This is my SECOND salty caramel mocha from Starbucks this season.
While everyone around me is going crazy over Pumpkin Spice Lattes, I’m holding out until it’s cooler. I mean, I wore shorts to school yesterday! (Granted, we’ve had some fall-like weather; check out the sky behind me. In moments, it was yucky and raining. Boo.)
Anyway, I just can’t get into fall/pumpkins/candles/decorating until it’s really crisp and full-on jeans weather.
And so I wait.
This weekend’s agenda: PAINTING!
Except that I did, and it was great.
So I made Shape Magazine’s Guacamole de Frutas the other day. It was a recipe I found in the winter (I think their December issue?) but figured I’d wait until summer when some of the ingredients were at the their best (can you even buy peaches in the winter??). Problem is, the recipe also calls for pomegranate seeds. Talk about a recipe of conflicting seasons!
Well, as it turned out, last week was quite the debacle of recipe choice vs. grocery store availability. Long story short: I was a good wife and had Andrew pick out some recipes he wanted me to make and I should have seen the first red flag go up when he grabbed my Eastern European cookbook. Don’t get me wrong, we love all those Mediterranean/Lebanese/Turkish dishes, but I have to really pick and choose what I make so as not to have to go on a wild goose chase for some unheard-of ingredient. Well, I didn’t do that…and ended up with a grocery list a mile long featuring things like “sumac” and “lavender flowers.” (I found neither, but did have acceptable substitutes. And thankfully we have a Penzey’s Spices on Elmwood, so next time I’m in I’m just going to stock up–expiration dates be damned!)
Anyway, two of his dishes called for pomegranate seeds, as well as this one, and since I’d just seen pomegranates at Wegmans the other day (to my surprise, no less), I figured they must be getting them despite it being summer. Well, wouldn’t you know that the day I go looking for the infamous red orbs, Wegmans doesn’t have a single one. Tops to the rescue!
ANYWAY…
I fruited the guac…with apples, peaches, mango, pomegranate seeds, a little onion and lime juice, and a tiny bit of jalapeno. YUM. I ate it as a lunch side with tortilla chips, and then had another portion on some cinnamon-sugared pita for breakfast. Both were very yummy options. If you like guacamole, be sure to give this one a try.
The other day I happened to be in East Aurora over lunch and decided to continue my quest to try various coffees and form an opinion about how they taste. This isn’t the point of this post, but I’ll go ahead and tally up my findings so far:
-Tim Horton’s: terrible! It’s bitter and acrid and burned-tasting.
-McDonald’s: not bad, certainly acceptable in terms of drive-thru coffee. Not a huge fan of their McCafe drinks–they’re way too sweet, but when I ask for less syrup, they seem ‘off’ to me.
-Starbucks: LOVE their new blonde roasts (Willow and Veranda). Whether I get plain coffee or a “fru-fru” drink, I’m always happy. Plus, they’re happy to accommodate my “may I have half the pumps of flavor, please?” requests.
-Orchard Perk: it’s the cute little coffeehouse here in the village that is oh-so-convenient on my way to and from school. However, whatever roast I had the other day wasn’t all that great. I’d be up for going back to try another roast, if they have one.
-Taste: their coffee is OK (their fru-fru drinks always cool down too much!), but it’s the atmosphere you go for, anyway. They have multiple roasts, and now that I’m becoming somewhat of a coffee ‘connoisseur’ (ha! hardly…), I feel like I can make a good decision when presented with options.
-Firefly: Perhaps the best brewed and most extensive selection. They source from two different small-batch roasting companies and have multiple roasts (with descriptions!) available at all times. Each cup is hand-poured or french press, so while it might take five minutes, it’s worth it. I keep getting Stumptown’s Columbia roast.
-Panera: LOVE their hazelnut roast–who doesn’t?? AND they have all-you-can-drink iced coffee in the summer! Fantastic, except for that time I was studying and lost track of the time, and the number of cups I’d had…
-@ home: we have a Keurig and a tried and true favorite is Gloria Jean’s Butter Toffee (we’re high class, I tell you….)
-Dunkin’ Donuts: LOVE their coffee! It just has a really smooth taste and I’m always happy no matter what I get. I typically just order a regular cup and add plain cream and sugar since I like the flavor so much. The problem, of course, is that there is one in East Aurora, so I can go ALL. THE. TIME. The only thing that prevents me from going more is that it’s located in such a spot that makes it a little hard to get in and out quickly, nor do they have a drive-thru, so it’s not the quickest of stops. But then again, I’m not exactly known for lightning-fast decision-making, either. (My husband is falling off his chair laughing right now, I just know it.)
Shall we say I might be a bit over-caffeinated? I blame school.
thehealthypineapple 