Pay It Forward: Cinnamon Rolls!

Last week I wrote about my Facebook commitment to Pay It Forward to 5 people this year. I got really excited for the project and paid it forward before Easter with boxes of homemade truffles and flowery cards. I worked on those packages the week before Easter and developed some kind of pay-it-forward "high". My mind was buzzing with ideas of things I could do for other people. So I came up with the idea of making cinnamon rolls for our apartment building on Easter morning.

I had briefly mumbled to Andy what I was going to do while in the grocery store. He didn't bat an eye while I loaded hoards of powdered sugar and butter into our shopping cart. I guess the prospect of dozens of fresh hot cinnamon rolls being made in our kitchen was enough for him not to question anything.

Not just one pan of cinnamon rolls, but potentially 4-pans of the ooey gooey rolls were on my to-do list. The project began at about 10pm. (I told you I was a night owl!) There was butter on my forehead and flower just about everywhere, as I feverishly rolled and cut and placed the cinnamony rolls into their pans. Andy watched from a distance with droopy eyes. He wanted to go to bed so badly, but couldn't tear himself away from the idea of a fresh cinnamon roll.

At about 1:30am the first batch of steaming cinnamon rolls came out of the oven. They smelled heavenly! I'm sure the whole apartment building was wondering who was baking at such an hour. Andy was doing everything he could not to pounce or drool as I frosted a particularly large cinnamon roll for him. He snarfed it down in about 30 seconds and promptly went to bed. As the night was quickly nearing 2am, I decided to bake the rest of the cinnamon rolls in the morning.

I was up early the next morning to bake pan after pan of cinnamon rolls. They were all generously frosted and set out for the neighbors. By the afternoon there were successfully NO leftovers and lots of satisfied neighbors. It was a 'sweet' Easter to say the least.

The recipe that I used can be found Here. It is the recipe for Cinnabon cinnamon rolls and let me tell you, it tasted exactly like their cinnamon rolls. Amazing!

PS. If you make this recipe, don't let them bake a minute too long or else this will happen and your pan will be soaking for weeks...don't say I didn't warn you:

Brunch Review - Doyle Street Cafe

A few weekends ago Andy and I had brunch at Doyle Street Cafe in Emeryville. We discovered Emeryville fairly recently and have had fun exploring what it has to offer. From the outside, the neighborhood appears to be filled with chain stores and restaurants. Once you take the side streets though, you quickly realize there are fun unique little spots that only the locals know about. Doyle Street Cafe seems to be one of these spots.

When we arrived on Saturday morning there was already a line out the door. Families and groups of young people were mingling outside the entrance waiting for their tables to be ready.  We groaned at the idea of waiting, but also realized that the food must be worth it. When we put our names in to be seated the host sat us immediately. It was our lucky day! Most parties waiting had over 4 people, so Andy and I being only two people, were able to get a table right away.

Hot delicious coffee was delivered immediately. We contemplated between ordering off the brunch menu or the specials board. Despite the mouthwatering items on the specials board we decided on the menu. Andy ordered eggs Benedict with salmon and I opted for the goat cheese and spinach omelet.

While we waited for the food our coffees were repeatedly filled, and a low hum of voices could be heard. The ambiance was simple, almost homey. The host was very friendly with people who came in, and when he wasn't busy he helped everyone else in the restaurant. He had his hands in everything, which made me think he might possibly have been the owner. Either way, he was a friendly presence and made sure that our waters and coffees never went dry.

Our meals came after a short wait and we dug in. It was delicious, though I must admit Andy ordered better than I had. Lucky for me, he was willing to share. Our food was scarfed down with the intensity one has when something tastes so good you think it may vanish. Unfortunately, our food did vanish after a short while. We came up for a breath and were greeted with yet more coffee.

Overall, the experience we had at Doyle Street Cafe was a pleasant one. Later in the day though, both Andy and I had horrible stomach cramps. We are still not sure if it was the food from our brunch, or something else. At this point, I will just remember our Doyle Street Cafe as a delicious experience and leave it at that.

If you feel like checking it out for yourself, here is the website: http://doylestreetcafe.com/, and if you haven't figured it out already, it is located on none other than Doyle Street.

My relationship with FOOD

I have had an interesting relationship with food. As I'm sure most girls and women have also experienced. In our culture and society much is said about food. There are fad diets, eating disorders, healthy/not healthy, organic, trans fat, vegan, vegetarian, paleo...really the list goes on. Eating and food in our society is also linked to weight and health. As it should be, but sometimes it is portrayed in unhelpful ways. Like saying, 'this celebrity is skinny because she doesn't eat anything'. As a young person today, you can quickly get carried away with what society and pop culture is deeming the current fad, 'healthy', and what diet is best for you.

