banana caramel bread pudding

this banana bread pudding is like banana bread on crack!! originally i'd found a recipe on foodgawker.com for bananas foster bread pudding. but considering i don't particularly love alcohol and would never buy a whole bottle of rum just for one recipe, i decided to change it up a little bit. to replace the "fosters" part of it i just used a caramel sauce and sliced bananas. i'd already had caramel sauce from a mistake batch of salted caramels, so that made the swap pretty easy. if i were you i'd head out today to buy a bunch of bananas to ripen. after a few days make this bread pudding and sit with a happy tummy.

banana caramel bread pudding


ingredients: 


3 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 c ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar, packed
1 3/4 c heavy whipping cream
1 large stale french bread loaf

directions:


1. in a large bowl whisk all eggs together until frothy
2. add in cinnamon, vanilla and ripe bananas and mix until fully incorporated
3. add sugars in and mix until fully incorporated
4. add heavy whipping cream and mix until fully incorporated
5. cut up french bread in to 1 inch cubes and mix in to egg mixture until evenly distributed and most of the liquid is soaked
6. put bread pudding mixture in to a casserole dish and allow to soak for about 30 min
7. preheat oven to 350 degrees F
8. cook bread pudding for about 1 hr or until the middle is set
9. slice and serve with caramel sauce and sliced bananas.

easy caramel sauce:


ingredients:
5 tbs unsalted butter
1c heavy cream
1 1/2 c sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 c corn syrup
1/4 c water

directions: 
1. heat sugar, corn syrup and water in a pot on medium high heat, swirling until the mixture becomes a nice amber color
2. add heavy cream, butter and salt and stir. the mixture will bubble violently but this is normal. keep on heat for about 3 minutes then pour in to a heat safe container (glass jar is best) to cool.

***if you are impatient like me and you can't wait for green bananas to ripen, go to an asian store to find bananas. they almost always will have ripe bananas, and they're probably cheaper too!

***again, if you're impatient like me and don't have stale bread on hand, buy a new loaf of bread, cut it up in to 1 inch cubes and toast in a toaster oven for a few minutes until the exterior is slightly crisp. it works exactly the same as stale bread.

asian stir fry noodles

so i wanted to make some kind of stir fry noodle that generally requires a wok. problem is...i don't have a wok. so all i did was use my nonstick pan on an extremely high heat and it worked fine. i also had to cook most of the ingredients separately, as a nonstick pan over an electric stove really can't get as hot as a wok over a fire. i didn't really have a recipe for this noodle dish. i just kind of went with whatever i thought would work. so my intention was to make a stir fry udon type dish but that didn't exactly happen. i picked up some noodles that looked like they might be udon however i made the mistake of not paying attention to the packaging. when i got home i realized the noodles were some kind of vietnamese noodle as opposed to japanese. upon cooking the noodles, i found that they were definitely not udon. udon turns white when cooked and this stayed almost transparent. it still worked the same, but the texture was a bit different. also, rather than use something like chicken or beef, i used ground turkey simply because that's what i had that was defrosted.

asian stir fry noodles 
(these measurements aren't accurate. i just threw stuff in to the pan as i felt it was needed. these are just estimates of what i did)

ingredients:
1 package udon noodles
1/2 onion sliced very thin
2 tsp chopped garlic
3 tbs soy sauce
2 1/2 tbs oyster sauce
1/2 lb ground turkey
snap peas
white pepper to taste

directions:
1. boil water and cook udon noodles for a couple of minutes just until re-tenderized. drain and set aside to cool.
2. brown and cook through ground turkey seasoned with salt and white pepper and set aside
3. cook snap peas (i used microwavable bag steamed snap peas from Trader Joes) and set aside.
4. in a pan sweat onion on medium low heat
5. add garlic to pan and cook for another minute
6. add noodles to the pan and break them up with chopsticks
7. add soy sauce, oyster sauce, ground turkey, snap peas and white pepper to the pan and stir quickly and vigorously so that all of the ingredients are mixed well and the sauce spreads evenly. (if you don't do this quickly the soy sauce will soak in to one section of the noodles.)
8. once the sauce is spread evenly and the ingredients are heated through, it's ready to serve!!

