Each week I bookmark tons of fascinating recipes, trek to interesting food-related places, find neat kitchen tricks, and make unique little dishes. Willow Bird Weekly is a miscellany of stuff I’ve collected throughout the week that I hope you’ll find entertaining.

Stuff I Can’t Wait to Make:

–Red, White, and Blue Macaroni and Cheese on Taylor Takes a Taste
–Sour Cream Custard Brioche (Gâteau à la Crème Fraîche) on Not Quite Nigella
–Fourth of July Fruit Pops by Bakers Royale

Fourth of July Fruit Pops, photo by Naomi

–Melted Ice Cream Cupcakes by Confessions of a Cookbook Queen
–Bloomin’ Onion Bread by Buns In My Oven

Bloomin’ Onion Bread, photo by Karly

Places I Went and Stuff I Ate:

The Charlotte Food Bloggers had their first weeknight meeting this week at one of the 987,945,2532 local frozen yogurt (a.k.a. froyo) joints that now exist in Charlotte. We went to TCBY, which is pretty old school, but they’ve revitalized their restaurants to be hip and self-serve (with lotsa toppings) to match the new trend.

I was going to forgo the froyo because I usually try not to eat much sugar during the week, but I checked out the nutrition stats on the TCBY website and they were surprisingly reasonable. A half cup of their froyo generally has about 100-120 calories and 15-20 grams soluble carbohydrates. I got about 1/2 cup of no sugar added strawberry froyo topped with strawberries, raspberries, and mochi. It was tasty, and only $3.50.

The Food Blogsters and I had lots of fun talking about how awesome Tom Colicchio is, how not-awesome some other unnamed TV personalities are, and how one might go about getting a date with Cam Newton. Fun times!

Stuff That Rocks:

Barbara over at Barbara Bakes was craving hot dogs, so she did what any rational human being would do and made bacon-wrapped cheese hot dogs.

Bacon Wrapped Cheese Hot Dogs, photo by Barbara

I just have two words for you, Barbara, from me and everyone else heading into this summer holiday weekend: thank you.

You know what else rocks? MY TURTLE. My friend Erin pointed out that Byrd has shown up on WBB a few times now, but Squirt hasn’t made an appearance yet. Well, here’s Byrd’s handsome older brother, Squirt. He’s a 6-7 year old Red Eared Slider and he lives in a 140-gallon tank in my dining room. Love this little guy!

“I AM smiling.”

But also, Byrd is cute. And she loves flowers.

Another thing that rocks is that my lovely friend Jordan from Kitchen Karate just opened a new online shop, I’m With Cupcake! It has lots of adorable items, and from July 2 to 3, you can use the promo code willowbirdbaking to get 10% off a purchase of $30 or more before taxes and shipping. You can only use the promo code once per purchase and it can’t be combined with any other offer.

Congratulations on the grand opening, Jordan!

And Then There’s This:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sSK_iW6P8Q]

What fantastic recipes have you discovered online this week? What fun food experiences have you had? What ridiculous ways do you procrastinate?

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Each week I bookmark tons of fascinating recipes, trek to interesting food-related places, find neat kitchen tricks, and make unique little dishes. Willow Bird Weekly is a miscellany of stuff I’ve collected throughout the week that I hope you’ll find entertaining.

Stuff I Can’t Wait to Make:

–Cheesy Puff Pull Apart Bread on How Sweet It Is
–Cranberry Pistachio Butter Cups by Mommie Cooks (and just think of the possibilities: cashew butter! almond butter!)
–Chocolate Covered Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches by Sophistimom (via Good Life Eats)

Chocolate Covered Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches, photo by Jaime

–Strawberry Milk Whoopie Pies by Sprinkle Bakes
–Oatmeal Brownie Milky Way Bars by i am baker
–Peach Shortcake by Ezra Pound Cake

Peach Shortcake, photo by Rebecca

Places I Went and Stuff I Ate:

Today I grabbed my already-beloved copy of Hélène Dujardin’s Plate to Pixel (I know you’ve been hearing about it everywhere, and for good reason — what an amazing, all-encompassing resource for food photographers!) and headed down to the local French bakery for a book signing. Sweet Tartelette herself was there and is definitely even sweeter in person! It was wonderful to meet Hélène.

Thanks to Taylor Mathis for organizing the book signing, and to the lovely folks who showed up.

Speaking of people I love, I love this girl!

Ashley

I’ve mentioned Ashley on the blog before — she teaches Spanish at the school where I teach language arts and cooking. Ashley left Monday to spend her summer in her beloved España completing the first half of a masters program. Before she left, though, she and her parents threw a lovely fiesta with a delicious roasted pork tenderloin with rosemary, couscous, lots of fun appetizers and desserts, and my favorite part: what I like to call the flaming pineapple! I hear Ashley’s mom was responsible for the fantastic presentation of the grilled pineapple bites. Too fun, and what a good idea for folks who love to entertain:

Stuff That Rocks:

You may have heard about the total lunar eclipse that occurred recently, but I for one am more impressed by BraveTart’s Total Eclipse of the Tart. You have to go see it. You just have to. I hear in North America we have to wait until December to see the real total eclipse, anyhow!

Also, stacked pies. What?! Apparently people do this?! It’s pure insanity, and y’all know I like some to do some crazy stacking when I get the chance. Cannot wait to stack a pie or two or three!

Stacked Pies, photo by Karen

And finally, something that totally rocks and is news to me: geocaching! Has a worldwide scavenger hunt really been going on without my knowledge for ten years? Speaking as someone who never grew out of the thrill of an Easter egg hunt, I can tell I’m going to adore this. I love the idea of being able to leave messages and ideas for someone across time and space, to lead someone to important places and important conclusions, to weave webs between strangers.

What fantastic recipes have you discovered online this week? What fun food experiences have you had? Anyone out there participate in geocaching?

If you liked this post, please:
–Subscribe to Willow Bird Baking
–Follow Willow Bird Baking on Twitter
–Follow Willow Bird Baking on Facebook
–Give this post a thumbs up on StumbleUpon

Other ways to share this post with friends!