birthday weekend

A few snapshots from the weekend. Lovely cards, a panama hat and clothes from a clever husband (he had the dress made and screen-printed for me at one of my favorite shops!), a beautiful brunch at José Andrés Tres complete with mimosas and bloody marys, and sweet presents from dear friends.

Hope you've had a wonderful weekend, too!

mini cupcakes

Did you have a good Valentine's Day? We sure did! We had an outrageously good dinner at Jar (oxtail dumplings, duck confit with black kale and roasted turnips, and butterscotch budino for me) in West Hollywood, followed by a second dessert of an assortment of mini cupcakes from Hotcakes Bakes. We, um, didn't eat all the cupcakes, mind you, but there's always today and tomorrow to finish them off.

I hope you had a day full of sweets with your loved ones, too!

more leisure photos

Just a few more photos from last week. Our friend was in town for a visit, and we took him to the Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, which is about 30 minutes outside of Los Angeles. It's the biggest Buddhist Temple in the United States, and is a really amazing place. Huge, quiet, beautiful, and great place to go for tea or lunch or interesting cultural events.

We also had a dinner out for our sixth wedding anniversary...at Bouchon! I just love Thomas Keller, and our meal of steak frites did not disappoint. Especially since they were followed by profiteroles drizzled in dark chocolate.

la county fair

A few photographs from the first day of our anniversary weekend...a much-anticipated visit to the L.A. County Fair.

We spent several hours looking at horses and chickens and honeybees and goats, as well as wandering around and seeing the sights. My favorite activity was definitely seeing little pigs wearing bandanas race each other around a pen--the announcer told us they were rewarded with milk and Oreos, hee hee.

We also had epic carnival food in the form of funnel cake, lemonade, and a giant smoked turkey leg. I sometimes crave that turkey leg during other seasons when I can't get one, so I always tear into it with great and greedy relish. It's fun to hold a big meaty drumstick and to feel like Henry VIII for awhile.

                  

owl cupcake toppers

I love cupcakes! Especially ones that are fluffy and not too sweet. We had some delicious mini ones this weekend from Hotcakes Bakes, a bakery we'd driven past many times but never stopped in.

I really liked the mint chocolate chip one, which tasted just like an Andes candy, and the strawberry one, which reminded me of a strawberry shortcake Good Humor ice cream bar. Turns out the bakery actually won Cupcake Wars last year, and with good reason.

I recently decided I'd also like to try making my own cupcake toppers. They're all the rage these days and there are many cute ones available for purchase, but...why not make your own? And why not make it with other crafty peeps? So I hosted a cupcake toppers swap recently on Swap-Bot, in which participants were invited to make a dozen toppers specifically for their partners.

My partner Bobbi in Kansas really likes owls, and since the ones I'd chosen for the swap graphic were ones I'd banned (darn!) I had to find something else to use. I came across some vintage cards with charming owl illustrations and printed them out to make a set of Halloween cupcake toppers, mounting them on scalloped colored cardstock and using plain wooden toothpicks.

They were so much fun to make that I had to do another set..this time using cheery owl Valentines I shrank down from style crush. They were paired with multi-colored toothpicks and backed with plain white cardstock to be used as cute Valentine cupcake toppers (or really, for any sweet occasion). Both sets were packaged in clear cello bags and fastened with a personalized packet label. I hope Bobbi enjoys them.

This was such an easy and fun project to do, so I think there will definitely be more cupcake topper-making in my future. Which means that there will also be...more cupcakes!

lavender ice cream

A dear friend is in town this week, so I'm afraid I've been a little absent for the past few days. Summer is getting off to a marvelous start for us, however, with a Dodgers game (which is really just an excuse to have a giant hot dog and a beer) last weekend, a beautiful charcuterie and cheese plate with wine at Cube, books in the park, and...lavender ice cream!

Mashti Malone's, a Persian ice cream parlour in Hollywood, makes all of its kosher rosewater-based treats on site. I love roses but am not the biggest fan of the scent, so I was a bit worried that I'd find the rose flavor overpowering--or that the lavender would taste too perfume-y. But the lavender ice cream was absolutely perfect, fresh and light and fragrant at the same time. The icy texture was silky smooth, and the flavor was subtle but distinctly interesting and pleasurable all the way through.

I'll definitely be back to Mashti's to taste some of their other flavors, including saffron, pomegranate, and Turkish Coffee, though I'd probably skip the sugar cone next time. For those not in Los Angeles, Mashti's will also ship their pints overnight via FedEx--and since their ice cream has no eggs, no preservatives, no corn syrup, and no artificial flavors, it's probably one of the healthiest sweet treats you could ever hope for.

a birthday weekend, in photos

It's been so busy lately with moving and unpacking that I've spent very little time cooking or crafting or blogging or tweeting. Things are starting to settle down and I have lots of things saved up to share, but I thought I'd start with just a few snapshots of some lovely moments in a birthday weekend that still managed to be special in the middle of all the chaos.

They included: a spectacular dinner at The Bazaar by José Andrés; a wonderfully surreal trip to a secret zoo (more on that soon); a giant pine cone I found in a shopping cart in the woods; homemade florentines, stinky cheese from the Von Trapp family, and a penguin cup from dear friends, which they purchased at the Brooklyn Flea from STK Ceramics; and one of my favorite gifts to receive--the promise of a present just to my liking, packaged up in a clever zippered robot pouch.

Another nice thing that happened: our niece had her cochlear implant surgery last week, and made it through just fine. She'll be able to hear for the first time soon, which is very exciting. Thanks to everyone who sent along good wishes!