**the addition of white pepper vs. black pepper makes a huge difference in asian cooking. it has more of a bite to it that i love.

thailand part V

day 7


this day was a travel day. we said "goodbye" to a bunch of people who were a part of our group. some went to Cambodia for an extended vacation and some went home. then there were about 13 of us that got on a plane headed for Phuket! this took up most of the day. we spent time on the bus going back to Bangkok and then time in the airport waiting for our delayed flight out.

once we got to Phuket it was hard to ignore the pouring rain. it was a tad bit upsetting because i knew we only had two more days there and if there was any chance it was going to shower down on us the way it was that night then we wouldn't get the ultimate experience in Phuket. it took about an hour for us to get from the airport to the hotel but once we did, all we really wanted to do was relax.

Stefan and i arranged for a car to come pick us up and bring us to a nice massage parlor (can you call it that?). the two hour massage cost $20 which is amazing! it was probably one of the best massages i've ever had. then we ran across the street to an open outdoor hole in the wall kinda restaurant set up for tourists to eat at. the food was really cheap and the sauce to the panang beef was crazy delicious, however the texture of it was chewy and so very unappetizing. and that was that.

day 8


in Phuket we were expected to find our own entertainment and just relax and do our own thing. there was no more bus or Ekachai or schedule planned for us. for the two full days we'd be in Phuket we were able to roam about and do everything or nothing. most people in the group anticipated going on a tour to see Phang Nga Island and Phi Phi Islands. after viewing different brochures for the different kinds of boat tours you could take, one of our group members found out that provided there were enough people who wanted to go, we could rent a private boat with a private guide who would take us wherever we wanted. if we'd taken different tours, we'd be stuck on a boat with people we didn't know, going to places we didn't care to, or missing out on things that we actually wanted to see. so we gathered the troops and had everybody on board with getting a private tour.

 early in the morning we met up with about 12 of the people who we'd been on the tour with thus far. we drove to the pier and hopped on our awesome private boat and headed out. the sun was awake but hidden by the overcast skies, which quite honestly worked to our advantage. had there been clear skies and a blazing sun, we would have probably been instantly sunburned. the temperature was somewhere between warm and hot and was perfect. the waters were more crystal clear blue than anything i've ever seen.

our first stop was the island where they filmed The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio. though beautiful, it was crowded with a ton of tourists, which we were trying to avoid. we got our pictures and left quickly. next we stopped at a spot where we were able to snorkel with few other tourists there. now i've never been snorkeling before so i didn't know what to expect. after putting on whatever contraption it is you use to snorkel over my eyes and in my mouth, i hopped in to the water only to swallow a bunch of salt water. at first it was hard for me to get used to breathing through only my mouth. i realized that  you can't breathe in a normal fashion either. you've got to breathe slowly in and out. initially i had no patience for that. i mean all i wanted to do was stick my head under the water and see fish. i didn't want to have to think about my breathing. but alas, i guess breaths for life are more important than fish sightings. eventually i figured it out. so because this was my first time snorkeling, i imagined we'd see a few fish here, a few fish there and that was it. once i stuck my head in to the water i saw a huge school of fish that looked like the big striped one at the dentist office in Finding Nemo. the guide gave us bananas to feed to the fish. we held them in our hands and the fish came up to us to chomp away. it was awesome! as i continued to roam further from the boat i was able to see different kinds of fish. down near the coral i saw big neon colored fish, up a little higher were those striped fish, and way up top there was a school of long thin silver fish that'd i'd never seen before. it was cool seeing the different layers of fish in their natural habitat.

our boat guide next took us to Monkey Island, where you can drive your boat up to the edge of the island to feed monkeys. they used to allow tourists to actually step foot on the island and sort of hang with the monkeys until one day a toddler was bitten by a mother monkey. we fed them bananas and went on our merry way.

we stopped off at another area to snorkel. this time when i got in to the water there was an amazing amount of fish. it was kind of daunting and almost suffocating. i held on to my banana to have them feed and as a blanket of swarming fish surrounded me, they also began to nip at me! i felt little zings like when you touch something that's static electrified in random parts of my body. i was in the water for maybe 3 minutes and felt the need to get out. okay. snorkeling. been there, done that. i will forfeit the awesomeness of tropical fish in their natural habitat for the trade off of not feeling pain.

