Flowers for Friday

Just three delicate pink tulips in a petite Chinoiserie vase delights me so!  Hope your Friday is lovely, dearies! 

Flowers for Friday

If your Valentine didn't bring you the posies you wanted, treat yourself this Friday!  I splurged on fuchsia roses and purple freesia to celebrate another week.

Dinner Time: Spaghetti Carbonara

If I had a little Italian Nonna, I bet she would have made this for me on a chilly Sunday evening.  Spaghetti carbonara is Italian soul food, grandma-style.  It is pasta with a warming hug and a pinch on the cheeks.

With a few pantry staples and fresh bacon and eggs, this simple yet decadent dinner is just a boil, sizzle and whisk away.  In just a few minutes, you'll feel like you've been carried away to a cozy Roman farmhouse.

Cocktail du Jour: Ginger Margarita

I purchased this bottle of ginger liqueur, Domaine de Canton, after admiring its unique orientalist bottle.  I'm sure my husband loves my habit of buying fancy bottles of stuff I've never tasted (the Campari experiment being my worst decision) and taking up precious Bourbon real estate on the bar.  

Not knowing exactly what to make with such an unusual elixir, I searched for ginger-inspired cocktails.  That is how the ginger margarita was born.

Birthday Cake

It seems just about everyone has their own very favorite birthday cake.  Maybe it was the plain old boxed white cake mix your mom made on your special day?  Or perhaps you indulge in German chocolate from your favorite bakery?  In recent years, red velvet has become my signature birthday cake.  It's the one decadent treat I look forward to every January 20th.

Playtime in Paris

One of my favorite design bloggers, the always-talented Gabrielle Blair (aka Design Mom), recently posted a sweet video of her daughter Betty exploring Paris.  Once I saw Betty skipping along the Seine, nibbling on macarons and standing in her best Eiffel Tower pose, I began daydreaming of one day taking my daughter to the city of lights.  I can only imagine how much more wonderful my favorite city becomes when viewed through the curiosity and innocence of children. 

Pretty Monday: Golden Glam

I love an awards show.  The couture gowns, the speeches, and the who's who of Hollywood all together in one ballroom make for a fun night of martini-sipping and vicarious glamour.

Here were my favorite ensembles at last evening's Golden Globes:

Coral mermaid glamour for Jessica Alba

Cocktail du Jour: Hot Bourbon Cider

When the January nights are cold and dark, sometimes a nice toasty and tasty beverage warms the soul.  My husband is a bourbon aficionado so we have an assortment of the Kentucky-born elixir on our bar at any one time.  A variant on the Hot Toddy or Hot Buttered Rum, this decadent cocktail is best sipped by a roaring fire (or in our case, while watching a DVD of a roaring fire).  And, if you need an excuse for consuming this treat, it also is believed to help the common cold.  I shall have one this evening, preventative medicine, you see.  Bottoms up, dearies!

Returning to the Abbey

Ah, alas the time has come for the return of my beloved Downton Abbey.  This evening, the characters so many of us have come to love (and a few to detest among the lot) are brought back to PBS for the U.S. premiere of Season Three.  For me, there are few programs which offer the delightful escapism of Downton Abbey.  

Flowers for Friday

With its soft yellow and pink face, this orchid reminds me of the singing flowers in Alice in Wonderland.  When I pass by the lovely blooms in our entryway, I secretly hope I'll catch them humming along.

A Sweet Treat: Banana Pecan Cake

If you made resolutions that involve any of the following: will power, bikinis, marathons, skinny jeans, salads.  STOP READING NOW!

And for the rest of you, let's eat cake!

Bonne année et bonne santé!

When the French declare "Happy New Year," they often drop the "new" and say instead "good year."  As 2012 was not the finest year on record for my family, I am hoping not just for a "new" year but also for a "good" one.  Wherever you are, whoever is by your side, whatever you sip to ring in 2013, I wish you, as my French friends like to say, a "good year and good health."

Flowers (and vino) for Friday

Santa brought me a very lovely Trader Joe's gift card this year. Rather than stocking up on peanut butter or cereal or some other essentials, I splurged on pink gerber daisies and a bottle of Seismic Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand (and it's quite "quaffable" as my dad would say). Thanks, Santa, for indulging me in my favorite Friday treats.  

