There Are Cupcakes in this Post (Fri 17 Sept 2010)

(Side note: The title of this post is patterned after the children's book There Are Cats in this Book by Viviane Schwarz.  It's delightful, and one of Thing 2's favorites.)

Or, as Susan EB Schwartz said so eloquently in the comments over on MizFit today, "Everything in Moderation, Including Moderation...and even THAT should be moderated!"

As you may remember from yesterday, I've been spending a lot of time feeling physically hungry, whether my blood sugars indicated that I needed food or not.  Like yesterday evening: 88 is normal, and my stomach was going nutso.  It's good that I awoke at 98.  Normal, non-hungry people have blood glucose levels at those amounts, even lower after a good night's sleep.  And yet, I felt famished.

Breakfast [Not shown]: Good ol' spackle, and tea.  Had the usual mug of coffee, too.  (Sorry, in a fit of deleting food photos, I seemed to have dumped this one!)

At school we saw one of the hugest banana slugs I've ever seen. (No, this wasn't on the menu! ;-)  It was nearly as long as my hand, which with its Amazonian proportions, shows you how long this one was (nearly 7 inches)!

Did you know that banana slugs love dry cat food?  I know this because I used to live in the Santa Cruz mountains, and they were always getting into Elsie's cat food.  (I don't think this one's going to find any here.)

At work:  regular coffee with half-and-half, plus some nuts.  I think the hunger yesterday made me feel anxious, because I noticed this sort of tight feeling even though I wasn't strictly hunger, and it relaxed a little when I gave myself a little more nuts.  Curious.

Spackle usually holds me pretty well, but I used only half of the usual amount of flax (I'm out!) and I think that may have made a difference.

Ah, that's better.

Lunch adventure:  Awhile back, Mr. Handsome-and-Handy and I ate lunch in Burlingame and took a stroll down the avenue.  We resisted the pull of both Teacake Bake Shop and Bev Mo; I think Teacake was the better victory, because it smelled so darn good.

This was months ago.

Today, I was feeling tired: Tired of routine, tired of fighting off the ravenous hunger feelings plaguing me, tired of sore muscles.  Tired of fighting the urge to go do Whole Foods and shop.  Tired of leftovers, even good ones.

I really just wanted a burger and a mini cupcake.

So I went to Burlingame for lunch, and the whole outing was a feast for the senses.  My favorite classical music piece, "Prelude of the Afternoon of the Faun," came on the radio as soon as I got in the car.  The outing was great already!

Before I ate, I walked the length of the avenue, and took in the sights and sounds and smells.  Did you know that "expensive" has a scent?  I caught whiffs of it as I passed the tony shops.  There were hoards of moms lunching with tiny children at a Danish bakery, and the kids oooh'd and aaaah'd over the Disney-themed cakes.  "Hugh Jass" salads must have been the special du jour at most of the restaurants, because I saw them on nearly every table at every sidewalk eating place.  A woman rode past on a pink cruiser-style bicycle.  Stylish people strolled, tiny dogs bounded along on their leashes.

There was interesting merchandise...

Va-va-voom!  Love that red dress on the left.

Can you guess the name of this store?

Wow, my burger was going to be bucket-list worthy?  Must be, if Oprah says so. Let's see...

Hmmm...kind of makes me wonder what's in regular cow food, if cows being fed "all-natural vegetarian feeds" deserves mention.  (This purveyor is locally known for having quality beef.)



A good sign.  Two is my lucky number.

Oh, heck yeah, this was definitely worthy!  Yes, there is a cheeseburger underneath the grilled onions and bacon. I sorta wanted to try the sweet potato fries, too, but I was saving my carb for my cupcake.  FWIW, the buns on others' burgers looked nicely grill-toasted but were your standard white bread with sesame seed bun.

Finally, hunger satisfied!

I still wanted my cupcake, though.

Here's the place!  It's funny, the Yelp reviews were down on the staff, but everyone seemed cheerful and friendly.  I missed getting a picture of these adorable pink frosted cupcakes.

Oh, the possibilities!

If this doesn't scream "gourmet," you aren't listening.

This might not look like much quantity-wise (or photo-wise), but crikey, that's a very satisfying little cupcake.
The cake was nice and moist, top quality vanilla, and quite dense.  The chocolate frosting tasted very chocolatey. What I liked was that I tasted the flavors (vs. cheap, unworthy cupcakes, which taste more like sugar and fat than actual flavors).

And here's where logic and cost-effective thinking failed: my "what was I thinking?" purchase.

While I sensibly bought the mini, I really wanted to try one of the chocolate cake with chocolate frosting ones, but I didn't want to buy a full-sized cupcake.

Explain to the class how buying the box of five day-old cupcakes makes sense in this scenario, Pubsgal?

[squeek squeeek, squeek squeek -- sound byte of the gears of my brain straining under pressure]

After some thought, I jettisoned two in the breakroom, and kept three to take home: identical chocolate/chocolate ones for Things 1&2, and from what I read on the site, I kept the cinnamon & Mayan chocolate one for the Mr. to try. So I'll sample a little of theirs without having to eat an entire cupcake.

So you know the "habit energy" that keeps us in a day-to-day routine and makes us reluctant to branch out and do something different?  Well, it can work for you, too.  My outing was only 5 miles away, but just inconvenient enough to make it a novelty but not a regular thing.  Whew!

We tried some of the new local Chinese place's food for dinner.  (This stuff will be making an appearance tomorrow.)  Yum!  The sauces tasted a little different that are usual for these dishes; it reminded us more of the flavor of Mongolian barbecue, but nevertheless tasty.

So, the evening cupcakes.  The kids enjoyed the chocolate ones.  Thing 1 shared a bite of the cake part, and the chocolate cake was quite tasty, too.  Mr. H&H and I were rather disappointed with our taste of the cinnamon/Mayan chocolate.  It tasted like spice cake, but the frosting was nothing special.  (I could hardly tasted the chocolate in it, which probably wouldn't have tasted so great with spice cake.)  We threw out the rest after each having a bite.  Thing 2 didn't finish hers, so I got to taste the chocolate cake with the chocolate frosting.  It's weird, but I didn't enjoy it much.  I usually love chocolate + chocolate, but it seemed a little overwhelming with these.  Maybe the frosting:cake ratio on the big cupcakes was a bit off for my taste.