German Apple Pancakes

 

THINGS YOU’LL NEED 

6 tablespoons of butter

7 tablespoons granulated sugar 

2 granny smith apples (about 1 pound) 

1/4 cup brown sugar 

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice 

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

2/3 cup all-purpose flour 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

3 large eggs 

3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

THE HOW-TO PART

 (1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

(2) Butter muffin cups of tin and sprinkle with
about 2 table spoons of granulated sugar.

 (3) Peel, core, and slice apples into 1/2 inch pieces
and in a medium bowl, toss apples with brown sugar,
lemon juice and cinnamon.

(4) Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a nonstick skillet over medium heat.
Add apple mixture and saute, turning occasionally until caramelized,
10 to 12 minutes. Remove pan from stove and let cool 5 minutes.
Divide caramelized apples among prepared muffin cups and set aside.

 (5) In the bowl combine flour, salt, 5 tablespoons granulated sugar
and mix well. Then add 2 tablespoons melted and slightly cooled butter,
 eggs and milk. Mix well until it's all blended and not too lumpy.

(6) Pour batter over apples. Transfer tin to oven and reduce heat
to 400 degrees. Bake until pancakes puff up, about 15 minutes.

(7) Remove tin from oven and pop out of molds by inverting the
tin onto a flat work surface. Dust with confectioners' sugar,
 serve immediately and enjoy! ♥

Recipe borrowed from Martha... *HERE*

♥♥ Hope you're having a decent week mis amores! ♥♥

Read more...

March

Top to Bottom: (1) A mixed cd from my friend Nathan. He takes mix sharing music to a new level (2) George fascinated by the tub and it's drain. I think he wishes he fit in there (3) Macarons from Bottega Louie, I dream about eating these almost daily (4) Scott's dapper socks at Grand Central Market. He's my favorite person to photograph (5) Close to finishing the banana pancakes (6) We fell in love with him while feeding the ducks at Lincoln Park (7) Introduced by my friend Nathan, this great video to Julia Holter's Moni Mon Amie. Directed by Yelena Zhelezov for the single off of Julia's newest album Ekstasis (released March 8th).

Wishing you a lovely April ♥ So glad summer is almost here!

Read more...

Adventures in Baking

Chocolate muffins were made this weekend with 
the help of Black Magic Cake and a DIY Tulip Cup tutorial...

WHAT WAS NEEDED

MUFFIN INGREDIENTS
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup strong black coffee, cooled
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blackberries 

3/4 cup of confectioners sugar to decorate

(This made about 24 regular sized muffin cups)

FOR TULIP CUPS 
Parchment Paper and Scissors

THE HOW-TO PART

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Line trays by cutting parchment paper into squares 2 – 3 inches wide.
One at a time press the squares into the cups in trays. Smooth your fingers into
the corners. Make sure not to force the parchment too far so it doesn't tear.
Don't worry if it doesn't fit perfectly flat, the muffin batter will help with that.

3.  Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, 
and salt in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer.

4.  Add eggs, coffee, buttermilk, oil and vanilla.  
Beat at a medium speed for about three minutes. Batter will be thin.

5.  Fold blackberries carefully into batter.

6.  Fill tulip liners 2/3 full with batter and 

bake muffins for approximately 25-30 minutes

or until they pass the toothpick test.

7.  Once done, remove trays from oven and 

dust muffins with confectioners' sugar and serve!

♥ They were pretty yummy mis amores ♥

Read more...

What kind of bird are you?

This weeks fixation courtesy of Wes Anderson and his most recent film Moonrise Kingdom.  Co-written with Roman Coppola and described as the story of two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact and run away together into the wilderness as various authorities try to hunt them down while a violent storm is brewing off-shore and a peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle.  Scary to imagine in almost any other movie premise but here.  Have I mentioned that my boyfriend Bill is in it?



PS. Thank you to my friend Scott for making me some gif magic!
Hope you're having a great weekend... ♥

Read more...

From A Mess To The Masses

A little bit obsessed with this new documentary by directors Antoine Wagner and Francisco Soriano.  The film centers around the two years of tour that followed the release of Phoenix's 2009 Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. If you live in France or Germany you might have seen it on television already (so lucky) since I think it aired there a few months back?  But everywhere else it's still yet to be released.  Below is a clip from the film posted on Nowness.  So good and so short, and Thomas Mars and his small chin look adorable in it... shallow but true.

Read more...

Happy New Year!

