Thursday, July 03, 2008
Stars & Stripes
I'm off to San Francisco for the weekend! Have a wonderful, sparkling holiday weekend for my readers in les Etats-Unis!Labels: holidays, photolog
Monday, May 12, 2008
Try, try again
First, I come bearing a cake. A lemon raspberry cake frosted in cream cheese, inspired by Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake. (If I ever tear myself away from buying feathered headbands on Etsy, I really ought to get myself a copy of Baking: From My Home to Yours).
Now, the original recipe called for a velvety, frothy meringue-type frosting, which I attempted to make. Mine was terribly wet, which would have been a nightmare to attempt frosting with. I think I made some missteps in the initial whisking of egg whites and sugar over heat until a meringue develops - does anyone have any good hints on this? I need Food Network to show me how to make things!
So I used part of the meringue frosting for the filling, which was wonderful, and then whipped up the delicious & reliable cream cheese frosting. I dumped the rest of Frosting A on the first cake. Yes, I said the first cake.
It was about 9pm on Saturday night when I set about making this perfect party cake for Mother's Day. Shortly before 11, I discovered that my cakes were flat as pancakes in the oven. Ryan helped me realize that I had put in one teaspoon instead of one tablespoon of baking powder. He kindly went off to the store to get me more sugar, butter, and cream cheese; I pouted and threw my fists into the couch. When he got back, I set upon a second cake - and finally put the last raspberry on at about 1:30am.
I got many compliments on it the next day, but it tasted a bit bread-y instead of cake-y to me. Which is confusing since I bought pastry flour to try out for this recipe (I couldn't find cake flour at the Whole Foods). Pastry flour is only within a few percent of protein-content as cake flour, so maybe that particular brand was a bust. At any rate, it was still quite a perfect spring party cake, and I'd be happy to try it again.
Spring Party Cake
(adapted from Baking: From My Home To Yours)
For the cake:
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 Tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz. package of cream cheese
3 Tbsp of unsalted butter
2 cups of powdered sugar
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1/2 cup of lemon juice
For Assembly:
1/2 cup of raspberry preserves
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sift together flour and baking soda in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Whisk together buttermilk and egg whites in a separate bowl. Set aside.
4. In your main mixing bowl, mix the sugar and lemon zest until the sugar is nicely infused.
5. Beat in butter until sugar and butter mixture is fluffy.
6. Add in extract, mix.
7. Alternate mixing in a third of flour mixture and third of buttermilk mixture while mixing, beat for a full 2 minutes after until fully integrated.
8. Divide between two buttered 9" round cake pans, spreading and smoothing with a spatula.
9. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until toothpick (or chopstick, what have you) comes out clean.
For the frosting:
1. Beat cream cheese and butter together on medium speed until creamy and integrated.
2. Mix in lemon zest and juice.
3. Slowly add in powdered sugar while beaters are on slow speed, until it's a thick, spreadable consistency.
Once the cakes are done, let them cool completely (about 30 minutes) before setting them on a plate for assembly. Lay one cake face down for the bottom layer, spread the raspberry preserves about 1/2" in from the edge (add a layer of frosting here as well, if you'd like). Prop the second cake, upright, on top. Frost & decorate accordingly. Enjoy.
 Labels: foodie call, holidays
Monday, April 28, 2008
Vampire Squids for a Golden Birthday
Today is Ryan's birthday. I got the idea for painting the wrapping paper for his gifts when all the paper I found at Target was totally lame, and then stumbled across a roll of plain brown paper. Like most of the time, I get my best ideas at the last minute (Saturday). Since he has a penchant for Vampyroteuthis Infernalis, aka Vampire Squid from Hell, I painted a few on. I really love the way they turned out. Now I can't wait to go out to dinner tonight!Labels: arts+crafts, holidays
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
When Retro isn't awesome.
After learning about Mercury being in retrograde these past few weeks, everything is making sense to me. All the communication breakdown, the complications that came out of something as simple as TRYING TO RENEW MY SEVEN YEAR OLD DOMAIN (don't panic if this goes down for a day or two, I'm trying my best to prevent that), and the more heightened-than-usual need for solitude and overall hermitness.
