Sometimes your Fridays look like this.

Frozen pizza, brownies, wine and cat food. I had to laugh at how happy spinster-ish this looked.

Susie's

My good friend Corey is leaving Tucson in a few weeks. As a sort of farewell, we've been hitting all of our favorite local eateries. This includes Susie's, a small sandwich place nestled in a mini mall next to the delightful Nadine's bakery.

Susie's speciality is Texas toast sandwiches named after famous artists. I usually get the Christo, ham and swiss with red onions. Corey's favorite is the Kahlo, chicken breast with prickly pear salsa. For $6.95 you get the sandwich, a bag of chips, and a frosted brownie from Nadine's. (If you don't want your brownie, I'll eat it.)

P.S. Susie's also stocks Yoohoo.

Muppet Bloody Mary!

Consuming Mass Quantities En Masse

My friend scored free tickets to "The Event," a wine tasting/beer tasting/foodie fundraiser. I'm rarely this happy, and it's always fun to say that some of the best steak you've ever had (Fleming's)- you've eaten off of a Dixie plate.

And for dessert, from the Frost stand, Nutella gelato with Bellini on top.

Lady Gaga Cookies

I can't say I'm a fan of the lady's music, but I do admire the time and creativity it took to make these cookies. I want to try the same thing, only with Jem costumes.

http://fashionindie.com/random-lady-gaga-cookies/

Tragedy

Red Velvet... cookies?

Somedays you're curled up on your couch and all you want in the world is a plate of warm cookies. This actually happens to me quite often and nine out of ten times I don't have all the ingredients necessary to make these cookies a reality. In the olden days I used to phone mom and squeeze her for substitution ideas. I've even been known to microwave old Chips Ahoy in moments of desperation.

The internet has changed my approach to last minute baking as I'm sure it has for lots of others. While googling a substitute for granulated sugar I came across a recipe in which you can use cake mix to make... cookies. It seems so obvious to me now I can't believe I hadn't tried it before. The recipe is ridiculously simple:

1 box of cake mix

2 eggs

1/2 cup butter

Add any kind of extra, I added mini chocolate chips.

Drop onto baking sheet, bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 min.

Sooooo simple! Red velvet cake mix is the only kind I had but I think it complimented the chocolate chips quite well. My friends and I were tossing around other ideas, like lemon cake mix with white chocolate chips. Or carrot cake mix with walnuts. Even devil's food cake with peanut butter chips. The possibilities are endless.

I can't report on the longevity of these cookies, or rather how well they keep. The cake mix made about 3 dozen and I was so proud of myself I gave away what I didn't eat.