And thank you for your friendship, those who are near and those that are far.  Hope 2012 will hold lots of love and more of all that was good in the years leading up to it.  How did you celebrate?  I celebrated with family again.  Nothing too exciting, but I like being around my loved ones to hug and kiss right when the clock strikes midnight.  Also, there were a series of new year rituals to be kept... red underwear, toast with champagne and 12 grapes for luck!  New Year's are a lot of work for the superstitious obsessive types. *besos*

PS. This year I resolve to learn proper French! Wish me luck, oui.

- Photo by Irving Klaw -

Read more...

JingleAlltheWay

A few Holiday Pinterest's...

Little Tree by Inslee

Penrhos school girls skating on the frozen Canal Pond during their
occupation of Chatsworth House in the Second World War (via SomeHowl)

Bulb Wreath by Georgia Peachez

Vintage Christmas via Designsperation

Stained Glass Cookies by Dreemkäggs

Janine Niepce | The Little Skater, Paris, 1954

Blue Glitter & Suede Platform | UrbanOutfitters

Cookie Cutter Fudge by Betty Crocker

Ready for Snow via TampaxSuperstar



Lastly, a Lecube Christmas song for the Holiday's.
It's a great song. Has just the right amount of sweet melancholy
and there's even some jingle bells towards the end...
Hope you're having a nice Holiday season! ♥

Read more...

Hello

I've been away, not so much the internet but more from the blog. Think it's one of those times where I feel at a loss for words. Not sure what to type or what to share? If there's such a thing as a bloggers block, then that's sort of what I have and I apologize for being gone. But ok, on a more important subject: The Slow Readers Book Club book. Have you joined yet? The two books the club has decided to tackle this season are God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut and Priceless by Robert K. Wittman. I just started the Vonnegut novel, am enjoying it and hope to be writing again on it after Christmas!

Lulu hanging out with me in the bedroom. Apparently, she finds me très fascinating... loves to stare at me while I fix my hair and iron my clothes or type on the laptop. Here she was staring off into the empty closet as if she'd just seen something.
Pretty sweets from one of my favorite downtown
confectionery stores, Fugetsu-Do.

Breathe Life Upon These Dry Bones... Discreetly hidden street art over
the water valves of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Poster advertising MOCA's current exhibit Naked Hollywood, Weegee in Los Angeles. Said to be the first museum exhibition devoted to the work Weegee produced in Southern California. Hoping to catch it before it ends in February!
Little puppy fruit tart from Yamazaki Bakery in Little Tokyo.
They're as cute as they are tasty and a steal at $1.40. Lastly, have you seen St. Vincent's performance of Surgeon on 4AD? Out since October but I can't stop playing it...



♥ Hope you're having a great new week mis amores! ♥

Read more...

On the subject of Christmas Music

Had Halloween in mind and was set to scare and then She & Him announced the release and free download of The Christmas Waltz. The song is off their new scheduled to be released at the end of the month A Very She & Him Christmas and it's a lovely Christmas song... can't wait for the album. Did I mention it's a free download? Free is almost always good.

Thank you to Pitchfork.

Read more...

Time is hard to kill

TOP to BOTTOM: (1+2) Clifton's Cafeteria a few Saturday's ago. Have you ever been? It was where we would go on Sunday's when we were kids. I have a nostalgic fondness, but the inside is pretty amazing. It's was designed to be reminiscent of California Redwood groves with waterfalls and brooks but had fallen to disrepair over the years, then in 2009 they began restoring it. We hadn't seen it since the renovations started but loved that it hadn't really changed very much. It just looks cleaner and with better lighting so far and the food was as great as we remembered it (3) Clifton's chocolate-banana cake. My brother's dessert of choice when we eat there (4+5) Vintage paperbacks at The Last Bookstore and my $4 Gypsy Rose Lee find. It was one of my favorite movies growing up... because of this film my Barbies were often burlesque dancers by trade (6) From A Nation Emerges exhibit at the Central Library. A collection of photographs chronicling Mexico's revolution from 1910 to 1912, and in the photo is a female solider (soldadera) ca.1912. Like how proud and eager the men are to be photographed with the soldadera and how confident the woman is (7) Little Lulu is too hyper to photograph and I'm not sure if you can tell from here, but her little white parts are sort of gray from the ash in the fireplace she likes to break into. LASTLY, Little Numbers by the band Boy off the album Mutual Friends (2011). Have you heard it? A happy song with not so happy lyrics... there's clapping involved.



PS. Thanks to my friend Brandi of This B Life I'm addicted to Pinterest. Do you have one? If so, please leave me a link so I can follow! If you don't, but would like one, leave me an email address so I can send you an invite. Besos+wishes for a great new week mis amores! ♥

Read more...