Phillipe's {Los Angeles, CA}

Phillipe's is one of those classic Los Angeles eateries. Everyone's heard of it, and almost everyone's eaten there, at least 2+ times! Well, because I'm not from LA, I hadn't heard of it and hadn't eaten there 2+ times.

After having my fair share of Phillipe's, I have to say, I really would like to eat here 2+ times in the future. I ordered the lamb sandwich, double dipped (aka both sides of the sandwich dipped in the au jus), with an iced tea and macaroni salad.

The lamb was tender beyond belief, letting you know that some good time was put into this sandwich. The bread was just lightly moistened on the inside but not soggy. I especially loved the hot mustard they offer, but be careful, it's hot - in the, shoot up straight the nostrils kind of way. Bonus: the iced tea is under a buck, just like the good ole days.

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Graduation Celebration!

AH! I just graduated college, like literally a day ago! I'm happy, ecstatic, freaked out but mostly, I feel weird. It's just a weird feeling when you close one chapter of your life and are faced with the next, yet to be written...

These past four years have been filled with much goodness, fun, friends, family, adventures, failures, triumphs and more, and I couldn't have asked for anything else. I am so proud to say that I have finished my undergraduate career and am now on my way to new and exciting endeavors. Of course, I'll miss the time I had at UCI a lot, more than words can say, but for now, YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

My wonderful parents have supported me since the day I came into creation and I am so proud to say that I am their daughter. Even more wonderfully, they threw me a beautiful graduation celebration filled with family and friends! But of course, I had to bake a few things. Correction, by a few, I mean a whole lotta!

My sister & I enjoying our goodies (my dog Baba-ganoush with us on the right):

First on the list: Blue Velvet Cupcakes with Yellow Cream Cheese Frosting. Why blue and yellow you ask? Well UCI's colors are blue and yellow so I thought the choice was obvious :P

I have my tried and true red velvet recipe, but I decided to try a new one for this extravaganza. Although these were yummy, I still prefer my favorite one :)

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Yields: 24 cupcakes

Original recipe here. Frosting recipe here.

For the cake:

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tbsn. cocoa powder

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

2 tbsn. (1 oz.) red food coloring

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. white distilled vinegar

For the frosting:

16 oz. cream cheese (2 sticks), room temperature

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

pinch of salt

To make the cake, preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake tin with liners, set aside. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa and salt into a medium bowl. Beat the eggs, oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until well combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tin. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in tin for 5 minutes before cooling completely on a rack.

To make the frosting, with an electric mixture, blend together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Turn mixer to low speed and blend in the powdered sugar, salt and vanilla. Turn mixer on high until light and fluffy. Use immediately or refrigerate, covered, until ready to use. If refrigerated, before use bring back to room temperature.

Blue & Yellow Rice Krispies because well, we had rice krispies and marshmallows on hand and they are incredibly cute, if I do say so myself. Plus, who doesn't love rice krispies?

Smores Cookies. I will never, ever find a replacement for you. You are by far my favorite cookies on this planet earth and I had to, just HAD to make you! Mmmm graham based cookie dough filled with chocolate and topped with chewy, toasty marshmallows!

Baba & I with our wondrous spread:

My absolute favorite, or let me correct myself, EVERYONE's favorite were the mini fruit tarts. These are so incredibly easy: just bake some puff pastry dough, whisk up some easy-peasy custard and top with some fresh fruit. And though it takes you a second, it looks like a million bucks!

Mini Fruit Tarts

Yields: 18 mini tarts

Original recipe here.

