Belated recap

Thursday - The gorgeous wedding of Randi and Mike! I love all the little details they put into the wedding, and I got to see hottie hubby in a yarmulke! (All the boys wore them.) Friday - Long overdue dinner w/ Josh and Jami. - Talked to their babysitter, a high school senior, about how technology has changed high school since I was there. She told me about how her teachers have websites where they post notes from class, assignments, etc. And kids can upload assignments via a special site that determines if content was plagiarized from classmates or other assignments in the database. My, how times have changed. Saturday - Got a message from justJENN that said, "Will you be home? I want to drop something off." I thought, "Oooh, baked goods! Baked goods!" And I was right! Check out these ingenious bad boys! It's Domo Kun, whom I adore! I had to take a picture of a cupcake with one of my Domo dolls! (Yes, I have more than one Domo doll.) - Went to IKEA to pick up the dresser that will double as our changing table, which was the last piece of furniture we needed to complete the nursery! - Organized shower gifts, including all the clothes given to us and what I've purchased. She's going to have to be like an Oscars hostess and go through four outfits in a day to get through them all. Not that that's a bad thing! Sunday - Brent, his bro and I discovered an AMAZING breakfast place in West LA. After eating, Brent turned to me and said, "Don't tell anyone about this place!" aka "Don't blog about this!" Sorry, folks. You'll have to search for it yourself. Heh. - Met up with Alyssa, her awesome husband Rob, and another couple of really nice friends of theirs for dinner at Noodle Planet. - Dinner was followed by an awesome Jack Johnson show at UCLA. Alyssa is a HUGE Jack fan, and I've always liked him but hadn't had a chance to see him until now. He puts on a great show, which was even better because of the wonderful company. Monday - We had our handy man over and spent Labor Day laboring. He installed the dishwasher that Brent thought he could install himself (but was wrong), hooked up the ice and filtered water features on our new fridge (FINALLY!), fixed a broken light fixture and started to install the light/ceiling fan in our nursery. He finished up today, so now the room is ready to be painted! - The timing for all this home renovation is ironic because I think I've found myself in full on nesting mode, which means I was following our handy man around with a broom and dustpan like a mad woman. - Brent assembled our dresser/changing table! Because IKEA doesn't necessarily sell heirloom pieces, we weren't that surprised when one of the drawers didn't seem to close all the way. Brent figured out some wonky fix with a simple piece of paper. He was SO excited at his ingenuity that he screamed, "TAKE A PICTURE OF THIS! WOO HOO!" So I did! And that was our long weekend! "Werewolf bar mitzvah, spooky scary. Boys becoming men, men becoming wolves." - Tracy, 30 Rock

Blogging mathematically

A panel with Chef Gordon Ramsay discussing Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares and his favorite LA restaurants + Jodi from Snarky Dork + justJENN + late dinner at The Farm of Beverly Hills + cupcakes from Crumbs Bakeshop = Fabulous evening and a tired Nanette Update: Jenn posted a more thorough recap, including a picture she snapped before security put a stop to it. "Our lives are not in the lap of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks." - Lin Yutang

Party pooped

I've drunk-blogged, but never half-awake blogged. I just woke from a two-hour nap. Maybe longer. My mind is still thick with the post-nap fog but I realized that I hadn't blogged today and we're leaving for a concert soon. Brent and I went to one of justJENN's fabulous birthday parties for her 2-year-old. I think my body was overwhelmed by the cuteness of all the kids and playing with as many as I could. Plus, I may have crashed from all the sugar I ate -- half of an amazingly cute Elmo cupcake, half of a giant piece of Paradise Cake, four kinds of ice cream and one mini Tootsie Pop, which I had no idea existed! I think I need to order a jar for my desk. Whew. Ok, I'm a little more awake and it's almost time to go. "I feel it all, I feel it all. The wings are wide, the wings are wide. Wild card in sight, wild card in sight." - I Feel It All, Feist