In other news, Happy Birthday to annplified.com! We're 7 years old (+ one day, technically)! Oh the things that this blog has seen me through; for better or for worse.Labels: holidays, mean reds
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Luck Dragons & a Valentine's Mix
So the theme of 2008 so far seems to be that I put off planning things and then scramble at the last minute -- NOT my favorite thing to do since I LOVE anything that involves celebrating around a theme. I spent New Years' Eve all mopey because the two weeks leading up to it, I had stomped around and proclaimed how much I didn't want to do a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. Come actual day, I was depressed that I wasn't doing a row of flaming shots next to some of the MOST ATTRACTIVE PEOPLE I WILL EVER KNOW and TELLING THEM HOW MUCH I LOVE THEM.
Then for our anniversary a few weeks ago, I learned that under no circumstances should you use Blurb as a service for any of your bound book-making needs. When the book was delivered, the dustcover was correct -- but the inside was a 17 year old girl's 40 page suicide book. All the glory of red text on black and disclaimers about "I don't care about your truth or feeligns, this is MYTRUTH (sic)" and "I don't two shits about grammar, spelling, or punctuation (sic)" replacing my corny little book of photos of us. Did I mention all this was hilarious, except that I had again dragged my feet and so the book came a week late already?
So last night, in the tradition of 2008, I panicked because I suddenly remembered that today is Chinese New Year. It's traditional to wear a new outfit on the first day of the year - something to do with luck. Everything in Chinese culture is about attracting that Luck Dragon or something. (I might be confusing my childhood folklore...) Don't worry for me though, I plan on getting a new outfit and be ready for the new year by day's end. Always ready to get a new outfit at a moment's notice.
I'm a little flustered, so I'm going to get a jump start on plans for Valentine's Day. First, here's a mix for you:
01. Put A Little Sugar in My Bowl, Nina Simone
02. Forever Your Girl, Paula Abdul
03. Heartbreaker, Mariah Carey
04. Wishin' and Hopin', Ani DiFranco
05. Funny Valentine, Frank Sinatra & Ella Fitzgerald
06. At Last, Etta James
07. Ain't No Other Man, Christina Aguilera
08. I've Just Seen A Face, The Beatles
09. I'm Yours, Jason Mraz
10. First Day Of My Life, Bright Eyes
11. Such Great Heights, Postal Service
12. Love Love Love, Tristan Prettyman
13. I Found A Reason, Cat Power
14. You Are What You Love, Jenny Lewis
(Sweet present idea from The Curiosity Shoppe)Labels: holidays
Friday, December 21, 2007
Last Night
So I decided that I wasn't doing enough, what with the baking and the paintings to finish and the sewing and decorating and party prepping and cleaning and packing for going away, so I did it all at once.
It started with some amazing ginger cookies (recipe below, adapted from Emily's), which some ferocious creatures enjoyed. Not these monsters, but we looked similar in jubilant celebration upon first bite of these.
Then came this:
Even though I should have been working on this:
I started the knitting while sitting in bed, waiting for my laptop to recharge (poor thing had been churning out cookie recipes all night) so that I could find Hillary's bunny pattern so I could make this little guy for Ryan's 1 year old nephew:
I had originally intended to just get the bunny started, cutting and pinning the pieces. But suddenly, the lure of my already-set-up sewing machine hummed to me, and before I knew it, I was stuffing said bunny to the gills and embroidering his little pink nose on.
I'll leave out all the gruesome details involving sudden bursts of tears, unpleasant bloody pinpricks and the freshly painted (read: wet) bookshelf that sat in the middle of the living room the whole night.
Now my gift to you, since you may not all experience these cookies because (a) you are not in our immediate family, (b) we will not see you in the next week, or (c) we ate them all before we saw anyone.