1 package puff pastry, thawed

1 egg + 1 tbsn. water, beaten

1 bow of strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced

1 box of blueberries, washed

1 box of blackberries, washed

1 bow of raspberries, washed

2 kiwis, peeled and sliced

1 pomegranate, seeded

For the custard:

1 large box of vanilla pudding

1 1/4 cups WHOLE milk

3/4 cup heavy cream

1 tsp. vanilla or 1 vanilla bean, scraped

To make the custard, beat everything together until it starts to thicken, about 5 minutes. Refrigerate until cool and thickens some more, about 1 hour. Remove the puff pastry from the package and place onto a lightly floured surface. Use a knife to cut each piece of puff pastry into 9 squares, yielding 18 in total. Use a fork to prick the surface all over each piece. Place the squares onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush each square with the egg wash and bake according to directions on the package, let cool completely. To assemble, spread about 2 - 3 tbsn. of custard onto each pastry and top with the fruit in however manner you wish. Enjoy!

For all of my family, and me especially, I asked my mom to make Che Thai which is a Vietnamese dessert that is filled with all kinds of Vietnamese canned fruits, jellies and such and served as a cold soup in a coconut milk-syrup mixture. It's my absolute favorite of Vietnamese desserts!

Che Thai/ Vietnamese Fruit in Coconut Milk

Yields: 10 - 15 servings

1 can grass jelly, cut into 1/2 inch dices

1 can mint jelly, cut into 1/2 inch dices

2 cans jackfruit, sliced and water reserved

1 can longan, roughly chopped and water reserved

1 can lychee, roughly chopped and water reserved

1 pomegranate, seeds removed and washed

1 jar toddy palm seed

1 jar coconut gel

1/2 can coconut milk, more or less

In a large bowl, combine the first eight ingredients, including their liquids from the cans. Add about half of the coconut milk and mix everything together. Add more according to your taste. Chill in the refrigerator until thoroughly chilled, about 3 hours. Serve cold and with ice if too sweet.

Sangria's always a good choice for parties. Not too overbearingly alcoholic and perfect for the summer, especially with all of that great fruit coming into season. This one is Bobby Flay's recipe and boy did it hit the spot. Sweet with a nice punch.

Bobby Flay's White Peach Sangria

Yields: 4 - 6 servings

Original recipe here.

1 bottle white wine (Spanish table wine)

3 oz. brandy

2 oz. triple sec

1 cup orange juice

1 cup pineapple juice

2 oz. simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar heated until dissolved, then cooled)

3 oz. white peach puree

fresh peaches, oranges and apples, sliced (I used peaches and blackberries)

Place all of the ingredients into a pitcher to mix. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours and up to 48 hours. Serve over ice.

For the kiddies we had Orange Rainbow Punch. Basically just orange juice, ginger ale and all of the fruit you can imagine dumped in! I used sliced oranges, blueberries, kiwi, strawberries and blackberries. It was like a fruit fiesta and so uberly refreshing.

And of course, had to have some of PW's Corn & Avocado salsa! It's perfect for summer and absolutely perfect for parties, so freaking delicious!

Of course, we had a bunch more food than that! My mom is the master at parties and provided a whole spread of delights which included crab stuffed mushrooms, Korean BBQ, rice pilaf with almonds, penne with feta and garlic shrimp and more. Mmmmm my stomach is grumbling from just thinking about it!

Tailored Tuesdays

I officially need to rename 'Tailored Tuesdays' to 'Tailored Tardiness.' I suck at putting these up on time and I wouldn't have even known that I had missed this week's TT entirely if it hadn't been for a friend who reminded me of it. Oh well... at least it's before Sunday!

The perfect work wear: professional with a bit of personality.

1. See by Chloe 'Cherry leather tote'

2. Theory 'Georgette arrian silk shirt'

3. Theory 'Wool blend cropped pants'

4. Daisy Knights 'Kim gold vermeil skull necklace'

5. Marc by Marc Jacobs 'Ankle strap leather sandals'

6. Ray Ban 'Wayfarer acetate sunglasses'

all images can be found at net-a-porter.com

Words

LISTEN.

this bitter earth, well, what fruit it bears

what good is love, that no one shares

and if my life is like the dust, that hides the glow of a rose

what good am I, heaven only knows

Lord, this bitter earth

yes, you can be so cold

today you're young, too soon, you are old

but while a voice within me cries

i'm sure someone will answer my call

and this bitter earth, may not be so bitter after all.

