Foodbuzz | Pancakes and Postcards

Sidelined No More and Sweet Potato Fries

March 27, 2012 by Courtney 8 Comments

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I do exist.

Ever since I started blogging, even in Africa with hardly any internet, I did my best to be consistent and post as frequently as I could. Not necessarily because I was making a single cent off of my blog or because anyone was waiting with bated breath for my next scintillating update, but it was more for me—blogging is something I do to really have a record of my life, shared with the world. And for the last month, radio silence. Why? I’ll cover that in another post.

There is far too much to catch up on today but I’ll share a few highlights in my worlds of food and running:

I’m running again! Okay, not completely, but I can run about four miles at a time. It’s been a LONG time off so I’m getting really winded very quickly, but still can at least get out there and run with my buddies.

I had to miss the Oakland Half Marathon, but I handed my bib over to a friend and I still got to go and cheer them on. : )

I traveled to LA for my best friend’s bridal shower (!!!). That will be a post in itself.

I’ve gone on some SF adventures. More on that to come.

I’ve also been eating well—very well. I recently received a free sample of an Alexia Foods product via the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program and totally neglected posting about it on time with what’s been going on, but I figured better late than never. I love French fries, especially sweet potato fries, so I was excited to try their sweet potato julienne fries.

The premise is very simple: slap them on a baking tray and throw them in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

It actually couldn’t be easier, and coming from someone who has made her own fries in hot oil before, it definitely feels much better for you! I threw mine in for over 25 minutes, probably 28, for them to be extra crispy. With oven fries, if they’re soggy or limp you might notice the difference, but crispy fries are delicious either way.

These are lightly seasoned with chipotle/salt; sodium freaks like me can add some more salt or seasoning, but they have a lot of flavor as is. And of course, mustard makes everything more delicious. I am excited to have a whole bag of these in the freezer to enjoy. I definitely recommend them if you want a healthier, unique fry fix.

And how adorable is this apron?

Lots of things going on this week for me, but I’m really excited to get back to a normal blogging schedule (at least every other day minimum). P&P has always been something I cared about very much but that occasionally has to take a backseat to professional and personal life—though I’m definitely going to work on spending more time on the activities I love that make me happy.

And signing up for things that scare the sh*t out of me.

More to come this week. Have a great day!

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Filed Under: Pancakes (Food) Tagged With: foodbuzz, fries, running, sweet potato, tastemaker

In the spirit a little early… (and a sweet giveaway)

November 20, 2011 by Courtney 23 Comments

Each holiday has its appropriate time period. I get that. Halloween gets October, Thanksgiving gets November, and starting on Black Friday, it’s Christmas everywhere.

But I’m one of the many committing the overly-excited holiday faux pas. Starting with this.

Hey, when you live alone in San Francisco in an apartment the size of a closet and are single, you do what you need to do to make home feel homier. So, I am owning the fact that I have the tree up already. Suck it, haters! : )

And spent the whole day listening to the Spotify Ultimate Holiday Playlist. Note to anyone considering this: I highly recommend listening to Dominick the Donkey by Lou Monte. It will ruin holiday music for you forever.

After my glorious and VERY much needed Lazy Sunday, I had a big choice to make:

Special shout-out to Angela for suggesting that baking = cross training. YES!

I decided on the perfect compromise: I’d go on a four-mile run that conveniently ended at the supermarket, where I could buy ingredients for cookies. Win-win!

I took my new shoes (Mizuno Wave Inspire 8s) out for their first spin today. My Brooks Adrenalines breathed their last breath during my 16-mile run yesterday so I knew I needed something fast. I was praying that these worked out. And it was just four miles, but they did just fine!

8:35/8:05/7:46/7:38 miles! Yes, they were downhill, but still, I rarely see anything in the 7s so I’m pleased.

Then I ended up at the grocery store for cookie ingredients! I recently received coupons from Duncan Hines via the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program, so I figured I’d come up with my own holiday-ish recipe using their products as a base. I checked online and tried to adapt the Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies recipe slightly to fit my tastes.

The ingredients:

1 box Red Velvet cake mix
2 eggs
6T butter, melted and cooled
1t almond extract
1C white chocolate chips
1C powdered sugar
1t cornstarch

Note to everyone: baking at my apartment is terrifying. My gas stove tends to smoke for the first ten minutes and the internal temperature is usually about 100 degrees hotter than what the dial is set to. Thank God I have an internal thermometer. But that’s why I’ve started fires…

Mixed the butter/eggs/almond extract together and then added to the cake mix box and blended. Once that was more or less smooth, I added a bajillion white chocolate chips.

