yeeeeeaaaaaaaah

Summer

It will be interesting to look at these photos come February.

101 Salads, Thank-you Mark Bittman

Check this out!!

101 amazing salads thanks to Mark Bittman. Awesome x 101! Seriously, this is such a wealth of knowledge/recipes, perfect for summer.

Some favorites:

12. Combine sliced fennel and prune plums; serve with vinaigrette spiked with minced ginger. Nice pairing.

27. Cook whole, unpeeled eggplant in a dry, hot skillet or on a grill, turning occasionally, until completely collapsed and soft. Chop and toss with toasted pita, toasted pine nuts, cooked white beans and halved cherry tomatoes. Dress with olive oil, lemon juice and lots of black pepper. Or a (non-vegan) yogurt dressing is good, especially one laced with tahini.

29. Pit and halve cherries (or halve and pit cherries), then cook gently with olive oil and a little balsamic vinegar until they break down. Toss with chopped radicchio, endive, escarole or a combination, some toasted hazelnuts and more oil and vinegar, if necessary.

81. Soak sliced prune plums or figs in balsamic vinegar for a few minutes, then add olive oil, chopped celery and red onion, shreds of roasted or grilled chicken, chopped fresh marjoram or oregano and chopped almonds. Serve on top of or toss with greens. So good.

The Finer Foods in Life

Here's a list of some of the finer things in life: Food Edition

• Toasted nuts
• Good chocolate
• Freshly baked breads
• French (or homemade) butter
• Perfect fruit
• Olives
• Good coffee
• Caramels with sea salt
• A perfectly cooked steak

This is the first image that appears when you type "Food" into the Google Image search engine.

Merry Cat-mus

Another fab video, cat style.



via Juste Une Illusion

A Little Bear with Spectacles

Wind-up Bear from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.

If that's not the most amazing thing I've ever seen, I don't know what is.

via Dinosaurs and Robots

One Day: Lee Van Cleef

One day I'll get around to making this into a silkscreen and printing it on some shirts and/or tote bags.

~*!Van Cleef 4 lyfe!*~

Michael Jackson Memorial

Went to MJ's Memorial. More pictures here.

A Video

Funny video, via A Cup of Jo

The Best Oatmeal Ever

I just did something really really well. I'm going to brag about it in this post, and then make you do it too. Here we go.

I just made the most kick-ass breakfast in a long while, and without a recipe. Note: this is a very rare occurance, since generally I tend to follow recipes rather diligently. But this morning (yes, it's only 9 am, but I've already had this great breakfast and I find it necessary to post about it right away) I woke up to a kitchen with absolutely no food in it.

You see, my parents are out of town, so I (of course) neglected to go food shopping. There is no cereal. No bread. Only 1 egg. No milk. Yeah, it's bad. But, there was oatmeal--albeit only about 3/4 cup, but that's just enough. So I set out to make myself a nice breakfast to eat on the back porch early in the morning, so I could take advantage of the beautiful morning of what will be the hottest day of the year so far (they say it will reach 100º!).

Now, as I mentioned, I like to follow recipes, so I quickly perused TasteSpotting for inspiration for some oatmeal. I came across a couple recipes, but decided in the end to just throw the usual stuff into my oatmeal: toasted nuts, cinnamon, agave nectar, fruit, you know. But here's the kicker: peanut butter!! I guess I missed the boat on this cooking phenomenon, since several recipes I found were incorporating various nut butters into their recipes, but I'm glad I finally did it. It added this amazing bite to the sweet oatmeal and made it heartier and just incredibly fantastic.

In addition to peanut butter, I chopped up the last white nectarine hanging around the kitchen, toasted some pecans, and swirled in some agave nectar. I brewed up a huge pot of coffee, busted out my favorite bowl and cup (Look! C'est le Petit Prince!!), and sat out on the back porch to enjoy my Sunday morning. Perfect. I am so happy right now.

