What my Thai fortune cookie told me

My super-tasty, Thai fortune cookie roll from Joy's Pattaya Thai Restaurant in Richfield, MN said:

Diligence is the mother of good luck.

And I said:

Fuck you, fortune cookie.

Way to perpetuate the worst of my obsessive, controlling, planning, worrying, analytical nature.  I have used arguments very similar to that fortune before in order to justify the worse of my nature getting the better of me.  Like when I can't stop worrying.  When I can't stop planning and trying to work out every last contingency.  When I can't stop trying to control everything.  And then my gremlin says in a honeyed voice from the back of my brain: its good to be prepared, that's how you weather the worst, that's how you make sure everything will be ok, by worrying and controlling and being diligent so you don't have to rely on luck! 

Most of the time, I realize its my gremlin talking and I say, "Fuck you, gremlin" just like I said to the fortune cookie.  Most of the time.  I don't doubt that it could be good advice for some people.  Just not me.  

What I recently found... around

This song on the radio by Imagine Dragons that is totally speaking to me today/right now in life:

These too-cute plushies which I want to make for Pretty Boy's mom someday, because its never too soon to be planning Halloween decorations/gifts:

This 2014 Mazda6 Skyactiv-D, which features a lower-than-normal compression diesel engine which allows the entire engine to be lighter and does not require expensive exhaust treatment systems, a concept that I'm kind of geeking out over.  Right now, I drive a manual transmission Volkswagen Jetta TDI which also has a diesel engine.  I absolutely love my car and occasionally experience separation anxiety from it.  I've put on most of its 128k+ miles, take great care of the engine, and plan on driving it to well over 200k, which is typical of a diesel engine.  BUT, if I had to get a new car, the Mazda6 would give the new VW diesels a run for their money in my book:

What I am excited about: Carrot Cake

This Easter, for the first time ever, I am an orphan.  This is super exciting.  My brother lives in California and my parents are going to visit him for a bit of a spring break.  I thought about calling aunties or grandmas and then I thought better of it.  Sunday is also the one year anniversary of my first burlesque performance so I will be celebrating with brunch at my house, hosting a couple of friends.  Twirly Skirt and Buddha Writer will be coming over for quiche, donuts, and at least one baked item from me.  I'm planning on carrot tea cake from my girl Martha Stewart.  No more trusting non-bakers for recipes.  This actually looks a lot like a banana bread recipe I love and can successfully make and I like that it's in a loaf pan.  That's about the only thing that I can see that makes it a tea cake.  I tried google and could only gather that tea cake is a spice cake.  Sweet Rush and I discussed and that's what she thought too...anyway, I'm hoping it's a delicious adventure!

What I am loving lately: Rockabilly

I love dancing.  I danced as a kid, suburban studio style and then quit when I hit those awkward teenage self-hating years because it really sucked being the little fat girl in the back row.  I came back to dance as an adult, first in one of those suburban style studios with my mom as a fun bonding experience.  Then, in my mid-twenties, I started taking salsa lessons with a friend and never quit.  My dance experience as an adult has taken me through time as a competitive ballroom dancer, teacher, social dancer, and burlesque performer.  One of the social/partner dances I do is east coast swing.  This is the type of swing you think of when someone says swing--big bands, tossing ladies in the air, twirly skirts, and fedoras.  The music really moves me--the more jazzy and swingy Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin style.  East coast swing can also be done to rockabilly music, but I've never really taken to it.  A live band is always good and helps the energy, but even then I don't get into it much.  Alt country is OK with me and some twang is much appreciated yet it's never hooked me.  However, this past weekend another burlesque performer recommended JD McPherson, who she had always liked, and Imelda May, who she found through another musician she found exploring music that I use for one of my acts.  Bettie B may be a rockabilly girl yet!!!  The artists are wonderful, boogie inducing, booty shaking, and have fabulous style.  I mean, look at Imelda May's hair!  And yellow dress!!!  AHHHHH!!!! 