Then, rolled the dough into balls and rolled them in a dish of the powdered sugar mixed with the cornstarch.

And you don’t actually need to grease the pan, don’t mind me not reading instructions for the first batch…

Put them in the oven for what was supposedly in the neighborhood of 350 for about 12 minutes and viola!

Mine didn’t have as cool of a cracked look—most of the powdered sugar seemed to disappear (sad). But numerous taste tests meant these cookies had my approval, I don’t like dry cookies, and these definitely aren’t—moist and flavorful. Yum.

I also picked up a can of DH cream cheese frosting and whipped it up with a bunch of powdered sugar to give it a more solid consistency and frosted those puppies up.

Deeeeelicious and was the perfect “milk and cookies in front of the tree” thing.

GIVEAWAY!

I want to sweeten up your life so I’m going to send two readers three coupons each for DH products of your choosing—that’s a cake mix, a can of frosting AND an extra brownie mix or something once the cake is gone Smile

To enter, just leave a comment on this post and tell me what your favorite holiday dessert is. I’ll pick two winners on Sunday.

Have a great week everyone!

Courtney

What’s your favorite holiday dessert?

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Filed Under: Pancakes (Food) Tagged With: cookies, foodbuzz, giveaway, holidays, recipe, unhealthy goodness

Off The Wagon/Foodbuzz Finale

November 20, 2011 by Courtney 1 Comment

I’ve fallen off the (blogging) wagon.

When life gets crazy sometimes the blog slips for a few days… and then after it slips for a few days I start getting really overwhelmed because I have that many more days of content I feel the need to post about and then the time just flies by and all of a sudden it’s been a week and a half with no post. Well, I’m getting back on the wagon today and this week will be blog city Smile

A lot has happened in the last week and a half, from the Foodbuzz Festival to some fun times to a race decision, my one-year-out-of-Peace Corps anniversary, and some crazy runs and good eats. I want to finish posting about Foodbuzz so that I can have this one in the books and then get back to everything else. Back on the wagon, as it was.

(Already posted Friday night and Saturday—here’s Sunday, two weeks after the fact!)

The seriously amazing Foodbuzz Festival wound down Sunday with a farewell brunch at Perry’s on the Embarcadero. I hadn’t been to this particular establishment before, and they shut down the restaurant for us.

The restaurant patio was open and while it was a brisk and chilly SF day, the sun was shining and it was beautiful outside.

The menu featured a variety of cold and hot breakfast foods as well as some adult beverages. Who doesn’t love boozy brunch?? (Um, me. After two nights of an open bar. Girl needs her detox.)

I did end up asking for a Café Godiva (coffee with chocolate liquor), and while it looked really good I couldn’t stomach it. I’ve never really dug the “booze in hot drinks” thing. Godiva sponsored the brunch and gave us a lot of awesome goodies—expect a giveaway here soon!

I tried a bit of everything. The quiche squares were delicious! The cauliflower was a big hit, though I am probably the one person who prefers not to eat veggies with breakfast. : )

My favorite was, unsurprisingly, the brioche french toast. I could have eaten four pieces! Oh wait…

Finished off the morning with a stroll down the Embarcadero and through the Ferry Building, always a foodie paradise. One of the best things about the Foodbuzz Festival was to see my city through visitors’ eyes and realize how many delights I’m blessed with having right in front of me.

One of the other “best things” about the Foodbuzz Festival was meeting so many other bloggers! It’s quite late, but one of my post-FbzFest projects was to create a new tab in my google reader for my foodbuzz friends. Here are some really excellent blogs to check out!

· Danielle Abroad

· Healthy Diva Eats

· Jo Boston is a Foodie

· Joy the Baker

· Killer Bunnies, Inc

· Mrs Regueiro’s Plate

· N Her Shoes

· No Recipes

· Pennies on a Platter

· Super Duper Fantastic

· The Healthy Hostess

· Trying to Heal

· Veggie Couture

I’m off to continue my Google Reader Organization Project. Thanks everyone who made my foodbuzz experience awesome (two weeks later). time to be back on the blogging wagon!

