Helveticake

Sorry if this offends you. I think this is F-ing brilliant, the right blend of profanity, font and sweetness. From here.

EXCITING UPDATE
Squid Ink the LA Weekly Food Blog wrote up a whole great article on the people behind this cake and they gave me some link love, awwwww.

Kitchens and update on where I am

I love these light filled kitchen. All in Venice, of course. One of them is by Air Architecture, the other one I don't remember.

I've been spending more time in Pasadena at the bf's place and I'm happily surprised to see that I don't mind being in Pasadena the way I thought I might. I have good access to friends that live close by in alta dena and eagle rock and get to check out neighborhoods that I rarely used to go to. This weekend I got in some great cupcake research at Dots and Lark (and on the list is Auntie Em's).

But when I see kitchens like this, I think, what am I doing not in venice?

Cupcake Liner as Present Topper

From Martha of course. This falls into the category of "why didn't I think of that". Seriously, what a good idea.

Dinners: Part One

I've been attempting to host more dinners, since it's something I love to do. And because they're at night I don't really have any good pictures yet. Also, having people over for dinner is quickly turning into an excuse to bake. So until I have some pictures, here is the menu for the last 2 dinners I had:

Dinner One:
-Gratin Dauphinoise out of the Joy of Cooking (though I don't boil it on the stove, I just bake it for longer and I add a ton of garlic)
-Salmon with Dill (I cheated and bought pre-marinated stuff at Trader Joes)
-Salad with Tomatoes and my secret vinagrette (the secret is the rice vinegar)
-Home-made Chocolate chip cookies made with rock salt and hand hammered chocolate chips

Dinner Two:
-Ratatouille from the Joy of cooking
-Roasted Chicken with Rosemary Potatoes (I like to stuff the chicken with herbs, a halved lemon, and cover the skin with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic.)
-Mini Madeira Cakes our of Nigella's: How to be a Domestic Goddess with home-made rasberry jam (I make this by boiling some frozen rasberries on the stove and adding sugar to taste). Next time I'd also make some whipped cream or add vanilla ice cream because it was a little plain...

So there you have it.

A note: I don't have a dishwasher and the only way to not resent that you cooked all day is by cleaning everything after everyone leaves so that you wake up with a clean kitchen.

More soon. I'm planning a dinner a week!

It's a small world after all

I love how small this blogworld can be even though there are so many great blogs out there. Here's my story (bear with me, these things are VERY exciting for me):

In doing a google image search for a post over on AT, I found an image I liked that was attached to a blog that looked interesting. I got really into it only to discover that no accounting for taste is actually written by a)someone that lives around the corner from me, and b) is the person who lives in the Fall Color Contest Entry I posted last week on AT!

Anyway you should check out her blog. You can thank her for pointing out Aesthetic Apparatus and their cool posters.

Fall Peaches

I cleaned out my kitchen and made a peach cobbler! There's nothing like a clean organized kitchen to inspire a fit of baking. Even whipped my own cream. Ahhh. It didn't use to be but I'm finding baking to be a total stress relief.

My camera was, uh, not working, so I've borrowed this image from pinch my salt who also has a great recipe including fresh nutmeg!

At Home with Lotta

Was perusing the Lotta Jansdotter site and came across a few things that charmed me.

This struck me as the perfect Fall farmers market bag (maybe even in orange):


A simple apron for the coming months of baking in the kitchen:


Makeup bag to replace the ziplock I've been using for the airport:


This scarf thing because they remind me of being in San Francisco and Em has been wearing one and it looks good on her. Maybe I should get her this for her birthday and maybe she has enough of them already:

Top Ten

My fellow blogger (and all around good chap with an extreme love for bacon) typefiend tagged me for a top ten list of my choice.

Ready?

Top 10 things that, this monday evening, are making me feel very content to just be here:

1. Weezer 'Pinkerton"
2. A house to myself
3. My decluttered kitchen and cleaned off desk
4. Sitting at the table to eat
5. Clean sheets
6. The cold enough air outside that warranted I put an extra blanket on the bed
7. Baking my family's recipe for flourless chocolate cake
8. Dreaming of a Fall trip to Paris
9. Trying on my new trench coat (see above)
10.Remembering High School without any trace of wanting to go back.

Heaven is Mini French Pastries

C'mon, mini eclairs and religieuse aux chocolats and tartes aux fruits in little paper cups all in a box waiting to be eaten. It does not get any better than this. Do I even have to say how much more appealing this is to me compared with cupcakes?

Please tell me if you know where to find anything like this in LA. I can tell you that you'll find them in France.

To tide me over I get the mini financiers at Breadbar.

Kitchen: Dainty Donuts

From not martha: a how-to for dainty donuts. yum.

My Awesome Neighbors Part II

So I've talked about my awesome neighbors before, and they continue to earn their title. They brought me this Paris Hilton Get-Out-Of-Jail-Spice-Cake from the bakery they work at. Awww.

Moo Cards just got even better

Who knew Moo could get any better? Well now they're offering free shipping globally on their photo and text minicards. Here are mine:
and click here for the moo flickr group!

Kitchen: Cupcakes

I'm normally too much of a snob to bake anything out of a box. But sometimes the occasion calls for Funfetti. In this case it was a backyard bbq and housewarming for my friend Nic. I decided to make cupcakes and was inspired by the ridiculous box. I figured it would at least be ironic. It turns out they were great -- I even tried some without frosting (from a can) and loved them. Apparently I AM an american.