Golden Girl Keeps The Laughs Going

This commercial from last night's Super Bowl made me laugh out loud.  You've got to love this woman.  She makes us Golden Girls groupies so proud.  :)

"You're playing like Betty White out there!"




Which commercial was your favorite?  :)

A Family Is A Family

I saw A Family Is A Family Is A Family last night on HBO and thought it was lovely.  Mostly because of the kids in the documentary and the way they interacted with each other and talked about their families.  Some of the subjects were sensitive ones that some parents don't even discuss with their kids until later on, like adoption or in vitro fertilization so I was surprised when these little kids talked about these things with such understanding (as much their age would permit) and love.  They embraced their lives and families and felt loved, which is something I think we all hope for our kids.

I know not everyone is going to agree with the message of the documentary but I think there are pieces that every mom will find heartwarming and sweet.

Everybody Hurts - Helping Haiti

This is a heartbreaking and moving reminder that the Haitian people will need help for a long time to come.  Giving is a personal thing and everyone gives in their once way, but if you are still looking for a way to help, here are two charities that are great:  the American Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.

I thought this was a well made video (produced by Simon Cowell and released yesterday) and lovely rendition of the R.E.M. song Everybody Hurts featuring several artists including, Rod Stewart, Susan Boyle,  Kylie Minogue, Liona Lewis and Cheryl Cole.

Where Cheetos Meet Conan!

This is so much fun to watch.  Silly, but fun nonetheless.  It's a video of a woman creating Conan with four different Cheetos flavored cheese puffs.  I love Cheetos (guilty pleasure that I don't indulge in very often), Conan O'Brien (even though he was always on too late for me to catch), and fun art so it's no surprise that I really liked this!  I wonder where Conan is going to end up?

Isn't she good?  

Snowed In

Wow, the snow around here is crazy!  Close to three feet.  How is it where you are?

I'm not sure how many days it will take to get our street clear enough to actually drive on.  One of my neighbors tried to get his giant SUV out but got immediately stuck in the snow.  After one hour of several neighbors, including my husband, trying to dig his car out, his car is in the same exact place in the middle of the street.  He's given up and gone back inside.

Tomorrow's to-do list:

• Build the "most awesome snow hill EVER," 
• Help kids build a snowman or two, 
• Make soup, hot chocolate and anything else the kids want after a day in the snow, and finally
• Chit chat with the neighbors outside about the snow (how much of it we got, how beautiful it is, wonder when schools will be open, wow it's a lot of snow, etc.).

Here are two pictures from the blog AwesomeDC:

:)

Her Morning Elegance/Oran Lavie

I had no idea why the following video was in the "Recommended For You" section of my YouTube page.  It looked kind of interesting though and over ten and half million people had watched it on YouTube so I figured I'd risk a few wasted minutes of my life and watched it.  And I'm so glad I did.  It was interesting and fun to watch, and the song was pretty good too.   It has a little entertainment, a little beauty, a little this and that.  :-)

Take a look, I think you'll like it:




Had you seen this before?  What did you think?

Snow, Snow, and More Snow!

As you might have heard, we're apparently going to be entering some kind of winter Armageddon tonight.  And since they couldn't possibly be exaggerating the snowzilla that's about to hit us, I'm making all appropriate arrangements for my survival.

But just in case I don't make it as a result of being buried under a hundred feet of snow, I wanted to say thanks for all the good times we've had.  Like the time you came over here and hung out with me or the other times when you left those really awesome comments!

I'll be thinking of you as I try and dig out of the mountain of snow that will entomb me soon.  ;)

The view from my room! 

Perfect Soup For Cold Winter Day

I just came across the best resolution list ever!  It's a food resolution list from Brown Eyed Baker, a baking blog I just found.

The first thing that caught my eye on her blog was this picture of French onion soup and the great recipe accompanying it.  I love this soup in the winter but have never tried making myself because it seemed little intimidating.  Have you ever made it?

And then as I was reading about the soup, I saw her food resolution list from 2009.  It includes the 100 different kinds of food that she was try making.  She then went back a few weeks ago and crossed off the things that she'd actually made along with a link to the recipe she used (click on the word "complete" below to go to her recipe pages).  What a great idea!  Take a look at her list:


Yeast Goodies:
1. Focaccia bread
2. Bagels ~ Completed
3. English muffins ~ Completed
4. Challah ~ Completed 
5. No-Knead bread
6. Ciabatta
7. Babka ~ Completed (Chocolate Babka)
8. Kaiser rolls
9. Panettone
10. Sour dough bread
11. Parker House Rolls
12. Olive oil bread
13. Baguettes ~ Completed
13. Croissants ~ Completed
14. Donuts
15. Yeasted Coffee Cake