What is blowing my mind today: young feminists

A friend sent me this teen TED talk by Tavi Gevinson and I really dug it.  Yeah, young feminist!  Yeah, Stevie Nicks. It also super makes me want to go find a clip of her appearance on the Colbert Report...

What is amusing me today

Because I'm in need of some amusement.

Life of a Pie - I read that book and I love pie.

Halfling and Wizard - Omg, Calvin and Hobbes, I miss you.

You're a Hoot - Owls are so trendy right now.  And I'm okay with that.  And this.  Because I love feathers and owls.

The Lonely Fox - I'd totally get this for Pretty Boy if it wasn't on an orange shirt.  And if I was spending money on those kind of things.  Or spending money at all. 

Banana Sock - Hilarious.  And it comes as a baby onesie.  I might die. 

What I cooked/baked this weekend: ..

Blueberry Jam from Real Simple Magazine

I used 2- 12 ounce packages of blueberries from Trader Joe's, lemon juice, a little more than 1/2 cup of sugar, and the right amount of salt.  The frozen berries went right in the pan along with everything else and cooked for a few minutes before I did the smashing.  I don't have a potato smasher so I had to mush up the blueberries with a spatula, which was stupid but it turned out fine.  This recipe doesn't have any pectin, which is what makes jam all jammy, so this turned out more like delicious blueberry syrup.  I'm tempted to try with other berries but I'm worried that blueberries have some magical ingredients that make them more suitable for this kind of "jam," but then again, the worst thing that can happen is that I'll make soupy but delicious berry syrup. Probably worth a go.

Spiced Chocolate Stout Cupcakes from Rachael Ray

And then, I tried a recipe from Rachael Ray for spiced chocolate stout cupcakes.  The cupcakes sounded amazing and looked super clever.  Plus, I wanted to make a fun treat for St. Patrick's Day, despite my lack of plans for green beer or whiskey drinking.  The cupcakes turned out tasting overly beer-y and not spicy.  Then, the frosting was not think and also tasted overly beer-y since it had been reduced and was extra pungent.  I tried adding lots of spices and some vanilla to fix the taste but nothing made it better.  I ended up dumping half out and trying over and over to get it to something that would not make me feel like I was licking the bottom of a 20 year old keg with a sprinkle of sugar.  It was a total fail, most of the cupcakes went in the trash.  I did eat a couple because it was my off day from my eating plan, but I did rip off the tops and put almond butter on them instead of the frosting and to cover up some of the bitter beer flavor.  This is not the first time I've been disappointed by Mrs. Ray, I'm afraid she might be too cheap to fully test her recipes and too lame to explain things properly if she has any tips/tricks and not good at baking.  I lamented this to Sweet Rush and Pretty Pie herself, and we all agree that she sucks.  I might give old standby Martha Stewart a try for some plain chocolate cupcakes, these One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes were suggested by Pretty Pie and like something I could do...although, how hard was it to replace water with beer and somehow those were gross but I truly blame the suck factor on Rachael Ray.

What is Blowing my Mind Today: Change!

Yes and Yes! is one of my favorite blogs and I'm constantly finding inspiration on her Web Time Waster links.  Today was no exception.  You see, I've been in about a six month period of shedding my old snakey snakeskin, looking for a new job, changing social circles, getting over a big relationship, and generally rediscovering BB. 

Of late, my attitude toward work has been passionately hateful at best.  It sucks my soul, squashes my individuality, and throws me into bouts of reckless unhappiness.  But I know that good things don't come to you when you're stuck in negativity, so on my good mental health days, I am able to seek out and let some mind-changing morsels sink in.  Today, Yes and Yes! posted a link to this brilliant article, Why Hating Your Shitty Job Only Makes It Worse.  Note to self, roses grow in shit.  I want to make a pretty desktop wallpaper of a lush rose garden with some schmaltzy script saying "Roses Grow In Shit" at the bottom for my awful work laptop to help me in manifesting a lovely new position outside of this place!

