Bath & Body Works Black Currant Vanilla Pillow Mist Review

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Bath & Body Works Black Currant Vanilla Pillow Mist Feature

• Bath & Body Works Black Currant Vanilla Pillow Mist

Bath & Body Works Black Currant Vanilla Pillow Mist Overview

Bath & Body Works Black Currant Vanilla Pillow Mist

Bath & Body Works Black Currant Vanilla Pillow Mist Specifications

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Nov 30, 2009 16:05:04

Visit : dvd duplicator stove top espresso

A softserve cone
swirl
half-anger, half-denial
sprinkles of shock
and after it goes down
smooth and creamy
lactose-intolerance
acid-reflux

the hearth in my chest
cannot be fed with sugar
and the kindling is screaming
as the fire dies down

Love s’mores but don’t have a fire handy? Want something a little more…portable?

Behold, the indoor s’more:

These are super easy — albeit a bit messy — to make. It helps to have another pair of hands; setting up an assembly line cuts down on the melty marshmallow you’ll have to clean up later.

The Recipe: Indoor S’Mores

Yield: approximately two dozen
Time: 90 minutes, including cooling

1 bag mini-marshmallows
3 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 bags semi-sweet chocolate chips
24 graham cracker halves (as close to squares as you get)

Do This
Line a baking sheet (or two) with parchment paper. Arrange the graham cracker halves on the sheet with about half an inch between each.

Melt the butter in a saucepan on low heat. Add in the mini-marshmallows, a handful at a time, and stir until melted. Mix in the vanilla, and remove from heat.

Carefully spoon marshmallow onto each graham cracker. If you can do this without it spilling over the sides, you’ll have a much easier time. Let the crackers set until the marshmallow has firmed up (this should take about 10-15 minutes).

Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler (or the microwave).

Spoon a generous amount of chocolate over each graham cracker, and return to the baking sheet to set. If you’re short on time, slide the finished cookies into the fridge for a few minutes.

They’re not quite real s’mores, but they’re just as tasty, and perfect for bringing to a holiday party!

IVORY VANILLA TALL CANDLE PILLARS SET OF TWO SCENTED Review

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IVORY VANILLA TALL CANDLE PILLARS SET OF TWO SCENTED Feature

• Manufactured to the Highest Quality Available.
• Design is stylish and innovative. Satisfaction Ensured.
• Great Gift Idea.

IVORY VANILLA TALL CANDLE PILLARS SET OF TWO SCENTED Overview

The welcoming scent of vanilla lends a gentle hint of sweetness to the air, inspiring a carefree feeling of comfort. Presented in an sophisticated neutral ivory shade, these elegant candles blend effortlessly into any decor. Tall, slender pillars are an attractively simple way to warm your surroundings with golden light! 100 percent paraffin wax. Each is 2″ diameter x 6″ high.

IVORY VANILLA TALL CANDLE PILLARS SET OF TWO SCENTED Specifications

SWM

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Nov 29, 2009 16:50:04

32inch lcd hdtv

One of my favourite applications for the iPhone in regards to recipe ideas is the Whole Foods Market iPhone app. I don’t really shop at that grocery store, but they have some amazing ideas on their website! I tried out this recipe, and was so happy with it! If a gingerbread man and a graham cracker were mixed together, this is what you’d get! For Christmas time, you can even sprinkle some red sugar sprinkles onto the cookies prior to putting them into the oven, or even decorate them with some icing.  This recipe was adapted from the full 24 cookie recipe on the Whole Foods Market recipe application for the iPhone, and makes 12 small to medium-sized cookies. (Note: in the original recipe, for 24 cookies it calls for only 2 eggwhites. For this half-sized version of the recipe, I had to keep the egg white quantity at 2 because the dough was too crumbly and fell apart when kneading.)

Graham Cracker Cookies

Ingredients: 

• 156 g flour (whole wheat or unbleached)
• 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 each baking soda and salt
• 1 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 2 egg whites
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp liquid honey
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla

Glaze:

• 1 egg white set aside in a bowl
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• mix the sugars and cinnamon in a small bowl, and set aside. 