throughout the rest of the day we went to Phang Nga Island and "James Bond Island" where they filmed  Man With The Golden Gun. we saw caves and lagoons. then the skies began to turn grey. then it started to sprinkle, but the temperature was still warm. soon after it started to sprinkle our guide handed out plastic ponchos to everybody. it was hot enough that the little sprinkles we got dried up pretty quickly so i wondered why he would hand out ponchos. little did i know, the locals always look for weather change because Phuket's weather can be fickle. about three minutes after we got our ponchos it began to pour! pouring rain + speeding boat = soaked people. we rode like this for about 30 minutes and then suddenly our boat stopped. i thought "what else could there possibly be to see? didn't we already stop at all of the spots?" then our guide informed us that we had NO GAS!! now, remember that years ago Phuket had a huge tsunami, killing a lot of people. i wasn't too worried that a tsunami would come but it definitely was in the back of my mind. we were stranded in the middle of the ocean in the pouring rain. at least we were with people we'd grown to know and not a boat full of strangers. we asked constantly asked our guide what his plan was to get us out of there. eventually he got hold of some people on land and said they'd be sending a boat to come pick us up but it'd take about 40 minutes. so we sat wet (part of the boat was covered so it wasn't directly coming down on us but some came through from different openings in the boat) and waiting. to try to lighten the mood, our guide exclaimed "we have fruit!!" and a helper brought out a watermelon and a pineapple to cut up and serve. it was almost comical. at that point we weren't really concerned with delicious fruits or nourishment. we just wanted to get back to land and dry clothes.  eventually a boat came to get us and we got back to land safely. whew!

Stefan and i went back to our hotel room to shower and get cleaned up. after the long day we'd had, we didn't really want to venture out in to Phuket's streets so we went to one of the hotel restaurants and ate an expensive (for Thailand) meal. it was really good and we were stuffed. but even though i was full, i insisted on getting the mango with sticky rice to go. it's a signature dish from Thailand so i figured it's a must. the fruit was ultra ripe and the sticky rice was slightly sweet and perfectly cooked. after my last bite, i put down the box and quickly fell to sleep.

day 9


this day we spent roaming around Phuket's touristy areas. we walked down to the beach. along the beach there are lots of spots where people offer massages along the water. the beach sands are covered with chairs and umbrellas lined up for people to lay in. but you can't just walk up to one and take it. the second you even look like you're headed towards a chair, someone runs up to you and asks for money. i'm not sure who owns the chairs or why you should have to pay, but it seems paying is inescapable. we roamed all of the street shops and the big mall in search of clothes and souvenirs. then as we walked around we decided to stop to get foot massages because they were really cheap. this time it ended up being in a hair salon/massage parlor. it was.....interesting. my idea of a good massage doesn't include the scent of drying hair and coloring products, but whaddaya gonna do for a $7/hr long massage?? we roamed around for the rest of the day walking about. around dinner time we walked the streets in search of street food. i found a guy who was selling soup noodles from a little cart and knew i had to get it. it was really tasty and super excruciatingly spicy. after i ate it my lips plumped and burned a bright red color.

one of our goals by the end of the trip was to see a "ping pong show." if you don't know what a ping pong show is then listen up cause this is pretty entertaining. ***if you can't handle graphic and vulgar, do NOT continue on!!!***a ping pong show is a show where women put things into their vags and do various things with their vag. for some people it might be sexual but for me it was entertaining and pretty comical. the first time i went to a ping pong show was about two years ago. i was on vacation with my parents, my grandma and a bunch of aunts and uncles. our tour guide asked if we wanted to see the famous "ping pong shows" of Thailand. she said that the real ping pong shows were only in Pattaya (which i now know is true). so we pulled up to a shady big shack looking thing with a huge XXX sign above it. we are told that the show that goes on inside goes on for hours, nonstop. so when we walk in and take a seat, we were to take note at what point in the show we were at and when it starts to repeat, that's when we should leave. so we walk in and there is a small stage and with three women standing there pretty naked. my mom and i took seats close to the stage intrigued at what we were about to see. in random order, we saw a woman put a ping pong in to her vag and spit it out towards to audience, woman pour beer in to her vag and dance around holding the liquid in and then excreting it back in to the bottle, a goldfish fall out of a woman's vag in to a fishbowl, a woman smoking a cigarette through her privates, a woman pull out one of those little Chinatown turtles and then seeing the turtle walk around the stage and a woman pulling a string of needles out of her vajay! but what was my most favorite part, you ask?? one woman stood on stage and then began pulling a string out of her V. we didn't know what she was doing with a boring string considering someone else just pulled razors out from between her lips. well she finally got to the end of the string, held something hidden in her hand and then threw it in to the audience. we all quickly slung our heads back in fear of any kind of STD soaked thing flying towards our exposed faces. what did she throw? a BIRD!!! i kid you not! she threw a bird in to the audience and the bird flew at us and then back to her. can i just give the biggest WTF there ever was right now?? it was pretty amazing and suuuuuuuuuper entertaining. so once the show began to repeat, we left stunned and amazed.