The other smashing link was to 15 Signs You Need To Make A Serious Change In Your Life from Thought Catalog.  I love the hints, top to bottom.  Yes.  All of the things.  And #13 is inciting me to just get out there and do what needs to be done.  A life isn't going to spring up on your front step--do it!

1. You hate your job. You’ve hated your job for a long time now. Every time you see your friends, you tell them how much you want to quit but at this point, they’ve stopped believing you. Just do the damn thing already. Yes, it’ll be terrifying at first but so is wasting years of your life doing something you’re not passionate about. No risk, no reward.

6. Your penis or vagina has been neglected for quite some time now. It’s a borderline orphan at this point. Will someone PLEASE adopt it?

12. You find yourself complaining about the same things you were a year ago.

13. You’re scared of change, even though you know it’s the only thing right now that has the ability to make things better.

What I want to cook tonight

These quinoa muffins from MarthaStewart.com, with a disturbing amount of substitutions because I am currently refusing to go grocery shopping for baking staples such as all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vegetable oil, and milk.  And yet, I continue to bake.

Here's my current plan: I have some Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten Free Baking Flour, some rye flour, some teff flour, and some ground flaxseed meal to use for flour.  I've got raw granulated sugar and cane sugar syrup to sub for the usual sugars.  I'll use butter instead of the oil, because I seem to never run out of butter but we are even out of olive oil right now.  I'm not sure about the milk.  I might have a can of coconut milk hiding somewhere or I might have some powdered milk left over from when I made Momofuku's cornflake cookies.  But I've definitely got raisins.  I'll let you know how that all goes.  At least my muffin pan is unpacked.

Cookbook that I am loving right now

For Christmas, I was given Chloe's Kitchen, a vegan cookbook from Chloe Coscarelli who is the only vegan to have ever won a reality food competition.  She won cupcake wars with vegan cupcakes competing against traditional cupcakes and chefs.  Have to admit, I was impressed.

While I was initially resistant to the idea of vegan baking, frugality and a lack of eggs in the fridge prompted me to try a number of her baked recipes.  And I've been thrilled and amazed by the results.  I haven't made many of the savory and more meal type things yet, but I'm planning too after trying the baked recipes.  My favorite right now is the cinnamon espresso chocolate chip cookies.  Yum!

What I rewrote

I found this coloring print out from the Tried and True blog and at first really liked it and as well as what Young House Love did with it.  It super cute, right?  So I printed it out and Pretty Boy and I (who both love to color) both colored one, and then I started thinking about what it really said.  "I love everything about you."  "Everything!?" I thought.  No, that's most definitely not true and most definitely unrealistic.  I love Pretty Boy, but there are times when I don't love everything about him and I think that's perfectly normal and acceptable in a relationship.  (Think beer breath and other bodily functions that boys like to laugh about.  Think borrowing my car and leaving the steering wheel sticky, every time!  Certainly not deal breakers, but certainly not loveables either.)  I think it is an unattainable goal to set to expect someone to love everything about another at all times.  It also connects over-arching love with small-detail love.  That sounds like setting one's self up for failure. 

So the sentiment I agree with but the exact wording, I do not, and I decided to rewrite it to embrace how Pretty Boy and I want to express our love: "I love everything that you are."  And that's true always.  Even when he has really bad gas. 

Things I love today: Polka Dotted Bike!

From Etsy

What is making me insane: Mercury in Retrograde

Right now, until Sunday, Mercury is in retrograde.  And I am a Virgo.  That means my ruling planet looks like it's going backwards (due to the Earth's and Mercury's orbits) and my world, especially where communication and technology are concerned, is going BANANAS.  The other area that usually goes all out of whack is travel but it has not been shaken up by this phenomena. 

So far, my internet at home has crashed and burned and my phone was the latest victim.  I got a wireless router and it does not connect so my dreams of proancing around with my laptop have been dashed, but also, I can't connect to the internet at all!  I gave up entirely last night and put the dumb router thing away and went back to wasting time in a static position.

