Coffee in the city...

Oh my where have you been!!?? Ok it is me not you... I have been:
A) busy graduating and writing papers
2) Having technical issues with blogger... (2 blog posts lost :( )

but enough with this non-edible mumbo jumbo!

With all this studying Coffee had been my best friend as of late.
Ice coffee and regular Starbucks lattes can get monotonous and bland... So if you are as bored as I was here are a few fun suggestions to keep you burning the midnight oil (or the morning oil for that matter)without burning out your tastebuds.

Tired of coffee all together but still want a little jolt?
Try Star Coffee Bar's maté Latte.
Yerba maté is a plant grown in northeastern Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil. It has less of a kick than coffee for me but does the trick when I need to stay up to meet a deadline. I prefer my maté late with soy :)
Star Coffee bar also has free Internet (yea!!) and if you still want your cafe au lait you are in luck, because they roast there own beans with care, you will get a perfect cuppa joe(soo much better than Starbucks).
Click here for more Star info

If you are looking for some espresso to kick your butt back into gear I recommend going to the new and AWESOME Wormhole Cafe in Wicker park.
They have amazing Vanilla lattes BUT I had the most amazing coffee based drink of my life there and it included Cayenne pepper. It was called 2 different things when i went the last 2 times but it included a shot of espresso, a bit o milk, agave syrup and cayenne pepper... Perfectly spicy and sweet :).
They also have unique teas. I had one that was made of the husks of Coffee Cherries... I was awake for 2 days after that!! wooo...
Click here for more info on Wormhole Ps. They also have free Internet annnnd they are open til midnight!!!

Ok Ta ta for now I still have a tad bit of work to do. But let me know where you get your cuppa joe....!

Ode to Bleeding Heart Bakery

I am a total Bleeding Heart Bakery Fan girl. This is not a new thing at all. I know they are all famous now,and one of the best bakeries in the country and Michelle and Vinny are practically TV stars, but when I first fell in love with the place it was over a mocha and a Oaxaca Brownie on Chicago avenue :). Spicy brownies oh HELL YES! I wasn't even about their now highly acclaimed cupcakes ( btw they are amazing!!) ... If they existed back then, I didn't even know it. I was all about that brownie and the lemon bar. It was true love until one day when I found out they were moving.... They where staying in the city but not by my house. It was a sad day indeed.

Well it was only sad until I started making the easy peasy trek to Belmont and Damen to their much bigger and prettier location. The quality is the same if not better and the crazy awesome flavor combos are the cats pajamas (did you say chocolate mole and corn cupcakes ooohh I can have curry on a cup cake too! yum!!!).

Some of my favorite things so far have been:
Mole Cupcake (made to honor Rick Bayless the Mole king and My b day cupcakes last year)
Carrot Cake Cupcakes (DJ Intel's fave)
Sweet potato Doughnuts
Oaxaca Brownies
Lemon bars (omg)
goat Cheese croissant
Strawberry basil orange cake ball
Oh by the way Cake balls are kinda awesome. They are NOT doughnut holes they are the pieces of cake that have to be trimmed off when they make their sculpted masterpieces mixed with delicious frosting-----ooohh ahhhh---- a must try.

Oh and did I mention that I just ordered a birthday cake for DJ Intel? well I did! And they did a wonderful job. I wanted to Zombiefy him on a Carrot Cake and it came out perfect!!
I would expect nothing less for the Challenge champs! Here is a pic:


ohhh here are some cake balls and cupcakes!!:


Now they are doing special Lemonades which and I am completely excited about! They always seem to have something new and amazing. To keep up to date you can follow them on twitter @bleeding_Heart Or go to the site www.thebleedingheartbakery.com or better yet just go to the shop and get your pastry on... :) (my preferred method)
PS they carry vegan and gluten free options!
PPS for my west suburban buddies they have a great location in Oak Park as well. fun times!!!! yey Pastries!