype! It is because of him I have the Lotto app on my phone! He might not like being on the computer (what he said about using Skype) but he does love it's convenience. Initially he was adamant about not having a party. But, when you turn 90 decades young people gonna turn up and do it big. In the end it was just family but, my family is BIG...the final headcount was 57 people!

As usual I was in charge of baking the cake. I started looking up recipes and decided to do a tea flavored cake. My gramps loves a cuppa tea- specifically Black tea with citrus. So I did some research (thanks Google) and found out the BEST way to infuse tea flavor is to steep it into the butter. But, if you use a recipe with milk you can also steep the tea in milk. BUT, the catch is to make it concentrated. So double up on those tea bags buddy! As the plan for this non-party changed and more people from both sides of the Mason Dixie line RSVPed we figure one double decker 9 inch cake couldn't cut it. So I put that cake batter into muffin tins and made cupcakes instead. Then I called Sam's an order a full sheet cake.

I also made my two favorite non-alcoholic summertime drinks: vanilla lemonade and ginger limeade. A simple syrup is this crafty mofos best friend! How do I make it? Simple a 1:1 ratio of sugar and water. Add flavor (ginger slices, lemon/lime rind, vanilla bean, etc.) and set it on the stove at medium low heat. Let that sucker simmer for about 20 minutes. Boom! Flavored sugar water LITERALLY!!!

But we cannot live on baked goods and citrus drinks alone. This meant it was time for tapas/appetizers/horsedevous. As you may no I never ever do anything nice and easy... I like to do it nice and complex! So I took some in season ingredients and some old flavor favorites of my PaPa and but a twist on them.

• corn and zucchini fritters with jalepeno infused cream dip
• black eyed pea dip
• baked ravioli squares with marinara dipping sauce

My apologies folks... I didn't do this spread justice with photojournalism. I was too busy having a not-party party to take a bunch of foodie pictures. There was so much family and a lot of gossiping catching up to do!

It's a baby.... It's a baby shower... It's a dual birthday party... It's a BBQ?! The dynamic duo residing in Chicagoland is preggers. This lively couple also just happens to have near identical birthdates (52 hour difference, which when you consider all the dames and blokes they could have vowed to love forever is pretty short). As everyone knows I LOVE a themed party. So when my friend asked me to help plan her combo dual birthdays and baby shower I did my best Ryan Lochte impression and responded, "Hells Jeah!"

LOGISTICS

 We used Paperless Post for the invites which turned out great! You get to customize your invitations and they have tons of cute letterpress looking virtual designs to choose from. Also it's environmentally friendly because no paper (duh!) and you can send out reminders and updates automatically.

My friends wanted to have a BBQ type party... outdoors, good food, grilled meats and cold drinks. So I went to my local party store (the best dollar store ever) and got some basic flair. A themed party HAS to have flair right? Flair can't always be bad... We took a bit of a retro stance. I bought paper products decorated with old school BBQ grills and red gingham table cloths. I also had some left over paper lanterns from a previous party along with some mini-bubble bottles and flag bunting. In the invite I used the pun "Let's get shaded," so I bought some of those tacky Kanye West vented sunglasses and a cookie cutter that looks like shades.

Although part of the reason for having this shin dig was to welcome the baby into their community of friends and family the parents-to-be weren't about lots of baby shower games. I was allowed to do one baby-centric activity. We set up a design your own onesie/bib station. I also had the grandpa-to-be hang some rope between the trees. The decorated onesies would be hung on the "laundry line" and become part of the decor.

FOOD

• cheese baked olives
• deviled eggs
• chicken salad crustini
• gazpacho shooters

Sides

• sweet potato potato salad (with aioli, cumin and green onions)
• vinegar based cole slaw

Main Course

• BBQ pulled pork
• grilled meats (burgers, brats, hot dogs, etc.)

Dessert

• summer fruit crumble
• coconut carrot cake
• sugar cookies

Drinks

• relatively well stocked bar
• orange dreamcicle fizzy water
• vanilla lemonade
• micro brews

 Favor

• BaByQ spice rub (brown sugar, cumin, garlic, paprika, salt, pepper & chili powder)

SUNDAY FUNDAY

The Sunday after the BaByQ got off to a slow start for me... The parents-to-be and their family invited me to brunch but I couldn't drag myself out of bed in time. They went to brunch and I met them out in the south loop. I stopped at the Logan Square farmer's market on the way there for an iced coffee and a chocolate croissant. Voila- walking breakfast! Afterwards we went to the Field Museum to check out the Lascaux Cave Paintings exhibit. It was great family fun. I am always amazed by what museum curators can do. I also saw some other things while there...





