crapos en el bujo.

This is excellent. Such a great send-up of the pretension of cooking shows. And it has Richard E. Grant, who, to us film scholars, will always be remembered as the Spice Girls' manager in Spice World.

Oh yeah, David Tennant is also in it. So there.

do it for the kids.

After seeing those Aussie kids kick ass on Junior Masterchef, I can't help but be inspired.

Last weekend it was French Onion Soup.

Tonight it was homemade gnocchi with arugula pesto...

 

...and hazelnut mousse cake (with Nutella!!).

And now I'm watching Sabrina (my favorite Audrey Hepburn film, now on Netflix!), and where becomes a chef in Paris and I'm all like, this is fate.

my new favorite thing ever.

That is all.

make this now.

Two-Minute Mug Brownie

Adapted from Instructables.com

1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch salt
2 Tbsp canola or other mild vegetable oil
2 Tbsp milk, coffee or water

In a heatproof mug or ramekin, stir together the dry ingredients until no lumps remain. Stir in the oil and milk until you have a thick paste.

Microwave on high for a minute, checking it after 30 seconds (microwaves vary) – it will be done when it’s springy on top but still a bit gooey – like the very best brownie. Eat warm.

Picture and recipe from here.

My advice? Ice cream is a must. It is a bit dry without some vanilla-y goodness. With it, it is a great quick little dessert.

wedding fever.

For some very strange reason I am a little obsessed with weddings right now. I think it started when I saw The Five Year Engagement on Saturday night. Besides being absolutely charming and funny, the movie also made me think about what I want my wedding to be like. I'm not really one of those girls that spends their whole lives dreaming of her wedding day, I just want an excuse to spend lots of time and money on a big, fancy party. And since I am neither getting married nor sitting on a fortune I need to get rid of quick, I have just been living vicariously through wedding blogs. I can't resist, they are just so damn pretty.

All images from Ruffled Pinterest

Am I right? Doesn't it make you want to have a gorgeous little garden party?

a night out with the girls.

I'm back at Wellesley! Yay! I feel so much smarter already. I swear if I hadn't been writing in this blog I would have had complete mental atrophy. Anyways, since we all had separately decided that we wanted to get off campus this semester we took the bus into Cambridge for the evening. The "we" in that sentence was Nat (who I visited in Miami), Camylle, Mayrah, and me. Though we are perhaps better known by our exotic and accentedalter-egos: Svetlana, Ariana, Jaqueline, and Emma.

Once we got off the bus in Harvard Square we decided to hit up TeaLuxe because the presence of chider (a combination of hot cider and chai tea) had been suggested. On the way to the tea shop we may or may not have stopped in the cupcake shop next door and picked up sweet cake and cookies n' cream cupcakes (we did).

Yum.

Ariana & Jaqueline, what cuties.

These are cool Brazilian bracelets that Nat brought for us. You make wishes on them and when they break they come true.

All bundled up and ready for the cold.

Anyways today is the first day of classes so I may or may not be posting (or alive) tonight.

duck, duck...duck.

As it is now 11:42 (or was when I started writing this) and I am exhausted, I am seriously wondering how people are so good about blogging every day. I'm so ready for bed but I really want to keep this going so I'll do my best.

Last night basically my entire extended family came over and it was pretty great. They are all recently acquired since they are technically my ex-step grandmother's new step extended family (I know, waaay to confusing), but they are beginning to feel like family already. The adults are all really chill and awesome, and the children and totally rambunctious, which is exhausting, but really fun for the first couple of hours. My older brother and his girlfriend also joined us last night, so the party just got bigger.

Today we headed over to Longwood Gardens after an amazing brunch prepared by Phyllis. I remember vaguely going there as a child, though most of my memories are of the lily pond, which I thought was awesome and always reminded me of that book "Linnea in Monet's Garden". Unfortunately when we went this time the lily pond wasn't open because it is pretty freaking cold outside, but we were instead treated with the Christmas decorations, which were beautiful. I have to say that often, though, I just like pretty simple Christmas decorated trees. Otherwise you forget that it is a tree in the first place.

