This afternoon I discovered a new coffee shop near the local university.
It had a very indie/rock feel to it that had me feeling like a college student when I pulled out my laptop. It was fun to pretend I was back in school for a couple of hours. The iced coffee wasn’t bad either. 
I stayed for a few hours, then headed home when my battery life moved into the red.
A Quaker Smashbar (HLS swag!) acted as my snack on the way home
I’ve seen mix reviews on these, but I’m a fan. They taste like rice krispie treats and remind me of my childhood. I wouldn’t call them a ‘health’ snack, but I would call them a tasty one.
Dinner featured another HLS swag item – a box of the new Near East Quinoa Blend.
I followed the directions on the back of the box, then added roasted eggplant and chickpeas before serving it over a bed of spinach with goat cheese.
I like that Near East has dove into the quinoa market, it adds a little something to their typical products. The flavor was a little bland on it’s own, but once I added some salt and goat cheese – it came together nicely.
Dessert was the fun part of the evening.
This photo makes me laugh for too many reasons. 
I was trying to highlight that the dessert I was making was so delicious, that the bowl had to be licked clean.
Yum.
What was I making? Just a little recipe I found online from Martha Stewart for Lemon-Fig Cake.
The poor cake wasn’t very photogenic. I blame my ‘glazing’ skills.
The original idea came from Lisa in the comments of my afternoon post. She suggested adding fresh figs to a lemon cake mix (which is genius), but after a quick google I found this easy recipe from Martha Stewart and knew I had to try it.
I did make a few changes.
Like letting the figs soak in the sugar before I added them to the mix.
And using a cake pan because I’m not even 100% sure what a tart pan looks like.
I also created a glaze of powdered sugar, lemon juice, and milk for the top.
Next time I’ll work harder at evenly blending the clumps of powdered sugar.
I had a piece for dessert and nibbled my way through half of another one. Martha Stewart knows her stuff – this cake was great!
Unfortunately Derek revealed this evening that: A) he doesn’t like lemon cake and B) he doesn’t like figs. This made me very sad inside. Sniff. Sniff.
I still have a container and a half of figs left… thanks to all of your ideas – I now have an idea of what I’ll make next.
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