Just a quick post to promote a logo/graphic design I did for my cousin’s upstart cupcake catering business- Cupcake Love. Loving the kawaii style, it was a fun little project to work on.

I decided to whip up these oreo truffles for my cousin’s bridal shower tonight, seeing as how the recipe on Bakerella made it look so simple and delicious, and well, it was!  The recipe consists of about two ingredients and aside from smashing up the oreos, it took no time at all! Easy and delicious, the plate was cleared before the end of the evening and it seemed a number of people swiped some extra to take home.

I decided to do two different dips for contrast, a vanilla dip and a 50% cocoa dip, both using Wilton’s Candy Melts. I melted the wafers in a ramekin and rolled it around with a spoon to get an even coating (mostly), then dropped it on wax paper. I then used a cake decorating tube (for the first time!) to do the chocolate swirls on top of the vanilla dipped ones. The cocoa dipped ones, I just sprinkled a little coconut on top of (I ran out of vanilla wafers). All in all, the results were delicious and I’m hoping to make them again. Maybe as nicely wrapped gifts?

Those who know me, know that I’m often in need of a quick sugar fix. Since non-homebaked cookies rarely do it for me, and I try not to keep ice cream in the house, I am wondering if I should try this short and simple recipe for Sucre a la Creme from Allrecipes.com. Looks easy enough to make, and I generally can’t eat that much of this sort of thing in one sitting, being practically all sugar as it is. And I do enjoy a good creamy piece of fudge…

Well, I’m back. I must apologize to all 2 of my followers for the long delay between posts, but I was prepping for and going on a trip to Las Vegas with a few friends for the past long weekend. How was it, you ask? Awesome. It was a short trip, but for my first time there, I feel like we covered some decent ground (though I shall have to return).

In the interest of not boring anyone (since it seems that everyone except us had been to Vegas before) I’ll just post a couple of observations about the things that we did.

1. Don’t gamble with Amy. She’s embarrassingly lucky when it comes to Blackjack and it will make you feel like a bad gamer when she gets her 5th blackjack in ten hands.
2. The casino floors will always play some mixture of 80s and early 90s music, nothing newer.
3. Vegas is smokey. People can smoke everywhere and I’d forgotten how much I appreciate all our anti-smoking rules here in Canada.
4. You can drink ANYWHERE. This… I have no problem with. In fact, I think my favourite part about Vegas is walking around on the street with open liquor. Preferably with one of those giant margarita-bong things they seem to sell everywhere.
5. Julia is a badass.
6. Vegas clubs are just as lame as clubs anywhere. Actually, correction: Vegas clubs are nicer than the ones here, but they are filled with just as many lame people. They weren’t really even much nicer dressed.
7. Club tour organizers don’t really know what they’re doing either.
8. Don’t go to Pure Nightclub. It would be nice except that they pack it so full of people that you can’t even move, even at two in the morning.
9. The Bellagio Buffet is mostly awesome, particularly the desserts and the prime rib. All the reviews crowed about the KING. CRAB. LEGS. but honestly those weren’t that great.
10. Cirque Du Soleil’s “O” is worth every penny. Get the best seats you can. High divers! Platforms! Dancing! Trapeze! Swings!
11. Don’t let Julia and Amy lead a group. Heh.
12. Paris Hotel & Casino has a few yucky places to eat.
13. The Stratosphere Hotel (where we stayed) wasn’t a bad hotel but was in a seedy end of the strip. Lesson learned when a man in a car slowed down to ask us if we were “working”. Sheesh, we were wearing flip-flops and shorts.
14. Vegas is hot all the time. It is awesome. I hate wearing a jacket at night in the summer, so this is the place for me.
15. The Top of the World restaurant on top of the Stratosphere tower is excellent, and needless to say, has amazing views. Worth the money.

You can see some more photos from the trip at my Flickr account.

This past Sunday, myself, Boyfriend Nik and some friends attended the Winnipeg Wine Festival. This is the second year in a row Nik and I have gone and I must say, we’re fans. It’s packed inside the Convention Centre, but at the same time the crowd is quite enjoyable to have around, since after about an hour of tasting, everyone has a pretty good buzz going on…

We took a cab this year, in order to be able to taste as many wines as possible, heh. This year’s feature country was Chile, and man, they have some delicious wines. We were offered a card to check off with the different Chilean wines to enter in a prize drawing later, which of course we forgot to do. We also entered another draw for a winery tour in Kelowna and forgot to hang around for that draw. Tasting about 40 different wines, unsurprisingly, makes you forget certain things.

The night went as well as can be expected, the piles of bread didn’t seem to get eaten quite as quickly as last year. Also, my prediction that a tray full of glasses would be knocked over before the end of the night, came to fruition about five minutes after the words left my mouth. 