My phone has not been charging properly so they made me do a factory reset...and even though my information was supposed to have been backed up, it wasn't and into LaLa Land went loads of contacts, apps, and delightful ring tones. 

I have been following the advice of my favorites, the Astro Twins and tying up loose ends and getting clear on what I want for the future.  Moving forward has become a primary focus in not only my career but in my personal life.  I have gotten rededicated to my 33 before 34 list, decided to change up my social activities a bit and am still (in fits and starts) getting rid of clothes, books, and junk that have been clogging up my home forever.  But Sunday cannot come soon enough!  I'm hoping that with a new phone battery and hopefully some more help with my computer and of course, a planetary realignment, things can get going.

How I get by: With a little help from my friends (and banana bread)

Whenever I need help from a friend, I let them know that I pay in banana bread.  I am working on my list of 33 things as one needs to be completed weekly in order to finish.  To get things going easily, I picked something that I thought was going to be as easy as buying something and quickly installing so I headed to MicroCenter to get myself a wireless router.  First of all, they need more nerds working there as it was very difficult to find any assistance.  My friend the Boy Wonder was more helpful via text than the person I finally found after 15 minutes of wandering aimlessly/getting pissed.  I did eventually get a router and tried to install it myself but I have a MacBook that is OLD and also little/no expertise when it comes to computer stuff.  I tried a few things and eventually went to bed as I was getting stressed and wanting to eat all of the things. 

So, the Boy Wonder is going to set up the old router so I can dance around with my laptop and I made this wonderful and scrumptious banana bread from Fresh Loaf as payment.  It uses yogurt and tons of mushy bananas, so it turns out absolutely creamy, moist, and delicious.  I can't wait until it's hooked up and the bread is away so it's not tempting me anymore!

What I am working on: New Employment

This post by rapper Blueprint reminds me of why it's so important to be working on what I am working on, getting a new job.

"This lady was having a bad day – and probably has them very often judging by how she dealt with it – and her energy was contagious. Clearly, she is unhappy with her job and needs to be doing something else for a living.  As to what that “something else” is, I have no idea.  Only she knows.  I only know that she needs to change asap.

The entire experience made me think that if you hate your job, you should change it.

Not just for yourself, but because of what that kind of energy does to everybody around you.  I only dealt with her for 15 minutes. I could only imagine what her family and friends feel like after dealing with her when she gets home every day from that job.  It’s very easy to view being unhappy or depressed as something that only affects us, but that’s far from the truth. Energy is contagious; positive and negative.  Meaning, the way we feel and the energy we project effects our reality and the people around us.  A negative attitude is cancerous, metaphorically and literally.  It spreads into the people around us and brings them down, and it can actually cause you to get physically sick.  That’s all bad."

My perspective on many things is totally skewed by the fact that I am not happy at my job currently so I am working, for me and for those who have to deal with me, to change that situation.  I write gratitude lists, say affirmations, and apply for jobs like mad to help change my energy over to the positive.  Upward and onward!

What else I baked: Honey Beer Bread

I sent a text to a friend yesterday "I don't know what all this baking is about" and then after the bread turned out SO SO SO delicious and nummy and buttery and stuff your face scrumptious, she replied "Perhaps that is what the baking is all about"  Indeed, it is.

This honey beer bread seemed like a good way to get rid of the orphan weird beers I have left in my fridge, so I indulged more baking yesterday afternoon. I used a Brau Brother's Strawberry Wheat (I told you it was weird) and since it was sweet, I thought dried fruit might be good.  I had a tiny amount of dried cranberries so I threw those in and then I remembered I had walnuts.  OOOoooooh yea, cranberry walnut honey strawberry beer bread.  No matter that there's half an effing stick of butter dumped on the bread as well.  It was absolutely incredible.  I even was smart and didn't put the butter on the top until it was mostly baked so it didn't get all burned and gross.  It was not too sweet from the strawberry beer nor from the cranberries, I probably only put in a good handful as it was all I had left, so maybe 1/3 of a cup, and it turned out oh so malty and buttery and carby-wonderful.  I have one more strawberry beer and a stout, I'll have to do some googling and see what else might be tasty in those versions!

