Quick Coffee Cake

not my cake, but similar looking

Ben’s parents were in town over the long weekend. They stayed at his mom’s brother’s house, with his family, near the Tenlytown metro stop (not far from my aunt and uncle’s house). I’ll recap our tourist’s dream weekend later, for now I just wanted to share a link to the Quick Coffee Cake recipe I served when Ben’s parents and cousins came over for brunch on Sunday (his aunt and uncle went out of town for the weekend).

I’ve never tried making coffee cake before, but I learned, by reading recipes, that the gooey layer in coffee cake is often coffee soaked chopped dates! Who knew? No wonder I was never a fan of the goo, I usually love sweets and really like dates but I just don’t like coffee.

Time to bust out your tube pans (or 1/2 the recipe and make it in a 9×9″ square pan).

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The Trip Home (from Michigan)

We staying in a motel 1/2 way between the beach and the airport (about 10 min to either) the night before we were to fly home to Colorado. You can see the photos from our evening beach excursion in the previous post. Since we had an 8 AM flight and a rental car to return, we didn’t want to have a big drive to worry about before 7 AM in order to return the car and check our one suitcase -we always fly out carry-on only with United and bring a duffel bag to pack dirty laundry in, giving us room in at least one of the small roller bags to pack souvenir bottles of wine and other food products we like to purchase while traveling (preserved cherries and maple syrup this time).

Anyway, we packed the night before, leaving out a change of clothes and tooth brushes, and swim suits to dry. The morning was a breeze since we’d pre-packed and had some pastries from a bakery in Traverse City stashed in our carryon bags. We returned the car, checked our suitcase and sleepily waited to board the plane (note: at this point I had an awful head cold and was snuggled into my sweatshirt and cuddling a box of kleenex).

We boarded our tiny plane, had to gate check our roller bags because they would never have fit in the overhead bins of the tiny plane, and took off on-time.

I really wanted a ginger ale and was waiting for drink service (about 20-30 min after we took off) and watching the landscape below.  My ears were KILLING me. I kept rubbing the little flappy part over the ear opening, trying to get my ears to pop. The pilot made an announcement that we were about to fly over Milwaukee. About 2 minutes later he made an announcement that because they were unable to stabilize the air pressure inside the cabin, we were unable to assent above 17,000 feet and didn’t have enough fuel to make it to Denver at that altitude. Therefor we would be making an emergency landing in Chicago and would touchdown in about 30 minutes. Doh!

We landed in Chicago, went to the service desk and were issued tickets for a 3:30 PM flight to Denver. It was about 9:45 AM at that point. We also each received a $10 meal voucher.

After plunking down to pirate some wifi from the airport hotel, we each emailed our bosses to let them know that we were stuck in travel purgatory and wouldn’t be in until tomorrow.

Then we sat around debating what to do with our time in Chicago. We figured we’d head to the Art Institute and go see American Gothic, but I got us off a stop too early on the El and we ended up right on the Chicago River. Then I thought: a river cruise! So I dashed into a nearby fancy hotel and asked the concierge if she could book us 2 tickets on the Architecture River Cruise! No dice, it was high tourist season and they’d been booked for weeks. Oops. Then I was informed that tickets to the Art Institute were $18 each. Also a no-go for us.

Dejected, we walked aimlessly along the Magnificent Mile until we saw as sign for Beard Papa’s, a French chain that serves various styles of cream puffs and gourmet coffee drinks. Aah, the perfect birthday indulgence (yes, this all happened on my 29th birthday).

Yes, we had cream puffs the size of cheese burgers for lunch, and sweet cream tea. DELICIOUS!

We wandered the mall a bit before retreating back to the airport so that we could have a proper lunch of quick gourmet Mexican at Rick Bayless‘s Tortas Frontera in the airport and spend our vouchers before our flight. YUM! We split a Roasted Garlic and Mushrooms Torta (sandwich) and a Tres Quesos Mollete and each got our own agua fresca (fresh squeezed juice). DELICIOUS!

My birthday may not have been as boring as I’d planed (fly home, eat lunch, go to work), but it was WAY TASTIER!

In the end, we got on the plane to Denver, flew home, got our checked bag, waited just 10 minutes for the bus to Boulder, got home and did laundry and ate something un-memorable for dinner. Again, not what we’d planned, but still a great day!

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first catering meeting

Ben and I met with Tiffany, the catering coordinator at the St. Julien Hotel on Friday. I’d asked her to draw up some estimates/proposals for us on how they can work with our budget and IT LOOKS LIKE IT’S GOING TO WORK OUT WELL!!!! Huzzah!

We were hung up on the prices for a while, and seriously considered other venues, but this one had everything we wanted (most important being a weather-proof ceremony backup plan), and the fewest restrictions (out by 5 PM, not 2). It was also the priciest, but as long as they understand that the budget is strict, it shouldn’t be a problem. Plus, Sunday lunch can be WAY cheaper than Saturday dinner, the typical wedding meal.

Ben’s favorite venue was the Chautauqua Dining Hall, which would have been perfect if 1) the patio could seat more than 75 people for the ceremony 2) we hadn’t had to stick with either 9:30 AM-2 PM or 5-9:30 PM hours. Blocking out the afternoon like that was the straw that broke the camel’s back when we noticed that it would stomp out our afternoon wedding party ideas and mean that we’d have to have the ceremony at 10:30 in order to have lunch and be out in time. Sorry, but I’m not waking up at 6 AM to get my hair/making done on my wedding day.

Tomorrow (Monday) we’re meeting with a potential wedding coordinator whom I found via The Budget Savvy Bride, a blog of DIY tutorials, wedding photos, and price break-downs of weddings held all over the country, submitted by brides (and maybe some grooms too?). Anyway, we’re going to chat with her tomorrow about helping us pull it all together, herding cats (AKA relatives), and vendor references. Plus, the St. Julien requires we have a coordinator if we also have the ceremony there. I guess Tiffany, the catering lady, can only hold down the fort in one space at a time.

We still need: lighting, photographer, a DJ (who will mic the ceremony too), to finalize my dress with the seamstress, and to pick out a kettubah. I’ve tasked Ben with picking out the wording of the ketubbah, I trust him to find a nice egalitarian text, where the English isn’t too far off from the Hebrew/Aramaic, and includes the Lieberman Clause.

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agreed.

from Warm Olives’ blog:

Delete my blog if I ever make this. I can’t believe this is any one’s favorite, or, best loved by anyone except the dog.

SOUTHWESTERN SOUP

1 bag of Birds Eye Frozen Corn
2 cans of chili
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

Combine all ingredients in saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 10-12 minutes. Makes 4-6 servings.

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