Vegan chocolate chip cookie, BATS Improv, Fort Mason, SF.

I was craving a little dessert during the BATS Improv Improvised Tarantino night. They had these vegan cookies at the concession stand.. I'm typically a bit hesitant to try vegan baked goods because they have been hit and miss for me in the past. I was skeptical about these, but the lady at the stand said they were great so I decided to try one. They are AMAZING! Seriously, this was one taaaaasty chocolate chip cookie.

I definitely want to try more from the Alternative Baking Company!

Moleskine Recipe Journal.

My soon to be sister-in-law, Jessica, who is also a big foodie, got me this wonderful Moleskine Recipe Journal! It's so fabulous and I'm big on pen & paper, so this will be a great place to keep my favorite recipes!

You can click on the photos to enlarge. Moleskine is one of my favorites--the folks there have some pretty clever designs. :)

The cute cover imprint.

Calories, carbs, etc! Wow!

It even comes with these cute stickers!

I love this! Thanks so much, Jess! :)

Mini chocolate & butterscotch chip cookies.

I didn't take photos of the batter, but I used a 1 teaspoon measuring spoon to make the nice mini cookie size. :) I'm REALLY happy with how these turned out. :)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups butter, melted
• 1 cup dark brown sugar (can use light)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used Burbon Vanilla)
• 1/2 bag of chocolate chips (or however many you'd like)
• 1/2 bag butterscotch chips (or however many you'd like)

Recipe:

1. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
2. Mix sugar, brown sugar, butter, vanilla, eggs in another bowl.
3. Pour wet mix into the dry mix and with with a large spoon or hands.
4. Add in chocolate and butterscotch chips.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. (8 minutes for mini cookies, or just keep and eye on them.)

Food & Wine Best of the Best 2009.

I came home my from trip and found this waiting for me! Yaaay.

Food & Wine Best of the Best 2009 includes recipes from:

1. A16: Food + Wine, Nate Appleman and Shelley Lindgren with Kate Leahy
2. Italian Grill, Mario Batali with Judith Sutton
3. Cuisine a Latina, Michelle Bernstein and Andrew Friedman
4. Baking For All Occasions, Flo Braker
5. Heirloom Cooking With The Brass Sisters, Marilynn Brass and Sheila Brass
6. Urban Italian, Andrew Carmellini and Gwen Hyman
7. Giada's Kitchen, Giada De Laurentiis
8. Bobby Flay's Grill It!, Bobby Flat with Stephanie Banyas
9. Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, Martha Hall Foose
10. Mediterranean Fresh, Joyce Goldstein
11. The Book Of New Israeli Food, Janna Gur
12. 660 Curries, Raghavan Iyer
13. Olives and Oranges, Sara Jenkins and Mindy Fox
14. Baked, Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito
15. Big Night In, Domenica Marchetti
16. The Art and Soul of Baking, Sur La Table with Cindy Mushet
17. Secrets of The Red Lantern, Pauline Nguyen with Luke Nguyen and Mark Jensen
18. Sweet!, Mani Niall
19. The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever, Beatrice Ojakangas
20. The Complete Robuchon, Joel Robuchon
21. Arthur Schwartz's Jewish Home Cooking, Arthur Schwartz
22. Frank Stitt's Bottega Favorita, Frank Stitt with Katherine Cobbs
23. Osteria, Rick Tramonto with Mary Goodbody
24. Home Cooking With Charlie Trotter, Charlie Trotter
25. Chanterelle, David Waltuck and Andrew Friedman

It looks like a great collection of recipes. A few REALLY stood out so I'll try those soon, but I went through and found myself writing down just about every page number! :)

Food & Wine Annual Cookbook, 2009.

Just another gift from my wonderful mom.. :)

It looks like a great book. The chapters are as follows: starters; salads; soups; pastas; poultry; pork & veal; beef, lamb & game; fish; shellfish; vegetables; potatoes, grains & beans; breads, pizzas & sandwiches; breakfast & brunch; pies & fruit desserts; cakes, cookies & more; sauces & condiments; drinks; wine pairings.

Everything in there looks and sounds soooo goood! Excited to try some of it out..

Elizabeth Falkner of Citizen Cake at Whole Foods, SF.

I'm so glad I went to this. It was really low-key event, which was a nice surprise. And Elizabeth Falkner was just so cool! She's really fun and incredibly passionate about baking.

Chocolate and pineapple upside down cupcakes, ready to decorate.

Filling the cupcakes!

Icing. She did this so quickly and just made it messy. They didn't look the best at first, but then with the rest of the toppings, they looked soo great.

This is the Citizen Cake rocky road cupcake. It's a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting, homemade marshmallow pieces and walnuts, then dipped in chocolate. Super intense.

There's hazlenut, pineapple upside down with passion fruit frosting and rocky road.

With a purchase of six cupcakes you got a free book, signed. That and the demo--a good deal, if you ask me!