Weekend what what

Where do the weekends go? Friday night we were exhausted from the work week, so we vegged on the couch, watched Friday Night Lights and went to bed early. Saturday morning we visited a nearby bakery that we discovered recently. It's a French bakery called Le Pain du Jour that is only open until 12:30 p.m. each day and provides breads for a group of West LA restaurants. (It's so French that the website is only in French.) We bought a loaf of the hazelnut, raisin, walnut bread, which we tried last weekend, and ate that for breakfast/lunch. Loaded with carbs, we spent the morning and much of the afternoon doing laundry, cleaning our condo and organizing two of our closets and one of our media cabinets. It was long overdue and we felt so good when it was all done. That evening we fought against some crazy wild wind to go have dinner at a place called Noodle Planet in Westwood. Garlic chicken and pad see ew. Mmm... We battled some more wind to grab some ice cream sandwiches from Diddy Riese. We took our stuff, tired selves home and watched Gladiator. Brent had seen it, but I hadn't and we wanted to watch it post-visit to the Colosseum. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Sunday morning I met up with a bunch o' gals for brunch at Jack N Jills in Beverly Hills, where we spotted Magic Johnson. After brunch we moseyed around the corner over to Crumbs Bakery. I sampled a mini Twinkies flavor, and took home a cookie dough and a key lime. All were quite delicious! More pics of our morning on WeeMo's blog. After hanging out with the gals, Brent and I picked up stuff for my Halloween costume. We're having a contest at work and I came up with a fun idea. Hopefully I can pull it together as planned. We spent the rest of the day lazing around. I napped and we watched news coverage of the Malibu fires, which are far enough not to worry us but close enough to see the smoke-filled sky. That, paired with the winds, makes my allergies so very happy. On opposite day. "Grace, coming out is something you do once in a lifetime, like being born or watching Magic Johnson's talk show." - Will, Will & Grace

Weekend in review

The next Italy recap is on its way! I'm cross-eyed from editing, naming and uploading all the photos. In the meantime, here's what we did this weekend. Friday I was in the mood for fish and chips, so we grabbed some at Santa Monica's English pub, Ye Old King's Head. If you like fish and chips, this place is hard to beat. The fish batter is light yet tasty. And the chips are fabulous. We topped it off with some cider, then some sticky toffee pudding for dessert. Oh so delic! Saturday We hit the gym in the morning, then swung by the 1-year-old birthday party of our buddy, Brendan, the son of our friends Josh and Jami. As with all of their parties, we had fun with their friends and families. The food was tasty, although I'm sad we had to leave before the traditional 1-year-old cake smashing. We left the party early to make it to a comedy show that I was surprising Brent with. The comedians, Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black, are two actors/comedians who Brent has been a fan of for quite a while. They put on a great show at the New Ivar Theater in Hollywood. The show ended around 9, so I convince Brent to swing by the new Beverly Hills bakery called Crumbs. We ordered a cherry Italian soda and picked up one pumpkin and one lemon cream cheese cupcake to go. Here's the pumpkin: And here's the lemon cream cheese: I thought they were good, although the frosting might have been a little too sweet. I'd choose them over Sprinkles because they don't have an insane line and I'm not a huge Sprinkles fan. Also, they're open late (til 10, I think), which is unlike any other LA bakery. It's also right next to a gelato place, which we may have to hit up next time we're in the area. I'm going to need my gelato fix soon. Sunday We spent the morning walking to the Farmer's Market, a little over two miles roundtrip. I miss all the walking we did in Italy, and this was a nice way to get some exercise in while running an errand. At the market we picked up some fruits, veggies and baked goods. When we approached the dates table, the seller asked me if I was looking for a particular date. I giggled, grabbed Brent's arm and said, "I already have a hot date!" ::taping mic:: Is this thing on? Oh, and we also saw Helen Hunt. I'm so oblivious, but Brent has good eyes and can always pick celebs out of a crowd. She's quite pretty in person, by the way. The rest of the afternoon was lazy. I spent so many hours going through the beautiful pictures Brent took of Cinque Terre. And Brent continued his hunt for the perfectly priced Xbox 360. I think he's close to making a decision and actually getting one. (It's in his blood. His father is the same way and must research something for months and months before actually purchasing it.) We ended our weekend by getting more groceries for our barren fridge, and Brent whipped up a delicious dinner of steak and panzanella. "My favorite animal is steak." - Fran Lebowitz

