Friday, May 30, 2008
"You know this doesn't happen in real life."
Oh, I got Carried away.Labels: films
Monday, May 26, 2008
The Los Angeles Zoo
Labels: losangeles
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Complete Consumption
What I bought with part of my Economic Stimulus Check:
  
And finally...a 1940s vintage dress that I'm absolutely in love with, from Wasteland.
Labels: vintage finds
Friday, May 23, 2008
Homemade
Time and time again I get inspired to make my own clothes. Then I get discouraged by the amount of time it takes to finish a piece, and get back on the buy-ready-made wagon. Except I find it challenging when the clothes I really want are super nice and come with a hefty price tag. So then I set about wanting to make some inspired pieces. I know I should save my pennies for higher quality clothing, or spend my time vintage shopping (which I plan to this weekend with my best girl Trinh, hurray!); but it doesn't hurt to occasionally make a piece or two to augment your closet. Especially when you have an amazing open source sewing site. I'm having a second go at the secretary skirt from Diane Rupp's book, which is already a million times easier, so I'm ready for these fancier, 40s-ish numbers.
That's what long weekends are for, tackling fun projects, right? I'll keep you posted on these and other projects along the way...have a fantastic three day weekend, those of you who are also working stiffs!
 Labels: fashion love
Thursday, May 22, 2008
For the Love of Letters
As you may have noticed, all the comments have been purged. Not gone forever, but I switched over to using Blogger comments instead of HaloScan when I noticed recently that the latter has been eating comments. That makes me very sad because I love the dialogue between blog and readers. It's half the fun of writing! Anyway, now I can rest assured that we can still communicate and I'm not talking to the internet wall (although I'm sure in some respects and entries, I am). Although the downside of blogging and friends who blog is that I suddenly stop making conscious efforts to actually contact them one-on-one since I get updates from their blog. I'm making an effort to revert back to emails, at the very least. There's at least a little romance left in personal letters, even if it is through the wires.Labels: site update
Monday, May 19, 2008
Performance Artists, Clowns, Serial Killers.
 Woke up with a big fat crush on Michael Cera this morning. Yes, even bigger than the requisite, and yes I know he's 19. I think it was a culmination of my weekend reading, including Bust's interview with Diablo Cody and the Missbehave blurb in which the writer desperately seeks Cera. My love for him only multiplied when I learned that he is dating Charlyne Yi; hooray one of my own kind! But after a little IMDB & Wikipedia-ing, I read that she is not only the stoner chick in Knocked Up, but also a performance artist. Ugh. I've been emotionally scarred by performance artists daylighting as horrendous college instructors and Miranda July, so my crush has been, well, crushed. They rank up there with clowns and serial killers.
In other news, I am so totally bummed cause after baking that Florida Pie yesterday, our oven broke down. We didn't even realize it until after the homemade pizza was assembled and ready to bake at 10 o'clock last night. Totally sucked. Toaster oven to the rescue, for now.Labels: crushes, daily
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Sunday in Florida
I love Sundays. Especially a nice, blank slate of one that I have all to myself. I didn't do anything exciting, but I got a lot done (which is very exciting to me): paid the bills, swept, vacuumed, put everything back in its place, washed the couch covers (!), and cleaned out my shoe closet. The last two I've been wanting to do FOREVER. I now have a big Anthropologie bag of shoes to drop off at the Goodwill, or perhaps take to Crossroads if I get motivated. It's hard to be motivated when it's just shy of 100 degrees here in L.A. though. The morning's background noise was provided by Ziegfield Follies and a marathon of Top Chef.
Then I spent the rest of the afternoon making Florida Pie from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: from my home to yours. I checked it out from the library, and man do I love this baking book! No wonder there's an online baking group dedicated to her. I would join if I could commit to baking every Tuesday, but for me baking needs to stay whimsy.
The pie was really good, perfect for a hot spring day such as today. There's a lot of coconut in it though, which I'm not a huge fan of but I didn't want to deviate on first bake, so I went with it. I'd probably either go with half the amount of coconut in the cream at the bottom, or create some coconut milk substitute (cause I love coconut milk!) I also used a regular crust instead of the called-for graham cracker crust just because I had one around already. Now to enjoy this with tall glasses of icy water to wait the heat out. Have a wonderful Sunday, friends!Labels: daily, foodie call
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Unbearable Lightness of Being
 Labels: sketchbook
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Night Sketches
Some done in the past few days:
 Labels: sketchbook
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
Friday, May 09, 2008
Cupcakes & Feathers
Today I bring you an offering of orange vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting. I modified a traditional 1-2-3-4 cake recipe. Unfortunately, the cupcakes didn't rise! Normally I make vegan cupcakes from my favorite Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, but I thought that perhaps the lack of egg resulted in rather stout cakes. Turns out I probably just need a bag of self-rising flour.
These cupcakes were still delicious despite their rather short appearance. The buttercream frosting didn't stiffen as much as I'd like, so they pooled into smooth, glossy ponds. Sometimes I really feel myself growing older, or maturing my palette to put it kindly, as last night, growing depressed from my ugly cakes, I collapsed with a sugar headache after eating four. Hey I said they were ugly, not gross. I brought most of them into the office today.