Now it's your turn. Make this:

Early Summer Oatmeal
Makes 1 serving

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup water
• pinch of salt
• Cinnamon
• Agave Nectar
• Pecans
• White Nectarine (or any old stone fruit)
  
• Peanut Butter
  

Directions

• Boil 1 cup of water. Add oats and salt, bring back to a boil. Then reduce heat to medium and stir occasionally until oatmeal has absorbed most of the water and it's your preferred consistency.
• Meanwhile, throw a handful of pecans into the toaster oven and toast.
• Slice up the white nectarine into chunks, and save a few slices to eat while you prepare the rest.
  
• Add a few generous shakes of cinnamon and a swirl of agave nectar to the oatmeal. Taste, and adjust accordingly (I sound so professional right now, I'm loving it).
• Pour oatmeal into your favorite, prettiest bowl. Add a dollop of peanut butter (I added about 1 teaspoon) and incorporate. Top with nuts and fruit and another swirl of agave nectar.
• Go outside. Eat it all. Drink your coffee or tea. Done and done.

Remind me, we'll send him a red cap and a Speedo.

This guy made a quite prolific mock up of a hypothetical Wes Anderson film festival.

It is worth checking out, for sure: The link is right here.

Real Cake Fake Cake

Hello everyone. I'm going to take a break from all this fashion posting, and show you what I baked the other day (that wasn't cookies!). Lemon Meringue Cupcakes! My first venture into the world of meringue! For so long I had seen these adorable, toasted treats and I really wanted to try my hand at them. Plus, I could have a chance to use my new cupcake carrier, which is a plus.

Lookit how cute and safe they are! I love efficient storage!

Anyways, I made these cupcakes for an art opening at the gallery I help out at. The opening was to celebrate their 1st year anniversary, and also the opening of their new show, which featured the work of Ana Rodriguez. I seriously fell in love with her cake paintings, some of which were 2-dimensional, others 3-dimensional. Check it out:

Brilliant, no? They're all made out of styrofoam and acrylic medium and plastic fruits and doilies. Some are a little burnt, messy, or broken, and they are all just overwhelmingly darling. I love how they are placed so precariously on the table, leaning on each other all willynilly! Great stuff, very inspiring.

Anyways, I made some more cookies, so be sure to check out my other blog for the recipe! As for the cupcakes, I got the recipe here (thanks!). Until later, friends...

Bonpoint

Question: Is $100 too much money to spend on a bikini for a child?
(Answer: yes)

Better question: WHY DON'T THEY MAKE THIS BIKINI FOR BIG GIRLS?
(Answer: ????)

La Boutique Bonpoint, c'est merveilleuse! Je le veux je le veux je le veuxxxxxxxxx, si j'étais une jeune fille, bien sur.

UH oh

I'm in a bad mood today. Not angry or grumpy, just lazy and under the weather. Not really feelin' it.

But this shirt makes me happier:

via TShirt Store

ps. happy summer solstice! the days get shorter now...

SHOOZ v. FUNDZ

Hey i like these shoes:


Camper + Bernhard Willhelm, F-troupe, Givenchy, Opening Ceremony


AND LIKE OMG I'M BLOGGIN' LIKE CRAZY THIS WEEK!!1

Just though I'd share

I just had a really great experience a few minutes ago. I was in my darkroom, processing 4 rolls of film simultaneously, in two separate canisters (a task I have yet to master). I was doing this alone, obviously, and listening to Mykonos by Fleet Foxes and completely rocking out and agitating the canisters to the beat of the music. And then my old-school timer started buzzing to signal the completion of my 10-minute long fixing process, at the EXACT moment that the song finishes it's epic bridge.

It was so perfect.

Now my finger nails, which are still freshly red and unchipped (see previous post), smell like developer and fixer and the rolls are in the wash bath. I am listening to the mix I created to sum up my first year in New York--essentially composed of songs that I had brief, or not so brief, obsessions with--and I feel nostalgic and very happy. I am so excited about my summer, and yet I can't wait for it to end so I can go back to New York. I love it all.

Here's a picture of something that also makes me happy:


Isn't that dress just divine? The print is gorgeous. Link

Rain, Red Nails, and Old Things

It rained today--in California no less. I decided to seize the day and paint my nails red as it rained, and put on some Department of Eagles, which I thought would accompany the situation quite nicely. Also, I wore my new mid-century dress that I found at the local antique store. Perfect morning, I'd say. I searched for a rainbow, but came up empty handed (empty-eyed?).

