Is it the most beautiful thing I’ve ever baked?  Ha, no.  Was it delicious nonetheless?  Let’s just say that Betty doesn’t disappoint.

Do you ever find that you have so much to say that you don’t even know where to begin?  I usually create lists, but I think I did that too recently to use it again here so you’ll just have to deal with my incoherent train of thoughts.

NIWeek just ended and it was definitely an interesting year for me.  The highlight of this year – I didn’t cry once.  As trivial as that might sound, it’s an amazing accomplishment for me.  Normally, so much is going on during the week that my frustration level mounts too quickly for me to be able to express myself like an adult and I end up crying out of frustration.  I think my new responsibilities at this year’s conference had a lot to do with having a much lower stress level, but that’s not to say that I didn’t psych myself out in the weeks leading up to NIWeek.  As my cube neighbors would tell you, they probably heard the “I am having a CRISIS!” rant a few times in the past couple of weeks.  Either way, I know a hell of a lot of people that worked A LOT harder than I had to this past week and I hope they enjoyed the glorious weekend and are relaxing knowing that they put on a great event for everyone.  Having been on that side of the fence, I know how hard they worked at putting on such a great event so the rest of us could enjoy it.  =)

The week did offer a unique opportunity to check out some places I’d been wanting to try for awhile – namely, G’Raj Mahal.  On Monday, a small troupe of NI-ers and friends trekked over to the place to eat some spicy food in the scorching heat.  Only to find that the damned shack was closed… now, please read on their “website” where the text clearly states they are open from 5 pm to 3 am.  This was the second time I’d been scorned by G’Raj Mahal’s erratic schedule.  Needless to say, you are now dead to me.  Curry in a Hurry for life.

So I think everyone knows of my obnoxious love for Tex-Mex, but not everyone knows of my unhealthy obsession with pizza.  Specifically, homemade and deep dish pizzas.  Maybe the seven-year-old in me still isn’t over the fascination of sprinkling cheese on a pizza crust covered with sauce, but I could care less… making homemade pizza is SO much fun.  It should come as no surprise to you then, that my next Krupa-Cooks-Concoction will be Pizza Cups.  Behold:

Easy to eat, easy to clean up, and you can make portion control your bitch.  What more could you ask for?  Maybe rub some roasted garlic on the crust and then you’re pretty much set for life.  You’re welcome.

The ice cream slinger that helped me out was particularly interesting.  He offered me free ice cream if I took a shot of the leftover ice cream on the mixing slab.  After I politely declined, he proceeded to tell me how Amy’s is probably the cleanest establishment he’s ever worked at – apparently, they make them scrub the ceiling at night to get all the overthrown ice cream off it!  Anyway, I happened upon this little gem while waiting on my not-free ice cream:

Of course, I had to ask if I could sneak behind the counter to take a picture of it to put on my blog.  He obliged and quickly responded with a “Blog out with your log out!”  Of course, I thought that was absolutely hilarious and then told him that it’d be the title of my next blog post.

Speaking of blogs though, I want to share my insane love and obsession of Google Reader with everyone.  Do you use Google Reader?  Are you as in lurve as I am?  Has it changed your life?  Is it your 2pm go-to?  If you answered yes to any of those questions, well, then that is why we are friends.

Remember that post in January where I said this blog was going to start covering more than food?  Well that’s where Google Reader comes in!  Most of you know that I am marketeer, so it should come as no surprise to you that I stalk a lot of advertising, PR, and marketing blogs.  (Most of them about Apple, but hey – a girl’s gotta start somewhere.)  I found this on my “What’s Hot” feed today -

The Panasonic Note is probably the sexiest set of headphones I have ever seen.  To me, this just makes sense… kind of makes me wonder how no one else thought of it before.  The packaging definitely reminds me of Apple products – sleek, simple, sexy.  You open the packaging and your purchase is right here waiting for you – it’s not buried under four layers of plastic, annoying bubble wrap, and useless inserts that tell you not to stick your finger in a socket.  It makes me feel like the product I am purchasing is as smart as I am.  Too far?  Maybe, but on some level, it does make me feel like an elitist consumer.

That being said, Panasonic has an epic fail on their hands.  I definitely wanted to learn more about the product after seeing its packaging.  Seeing the new case, I assumed that there must be something special about this set of headphones – are they wireless?  Noise-cancelling? Do they have a microphone so you can use them with smartphones?  What is it?  Surely, there must be something special about this set of headphones.  No, nothing.  Or, if there is anything, I wouldn’t know…  a simple Google search gave me zero results on features or how to purchase a set of Panasonic Note headphones.  Like I said – epic fail.