Quick Breads:
16. Zucchini bread ~ Completed
17. Gingerbread
18. Shortbread
19. Irish Soda bread ~ Completed
20. Popovers
21. Herbed Cheese and Beer bread ~ Completed

Cookies/Bars:
22. Blondies ~ Completed with Coconut Chocolate Chunk Blondies
23. Macaroons ~ Completed with Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons
24. Snickerdoodles ~ Completed
25. Gingerbread cookies
26. Rugelach ~ Completed
27. Seven Layer Bars ~ Completed
28. Cannoli ~ Completed

Spoon Desserts:
29. Chocolate Mousse
30. Souffle
31. Baked Alaska
32. Bread pudding ~ Completed
33. Creme Brulee

Pastries:
34. Danish ~ Completed (Daring Bakers May 2008)
35. Strudel
36. Nutroll
37. Baklava
38. Éclairs ~ Completed
39. Cream puffs ~ Completed
40. Turnovers
41. Gougeres

Cakes:
42. Crumb Cake ~ Completed
43. Coffee Cake ~ Completed
44. Pineapple Upside Down Cake ~ Completed
45. Charlotte
46. Angel food cake
47. Carrot cake
48. German chocolate cake
49. Pumpkin roll
50. Black Forest Cake
51. Black bottom cupcakes ~ Completed
52. New York cheesecake
53. Chocolate cheesecake
54. Bundt-style cake (rum)
55. Better Than Sex Cake
56. Flourless Chocolate cake
57. Boston Cream Pie
58. Tiered Cake ~ Completed for class and a wedding shower

Pies:
59. Lattice-topped pie ~ Completed on my blueberry pie
60. Blueberry pie ~ Completed
61. Pumpkin pie
62. Chocolate cream pie
63. Pecan pie

Italian:
64. Lasagna
65. Stuffed Shells
66. Manicotti
67. Chicken parmesan
68. Fettuccine Alfredo ~ Completed
69. Homemade noodles ~ Completed
70. Pigu ~ Completed
71. Tortellini
72. Deep dish pizza
73. Calzones ~ Completed with Italian Supreme Calzones
74. Stromboli
75. Frittata

Soups, Entrees, and Sides:
76. French onion soup ~ Completed
77. Minestrone
78. Cream of mushroom soup ~ Completed
79. Coq au Vin
80. Beef stroganoff
81. Baked ham
82. Lamb
83. Stuffed cabbage
84. Roast chicken
85. Beef Wellington ~ Completed!
86. Stuffing
87. Fritters
88. Baked beans

Frozen Desserts:
89. Homemade ice cream ~ Completed with Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
90. Sorbet
91. Semifreddo ~ Completed with Chocolate Espresso Semifreddo

Miscellaneous (not sure what category these go in!):
92. German Apple Pancake
93. Crepes
94. Quiche ~ Completed
95. Spanakopita
96. Petit Fours
97. Gingerbread House
98. Fudge ~ Completed
99. Pierogi ~ Completed
100. Truffles

101 and Beyond…
101. Sfogatelle
102. Braised Short Ribs
103. Butternut Squash anything
104. Kouign Amann
105. Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
106. Moussaka
107. Egg Rolls
108. Potstickers/Dumplings
109. Homemade onion rings
110. Guacamole

All I have to say about this list is WOW!  I need to get myself some resolutions and fast.  Do you have a food list?

When Cookies Meet LOST

When my friend Christy told me to check out a food blog called My First Kitchen, I had no idea that I would find the marriage of two of my favorite things...cookies and the show LOST!  

Kendra has some yummy stuff on her blog but these are what caught my eye.  Aren't they great?

Take a look at her post if you want to see how to make these!  :)

Should We Party With Oscar?

The oscar nominations are out and I for one am excited!

I think there have been some really great movies this past year and I am looking forward to seeing who walks away with the golden statue.  I know, I sound like Billy Bush (the guy from Access Hollywood) but I genuinely enjoy the whole movie process and there is a thrill in seeing your favorite movie or actor winning.  

The only problem is that since I've had kids, I can barely make it to the movies so it's hard for me to see even a portion of the nominated movies before the Oscars.  But this year, I'm going to challenge myself to somehow see the major contenders before the big night.  I might even throw together an Oscar night party at my place if I'm able to achieve this very silly but fun goal.

Who's with me?  Any thoughts of doing the same?

Great Giveaways At ScaryMommy!

Take a look at these beautiful and fun things you could win from Jill's give away at Scary Mommy.  All you need to do is comment on her give away posts.

