Seein' Double

The veritable celebration of food and indulgence that is my trip home continues...

I finally got a southern classic and personal fav for breakfast yesterday:

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Scrambled eggs and quick grits. Not instant, mind you... Cain't go wrong ;)

In fact, they were so good I had the same meal this morning,

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**Photography side note: these 2 photos prove the insane difference between shooting in natural light and artificial. HOORAY for the sun!

which was quickly followed by breakfast part deux (no really, the plates were consumed about 30 minutes apart):

whole wheat pancakes with real maple syrup and butter

After a little downtime and online gift shopping- hello last minute- we headed to Columbia's first and only vegan resaurant, Lamb's Bread.

It's owned and run by a really sweet Jamaican-healer-vegan lady who makes everything herself.

I opted for a protein plate:

Meatless pepper steak (so spicy, so good), sweet potato souffle, kale and brown rice.

Try as I might to dig the kale, I'm just not into steamed or sauteed greens. I prefer my leaves raw and crunchy or juicified. Ah well, maybe one day....

After lunch, we went downtown, saw the lovely South Carolina state house and did a little more Christmas shopping

before stopping by a local deli to pick up a few hor d'oeuvres for tomorrow's annual Christmas Eve bash... somehow these ended up being ordered to go

  
Talk about double trouble....
                                                                                                                                                             

Godiva Chocolate Cake

                      Peanut Butter Pie

But man, it felt good to be bad.

One of the best things about having my little sister around?

I never have to worry about devouring the entire piece of cake alone ;)

Speaking of cake, you're probably wondering whatever happened with all that baking I mentioned the other day...

Well, a whole lot of yesterday was spent sifting through this:

my mom's never ending collection of cookbooks.

(for someone who claims to detest cooking, she sure has a lot of cookbooks... I'm not complaining!)

After a couple hours of searching, we finally decided upon our respective recipes.

Hers:

Rum balls

Nutty Fingers

Ice Box Cookies

Orange Pecan Cake

Divinity

Mine:

Hummingbird cake (for Christmas day festivities)

a take on Ashley's vegan chocolate graham crackers + royal icing

Reasons she's making more:

1. It's weird to cook outside of your own kitchen (especially when said kitchen's accoutrement lacks measuring spoons!!)

2. She's really good at the ice box cookie/ nutty finger thang (it's pretty much a Christmas tradition)

3. I'm on VACATION!

To kick off the baking extravaganza last night, mama gave divinity a go....

It didn't turn out quite right, so we're trying it again later this evening.

To give you an idea of just how off we were, the meringue-like candy's supposed to look like this.

Mmmmm... I smell the nutty fingers baking now.  

*Maddie's Southern Belle Tip of the Day: taste testing's essential when guests are coming over.

... I'm off to fulfill my daughterly duties ;)

Have you had any major flops in the kitchen so far this holiday season?