Birthday Treats for You!

It's not my birthday, but it's someone's, right? This is a fairly exhaustive list of free things you can get (in the U.S. only, sorry, my international friends) on your birthday. Check it out!

(Via BargainBabe.)

Friday Frisson

Thanks to the wonders of Last.fm, I've discovered Keren Ann. Lovely, ethereal vocals and music. And these photos of her make me all swoony.

Smugopedia: Your source for infauxmation!

Finally. At last. O happy day! I've stumbled across a gem of a fledgling website: Smugopedia. Filled with exactly the kind of pompous, annoying thing I enjoy (when done correctly, of course; done poorly, it is simply insufferable and it brings shame upon the entire genre.). I look forward to reading and perhaps submitting more content.

Brilliant!

P.S., The logo is fantastic as well. I swoon!

Official Correspondence From the Dept. of Adorable

Oh man, I am prettttty sure I need these...

From the delightful 16 Sparrows.

On Bullshit.

This poster from Yee-Haw's Shop is just utterly, perfectly perfect.


Via MightyGoods.

The Latest, Briefly.

* The National. It's turning out to be impossible for me to get enough of this band or to grow tired of them. The lush, hooky arrangements, the lyrics that seem so gentle but cut like the sharpest of knives, and the gorgeous, velvety baritone [belonging to the unexpectedly gorgeous, velvety Matt Berninger -- seriously, Google Image him] are a lethal combination. Dreamy and opiate-like, yet sharp and brainy. Amazing.

* The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. Embarrassingly, I'm fairly obsessed over this Young Adult trilogy. Just check out the description: a high school girl in love with a vampire? Oy, right? A friend recommended it to me (in hushed, embarrassed tones) and I thought it would be a fun, trashy read. I wasn't expecting the writing to be so excellent, the characters to be so complex, or the storytelling to be so masterful. Yes, I said masterful. There's a movie version (of course) coming out in December. It looks terrible (of course). But I'll be going to see it (duh). Does anyone have a 13-year-old I can borrow?

Worth A Million In Prizes: Frippery Jewelry Kits

My best friend and I each bought a Frippery jewelry kit (the "Katie" charm necklace kit)sometime during last summer's most brutal heat wave. They were all of $10 at a discount store out in The Valley and the thought of sitting around my living room putting together a cute necklace with the AC at full blast (which ju-u-u-st managed to make the temperature bearable, for the record) was appealing in a very nostalgic sort of way. (Okay, it reminded me of The Summer of Rattle and Hum--or 1988, as some called it--when Kristen and I spent what must have been entire weeks watching my copy of Rattle and Hum in my parent's room, where the AC was, and drinking Diet Black Cherry Slice. It was the best ever!) Anyway, it's nearly April now, and H. and I finished watching Dan In Real Life at about 11 o'clock tonight, because that is what boring married people do (though we're probably only boring to others; we find one another and ourselves mightily entertaining! Especially when, during the awful scene where Dan is dancing with that awful girl at the bar, both H. and I broke out into awesome Ricky Gervais-style dancing.), and I thought, HEY. Now is the time. And I made some frippery.

And do you know, those little kits are pretty great! I would totally buy them for someone as a gift, and would happily accept another as a gift. They come with little pendant thingies that you can put (enclosed and very pretty) stickers on, which then get covered with other, soft, clear stickers that make it look like real jewelry! It also comes with a stencil so that you can cut out whatever in heck you would like and put that in your necklace and wear it.

The link above says these go for something like $24.99. It's still not a bad price if, like me, you've never done much in the way of jewelry-making. But for ten bucks it was fantastic. I love when things work out this well.

Minus that fatal Y chromosome

Hook, line and sinker: the new Cave album is holy-smokes kick-ass. I ain't lying, people.

Worth A Million In Prizes: Overnight French Toast

Lately there's a frenzy of post ideas in my head! Which almost never happens! Also, work has been very slow. Thus the onslaught of posts and items passing as posts.

