Time for an installment of Weekend Things:
1. The Atlantic Wire named my cookbook one of the summer’s best. The story also got picked up by Yahoo! News
Needless to say, I’m thrilled!
This is what they said about Peanut Butter Comfort
2. There are too many to name, but a special thanks to Bridget, Lori, Valerie, Jackie ,Katie, Sally, Mercedes, Nikki, Jenn, Karly, Dawn, and everyone who’s blogged about my book, Tweeted or Instagrammed about it, or made recipes from it.
If you’ve made something from it, I’d love to know. Write and post on my Facebook wall or email, or tweet me. I’d like to do a collage and feature the recipes everyone has made so please post those pics.
3. This Thai-Style Iced Tea from Bon Appetit sounds so good. Spiced tea, vanilla beans, and sweetened condensed milk can do no wrong.
4. Yoga and Culinary Adventure in Northern Italy – Sip, savor, and stretch in Fobello, Italy. Enjoy a daily feast of yoga, hiking, and food adventures. Each day will start with a invigorating yoga class. Spend afternoons meeting the local baker, learning to cook risotto from the local master, hiking in the surrounding hills, or visiting the nearby, famous wine region In the evenings we will learn from local wine experts and relish shared meals. Starting at $2195 plus airfare for the week.
Wow. What I wouln’t give. Yoga, baking, cooking, hiking, and wine. And Italy. All in one trip.
5. I love balsamic vinegar and balsamic reduction. I could probably drink it. I’ve heard of balsamic vinegar tasting flights like you’d do with wine. Sounds excellent.
This Cook’s Illustrated chart compares balsamic vinegars. Not surprising, the winner was a $60 per ounce 25-year old aged balsamic. However, third place went to one that’s only $3.39 for almost 17 ounces. I love a good value and tips like that.
6. Todd and Diane did a post about their Junk Food Confessions and listed their top 5.
My comment: Coffee, chocolate, champagne, (hardly baked) cookies, super fudgy brownies.
7. I tried some new Urban Remedy Snacks. It’s the same company I used for our 3-Day Juice Cleanse.
They have kale chips, raw cookies, raw brittles, and brownies. Of all of them, the brownies were my hands-down favorite. They’re flat, thin, and more like a soft chocolate cracker than a brownie in both texture and taste, but very good. Raw, vegan, gluten-free, and healthy, too.
8. If you’re looking for a homemade healthier brownie option, try Healthy Fudgy Brownie Bites (vegan, GF, grain-free) – NO added sugar, NO butter & NO flour used. They taste like the real thing – but healthier.
Or the Healthy Dark Fudgy Avocado Brownies (GF) are so rich, fudgy, dense, and satisfying.
9. Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman, pinned my 100% Whole Wheat No-Knead Make Ahead Dinner Rolls with Honey Butter to her I Want to Eat This Now Board
10. I met her at Big Potluck but didn’t get a picture with her. I wish I would have!
Thanks for the entries in the Peanut Butter Comfort and Food Processor Giveaway
What are your Weekend Things? Top 5 Junkfood Confessions?
Favorite brownie recipe? Trips you have planned? Into balsamic vinegar?
If you’ve made anything, done, seen, or bought anything fabulous recently, feel free to link it up in the comments.
SO awesome about your book!!! That is super amazing! You are a superstar. Also– Ree re-pinned the right rolls! Those little babies are delicious!
Um yes Thai Iced Tea is fabulous one of my good friends father owns a Chinese restaurant and every time I visit I always order the drink!! I am trying to resist the urge to visit the Nordstroms Anniversary Sale.. but I think the will power is dwindling. It has been so hot here in OC so I haven’t baked hardly anything but I need to get going Im off for a month in 3 weeks! Love the summer time :) So exciting Ree pinned your rolls, the photos of them are absolutely stunning though so of course she would want them! And yes on hardly baked cookies, ultimate weakness!! :)
Such an awesome review of your book, love it!
Super (x10) congrats on the press.. you deserve it!
I wouldn’t call coffee a junk food, unless one douses it with flavor syrup / sugar / heavy cream.
My biggest battle is with my sweet tooth, so almost any baked good (especially brownies and cookies with chocolate & peanut butter) would probably go on my “junk food confession” list.
