French Friday: livre edition

 

If you love wine (Dad, I’m talking to you), history and/or you love to read, you absolutely need to find this book:

 

A friend recommended The Widow Clicquot to me, knowing that I enjoy wine just as much as she does and also that I love anything French. Enthusiastic about the recommendation, I’ve literally gone to every bookstore within a 15-mile radius of my house in search of this biography. How is it that no one carried this book?!

On a whim, I went to the local library this week looking for a free DVD to watch sometime. Remembering this book, I searched the library database and there was one copy on hand! This book is as good as mine for the next 2-to-6 weeks.

The front flap touts this book as: “The story of the visionary young widow who built a champagne empire, showed the world how to live with style, and emerged a legend.”

The iconic yellow label of Veuve Clicquot (The Widow Clicquot, in French)

So far I’m about 50 pages in and am fascinated. Apparently I don’t know very much about making champagne. While this book is semi starting to go into the details of champagne-making (only one region in the world has the luxury using its namesake for its bubbly, the Champagne, which central cities such as Troyes, Reims and Épernay) the most fascinating aspect to me is the history of the late 1700s-early 1800s. If you know anything about world history, that falls right smack in the middle of the bloody French Revolution and the rise of Napoléon.

 

I did several history reports on such period of time in high school. I even took a few 18th and 19th century surveys in my French classes at UC Santa Barbara. I could literally read everything there is on that period. Good thing I’m going to be majoring in French, n’est-ce pas?

My one regret is that I, myself, have never visited the Champagne region before. How did I live in France twice and not let this happen?!?! My dad and I went to Châteauneuf-du-Pape and tasted the famous wines of Provence once, and on a second occasion, a friend and I went to several wineries and castles of the Loire Valley to do a little sightseeing and wine tasting. No sparkling wines however… next time!

   

That’s about as far in as I am now. So while I have a huge craving for a glass of champagne, I’m going to continue reading… As I said before, I highly recommend you find this book and join me!

Santé, mes amis!

(Cheers, my friends!)

Lemon Rosemary Cupcakes

Let’s take back anything I’ve ever said about cupcakes before. Ignore the chocolate stout and peanut butter bacon cupcakes.

These are literally the best tasting cupcakes I’ve made thus far (in my few weeks of experimenting with non-traditional cupcake flavors and frostings).

Don’t worry, I didn’t eat the rosemary sprig on top… that was just for decorative purposes :) The cupcakes were ridiculously easy to make; all I did was add to a standard box of yellow cake and instantly transformed regular cake to really delicious cupcakes!

LEMON ROSEMARY CUPCAKES WITH LEMON BUTTER CREAM

(Makes 12 cupcakes and enough frosting for 14)

Cupcake Ingredients:

• 1/2 box of yellow cake mix
• 1/3 c water
• 1/3 c lemon juice
• 1 T lemon extract
• 1/6 c vegetable oil (I just filled a 1/3 measuring cup up halfway)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c chopped rosemary

Butter cream frosting ingredients:

• 4 T butter (1/2 stick), softened
• 8 oz cream or mascarpone cheese (I went with cream cheese)
• 2 1/3 c powdered sugar
• 1 t lemon juice
• 1 t lemon extract
• yellow food coloring, as desired

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. While waiting, chop the rosemary into fine pieces. Next add all of the cupcake ingredients and mix until smooth.

Bake for 23 minutes, or until the tops start to get golden yellow.

For the frosting (taken from the recipe site): With a mixer, cream butter and mascarpone/cream cheese together until well incorporated and fluffy. Add lemon juice and lemon extract and 1 cup of sugar. Gradually add more sugar - you will need more sugar for it to be pipeable (stiffer) and less if you are just going to spread it on the cake. If you want your frosting yellow, add a few drops of food coloring as desired.

Garnish with rosemary!

These cupcakes were inspired by really tasty cookies my mom made a few years back. They were basically lemon cookies with lemon and rosemary mascarpone frosting sandwiched inside. If it weren’t for my travels in France and eating lavender and rose flavored ice creams, I don’t think I’d so openly embrace rosemary in sweets. Thank God I did, because it’s a really great addition to lemon-flavored treats!

Stumped with what to do, I called my mom and asked her what she thought I should do to the box of yellow cake (left over from the bacon cupcakes – with those, I had to add bacon and bacon grease and altered the oil/egg/water ratio than suggested on the box). Her solution was easy: replace the water with lemon juice! I thought that maybe 2/3 c of lemon juice would be a bit much in this case, so I opted to split the water and juice half-and-half. As usual, I licked every spoon before washing… you know, taste testing for quality… That’s when I figured to add a bit of the lemon extract I already had on had.

So look at that… one of my weekly goals this year was to get creative and think outside the “box” of cupcake mix. And I’ve done so THREE times already in two months! I’m way addicted to cupcakes and am thinking up at least three other flavor combinations to try next…

Week 24: Painting Class

I used to love to draw when I was younger. My sister and I took a series of drawing classes from our local community center when we were in middle or elementary school – I can’t exactly remember. I’ve only painted on a canvas a few times in my life, but have never actually attended a painting class.