Here is the post you can comment on to win a $50 gift certificate from The Vintage Pearl:

Here is the post you can comment on to win up to $75 worth of goodies from Bread & Butter:

Here's the post you can comment on to win a Wilton Cake Decorating Kits ($180 value):

And finally, here's the post you can comment on to win the Love in the Kitchen Trio from Bread & Butter:

I'm so excited about these giveaways!  I hope one of us wins something.  Let me know if you win.  I'm keeping my fingers.  :)

Someone Help Me!

I just realized something disturbing.  I've suspected it for a while but it really hit me today.  I have a bad case of exclamationitis!

That's right ladies and gentlemen, I am an overly obsessive and chronic exclamation point user!!!

I use it all the time, on facebook, on my blog, in e-mails (God help me even in the occasional work e-mails), and even in my own personal documents and to do lists.  I can't help it.  It's gotten so bad that I can barely finish a sentence without pulling one out (let alone two or three)!

Apparently, it's an absolute no no in well thought of writing manuals and books.  But even though I'm well aware of this fact, I still pull it out at a drop of a hat.  Somehow I think that I am except from the rule because what I'm saying is really really exciting and is in desperate need of one of those shapely vertical lines atop a perfect sphere.

Any treatment ideas are welcome.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOST

T-minus one hour until the season premiere. (see update below)

I'm glad this is the final season.  It's time to wrap it up and let us in on all the mysteries and twists and turns they've taken us on...especially for those of us that have been loyal watchers since the first episode. Did you watch?  What did you think?

Well, the premiere didn't disappoint in terms of total confusion and dozens of strange surprises.  I don't want to spoil it here for the people that haven't seen it but I have tons of theories about what's happening, especially the Sayid thing... loved that!  Take a look at this site for some interesting theories from different LOST fans.  I'd love to hear your theories... 

Discovering The German Pancake

Have you ever tried making a German pancake?  I had never even heard of it until a few weeks ago.  We were walking through William Sonoma (where everything is so beautiful but way to expensive) when I saw a mix for it.  Since my family loves breakfast foods I looked it up a few days later and decided to give it a try. It's a cross between a regular pancake and a soufflé.  When you take it out of the oven, you sprinkle powdered sugar on it and then eat it hot with maple syrup and if you're adventurous a squeeze of lemon.  My family loved it the first time I made it so it's because a regular weekend treat in our house.

I made it today for friends that came over for a playdate.  Take a look:

Here's the recipe from foodnetwork.com in case you want to try it:

German Pancake

 Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup milk, warmed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons vegetable shortening
• Confectioners' sugar
• Marinated Berries or Glazed Apples and Pears, recipes follow
• Serving suggestion: Maple syrup

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, salt, sugar, milk, vanilla, and butter. Whisk in the flour to make a smooth batter. Set aside.

Heat a well-seasoned 10-inch cast-iron skillet in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and brush the inside with the shortening. Pour in the batter and bake for 15 minutes.

Lower the oven to 350 degrees F. and continue baking until puffed and golden brown, about 13 to 15 minutes more. Run a knife around the edge of the skillet. Sift the confectioners' sugar over the pancake. Serve immediately in the skillet with maple syrup, marinated berries, or glazed apples and pears.

We also had a couple of other treats! :)

Not all of our playdates involve such treats but today we decided to spruce it up a bit.  It was a yummy morning!

Glimpses of Cuarnavaca

In honor of one of my best friend's tenth wedding anniversary, I wanted to share a few pictures of one of the best weekends of my life and loveliest cities I've visited.  Ten years ago, I was lucky enough to be part of a beautiful wedding in Cuarnavaca, Mexico.  Have you ever been?  If you ever go to Mexico City, you need to take the trip south to this gem of a city.

I knew nothing about the city and was a little nervous on the hour and half bus ride south from Mexico City.  It was hot and I was exhausted from the trip down but the minute I got off the bus I was impressed by the city's charm.  The weekend was filled with celebration, laughter and joy and a great deal of exploration of the city.  Here are just a few pictures of the wedding weekend.

We all stayed at the Rancho Cuernava.    It's an old fashioned ranch with lost of splendid gardens and romantic rooms.  My room had a fireplace which was such a treat.  It was cold enough at night that I think we actually used it!

The rehearsal dinner was at one of the most historic and beautiful sites in Cuernavaca, the Hacienda Cortes, a sixteenth century sugar cane hacienda founded by Hernandez Cortes.  The first picture is of two of the bride's close friends singing her a song that they had written for her.  Can you imagine?  It was cool!

And the wedding was at an old church called la Parroquia del Divino Salvador in the nearby town of Ocotepec. 

