Rolo Caramelitas

Rolo Caramelitas

Okay, so the last time I was here, I was counting down until my mini vacation at Disneyland where I got to stay at the fantabulous Grand Californian Hotel & Spa.It was so much fun that I have decided that this will become an annual event. It burned a MAJOR hole in my wallet but it was worth it. The hotel is super luxurious, the employees are really nice and provide excellent service, my room overlooked Downtown Disney, and I had a really nice view of the Sleeping Beauty fireworks show. 

As soon as my sister and I checked it, we immediately headed to their pools where we setup camp in the "Adult" pool area where you can order drinks from your lounge chair, Las Vegas style. They have 3 pools, 2 of which are more kid/family friendly. I know this is weird especially since I love Disneyland so much but I am not very fond of children. Perhaps that will change in the future but right now I am quite allergic to them. A lot of them run around like crazy zombie mutants, are really loud, and suffer from jam hands (meaning their hands are sticky from god knows what!) **Please note that I don't mean to offend anyone. This is just my feelings about children right now. I am still respectful towards children and those with children.**

Anyhoo, my sister and I lounged at the "Adult" pool for awhile. She was lame and did some stuff for work while I read a trashy celebrity gossip magazine. I was thinking about ordering an adult beverage but I knew we were going to hit up 3 bars at later that night at Downtown Disney so I decided against it. I'm pretty sure I was still drunk the next morning because the room was still spinning but guests who stay at the Disney hotels get to enter the park an hour early.There was no way I was going to miss out on an extra hour of being at Disney, so I was up at 5:30 am and in line to enter the park at 6:30 am. Surprisingly I wasn't hungover. Perhaps Disney is the magical medicine to preventing hangovers?

Our first pit stop was of course Cars Land. We were hoping to ride Radiator Springs Racers first but it was experiencing technical difficulties for at least an hour. Major bust! The rest of the day was really magical though. My sister and I went on a ton of rides, ate a lot of good food and drank a lot.  I also snapped up lots of pictures but haven't organized them yet. So, in the meantime, why don't I share what else I have been doing?

I introduce to you Rolo Caramelitas that was created by the genius behind Confessions of a Cookbook queen. Head on over to her blog to check out the recipe and make some right now because it is insanely delicious. You think it can't better but it does. Each  bite is more divine than the last. It's super fattening because it calls for a lot of butter, like Paula Dean status but I justify the deliciousness with the oatmeal that is used.

I made this for my sister's co-workers for shits and giggles but I couldn't resist a taste. This was my umm "quality control" sample just to make sure that it tasted good. And oh my it tasted sooo sooo good. After eating this, I packaged it and left for work right away because I knew that I was not safe around it. That if I didn't leave soon, there wouldn't be any left for them. Rolos + caramel sauce + butter = deeeeeeeeelicious!

Countdown!

Guess where I will be this weekend??

I'll give you a hint. It involves some of this.

Except this time I'll also be fulfillling one of my big Disney dreams, which is staying at the super luxurious Grand Californian Hotel & Spa

I will be spending a lot of time here when I'm not playing at the park. I've already studied the bar menu quite a bit. =)

I'll be heading over there as soon as I get off work. 3:30 pm can't come any quicker. Gosh, I love Disneyland.

Iced Coffee

I love coffee and need to drink it every morning. Without it, I basically look like this all day.

Not very pretty, am i right? (Btw, that's basically what my nose looked like all last week. Sexy, I know.)

The longest I've ever gone without it was all of last week when I was sick and discovered that caffeine is basically like kryptonite to a sore throat. Several websites suggested drinking decaf insead but what's the point in drinking coffee if it doesn't have caffeine. That's basically it's reason for existing, no?

Anyhooooo, usually breakfast routine during the week days works like this: fill up Mr. Coffee pot, make breakfast while Mr. Coffee pot is earning its keep on my kitchen counter, and happily fill up my big gulp sized Minnie Mouse mug when it's ready. But, I have been experiencing 2 problems with coffee for awhile now and I finally came up with a solution.

Problem 1: I like my coffee super strong, so I use a wasteful amount of ground coffee every morning. In order to make myself feel better about my gluttonness, I make another pot of coffee with the same grinds. The thing is that the coffee isn't as strong the second time around for obvious reasons, which means it doesn't taste as good. So, my taste buds and my very necessary caffeine intake level are both left unsatisfied.

Problem 2: During the summer or basically whenever it feels like summer, I like to drink iced coffee to combat with the heat and humidity. I have always made iced coffee with plain old iced cubes, which unfortunately becomes coffee flavored water if I don't drink it quickly enough.

Solution:

During my week of withdrawls, I came up with a brilliant idea. Coffee cubes! Now, I know that realistically I am not the first person to have come up with idea but it made me feel pretty smart and awesome, so I'm just going to pretend that I am the mastermind behind this creation.
Now, at first I was planning on using my regular iced cube tray...until I remembered that a few months ago I bought this really cool Mickey Mouse silicone muffin pan.