after hearing my mom, myself and my dad talk about that specific experience, he felt the need to experience it himself. so on our last day in Phuket, we ventured out in to the red light district in search of the infamous "ping pong show." now, there are many places in Phuket that say they have the ping pong show but NONE of them are quite like the one i saw. the second you get to the red light district you are bombarded with people trying to hand you flyers and lead you to a ping pong show. but many times this is just a ploy to get you to their bar and they either charge you crazy amounts of money for alcohol or they have no show at all. luckily Stefan and i went with a couple of other people who were also in search of the show and who had done their research. we found the bar where there was supposedly a proper ping pong show. as the door to the bar opened up pink light splashed upon us all. the place looked more like a strip club with an elevated stage-like area with stripper poles and a bath tub in the middle. a bunch of women who looked like they hated life were "dancing" naked. it was pretty depressing and after a few minutes we questioned whether they were going to have a ping pong show at all. eventually the music changed and the ugliest and oldest of all the women came out with disgust on her face. she did the vag cigarette smoking thing, the goldfish thing, and pulled a bird out too (but this time the bird wasn't attached to a string or thrown towards the surrounding people.) though still entertaining, it wasn't the same as the one i saw in Pattaya with my mom and dad. haha!! anyway, obviously they didn't allow picture taking, which is probably a good thing. you'll just have to go to Thailand and see for yourself!

we saw what we went to see and walked through the rest of the red light district not really stopping at any other place except to take a picture with a pretty good looking tranny. Stefan and i ended our trip by having our last massage late night.

day 10


this day was an intense travel day. we flew from Phuket to Bangkok, Bangkok to Taipei, and Taipei to LA. we stayed at a Motel 8 (or something...i don't even remember which motel it was) and early the next morning took a flight back to SF. what a trip!! we had an amazing time!

salted caramels

salted caramels are a really tricky thing to make, let me tell you. i first made them this past christmas as mini christmas gifts. had i known how much time and energy i was going to put in to making them,  i may have never started the process. but over time i got the job done and the results were outstanding. normal caramels, i can resist. but salted caramels? they make me want to roll on the ground smiling and thanking the world for creating such goodness. you think i'm kidding, but there's no way that i am.

for christmas i initially wanted to make salted caramel sauce and jar them up as presents. i found this recipe for the sauce and followed it exactly. it took foooooreeeeevvver for the sugar to caramelize and the "sauce" ended up being too solid, almost candy like. irritated, i threw it away. after about 10 minuntes of frustration, i decided that i was going to make caramels instead. i mean, i'd already done it....i just did it on accident! so using the same recipe, i tried to make caramels. except this time it came out too soft, like caramel sauce!! i nearly cried as either time i tried to make something it turned into the opposite!

so i decided to actually look up how to make proper salted caramels. i found this recipe and ran with it. if you search how to make caramels, many websites will tell you to cook your sugar until it's 310 degrees F, add the cream and butter and then cook it until it reaches 240 degrees F. at these temps, you should have perfect caramels. well when i made them that was certainly not the case. at 310 degrees, my sugar wasn't even close to being the pretty amber color it's supposed to be, so i cooked it longer. and at 240 degrees, the caramel was too wet to become chewy caramels. it would have become something in between sauce and candy. soo many many (like 4 times. i'm telling you, that's a lot of sugar swirling) attempts later, i made a good batch. it was perfect and i was ecstatic!

sugar at the right amber color

sugar and cream mixture bubbling violently!!

fast forward to last week. i made salted caramels for the bake sale. of course i thought i'd already figured out how to make them and wouldn't have a problem this time. but no way, Jose! every batch i made didn't come out right. i made six batches. after putting them in the fridge to cool them quickly, they were obviously either too soft or too hard. one of the batches turned out so hard that it was nearly toffee-like. i even broke the tip of my best big knife in it!! don't worry, i threw that batch away. as you can imagine, it's incredibly frustrating trying to make something a bunch of times.