Cupcakes in combat

I just heard that a new cupcake place is opening here in Southern California this Friday. It's a New York transplant called Crumbs. As if there isn't enough baked goods battling going on with cupcakery after cupcakery popping up, this one is reportedly just two blocks away from the infamous Sprinkles in Beverly Hills! I want to see them battle it out on Beverly Boulevard, a la West Side Story. We'll have to do a cupcake toss to see who gets to be the Jets and who gets to be the Sharks. Call frosting or tails! I wonder if Sprinkles' massive line will dwindle at all, at least on Friday. While I think Sprinkles is good, I don't go simply because there are plenty of other quality cupcake places in So. Cal that don't require you to wait in a line for 15+ minutes. So I'm not exactly rooting for Sprinkles. I'm claiming Switzerland on this one, at least until I get my grubby little hands on a Crumbs cupcake for myself. It seems as though at least part of my hope of a chicken in every pot and a cupcakery on every corner is coming true! "[on starting an all-male brothel industry] We should open one in every block, like Starbucks!" - Carrie, Sex in the City

Buy me some cupcakes and Cracker Jacks

Today is my co-worker's birthday. So I made cupcakes. The recipe is called "The Best Birthday Cupcakes" from "Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor." I played around with fondant for the first time. And put Brent to work, helping me decorate. I think they turned out well. Oh, and did I mention that my co-worker looooooves baseball? A lot. He's a HUGE Dodgers fan. I especially dig this one. And this one. Brent hates baseball. He thinks it's lame. I agree. Hopefully my co-worker will have a sense of humor. If not, I'll gobble this one down before he gets too pissed. They taste quite yummy, if I do say so myself. Oscar: I can … help out if you need me. Michael: I will use your talents come baseball season, my friend. Or if we box. - The Office

Adventures in baking

Whenever I don't blog for too long, I start to get a nagging voice in the back of my mind, telling me to hurry up and put words to virtual paper. Anyhow, I've been a busy bee. Remember I mentioned that our oven broke last weekend? Well, this week I had two occasions that I volunteered to bake for, so I had to take myself, some ingredients and baking supplies to my in-laws' to use their ovens. (Someday I will have two ovens, like they do, and it will be glorious. And at least one will be a convection oven, like theirs.) I swung by the grocery store to pick up a few missing ingredients, only to realize at the checkout counter that I didn't have my wallet! *Gulp!* I wasn't worried about finding it, as I knew it was either on my desk or in my co-worker's car, but I had to haul myself back to my in-laws' to grab some funds then haul myself back to the store to pay for my stuff. The cashier was totally cool, but I was still mortified. Then before I could start baking I had to do a quick quality-assurance thing of my work's site. (This is something that my team takes turns rotating once a week.) Usually it's a 10-minute thing, if everything is alright. But of course my good-luck karma had already shifted, and there was an issue with the site and it took three times as long as it normally would to get stuff straightened out. With that finally taken care of, I started whipping up the two flavors of cupcakes and realized I had forgotten one ingredient. Great, juuuuuust great. The two batches I made were from recipes from Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor, and luckily the ingredient I forgot was a non-essential add-on. Onward and upward! Or so I thought... I was excited to spread out my baking space in my in-laws' giant kitchen, but just as I started I noticed little ants crawling the counters of one side of the kitchen. So then I had to confine my baking work area to the tiny counters near the oven, all the while on the lookout for more ants. By the time I was done, I was pooped! But they turned out great. The first was Cherry Cheesecake Cupcakes (before I sprinkled them with powdered sugar). The second was a Lemon Chiffon Cupcake with Frosty Lemon Glaze. (I need to work on my glazing technique.) Quick netiquette question: I've already received a request to post the recipes to these, but is it in poor form (and/or illegal) if I post recipes from a cookbook? All in all, I think they turned out great. One of my bosses even said to me after tasting one, "No offense, but why the hell are you working here instead of making these all the time?" In a perfect world I might be a full-time baker. In reality, I bet all the fun would be taken out of it for me. I always bake with love. These cupcakes were baked with love and a little side of frustration. but all the cupcake recipients seemed to have enjoyed them. Like the Hokey Pokey, that's what it's all about. "I guess, all things considered, I was lucky Dwight was there. And Roy was lucky that Dwight only used pepper spray. And not the nun chucks or the throwing stars." - Jim, The Office

