Pumpkin Bread with Bittersweet Chocolate Chips

It's fall, my favorite time of year! And Fall means pumpkin in all forms. A few weeks ago I made Molly's Banana Bread from "A Homemade Life" and liked it a lot. I couldn't help but wonder how a pumpkin version would taste. So I modified the recipe, substituting pumpkin for banana, removing the crystallized ginger but adding a bit of powdered ground ginger, as well as cinnamon and nutmeg. I also stole a bit from another of Molly's Banana Bread recipes from Orangette, and added a bit of cinnamon sugar on top of the bread.

Molly Wizenberg's Banana Bread

I have very limited kitchen space and even less cooking equipment, so I don't cook or bake that often. But lately I've been really trying to make more of my meals from scratch. I've had some success so far, with various soups and pasta dishes. But this weekend I got the urge to bake! I'm reading A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg, creator of Orangette, and basically all of the recipes in the book sound amazing and delicious.

Blu Boy

Blu Boy Chocolate Cafe and Cakery popped up a year or so ago right downtown, next to the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. It's a cute little shop with friendly employees and delicious desserts. The location is really great, right in the middle of downtown. Perfect for an after dinner treat on the weekend or a sugary snack during the day.

Blu Boy is one of the few places in Bloomington to find cupcakes. They use a very rich, creamy buttercream which, while delicious, can get a little overwhelming. In the past they swirled the buttercream super-high, but have recently downsized, in my opinion, to a more manageable and proportional amount of frosting. See these cupcakes; Blueberry vs Cinnamon Hazelnut Chocolate. My favorite cupcake ever at Blu Boy was the Banana Chocolate. The cake was a light, moist white cake flavored with banana. And the addition of shaved chocolate to the buttercream was melt-in-your-mouth amazing. I also recently had a Cinnamon Hazelnut Chocolate that was fabulous. I've had a few underwhelming cupcakes at Blu Boy, with dry, crumbly cake, but overall they've been quite good. The flavors rotate so you never know exactly what will be available, usually there are 2-3 options.

Sweet Grass

Sweet Grass is a brand new Bloomington restaurant with a focus on Southern, Carolina cuisine. I tried it out last Wednesday evening with my friends Chris and Katy. The restaurant wasn't packed by any means, but it seemed like a nice crowd for the middle of the week. The waitstaff were very friendly and attentive. Although our waiter was a little slow to bring the check (he was busy closing up the outside dining area) he made up for it by splitting the check with no problem.

Chicago : Topo Gigio

My family took a long weekend vacay to Chicago recently and ate some delicious food. On Sunday we had tickets for the Second City Etc show "Not Working" (hilarious!) and decided to eat nearby before the show. I yelped a few restaurants in the Old Town area before we left but we really picked Topo Gigio because of the lovely patio. It was an excellent choice, the food was fantastic!

Shanti

There are now three Indian Restaurants in Bloomington, Bombay House, Taste of India, and Shanti. I've only tried the lunch buffet at Taste of India once so I'm not quite ready to give it a thumbs up yet. But if I had to pick a winner between Shanti and Bombay House, Shanti would come out on top. Christine would argue the opposite I think, she lurves Bombay House. At dinner time both restaurants are a bit more expensive than other ethnic restaurants in Bloomington. Entrees in the $9.99 to $14.99 range. Shanti wins at lunch though with cheap and filling lunch specials while Bombay House has a, ridiculously expensive, lunch buffet.

Chicago : More Cupcakes Redux

Last October I blogged about Chicago's More Cupcakes, and how I wasn't super impressed. Well, my friend Mariann got me a gift card to More for Christmas, so we decided to give it another go. And I'm glad we did! Not only was I much happier with the cupcakes we tasted this time, but the employees at the storefront seemed a lot friendlier (less pretentious!). The shop's owner, Patty Rothman, was there giving out samples and talking about all the daily flavors. She was super nice, enthusiastic and definitely made the experience that much better.