Bites of My Life

Happy Halloween week! I love Halloween, I always have. I used to plan my costumes a year in advance. The second Halloween was over, it was back to the drawing board for next year. I swear against just buying a costume from the party store. It was always homemade and always elaborate. This years costume is ready to go, and food related, as it should be. 

Okay stay with me for this next part.  Secret is out, I was on a sugar detox for the past four weeks. You probably ask, well Annie, what about the brownies you made? What about the cookies? Ya, I actually didn't have any. I licked the spoon here and there just for taste testing, but I actually went a whole month without any sweets. You also probably ask, why would you go on a detox right before the holidays? With all the pumpkin baking and Halloween candy, I saw it as the easiest excuse to say no. I followed Clara's plan with a few modifications. I was strict on no dessert or candy, I didn't use any artificial sweeteners in my coffee or oatmeal, I stuck to plain yogurt and limited my carb and fruit intake. The result. Nothing. After all of that, I found strength to say no to desserts, but I found satisfaction in things like cheese, chips and queso, handfuls of trail mix and binges on almond butter. My advice - don't do it. I think if I would have allowed a sweet treat here and there I would have been less likely to binge in other unhealthy ways. The one positive was my built up will power to say no to copious amounts of sugar. Now that my detox is over I plan on using the will power to eat sweets in moderation, but now I have a lot of fall baking and eating to catch up on.  Bring on the pumpkin ice cream, ginger cookies and pumpkin bread! 

On a pumpkin note, I have a week full of Halloween posts planned. When was the last time I posted every day of the week? If all goes as planned TAB will be busting with bites this week. I've been blog giddy recently; gearing up for something very exciting happening to the blog next Monday. You won't want to miss it. 

-These slutty brownies got lots of attention last week (just what they wanted, darn sluts). Take a bite of the recipe if you haven't already.
-Remember my farm grown green tomatoes from last week? I stuffed them with quinoa, herbs and blue cheese, loosely based off this recipe. 
-Working on my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. Off to a good start, but more testing this week.
-A perfect rainy Thursday evening involved wining and dining, great conversation and great friends.
-I gear up every year for this local chili cook-off every year. Local restaurants cook up big crockpots of chili to compete for the "Carne Diem" title. I tried one with duck, one with chocolate, one with beer, one paired with a hush puppie and one with a jalapeno popper. My personal favorite actually won this year! Still waiting on my invitation to be one of the judges...
-A classy beer and fries pairing for a late night bite with friends. Our first meal of the night didn't quite suffice...
-Working on the weekends has its perks when you are friends with the kitchen staff. 
-Happy early birthday to our leading lady! She's NYC bound this weekend to see oldest sis and I'm extremely jealous. 
-Kathleen baked the most amazing spiced apple cake with maple frosting. With this being my first sweet in 4 weeks, I had two pieces. Then had a horrile headache and stomach ache...

Annie