Ginger Sugar Cookies
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I got this from Trader Joe's, it includes things like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, etc. which you can substitute for this)
1 1/2 cups of shortening (I used EarthBalance, since it's non-hydrogenated)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsulfered molasses
3/4 cup of sugar (keep separate in a bowl)
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
2. With an electric hand mixer, cream shortening and sugar, then add eggs, vanilla and molasses until combined. Slowly add in flour until completely integrated. It will be a bit dry and piece-y.
3. Scoop out about 1/4 cupful of dough and roll into a ball in your hands. Then roll the dough around in the separate bowl of sugar (I just rolled it once so there was sugar along the sides). Place 2" apart on ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake each sheet of cookies for 15 minutes -- it will look puffy and light brown. Do not overcook! Set aside to cool, they will fall into more cookie-esque shape.
*Note: I only added the vanilla so that it would smell better, if you don't have any on hand you can leave it out.
Tonight I'm looking forward to making & decorating a gingerbread house, wrapping up and finishing final presents, watching more holiday films, and preparing the house for tomorrow's party and Sunday's departure.
Hope your holidays are cozy and full of love & peace. May the most you ask for be the least you receive.Labels: holidays
Monday, December 10, 2007
Home & Made
I'm trying not to get lost in the midst of holiday consumerism madness, no matter how much I want to get every glittered hedgehog and windmill ornaments at Anthropologie or all of Martha Stewart's Kmart holiday collection. Instead, I'm focusing on creating ornaments and overall holiday-ness as much as possible from what I already have. That's the spirit of the Handmade Pledge, after all. In that vein, I created a holiday-ish installation in our living room with some branches I found while on a walk, and some white balls of yarn made into hanging ornaments.
Now to work on some more paintings that are to be Christmas presents for friends and family. It's been a wonderful year for the development of my art and painting style, and I'm looking forward to sharing it with the people who have supported me the most in it. I'm also looking forward to doing more next year -- I can't wait to see what things will look like a year from now. It's amazing how you can think something you did was wonderful, and look back a year later to see how far you've come. It's a good thing to always be pushing through your own glass ceilings.
Before I go get crafty while watching Mary Poppins on tv (how incredible is the costume design for this film?), I wanted to share one more easy-peasy homemade ornament. Here's my own version of Hillary of Wee Wonderfuls' Felt Pig Ornament. I didn't include a box for my version since I didn't have one around, but I did add a little button nose for extra piggish-ness.
Thank you for always reading. You're wonderful, just as you are.Labels: holidays
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Fairytales Are True
The ornament swaps have been dropped off in the mailbox; a Christmas tree has been chosen and decorated; and presents are slowly coming together. I made spritz cookies from the cookie press (birthday present from a sweet boy) for the first time, a test run for the little holiday party I'll be having in a couple weeks. For decoration, I used some of this month's Blueprint ideas. Is there anything Martha's staff can't make adorable and hip? I would show you a picture of the 4 dozen confectioner's sugar-glazed cookies, but I must admit that they have all been practically inhaled by our little household.
I do love all the holiday ideas coming across the blogosphere, I'm bookmarking my way through the days! Despite the mounting commercialism this season has evoked the past few decades, there's a sense that the handmade movement has reclaimed the spirit of the winter holidays. With each hand-sewn soft tree made and holiday gift purchased off etsy, tiny steps are backtracking to the idea of showing care to the people you love and celebrating life's little accomplishments through the past year.
Alright, done with my mushy-pants, misty-eyed cheer, and back to reading and writing. I have some serious writing to do as I've extended my NaNoWriMo novel through December, for what Ryan likes to call "Ann's Novel Writing Month". Hope you all had a lovely weekend!Labels: holidays
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Ornament Swaps Tied Up with String
The winter holidays are swiftly underway here in my little corner of the world. I officially kicked it off with stitching up these holiday ornaments for the Holiday Ornament Swap 2007. You should see the Flickr pool, I'm incredibly impressed with the ornaments people are coming up with! Since I was accidentally placed in two groups and thus have 17 ornaments to make, I stuck with a simple homemade/folksy style felt ornament in my favorite colors for the holidays: red & turquoise. One group is almost done, packaged in pink tissue and tied up with baker's twine. (Side note: let this be a cautionary tale of online shopping, how am I ever going to use 2 pounds of baker's twine?)