Orange Vanilla Cupcakes
(adapted from recipes on Martha Stewart and Allrecipes)
1 cup of unsalted butter
1.5 cups of sugar
3 cups of flour (I would try 1.5 cup all purpose, 1.5 cup self-rising)
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup of orange juice
zest of 2 oranges
dash of cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 muffin pans with cupcake liners.
Cream together butter and sugar. With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour in flour, alternating with dropping in one egg at a time, until fully mixed. Add vanilla, orange juice, zest, and cinnamon and fully integrate. Pour almost 3/4 full in each cupcake pan, makes 24.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
6 tbsp unsalted butter
6 tbsp cocoa/baking chocolate
2 cups of powdered sugar
1 tbsp of soy milk
Cream all ingredients together until you have a thick, creamy consistency. I haven't achieved the perfect balance between the right consistency and the right amount of sweetness yet.
Along with being obsessed with finding the perfect recipe for Mother's Day, I've also been fascinated with pin-up girls and fancy feathers. Especially peacock ones to wear in my hair.
 Labels: covet, foodie call, sketchbook
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Records of One's Own
Some writers need a room of his/her own. Some writers need liquor, and some oysters on the half shell by the Seine (okay, I would like that too). I need good good music and either a midnight hour or a few hours at dawn to get my fingers moving and the words composing. These past few years after college, I've had a hard time keeping myself from flitting from one interest to another, and back again. I love writing, making art, photography, food, and fashion. All of it. Thanks to the New York Times, I know I'm not alone in desiring to keep all my doors open despite a greater reward in focusing on one door.
Instead, I want to offer perhaps a compromise. What if I organized my doors, labeled them with a shiny metal plaque and color coded compartments that could go under the same door? In this case, music and writing. I love music, but I find myself with less and less time seeking out new music as I get older and my days are crowded with "real job" obligations, bill-paying, and apartment-hunting of the unfun sort. On the way to work this morning, I heard West Coast by Coconut Records. I got that familiar echo that I get when I feel a story developing in my head. I love following wherever that thought flows, a narrative suddenly woven and so so clear in my head. Of course, I was driving so the story slowly evaporates before I even pull into the parking garage.
I'm drawing a correlation between my decreased activity in developing my music library with my (missing-in-action) writing. These things take time. Sometimes it's upon third listen or three years later that I find a story in a song. I'm not talking about the story the song is about, but the kind of story the song would be a perfect soundtrack to. A scene, a moment. I'm trying to be more fastidious about my writing this year, gathering up all the slack I dropped in the process of adjusting to living in a big new city and figuring out my big new life. It hasn't been quite figured out yet, but writing needs to be a big part of it. Luckily, there are three records that I'm pretty interested in spending more "research" time with: Coconut Records' Nighttiming, Tristan Prettyman's Hello...x, and She&Him's Volume One.
I'm not sure how other writers work, though it's always interesting to find out where other people source their inspiration from. Where do you find your inspiration for your work?Labels: writing life
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
I want a little sugar in my bowl
What can't be made right with a plateful of cookies at the end of the day? In a haze-filled nostalgia for some idealistic childhood that may not necessarily be mine, rough days were made better with a plate of cookies served up by a mom with pin curls and a floral print apron.
Yesterday wasn't particularly a rough day, but the previous ones have been not-so-good, so I made peanut butter sandwich cookies. (Thanks, Emily!) It was so hard not to eat all the peanut butter cream cheese filling straight from the bowl. These were also pretty solid in terms of recipe and overall deliciousness. It's very likely I'll make them again within the next week, though I'm noticing that as I get older I can't eat as much sugar as I used to. I get headaches or my teeth start to feel all gross. Plus sugar is the devil and all that jazz.
With that in mind, I'm in seek of a good cake recipe for the barbecue at my parents' house this weekend. My criteria for this cake are: (a) citrus-flavored, (b) not too sweet, and (c) aesthetically appealing. Here are some ideas/recipes on the shortlist:
- an orange buttermilk cake with chocolate/sour cream or cream cheese frosting
- meyer lemon cupcakes with a raspberry frosting
- 1234 Lemon Cake
- French Lemon Tart
I'll report back with my decision shortly. How many people actually make a recipe first before making the one for the special occasion? I mean, who will be around to eat all that cake?Labels: foodie call
Monday, May 05, 2008
your love is a perfect blindfold for me
 Labels: sketchbook
Sunday, May 04, 2008
treasure chest
It was a good weekend for eating.
P.S. In keeping with my May goals, I'm making site updates finally(!). I updated the About page tonight, and am working on getting the Portfolio up...Labels: foodie call, site update
Thursday, May 01, 2008
I love life drawing. It's the ultimate practice of living in the moment. When you have 2-3 minutes to draw the whole body, to look at the bigger picture, and to make aesthetic choices, it's all so natural and intuitive. It's a sort of meditation for me, my favorite kind since I'm the kind of person who needs to do twelve things at once.Labels: artsy girl
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