Update 3/11/13:
I made this bread with molasses because I had eaten all my honey and a random stout from the fridge--OMG, so delicious.  Of course, it was a bit more brown but that was to be expected.  It's official, you cannot eff this bread up and it's positively amazing.

What I baked: Nutella Brownies

I love Oprah.  More specifically, I love Oprah magazine.  Luckily, I let myself splurge a whole $5 on a magazine subscription around Christmas last year so I have recently started enjoying not waiting until someone brings their heavily thumbed copy into work.  There was a recipe for Chocolate Hazelnut (duh, Nutella!) brownies this past month that I have been thinking about a lot lately, so when I got an invite to a birthday potluck and didn't have a lot of time to make anything involved, the Nutella brownies were my first choice.

My pin of these brownies is hilarious, it's a photo of the recipe in the magazine.  Oh. so. low-fi.  I have learned to trust recipes from sources like magazines, food websites, and other places where it's reasonable to assume they have money for research and a test kitchen.   Food blogs can be extremely hit or miss and Pinterest is way sketchy.  Anyway, the recipe is super simple and as I trust Oprah with sweets (and money to fund research on them!), I went for it.

Oprah's Nutella Brownies

1 jar Nutella (about 1 1/4 cups)

1/4 cup water

2 eggs

2/3 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350.  Line an 8' pan with foil.
Whisk together first Nutella, water, and egg. 
Stir in flour and salt.
Transfer to pan and bake 20-25 minutes, until edges are just set.  Set aside and let cool completely.
Using foil to lift, remove from pan, cut, and serve.

I added some cinnamon because I am Mexican and want to put cinnamon in everything, plus I was worried they'd taste a little flat.  They turned out pretty delicious, nothing to freak out over like brownies from my friend Sweet Rush, who won the freaking Blue Ribbon at the MN State Fair, but still good.  She was not there to judge, I sort of wish she would have been as the resident expert!  There were boys at the party and we all know they'll eat anything, plus a girlfriend who doesn't do a lot of sweets.  The cinnamon helped the flavor somewhat but I think next time I might get creative on them and add some tiny chocolate chips, hazelnuts, or even some dried cherries (thanks, Google).  They were more of a cake texture rather than fudgey, I might look into gooing them up a little too as I find that more appealing.  Also, they were rather flat in the pan, I guess I am used to the big American slabs of brownie but that's probably due to the physics of Nutella or whatever.  I enjoyed Oprah's recipe as did the birthday girl and friends at the potluck, her boyfriend took most of the leftovers so he must have liked them or had a good idea of where to get rid of them.  Yay!

What I (didn't) eat: 3 Day Winter Detox

After participating in a weekend long dance festival, birthday parties, an infection in my face that made me look like Sloth for a few days, I decided it was time to treat the ol' body right.  I found a light 3 day winter detox on Mind Body Green that basically focused on eating whole grains, lots of vegetables and some delicious blueberries and decided to give it a try.  It also allowed sweet potatoes, which I am obsessed with eating, featured a little juicing which I also like to supplement with drinking as a part of breakfast, and some exercise.  My acupuncturist always tells me I'm too weak to do a cleanse and I need to be building myself up rather than taking away nutrients from my depleted body but as this one looked pretty simple and hearty, I ignored his advice.  I also had my trainer from Fit Body Boot Camp take a look at it and she thought it looked like a good and safe bet.

So, I went grocery shopping and bought up all of my vegetables and protein--I decided to go vegan for the 3 days so tofu and walnuts it was (plus I don't like chicken and reheating fish at work seemed like a terrible idea)--and decided to go Wednesday through Friday.  As it turned out, it was the 3rd anniversary of my friend Mikael the Mime's death the day prior so I would be fully loaded with toxins when I started.  I'd had 2 glasses of wine, 2 bittersweet chocolate cookies from Rustica, a whiskey cider and who knows what else when I got home.  Unfortunately, I was not very organized the first day but still got everything I needed done as far as cooking quinoa and brown rice, blending a smoothie, making juice, and gathering supplies, and made it to work on time. 

