The post where I talk a lot about food (and a little about purses)

Today, I began my second venture with spaghetti squash.  I have understood that you can replace spaghetti with spaghetti squash in any recipe and it's supposed to be just as good.

It's not true.

While I think spaghetti squash can be a great substitute, you can't just serve it with marinara and expect people who hate squash to enjoy the dish.  You can, however, create cassaroles that keep the squash taste at a minimum (if that's what you're trying to avoid).

This is what my recipe looked like when I was finished.  You can find the original here.  I have never been good at leaving well enough alone, though.  I didn't have any of the cheeses and I can't have breadcrumbs so I just sauteed the onions, garlic, mushrooms and herbs, added cherry tomatoes and mixed a handful (or to taste) of shredded cheese with the spaghetti squash.  I made sure to top the whole thing with a bit of cheese and then I baked it according to the instructions (SO YUM!). 

Even Favorite, the perpetual carnivore, loved it.  Two carnivoristic thumbs up, people!  That's a win.

Tonight we went out to eat at our favorite pizza joint.

I have to limit the carbs so we usually end up getting very thin, whole-wheat crust.

Looks great, no?

And, even though you'll probably think this is weird, Favorite and I spent the rest of our date night doing something we enjoy:  grocery shopping.

 While shopping, we found something called a Grapple (pronounced grape-El).

It's supposed to be an apple that tastes like a grape.  We are curious people.  We thought you would benefit from our services on this front.

The following pictures chronicle the journey of the Grapple.

Favorite, daring as he is, gives the Grapple a shot...

Holy fruit, Batman.  It's an epic fail.

So there you have it.  Don't buy Grapples.  If I had to describe it, I would say that it tastes like watered-down grape kool-aid with absolutely no sweetener.  Total proof that man should not mess with nature.

But there was happiness on the horizon.

This would be a 6 cup Bialetti Moka Express.  Basically?  It's a stovetop espresso machine.  If you aren't excited by this purchase, then you can't possibly understand how much I LOVE coffee--particularly soy lattes. 

Now, with the additional purchase of a frother, I can make them at home.  Every day.  EVERY.  SINGLE.  DAY.

I cannot even explain the joyful sobs that are rising in my throat at this purchase.

*Sobbing*  I'd like to the thank the kind people at Bialetti for thinking of the little man--the little man who loves his (um...her) latte.  The little man who doesn't have a Starbucks in his (her) tiny town.  The little man who can't always drive 30 minutes to get a latte, and who was spending a ridiculous amount of time...

Oh...right.  Well, you can clearly see I'm excited about the purchase.

*Looks around uncomfortably*

And without any transition whatsoever...

You should've known that I wouldn't post something without including some information about purses, so here we go.

This beautiful, sleek piece is called the Melie Bianco S9-72 shoulder bag.

I love it.  It looks a little retro, which I love.  It's yellow, which I love.  It's completely pulled together and so elegant, which I LOVE.

Basically, I LOVE this bag.

The only thing that has kept me from this purchase is that the strap drop is 6.5 inches.  I'm not sure that's enough.  Generally, I like to look at a bag to make sure it's going to suit my purposes, but with Amazon's return policy, I may make an exception.

Plus, you're totally going to love Bianco's polka-dotted insides.  I do!

Then, there's this one-of-a-kind frame bag.

I found it on etsy (love that site), and fell in love with it immediately because it has an awesome throw-back look.  On top of that, it's handmade, and has an awesome interior (made out of a shirt).

The downside?  It's $170 with shipping.  Of course, I would pay that kind of money to have a one-of-a-kind piece of beautiful, but I would want to look over that piece of beautiful first.

So while it pains me, this purchase is just a little too risky. 

Oh...now I'm going to cry for an entirely different reason.

Well, at least I have the possible purchase of the Bianco bag to comfort me.

I just realized that someone should totally pay me to test out handbags and blog about them.  I could make someone a lot of money...or I could just get every bag of my dreams without paying for them.  I'd say win-win.