I'm Back! - My Absence in Photos, Part 1

I've been M.I.A. for over a week - I'm sorry! But, I have an excuse...

I was moving! I only moved 8 miles, but I needed all the help I could get, so my parents also visited. One of the first things I did was take my mom to Jungle Jim's: an incredible, unique, gigantic international food market north of Cincinnati.

Even on the outside, it's an eclectic-looking place! It's... uh... jungle-themed, obviously! Words can't really describe the ginormousness (hell, even "ginormousness" isn't a word and it's the only way I can explain this place!) of Jungle Jim's, so I'll show you [mostly] in photos I took during our visit:

Booze.

A hybrid banana-pineapple (seriously), and a giant turkey leg.

Some kind of weird fruit, and ghost chiles - the hottest pepper in the world!

Delicious sushi we bought and ate for lunch, and an 8-pack of duck heads (for under $2.50... what a deal!).

Um... instant spring rolls (??!!) and a can of "white gourd drink".

The biggest marshmallows EVER!!!

Our cart of goodies. Nom.

This is just a small, miniscule glimpse into Jungle Jim's; every time I'm there, I discover at least 10 new things! If you're in the Cincinnati, Dayton, eastern Indiana, or northern Kentucky area, definitely take a weekend afternoon trip there!

During my parents' trip here, a lot of food-related things happened: dinner, shopping, cooking, etc. I'll blog all about it... but right now I need to get back to unpacking!

Warning: Under Construction!

I am messing around with a new blog template during my lunch break today. Things are going to look weird for a while, but I anticipate some good results! Be patient with me during this change.

Thank you!

Stick With What You Know

When I first began food blogging, I did so in a healthy way: finding healthy alternatives for ingredients in restaurant cuisine that could be easily made at home. Thus came Fast Food Facelift.

Now that I've switched to this blog, I've forgotten my roots. I am a health nut at times... more times than not, so it seems! I need to get back to that! I love baking decadent desserts and such, but I do need to re-focus and do what I honestly love even more than caramel, cakes, and cookies: making tasty, healthy dishes that even the most inexperienced cook with the tiniest kitchen can prepare!

Last night I posted a blog about switching from Blogger to Wordpress. I created my new blog, transferring my posts here to the new one. I really do like the features of Wordpress, but I feel like it has less customization, doesn't allow advertising, and prevents me from using some of the widgets I enjoy and find useful on Blogger. So, again, I'm going to stick to what I know... by staying here on Blogger.

That being said, I'm trying to figure out what will be the first dish I'm making with my new Kitchenaid mixer! I really want to try something with meringue, but I think I should start with something a little simpler that I already have the ingredients for and something I'm more familiar with: bread.

I'm terrible at kneading. I get tired, bored, and... well... lazy!!! Now that I'll have my mixer (and a dough hook!) I'll be able to let it do a lot of the work for me! I'd made bread a while ago and although it was extremely tasty, it made WAY too much for just one person! Two loaves! WTF am I supposed to do with two loaves of bread! I offered some to coworkers, but they are more enthused about sweets rather than whole wheat artisan bread. *grumble* I used the bread as long as I could before it went bad, but I'm not doing that again unless I find a smaller recipe, have friends who want to buy my bread, or...

...make pizza dough!

I found this recipe on Cheeky Kitchen's blog and the whole idea of it! Lots of nutrition, lots of fiber, and it makes a lot BUT it can be frozen for later use!

It requires waiting for dough to rise (another thing to test my laziness and impatience, ugh) but I hope and think in the end that the results will be worth it! I'm busy Friday and Saturday, so I'll probably make them on Sunday... or if I'm feeling up for it, I'll make it tonight (if my mixer arrives today as planned)... we'll see!

Hello, Foodie Blogroll!

If you check out my sidebar, you'll see a fantastic new feature: The Foodie Blogroll!

I'm pretty happy to be a part of it. Hopefully I'll learn lots of new things from other foodies and food bloggers, and even better -- get more followers!

Blog-Loving!

 

Lazaro Cooks!  has nominated me for the "I Love Your Blog" award! Congrats, Lazaro, for having such a yummy and awesome blog and for sharing the award with me!

