Pumpkin and Spice

It's almost time for me to leave Park City and come home to Florida- I fly home next Monday morning! I'm excited to be coming home, but I have had a great time here in Utah. I've been skiing, tubing, played in the snow, went to the Sundance Film festival, saw celebrities, went bowling, made new friends, and, of course, learned and experienced so much at my externship.

Up to this point, I've not mentioned the resort where I've been externing. I'm ready to break my silence, because I want to share some of the deliciousness I've experienced in the past five months with you. I'm happy to present you with a Deer Valley Ski Resort treat giveaway! Deer Valley is a luxury ski resort with Zagat's rated restaurants, and has been rated the #1 ski resort in North America by Ski Magazine.

I'm a big fan of the blog Cake Wrecks. The blog focuses on hilariously hideous professional cakes gone wrong. Ugly decorations, weird airbrushing, strange spelling mistakes... it's all there, and it's all so, so funny. It is everything I (as a professional baker) aspire not to be!

Every Sunday, though, Jen (the bloggeress), runs a feature called "Sweet Sundays". Every Sweet Sunday has a theme, and features beautiful, well-done cakes that reflect that theme. This week's theme was "The Undead Wed"- and the Goth wedding cake I made for my final project in my advanced cakes class was one of the featured cakes!

  A while back, I received a package in the mail, thanks both to the folks at Foodbuzz and Quaker, with an assortment of Quaker's newest granola bars. Called Quaker True Delights, these certainly aren't like the granola bars your mom used to tuck in your lunch as a kid! These are grown-up granola bars- rich, chunky and decadent. With no high fructose corn syrup, and only 140 calories each, these would be the perfect snack when you get that mid-afternoon candy craving.

I got two each of their three flavors, so I sent some to Kyle, who decided to be a good guy and share with his friends at work.

Here are my thoughts on the bars:

I was doing my weekly grocery shopping yesterday, and as I sometimes do, I wandered down the ice cream aisle to look wistfully at the frozen treats. I love ice cream, but I can't buy it here. My weird, tiny dorm-style fridge has a little "freezer box", but doesn't actually keep anything frozen. No, let me amend that- it doesn't freeze anything I want to be frozen (Lean Cuisines, Otter Pops, &c), but selectively freezes random items I don't want frozen (mustard, yogurt, apricot jam...) So, even though I don't buy, since I don't trust my fridge, I still like to look.

I especially like to look at the Ben & Jerry's flavors- I'm a big fan of the boys from Vermont, and I love scouting for flavors I haven't tried. Well, when I spotted one of their newest flavors, I was so excited I almost hyperventilated right there at the grocery store! The flavor? Mission to Marzipan- sweet cream ice cream with almond cookie bits and a marzipan swirl! Ben & Jerry's website says this about the new flavor:

I always think I don't have much of a sweet tooth... But I think I may be deluding myself. Really, what is a "sweet tooth"? It's just a label, isn't it? I do know that I'm impulsive and impatient, and I want what I want now- regardless whether it's candy or pizza or that cute dress at Betsey Johnson. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it) when the sweet tooth starts screaming, there's plenty of ways to quiet it here in Park City. Aside from work (which is where I get my cookie dough/lemon bar fix) two of my favorite sugar emporiums here in PC are Dolcetti's Gelato and Sugar Buzz Candy Boutique.

Dolcetti's Gelato