the easy fix for the batches that were too soft is to cut the caramel in to squares and reheat them until it's boiling again to get rid of excess moisture. easy enough. although sometimes i still didn't get enough of the moisture out and had to repeat the process again. then i researched the internet trying to figure out whether caramel that is too hard is salvagable. most people said "no" or to melt the candies and take out even more moisture to turn it into toffee and use broken pieces on top of ice creams and things. no thanks. that's too much toffee and who wants to buy little flakes of toffee at a bake sale? but i decided that it wouldn't hurt to try to salvage the caramels, and thank god i did!

if you ever try to make caramels and it comes out too hard, you can break or cut the caramels in to 1-2 inch blocks and put them in a saucepan with a little bit of heavy cream. melt the caramels on low heat, stirring often so that  it melts evenly. once the caramels are completely melted, turn up the heat to boil the mixture. then comes the guessing game. like i said, that whole 240 degrees F thing doesn't work for me. the caramels come out too soft. i like my caramels to have a little more of a chew to them. so as the mixture bubbles, figure out what the right consistency is and you will have salvaged your caramels!!

salted caramels:

ingredients:
5 tbs unsalted butter
1 c heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla (or 1 vanilla pod)
2 tsp fleur de sel
1 1/2 c sugar
1/4 c light corn syrup
1/4 c water

directions:
1. line a 9x9 baking pan with foil and spray with cooking spray
2. melt the butter in a saucepan.
3. add the heavy cream, vanilla and sea salt. (if you have a vanilla pod, scrape out the vanilla beans and mix in to mixture). bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently. once boiling, take off heat and set aside.
4. in a large saucepan, mix together sugar, corn syrup and water. boil on the stove over medium high heat swirling the saucepan so that there are no burn spots or uneven cooking. do NOT stir the sugar (i think this makes it easier for the sugar to crystallize, which you absolutely do not want)
5. continue to boil and swirl every so often until the sugar turns a golden amber color (websites will tell you this is at 310degrees but eff that, they're wrong!!)
6. once at desired color, add the cream mixture. BE CAREFUL!! the combination will bubble and splatter. this is normal but extremely dangerous if you're not prepared for it. sugar burns like a biatch. you don't want to experience that!!!! trust me!!
7. now you can stir the mixture. continue to stir until when you lift your spoon up the caramel isn't runny but isn't falling off in clumps (i know this is vague, but again the 240 degree thing didn't work for me. so eff this one also!!!)
8. pour caramel in to prepared pan and let cool (i put it in the fridge to cool faster. that way if it comes out too hard or too soft, i know sooner rather than later and i can potentially salvage it!! haha!!)
9. with a knife sprayed with cooking spray, cut in to little 1 inch squares of whatever you desired size is and twist between squares of parchment paper.

okay maybe my directions may not work for everybody and you all would like to make the perfect batch on the first try. if it works for you on the first shot the way it works for other people on the internet who post caramel recipes, then let me bow down to you. it has never worked for me on the first try. good luck! if you successfully make these, those who you give them to will remember you!! =)

furikake mix

have you ever had furikake mix? if you've been to Hawaii, i'm sure you've at least seen the stuff, right? i've never been to Hawaii (and only lord knows why. i've been on four contenents but have yet to step foot in Hawaii) but i love anything furikake. like Hurricane Popcorn. that's my shit. i love the stuff even though it's artery clogging. but i digress. what it is is a sweet, salty, seaweedy, sesame party in your mouth. it's crunchy and awesome and you won't be able to keep your hands out of the bowl! furikake mix is insanely addicting and i promise once you make a batch and taste it, you probably won't want to share it.

i don't know why i didn't take a better picture. this is a poor appetite enhancer.

Furikake Mix  

  (adapted from this recipe)

ingredients:

4 c rice Chex

4 c corn Chex

2 c wheat Chex

4 c Honeycombs (my fav!)

2 c pretzel sticks

3 c sesame sticks (Trader Joe's)

2 c japanese crackers

1 c butter (2 sticks)

3/4 c sugar

3/4 c light corn syrup

3/4 c oil

2 1/2 tbs soy sauce

2 tbs Worcestershire sauce

1 bottle Nori Komi Furikake

directions:

1. preheat oven to 250 degrees F

2.mix all dry ingredients (first 7 ingredients on list) in a large tin pan (like the kind you roast a turkey in)

3. melt butter in a small sauce pan

4. once butter is melted add the sugar and heat until the sugar is completely dissolved

5. add corn syrups, oil, soy sauce and worcestershire sauce and stir

6. pour wet mixture over dry mixture and mix until all of the dry ingredients are coated (if there seems to be a big puddle of the wet stuff at the bottom of the pan add a bit more of whatever your favorite dry ingredient is.)

