Pineapple & Habanero vodka

I hardly have time to breathe these days or so it feels. Working full time and then going to school is not fun. I don't know how people do it. That too, with kids and family! I have a new appreciation for all the single moms that raise their kids while going to school and work. It's just amazing how they are able to do that. So, as it is right now, I have hardly been cooking. Sometimes I want to, but then don't want to worry about the clean up. That's just how it's been of late. Anyways, look what I found at this Mexican place in Greensboro! The bartender said it is reserved for straight shots only. I would love to try this at home soon!

Pinterest = ultimate time pass

I'm going to talk about one of my favorite phrases used in India - time pass. Time pass in India means any activity you do to kill time. This could be watching movies, chatting on the phone, eating, etc. In the same vein, along comes glorious Pinterest to fill a visual and humorous void which had been lacking in recent internet browsing.

Humor:

Bananas Foster pancakes

Happy New Year everyone! Seems like the older you get, the faster time flies. This past year has been a lot of fun, way too much drama, busy and busier, and not to mention, a lot of restaurant eating.

I really don't want to make any resolutions, but rather goals for the year. The first one is just to cook at home more. This past year it was difficult with both work and grad school, but I will try to plan ahead better.

So that brings me to my favorite meal of the day, breakfast! I made these Bananas Foster pancakes using the whole grain baking mix from Trader Joe's and adding a ripe banana to the batter. Then I melted about two good knobs of butter and added brown sugar and let it caramelize with some cream and after that just slice up a banana and let it come together for a couple of minutes. So easy and fast and delicious! Easy dish to impress with!

Linda's black bean burger & sweet potato tots

I just went to Linda's on Franklin St. for a pickup order. It was my first time there, so I wasn't sure how my burger would end up. I heard really great things about their amazing cheese fries though. So I brought it back to my desk and was so excited to see the pretzel roll bun! It is delicious y'all!!! This is by far, the best black bean burger I've ever had. It's not hard or glumpy like a lot of other places where the black beans are not fully cooked through. Oh, and those sweet potato tots! OMG. So so good!! They hit the spot with the jalapeno ranch sauce. I also heard they have live jazz on Thursday nights, so I might have to go check that out.

Magic Hat

Having lived in Burlington in my childhood is probably the reason for my unnatural affinity towards one of my favorite microbreweries. Enter, Magic Hat of Burlington, VT. Besides the delicious offerings, they are a humorous bunch over there. They always has the most awesome bottle top sayings.

I love Magic Hat #9 of course, but I really dig Circus Boy & Winter Howl. The summer variety, Wacko is really excellent too! It's a little hard to find anything other than #9 in these parts unfortunately!

I would LOVE to try their Hocus Pocus, Fat Angel & Night of the Living Dead. Has anyone tried those? If any of you work there, I would be willing to do a review!!

Gujarati ghugra

My aunt made these when I was over celebrating Diwaali. They are filled with sweetened semolina, raisins and cardamom.

10 minute gnocchi

I know I've posted a gnocchi dish before, but it's such a really really really quick dinner. I love gnocchi. Its so fast and delicious. It took a total of 10 minutes. This time I used a sweet potato gnocchi.

I set a pot of water to boil, meanwhile, chopped half an onion, some garlic, 2 tomatoes & a handful of basil.

Cook the gnocchi according to instructions. Mine took 3 minutes.

Add olive oil to a pan, add a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes and sauté the onion for 2 minutes, add the garlic and sauté for a minute. Add tomatoes, salt, black pepper, a pinch of sugar & let simmer until the gnocchi is done. Mix gnocchi & basil & handful of Parmesan (optional). Done!

Notes- next time I am going to use a simple brown butter & sage sauce. I think that would be superb.