This was pretty cool. It is the largest green wall I think it is called, in North America, I think. I'm a little fuzzy on the details. But it is pretty sweet nonetheless. Weirdly there are like eighteen bathrooms breaking up the wall, which looks good, I like the way the plants frame the doorways, but bathrooms seemed like a strange way to go.

Here are some more examples of the beautiful plants I saw.

Later we went for dinner at this restaurant called Blackfish. It was ranked number one according to some magazine for restaurants in the Philly area I believe and it was damn good. I got the prix fixe meal which centered around duck and it was absolutely delicious. Who knew that duck with huckleberries and parsnip puree was so good? And then there were they amazing cinnamon filled beignets for desserts. Heaven. So crunchy and sweet. The perfect ending to a great day.

well it's not always sunny in philadelphia.

Today at the extremely early time of eight thirty (ok well early for the on-break college student) my dad picked me up so that we could embark on our journey to pennsylvania to see some relatives. It's the first leg of my two week trip down the east coast. It took us about six and a half hours to get down here and thus we barely made it in time to see the Rodin museum in Philadelphia. It was my first time, as far as I remember, visiting the museum, and although I knew I had heard of Rodin I don't think I could have really identified his art. Well, consider me a convert. Although I only had about forty five minutes to pursue the small museum, I really liked what I had the chance to experience.

This is one of my favorites. The picture doesn't really encapsulate all the struggle and pain expressed in the actual sculpture, but it gives you an idea. The positions of the fingers are just extraordinary. It seems like the pose is so impossible it can only happen when you are doing it subconsciously because of pain. The extremity comes across as meaningful instead of over the top. I also love the texture of the hand. A lot of Rodin's work is rougher, which I think really gives the pieces a lot of visual depth.

After spending some time at the museum, we headed over to the Hyatt to meet up with my grandparents and watch the eagles just barely lose to the cowboys (bummer).

We had dinner at a really lovely Greek restaurant right around the corner called Estia. I have always been a big fan of Greek food so it wasn't really a stretch for me to like the place, but it was still really enjoyable.

How good do these eggplant and zucchini chips look?

Overall, it was a great day and I am so thankful for having such a wonderful family. (The picture is of Phyllis and Rick, my pseudo-grandparents)

hand

happy new year!

So. It's 2011. Which is kinda crazy. I mean, what?! I feel like not that long ago it was 2000. You know, the good old days when Carson Daly would do the countdown to the ball dropping. None of this Snooki in a hamster ball business (which I have no idea if that happened or not I just heard something along a similar track, and was like no).

Anyways, enough reminiscing.

My night was good. Very chill. I feel like it is hard to have fun on New Year's Eve because there are such high expectations ingrained in us. You probably don't have an awesome NYE that you have to live up to but you feel like you do. Which sucks. But one way to combat it is to go super lazy, like me.

I spent the night at my friend Mary's house. We hung out and made mexican food, because, you know, we wanted to do the traditional NYE meal...or we just love mexican food.

...yeah we made a ton of guacamole. Which was pretty good. Except it had a little too much lime juice. And parsley. And while I was cutting the peppers my fingers decided to freak out and start burning. I suspect my new guitar playing is the cause, but really, ouch.

We also made salsa. Which I would have preferred a bit spicier, but that's okay. It was remarkably fresh, which you don't realize how much you miss until you make your own salsa. We proceeded to make awesome quesadillas and, randomly enough, chocolate mousse.

The after-dinner entertainment consisted of It's Complicated and The Office. I'm pretty sure I'm in love with John Krasinski/Jim Halpert. Seriously. And then we watched the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice, which I've seen so many times but always strikes me as completely gorgeous.

Our friend Rachel came over about half-way through the night to make it three.

I decided to go all festive and pink for my accessories. That's right. My nails are pink and sparkly. Go big or go home. And that thing I'm holding in my fingers is a flying pig earring. My mom got them for me for my birthday and they are absolutely amazing.

Overall it was a great night and I'm so happy I just stayed in and hung out. Hope your NYE was a blast and here's to a great 2011!