So, what do you follow on Google Reader?  I’m always on the hunt for great new blogs – comment away on what you recommend!

I had a few folks over last night for some fondue and it was an absolute blast.  As you can see, Allison and Katie came dressed for the occasion.  Katie helped cook and Allison… well, Allison wore used her apron as more of a defense mechanism against food stains than a uniform if you know what I mean.

We stuffed ourselves with a cheese, chicken, and chocolate course complete with bread, apples, pears, zucchini a la Jamber, broccoli, celery, pineapples, strawberries, pound cake, and marshmallows.  You can see my friends appreciate food as much as I do.  :)

After everything was cleaned up last night, I found myself with a LOT of leftover bread.  I stuffed the extra bread cubes into a piece of giant tupperware and stuck it in the fridge.  I toyed around with a couple of ideas today – I thought about making panzanella, maybe even doing TMB kabobs, and finally settled on homemade croutons.

Ingredients
‘Old’ bread – I had about half a large loaf
1 stick of butter (channel your inner Paula Deen)
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon italian seasoning
1 tablespoon grated parmesan

1. Preheat the oven at 350* and cut the bread into one inch cubes or smaller – think of how big they will be on your fork and cut down accordingly!

2. Microwave the butter – remember to cut it up into a few pieces beforehand to help it melt.  Mix in the garlic powder and italian seasoning.  It doesn’t really look appetizing, but trust me, it’s GOOD.

3. Place your bread cubes in a large tupperware container and pour the butter mixture over it.  Place the lid on the tupperware and shake, shake, shake!  I thought the tupperware was easier to use than a bowl since it was already dirty – also, I have a hard time mixing in bowls without spilling.  My life is SO hard.

4. Spread out the buttered bread onto a baking sheet – you can line it with a silpat or jelly roll if you have one to make cleaning up easier.

5. Bake for 15-20 minutes and check on it super-frequently out so that it doesn’t burn. I also turned on the broiler for the last minute or two to toast the top nicely.

6. Remove from oven and sprinkle the parmesan over the top. Let the croutons cool for about 15 minutes before placing them in a container. The Internets tell me that homemade croutons should keep for a couple of weeks!

Mmm… I’ve eaten a few by themselves and they are rather delicious! You could also use the butter mixture to create a quick garlic bread in a pinch or little pieces of garlic toast.

I might have to go buy some greens in the next few days to enjoy my homemade croutons! And since I have two giant ziploc bags full of them, I will probably end up making the TBM kabobs as well… more pictures to come soon!

Dear Avocado Fries,

Where have you been all my life?

Love,
Krupa

So much has changed in the past two months that I don’t even know where to begin… usually, when I feel that way, I make lists.  I see no reason not to make a list here:

1. I got a bad-ass new job.  Hellooooo Multimedia!
2. I started working out with a trainer (although I have been bad for the last few weeks).
3. I played on a kickball team and I WAS REALLY GOOD AT IT. I am petitioning to join the team full-time.
4. I lost three whole pounds.
5. I found this post and felt like someone read my thoughts and put them into a coherent blog post with stick figures.
6. I have started studying for the GRE.
7. I have contemplated becoming vegan for a few weeks. But you should know I contemplate a lot of things.
8. I have decided I could never give up cheese and thus #7 probably was not worth posting.
9. I have been slowly amassing everything J Crew sells.
10. I have purged my closet twice in the past two months.
11. I hiked seven miles through the Greenbelt and it was kind of awesome.
12. I spent a weekend in Lake Buchanan (kind-of) and decided it was beautiful and I need to go back.
13. In case there was ever any doubt, my Archers are the most amazing people I have ever known. Talk about having my back – and my stomach. Thanks for all the cookies Also, Allison is back in Austin and I am loving every second of her being here and I might be secretly plotting how to keep her here indefinitely.  (I think this list just changed from a list of things that’s changed in the last two months of my life to a list of things I now want to share in list-form.)
14. Susheela came to visit and it was awesome. She also loved TacoDeli and it kind of reaffirmed our no-re-affirmation-needed friendship.
15. I love the summertime.

I’m in Dallas this weekend, helping my parents pick out a new house and celebrating my sister’s high school graduation. Looks like everyone in the Patel family is going through some pretty big changes! I’m looking forward to the next few weeks – there will be some boozing during the 4th of July, a fun weekend in Houston seeing my all-time favorite musical, and I’m sure tons more happy hours with good friends.

