happy valentine's day!!

 

Here's some love ...

outfit of the week

I really just love the colour fuchsia,

and long earrings,

and boots. 

top: Jacob 

jeans: Gap

boots: cafe noir (@ Winners)

earrings: Payless Shoes (really? yes, on sale in LA)

fifi lapin

I discovered the most stylish bunny in the world out here in the blogosphere recently,

and I immediately thought of my sister who loves all things bunny.

But how to share the cuteness with her? Forever 21 to the rescue ...

She got an early valentine ...

bunny kisses from Fifi Lapin (and me)!

easy banana bread

I was dreaming about the Mexican Chocolate Bread Pudding that Amy over at angry chicken made recently and feeling kinda sorry for myself that I would never be able to eat it since I simply can not imagine baking my own bread.

But then I got to thinking ... maybe I could make wheat-free banana bread, and doncha know pattycake has a recipe for that with "easy" in the title. So I thought I'd give it a whirl.

But since I'm still not really set up for baking, I got most of the way into the recipe before I realized I hadn't bought any vanilla. Hmmm, well there's vanilla in the rice milk right?

It cooked up very fast but looked pretty good.

Turns out the vanilla is pretty important to the taste, and it could use a few more bananas. So on its own, not so interesting, but I do believe it will make an awesome Mexican Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding!

against the grain cookies

Did my taxes last night ...

and found myself a little snack to keep me going at it.

I had given up on the whole wheat-free, store-bought cookie thing because generally they have the consistency and taste of sawdust - not something I like to pay a premium for, you know?

But "warmed with spices" piqued my interest and I am a sucker for nice packaging and a good moniker.

Marcel gave them the ol' sniff test ...

and pronounced them good. I concur, quite tasty, and very nice with some decaf earl gray tea. I will buy these again!

2010 goal - learning to cook soup

I feel like I've mastered the double celery soup and it is really, really good. So it's time to try a new one. I went off to the market to get all the lovely ingredients for green soup with ginger which I mentioned a while back.

 

The ingredient list is a bit vague so I guessed a bit on the quantities.

And that potato-like item is supposed to be a sweet potato. It was labled sweet potato and it looked like a sweet potato before I peeled it but then after - not so much.

 

 

I think I followed the directions quite closely, although I did add a bit more ginger.

And this is how it turned out - kinda boring actually.

 

Not sure how to fix it up. Use actual sweet potato? add more onion & leek? add wild rice like someone else did? Hmmm, I may have over-cooked it. Not sure if I will try it again or try something else next time.

poached eggs and polenta

 

Tried a new vegetarian place for dinner with Pat & JB - Calico Cafe.

It's the original chef from Fressen, a vegan place that JB and I love for their wheat-free options.

The menu is very small (as is the restaurant itself) so we ordered everything but the kale linguini, but it smelled great as it went to someone else's table.

The soup was large & yummy, then I combined the egg & mushroom appetizers, supper yummy, but the yummiest of them all was the butternut-chocolate ganache!

I will be back!

outfit of the week

This really must be the outfit of the week, because a random guy on the street told me he liked my style today!

 

I've had this skirt for a very long time and when I bought it, it was quite a splurge ...

but it never seems to go out of style!

turtleneck: Jacob (on sale!)

skirt: Club Monaco

boots: Go Max (from the Duff)

cat chores

I'm trying to get Marcel to help out around the house.

Maybe do some laundry while I'm at work.

He thinks I won't find him here.

PiNK is my hero

'nuff said

Lost is back

Only one more episode of Friday Night Lights left this season. I am going to miss me some Tim Riggins!

 

It's a good thing Sawyer is back ...

does anyone sense a theme?

shoe addict

I already own both the black & purple versions of these from Indigo ...

but when I saw the version that Miz Mooz was doing I fell even more in love ...

but they are higher and much more expensive and how many pairs of essentially the same shoe can one woman have?

ebay said 3 ... yay!