My favorite brownie recipe is a toss-up between these two: https://taplatt.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/recipe-cocoa-brownies/ AND
https://taplatt.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/recipe-michaelas-chewy-chocolatey-brownies/
The first recipe that you used from Deb is actually the Alice Medrich recipe in her cookbook. I made those here
https://www.averiecooks.com/2013/03/the-ultimate-fudgy-caramel-brownies.html
And then the 2nd recipe looks similar to one I’ve been making for years and used in my cookbook!
Over the years I’ve adapted the 2c white sugar to be 1.5 c white and .5 c brown and more chocolate, but otherwise, same!
https://www.averiecooks.com/fudgy-nutella-brownies-with-cream-cheese-frosting/
Congrats on all the great press on your book! I’d love to go back to Italy and go on a yoga and cooking trip. Recently I made coconut mango bread :) https://www.confessionsofachocoholic.com/recipes/mango-coconut-bread
wahoooo you go girl!
I plan on making something from the most fabulous peanut butter book ever this weekend!
when I do I’ll post it on my blog, and was curious if you’re up for an interview +giveaway. Probably in 3-4 weeks, I have someone before you. If you’re up for it.
Happy weekend, Averie! Love that your cookbook is getting so much attention and praise- what a wonderful feeling that must be :)
That Italy trip sounds so dreamy- and I’m not even a big yoga person! I’ve been to Italy three times and could return any old time, haha. Love it there!
You’ve been 3 times – that’s amazing!
And I am so happy about my book, yes! It was my life’s work for the end of 2011 and most of 2012 so it’s nice to see it paying off!
That’s so awesome about your cookbook Averie!! I’m so excited for you!
Thanks, Dorothy. I am so happy about it :)
Congrats on PW pinning your rolls! That’s so awesome! And congrats on all the wonderful things being said about your book! I can’t wait to get my copy- I really really want it but this month insane dental bills got in the way of any other shopping. I plan on treating myself next pay period though!
Ugh, sorry about your dental bills. That’s like having to buy a new water heater or something with money you had earmarked for something (or didn’t even really have to begin with) – been there. Not a fun feeling. And whenever you do pick it up, thanks! And please LMK what you make from it!
Congratulations on the pin! It is an amazing recipe. And on the cookbook. Its on my birthday list! That trip sounds just PERFECT for you . . . at least the balsalmic is in price range:)
Averie, congrats on all the amazing things being said about your book! You deserve it and people NEED TO KNOW what an awesome cookbook Peanut Butter Comfort is. Yay for good press!!
Aslo, how stickin exciting the Ree Pinned or roles!!! You are on fire this week! Go Averie!
Thanks, Tieghan! Your happy spirit and positive attitude is contagious. Thank you :)
Congratulations on your book review and having your whole wheat rolls pinned! The PB banana upside down cake has been on my radar–I might just have to make that for my birthday at the end of this month! I’m back in my hometown today for a 60th anniversary party this afternoon (long time friends of my parents) followed by my high school class reunion tonight. My hometown is pretty small, so both events are being held at the same location! Then we are heading up to Michigan for a little getaway on the lake.
60th anniversary, wow – sadly that’s a dying breed/situation I think – congrats to them!
And have fun at your reunion!
And getaways to Mich. When we lived in Chicago, we’d go to Michigan for the weekend sometimes. And where I grew up in MN, there was a lake…around every corner. Cabins and getaways were just what we did! Have fun!
So many wonderful happenings!
I definitely need to make those brownie bites. I have so many friends that are dairy and gluten sensitive. These would be perfect treats to make them!
Congrats on the book review and getting pinned!
Top five junk foods: cookie dough, the cheesecake factory (mostly for the cake, bread and butter as opposed to cheesecake), oreos, reese’s peanut butter cups, candy corn
As for trips, I just took one to St. Louis, and had AMAZING adventures in cocktails there: https://scrumptiousgruel.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/stl-i-3-u/
Should you ever visit there you should totally check these places out…
I never go to the cheesecake factory – there’s one very close to me, but I just never go. There is always a HUGE LINE, no matter the time of day, or time of year, there is a line in the parking lot. I guess maybe I need to check out their desserts! I love your junk foods too!
That yoga adventure sounds totally heavenly. And your rolls are still on my list, every time I see them I’m tempted to just stop what I’m doing and bake them. As for confessions, I love french fries, hands down! And I’m totally obsessed with this fresh mint fro-yo I posted this week: https://katyskitchen.ca/fresh-mint-chocolate-chip-frozen-yogurt/