Isn't this carriage romantic?

I love the great columns in this picture.  I don't even remember them probably because I was too wrapped up in the wedding moments but looking at them now...wow, the details are so intricate.  
















Happy 10th Anniversary my dear friend!

Outside Celebrations

Have you ever been to an outdoor wedding or dinner party?  It has a completely different feel than the traditional way most of us gather to celebrate and eat.  Feeling the wind on your shoulders as you eat and share the joy of the occasion is so fun.

I have to admit, I've only attempted to do it once when I had a ladies brunch outside and even though it was fun, I thought it was tough to orchestrate.

Here are a couple of outside gathering from two beautiful blogs.  The first is the header photo from Maya's blog, Completely Coastal.  Doesn't it make you want to live close to the beach and have friends that love to entertain like this?

The other blog is all about weddings!  This picture is from Emily Newman's website Once Wed.

What do you think of outside weddings?  I have been to a few outsides weddings.  Two of my closest friends did outside weddings, one on Orcas Island (off the Seattle coast) and the other in Cuernavaca, Mexico.  Both were magical.

I was too nervous to ever contemplate an outside wedding because of the unpredictability of the weather and the bugs.  I'm the kind of person that will attract any mosquito within a hundred mile radius so I'm terrible with outside gatherings but I do love them.

Photograph by: Sarah Yates Photography

Don't these picture make you want to have beautiful outdoor parties!?

Glimpses of Morocco

Here's a country that I'm eager to visit but also probably not in the cards for the near future.  Morocco!  My brother went last year and had an amazing time.

I hear Marrakech is amazing.  I have a few friends that have gone and just rave about it.  Have you ever been?  Here are his pictures of Marrakech, Fez and Tangiers!

This is where he stayed in Marrakech.  It's called Ksar Char Bagh.  Check out their website...great pictures and interesting music.

And finally....

52nd Annual Grammy Awards

Watching the Grammy Awards....

- Lady Gaga and Elton John on the piano, very cool!  They each sang parts of each others' songs and their own on two pianos facing each other.  LOVED IT.

Here it is.  Totally grainy but you can hear the two of them together.  Their performance together starts around 3:15.



- Steven Colbert is great but not sure how much I like him as the Grammy Awards host...what did you think?
- I usually love me some Pink but I didn't enjoy her Circ de Soleil performance.  To be honest it made me dizzy.  And what was up with all the water?  She did look amazing though and I give her credit for trying to do something different.
- So enjoy seeing Robert Downey Jr., especially since I got to meet him last month at the Sherlock Holmes premiere.  He was so gracious and nice.  Long story, I'll post about it soon! :-)
- Alice Cooper looked pretty uncomfortable with Katy Perry, especially when she tried to be funny and started touching him.
- Nice rendition of America the Beautiful by the Zack Brown Band.
-Is it just me or was Taylor Swift's voice a little off tonight, especially when she was singing with Stevie Nicks?
- 3D glasses for people at home?  Huh?
- Bon Jovi rocks!  :)

What did you think of the Grammys?

Vibrant Colors of Moulin Rouge

This afternoon, I saw a few minutes of one of my favorite movies, Moulin Rouge.  I had forgotten what an amazing movie it was. Have you seen it?  It's filled with such great music, dancing, drama, romance, passion and suspense.  And the vibrant colors of the scenery and costumes...wow.

I really loved how they took popular songs of the 80s and gave them a fresh new twist to fit the story.  I'm not a big fan of Nicole Kidman but I think she did a good job and Ewan McGregor was just fantastic.  I can watch it again and again.

Here's one of the best scenes...the Roxanne tango.  The combination of the tango player's deep rough voice with Ewan McGregor's smooth strong one is awesome:

Oh how I wish I could dance the tango like them one day!    :-)

Saturday Night Burger Treat

If I'm ever in Atlanta, I'm definitely going to this place.  Yum!!!

[Photo: Chichi Wang] 
This delicious looking burger is made at Flip Burger Boutique in Westside Atlanta, and was created by Top Chef finalist Richard Blais. 

Lovely Bowls And More

One of the reasons I love blogging and reading blogs is that it helps me find amazing and talented people from all around the world.  One such person is Whitney Smith.  I just found her blog and gallery this morning through my friend at Sweet Tea and Sunshine and I was just blown away by her pottery.

It makes me happy just to look at her pieces!  :-)  What do you think?

Kimmel Goes After Leno...Again

If you've been following the Leno/Conan/NBC drama, you'll love the following videos.