Weekend recap

This was quite a weekend, lemme tell ya. Friday After work I made a really quick trip to Old Navy in the hopes of finding something cute to wear to that evening's festivities. It was one of those rare occurrences when almost everything I grabbed to try on actually looked good. Best of all, it was Old Navy so I was able to score a bunch without spending too much. I made out like a bandit with 4, yes FOUR, dresses! (One is obviously not pictured. It was on clearance - woo hoo! - but not available online.) I am so loving that dresses are so in style these days. Dresses like the ones above can be dressed up, dressed down and best of all - they're comfortable! I made a very quick trip to the new, dangerously nearby Vanilla Bakeshop. I bought a bunch of their baby cupcakes for maximum variety. I had been forewarned about the state of the cupcakes after transport, but was still surprised to see them in such disarray after I got home. And mind you, I live just a few minutes away. (A favorite food blogger had the similar issues, as you can see here.) They attached the cupcakes to the box with a dot of frosting, but it didn't really hold up. Despite looking a mess (frosting all squished, flavors colliding), all the flavors were quite good. Over the weekend I tasted chocolate peanut butter, banana chocolate chip (second favorite), Mom's birthday cake (probably my fav), old fashioned, and chocolate vanilla bean. I'd definitely recommend them, especially if you're in the area, but you're probably better off eating as many of them there as you can, or bringing someone to watch them carefully the entire way home. That evening I drove brides-to-be Trish and dapotato to meet up with a bunch of other fabulous friends for their bachelorette party. I think we may have passed Fergie driving in a convertible on our way there. We started with dinner at Loggia at The Highlands, with delicious/hilarious favors created by R. They were chocolate with vanilla filling. I kid you not! Hey, R - I just realized that you *might* be able to recycle those cake pans by baking some goodies for a cycling club. They kinda look like bicycle seats, right? Eh, it's a stretch, I know, especially since you're not in a cycling club. ;) After dinner we were escorted down to the attached nightclub, where we attended a very special show called Hollywood Men. I've never been to a strip club, but it's not something I'll soon forget. We hooted, hollered and mostly laughed as we watched male strippers in skits, portraying cowboys, firemen, cops, fighter pilots a la Top Gun, and strangely - vampires. I spent a lot of the night like this: After their skits, the men came out for some one-on-one bumping and grinding. I, happily, was not a recipient of a lap dance, but we made sure to keep our bachelorettes dripping with dollar bills for plenty of dancing. (Bride-to-be faces have been hidden to protect the innocent... or guilty.) We hung out a bit longer after the show turned into a night club. It was nice to go out dancing with the gals because that's not something I do very often even though I enjoy it. I'm too old to hang out in most clubs these days. Saturday Brent and I slept in late and then lounged by Brent's parents' pool. It was a gorgeous day in sunny Southern California. We met Josh, Jami and some other friends of theirs for dinner at a Persian restaurant. I wasn't a big fan the first time we tried it, but this time was a lot better. Then we headed over to the new Landmark Theater to see Rescue Dawn. Brent and I had no problems the other two times we had been there, but for some reason their ticket system was screwy and didn't give us assigned seats when Jami ordered the tix via phone. We couldn't get seats together, even just in pairs for each couple, and ended up having to swap them out for another movie. (*Tear* no Christian Bale for me.) The theater was very apologetic and gave each of the six of us two tickets for free movies, so they redeemed themselves a bit. We ended up seeing Interview, which turned out to be pretty dreadful. I don't know if I'd watch this if it were playing for free on cable. It started out ok but got boring quickly. Two of the six of us fell asleep. Sunday We had brunch at Rose Cafe. It was delicious (tofu scramble...mmm...). Then we did a little shopping. We came home, I napped and then we dragged ourselves to the gym. Michael: Stripper? Could I ask you a question? About women? Um … should I tell my girlfriend that you danced up on me? Elizabeth: Secret secrets are no fun. Secret secrets hurt someone. Michael: Wow. Thank you.

