Groupons Rock my World (the Cookie edition)

 A couple months ago I snatched up a deal for a cookie baking class at a new local kids bakery.  We cashed in our certificate and got a private baking lesson with the WONDERFUL owner, Lisa.  I really loved her-she was organized, good with Ella, prepared even though the bakery is still under construction, and really easy to chat with while we baked.  We had a great time and will definitely go back.

Getting ready!

Ella got to choose what kind of cookies to make from a bunch of yummy sounding choices.

Stirring hard!

Scooping

See, I was there too :-)

While the cookies baked, Ella got a box and a bag to decorate for her cookies. Genius use of time.

Then we got to taste the cookies right out of the oven.  Seriously REALLY good cookies.  Best chocolate chip cookie I can remember having in years.

Ella packed up her cookies and Lisa gave us instructions on how to freeze and thaw them if we didn't want to eat all 2 dozen right away. 

Overall, this was a really fun date.  We make cookies at home but there's something about a "date" (and her cookie recipe tastes way better than mine) that made it worthwhile.  They also have a ton of options for playgroups, birthday parties and more that sounded great.  Also, for those of us in church communities, Lisa and her husband are active Christians and very open to church-related groups coming in. She even mentioned having brought in a Song of Solomon Couples study to do baking classes that relate to marriage building!  We ended up talking about faith because I noticed that she incorporated the fruit of the spirit into the ingredient list when talking to Ella!  So, just because I really like Lisa and her cookies-go patronize Little Hands Cookie Co.!

Top Chef Quest: Spike & Carla

The Top Chef Quest continues! I blogged a while ago about going to one of Spike Mendelsohn's restaurants in DC and this time we hit up Spike's pizza joint.   It was a late night stop and we were starving but the pizza was SERIOUSLY good.

I had the Forest Shroomin Pie with Wild forest mushrooms, truffles, mozz, and fresh thyme.  It was fabulous-earthy and well seasoned and they didn't skimp on toppings.We also had the Sausage and Peppers Pie with their house made tomato sauce, mozz, homemade Italian sausage, oven-roasted peppers, fennel seed, and fresh basil,  I'm not big on Italian sausage but this was pretty darn tasty.  The house made sauce was great.  Tangy and fresh tasting.  Even the fennel seed worked on this pizza and I'm a fennel-hater.  Chris had pepperoni pizza also which was also top notch.  I would definitely go back to this place.  Sadly, it's next door to his burger joint which was also super tasty so it'd be hard to pick!

horrible pic but brings back memories of a fun night for me :-)

So, in other Top Chef news, I have now twice ordered tiny cookies from Carla Hall!  She's also local but I've been able to order online and received the cookies (with fabulous customer service from someone named Julie) in the mail really quickly.  I bought one tin for the Top Chef Finale and the other as a gift for a fellow foodie friend, Alicia.  They are SO good.  Both times I got the sweet sampler that has six types of cookies.  They are tiny but OH so tasty.  My favorite by far were the Pecan Shortbread with Vanilla Salt.  Mmmmm.  The Mexcian Cholocate chip, Black Forest Crinkle, and hawaiin wedding cookies were also quite tasty.  I would definitely order these again!  And, i just checked and her website is up and running (before I just emailed with Julie directly!)  I LOVED Carla on the show and hope she hits it big!  She's awesome and her cookies were heavenly :-)

Cookie Making!

A friend of ours had a really fun Christmas Cookie decorating party for the kids last week. This kind of activity is just the kind of thing Ella and I both really get into-we'll probably make some more cookies to decorate soon!

Hard at work (also a nice pic of her new hearing aid "holder" that clips on to her shirt so even if they fall off, they just hang there and can't get lost!)