As a young woman in high school, college, and beyond, I tried it all. Most of it I tried out of curiosity, like bulimia. I learned about it in 9th grade health class and figured, hey that could be interesting! Why not binge on all the foods that taste awesome and then puke it up? So I gave it a go. I wasn't used to eating huge amounts of food, so my binge was not much of a binge before I was full. Then of course, I was so full that puking seemed like too big an effort, I just wanted a nap. When I put my finger down my throat (in a very mild attempt) it made me gag, but nothing else. So that was it, I decided that I could never make myself puke because it just wasn't that easy. On to the next thing I figured!

I was a skinny mini in high school, so it wasn't like I needed or even wanted to lose weight. For me it was all about curiosity and experiencing the things I heard other girls talking about in the bathroom. Way to be a doe-eyed innocent teenager, eh!

I tried laxatives...gross, pooping water was not for me. And finally found my way to anorexia. I could never understand why someone would actually want to give up food completely, especially when there were things like chocolate ice-cream to be eating! But I gave it a go out of curiosity. I had a friend tell me that the longer she went without eating, the easier it became. Wow! I figured, hey how hard could it be?! It was hard to start, let me tell you. Turning down a bowl of ice-cream from my dad was where it all started and that was torture. I was determined to try it though! Just as my friend had said, the less I ate, the easier it became to not eat. I was surprised at how quickly I could give up food and not care about it. I think it was the realization that I could easily become anorexic, that shocked me back into reality. I quickly realized, whoa, this could become a serious issue if I don't stop now. So I stopped, and went back to eating ice-cream!

Through college and after college I was less fascinated with eating disorders, and more interested in fad diets. Once again, I tried it all. I also gained some weight in college, freshman 15 (or 10, for me). One summer home from college a friends mom remarked, "wow, you have woman hips now". That was a shock to me! I was used to being a skinny mini with no curves. So I gave my lady lumps a good look in the mirror, and decided to try weight watchers with a roomate who was already doing it. I followed the program to a T and lost 10 pounds that summer.

After that, it was all about Atkins, Mediterranean diet, South Beach...etc. They say not to yo-yo diet, but I was the queen of yo-yo dieting. Once again, it was mostly about curiosity more than anything. After losing the freshman 10 that I had put on, I knew I could easily lose weight if I wanted to, so it wasn't about losing weight, it was more a fascination with food and limitations.

Since then, things have calmed down significantly with my curiosity of fad diets. Not to say that I don't still get curious, but being married has made it more difficult to try those things. Especially since Andy will eat anything, and loves to stash ramen noodles in the cabinet. (It is hard to turn down a steaming bowl of ramen, especially when someone is slurping it up right in front of you!)

The subject of food came to mind today because Andy just sent me a link to a new fad diet called VB6. It stands for 'Vegan Before 6pm', ridiculous right! He said it made him think of me. Yes, he knows me all too well and my love for the latest fad diet. When it comes down to it though, none of these 'diets' have ever stuck with me. Not even Paleo, though it felt promising. At the end of the day I eat what I want to eat, and usually I crave something healthy 90% of the time. Simple as that. I have learned to listen to my body and eat what it needs, all the while drowning out what society has to say. This is the best diet, I call it the Ellie-Diet. Eat what you want, when you want, just in moderation...and make sure there's green in your meal everyday.

What is your relationship with food? Any interesting experiences or fad diets?

How to make French Macarons

Last week I posted about these macarons that I made. Here is the follow up with a picture how-to. Enjoy!

Au Coquelet Cafe

Last week Andy and I were in Berkeley to get the oil changed in our car and we decided to grab lunch while we waited. We walked up the main street, University Ave., which we are becoming very familiar with, and found Au Coquelet Cafe.

The first part of the restaurant is a walk-up cafe where you can order cappuccinos and decadent pastries. Oh the pastries, they looked so good! How could a person choose only one? But alas, we were there for lunch, so we continued past the cafe into the restaurant.

The restaurant was very casual and decorated with plenty of fresh greenery and plants. We felt like we were sitting outdoors, it was lovely. Since it was a French restaurant we couldn't pass up the french onion soup as a starter. And let me tell you, it was amazing french onion soup! The cheese was full and stringy, the broth warm and filled with soft onions, and it was served with hard crusted french bread for dipping. Amazing.

For the main course I had a salad and a pastrami swiss on rye sandwich. I wish I had taken a better picture of the sandwich because it was chock full of pastrami and swiss all melted together. It was delicious, and far more than I could eat, so it was a win for leftovers!

We enjoyed Au Coquelet for a drop-in lunch. The service was quick, the food was amazing, and the location is convenient in downtown Berkeley. We have been enjoying Berkeley a lot these days, it seems to fit us better than Oakland. We live in Oakland after all though, so we'll just save Berkeley for occasional weekend visits.

If you find yourself in the area and want to check it out: Au Coquelet Cafe, 2000 University Avenue, Berkeley, CA 9470.