[left photo, right photo]

dinah washtington/ max richter

'this bitter earth/ on the nature of daylight'

The Spice Station {Los Angeles, CA}

I love places like the Spice Station that specialize in one thing and have tons of different options, while keeping everything super fresh and at their prime. The Spice Station has every herb, spice or salt you could ever want, plus more you never even knew you wanted! Everything tempted me here, especially the garlic salt... oh my goodness, it smelled divine.

They also have this gift sets available, what a great gift!

Look at all of these beautiful spices!

My favorite find, though, is this Jasmine Peach Tea. It's literally the best tea I've had in a while, and I can say that confidently because I've had a lot of tea recently. I love tea! This one is the perfect mix of tea flavor and fruit flavor; I hate when teas are too overly fruity! Jasmine is one of my favorite too; a perfect summer tea.

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Intelligentsia {Los Angeles, CA}

Intelligentsia is supposedly the best coffee in the Los Angeles area. I can't support nor deny this, simply for the fact that I am not a coffee expert. But what I can tell you is that their coffee is pretty darn good. I didn't add sugar to it at all and was perfectly happy with the fresh coffee flavor.
What I love about Intelligentsia though, is the fact that I found this AWESOME cold iced tea brewer! You simply add the tea leaves or tea bags, add water and let it brew for at least 12 hours, but sometimes it takes way less than that. You can buy it on their website too, below!

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4100 Bar {Los Angeles, CA}

I love the 4100 Bar just for the fact that my friends & I had a memorable time here. But to be honest, it really is a great place for drinks and good times. It's a bit small, but when not too crowded, it's great. Drinks are a plenty and the crowd is a good mix of people.

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Easy Layer Cake with Custard & Strawberries

There are many reasons why I only make cupcakes. First of all, they are undeniable cute. Second of all, they're individually portioned which make them nice and simple. But mostly, they are much easier to make undeniable cute then cakes are. I've struggled with making layered cakes ever since I can remember! Frosting them just takes a certain 'je ne sais qois.'

When my family asked me to make a cake for my Grandpa's 80th birthday, I knew I was in for some trouble. Then, I found this recipe for a layer cake that was unbelievably stunning yet loaded with tricks to help make a beautiful cake. Covering the sides in cookies and topping the cake with chocolate covered strawberries made for a VERY impressive cake that had all of its flaws hidden; score!

Since the recipe did require lots of individual components, I decided to simplify the recipe for sake of time and stress. I used a boxed mix, blasphemy I know, but it did the job fabulously and rather than making a pastry cream, I used my tried and true custard recipe that I've used a numerous amount of times (see here, here, here, here, here). Of course, making all of these components did take some time, but the results were everything I could have imagined and more.

Everyone at the party, including myself, loved this cake! It was super moist and full of yummy flavors. But I might be biased because I just simply love, love, love this custard. The strawberry filling provided the perfect amount of fruity freshness and zing that the cake needed. Also, I loved how instead of using a traditional buttercream frosting, this cake used whipped cream instead. The whipped cream was the perfect accompaniment to the cake, as other frostings would have been much too sweet. Although, since it did use whipped cream, this cake is a bit more fragile than others and needs to be refrigerated and eaten as soon as possible. Anyways, I'd say this cake was a HUGE success and my family has already asked for more!

Easy Layer Cake with Custard & Strawberries

Yields: One 2 or 3 layer cake, depending on how thin your layers are

Adapted from here.

1 box of Betty Crocker French Vanilla 'Super Moist' Cake

Pirouette Rolled Wafers, in Chocolate and Vanilla (for decoration)

Preheat the oven to 350 F, 325 F if using a dark or nonstick pan. Prepare the batter according to the directions. Grease 2 or 3 8-inch round cake pans with butter or non-stick cooking spray. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and bake until an inserted toothpick comes out clean and golden brown, about 25 - 30 minutes. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes before inverting. Let cool completely. Using a serrated knife, even the cake layers out to create cakes of even width, set aside.

