Five on Friday

1. OMG YES. The morning after our wedding we invited people to join us for brunch at one of my favorite restaurants in my hometown, Thelma's Chicken and Waffles. Last year when we spent a weekend in Montreal, we noticed that Southern food was kind of trendy there (weird, right?) and went to a little hipster dive for brunch that served us cheese grits, beignets, and, you guessed it, chicken and waffles. A former colleague and I have bonded over a shared love of chicken and waffles and spent a not-insignificant amount of time debating the merits of the Lay's Chicken and Waffles-flavored potato chip.

All of this is to say, I freaking LOVE chicken and waffles and will be making this cake at some point. Would it be weird to bake my own 30th birthday cake? Because this is the perfect birthday cake. Can you imagine it using Chick-fil-a chicken nuggets?!? Oh. Em. Gee. Next level deliciousness.

2. It's the time of year to start thinking about Christmas cards! Or at least it is for me anyways. And of course my annual goal of having somebody take a picture of us and the dogs to use for the card remains unaccomplished. I know there's still time, but we're going on 3 years of marriage and this has yet to be done. I'm doubtful. Anyhoo the past few years I have used LivingSocial or Groupon to purchase our cards. Or more accurately, I've purchased deals through them to get our cards. While I do love all the pretty paper happening over at Minted, I do not love all the $$$ they require for something that, at best, will be on someone's fridge for 3 weeks. The first year we did this, I got a Shutterfly deal, so it was a company I was familiar with and I had no hesitations about the quality or customer service. Last year I bought a Groupon to a company I had never heard of and I was a bit nervous, but our cards turned out great! The company was super nice and easy to work with.

 

This week, LivingSocial is running another deal. It's another company I haven't heard of or worked with, but a.) using the EXTRA10 promo code got my purchase of 70 cards down to about 37 cents a card and b.) the company has some seriously cute card offerings. I'm willing to take the risk. If you're willing to take the gamble as well, would you pretty please use my link so I can maybe get my cards for free? And then share the love with your peeps and get some free cards for yourself!

3. Pure Barre is coming to Burlington! I realize we're about 5 years late to this party, but I'm so excited to start classes when it opens in November. Any Pure Barre fans out there? Tell me how it has magically transformed you into a Victoria's Secret model so I can justify the price + early AM wake-up calls.

4. The most perfect scene from a walk with the dogs this week. Vermont fall is awesome. Sometimes it is very surreal to me that we actually live here. (Remind me of this feeling of awe and gratitude in 3 months when it's below zero out.)

5. Has anyone ever bought/used one of these molded loaf pans? I'm normally not a fan of kitchen things that can only be used to make one thing specific to a season or holiday, as storage space is at a premium in our teeny tiny kitchen. But pumpkin bread is one of my favorite fall treats to make and I've wanted one of these pans for years. A friend gave me a Williams-Sonoma gift certificate for my birthday and I'm thinking about pulling the trigger, but if they are a total pain in the ass to use (i.e. no amount of greasing and flouring gets the bread to come out looking like it's supposed to), I could still be talked out of it...