Sweet Snapshot Sunday #6 – The Italian Edition

If you’ve ever been to Italy, you know there are temptations around every corner. All the restaurants and bistros look supremely inviting, and my friends and I had to resist stopping for a bite at each one. Of course, when it came to dessert… well, that’s a completely different story.

The one thing I wanted to try the most was a genuine, Italian tiramisu. And I did. Dragging our weary selves back from the Vatican and St Peter’s Basilica, we came upon a lovely restaurant called Il Falchetto where we sat out on the terrace and had our first Italian dinner and I had my first tiramisu. With a twist. Did you know tiramisu could come in pistachio? I didn’t either. And I fell in love.

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Don’t forget to eat chocolate!

This reminder might seem unnecessary to some, because of course chocolate is not something one would forget to eat. However, it is highly important that you have some today, because the 13th of September happens to be International Chocolate Day!

I have been obsessing over this since last night, trying to figure out how to celebrate it. I am extremely busy with work but a day like this cannot go unnoticed! First I figured I could buy some chocolate bars, but that seemed like a poor way to celebrate, then I upgraded my thinking process to baked goodies (cakes, brownies, cookies) but even those didn’t make it feel all that special… plus I would end up with a destroyed kitchen that would take hours to clean.

So I went all the way. An international day celebrating the thing I love most had to be given its proper due, and that meant going to a patisserie and buying ALL THE THINGS. Well… erm, some things anyway. I had ice-cream and an assortment of cakes!

How else can you celebrate ICD?

Sweet Snapshot Sunday #1

When things hit  you hardest, you treat yourself. Or at least, that’s what I think you should do.

I didn’t have the greatest of weeks. Though things are a bit better now, if I had known that this week is going to be this bad I would’ve gone back to the week referred to a post I put up at the beginning of March and called it acceptable. But I guess that’s besides the point right now. I’m on the road to recovery right now, and hopefully it’s a smooth ride.

Nadia suggested the title “Sweet Snapshot Sunday” for whenever I wanted to make a post talking about the yummy edibles I consume. So here are this week’s sweet snapshots!

Peanut Butter Cream Pie

Chocolate Cheesecake

Key Lime Cheesecake

Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcake

I wish I could tell you that I deeply enjoyed every one of these things. I wish I could describe the exact flavours. But I can’t. I have a bad cold, and my taste buds are failing me. I could only just barely register the taste of the dark chocolate base used in the Chocolate Cheesecake… and I struggled with everything else. It was really disappointing. 😦 I also bought some macaroons (which got a bit smashed in the bag and are thus not worthy of a picture), but I haven’t eaten them yet – I at least want to enjoy those!

Have you had any sweet things lately? Care to share? Is anybody else but me suffering from this bad weather that seems to be spreading everywhere? *sneezes*

My cure for a bad week.

I’ve been having a less than stellar week, some bad things happened that culminated with the loss of my tablet, the one I use for reading eBooks. To say I was upset would be understatement; I went to bed and cried into my pillow for a bit after the incident happened. I’m coming to terms with it now, and I’m already looking for a (cheaper) replacement as I’ve completely given up hope on retrieving it.

So today I decided to treat myself, and those who read my blog know that there’s no better way to cheer me up than with books and sweets! Yes, folks, it’s time for one of those posts again. I’m thinking it should be a regular segment on this blog! 😉

I discovered that we have the Magnolia Bakery here in Lebanon (I’m guessing some of my American readers will recognize the name). As is the case with any new discovery, I tend to splurge. My sister and I shared a slice of red velvet cake, a Snickers icebox pie with cream cheese frosting, a mini caramel pecan cheesecake, a mini white chocolate macadamia nut cheesecake and finally, a cheese marbled brownie. I was on a sugar high.

An extreme sugar high.

Magnolia Bakery description: made red with cocoa, vanilla and a little southern mystery, with its own special whipped vanilla icing. This one was waaay too sweet. I love red velvet, but the buttercream frosting was overwhelming!

Classic, moist brownie with a cheesy twist! Very very good.

Let it be known that I am absolutely biased when it comes to Macadamia. It’s one of my absolute favourite nuts. I really loved this one too!

This was exquisite. Buttery, smooth and absolutely delicious. I melted upon the first bite.

Description from Magnolia Bakery menu: chocolate wafer crust layered with peanut butter and cream cheese and whipped cream filling, topped with Snickers bar pieces. This was incredible. The cream cheese topping was an excellent touch!

A day of sweet, sweet indulgence.

I love food. I’m the type to experiment with all kinds of meals and sweets, and people usually ask me for recommendations when we go out to eat. However, I don’t really have an absolute favourite dish. I like many things… shrimps, lasagna, mushroom steak, cookies, brownies… but if you asked me to name my favourite kind of food, I couldn’t tell you. Yes, yes, I do love chocolate, but even then I couldn’t tell you my favourite brand/kind. 😉

I did come close to asking for seconds yesterday though. This has been a particularly stressful week in which I even had to work overtime, so I decided to reward myself on Friday with some sweets. An exceptionally bad week requires an exceptionally good treat, so I didn’t hold back.