I bought a gumdrop wreath ornament and hung that on the front door instead of a gaudy faux evergreen wreath -- it just felt more appropriate. I'm crazy about it so I'll have to take a picture to share. More holiday activities will be in motion this weekend as I head to a Goodwill to find sweaters to felt & make into stockings, and perhaps some cute, cheap, kitschy Christmas decorations. All ornaments are also scheduled to drop this weekend, and I should get a start on holiday cards. Oh boy, I'm suddenly feeling like spending the whole weekend on the couch curled up with magazines and a good book.Labels: arts+crafts, holidays
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Cravings
Thanksgiving was wonderful. Full of peaceful rest, family, and delicious vegetarian food. Ryan's stepmom was nice enough to make Gourmet magazine's Vegetarian's Dilemma Thanksgiving Dinner, which was just amazing. So much inspiration for new winter dishes to make! Denver was a winter wonderland with light snowfall -- enough that it stuck around for stomping around when we took the dog out for walks. It was indescribably beautiful to just sit around the fireplace reading, leisurely taking walks, and disconnecting from the flurry of LA. No television, internet, or billboards. Not being in an attention-seeking war with your environment. Exactly what I needed from this vacation.
I feel both ready to take on all my holiday projects and to focus on incorporating this vacation style peace and stress-free approach to my everyday. Feels good to be back, and I'm feeling chatty and alive again.Labels: holidays
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Thankful
The next 15 hours are going to be pretty whirlwind between dropping off Lucy at my parents' house, packing, and getting to LAX for a 6:30 a.m. flight...so here's to starting it with positive thinking by making a thankful list.
Things I'm Thankful For This Year
1. Finally finding a good job.
2. The experiences, however painful & soul-crushing.
3. An extraordinary boy.
4. marthastewart.com & many glossy magazines.
5. Finding the discipline to write, paint, and design.
6. Family, old and new. & none of them dying this year.
7. Friends who love me, near and far. & their support & inspiration.
8. Films that make you cry, good, hearty tears.
9. Confidence and freedom that comes with age.
10. Old, beautiful things waiting to be discovered, and Los Angeles, with everything here waiting to be discovered.
What are you thankful for this year?Labels: holidays, lists
Monday, November 19, 2007
A Veggie Thanksgiving
On Saturday night, in an effort to stop eating out so much, Ryan and I made a little veggie Thanksgiving feast for two. We made a Tofurkey roast (which I learned I'm not too fond of), mashed potatoes, and zucchini fritters. For dessert, I made some quick vegan vanilla cupcakes for apple cinnamon shortcakes. I just coated sliced apples with brown sugar and cinnamon, then fried them up in some SmartBalance. Served them up on sliced cupcakes and dusted with powder sugar for a super simple & scrumptious fall dessert! (I couldn't help alliteration there).
I also did a bunch of shopping over the weekend, so much so on Sunday I felt ill from using my credit card. But I DID get a little Christmas shopping done, though there is a lot to be made at home. And for myself, I picked up some lovely little pieces from Erin Fetherston's GO! Collection at Target, a cute dress I've wanted from H&M for half price, and a few cute charms at Felt Club. This would probably be a good time to drop the hint that I'll be working on a clothing blog soon with a good friend soon.
Like with everyone else, I will be busy eating, traveling to see family, and enjoying my time off as much as possible for this holiday week. Tonight I'll be working on my ornaments for the swap, paintings for Christmas, reading, packing and working on my novel. I'm looking forward to coming back from Thanksgiving and getting official "permission" to start decorating for the winter holidays! Can't wait to share the new work that I'll be producing for presents.