Rules:
*Post the award on your blog*
*Link the person who has given you the award*
*Pass the award to 15 other blogs you’ve discovered*
*Remember to contact the bloggers you’ve nominated*

In no particular order...

1. Bowl of Mush
2. Almost Bourdain
3. Beantown Baker
4. Becky Bakes
5. The Svelte Gourmet
6. The Girl Who Ate Everything
7. The Cooking Photographer
8. Sweet Tooth
9. Spache The Spatula
10. Radishes And Rhubarb
11. Lipstick Blogger
12. Gonna Want Seconds
13. Dozen Flours
14. Lovin' From the Oven
15. Meet Me In The Kitchen

I love your blogs! Keep it up, and spread the award!

Gimme gimme gimme!

Must. Get.
Puff pastry dough! Sure, sounds so basic and "duh"-worthy, but while browsing through recipes linked to on Tastespotting, so many of the yummy and easy ones call for puff pastry dough! It seems to be so multi-faceted (in that it can be used in both sweet and savory recipes) that I obviously must buy some in the near future!

Just. Purchased.

A Norpro 18-Piece Pastry Decorating Kit! I feel like this will be very useful since I've recently become a fan of baking. Making some filled stuff and frosting things a lot nicer than I have been should be fun! I have a bit of an Amazon gift card to spend so it went towards this lovely item!

In somewhat related news, I'm going to start a new page on my blog that will show what I currently use in my kitchen and things that I want to buy (whether feasible or not, haha). I'm also going to be working on updating the "Favorite Foodie Finds" page... I just need to think of some other things to throw on there, or just get out more and discover things worthy of blabbing about!

Tastespotting

Tastespotting was the main inspiration for me to have a regular food blog. I discovered it last Wednesday or Thursday, and on Friday I started this blog. Obviously a huge motivator for me!

Well, I submitted my first photo yesterday of my Sweet Potato Brunch but it was rejected. :( Something about composition and lack of sharpness on the photo. Was I bummed? Yes. Did I give up? Hell no!

I submitted another version of the photo and it was approved!!!!!

I am beyond elated right now! It's not as gorgeous or elegant as 90% of the foods that appear on there, nor was the photo taken with a $1200 DSLR camera (rather my $150 point-and-shoot)... but it's on there! I feel like part of an elite little foodie group (and I'm okay with blowing this out of proportion because I'm happy, okay?), haha.

Anyway, this is a great kick-off for the week. Thanks for the comments thus far! If you ever want to e-mail me, you can also feel free to do so!

Birthday delay & bento boxes!

I apologize profusely for not posting sooner!

This weekend was Halloween and my birthday, so needless to say I did not do a facelift!

I plan on making my next dish this weekend (11/6-11/8) so keep checking back. :)

In other news, I've been on a hunt to find a better way to pack my lunches to work. In order to keep tabs on my portion control, I have a huge drawer full of a variety of plastic containers in many sizes and shapes. They're great and I enjoy them (along with my awesome thermal lunch bag) but I've always been intrigued by bento lunch boxes.

In essence, bento boxes are like lunch boxes in Japan. They come in a variety of sizes based on gender and age in order to allow for proper portioning of your meals.

One of the most endearing things about bento is how artistic it can get! I joined the flickr bento group to get some inspiration and have read through and am now following BentoLunch.blogspot.com.

I went on Amazon.com and found some really cute and handy bento sets! At one point I had 5 or 6 of them in my shopping cart, but I limited myself to getting the following two:


Zojirushi Mini Stainless Thermal Lunchbox
I like this one because it keeps the taller cylinder's contents hot and separated from the rest of the meal. Also, it comes with that cute bag and chopsticks.


Japanese Style Bento Box Lunchbox w/Chopsticks
This one is more traditional bento and also comes with chopsticks.

To stay with the classic bento style, I also got some veggie cutters and rice molds:





I'm thinking about heading to Michael's crafts to get some other supplies, but these were all really good deals and I'm very excited in anticipation for their arrivals!

So, what do YOU use to pack your lunches? Do you bring your lunch to work, or do you buy?