Method:

• pre-heat oven to 350 degrees farenheit. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. 
• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Add butter and work into the flour with your finger tips until completely incorporated and mixture resembles fine meal. In a medium bowl, whisk together the 2 egg whites, brown sugar, honey and vanilla. Add this to the flour mixture and stir until a sticky dough forms. 
• Turn the dough out onto a very well floured surface and roll out into a (10-inch) square that is about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into 6 squares, then cut each square in half-length ways or on an angle. (Or even use a cookie cutter for different shapes!) Transfer onto prepared baking sheet about 1 cm apart.
• Lightly and carefully brush the tops of each cookie with the egg white you have set aside in the bowl. Ensure you don’t allow any egg white to get onto the parchment paper, otherwise the cookies will stick. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture lightly over each cookie. Bake until a darker shade of brown and fragrant, for about 14 minutes. (Check the cookies after 12 minutes.) Set aside to cool completely before serving. The cookies will harden as they cool. 

Graham Cracker Cookies

Two dozen fresh baked vegan chocolate chip cookies. Another 13 cookies were in the oven at the time this photo was shot.

Pretty much everyone has a chocolate chip cookie recipe, so its kind of a non-essential recipe to post, but these are really damn good. Somewhere along the way I started making chocolate chip cookies using a recipe off the back of the bag of some generic store brand chocolate chips that I “veganized.” A girl I dated and I made them so frequently that we slowly tweaked and refined the recipe because she thought the original recipe created cookies that were too oily for her tastes and I invariably thought they weren’t “chippy” enough (Note: chocolate fiend right here.) Here is our take on this classic cookie:

Bowl #1

Mix together the following ingredients until creamy:

• 3/4 cup vegan margarine like Earth Balance or Willow Run
• 1 cup white sugar (I use the Whole Foods Vegan Cane Sugar)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 1/2 “eggs” using Ener-G Egg Replacer
• 1 tsp vanilla flavor (I use Frontier brand Non-Alcoholic Vanilla Flavor. Straight Edge.)

Bowl #2

Mix the following dry ingredients together until evenly distributed:

• 2 1/4 cups white flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

Combine Bowl #2 with Bowl #1 and mix. Once you have a consistent mixed dough, add the chocolate chips and kneed thoroughly to distribute them. I use:

• 365 Vegan Chocolate Chips (Whole Foods brand)

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 15-17 minutes.  I roll the cookies so that they are just bigger than the width of a quarter which is a bit more than a tablespoon. At that size the recipe makes around 36 cookies give or take.

End Notes: How can a cookie not be Straight Edge? Admittedly, I’m a zealot, but I am who I am. A few years back a friend of mine threw his birthday party at my house and he had gotten a vegan birthday cake from Bleeding Heart, a local organic bakery. We all mutually agreed that the cake tasted like alcohol, so I gave my piece away and I started digging for answers the next day. As it turned out there was no rum or anything like that in the recipe. However, they used Pure Vanilla Extract in both the cake and the filling, so I asked her to bring out the bottle. Upon looking closely it was marked as being 50% alcohol. As it turns out, in order for a vanilla extract to be called pure, the US FDA requires that the solution contain a minimum of 35% alcohol and 13.35 ounces of vanilla bean per gallon. Double and triple strength vanilla extracts are available. Whereas, natural vanilla flavoring contains real vanilla bean but no actual alcohol. The owner tried to assure me that the alcohol “burns off”, but I needed to look into this myself. Typing “Does alcohol burn off in cooking?” into Google gives this link first:

http://www.ochef.com/165.htm

Searching through a multitude of links I found that all of the links that say it doesn’t burn off are backed up by a few scientific studies, all of the ones that say that it does have no statistical backing. Personally, I’m going to err on the side of science, instead of going with what appears to be a myth passed down through the ages. Now it is true that I’m not going to get drunk off of eating chocolate chip cookies even if 40% of the alcohol remains from the 35% alcohol content of 1 tsp of vanilla extract that remains in my cookies. But I’m a completist and I just can’t see the need for buying and consuming alcohol when its totally avoidable. I even discovered that it is recommended that vanilla extract be removed from the homes of recovering alcoholics because drinking it straight is almost as potent as downing a shot. I probably would have come to this conscious conclusion much earlier but I grew up in a house where non-alcoholic vanilla flavor was always in the cabinet. On a totally unrelated issue, my mom has an extremely strong corn allergy and the ethanol used to extract the vanilla flavor would cause her to break out in hives, so she stopped buying vanilla extract when I was at a young age and bought non-alcoholic vanilla flavor instead. On a final side note, some brands of chocolate chips have vanilla extract in them, so if you’re going to be a zealot like myself keep an eye out for that.

Sometimes people just need to get bent. Do you know what I mean? No I am not saying people should go f*** themselves.  And I don’t mean bent in the game of Twister sense. Oh h…hold on. Some people do find Twister to be a form of erotic theatre, from what I have been told. So then if you are thinking of erotic practice, then yeah…you are somewhat in the neighbourhood of theoretical contextual terrain.

So what, you must be asking right now, am I rattling on about? I’m talking about Bent, the panel discussion that was held this past Tuesday evening at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto. It was an evening of discussions about the complex multi-dimensionalities of intimate social and personal relationships.

I was impressed with the balance of personal accounts of different kinds of intimate relationships, and the theoretical experiential knowledge that was present in so much of the discussion. I was expecting an evening of stories stemming from everyday social realties relating to the terrain of sexuality and relational constructs. What also was present was epistemological abundance. In other words, the discourse present in the room was as energetic as it was reflexive.

Anyone who attended the evening certainly would have walked away with new knowledge and ideas about the various permutations, combinations, and definitions that can be attributed to relationships of intimate, romantic, sexual, and familial constructs. That is precisely the word to use when considering the notion of relationships discussed that evening: construct. I was happy to be in a place, post-graduate school days, where the discussions around partnership, marriage, intimacy, and gender were not tied to the ruling relational boundaries of essentialist formations. Identity is constructed along lines of how people as social actors make sense of the relationships existent in the social, yet quite often relationships are indicative of the identifications rather than identities that are present in our everyday realities. Monogamy, polyamorous, or however one may see and conceptualize their relationship needs and realties, are at the end of the day present formations identified within the structures of gender politics. But even if one acknowledges such political boundaries, boundaries may all they be when one attempts to think about their own identity formations as political in their own way, as stemming from the relentless and rigorous practices present in resistance and action that existed during the discussion.

In my mind, I see such events as a type of direct action against hegemony. Much like the ways French revolutionaries would meet in public houses to discuss methods and strategies to thwart their oppression via the politics of the Ancient Regime, in a somewhat less dramatic and of course in a non-covert way, such discussions are revolutionary. Discourse on the existence of queer-normative relationships happened. We learned about the construct of the leather family and how its complexities relate to the essentialist-normative structures of neo-liberalist families. We learned of kinksexual relational formations as they are present almost symbiotically in a normative, vanilla universe. And we learned that the sex trade has more similarities and related strands of purpose, practice, and meaning to psychological therapy than possibly realized before.

I use the term queer-normative quite specifically here. I like to play and mess around with the idea of normativity, specifically as derived from heteronormativity. Even if one discusses heteronormativity or hetero-normalcy, it implies it’s significance in binomial opposition to the queer other. So when I write queer-normativity, it is directed along the lines of appropriation and political semantics, aligning language with power, as power is aligned with it’s capacity in discussions of agency.

So, yes, overall, it was a good night.

(Part Two of this entry, to be posted later this week.)

