Who can resist a cupcake?

Especially one as good as those from Kara's Cupcakes?

This sign showed up on the corner of Chestnut and Scott St. in the Marina announcing the opening of a new place to tempt me every time I run an errand down the block. The inside of this bakery storefront is as pink as their takeout boxes but neat and simple leaving the cupcakes to be the focal point. They make all the cupcakes daily using local ingredients all highlighted on a map in the store. Regular cupcakes come is ten flavors from Buttery Buttermilk Vanilla to Raspberry Dazzle to Kara's Karrot and cost $3.00 each. On my first visit I had the Buttery Buttermilk Vanilla cupcake with a creamy Madagascar bourbon vanilla buttercream & ate it before Matt could pick out his & pay for them, it was that good. I am not a huge cake fan but these are moist and not too sweet. Also I'm one of those odd people who prefer less icing but the icing here was so creamy and delicious and didn't overpower the cake.

The also have 4 flavors of filled cupcakes, Passion Fruit, Meyer Lemony Lemon, Banana Caramel and Fleur Del Sel for $3.25. Last night Matt brought home the Fleur Del Sel (I think I've mentioned the current obsession with chocolate and sea salt).

These are chocolate cake with a creamy caramel filling topped with chocolate ganache and sprinkled with fleur del sel, fabulous! I think my only criticism is they could have had a little more caramel in them.

Kara's has already become very popular in the neighborhood & I often see people walking around with their little pink boxes. If you want to try a particular flavor I would suggest getting their early in the day especially on the weekend. The first Saturday we stopped by it was about 4 in the afternoon & choices were limited (the girl before me got the last Raspberry Dazzle much to my dismay). Next time we'll stop in early enough to try the Passion Fruit.

'wichcraft

Matt and I headed downtown this weekend for some shopping & the Chinese New Year Parade which also meant lunch at 'wichcraft.

We first heard about 'wichcraft on Top Chef when the contestants had to create a sandwich for the menu. The tie-in was obvious since Tom Colicchio, the head judge on Top Chef, started 'wichcraft. Since opening in the new Westfield Center downtown this has been our lunch choice when shopping and a great way to avoid the craziness that is the Westfield food court. I think Matt's favorite food is the sandwich so this place is his dream restaurant with its interesting combinations, these are not your corner deli sandwiches. The restaurant has a nice clean modern look brighten up with two walls of windows but doesn't look like a cafeteria.

The sandwiches we've tried so far have been great. We've both especially liked their grilled cheese sandwiches; Matt, the cheddar with smoked ham, pear and mustard on cranberry pecan bread and me, the gruyére and caramelized onions on rye. On another visit Matt had the roasted pork with red cabbage, jalapeños and mustard on a ciabatta which he said was great. This visit I had the chicken salad with walnuts, roasted tomatoes, pickled onions and frisée on multi-grain bread. It was one of the best chicken salads I've had in a long time, the thing that made it so special was the tang of the pickled onions. Matt had the goat cheese sandwich with avocado, celery, watercress and walnut pesto on multi-grain. He felt this sandwich was a little bland & left him wishing he'd ordered the grilled cheddar instead. He also got the potato soup with parsley oil which he raved about. The sandwiches are big so unless you are really hungry get just a whole sandwich or get the half sandwich and a cup of soup. Both also come with a bag of chips (mine expired on my birthday by the way, strange)

Now I have to say the main reason I was excited to go to 'wichcraft was for the oatmeal cookie cream'wich, basically two thin oatmeal cookies with a cinnamon cream in the middle...oh heaven. Since I first had one I've been wanting to go back for more but when we got there there wasn't one in the case! I asked just in case they just weren't out only to be told that they didn't have them anymore and that they'd been replaced with a graham cookie version instead. Ok, ok I gave the graham version a chance (as well as the peanut butter & chocolate versions)

It was good I liked the cream cheese tanginess of the filling but it was not a cookie I would crave, it was just missing that something special the oatmeal cookie had. The peanut butter cream'wich was just way too peanut buttery and only for the biggest fan of the legume. The cookie itself is nice & light & slightly flaky but too much for our tastes with the peanut butter filling. The chocolate cookie is truly for the chocolate fan, a very intense flavor, this is Matt's new favorite if he can't get the oatmeal. Tom, Tom, please bring back my oatmeal cookies!

Sandwiches run from $5.50 to $9.00 & include the chips, soup is $4.00 for a cup & cream'wiches are $1.00

Banana Pancakes

Matt & I have a deal, if one of us cooks the other does the dishes. Friday after work he cooked but I just didn't feel like doing dishes so I offered to cook whatever he wanted for breakfast Saturday morning. His request...banana pancakes (he had originally told me he wanted banana bread over the weekend but said he decided pancakes would be quicker.) Luckily we had these beauties around from this week's smoothies just ripe for mashing. They even could have been a little softer.


Banana Pancakes



2 ripe bananas
1 1/2 C Bisquick
1 egg
1/2 C milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
nutmeg
1/4 tsp vanilla

With a fork mash bananas leaving some lumps. Add in Bisquick and egg stir until just blended. Add in milk, cinnamon, vanilla & a pinch a nutmeg. Stir until blended there will be lumps from the banana.

Makes 12 pancakes.

A healthy bite

We are always on the look out for meals we like that are a little lighter & a little healthier. Loving to eat as much as we do can add up! Matt was browsing through channels the other day & stopped on Healthy Appetite with Ellie Kreiger on the Food Network. This is not a show he usually likes but the recipe for Penne with Roasted Tomatoes, Garlic and White Beans caught his attention because of our current love of white beans. He cooked it for me last night.
The tomatoes & garlic roast for 45 minutes

then the garlic gets squeezed out of its paper & mashed

The hot cooked pasta gets drained over the beans which heats the beans for the final dish.

Everything gets mixed together with a little parmesean on top & a drizzle of olive oil. Yum! Ok, healthy was good.

The recipe also called for fresh basil which would have given a lovely fresh flavor but Safeway only had bulk packages of basil this week which would have gone to wasate for us.

A dessert of leftovers

We had some puff pastry shells leftover from when I made chicken pot pie not too long ago so I decided to make a dessert out of them with whatever was in the house.

2 puff pastry shells
handful of frozen blueberries (from morning smoothies)
handful of frozen blackberries (from morning smoothies)
juice of 1 lemon (leftover from baking red snapper)
a little sugar
whipping cream (also leftover from chicken pot pie)

I heated the berries, sugar & lemon juice together until it thickened slightly. The whipping cream I whipped up. Then the berries get poured over the shells & topped with whipped cream. I think it looks like it took a lot more thought than it did.

We let the berries cook down a little too much so we added a little orange juice to thin it out. It added a nice flavor but overshadowed the lemon so next tiem I'd be more careful cooking the sauce.