For the custard:

1 small box of instant 'vanilla pudding'

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract or 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped

Mix the package of pudding, milk and heavy cream together until it begins to thicken, about 5 - 7 minutes. Fold in the vanilla or scraped vanilla beans. Let refrigerator about 10 - 15 minutes.

For the frosting:

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Beat the whipping cream in a stand mixer until soft peaks form. Fold in the sugar and vanilla. Continue beating until peaks are stiff.

For the chocolate covered strawberries:

6 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped

3 oz. white chocolate, chopped

10 large strawberries

Put chocolate in separate microwave safe bowls. One at a time, melt the chocolate in the microwave in intervals of 30 seconds, stirring each time. Heat and stir until smooth. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Hold the strawberries by the stems and dip each one into the semisweet chocolate, tapping any excess chocolate off. Place on baking sheet. Dip a fork into the white chocolate and drizzle over the dipped strawberries. Let set.

For the strawberry filling:

1 1/2 cups trimmed and sliced strawberries

1/8 cup granulated sugar

1/8 cup water

1/2 tbsn. fresh lemon juice

1/2 tbsn. cornstarch

Mix everything besides 1 cup of strawberries in a medium pot over medium heat. Let simmer for 15 - 20 minutes until strawberries have broken down a little and mixture has thickened. Turn off heat and mix in remaining strawberries. Transfer to bowl and cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate until cool.

To assemble the cake, place one layer of cake on the surface you want your final cake to be on. To prevent a frosting mess, you can put pieces of parchment paper around the edges to 'catch' the excess frosting. Use the whipped cream to pipe a 'barrier' of frosting around the top edge of the cake. Spread half of the custard on the cake in the ring, then top with the stewed berries. Top with the next layer of cake and repeat until you have your last layer on. Spread the rest of the custard on the top of the cake. Frost the entire cake with the remaining whipped cream, covering the custard as well. Decorate the top of the cake with the chocolate covered strawberries and the sides of the cake with the straw cookies.

I made two, and frosted the other one this way: dusted in cocoa powder:

Zucchini Bread Oatmeal

I love oatmeal.

But of course, you already know that,

judging by the many oatmeal recipes, as seen here, here, and here.

So this is just another oatmeal recipe. One that is incredibly hearty and incredibly healthy. Oats that stick to your ribs and keep you fueled the whole morning. Mmmm nothing beats a warm bowl of oatmeal! This oatmeal takes a bit more time, since it's all steel cut oats but there's something about slow cooking a nice bowl of oatmeal that calms your nerves and starts your morning off to a good mood.

Zucchini Bread Oatmeal

Yields: 1 serving

Original recipe here.

2/3 cup water/ soy milk/ almond milk/ rice milk

pinch of salt

1/2 cup dry steel-cut oatmeal

1/4 medium zucchini, finely grated

handful of chopped pecans

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg, if desired

pinch of ground ginger, if desired

1 heaping tbsn. almond butter/ any nut or seed butter

2 tbsn. brown sugar

Maple syrup, to serve

In a heavy bottomed pot, bring the water and salt to a boil over high heat. Add the oats, lower the heat to simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring once or twice (if the bottom begins to scorch, add a bit more liquid). After 15 minutes, add the zucchini, nuts, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Stir well, then cover again and cook for another 5 minutes (if oats are dry, add a bit more liquid). Remove from heat, stir in the almond butter and the brown sugar. Serve with an extra dousing of maple syrup more milk, if desired.

Tailored Tuesdays

I love that necklace. Love love love.

1. Falconiere "Klimt peacock necklace"

2. Jason Wu "Flecked tweed dress with belt"

3. Miu Miu "Quilted leather shoulder bag"

4. Lanvin "Leather ballerina flats"

all images can be found at net-a-porter.com