My favourite wine of the night was Cheviot Bridge Wine Co’s (Australia) moscato, very light, sweet and delicious, but unfortunately everyone else liked it too and it was sold out before we could purchase some. Some of the other winners however were: PKNT Chardonnay (Chile), Sileni Estates Semillion (New Zealand), YALI Reserve Shiraz (Chile), and I enjoyed the fruitiness of a light organic raspberry wine from the Manitoban Rigby Orchards. Also of mention (though Nik and I have purchased it before), is the Chocalan family of wines from Chile.

After enjoying the sampling and purchasing some bottles of our favourites, we took off to Dessert Sinsations for a late dinner and cheesecake. Highly recommending the Curried Chicken Fingers there. Nik and I eat there all the time but we hadn’t tried those before and they were amazing. The meal and dessert were a brilliant cap-off to a great evening out.

Before we went to the Weakerthans show on Saturday night, Boyfriend Nik and I headed to one of our favourite restaurants, Dessert Sinsations (yes, they have great food too, not just desserts!). Now I had been told about Ciao Winnipeg’s Chocolate Fest, but had kind of ignored it because I’m more of a candy person rather than chocolate. However when we got there, we saw the special chocolate concoctions and had to sample some.

The dishes we decided to sample were the Chorizotto Mole: a spicy chorizo sausage with chocolate chilli risotto and for dessert we shared a slice of Chocolate Banana Cream Pie. Nik also had the Callebaut White Chocolate Pistachio Latte.

The Chorizotto Mole, while looking something like Libbey’s Pork and Beans in a bowl (with chorizo instead of hot dogs), tasted amazing. The spicy chorizo complimented the rich chocolate chilli risotto perfectly. The chocolate flavour was really quite light, not overwhelming at all. Highly recommended to split as an appetizer, and it could really serve as a moderately light meal on its own.

Now, while I still maintain the dessert would be even better if it had a layer of peanut butter (because if chocolate+peanut butter=good, peanut butter+banana=good, therefore chocolate+peanut butter+banana=amazing, it’s math, people!), the Chocolate Banana Cream Pie was to die for. The dark cookie crust was a welcome addition and it was a bit salty, which was a nice contrast to the light, sweet, whipped topping. Very, very good… even without the peanut butter.

I did not try the latte myself, but Nik said it was a bit sweet and didn’t finish it. Your taste may vary from his though, and I know I like sweet things probably more than he does, so it still sounded pretty good to me.

Ciao’s ChocolateFest is on for the month of April, so you still have a chance to go and sample some of the treats at many of the participating restaurants and bistros. If you’ve tried any of the specials at any other restaurants, let me know in the comments!

Bubble tea (or Boba Tea, if you wish) is definitely my latest obsession. Any day that I don’t have it, I seem to spend all day thinking about ways I can acquire it and if it’s in my “calorie budget” for the day. It’s like some kind of Sam-crack. I realize the variety that I like is definitely non-traditional (more like a smoothie than tea, really), but hey, that’s how I like it! I’m North American, I take other people’s cultural traditions and bastardize them, dammit!

The bubbles in bubble tea are black tapioca pearls that get glomped up your thick straw mixed with the icy, smoothie-like drink. If you were wondering about “glomped”, well no, it’s not a word, but it’s my onomatopoeic way of describing the sound and sensation of sucking up the chewy, gummy tapioca balls. Apparently the drink originated in Taiwan before spreading across Asia and into North America.

Flavour-wise, it comes in all kinds! Some are made from fresh fruit, some are powdered mixes (the milk teas often are, as opposed to the fresh fruit ones). My personal favourite flavours so far are taro, young coconut, raspberry and pineapple, but I still have so many more to try.

One other thing I love about bubble tea is jamming the thick straw into the crazy sealed plastic top. Most joints use a special sealing machine to place a stretched plastic “lid” on top of the drink that you have to puncture with a straw. I love these because some of them have the oddest graphics and sayings on them.

There’s a ton of new places that have opened up in Winnipeg recently, but Boyfriend Nik and I are currently digging Asia City (especially upon discovering that there was one only a 5 minute drive from our house – score!). There’s also Tea House 101 on Portage, Bubble Bistro in the South Osborne area and a little place at the Forks whose name I can’t recall. So if you haven’t tried it before and like me have always been fascinated by the black pearls at the bottom, give it a try!

So today I made one of my occasional jaunts into Chinatown at lunch. Always an adventure, even in Winnipeg’s smaller locale.  I ventured into one of the groceries in the hopes of finding my favourite type of Pretz (pizza). While I’m not sure if I found the exact same kind- the box graphics have changed somewhat- I did find a whole slew of tasty-looking flavours to try, along with a couple new (to me) Pocky flavours.

So let’s review them, why don’t we?

