Spring Ahead and Enhancements!

Happy Spring to everyone in the blogosphere! What spring means to me:

• Time to start planning my herb/veggie garden.
• More daylight, which means I might be able to photograph things I cook after work. Natural light definitely makes food look the most attractive, so I am glad to have more of it!
• The start of grilling season. I really heart grilling, and we now have a sweet roof deck to grill on!
• My favorite seasonal produce. About now, I start dreaming about berries, melon, cherries, asparagus, basil, green beans, mint, strawberries, zucchini, and more. Drool.
• I'm getting married! By the time summer hits, I will already be a Mrs. !!!

And as for the enhancement, I wanted to let you know that I've made a nice addition to Consumed that I'm rather excited to share with you. Ready for it?

Drumroll please...(how does one type out a drumroll?)

At the end of each recipe post, there now will be a link to the recipe in printable format. Like so:

I told you this was exciting!

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be back-filling previously posted recipes. So feel free to revisit any of your former favorites to print off a copy for safe-keeping.

Happy spring, and I hope you have a delicious week!

Irish Potato Candy

As a resident of Philadelphia for over 5 years now, I've come to know a lot about foods that have roots in Philly. There's the cheesesteak (duh, whiz wit please!), root beer, the soft pretzel, the hoagie, Italian ice, Tastykakes, pork roll, Peanut Chews, and oh yeah — scrapple! (If you don't know what scrapple is, maybe just leave it alone...)

One more on the list of Philly faves: Irish potato candy.

There's nothing inherently Irish about these candies unless you count the fact that they look like potatoes. Note that they look like potatoes, but do not taste like potatoes. They taste like an injection of sweet, coconut-y deliciousness. Such a confused confection, no?

Monkey Bars

If you thought this post was about playground equipment, I hate to disappoint you! However, if you make this tasty bread, you might be willing to forgive me.

I brought this glorified (albeit delicious!) banana bread into work for our weekly staff meeting, where I made the mistake of calling it "monkey bread". Well, everyone got unusually excited, and I was confused by how my glorified banana bread managed to incite such a reaction. Turns out monkey bread is something else. Ever hear of it?

Restaurant Review: Sampan

My mom was at a conference for nurse practitioners right in Center City Philly — how convenient! I met up with her after work to do a little window-shopping and enjoy a little dinner. As we moseyed around, we found ourselves near the always-enjoyable 13th Street shopping.

Dinnertime approached, and we decided to be adventurous and try something new. The unique exterior of Sampan drew our attention, and we decided to give it a shot.

The restaurant had a very cool vibe, nice seating, and an urban feel. The tree wall (pictured above in the upper right) changed colors every few minutes, which was an unexpected touch. This restaurant also has a lot of different nooks throughout it — it seems like a fun place to have a few happy hour libations.

Speaking of libations, my favorite part of our dinner at Sampan was the delicious drink I ordered called Ume Tea. It was Pearl Plum Vodka, oolong tea, and lime, and man was it tasty. A delicious glass of home-brewed herbal iced tea is on my list of favorite things, so this was right up my alley.