Double your pleasure

Two blog posts in one night? I know! Go on wit' your bad self! At about 7 p.m. I realized that tonight was the night I had planned to bake some 4th of July-themed cupcakes for my co-workers. And I was determined to go all out and do them by scratch instead of taking the easy route with a box cake mix and homemade frosting. I chose a red/white/blue recipe from Crazy About Cupcakes, although mine turned out more like pastel pink/white/baby blue cupcakes. I made cream cheese frosting and topped them with some pre-made July 4th candy. I was hoping to top them with Pop Rocks, but I couldn't find any in time. The recipe was smaller than I thought (only 12) so Brent and I split one. (A baker has to taste her own goods.) Luckily half the office is out on vacation this week, so 12 should be plenty. Before the frosting. You can see a bit of red poking out. It's mostly on the bottom of the cupcakes, I swear. All decorated See! There IS red inside! "That's a shame, being that it's the 4th of July and all. Kids like you should be out having fun. Drinking, partying, running over people, getting away with murder, things like that." - Ben Willis, I Know What You Did Last Summer

This will blow your mind

Seriously. Check this out. She's genius. Or she sold her soul to the devil in exchange for the most amazing culinary creativity ever. I'm leaning toward the former. Thanks, Lisa, for pointing out these beautiful creations! "Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best." - Henry Van Dyke

Luck of the Irish!

In honor of the upcoming St. Patrick's Day and a co-worker's weekend birthday, I made some cupcakes. And not just any cupcakes - Irish Cream cupcakes! I got the recipe from the Crazy About Cupcakes cookbook. It's a cake batter, filling and frosting all infused with Irish Cream liqueur. They turned out really well. In fact, Brent says they are his favorite cupcakes of those I've ever made! Hopefully my co-workers will feel the same way. (And sorry - no pictures. My camera is dead and I can't find the charger.) "Irish whisky. Your mother always filled it with coffee and Irish whisky. We just called it clam chowder in front of you kids." - Martin, Frasier

Happy birth-duh

So the cupcakes I made last night for my co-worker's birthday today? This morning all of the staff gathered together, lit a candle on one of the cupcakes and began singing as we walked into his office. Turns out that he was ON THE PHONE! It was right before a meeting we were having, so we....ok, I, assumed he wouldn't be busy. Oops. We quickly backed out and shut the door. My co-worker came out moments later, laughing about the strange coincidence. Thankfully he got a kick out of it, and best of all, everyone seemed to enjoy the baked goods, especially the cream cheese frosting. And for those of you wondering where I got the baking cups, they're from Wal-Mart. You can also get them online here. "Every man has his follies -- and often they are the most interesting thing he has got." - Josh Billings

Baker's doozy

Been a while since I've baked, so I decided to make some cupcakes tonight in honor of a co-worker's birthday. Lately I've been baking from scratch, but I was feeling tired and instead found a recipe for red velvet using a cake mix and a few added ingredients (sour cream, chocolate pudding mix, etc.). Easy enough, I thought. Boy, was I wrong. I followed the recipe, but after I pulled them out of the oven, the tops sunk in like a bad souffle. I ate one and the tops were still raw. I threw them back in the oven for a few minutes. When I took them out, the tops were a bit crispier, but the rest seemed mushy. So I decided to throw them away. I can't bring crap like that into work for others to politely take and then throw away after they've taken a bite and discovered that it's horrific. I started over with another cake mix I had, just as is, no other added ingredients. I made the cream cheese frosting from scratch. Much, much better this time: "Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more." - Mark Twain