Yesterday, Oprah interviewed Leno and Jay pretty much blamed everything on NBC and made a couple of subtle digs at Conan and Kimmel.  He took no responsibility for anything he's done including going back on his word about retiring, taking away Conan's spotlight by doing a 10 pm show before Conan's Tonight Show, how his bad ratings dragged down the rest of late night line-up including the Tonight Show and finally how he went after the same show that he'd handed over to Conan and retired from 5 years previously.

I love what Kimmel does here...he's so funny: 

And here's more from Oprah's interview:



I watched the whole interview and thought that Leno came off insincere and in parts untruthful.  What did you think?  Isn't Kimmel hilarious?

Vincent and McLean

I've always been fascinated by Vincent Van Gogh's life story.  One of history's most talented painters and most tortured souls.  During his life, Van Gogh was not famous and struggled to make a living as an artist. He only sold one painting during his lifetime The Red Vineyard. This painting sold in Brussels for 400 Francs only a few months before his death.  Van Gogh shot himself when he was 37.  The tragedy is that he never knew how his paintings would change the art world for the rest of history.  

I've always loved his work, especially the ones with such brilliant color and form.  The following is a slideshow of his work set to the song "Vincent" by Don McLean.  It's part of an art and creative writing lesson plan for the patients at Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield.  

This is quite moving and beautiful.  I think you'll enjoy it! 

Freaking Out Katy Perry

OMG, this made me laugh.  This is what she gets for being so rude on American Idol!

Party Like it's 2009!

This is the prefect song to start off your weekend.  It's so much fun.  I've seen it a couple of places and it cheers me up every time I watch it.  It's a compilation of the top 25 songs of 2009.

Hello Friday!

The City of Lights

My brother went to Paris a few months ago and took these beautiful pictures.  I wish I could go but it's probably not going to happen in the foreseeable future so for now I'm going to enjoy the city through his eyes!  :-)

Of course I put the food one first!

This is Laduree (you must click on this store's site, it's so beautiful). Yummy and gorgeous!

This was his hotel (Hotel Costes):

Have you been to Paris?

Elizabeth Breaks Free

I didn't want to write about this because I want to keep my posts light but I couldn't help it.  I'm so disgusted with John Edwards.  It's beyond words.

I generally don't have such a visceral reaction when finding out some famous person has cheated on their wife, it happens every day to regular people in every part of the world.  But to cheat on your wife when she has a terminal illness, lie about it repeatedly, try to cover it up behind the scenes with who knows what methods and then drag your poor wife through the entire ordeal publicly for years?  That's simply unforgivable.

There are so many times when he could have done the "right" thing to avoid more pain for this wife and family but each time he chose the coward's way out.

 Here's a video of Elizabeth talking to Oprah about the affair.  It's heartbreaking.  That poor woman.  I'm so glad she has finally decided to leave him!

The Hollywood Fairy Tale

Several years ago I wrote a full throttle pro-Angelina post and got a little backlash from commenters and friends.  Today, I don't care that much about the whole Angelina-Brad-Jennifer thing (you like that sandwich?) but I am slightly baffled by the media's obsession not just with Brangenlina (Ewww...I felt a little paparazzi just typing that!) but with the fairy-tale/Hollywood-movie-ending story line of Brad leaving the bad old Angie after six years and going to the good girl Jennifer.  Paleeease!

I'm guessing most of you don't care a bit about any of these people but it's frustrating to be bombarded with such made up drama all the time, especially when there are children involved.  Those children (don't they have six now?) didn't chose to be born/adopted into that family and they don't deserve to have their family dragged through the tabloid mud.

New Favorite Quote

A good marriage is one where each spouse secretly thinks he or she got the better deal.   :-)

-A variation of an Anne Lamott quote.

Oprah Makes Jay Sweat

I can't wait for tomorrow's Oprah!

I have to admit, I'm not a huge Oprah fan but she does have great interviews sometimes and tomorrow will be one of them.  Jay Leno will be on Oprah answering some tough questions including:

"When they asked you to take back the Tonight Show did you think that you were taking away Conan's dream?"
"America has taken sides and a lot of people are not on your side."
"Have you asked yourself, am I being selfish?"
"Do you think you can be number one again?"

I'm really looking forward to hearing how Jay will respond to these.  I'm sure it will be somewhat of a softball interview (is that the expression?) as Oprah seems to be on Jay's side (evidenced by having him on the show in the first place to tell "his side"), but it will still be interesting to see how Jay spins it.  He's probably going to blame it all on NBC.

Here's a Access Hollywood summary of the Jay/Conan thing with the Jay-gets-serious piece from his show last week.




I'm still Team Coco!  Are you curious to hear Jay's side?