Parfois

Sorry friends. I have been absent for too long! Just baking a lot, going out, hanging out, ya know. Summery stuff.

Additionally, I cannot stop listening to this song:



If this upcoming paycheck is bulky enough, I might be adding a new aspect to this blorg.

Ciao!

Of Cups and Cakes

Blog life may suggest otherwise but I swear I do things other than bake.

Chocolate cupcakes with cinnamon glaze and chocolate fudge frosting; coconut lime cupcakes with lime frosting and shaved coconut.

Vegan, naturally.

Dia de las empanadas

Hola!

This past Wednesday as you may be aware was "cinco de mayo". This holiday, much like St. Patrick's day, has become a day of drinking. Since I am not a fan of beer nor bars with 'Mc' beginning their name, I do not participate in many St. Paddy's events, however, as a Spanish major AND huge fan of latin food (and never one to turn durn tequila) thoroughly enjoy cinco de mayo.

My friend Anabell and I have been talking about making empanadas for ages and it turned out that we both had off on cinco de mayo soo we decided to make a day of it, complete with margarita cupcakes and of course, real margaritas. We also were inspired by a co-worker's completely vegan layered mexican dip and whipped one up ourselves. It consisted of refried black beans, tofutti sour cream, home-made guac by Heart City's own Hannah, and the deliciously wonderful daiya cheddar cheese.

Nihonjin no tomodachi desu~~~

Well hello everyone. This week has been absolutely busy. Practically nonstop since Monday. I am sincerely glad I took last Sunday to rest.

Highlights (with some lowlights):

-- Monday: Tigerbeats (I cannot remember if it was memorable, I s'pose not)
-- Tuesday: Laid outside in the grass all day with Jen and ate samosas
-- "Comedy Dreamz" at the Barbary, they seriously played all of my favorite 90's freestyle party jamz for the first hour even my dearest "Two of Hearts"
-- Wednesday: Erika's birthday party at cantina, I managed to bake a beautiful and delicious (if not under photographed) 9inch two layer carrot cake
-- After party at Cesar's and all over Fishtown
-- Thursday: Arrival of my friends Mika and Mariyo from Japan! Cantina happy hour and night train dance parties. Sugoi desu!
-- Friday: Got four-loko'd out. Why didn't anyone warn me? Chipped a tooth, cried on historical landmarks, and saw some nazis get beaten up. Never again (well never say never I s'pose).
-- Saturday: Spent the last few hours before work with nihonjin and then worked and worked.

Today I am finally (sort of) catching a breath but not really as I am working on a paper (two more to go after this!!).

Tomorrow will be nice as I will finally plant some herbs and bake bake bake.

Photos will philter in as I pilfer them.

Don't Underestimate Body Language

Yesterday I felt a bit like this:

My voice was gone but I did not really need to follow Ursula's advice about pretty looks and workin' my rump since I was not wooing a prince (I've already woo-ed someone who looks like Prince). Instead, since I was feeling pretty sick all over, I called out of work and took a day of rest.

I reverted back to my habits of being sick in High School and prescribed the following treatment:

Constant Comment tea. So so tasty.

"Keeping Up Appearances" marathon.

Tres leches cake. Note: This is not an actual photo. I slaved over a two-day period in making a pastel tres leches vegano. Hopefully I'll have a high-res photo of the one I made, but until then, just imagine a deliciously moist sponge cake soaked with a sweet coconut and rum syrup and then topped with a smooth topping with flaked coconut.

Yeah, it's really good. Now I'm off to slice about 30 orders of "1/2 pound smoked turkey and 1/2 pound american cheese" (no joke, it's pretty much what EVERYONE orders, who eats processed lunch meats anymore??)

Slim Vegan Boy on Two Fat Ladies

Last night while perusing the internet, I saw a photograph a great big woman cooking and I was suddenly struck by nostalgia. I am not talking about my mother, I am talking about a cooking show popular in the late nineties called "Two Fat Ladies".

I cannot quite remember what channel it was on, but I have a feeling it was PBS. All I remember is watching it with my mom occasionally while she sipped on "Constant Comment" and I munched on "Lorna Doone's".

The two of them are fantastically entertaining. Of course, their accent is amazing, but it's just them saying "strawburries" that makes them endearing, they are truly intelligent when it comes to talking about food and use phrases like "truly ravishing" and enchanting to describe red currants. I also really like the idea that neither of them seems to be aware of what the other one is making until the cameras are rolling.

Another thing that makes them enjoyable are their little acidic asides about supermarkets, vegetarians, "kids these days", and processed foods.

I cannot eat a bloody thing they make and they loathe vegetarians, but I admire their use of remarkably fresh ingredients (their whipped cream is always so tempting in its provincial clumps) and there's not a single processed food.

Anyways, instead of me babbling on and on about them, why don't you watch a little clip. It's ten minutes long but do not miss a second.



This is sort of a precursor to another corpulent cook (oft described as "Rubenesque") who is very near and dear to my heart... Come back soon!

More Entertaining than the Russian Kind