dinner and dessert

I got home from work late tonight and look what Michael had waiting for me...lamb chops with green beans and rice. Yummy. He's so sweet.

So as I said a couple entries ago, I had to make two cakes this weekend, my famous Chocolate Guinness Cake ala Nigella Lawson (but I modified her recipe to suit my taste) with delicious whipped almond cream frosting and a German Chocolate Cake. I made the cakes so that Michael's boss' wife could taste them and choose which to order for her dad's birthday. She chose the Chocolate Guinness.

It is Michael's favorite. He loves my whipped frosting. The perfect balance of sweetness and lightness. :-)

The German Chocolate Cake was surprisingly tasty though. The topping and filling is a toasted coconut and pecan mixture and the frosting is similar to a chocolate ganache. Michael was surprised that it wasn't sickeningly sweet, and oh so moist. It is definitely a recipe to add to my recipe book. Thank you, David Liebovitz.

So Wednesday I will be making another Chocolate Guiness Cake, and I think I will test a new recipe this week...either carrot cake or an apple galette. I'm leaning towards the latter.

happy halloween

i'm baaack!

So it's been a long time since I've posted anything...mainly because I lost interest in keeping up with this blog. What's the point, right? Well, I decided it doesn't really matter if there is a point. As of lately, I've been starting to feel a little blah, like I have no purpose. So I have had to invent small purposes. Work is often all consuming. No one said being an attorney, and although I love my job, I don't really want to be defined by it. I want to be known for more than that. So I've given myself other things to do and accomplish outside of daily work tasks.

1. Complete a marathon: This has been a bit troublesome. First, because I hate running. Second, because I got injured recently. But I'm determined to check this off my list if it kills me. I will probably push my marathon date to April, but either way it's happening. No matter what. Call me crazy, but hey I am, right? I'm a lawyer, and you have to be a little crazy to want to be a lawyer. :-) So I'm running with a purpose...the purpose is to accomplish something I thought was impossible - something I didn't even like. And along the way hope to discover something myself I didn't know. Although I can't say I love to run, I can say it does provide me a lot of opportunity to think and dream. There is something really solitary about running that is nice. But for right now what I'm discovering is that that I'm very susceptible to shin splits.
   
2. Compile a set of tried and true recipes: I love to bake. And I think I'm pretty good at it. I mean Michael has pretty discriminating tastes, but when I put one of my cakes in front of him he's like a fat kid....it's funny...the whole thing is gone. Before I just baked when I was bored or when I had an occasion to make something. Now I bake with a purpose. I bake to compile a set of recipes in my book. A book of my baking standards that I can come to whenever I need to make something. A book of things that people request and long for and lick their lips thinking about. Basics like chocolate cake, apple pie, red velvet cake, etc. I hand write my recipes in my book, and I imagine some day my kids or grandkids will look at my book and it will bring back tasty memories. Tonight I'm testing a german chocolate cake recipe because Michael's boss' wife made a request for a cake for her father's birthday on Thursday.
   
3. Read for fun: I love to read. Sometimes I forget how much I love to read. When I was a kid I used to read three or four books a week. Remember, that Sequoyah Book List - well, I had to read all those books. And I had to be the first to read them all. Well, now I read depositions and briefs. I read things that are arguably thought provoking, but they are not always enjoyable. So I decided to read with a purpose. I joined a book club - Books & Brunch and am picking up my first book tonight - The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. And my new list of books to complete is the New York Times Best Book of the Year Lists. There's about 10 books named a year, so not that many really. I'm starting with 1997 and working my way up. I'm thinking of starting with Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer or maybe American Pastoral by Philip Roth. Nonfiction or fiction, that is the question.
   

Now I just have to wait for Michael to come home so we can pick up everything so I can get started on my next cake. Interestingly, I don't really have a sweet tooth. I don't even crave any of the sweets I make. It's enough that other people do. And I suppose it's a good thing I don't, because otherwise I might be 300 lbs already.

teal + gray

We have been painting our new house and I have to say that I selected some bold colors. This is highly uncharacteristic of me. That is especially so I find with Asians in general. Walk into your typical Asian home and you will find neutrals everywhere, multiple shades of white and off whites on the wall with white crown molding. Very blah if you ask me. I need to feel inspired at home. So with that mindset I have been on a journey of color. We have a red/gray office now with a high gloss white conference style table and black and white chairs. A master bedroom with three pale pale gray walls and an accent wall behind the bed that is deep bold purple. The room is currently accented by whites and silvers. I will add touches of black, gray and pops of yellow. And now we're working on the teal/gray guest room and my yellow studio/craft room. Above are some of my inspirations for the guest room so you get the idea. We just painted the walls, and I am adjusting to the drastic color change. We painted the top half of the wall gray and the bottom half teal and there will be a white stripe across the center dividing the two colors. Can't wait to get furniture in the room and start decorating it up. I will post pics of the other rooms we've done in our home soon. :-)

playing for change

song in my head

fast forward

June has been a crazy month. Went to Houston for a wedding. Closed on a new house. Went to Jackson Hole for a wedding. Still slowly packing/unpacking, purchasing, painting and rearranging. And heading off to Vietnam in a few days. Jackson Hole was amazing! Best wedding ever. So beautiful and so much fun. And met some really awesome people. I'm hoping Paul has some great pics to share. I will have to scan in our crazy polaroids from the the reception. They were too funny.

One thing that is not going so well is my marathon training, with all the stuff going on. But I managed to run this morning so maybe things are going to start looking up.

What's funny is it is exactly one year since we moved into our apartment, now we're moving to a new house. It's crazy to think about how much has happened this year. The trips, the dinner parties, and all the lazy Sunday afternoons. It has definitely been an interesting year.