The first day I felt a bit crap but that was due to the late night on Tuesday plus all the delightful toxins I had ingested.  Also, there was a limit to only one cup of green tea so it may have been caffeine withdrawals as well.  I don't normally drink coffee but I drink a ton of tea, but it's anyone's guess on which combination of these was at work.  Day 2 was much better, I was feeling good, clean, and not deprived at all.  I sporadically use My Fitness Pal and my calorie intake was just about what it normally is and I was noticing that I was not feeling as deprived, confused, or generally gross like on other detox programs.  Eating vegetables, whole grains and a ton of blueberries seemed like something I might be able to sustain or throw in on a regular basis.  By day 3 I was totally acclimated to eating this way, not annoyed by the restrictions, nor was I sick of the vegetables because you could eat any type you wanted.  Overall, I felt good and like my body was happy.  My skin looked pretty and my energy level was alright, I was mostly tired from what kept being unintentionally very late nights but was otherwise fine.  I was able to work out and do yoga. 

It was a very successful cleanse, which I completely broke the next day at the grand opening of the gym by having champagne before 10 am, going to a birthday party and eating pizza and Nutella brownies, and about a ton of chips.  My body was displeased on Sunday.  It was lethargic, heavy, bloated, and generally cranky.  Even on Saturday night, every time I ate a chip, I felt my body getting salty, puffy, and dirty.  I might have to try it one more time before it turns to spring and look for a different seasonal cleanse! 

Here's my very Virgoan recap of pros on cons for what I think is a pretty great winter detox.

Pros

• Very simple to follow if organized!
• No need to buy a bunch of weird, hard to find stuff.  All vitamins were right there at Trader Joe's.
• Calorie intake similar to normal
• Encouraged working out/sweating (I had no trouble completing my regular level of activity and work out schedule)
• Protein!  I think this translated to no extreme hunger or kooky side effects

Cons

• Juicer required (luckily I have one)
• No eating after 7pm.  Sometimes I'm not even home at 7pm, I did end up cheating on this one as I was really hungry after working out and thought I'd rather eat than starve my muscles. 
• One cup of green tea!?  Cheated on this one as well, but usually by one or two cups only.  It didn't say anything about herbal so I drank it anyway.
• Not super detox-y.  If you are looking to really get rid of *everything,* this is not the cleanse for you but it was just fine for me!

Yeah!  Onto more Nutella Brownies!!!

What I drank: An ocean of hot chocolate

Inspired by the City Pages and my extremely high expectations of hot chocolate, I packed up my lady adventure friends Twirly Skirt, lover of all things chocolate, and Sweet Rush, baking side hustler and State Fair Blue Ribbon Award Winner for brownies, for an afternoon of hot chocolate tasting.  It was silly and wonderful, full of inappropriate conversations, Instagram photos, and there will be many more ladyventures to come! 

Kopplin's

Our first stop was Kopplin's, all the way across the river.  It was delightfully warm, humid with steamed up windows even, and the three baristas totally played along when Twirly Skirt and I told them about our planned adventure, my horrible failure at making some gluten free peanut butter cookies (don't do it, they make a puddle of goo and are gross to boot), and were generally happy to chat all the while promoting their beautiful pastries and hot chocolate.  I loved it that they played along with our craziness and was glad to know that they read food blogs and knew they were on the list for Best Of hot chocolates.  They told us that we'd probably want to stop right there and not head to any of our other destinations, which all three of us were thinking as well.  We got a regular hot chocolate and a dark hot chocolate, plus a cookie because it was gluten free and from Rustica so it was going to be scrumptious.  Both hot chocolates were rich, think, and delicious but were a little flat to me.  I wanted to put cinnamon in both, especially the dark and I went to find some but all they had was sugar ans Stevia.  I had to hide my mission failure by getting 1000 napkins.  Boo.  I was impressed by the thickness and real live hearty chocolatey-ness of both and we were off to a great start.