I’ve enlisted the help of Boyfriend Nik in the tasting process, to identify all the unique flavours (most involve cheese though). Our !LIVE! commentary is below, we started with Pretz (basically a flavoured pretzel/wheat stick kind of thang):

BAKERY FLAT STYLE

SAM: I think these are supposed to be deli-style? There’s a sub sandwich of some sort on the box. Also of note,  this kind contains “bacon extract”.
NIK: I think that’s just grease.
SAM: Touché. Thoughts on the taste?
NIK: Hint of lunch meats… sodium… kind of smoky.
SAM: I like it actually, must be the bacon extract.

BEER PRETZ

SAM: I can’t figure out from the package if these are beer-flavoured or if they are meant to go with beer. +1 point for the flames on the box though, super cool! Number one!
NIK: Smells peppery. Definitely meant to go with beer… but not beer flavoured.
SAM: Not as good as the bacon ones. Not bad though. 

CHICKEN PRETZ

SAM: This one gets extra awesome points from me, just for the sweaty cartoon chicken on the box.
NIK: Ugh, this is the worst one. And I love chicken.
SAM: Tastes like… dipping a butter coated pretzel into a pack of chicken stock from a container of Minute Noodles. Gross. I can’t believe that cool chicken let us down. Jerk.

PIZZA PRETZ

SAM: This appears to be part of the “Meets Wine” line of Pretz. Which, is fancy Pretz, I guess?
NIK: This… has the aftertaste of raw dough. Not good, not good.
SAM: And with a vague tomato sauce aftertaste, oh no. No. Giant no….. Not the Pizza Pretz I remembered. Just… no. *spit*

MOZZARELLA PRETZ

SAM: Number two in the “Meets Wine” category… man, these have just been declining as we go on. I thought the “fancy” Pretz would be the best. I’m paying for my assumptions, that’s for certain.
NIK: This is okay, mostly because the taste isn’t too strong.
SAM: Yeah, it’s actually just more buttery tasting than anything else. Which is good because the Pizza Pretz is still kind of raping my tastebuds as we speak.

Okay, well, I think the clear winner is the Bakery/Deli Pretz. Look for the Pretz with the sandwich on the box!  At least we can now cleanse our palettes with some Pocky.

For those not in the know, Pocky is basically just a simple breadstick coated in a creamy flavoured coating. Chocolate and Strawberry are the most common flavours. Here we go!

ORANGE/MANDARIN POCKY

SAM: Nice packaging. Smells very, very good and citrusy. Especially since pretty much everything I bought from that grocery kind of smells like prawn crackers.
NIK: Yeah, cool vellum packs on the inside. This tastes excellent, I would buy this.
SAM: For sure, it’s like a Creamsicle. Delightful. Way better than the usual strawberry flavoured ones. I thought this one was going to be bad when I bought. Apparently my Pocky-flavour estimating abilities are not quite up to par.

WHITE CHOCOLATE “DESSERT” POCKY

SAM: I love the super elegant cover of this one. Ooh la la, what a decadent dessert! Put these ones out for your guests!
NIK: Quite nice. Uh-oh, bad aftertaste though.
SAM: Yeah, it’s a bit coffee-ish in flavour, maybe that’s what you’re tasting? I’m not getting that. Just looked at the ingredients, and I think it’s the “chestnut powder” that I’m tasting. Still pretty decent though.

Winner: Mandarin Pocky, though there are many, many other delicious flavours to try. One of my favourites is Green Tea, though it unfortunately was not available at the grocery I went to today.

Thus ends my adventures in Asian Grocery food tasting for today. Perhaps I should make this a regular thing. Next time I’ll pick up some less mainstream stuff. Thanks to Boyfriend Nik for his help!

We had a small birthday soirée last night. Dinner first at the delicious Be One on Portage Ave, then scooting back to my place for a little snacking, chatting, and Rock Band-ing (Is that a verb yet? It should be.). So beforehand I decided that some sort of dessert would be in order and I stumbled upon this recipe at Bakerella for the most adorable cupcake pops.

I can’t say mine (above) turned out as professional looking as hers, but they seemed to be a big hit! Al declared them to be “the height of evil”, which I think we can say is a good thing. They really were deliciously light and sweet and they certainly were all eaten in short order.

I substituted the chocolate or red velvet cake in the recipe for vanilla cherry chip cake and whipped cream cheese frosting. I also didn’t use an entire can of frosting (I know, I know, I was going to make the frosting and cake from scratch, but I had some time constraints) because I thought it would make them a bit too sugary. I’m glad I made the changes I did, because flavour-wise I think they turned out perfect! Love that crispy candy shell wrapped around a moist, rich inside.

Have to give a shout-out to all my friends who came out last night and for the wonderful gifts. How nice to have such great friends, cheers to you guys!