Breakfast Break: Caramel Apple Oatmeal

Even here in Southern California, the land of perpetual sunshine, it's been quite chilly lately.  When I wake up and see frost on the windows, I need something warm and cozy for breakfast.  My favorite Trader Joe's quick-cook steel cut oats are wonderfully nutty and belly-filling on a cold morning, but during the holidays I like to add an extra decadent touch.  

On Gratitude

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” 
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

The art of saying "thank you" is vanishing.  Carefully-written letters of gratitude have been subbed for impersonal texts and e-mails.  Sure, we are all rushed, but none of us is truly so busy as to miss an opportunity to let gift-givers know we appreciate them and their thoughtfulness.  

Seasons Greetings!

Have yourselves a merry little Christmas, darlings!  
On this Christmas eve, may love surround you, delicious treats be on your table and treasures from Santa beneath your tree.  Hoping the joyous spirit of the holidays remains with you all through 2013.

Flowers for Friday

My friends, here are few festive red tulips to brighten your morning and make your day sparkle. As you spend the day preparing for holiday festivities, don't forget to do something lovely for yourself.  A bunch of flowers will certainly perk up a winter's day!

Cocktail du Jour: Cava

Lately, I am pausing to realize that every day of life, every day with loved ones is to be treasured and celebrated.

Flowers for Friday

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." -Norman Vincent Peale

Today I didn't even have to treat myself to my Friday flowers.  One of my dearest friends (she is my Thelma, I'm her Louise) brought me this festive bunch of red and white blooms with lots of evergreen tucked in the bouquet too.  
What a lovely surprise!

Pretty Monday: Noël

When the city of lights is sparkling even brighter with Christmas twinklies, there is no more magical place on Earth (sorry, Disneyland).  

Dinner Time: Chinese Chicken Salad

Sometimes amid all the heaviness of winter foods, a nice crunchy, summery salad provides the perfect cure to your casserole overload or post-Thanksgiving puffiness.  One of my dear friends recently gave me a version of this recipe and its bright colors and fresh taste were just what I needed on a gray December day. 

Pretty Monday: Beautiful Bread

“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” ― James Beard

Au Levain du Marais by Shell Sherree on Etsy

Happy Birthday, Dear Georgia

O'Keeffe, Two Pink Shells

Today, Georgia O'Keeffe would have been 125 years old.  She is perhaps one of the most misunderstood painters of the twentieth century.  All too often, critics and historians attempt to alter her abstractions into something she never intended (but how can we really ever know what she intended).  

While the temptation to see things buried within her shapes will always challenge viewers, I appreciate Georgia's work on a purely  aesthetic level.  Her soft colors and crisp lines enchant me.  From the time I first copied her sunflowers in elementary school until I wrote my master's thesis about The Lawrence Tree, Ms. O'Keeffe has occupied a very special place in my creative mind.  

John Loengard’s 1967 portrait

Pretty Monday: Cookbooks

The Food of Spain...is delicioso!

Ahem...yes, darlings, I realize we are but a few mere hours away from Tuesday, but my Monday was not especially pretty.  Be it late, here are some pretties for your Monday (or Tuesday or Wednesday)...

One of Miss Dahl's Delights

On a lazy afternoon, one of my favorite pastimes is slowly meandering through a lavishly illustrated cookbook.  Sure, the old Larousse Gastronomique or Mastering the Art of French Cooking are invaluable to cooks for their methods and steps and advice...in other words: words.  But, the cookbooks I like best are those with glorious photos.  As an inherently visual being and an always-hungry one, books brimming with beautiful photographs transport me.  We eat with our eyes first, right? 

A Sense of Place: Le Terroir

"I like to think about the life of wine.  How it's a living thing. I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were growing; how the sun was shining; if it rained. I like to think about all the people who tended and picked the grapes. And if it's an old wine, how many of them must be dead by now. I like how wine continues to evolve, like if I opened a bottle of wine today it would taste different than if I'd opened it on any other day, because a bottle of wine is actually alive. And it's constantly evolving and gaining complexity." -Maya in Sideways

In the cellars at Zaca Mesa winery

Le terroir is a most wonderful French concept.  Loosely translated, the term means "a sense of place," but in actuality, it is so much more.