Cafe Latte

We all admitted when arriving that we were surprised to see Cafe Latte on the list.  The place is known for sweets and kind of a high end fast food atmosphere; it mostly is noisy, chaotic, reminds me of my 2nd worst boyfriend ever, and stresses me out but we were willing to give it a go.  There were a zillion flavors so we went with the generic hot chocolate, Nutella (per request of Twirly Skirt), and the Swiss Almond something that Sweet Rush would skip Sunday school to drink.  The servers did not play along when we told them about our hot chocolate tour, they had no idea that they were featured in the City Pages or anything, but they were probably just two of many making their hot chocolate out of water and powder who worked there.  The hot chocolates were so pretty, probably the most aesthetically pleasing of the day but SO gross.  Oversweetened, overhyped and seriously just gross.  We did not finish any of them and took many sips followed by "I don't know why I'm drinking this!" They tasted like hot chocolate for spoiled children.  Awful.  The most palatable to me was the Almond thingy, but ew, it was like eating McDonalds.  We didn't finish any of them, not even half of at least 2 of them.  Ugh, I don't even like to think of it. 

Segue Cafe

After the stress and disgust of Cafe Latte, we were so relieved, relaxed and happy at the Segue Cafe.  We were also really sugared up at this stop and the awesome barista (who was sporting an I Love Waffles belt!) was fun, indulged our silliness and was very helpful in our buzzing confusion about whipped cream.  We got a regular hot chocolate and a Mexican because I can't not get anything Mexican to honor my roots and generally be obnoxious.  Also, I love the flavors they call "Mexican" cinnamon spice yumminess.  We settled into what seemed to me a typical 1990s college coffee shop and drank some very, very delicious and satisfying hot chocolate.  The Mexican was incredible, easily my second favorite and the plain hot chocolate was almost equally as good.  It was sweet and rich and scrumptious.  Absolutely wonderful!  These were the first two hot chocolates we finished completely, they were that wonderful!  The other girls liked the chocolates, Twirly Skirt wasn't into the Mexican as much but this stop for sure restored our dedication to our mission.

Taraccino's Coffee

By this time, we were full of sugar and girliness and Instagrams.  The barista at Taraccino's reminded me of my super hippie yoga teacher and she was just as laid back and right-on-y as a barista should be.  She was interested in our silly mission and was glad to have a goofy chat with us.  We were onto sharing just one small hot chocolate at this point.  Unfortunately, it was served in a paper throw away travel cup and lost serious points for not being pretty.  Sweet Rush thought it was sour, Twirly Skirt and I thought it was fine--better than Cafe Latte for sure--totally drinkable, but nothing incredible.  The best part of this stop was probably our stop at Bibelot where I got obsessed over some sparkly rings and a bumble bee mug.  Anyway, the hot chocolate might not have blown our minds but it was good and worth the stop.

Rustica

We finally made it to Rustica, it was starting to get dark and close to closing time so they were out of many of their gorgeous pastries.  I am obsessed with their Bittersweet Chocolate cookies so I was hopeful the hot chocolate would end up being around as good as Kopplin's and Segue.  We ordered one small hot chocolate for the three of us as we were over sugared and sloshing around at that point.  We all took one sip and were convinced, absolutely the best of the day.  This is what we were waiting for--rich, slightly sweet, absolutely incredible.  We were smitten.  And the cookie combined with the hot chocolate should have been too much, but it was delightful in absolutely every way.  We put this one down quickly and easily, even pondered getting another hot chocolate but decided we needed real food more than another chocolate, even though it was amazing.  We headed to Punch Pizza knowing that we'd found the winner!

Bettie B's Official Top 5
1. Rustica
2. Segue Cafe Mexican Hot Chocolate
3. Kopplin's Regular Hot Chocolate
4. Tarracino's
5. (more like 25 or 50 or 500...so bad!) Cafe Latte