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

Cannoli are known as Italian-American pastries, although the origin of cannoli dates back to Sicily, specifically Palermo, where it was prepared during Carnevale season, and according to lore, as a symbol of fertility. The cannoli is a fried, tube-shaped pastry shell (usually containing wine) filled with a creamy amalgamation of sweetened ricotta cheese, chocolate, candied fruit or zest, and sometimes nuts. Although not traditional, mascarpone cheese is also widely used, and in fact, makes for an even creamier filling when substituted for part of the ricotta, or by itself. However, cannoli can also be filled with pastry creams, mousses, whipped cream, ice cream etc. You could also add your choice of herbs, zests or spices to the dough, if desired. Marsala is the traditional wine used in cannoli dough, but any red or white wine will work fine, as it’s not only added for flavor or color, but to relax the gluten in the dough since it can be a stiff dough to work with.

Despite not technically a “baking” challenge, I was SO excited to see this month’s challenge recipe at the Daring Kitchen.  I have only had cannoli a few times, but have always loved their delicate crispy shell and creamy fillings.  We had a choice of fillings, so I made half with vanilla and half with chocolate, and dipped the ends of both in melted dark chocolate.  For the cannoli with chocolate filling, I then dipped the ends into candied orange peel also for a bit of a jaffa flavour.  YUM YUM!!

Anyway, if you would like a printable copy of the recipe, you can find it here.

My first batch, I tried the forming them around the premade cannelloni tubes.  Unfortunately, they blistered and cooked along with the cannoli and I was unable to separate the two without smashing the entire thing into smithereens.  Luckily, I had some stainless cream horn shapes in my cooking stash, and they worked a treat.  Had they not worked, I would have opted for the flat, layered version aka millefeuille/napoleon style.  All in all, a great hit with the family and definately will be made again.  Am hoping Santa will bring me an ice cream maker for Christmas, as I can really imagine these with a yummy home made ice cream filling!!  Delish!

It’s been a long long week and after a round of gin and tonics (okay maybe more than 1 round), all I could think of to ease the “pain” was something sweet, chocolately and oooey gooey.  It’s hard for someone like me to just stroll on into a corner store and pick up a bar for a buck … almost 100% of the commercial brands of chocolate bars have soy lecithin in them so it’s a no go for me.  For me then, it’s always turn on oven, whip up a storm, bake, be patient, and hours later enjoy!.  With that … I give you one of the easiest craving satisfyers I know and love … the chocoholics brownie.  Hi, my name is Healthyhag and I am an addict.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup cold butter, cut into bits

150g rams (about 1/2 cup) dark chocolate, broken into bits

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS:

1) Heat the chocolate and butter in a saucepan over LOW heat until completely melted.

2) Let chocolate/butter mixture cool for 10 minutes, and then preheat oven to 350F.

3) Mix sugar, eggs and vanilla together until fluffy.

4) Add in flour and salt to bowl and combine then mix in cooled chocolate/butter mix and blend well.

5) Pour into 11 x 8 greased baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes (do NOT over bake!!!).

6) Cool brownies for at least 30 minutes, then cut into squares and enjoy!

“So, You Need Me” version

•••

jyurietto boku wa kageri yuku heya no kabe ni motarete
jyanisu kiite tadayou no sa kono kuukan wo

jyurietto kimi to hikikae ni shita osanai yume wa
tsukare hatete yokotawaru no sa kono karada goto

wakakute zankoku na boku no mune de
namida wo kakushiteta kimi wo wasurerarenai

I need you (I need you I need you)
DOA no NOBU ni te wo kakete mita
soshite kutsu ga haki tsubureru made
kimi wo sagashi tsuzukeru yo

I need you (I need you I need you)
yami ni machi ga shizumi kakete mo
iro wo ushinai kaketa kimi wo
mou ichido dakishimetai kara

I never forget jyurietto
I never forget jyurietto
I never forget jyurietto

I certainly feel for jyurietto
I certainly feel for jyurietto
I certainly
I certainly…

wakarete hajimete oboeta LOVE SONG
bokura wa itami no naka kara shika manabenai
I need you (I need you I need you)
mikkazuki no surudoi hasaki ga
chikara naku warau me wo sashite
boku wa namida wo nagashita

