Ms. Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better

Within a month, GP has done two things that I can't even imagine doing in my one lifetime - meeting Ina at her house to cook one of her recipes and singing and dancing on Glee.  

Happy Birthday

I love Martha Stewart.  She has made cooking, entertaining, crafting and decorating accessible to everyone.  Martha made this post possible...


My daughter just turned nine and most of her birthday wishes were food oriented.

Rib dinner at Lucilles!

Lucilles was for family only.  Then we had a separate celebration with her best friend.  Kelly wanted to decorate cupcakes.

In addition to the cupcakes (and two kinds of frosting), Kelly requested marble cake with chocolate frosting.  I never baked so much in my life but luckily I stumbled onto a Martha recipe and though I admit it was slightly involved, the cake turned out great!  Moist and yummy.  I was quite please with myself!  

The cake doesn't just become marbled by swirling the batter together in a random fashion.

Nicely marbled and moist!

Happy Birthday, Kelly!  See those purple pompoms?  Also came from Martha but after making two, I just didn't have it in me to make another one.  

I can't quite believe Kelly is already in the fourth grade.  Where has the time gone.  It is quite remarkable that most of her birthday requests had to do with food.  She comes from a long line of gourmands.  

What I Want

This is a tribute to one of the MacArthur Fellows, recipient of the "Genius Award."  His name is Matthew Carter and he created this typeface called Verdana.  How do you go about creating a typeface?  What an awesome job that would be.  Making up fonts all day long.  


A co-worker asked me today, "Where do you see yourself in five years?  What kind of job would be ideal?"  In other words, "What do you want?"  That is a difficult and complex question.  At 38, what I want is often what I can no longer have.  But as I sit here in my nicely air conditioned house, watching my kids read (my five year old is reading so well), typing on my very own Mac, my husband taking a short nap upstairs, I can only think, what I already have is enough for this girl.  Anything more is bonus.  


What I can really go for right at this moment is a nice latte...

Peaches, Peaches

I bought a square cake pan from Surfas months ago.  It wasn't cheap ($22) but I liked the shape and could see it as a future vehicle for brownies, coffee cake, lasagna.  But, alas, the pan found a home behind the tupperware in my cupboard... until today.  


I had everything I needed.

Peaches!

Another easy recipe with fabulous results...I hope I don't eat the whole pan.

Pan, finally getting some action

On a completely unrelated note, I am reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (call me a late comer, I know).  It had me at page 20 or so.  I need a harmless diversion these days and this is doing the trick.

Summer Getaway #3

Shoving in three getaways in one month was exhausting but in a good way.  Each vacation was different - one with friends, one with family, and one with girlfriends.  This last one was the first of its kind.  I don't belong to a mom's group and haven't experienced many girls' nights out.  I have girlfriends but we usually get together for a reason (i.e. birthdays, mainly) and we are all pretty quick to get back to our kids/husbands.  So, a girls' trip was quite a treat.  The three of us decided on a two night trip to Vegas - close, lots to eat, spa.  We had a great time catching up, talking about whatever crossed our minds, reading magazines without interruption, working out without watching the clock, and a spa day. 

I finally got to eat at Bouchon.  We had oysters on a half-shell which were perfect and steak with fries.   

Breakfast at Payard was fabulous.  Try the croque madame if you are in the area.  And that is it for pictures because I'm not sure if my friends want their mugs on graceface.  I haven't even posted a picture of myself yet...

Baking for Dummies

I think I've mentioned this before but I am no baker.  Any baking recipes on graceface are therefore foolproof.  

A good friend of mine alerted me to this David Lebovitz recipe.  I would recommend that you bake it at 350 for about 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.  You can use any jam.  Raspberry is my favorite so far.  Strawberry is pretty good too.  


I had some dough leftover so I made cookies and it was delicious!  An accidental discovery of a good polenta cookie!  

Summer Getaway #2

Summer Getaway #3:  Seattle and Vancouver.  

Seattle night sky taken by John on our Canon PowerShot...not bad, right?

Taken by Kelly

The W Lobby.  Daily complimentary coffee, yummy iced teas and herb/fruit infused waters.

Dinner at Serious Pie - Mozza like pizza joint without the LA tude.

Kelly especially enjoyed the yukon potato rosemary pecorino pizza.  

This was my second time in Seattle.  My first trip was during my senior year at Cal.  This trip was vastly different but just as memorable.  

Granville Island in Vancouver

One of the best things about this trip was the time my kids spend with my parents.  Kelly and my dad had many heart to heart conversations.  I'm glad for the time together.