I'm not a great cook. I really enjoy cooking as a creative act; as a daily necessity I get all wound up and tense about it (What if it's dreadful? All that effort wasted, when I would have been happy with a quesadilla and a bowl of soup!). When I have the time to spare, I am capable of turning out a few tasty items, and under pressure (ie, sudden guests) I can throw together a nice spread. But I'm not one of those people who think, I'm hungry. Let's see... and bam!, a gorgeous meal appears in thirty minutes and it also happens to be delicious. (Rather fortuitously, H is one of those people, which means that we're never ever at a loss for good food in this house.)

However, this dish makes me feel like I'm one of those enviable souls. It's fantastically easy, absurdly tasty, and nearly brought a tableful of savvy cooks to their knees when I served it for brunch once.

Notes in brackets are my own.


Overnight French Toast
From Perfect Party Food by Diane Phillips, aka the Diva of Do-Ahead*

Ingredients:
• 1 pound bread
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 8 large eggs
• 2 cups heavy cream

Directions:
• Tear the bread into 1-inch pieces and put in a large bowl (you will have about 9 cups of bread)
• In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and cinnamon
• In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, and ¾ cup of the cinnamon sugar, then pour over the bread, stirring until coated
• At this point, cover and refrigerate for at least two hours, or [come on, who are we fooling?] overnight.
• The next morning [after imbibing your preferred hangover cure], preheat the oven to 350° F. Coat a 13x9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Spread the batter in the prepared dish and sprinkle the top with the remaining cinnamon sugar. Bake until puffed and golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and serve with warm maple syrup [or Mrs. Butterworth, which is must tastier and comes in a cuter bottle.].

A note from the author on bread:
When making bread puddings or French toast, I buy breads with a soft crust and use the entire loaf, crust and all. If I have leftover crusty bread, I remove the crust, then tear the bread apart. Crusty breads absorb all the liquid and are still quite chewy after cooking, which isn’t the texture you want. Croissants, brioches and even leftover doughnuts[**] all work well in French toast batters.

[That said, when I made this last I bought a loaf of Italian bread, sliced it and put it in the oven to dry. It worked fine. Also, I only had about 5 eggs on hand. It worked fine. What I’m saying is, it’s hard to screw this one up.]

* Huh? Really?
** Oh my, really? Because the heavy cream isn’t enough??

I'll spin you valentine evenings

Who knew it was even possible for me to love David Bowie any more?
Surely not I. What a lovely surprise.

Worth a Million in Prizes: Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes is the kind of book one savors. I know, that's not quite a pun, but it's not meant as one; the stories on their own are just that good. Each one, from anecdote to legend, is so densely packed with inimitable richness and vibrancy. If you don't know much about the great Maya Angelou (as I didn't), you'll find real insight into her character and some of the things that shaped it. If you're a Maya Angelou fanatic, you'll love these inside stories. And, oh yeah -- er, there are recipes. Full disclosure: I received this book as a gift two years ago and have yet to cook anything from it, for no other reason than sheer tiredness (I've not tried any new recipes in the last two years; Luke is eighteen months old; voilá). And while I don't want to say that the recipes are beside the point, the stories certainly stand on their own to create a gorgeous memoir.

I'll let you know when I do finally try my hand at the, you know, cooking part of this book.

Worth a Million in Prizes: Apple Cider Vinegar?

A few weeks ago, I was told I had acid reflux. This explained the constant burning sensation just below my throat and the horrible cough that wouldn't go away. It also explained why certain foods and beverages(my favorite foods and beverages, to be specific)made me feel like a bubbling pool of battery acid. I was given pills, which helped marginally for about three days before becoming useless. In the meantime I was cranky, had a sore throat, a bad taste in my mouth, and a couple of embarrassing client meetings in which my coughing featured prominently. I had cut out coffee (!!!) -- even decaf, as that still proved caustic -- tea, tomatoes, chocolate, citrus fruit and alcohol. It sucked, more or less.

Then my brother told me to start taking organic apple cider vinegar. Sure, why not? The medicine wasn't working. By day two I was able to have decaf without that horrible burning sensation. It's been about a week now and the acid reflux isn't totally gone yet, as I have forgotten some mornings to take it. But here's the idea: my brother said it took him three weeks to a month to get rid of it completely; the first week, taking 1 TBSP three times a day, the second week twice a day, and the last two weeks once a day. The acid reflux is pretty close to being gone. I use Bragg's Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, but I'd imagine pretty much any apple cider vinegar would do the trick; I just prefer organic.