I need you (I need you I need you)
yami ni machi ga shizumi kitte mo
kono mune ni ima tomoshita hi wa
mou zettai keshitari shinai kara

I need you (I need you I need you…)

•••

ジュリエット　僕は翳り行く部屋の壁にもたれて
ジャニス聞いて漂うのさ　この空間を

ジュリエット　君と引き換えにした幼い夢は
疲れ果てて横たわるのさ　この身体ごと

若くて残酷な僕の胸で
涙を隠してた君を忘れられない

I need you (I need you I need you)
ドアのノブに手をかけてみた
そして靴が履きつぶれるまで
君を探し続けるよ

I need you (I need you I need you)
闇に街が沈みかけても
色を失いかけた君を
もう一度抱きしめたいから

I never forget ジュリエット
I never forget ジュリエット
I never forget ジュリエット

I certainly feel for ジュリエット
I certainly feel for ジュリエット
I certainly
I certainly…

別れてはじめて覚えたLOVE SONG
僕らは痛みの中からしか学べない
I need you(I need you I need you)
三日月の鋭い刃先が
力なく笑う目を指して
僕は涙を流した

I need you (I need you I need you)
闇に街が沈みきっても
この胸に今ともした火は
もう絶対消したりしないから

I need you (I need you I need you…)

•••

hoshi mo nemuru yoru ni koe wo choudai
aenai totemo setsunai omoi ga koboreru
kaisen wo tsunaida mama mezamete niga waraishita
hajimete koi shita mitai ni

kotoba ja ii tsukusenai kurai
anata wo kanjiteiru ima wo kamishimete
I’m reaching for you
suki yo totemo

sugu ni te ni ireba sugu ni owaru
sen no repurika yori orijinaru ga hoshii
toomawari shiteiru no wa hontou ni daiji dakara
ushinai takunai kara

kotoba de yasashiku dakishimete
dare yori suki da to sasayaite mou ichido
I’m reaching for you
koe wo choudai
kotoba ja mou mono tarinai kedo
kokoro ga konna ni tsunagatte ikeru nara
I’m reaching for you
koe wo choudai

I’m reaching for you

•••

星も眠る夜に　声をちょうだい
会えないとても切ない　想いがこぼれる
回線をつないだまま　目覚めて苦笑いした
はじめて恋したみたいに

言葉じゃ言い尽くせないくらい
あなたを感じている今をかみしめて
I’m reaching for you
好きよ　とても

すぐに手に入れば　すぐに終わる
1000のレプリカより　オリジナルが欲しい
遠回りしてるのは　本当に大事だから
失いたくないから

言葉で優しく抱きしめて
誰より好きだと囁いて　もう一度
I’m reaching for you
声をちょうだい
言葉じゃもうもの足りないけど
心がこんなに繋がっていけるなら
I’m reaching for you
声をちょうだい

I’m reaching for you

MIX ON AIR FLAVOR version

•••

itsuka kimi wa yume no gotairiku o
mata ni kakete sono inochi o kagayakaseru deshou

tashika ni ima wa te mo ashi mo dasezu ni
nakigoe sae oshikorosu you na muryoku sa no naka de
watashi o musabori genjitsu o nagusameru hibi demo

kaze wa kanarazu muki o kaete kuru
ano toki mita eiga no you ni
senaka o daite ryoute o hirogete uketetatou
Spiral wind

itsuka kimi wa watashi no te o hanarete
subete no shukufuku o uketa ai ni ikiru deshou
tabun watashi wa nagai toki o kakete
sayonara o yami ja naku sora e tokihanatsu deshou
kimi dake o aishiteta sono hokoreru omoi ga kinjitou

kaze wa watashi kara fuite nagareru
atarashii yume o sakasete
namida o fuite ryoute o hirogete sekai e to

kaze wa kanarazu muki o kaete kuru
ano toki mita eiga no you ni
senaka o daite ryoute o hirogete uketetatou
Spiral wind