I've been sleeping too much, to my surprise. Every night, I lay in bed after reading, and I can't fall asleep. My mind wanders and I get excited about various ideas (most of which have been revolving around the clothing in my closet--lame, I know). I've been sleeping consistently around 10 hours a night, and I think that might be giving me insomnia...that makes no sense, but I think it's true.

So either I go to bed later and wake up at the same time, or vice versa. I choose the latter, because I love mornings. Today I set my alarm for 8:30 but hit the snooze a bunch of times. I got up at 8:50 and ate granola and had coffee with frothed milk. Perfect.

Here are some more pictures:

Grand Reopening

I'm back. I actually had time to start this blog up for the past 2-3 weeks, but its been hard getting around to it, for some reason. Anyways, I'll slowly ease my way back into this blog by presenting you with this video by Fever Ray:



It's part obnoxiously artsy, part actually cool. It's actually mainly obnoxiously artsy, but I don't really mind considering that they at least went all out with the art direction and actually did a good job. The song itself is weird enough, so I personally prefer listening to it without the video, but the video is fun too. Watch it.

I'll be back tomorrow to post more stuff. This blog is just going to be where I put everything that's not on my other blog, Every Last Cookie (which I've been working at oh-so diligently! check it out!)

Death Valley, Part Two

I think it's official--I'm putting this blog on a semi-hiatus. This basically is just so I can give a name and reason to why I am posting so infrequently and sporadically. I dunno, I just feel like this blog has no direction, and I never really want to post to it. I'm sure I'll get back into it (probably this summer), but until then, I'll just post photos every now and then.

Never fear, though! My other blog Every Last Cookie is still up and running and in full swing. Last week's Banana Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies were so good, but this week I think I'm going to try to make something a little fancier or lighter or something (meringues?). We'll see...

Delicious Beef Sandwich with Gravy--if looks could kill...

I really wish that pie was better than it really was.

Oh, and by the way, I might be going on a road trip across the United States this summer (hopefully stopping by the Badlands and ending up in Chicago or something). My goal is to visit a bunch of random, obscure diners along the way (specifically ones that are not on the internet), and try all their pies and coffee and sandwiches and burgers and all that fatty stuff. I am going to document my ventures with both my camera and pencil in hand, and a bloated stomach. I am in search of the best pancakes, pies, coffee, grilled cheese, you name it. I hope I don't go into cardiac arrest along the way, but if I do, publish my research in a respectable academic journal--thanks.

Until next time!

Boo! Neglect!

I've been bad to this here blog, that's for sure. I've been very good to my other blog, Every Last Cookie. It's pretty unfair how I discriminate, but this one isn't really calling me anymore. Maybe I was just on hiatus. I should get back into this one more, and post more photos, and just say what's on my mind or what's up. It's nice to have a place to just share any random bit of imagery or inspiration, or what have you, and not be confined by a theme, like my other blog is. On the other hand, it's easier to post in the other blog because most posts are quite formulaic.

Anyways, over spring break I went to Death Valley, and I'd like to share some pictures.

Other than going to Death Valley, life has been pretty much the same. The school year is winding down, which blows my mind, because it seems like just a few weeks ago that I was completely losing my mind about the thought of moving to New York City and leaving behind my entire childhood growing up in California. It was such a weird transitional phase, this whole first year of college. I feel that I have changed significantly in some regards, but I don't know exactly what they are. I can't quite tell where I have progressed artistically, yet, but I think it happened, albeit perhaps surreptitiously.

I'm a very private person, which seems strange to say, especially via blogging. But it's true, regarding certain things, but I've tried to be more open this year. I think it's working, but maybe I'm still the same. I can't analyze myself very well.

Anyways, this has been a quite sporadic, random post. I don't really have anything much to say, except that I've been baking lots of cookies, and now I am going to poach some pears I think. And it's SPRING--OH MY!!! Anyways, if you want to see more Death Valley photos, don't hesitate to visit my Flickr!

I will post again soon, to be sure!