Have a happy, full, and grateful holiday!Labels: foodie call, holidays
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Magical Holidays
Here's a peek at the holiday card I painted and designed for my friends and family. Who doesn't want a magical stocking filled with heffalumps, jackalopes and dragons?Labels: artsy girl, holidays
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Recipe for a Halloween Night
1. Light the jack-o-lanterns outside.
2. Pick up pizza and pumpkin ice cream.
3. Watch Evil Dead and eat said pizza.
4. Take a break from the evil and undead to watch a Halloween episode of Pushing Daisies
5. Resume Evil Dead
6. Fall asleep with dog at feet on futon, only to be woken up periodically by possessed, mangled teenagers (on the tv).
7. Pumpkin ice cream!
8. Watch Critters, which is more hilarious than scary with 80s rock star-style shape-shifting aliens and a tiny critter alien saying, "Fuck!" (in alien speak, of course).
Next year, I plan to throw a sweet little Halloween party. It is my favorite holiday, after all. Being a Wednesday this year was highly non-conducive for a 9-to-5er with 9-to-5er friends. I hope you all had fun and safe Halloweens! Now to avoid Christmas until at least November 15!Labels: holidays
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Pumpkin Friends
We finally went to the pumpkin patch this weekend, to pick out some new friends to carve out. This is us trying to look like we're at a country pumpkin patch instead of in the middle of Los Angeles.
These are the little friends we carved -- of course mine is complete with eyelashes and skeleton-embellished bows.
And Ryan's is a fine work of engineering, including nail hinged ears:
I roasted a cup of the pumpkin seeds we managed to pluck out of the pumpkin guts, and used this amazing Sweet & Spicy Pumpkin Seeds recipe from Martha (of course).
While all this is happening, we're also watching a ton of cheesy scary movies like Halloween: Resurrection, Halloween: H20, and Joy Ride. I'll be sewing my red riding hood cape and wolf ears for Ryan tonight, along with finishing up a Top Secret birthday present for a friend and watching Don't Look Now and Nightmare Before Christmas! Hope you're all having a fun Halloween weekend! I would love to hear all about it!
P.S.
And of course I have to pull out one of my favorite paintings to date, Little Red Riding Hood Loves UFO Books, for this week's Illustration Friday prompt: Trick or Treat.Labels: holidays, illustration friday
Friday, October 26, 2007
Halloweekend.
It's here it's here it's here! Halloween weekend! I'm finally going to get to sewing my red riding hood cape & carving some pumpkins & pumpkin cupcake baking (photo from marthastewart.com):
& reading some spooky stories (Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer McMahon) & watching more creepy films (i.e. The Nightmare Before Christmas, MonsterFest on AMC and Don't Look Now)! Hooray hooray hooray!
P.S. I spied new issues of Domino & Blueprint on the newsstands, and I'm actually getting a bit peeky & excited about decorating for the holidays now. Even though I'm not much one for the commercialism and awkwardness of making a Christmas list (has anyone read that passage in Bridget Jones's Diary about that? I'll dig out my copy and quote it at the beginning of the season...), I have been LOVING the handmade revolution's take on it. Refashioning TOO MANY WOOL SWEATERS into stockings! Scrap cloth rosette garlands! And of course, my tiny Christmas tree to be sought and all the lovely presents to be bought and wrapped for underneath. I know I'm hoping right over Thanksgiving, but we'll be heading to Denver for that so I have nothing to prepare here!Labels: holidays
Monday, September 17, 2007
Hallow-ready!
Thanks for the encouraging words on my last post, friends! Here were two more from that night of sketching, hope you enjoy them.
Who else is excited for Halloween? I'm pretty sure Halloween is my favorite holiday because (a) costumes, (b) candy, (c) the creative noir decorations, and (d) lack of family obligations. The scary becomes corny and folkloric, and I just adore the autumn-infused decorations. You bet your bottom dollar that I will be making these cute witchy cupcakes from Martha Stewart. Good Thing: Martha (and her editors) post all the recipes, crafts, etc. on the encyclopedia of Martha (also known as her website).
I also hope to have another pumpkin carving night with friends, while watching Nightmare Before Christmas and eating too much candy corn. I'm going to be Little Red Riding Hood this year, a project simple enough to use my sewing machine & coordinate with Ryan without being the uncreative gross couple. Anyway, it's time to take Lucy out for a walk again soon and study for the GREs -- have a wonderful evening, good friends!Labels: holidays, sketchbook
|