•••

いつか　君は　夢の五大陸を
またにかけて　その命を　輝かせるでしょう

確かに　今は　手も足も出せずに
泣き声さえ　押し殺すような　無力さの中で
私をむさぼり　現実をなぐさめる日々でも

風は必ず向きを変えてくる
あの時みた映画のように
背中を抱いて　両手を　広げて　受けて立とう
Spiral wind

いつか　君は　私の手を離れて
全ての祝福を受けた愛に生きるでしょう
多分　私は　長い時間をかけて
さよならを　闇じゃなく空へ　解き放つでしょう
君だけを　愛してた　その誇れる想いが　金字塔

風は私から吹いて流れる
新しい夢を咲かせて
涙をふいて　両手を広げて世界へと

風は必ず向きを変えてくる
あの時みた映画のように
背中を抱いて　両手を　広げて　受けて立とう
Spiral wind

ULYSSES album version

•••

hashiru densha no mado kara
tokeru you na yuuyake ga
senaka o sotto dakishimeta
kyou ga owatte yuku
are mo kore mo nani mo kamo o
suteta shunkan ni tadayou
natsukashikute amai kaori wa nandarou?

dokoka ni okiwasureta tsubasa o mata sagashite
tsugi no eki de oritara soko wa BANIRA no kuni
kanashii koto wa subete sotsugyou dekita akashi ni
hontou no tabi ni deyou ano BANIRA no kuni e

tooi tooi haruka ga tooi
michi nori ga PANORAMA ni nari
setsunai hodo amai kioku ga yomigaeru

watashi wa tatan de ita tsubasa o mata hirogete
hikaru sora ga mietara soko wa BANIRA no kuni
deaeta hito to subete itoshiaeta akashi ni
omoide ni KISU o shite saa BANIRA no kuni e

kanashii koto wa subete sotsugyou dekita akashi ni
hontou no tabi ni deyou ano BANIRA no kuni e

ano BANIRA no kuni e

•••

走る電車の窓から
溶けるような夕焼けが
背中をそっと抱きしめた
今日が終わってゆく
あれもこれも　何もかもを
棄てた瞬間に漂う
なつかしくて甘い香は何だろう？

どこかに置き忘れた　翼をまた探して
次の駅で降りたら　そこはバニラの国
悲しいことはすべて　卒業できた証に
本当の旅に出よう　あのバニラの国へ

遠い遠い　遥か遠い
道のりがパノラマになり
切ないほど甘い記憶がよみがえる

わたしはたたんでいた翼をまた広げて
光る空が見えたら　そこはバニラの国
出会えた人とすべて　愛しあえた証に
思い出にキスをして　さあバニラの国へ

悲しいことはすべて　卒業できた証に
本当の旅に出よう　あのバニラの国へ

あのバニラの国へ

Had the most wonderful Thanksgiving feast at my parents’ place yesterday. Best of all, it was a stunningly gorgeous day, so after our meal I shared an hour or so on the front porch with my mom–soaking in the sun and letting the day slowly fade away. Mom goes all-out in the holiday decorating department, and I loved how the sun sparkled through one of the snowflakes she’d hung so much that I had to capture it on my iPhone:

Snowflake in the sun...Thanksgiving, 2009

Of course, we know that Thanksgiving is followed by Black Friday which marks the unofficial start of the winter season. If you live in a climate like we do here in Dallas, you know you’re not going to see real snowflakes for a while…maybe not until January (if at all!).

But that doesn’t mean we don’t think about the chill in the air and the crispness of winter and the thrill of seeing the first snowflakes of the season. I say we enjoy the thought now while it’s still fresh and clean and sparkly!

How about some ideas inspired by snowflakes? Don’t you love the crystalline facets?

Photo: ecochildsplay.com

I love how these tie-dyed leggings from Plan B capture the faceted look in a unique way (kinda like a snowflake, right? No two tie-dyes are ever the same!).