Courtney

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Filed Under: Pancakes (Food) Tagged With: bloggers, booze, brunch, Embarcadero, ferry building, food, foodbuzz, foodbuzz festival, french toast, Perrys

Foodbuzz Tasting Pavillion and Gala Dinner

November 8, 2011 by Courtney 11 Comments

So I already posted about #fbzfest (aka Foodbuzz Blogger Festival) night one, which was pretty awesome in and of itself. Then Saturday arrived.

I knew today would be a “marathon, not a sprint” as it involved sessions from 9-12, eating at the tasting pavilion from 1-4, and then yet another multi-course meal at 6:30, so I tried to pace myself. Starting with the continental breakfast buffet. (I love muffins.)

The morning sessions included a panel on “taking your blog to the next level” featuring a lot of well-known bloggers, like Jessica, Joy, and others. Following that, I went to two sessions: one on “the DSLR-free zone” by Greg of Sippity Sup, Angi of Rice and Wheat, and Chuck of Foodgawker, which was cool, especially listening to Chuck talk about iPhoneography. It really is an art form! : )

I also attended an Adobe Lightroom session to learn how to edit photos. Marc from No Recipes did an awesome job with this and I was SO motivated to make my pictures beautiful! However, I got home and realized I have EVERY part of the Adobe suite EXCEPT Lightroom. #FAIL I had had visions of perfectly edited photos in this post, but that dream has to wait a little bit.

Then it was time for the Real Deal – The Tasting Pavilion!

My four favorite bites were chocolate ganache with edible icing stickers from Ticings;

Hottie Biscotti—Winter’s Gift (white chocolate with peppermint);

A red velvet mini cupcake from Mission Minis;

And number one, the Morning Bun from Bovine Bakery.

Sweet goodness, this was an afternoon. I know I talked about cleaning up my diet as part of No-Nonsense November, and while I was VERY awesome and healthy with my eating last week, I definitely indulged in some of these treats because hey, it was the foodbuzz fest! Truly a special occasion.

(Melissa, Alyssa, Me, Beth, Cate, Courtney)

Oh and I forgot one other part. I met Tyler Florence and got a signed copy of his cookbook Smile

Though I did miss getting in on the posed picture like Courtney Granola:

I almost didn’t make it back down to Union Square as it was POURING RAIN and ridiculously windy. I was half an hour late to cocktail hour, but that doesn’t mean I missed the open bar.

(Our new awesome friend Allie, and my dates for the weekend)

The dinner was sponsored by Alexia Foods and part of the deal was a blogger competition to create the next flavor of their frozen oven fries. So basically for the appetizers during cocktail hour, we had fries. Lots of them. Four varieties with different spices. The sweet potato ones with thai spices were winners in my book, but hey, they were all pretty good.

The lighting at the beginning of dinner was truly horrible for photos for inexperienced food photogs like me, but by this point I was getting over the camera thing.

I found myself at a fun table with Cate, Courtney, Allie, Jillian, Anna, Kath, and Laura and we got to talking and noshing on appetizers while Tyler Florence rocked his magic on stage with a cooking demo. Unfortunately a lot of us were really hungry so there was a bit of talking and some #tylerflorencedrinkinggame going on at the other tables!

Finally, food was served. This picture came out thanks to the tip I learned this morning: use an iPhone as an external light source! Genius.

And dessert:

Cowgirl Creamery cheesecake, cold bread pudding, chocolate mousse.

What a great day of eating, talking, and getting to know other bloggers. This really was an awesome event to remember. As evidenced by this ridiculously long post.

(above picture courtesy of Bobbi from N Her Shoes—loved these ladies above!)

I ran three miles the next day and burned every single calorie off. Clearly. Smile WORTH IT.

until next post,

Courtney

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Filed Under: Pancakes (Food) Tagged With: bloggers, food, foodbuzz, foodbuzz festival, unhealthy goodness

A Permanent State of Food Coma: Foodbuzz Festival Part One

November 6, 2011 by Courtney 17 Comments

I seriously feel like I never need to eat again.

Okay, that’s a lie. I’m pretty sure my stomach expanded from doing nothing but eat for three days and now I’m scrounging for food at 10PM… but that’s a whole different story.

This weekend was the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival, which I’d been looking forward to for months! I was so excited to get accepted as a Featured Publisher, and much of my excitement was related to being able to spend three days in my own city surrounded by bloggers and food.