To kick off happy weekends, a clip of my favorite song from my favorite musical:

I knew there was a reason I loved you.

Love,
Krupa

PS: TacoDeli > Torchy’s.  Really, there is no comparison.

So yesterday was spent quite productively – depending on your definition of productive, of course.  I slept in until 11 am, a feat that has not yet occurred in 2010, and then spent some quality time catching up with my DVR.  After getting up to speed on The Real Housewives of NYC, Project Runway, The Big Bang Theory, and even some Bullrun, I decided it was time to start my day.  It was also 3 pm by this point.  BTW, if I were reading this blog entry out loud, I feel like Avenue Q’s “There is Life Outside Your Apartment” would start playing right about now…

Out I went into the real (rainy) world – I started at Hobby Lobby since I can never manage to get to that place when it is actually open and picked up some baskets I needed, some candles, and other goods.  From there, it was on to Target to pick up some essentials and the mandatory non-essentials. I stopped by a few other places and ended up coming home with lots of goodies. I spent a little while putting things away and then settled on the sofa again to watch some of America’s Best Dance Crew and some Father of the Bride that I’d DVR’d earlier. Important stuff, clearly.

Then it was on to a mandatory cleaning spree – just the important things though, I had work to get to. So I vacuumed under the sofa and changed out the shower liner (Can you tell I was avoiding work?) and even folded my socks. I never fold socks. I do not understand the point of folding socks.

So, after ALL of that, I was ready to at least look at my computer… and peruse blogs.  I found something magical though!  No, my budget work had not magically completed itself (if only!), but thekitchn.com (one of my favorite websites) is/was celebrating lunch week and had a bunch of posts related to weekday lunches, drinking at lunch, and salads and sandwiches.  Of course, I had to look through them and I think I found some great recipes.  I am debating running to the grocery store this morning to pick up supplies for some of these or giving in to my TacoDeli craving.  I’ll probably give in to the TacoDeli craving and end up eating one of these for dinner, but I thought I would share my favorites:

• I’ve never heard of a “Mozzacado” sandwich, but I would Facebook-friend whoever thought of this.
• The basil-goat cheese-artichoke sandwich listing here should come as no surprise to you all.
• This cheese sandwich looks a little iffy to me, but I am kind of curious to try it.  It looks like one that walks the fine-it’s-weird-but-it’s-awesome/awful-line.
• And c’mon, cheese plus apples?  Sign. Me. Up.
• No explanation needed.

They also have a giant section on grilled cheese sandwiches – now, if you really know me, you know that I make the world’s best grilled cheese sandwiches (I credit the Ved method for my unbelievable skill).  TheKitchn links to a list of grilled cheese recipes AOL has up on their site (which still exists, I guess?) and there was one on there that looked pretty good to me:

Grilled Spinach and Goat Cheese Croissant

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion (about 1/2 pound), finely chopped
10 ounces spinach, stemmed, rinsed, drained and patted dry (leave a few droplets of water clinging to the leaves)
2 ounces prosciutto, chopped (optional)
3 ounces fresh goat cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
4 croissants, cut in half
2 ounces aged goat cheese, such as Midnight Moon, coarsely grated (or use Gruyere or Emmentaler)

Directions
Melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they are limp but not brown, about 7 minutes. Add the spinach, cover, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until wilted. (If there’s a lot of liquid, increase the heat to high and boil it away. You don’t want a watery filling.) Add the prosciutto (if using), and fresh goat cheese and stir until cheese is melted and the prosciutto is warmed through, about 1 minute. Add salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the mixture to a dish and let it cool slightly. Wipe the skillet with a paper towel, but do not wash it.

To assemble: Distribute the spinach mixture evenly over the 4 bottom halves of the croissants, followed by the grated cheese and pepper to taste. Cover with the 4 croissant tops.

Brush the grill rack with oil and preheat the grill to medium. Put the sandwiches on the grill, flat side down, being careful how you place the croissants, and press lightly with a spatula to compress the filling. Cover, and cook for 3 minutes, or until the undersides are golden brown. Uncover, and turn the sandwiches with a spatula, pressing firmly to flatten them slightly. Cover and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more, or until the undersides are golden brown and the grated cheese has melted completely. Let the sandwiches cool slightly before serving.

That’s also one that I’ll definitely be trying soon.  I also found a great recipe for homemade and healthy calzones.  I realize a calzone is not really a sandwich, but it kind of fits the theme.  Right?  Maybe?  Sorta?  Eh, it’s my blog, I’ll do what I want.