Photo: Behind the Seams blog (theseams.blogspot.com)

It wouldn’t be the holidays without sweaters and cozy wraps, and I know what you’re thinking. I’m not talking the jingle-bellish, snowman infested Rudolph sweaters (but if that’s your desire, take a look at this site, where you can design your own tchotchke-d up holiday sweater!).

Look at these luscious crocheted pieces. I’m inspired by very open stitches this season. They are perfect for layering over bold or tonal colors, and even prints:

Photo: facehunter.blogspot.com

Giant Snowflake crochet project. Click image for instructions on how to make this project. Photo: crochetme.com

In addition to open stitches or yarns, openness and cut-outs in other forms of design are fantastic as well. This white cut-out chair from JANUS et Cie has a snowflake-like effect:

Photo: janusetcie.com

I also love the crystalline effects of snow. Don’t you adore a fresh layer of snow that just sparkles in the sun? Here’s a brilliant gift idea from Anthropologoe.

Glass decor bottle topped with a sparkling iron and crystal stopper. Photo: anthropologie.com

Another sparkling handcrafted gift idea I found on Sterling Rose Design’s etsy store:

Sparkling Swarovski crystal snowflake pendant. Click photo to shop. Photo: etsy.com/shop/SterlingRosesDesign

And of course, we couldn’t finish off a post-Thanksgiving entry without dessert! I stumbled across these stunning snowflake cupcakes online and think I need to try these (to give to friends, of course!)–white chocolate snowflakes, vanilla buttercream icing, vanilla cupcakes…joy!

Pretty! Tasty! Photo: erica-knits.blogspot.com

Come on winter…the holidays have arrived. Bring it on!

You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how easy this classic cake is to make!

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cake flour, sifted
12 egg whites (the closer to room temperature the better)
1/3 cup warm water
1 teaspoon orange extract, or extract of your choice
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

How?:

In a food processor spin sugar about 2 minutes until it is superfine. Sift half of the sugar with the salt the cake flour, setting the remaining sugar aside.

In a large bowl, use a balloon whisk to thoroughly combine egg whites, water, orange extract, and cream of tartar. After 2 minutes, switch to a hand mixer. Slowly sift the reserved sugar, beating continuously at medium speed. Once you have achieved medium peaks, sift enough of the flour mixture in to dust the top of the foam. Using a spatula fold in gently. Continue until all of the flour mixture is incorporated.

Carefully spoon mixture into an ungreased tube pan. Bake for 35 minutes before checking for doneness with a wooden skewer. (When inserted halfway between the inner and outer wall, the skewer should come out dry).

Cool upside down on cooling rack for at least an hour before removing from pan.

Photo courtesy of Bryan Applegate

I fondly remember summer days as a child, hearing a familiar cheery jingle, then immediately bolting down the street after an awaiting ice cream truck.  Today, I’m running down Pennsylvania Avenue in too-high heels, out of breath and flagging down a bubble-gum pink van that holds my heart’s delights.

The last segment in my three-part series, but certainly not the least, covers the newest sensation to hit D.C.’s food truck scene, Curbside Cupcakes.

Sweet! They have flavors like Vanilla, Chocolate, Mocha and Peanut Butter Cup.  I chose Mocha and Red Velvet, for the southern belle-Communist in me.

Photo courtesy of Bryan Applegate

The Mocha came on a moist yellow cake with a heavy, sugary frosting that almost stuck to the roof of my mouth.  My blood-sugar levels quickly spiked.  I loved the little chocolate-covered coffee bean on top.

The Red Velvet came on a fluffy red cake with a light cream cheese frosting and chocolate shavings.  Petite and pretty, like Scarlett O’Hara on a sugar high.

For $3, Curbside Cupcakes offers cupcakes that are smaller and less expertly-decorated than their competitors.  The advantage, however, is that they come to you.  Look for them in your government-heavy, otherwise-barren neighborhood today!

Merci DJ Hero!!

un mix revival du feu de dieu et hop: 2 chansons d’époque en tête… pour un bout de temps je pense!

M’enfin, c’est toujours bon ce genre de flashback!