horses. bacon. people's cartel, oh my!

[I would have written a longer post, but my lack of sleep is catching up to me. This was just too good NOT to write about.]

I thought this weekend was going to be so boring.
Boy, was I ever wrong.

Here's what went down:
My pal Derrick and I decided to explored the South Side in pursuit of hidden treasures that didn't involve alcohol.
We went into Decade, a boutique that has made me go broke plenty of times.
We found out that Roman the brain behind People's Cartel (favorite!) was screen printing custom shirts for $10.
We left, went to the Gap, and bought some tshirts.
I also found a pair of khaki's for $2.97 (total WIN.)
Went back to Decade.
Got a custom v-neck "I 'Steel' Pittsburgh" tee.

Then things got fun.

Derrick decided to ask Roman of PC if he'd make him two shirts.
One with a horse (no joke), because he happens to like horse shirts a lot.
And the other with the word 'Bacon' on it in honor of Pittsburgh's upcoming Bacon Bash.
After a little coaxing, and even more compliments Roman decided to do it.

Here are the results.
My weekend was awesome.

crack in a cup| espresso + ice cream = magic!

::Disclaimer:: I am by no means good around anyone's kitchen, namely my own, but when it comes to coffee related items you can bet I'm the queen of creating things that sound incredibly gross, but turn out to be pretty tasty. This is no different...

Today after a difficult day dealing with difficult jobs and even more difficult people, I decided to head over and have a small visit with my friend and fellow broke college student Bryan who always manages to lift my spirit with his dry humor and sarcasm. During our conversation Bryan and I had the brilliant idea to cook up something that manages to sound disgusting, but is pretty good and extremely easy to make. A couple weeks ago Bryan shared with me this yummy recipe which puts a bit of a caffeinated spin on the classic root beer float. This recipe I affectionately refer to as : Crack in a Cup. This delicious confection is comprised of the following materials.

1 16 oz cup chilled

1 pint of very fattening vanilla ice cream
1 bottle of extra caffeinated root beer
1 shot of crack...I mean espresso

Place the shot of espresso into the chilled cup first. This protects the precious ice cream from melting prematurely. After you've got the shot into the glass, fill the chilled cup up about half way with root beer. Beware of fizzing! Root beer and espresso make a volital combination; kind of like Rihanna and Chris Brown. Once the fizzing from the root beer and espresso subsides, fill that sucker up with the fattiest ice cream you can find. Voila! Crack in a Cup!

After a long and difficult day, nothing makes me feel more like myself than good conversation with a friend and large amounts of caffeine and sugar.

german pancakes/the funnel cake of my dreams.

Just found this amazing recipe for German pancakes. Yes, I didn't know pancakes had a nationality either! Also called the Dutch Baby Pancake, this is a sweet breakfast dish similar to Yorkshire pudding, (which, to my understanding, is normally savory not sweet). It's made with flour, sugar, heavy cream and topped with fruit, sugar or cinnamon. I like to think of it as a funnel cake on crack. You can find the recipe HERE. [thibeault's table]

What? Don't look at me like that...

places i need to eat when in nyc: shake shack.

Not sure if anyone knows this about me, but I love grease. I love french fries, fried chicken, and the occasional double cheeseburger from McDonalds. I subscribe to the "A Hamburger Today" newsletter from Serious Eats, and yes, I get super excited every Friday when I find it in the inbox of my email account. My name is Dee and I am fat ass.

Shake Shack is a New York stable (or so I've been told), Katya told me about this place a couple months ago, and although I've seen their website which showcases some of their famous burgers, nothing has done Shake Shack justice or made me want to eat there more than the above photos from the "A Hamburger Today" newsletter (what? I told you I'm fat).

The Shack Stack consists of two tender grease oozing burgers hugging the hell out of a deep fried portobello mushroom, also known as a "shroom burger", finished off with lettuce tomatoes and Shack Sauce. There probably isn't a need to order fries or a shake with this seeing as the burger is big enough to feed a family, plus I'm not even sure I can wrap my mouth around it, so whenever I get to NYC this will be shared with friends (I'm not THAT fat).

Anyone know anything else awesome about Shake Shack and it's items of greasy glory? Leave it in the comments!

cupcakes!

I've had this itch for a good cupcake this week. Not sure where I'm going to go to satisfy this urge, but this picture from Lisa over at Smiley's Sweet Treats & Creations (mouth full?) isn't helping at all. Makes me want a burger AND a cupcake....

UPDATE: If you'd like to know how Lisa managed to create these, word has it she used vanilla and chocolate cupcakes for the bun and burger, coconut as the lettuce, yellow and red tinted frosting for the ketchup and cheese, and topped it all off with sesame seeds applied with a little water and sugar. Happy Cooking!

an assortment of things in my head.

On a daily basis there are a bunch of things that inspire me. I'm a very visual person, so when I see something I like, I document it in this file cabinet in the back of my brain. You have normal things like music, photography, art...stuff anyone could gain inspiration from, but then there are also those other objects, like food, home and furniture designs that give me ideas as well. So instead of making one post at a time for all these things, every other day (or as often as my brain tells me) I'll bunch them all together in one post.

karlas closet/dazed digital/cartoon styles/food in my mouth/contemporist/

places i need to eat when in nyc: fatty crab.

I'm a huge fan of food. No one can ever say I'm one of those girls that don't like to eat, because that is a lie that will never be true. Aside from the Food Network being one of my favorite channels of meaningless television to watch, and counting Paula Dean as someone who I'd like to be friends with, I also really love reading food and restaurant guides. There are so many amazing blogs out there totally dedicated to experimenting with various cultural eateries. One of my favorites Bionic Bites recently reviewed a restaurant in New York called Fatty Crab.

The cool thing about Fatty Crab, besides it's laid back atmosphere is that you can act like a 4 year old child and eat everything with your hands. Knives and forks aren't permitted, and sharing is definitely encouraged. All entrees are meant to be shared and come out as they're ready. Just imagine a table with a couple of friends and tons of food. Perfect.

I'm making a list of places I want to eat with my friend Katya when I visit/intern/probably stay forever in New York this January, with Fatty Crab is right at the top of that list. Anyone know any other delicious places to dine or snack in NYC? Put it in the comments so it can go on my list!