The Wonderful World of Cooking

I got home today and was in the mood for cooking. Unfortunately we didn't have anything in the house to cook! So instead I got online and looked for recipes to cook later. I really loved the movie Julie and Julia, so I looked up Julia Child recipes first and have decided that sometime between now and the beginning of the year I would like to try making bouef bourgignon and Julia's famous chocolate cake. I'm looking into buying her cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, sometime soon, but it's about twenty-five dollars and I'm not sure I would really use it so. . . we'll see! Meanwhile I have also found a recipe for Red Lobster biscuits (one of the best things in the world!), and a recipe for making P.F. Chang's Mongolian beef. If you've never tried either of these places I sincerely recommend them!

Today in class we were discussing how to spot liars and other aspects of subconscious body language. It's actually really interesting. Ask a friend what their name is and watch their eyes. They should look straight ahead. Now ask them how many doors they have in their house. Their eyes should look upwards as they think about this. Now if you ask them when is the last time they cried, they should look down or stoically look ahead. And finally ask them how many cousins they have. Their eyes should move from left to right as they try to figure it out. It's all really interesting and funny to watch people do exactly what their eyes are supposed to do! 

Back to cooking, it's definitley something I love to do. It's an immense stress reliever for me and something I've been in love with since I was little. This past year I made a birthday cake for my brother who was turning twelve. He absolutely loved it and it tasted great so he was  very happy!


 Below are instructions for the cake in case you are interested: 


- Bake two 9-inch round cakes (any flavor/ brand of your choice).
- Then, you may need to make more batter for this, fill up a six-inch round pan and a six inch in diameter half-sphere pan, and bake.
- When they have all cooled, ice one nine-inch cake and then place the other 9-in. on top of that and ice. 
- Placing the six-in. cake on top, ice and then top with the half-sphere, creating a kind of cupcake appearance.
- Using M&M's, create doors and windows on the two nine inch cakes.
- Place gumdrops along the bottom of the cake.
- Using icing tip no. 11 (large petal) draw vertical lines of frosting up the six inch cake : 


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- With tip no. 14 (10 star) pipe in circles along the half sphere, creating a whip-creamed effect.
- Sprinkle over with multi-colored sprinkles and add a maraschino cherry on the top.
- The next part is kind of tricky so you may want to buy extra everything in case you mess up!:
- Grab five pointy ice cream cones and place each one inside of the rim on a squat sugar cone.
- Taking half of a toothpick, pierce through the top and wedge it in with the pointy side up.
- Using tip no. 14 again, run the icing around the cone in a smooth swirling motion.
- Sprinkle sprinkles over the icing and then place a maraschino cherry on the toothpick. 
- Place around cake and serve. Feeds about 17.


While I haven't had time to get back to viewing the spring fashion shows, I did find this absolutely resplendent necklace in November's issue of Vogue. If I ever have the money this will definitely be something I will immediately run out to purchase! I also think that the model in this ad  bears an extreme likeness to Evangeline Lilly who plays Kate Austen on the TV show Lost. Regardless this is truly a beautiful piece of jewelry!

I am still no where close to being finished with my neighbor's clothing so I better go try to finish that tonight!


Au Revoir!


“Zest is the secret of all beauty. There is no beauty that is attractive without zest.”- Christian Dior