Okay, it’s probably time to start Sunday now so I can avoid doing real work a little bit longer.  :)  Happy weekend, everybody!

Anyway, I’ve got some wine in my system and I’m in need of smiles so I thought I would share some highlights with you from the past few weeks.

Here’s a text message my old roommate Katie Wang sent me.  It sums up our relationship pretty well, I think.  :)

To explain – Katie gave me a lot of crap for wearing free oversized t-shirts and ripped up jeans to class.  Everyday.  It was the life.  Katie, there’s a special shout out to you in the tags for this post.

A few days ago, my friend and fellow Archer Robin sent all the Archers an email titled “You know you need to stop studying when…” and the email said something about how all she does anymore is read about detainment.

Haha, I think this is pretty freaking awesome.  1000 points to Robin.  But let’s be real here, Robin always gets the most points.  I will now bring up my favorite conversation with Robin ever – We were in one of our Monday or Wednesday evening classes in DC and our professor was quizzing us about some random quote from something.  You can tell I’m big on details.  The professor asked who made said quote and silence… Robin then says “I believe it was Hamilton.”  Professor: “Yes, how did you know that?”  Robin: “I love Hamilton.  I only carry $10 bills.”  So random, and yet utterly awesome.  How could you not give that 1000 points?

One thing I forgot to mention in my NYC/Philly posts was this ridiculous slice of pizza Nikhil got me from the best pizzeria he and Sush have found in Philly.  He’s a good friend – as soon as he knew I was close to the apartment, he ventured out to get me the world’s largest piece of pizza.

That’s right.  It’s a slice of pizza the size of a pizza box.  And it was amazing.  Regrettably, I couldn’t finish the whole thing but I think Nikhil was secretly overjoyed that I couldn’t because he got to help me out with the rest of it.  The same thing might have happened with my falafel, but I can neither confirm nor deny.

In the spirit of random pictures, did I mention it snowed like crazy in Dallas almost a month ago when I was visiting my parents and sister?  Check out the pictures – Even after having lived in DC for a few short months, I cannot remember ever seeing this much snow in my adult life.  Almost seven whole inches of snow – how crazy is that?!

It was kind of cool – especially when it all melted by 1 pm.  And I was back in Austin, wearing flip-flops by 7 pm that night.  Glorious Texas weather, how I love you so.

That’s about all I’ve got for tonight.  I’m looking forward to this week being over and I’m considering a weekend trip to somewhere.  I’m also hoping to go on vacation again really soon – maybe through the end of June if you know what I mean.

Goodnight world!

Okay, really though – pies are great.  One of my all time favorite pie recipes comes from my friend Susheela and it’s called “Cherry Delight” – except she makes it without any cherries at all.  It’s probably the most fool-proof recipe I’ve ever encountered and you can make it not-bad-for-you without sacrificing taste.  Let’s be real here, it’s pretty much magical.

So my lovely friends Nathan and Justin stopped by for dinner on Sunday night to catch up and I made ‘Strawberry Delight’ for them since I knew how much Nathan loved it the last time Susheela made it for all of us.  It probably took me all of 15 minutes to make this pie.  Really.  Ready?

Ingredients

1 graham cracker crust, unless you are a chump and like to make it on your own
2 8 oz packages of cream cheese, room temperature/softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 8 oz tub of Cool Whip
1 carton strawberries

1. Dump the two packages of cream cheese into a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth.  Make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature – this can either make the recipe super easy or super not fun.

I think mixing the cream cheese on its own makes it easier to mix in the sugar afterwards.  Also, I just really enjoy using my new hand mixer so I will find any excuse to prolong the mixing process.

2. Add in the 1/2 cup of sugar and mix again!

3. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla and entire carton of Cool Whip and start mixing.  I mixed for a few minutes until everything was nicely incorporated – and then taste the mixture.  It’s magical, right?

4. Spoon the mixture into the graham cracker crust and chill while you chop up the strawberries.

5. Place chopped strawberries on top of your pie and stick it in the fridge until you are ready to devour it!

I used fat-free cream cheese and thought it still worked really well with this recipe.  You could also use Cool Whip Light and some sort of sugar alternative if you want.  I think it takes well to adaptions, so let me know what you try and what you think of it!

The only warning I would give with this recipe is to be ready to eat a lot of pie or share with a lot of friends.  I don’t think this keeps well after a day or two, so you will want to eat it quick.

That’s all I’ve got for today, send me pictures if you make Susheela’s Pie!