Second pot of coffee gets reycled as iced cubes, which helps prevent my iced coffee from turning into coffee flavored water. 2 problems solved and the solution comes out pretty damn cute too. Oh, and the coffee that I'm drinking right now is Chocolate Hazelnut flavor, which is very delicious. Can't wait to try the Cookiedoodle flavor next! =)

Beer Bread

Sooo I first came across this recipe last December but never had the balls to make it because it seemed a bit out of my league. But, it's been several months and after making pizza dough from scratch I feel a little more confident of my cooking/baking skills. I'm not gonna lie though. I was still kind of scared about working with self-rising flour since I've never used it before. But I was bored and figured worst case scenario I would be stuck with something inedible. So, what is it that I made?

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Beer Bread

from Bake at 350

 

Bridget, the mad scientist behind this blog, developed 4 amazing beer bread recipes - cinnamon chocolate chip, orange nutmeg, gruyere and rosemary, and classic. Of course, I immediately found myself drawn to her and these recipes because (1) beer is awesome and any reason to include it in my diet is a win and (2) she came up with 4 different recipes for beer bread, which officially makes her my hero. Although all 4 types of beer bread appear to be mouth-watering, there was no way I couldn't make the cinnamon chocolate chip beer bread first. Chocolate + beer  = no brainer.

Headed for the oven

Fresh out of the oven slathered with some honey butter and cinnamon sugar

Now, head on over to her blog while I loosen the belt and get working on the other 3 beer breads. Mmmmmm

Avocado Celebration

In my previous post, I mentioned that this July 1 - July 7 is California Avocado week and in honor of that, I bought a bag of California grown avocados with the intention of making a dish focusing on it. Sadly, it seems I suck at picking avocados because they aren't ripe yet and won't be until after California Avocado week is over. Oops.

But, I will still be celebrating tonight at Downtown Disney. All week Disney has been celebrating all week by having several chefs do a cooking demonstration of dishes with avocado as the shining star. Each demonstration is held in front of a particular restaurant with its executive chef in charge of the demonstration and afterwards everyone gets a sample. So, tonight, I will be at Catal with the hopes of watching and maybe tasting tartare of Hamachi with Shisho, Micro Cilantro and California Avocado and Jalapeno Sorbet. Afterwards, I will be eating at Catal because the head chef has put together 2 special avocado dishes. Neither of these dishes are posted on Catal's website so it will be a surprise.
My love for avocado is kind of funny because I absolutely hated it up until last year. I hated it since the first time I tried it in kindergarten. Everything about it disgusted me - the mushy texture, the awful green color that reminds me of bird poo, and how it browns very quickly. People often could not fathom that I was grossed out by avocado and would always ask me if I ate guacamole. Um no because it's made out of avocado???!!! But then, I gave it another chance last year and fell in love.

Ugly but Delicious

My cold isn't getting better. If any better. If anything, I think it might be getting worse? I've had a fever for the past few hours, my throat is still sore and I've developed a smoker's cough. I popped a few Tylenol but it's not really working. I knew should have just drunk some alcohol. After all, that's what our ancestors used for medicine and it seemed to work out well for them right? But since you're not supposed to mix alcohol with pills, I decided to try one last kind of "medicine" that wouldn't be affected by the Tylenol. I baked a batch of the Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars from Confessions of A Cookbook Queen. I'm definitely still making the other 2 recipes at some point though!

 

Naked Bar

Dressed with marshmallow creme

Uglified with delicious chocolate frosting

But was oh so delicious!

And since it's a holiday and I'm sick, I figured that I'm entitled to eating a giant block of this Rocky Road Bar. And btw, it's delicious both fresh out of the oven and frozen  =)

Thoughts

I am currently experiencing weekend blues for 2 reasons. It's the last weekend of celebrations for my birthday, I have been struck with a sore throat and fever, my Internet is not cooperating which is making it very difficult to upload Disney pictures to a certain blogger friend whom I desperately want to share these pictures with, and I also have to prepare for a week of work. Luckily, it's going to be a short one because I get Tuesday and Wednesday off in honor of Independence Day. Hip hip hooray!!! I plan on taking full advantage of these 2 precious days off by relaxing and getting myself reacquainted with my kitchen. I am having trouble deciding among 3 recipes though so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Option 1: Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars

http://www.confessionsofacookbookqueen.com/2012/05/peanut-butter-rocky-road-bars/

Option 2: Peanut Butter Drizzled Chewy Milk Chocolate Chunk Cookies

http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/06/peanut-butter-drizzled-chewy-milk-chocolate-chunk-cookies/

Option 3: Cookie Dough Filled Cookie Cups

http://cookiesandcups.com/cookie-dough-filled-cookie-cups-2/

Also, I think I'm going to make a few adjustments to this blog. Here is my tentative weekly plans to make my blog a wee bit more exciting and save it from its boring old self:

(1) Pick a recipe from a fellow blogger and attempt to recreate their magicalness
(2) Come up with a recipe of my own - chocolate and non-chocolate related
(3) Make a dish based on a food that is being honored nationally and/or locally (e.g. July 1 - 7 is California Avocado week)
(4) Post a random Disney fact or pictures from my regular Disney outings.

Thoughts?