Freebies: National Pancake Day

Breakfast fans, rejoice! Everyone's favorite pancake house, The International House of Pancakes, that is, will be giving away free pancakes today, from 7am to 11pm. If you're into that kind of thing, stop by your local IHOP, and fill 'er up with a short stack (that's 3 pancakes for you short stack novices). Personally, I am a HUGE fan of pancakes (who isn't?) however, I have to tell you that I'm honestly not sure that there are any IHOP locations near me...and I'm pretty sure it's not in the near proximity. If I were to scope it out, however, I'd be chowing down on the short stack with a bit o'maple and strawberry syrup. Yum. Oh, and to get your FREE pancakes, IHOP requests a small donation towards their Children's Miracle Network charity. Pancakes and a good cause? Does it get any better?

When Bad Dishes Happen to Good People: Black Bean Soup

I know. It seems like every recipe in TAA kitchen is a winner. After all, when Snickerdoodle Muffins, Key Lime in the Coconut Cupcakes and Butternut Squash Soup come out of it, I may give off the illusion that things never go awry and that every recipe is pure tasting perfection. The reality is that some recipes are...how do you say...duds. I hate to admit it, and I hate to point fingers, but sometimes for any number of reasons, a recipe just doesn't get 'er done. And let's just not even get into mishaps beyond recipe duds. For today, we'll stick with Black Bean Soup. A recipe that seemingly had all the right moves; red onions, bell peppers, spices. But after a 3 hour bath in the slow cooker, it just tasted...bland. There was nothing to it. Even after continuously adding kosher salt (the cure all to just about everything), it didn't change the flavor...at all. Though this was a couple of weeks ago, I remain baffled to this very day. After all, the early ingredients in the recipe looked like this:
And when it looks this pretty, how could it go so wrong?
I refuse to blame this little baby, which has brought many a mean soup and chili over the last year.
After some restrospective investigation, I realized it could be a number of things:
1. I have never cooked with dried beans before. Typically, I'm a from-the-can kind of girl. Perhaps I did not cook the soup long enough?
2. Perhaps it just needed a serious bump up in the spice department
3. The recipe called for pureeing some of the soup and then mixing it back in. Though the wall got a good splattering of black bean juice, that aside, I thought I had done it as instructed. Perhaps I should have pureed more?
I could go on and on. I'm just still baffled by what went wrong, since the recipe seemed to get glowing reviews and I could swear that I followed it line by line. Has this happened to you before? On any dish in your culinary past? Did you uncover the mystery of what went wrong? Give me some love by sharing your tales of woe...

Thing that make you go 'Mmmm': Whoopie Pies

After a romantic evening at Bobby's Burger Palace in Paramus on Saturday evening (another one crossed off the list, so stay tuned!), Shaun and I stopped off at Whole Foods in the Bergen Center Mall. No, this is not a place that we frequent, but after learning that not only is BBP and Whole Foods on tap, but they also have a Nordstrom Rack, it's pretty much destined to become a serious weekend hang out spot. Since we were so stuffed from burgers and fries, milkshakes were just not in the cards. And being one to never let dessert pass me by, we picked up a little treat for later that night at home. If you've been to Whole Foods (especially one as enormous as the Paramus locale) you know that they have a mighty fine dessert section. Oversized glass cases filled with tartlets, cheesecakes and cupcakes, oh my. But on this night, we discovered a special Valentine's Day dessert - the whoopie pie, decorated in all of its pink glory. After one bite, all I could say was 'Mmmmm...'

I mean, really, don't they look truly delish? I sampled the pink, while Shaun had the white. While they were the same flavor of vanilla buttercream, for some reason, Shaun's was a bit drier than mine. Is it the pink food coloring? Was there more cream? Was the package left slightly ajar on one side, causing his to dry out? These are questions that I need answers to.

Anyhow, they were a fabulous post-burger dinner (yeah, we hit up the gym hardcore that weekend and the days following). My question for all of you is, what's your favorite dessert? Is it something chocolatey? Something with frosting? Something of the fruit pie variety? Something holiday themed? And don't name just one...personally I have a long list of favorite desserts, and they don't all include cupcakes!