Friday came around and involved me running to Union Square from work to pick up Cate’s and my swag bag… which I then toted (all twenty pounds, it seemed) back to work to hang out and get some more stuff done before the reception and welcome dinner in SOMA that night.

Our swag bag contained goodies from Godiva, Sabra, Duncan Hines, OXO, California Walnuts, and a few others. Pretty awesome. I am now swimming in pounds of coffee that I don’t drink. I smell a giveaway!

I got to kick the evening off right with Cate and Courtney Granola (unofficial name for the weekend, as we had Courtney Granola and Courtney Pancakes – it happens).

Sabra sponsored the appetizer hour which means we had a bajillion types of hummus pastries (above) to choose from, as well as a variety of vegetables with hummus to dip them in, roasted chickpeas, and more. I like hummus, but I am not always in the mood for it. I have tried a dozen times to bring baby carrots and hummus for a snack to work but I NEVER end up eating it… I need to work on this. We munched on a few while enjoying more than one glass of wine before the gala dinner.

Got to spend some time with the lovely Annelies which is always a treat!

Then it was time for the welcome dinner! There were two buffets, one of appetizers and another of comfort food created by actual bloggers at the event. It was a bit overwhelming – so many people to meet, so much food to eat, so many glasses of wine and cocktails at the free open bar…

The beet ravioli was a highlight of the night… for everyone else but me. I appreciated that it was quite good, but I’ll be honest. I HATE beets. I know that 1) every food blogger loooooves beets and 2) I eat almost everything but something about beets makes me want to gag a little bit. But the fact that I liked the ravioli is saying something about how good it must have been.

Chefs were preparing some small plates that I was way too impatient to get in on…

I took a bite of Jessica’s brown sugar butter chicken (!). As I approach my one year mark of being a vegetarian I am experimenting with adding a little meat back into my diet to see how I feel… but that’s another post for another time.

I felt a little unsatisfied after the first course so as we listened to the blog awards, I was kind of, maybe, okay REALLY looking forward to the dessert buffet…

(Joy the Baker, an award winner herself, announcing Ashley from the Edible Perspective as a winner—both amazing bloggers! And Courtney Granola was super psyched to meet Joy!)

Then the awards were given and it was time for the dessert, thank you.

Pumpkin tarts…

chocolate ganache bites with almond…

Mini cheesecakes, coffee cream with flowerless chocolate cake, gingersnap macaroon.,..

Sabra also passed around some sort of chocolate caramel coconut dessert hummus pastry thing, but in a room full of food bloggers, if you’re going to pass around something unconventional you’ve gotta make it look just a BIT more appealing to eat.

I’ll leave you with that. Hope you all had a great weekend!

courtney

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Filed Under: Pancakes (Food) Tagged With: bloggers, dessert, food, foodbuzz, foodbuzz festival, hummus, sabra, San Francisco, unhealthy goodness

Happy News!

November 4, 2011 by Courtney 7 Comments

This will be a mini post. But I have to share some happy news. Smile

I found out today that I was selected to be an SF Marathon Ambassador for 2012! I applied last week, but never thought I’d be chosen. Now I’m going to get to work with 31 others across the country—including Alyssa, Aron, and Alisyn—to support this amazing race that I ran last year, semi-injured and fully-undertrained, but managed to have an absolutely awesome time. Getting to be involved on a deeper level this year is really exciting for me. A big congrats to all the other Ambassadors out there and I can’t wait to get this thing rolling!

Speaking of things I can’t wait to get rolling… the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival this weekend. Judging by the 32-page program full of menus for the multiple several-course meals, and the appetizer hours, and the desert buffets, and the tasting pavilion, and the brunch, I will probably be wearing yoga pants for a week (month?)after this.

Totally worth it.

And my new digital camera arrived yesterday! Time to put it to good use and walk the 2 blocks from my office to the festival. Something tells me I have one of the shortest trips to get to this thing. Not complaining. The entire weekend is costing me $30. Har har.

Have an awesome weekend everyone!

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SF Marathon: Game-Time Reflections

Filed Under: Musings Tagged With: ambassador, foodbuzz, foodbuzz festival, SF marathon, SFM

Sidelined No More and Sweet Potato Fries

In the spirit a little early… (and a sweet giveaway)

Off The Wagon/Foodbuzz Finale

Foodbuzz Tasting Pavillion and Gala Dinner

A Permanent State of Food Coma: Foodbuzz Festival Part One

Happy News!

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