7. bake in oven for 10 minutes

8. remove from oven and add bottle of furikake. mix around to evenly distribute furikake and any excess sauce on the bottom of the pan.

9. continue baking for about an hour and ten minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

10. once cooled, store in an air-tight container

bake sale!!!

this past saturday we held the Cookies for a CURE bake sale. the few days prior to the event i blasted it all over facebook, made a Yelp event for it, and texted all of my friends to come out and support. the benefits go to Leukemia/Lymphoma so i figured nobody would be opposed to exchanging their dolla dolla bills for delectable (i hope) goodies. i had already rounded the troops, so.....

it was time to bake! tuesday was salted caramel day. i made 4 batches! if you don't know what making caramels are like then let's just leave it at a hot sticky mess....with a burned finger or two. wednesday was furikake party mix day. this was easy but i also had to cut parchment papers for the caramels and cut and wrap each one. thursday was more caramels day. i made another two batches because i figured they were delicious and might potentially be a big sell (?) (at the end of the bake sale i was still left with about 4 batches worth. i guess baked goods beats out caramels. what do you do when you have too many caramels? make caramel sauce!!). friday was intense. i woke up at 7am and baked three loaves of banana bread, two batches of smores brownies and one batch of coffee pecan brownies. then i went to work, came back at midnight and baked two batches of red velvet cupcakes and two batches of lemon bars. whew! (thanks Stefan for putting up with the loud electric mixer at 2am!!!) i finished at about 330am and went to bed.

packed and ready to go!!

the morning of the bake sale i woke up at 7am unable to go back to sleep due to excitement for the days event. i opened the window to see a gloomy cloudy day and my heart sank. nobody goes to the park on a cold day. nobody at the park=nobody to buy baked goods (insert sad face). but what can you do? everything was baked and i'd already almost forcefully made a bunch of my friends come out and support me. so the show must go on.

as we drove to Dolores Park (my favorite park in the world) the clouds began to break and the sun shined through. i am pretty sure i was redeeming whatever good karma i've got! at this point i became re-excited for the bake sale.

we set up shop and got going around noon. Jessica had a few signs to attract attention and Kim came with her baked goods later in the day. we had all kinds of goodness. Jessica's friend made some pretty flowery vanilla cupcakes which hooked in all of the little girls. another of Jessica's friends, also named Jessica, made some walnut brownies. i had the salted caramels, furikake mix, red velvet cupcakes, lemon bars, smores brownies, coffee pecan brownies and banana bread. and kim came with chocolate chip cookies, white chocolate strawberry blondies and maple bacon donut type things. if i walked up to a table like that i would probably clean out my wallet buying every single item. i was pretty happy with the outcome of everything thus far.

as the day progressed and people began showing up, it became more and more fun. when you put time and effort in to something and people reciprocate it's kind of an amazing feeling! it was fun talking to random strangers who came to buy goodies as well as hanging out with all of my friends. it was fun running around the park with a bake sale/support Leukemia/Lymphoma sign and soaking in the sun. at the end of the day we counted our donations and i was hoping to have made about $250. i'm happy to say that we made $368!! it's not a large amount in the whole scheme of things, but every little bit counts, right??

"look i'm magic! now buy something sweet"

he took his shirt off to attract the gays. and she's cute so she attracted the fellas. 

and then she bartered a brownie for a hotdog.

my broham and Darrick

Appa pants!!

the bakers and the inspiration

we made $368!!! (and counting)

thanks to everybody who came out this weekend!  the bake sale went swimmingly well!! thank you Jessica for giving me the inspiration to even have a bake sale. your efforts are so admirable. thank you Kim for baking those amazing maple bacon donuts and other things. i know you're busy, but with food and friends, you always make time!! thank you Kris for making the Cookies for a CURE flyer. i know if you could have made it you absolutely would have! thank you Ize, and B and Ciara for running around the park with the sign to promote the bake sale! thank you Stefan for, too, running around the park with the sign, putting up with the 2am mixing, and the support! thank you Dana, Adrian, Tan, Alaina, Erich, Lionel, Linda, Augs, Darrick, Jeremy, Jason, Jon and anybody else who came out to support. and thank you to the strangers out there who came by and trusted that we weren't going to poison you with our home made yummies.