it's official though- ThinkGeek is coming to syracuse! december 23rd is our grand opening! so you better come out. i had the opportunity to visit the buffalo store on monday, and will be going to the albany grand opening tomorrow. this place is made of magic. i am super excited.
work aside,i was able to sneak out a batch of these fancy space macarons! because galaxy themed is where all my favorite colors happen to be. they came out pretty great if i say so myself. it is hard to see in the pictures, but i totally had silver shimmer on them as well!work is going alright for the most part. i am still stuck at gamestop, meaning since we are owned by them, we are training our new employees with their registers, and are acting as free floating payroll to help the stores around us. the hours are whatever though, meaning it's like "make your own hours," which sounds great, but you have to pay attention to make sure you get them. also, training the part timers has been between 10a-7p, so it's pretty much the entire day. it's quite tiring, and i can't wait to have somewhat normal days again, although the recent weekends (or saturdays and sundays) off has been nice.
but then there's that motivation factor....to do stuff...or to stay home and relax?? lately i've chosen the latter, especially with this cold. blah. it's almost gone, at least.
that cheesecake though...
i spent over an hour poring through recipes and researching (kind of), what makes the chocolate hazelnut crunch cheesecake from the cheesecake factory. i think what i got came out pretty decent, but it is not quite there yet. that hazelnut crunch layer. i need to adjust that. probably more nutella on top, but my version is lighter than that of the chain restaurant's counterpart.
it was still pretty tasty, regardless. i let it cook slightly too long, too. i had stepped out for something (i can't remember for what), and thought i had enough time, but when i got home, the timer was going off. just the outer edge was a little over done, but the rest was fine.
this was of my own mish-mash of recipes! i used an extra thick graham cracker crust, a layer of crushed wafer cookies mixed with a little nutella (the "crunch" layer is like the inside of those ferrero rocher candies, which is mostly wafers with chocolate), a chocolate hazelnut cheesecake (i have a chocolate cheesecake recipe in another taste of home book, where i substituted straight nutella for the 6 oz of melted chocolate chips), a sweetened sour cream layer, and topped it all with a layer of nutella. thanksgiving dessert! because why not complete the day with a super indulgent cheesecake?
that sunday after the crazy weekend, ron and i went up to ontario orchards to cut down a tree! surprisingly, the weather wasn't too bad for the end of november, and we found a pretty good one, along with $20 worth of halfmoons, fudge, and apple cider donuts. you know, local bakeries and such, or rather farm stand? i don't know- the halfmoons were as big as my face so i had to get two- one chocolate and one vanilla. i can't say no to my favorite cookie of all time. he mostly wanted to say he used his roof rack, and to post a picture of the tree on top of his car. at least it wasn't a tire. today i was able to sit down and go through my recipes and decide on what i am going to make for my holiday baking list this year. a little late, but i'll most likely start them next weekend, or during that week around work. i have:
chocolate chip
chocolate italian cookies
mint chocolate pinwheels
chocolate orange biscotti
salted almond fudge truffles
yay! lots of chocolate! because holidays. i also plan on making a batch of gingerbread cookies for home.
with any luck, i may have some more to share, but in the mean time, thanks for reading! come back soon! ☺
**these were cupcakes for my boss, my other co worker baked them for him since i was leaving. my last weekend. XD