Of course since I was in Chicago I also got around to doing one of my favorite things... exploring the city through new food and drink locations. Another friend couple of mine are actually from Chicago so they are totally cool city kids and know all the insider places. They have a friend who is the brewer for a relatively new brewery in Lincoln Park called Atlas.



Loved it! This greedy girl ate and drank her fill. Some of the things I liked? Nerdy movie references used for naming beers!




Fun interpretations of hot food items presented as classic American fare.




I scored big time with a great food deal. A recommendation on Yelp was to try the mussels. You can get a half order of mussels for $8. The kicker? A half order is 1/2 a pound of mussels AND it comes with fries! I got the sausage mussels which were like a play on gumbo: spicy tomato sauce, rice, andouille sausage and mussels.



All and all the evening was a success and a great way to top off a fun weekend.  It was full of two of my favorite things:

Whoa!!!! I just realized it's been over a month since my last post. I know you all missed me. I missed you all too. I have been busy! It's been a nomadic living for me. Over the past year I've spent a lot of my time traveling between three points in the Mitten. I also head to DC on a bi-monthly basis. And, when I'm lucky I head to Chicago to see some friends there. Usually when I head to DC I'm there for serious stuff and don't get to hangout much. However! Last month I got to go walk around Chocolate City for a whole week! I also got to attend the wedding of a good friend of mine. Let's discuss!

GBD

That is the most delicious acronym ever... it stands for golden brown and delicious! What do they sell? Fried chicken and donuts! SO tasty! While in DC for a week I went to this place at LEAST three times. Literally. First I went to get some chicken. But, they have strange food hours so it was between breakfast and dinner. So I had to settle for just free smells. The next day I went back for lunch and it was well worth it.







That biscuit... not made with buttermilk. Instead it's got creme fraiche. I was skeptical... and GBD won me over. The creme fraiche gives it a tang similar to buttermilk and it was super moist. I didn't even need butter! I went back the next day to try their chicken breakfast sandwich. It's a sweet potato biscuit with spiced honey and a chicken tender. This was also good. The only issue I had was the chicken to biscuit ratio favored the chicken. I ended up with a huge bit of chicken and no biscuit for my last bite. All in all, not a bad problem to have. I also nabbed a couple of donuts for the ride to Maryland before my mini-roadtrip to the wedding. Being an equal opportunist I got one cake and one raised. The cake donut was an homage to tres leches with coconut flakes on top. The yeast was a take on coffee cake with a cinnamon and sugar crumble. A+++ all around for GBD. Additional raves about this place... they have beer! A happy hour! They have beer pairing menus not only for chicken but also their donut selections!

Wedding Bells

My friend got married ya'll! I had been looking forward to this wedding all year! I was way too excited to see my friend's DIY crafty chic wedding vision come true. When the save the date came in the mail I raved over the chevrons. I discussed the importance of color choice in setting the tone with my friend over Google chat. So when she asked another friend and I to pick up the flower arrangements the day of? The answer was YES. I wanted to be part of this wedding so bad. Also the drive over gave me a chance to have a Thelma and Louis moment with the coolest Iowan ever. The hardest part of the drive was getting out of DC but we had music to listen to. My friend made a great playlist and we were those obnoxious girls singing loudly in the car next to you in the construction backup. It.Was.Awesome. I also played a couple new albums for my  friend so all in all it was a great music swap.






Since we had to get there early with the flowers we had plenty of time to rest up before the wedding. The flowers were done by Whole Foods (awesome and relatively cheap according to the bride) so we stocked up on snacks. After checking into the hotel it was time to kick up our feet and read a book.




The actual wedding was... a super fun party. I think this is what the bride had in mind. She confessed she was more worried about the DJs set list than what the flowers looked like. This is why we're friends. We have similar priorities. There were many other types of special touches throughout the venue to make one coo.

Touristy Chic

Since I lived in DC for a while I don't always go to the big must-see spots. However, I did take the time go visit some old familiar places and at least one new site this past trip. The Sunday after the wedding I met up with another set of friends for brunch. While out I had an amazing Bloody Mary at Tortilla Coast. I originally asked for a Bloody Maria (tequila instead of vodka) but the bartender surprised me. He makes his own chipotle infused vodka so he snuck that into my drink. I am now convinced more spirits should be smokey. Maybe this is why I like mezcal so much?




I road the metro around town as usual and ended up on the green line. I took a picture of my old metro stop.



Lastly, I met up with some friends from undergrad who have been living in DC since I lived there. They are true city people with a city kid. He is the cutest. He had red hair and chubby cheeks. We met up at the MLK monument because I had never been there.




Overall I had a great trip. I love going places that are familiar enough that you can count on some old favorites as you explore and try to find new things. Mostly, I hate getting lost and having to ask for directions. All the sunshine and good times got me excited to summer. I also got a few new songs to add to my summer playlist. We'll talk about that next time;)