Quick Garlic Bread

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I’ve never made garlic bread before. I was always the…buy some from the freezer aisle and throw it in the oven type. It’s so good, I just felt like it would be more complicated that it really is. And honestly…I didn’t even look up a recipe for this. I was like, lets use my cooking instinct.

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I bought a block of KerryGold butter and a baguette from Society Fair the day before and when it was decided I was making fancy spaghetti for dinner, I decided to use my left over baguette to finish off the meal. Garlic bread literally tastes like, butter, garlic and Italian herbs. So that is what I did. I cubed up some room temperature butter, a couple cloves of garlic, and sprinkled in some dried Italian herb mix. Stir.

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I cut the baguette in half, then I generously rubbed my butter mixture on it. In every nook and cranny.

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Then I baked it in a preheated oven at 375F and watched it until browned. I like mine extra garlicky, and the Kerrygold was salted, so it was deeelicious.

Pumpkin Bread

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Can I tell you something? I’ve never made a loaf bread before. Yes, I’ve made baguettes and other “rustic” breads from scratch. But the only thing I’ve made in my loaf pan was…meatloaf. So my gateway bread, is pumpkin bread. Then I will go for hawaiian style banana bread. And then start trying to make up some other sweet delicious bread.

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The best part of pumpkin bread, I think, are the delicious spices. A spiced bread is so yummy, and perfect for breakfast. I can’t believe I never tried to make it before.IMG_7629 IMG_7630 IMG_7634It’s so moist and delicious. I’m particular about the recipes that I use. I have to trust who’s writing it, OR I have to read it and mentally compute how it’s going to turn out. So I didn’t even bother googling a recipe for pumpkin bread. I knew what my favorite pumpkin bread was. Starbucks. So I went for that recipe, or something close to it.

Pumpkin Bread
Adapted from Todd Wilbur’s Top Secret Recipes Unlocked

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cups canned pure pumpkin puree
3/4 cup vegetable oil

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350F.  Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt in a medium bowl.  Beat together eggs, sugars and vanilla in a large bowl with a mixer on high for 30 seconds. Add the pumpkin and oil and mix well.

Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients in the mixing bowl and mix well. Pour batter into a well greased loaf pan. Bake for 60 minutes or until the top of bread is brown and toothpick comes out clean.

Leave bread to cool in bread pan. Once completely cooled, remove from loaf pan and slice.

France: Food edition

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If you know me, then you know that I went to France with the top priority to EAT. I chose to go eat, over going into the Eiffel Tower. Yea, I know, terrible.

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Lets talk about charcuterie. I love it. The first “french” food I had when I got there, was french bread and charcuterie. This is pretty much a plate of meats. Hams, sausages, bacon, and pate. Sometimes you can get it with cheese, and little pickles. It is served with butter and french breach. This was my staple. I wanted it all the time. Too bad that I came back to America and am prepping for a cleanse, because I would eat it all the time here too.

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The cheeses, the butter, the mayo, the baked goods…everything smells so heavenly and tastes even better. If I had to pinpoint what France smells like, I would say butter and cigarettes. Here, ketchup isn’t left on the the table with the salt and pepper. You can get freshly whipped mayo to dip your fries and anything else into.

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In my opinion, everything is expensive. And not just because the dollar to the euro is pricey, but because food in general is expensive…except foods in charcuterie! A lot of the restaurants have only prix fixe menus. It is much cheaper to hit the market and cook at home. But if you are a Parisian in the middle of the city, your kitchen is pretty much non existent. My cousin eats a lot of simple foods that can be prepped without a stovetop, microwave or oven! Crazy. I know. Lets just say we had a lot of charcuterie…and I loved every minute of it. Brie, camembert, pate, these were much cheaper than they are in America…probably because we have to import it. For example, a wedge of brie is $8-14 but in France 1 euro! I definitely ate a LOT of cheese while I was there, what lactose intolerance?

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For breakfast, we went to Chez Prune, where for breakfast you got a basket of breads, a plate, and a dessert.

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For Dinner we had more charcuterie. And a really hard to open bottle of wine.

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We went to their Japanese town for ramen and bubble tea. The ramen still can’t touch Toki Underground, and the bubble tea is a lot different than I expected…it was actual tea, with a mango syrup for flavoring. The balls were delicious though.

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I waited my whole trip, for moules-frites. Mussels and french fries. And what better place to have it than at the south of France? For 14,50 euros we got this…

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I’ve never had such tasty mussels in my life. The french fries were scoop shaped, so I got a good amount of mayo on every fry. Crisp outside and hot mealy goodness inside. The mussels themselves were perfection. Provencale herbs, right amount of seasoning, creamy, buttery and the touch of lemon and wine to freshen things up. It was unfortunate for my belly that it wasn’t any bigger. The pot alone had at LEAST a hundred mussels and I could only fit half of it. If we knew the portion was going to be so large, we would have shared. I was so sad to waste it. They don’t let you take food in doggie bags by the way. In case you were wondering. Anywhere in France actually. Maybe even Europe.

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Here’s more pictures of food to make you hungry. I want to go back and eat.

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