Which is why I leapt out of my seat when I got my daily Groupon e-mail a few weeks ago. $40 for two people to attend the Bottles & Paint class at an art gallery in Mesa. Painting and wine… sounds like a great time to me! Now he’s charging $50 per person for the class, so that was a pretty good purchase.

The gallery closes down for the evening and the owner offers painting classes after hours, from 7-9 p.m. every weekend. Downtown Mesa is really cute and I would definitely like to come back during normal business hours.

When the class started, everyone grabbed their seats, cups of wine in hand, unsure of what was going to happen. We each had a print out of a trio of tulips for us to use as inspiration or guidelines when painting our own images. He had a small stock of photos to choose from to copy for those of us who weren’t interested in the tulips, but I wasn’t really feeling anything else.

First he gave us the option of drawing our own flowers or he would do it for us. I seized the opportunity and drew my own and also J.D.’s. I think I should also point out that it was around this time the group of women in front of us really started getting rowdy. We assume they had been pre-partying prior to the class. They were a group of four on a girls’ night out, about our parents’ ages. And the rest of the night started to get hysterical. Our old hippie instructor was loving it.

Once the drawings were on the canvas, we set to work on painting in the background. I started doing blotches of red paint and then mixed in another layer of orange on top. When the background was complete, we were told to get to work on the leaves and then finally the petals. The goal was to get the base colors down first, then accent later.

It was a blast! About an hour into the class he told us to get up and explore the gallery, because the eyes need to focus on something else before finishing the painting.

It was a really cute little gallery and we now have coupons for purchasing any of his pieces, or coming back for another class in the future.

I’m sold! I had a blast and I definitely want to paint some more. I loved everything about this experience and now we have two decent sized canvases to hang on the wall.

We all took individual and group shots for the gallery’s Facebook page… Our artist didn’t quite know how to use a cell phone… this was the fourth photo attempt he tried on my iPhone haha. Oh well, it was a blast! I’d recommend checking to see if anything like this is offered near you.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt Pie with Balsamic Syrup

It is officially summer in Phoenix – well, it has been for a while. But yesterday was the hottest day of 2011 thus far, hitting 108 degrees in the afternoon. Lucky for us, it cooled down to 95 in the middle of the night.

It’s so hot my dog won’t even leave the shade. This guy’s No. 1 hobby in life is sitting in the grass barking at all the birds in our trees.

Desperate times call for drastic measures my friends. Frozen yogurt just so happens to be my favorite hot weather dessert. But this time, I made it dessertier. That’s a real word.

 

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt Pie with Balsamic Syrup (adapted from Sunset Magazine)

Ingredients:

• 3 c vanilla frozen yogurt, softened until easily spoonable
• 3/4 c stewed strawberries (cooked on the stove until preserve-like, without sugar)
• 1/4 c balsamic vinegar
• 2 T sugar
• 1 1/2 c fresh strawberries, quartered
• pre-prepared graham cracker pie crust (we used Oreo crumb)

Directions:

Stir frozen yogurt until smooth, then stir in cooked strawberries. Spoon into tart pan, set on a plate, and freeze at least 5 hours.

Just before serving, simmer balsamic vinegar, sugar, and 1 t water in a small saucepan over medium heat (do not let boil) until it coats a spoon, about 10 minutes. Let cool.

Top pie with strawberries. Thin syrup with water if necessary and drizzle onto each wedge of pie.

More pie tips:

• Let the pie soften for five minutes at room temp to make slicing easier.
• If you're having trouble freeing your pie from its pan, set it over a bowl of hot water for a couple of minutes and then slide a thin knife between the pan edge and the crust. It should pop right out.
• Make ahead: Once the pie is fully frozen through step 3, it keeps for up to four days, double-wrapped in plastic wrap.

Sunset has amazing recipes. Literally, as soon as I saw this one I wanted to make it immediately! I hope you do too, now :) Strawberries and balsamic is so delicious!

Week 23: Learn to play guitar

 Every week in 2011, for 52-straight weeks, I hope to try something new and blog about it here. This is the 23rd week of the year, when I started to learn and teach myself how to play guitar. Here you can find a list of all my weekly adventures in 2011.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to learn how to play guitar. If you’re curious, I played clarinet in elementary and middle school and was in both concert and marching band. I was really good, could read sheet music and instantly recognize the melody and I could also memorize the music after playing it a few times. But I didn’t like it. I’ve always wondered how good I would be if I stuck with it.

A few years back, I picked up my clarinet and tried to play it. I still kind of remember how to read sheet music and I vaguely remembered the fingering. It’s just been way too long.

J.D., on the other hand, has a guitar and hasn’t played it in a long time. I asked him to show me the basics of guitar and I started learning a few notes and chords. Most of which I’ve taught myself from YouTube videos.

I’m struggling through it, but I have a pretty good grasp of the basics. My fingertips are constantly numb and I had to cut all my fingernails because they kept getting in the way! It’s a struggle, but I enjoy practicing and learning every day. I can even play a few verses of some simple songs. Who knows, maybe in a few weeks I’ll have it down…

 

Resources for learning how to play guitar:

• Free Guitar Tabs
• Learn Guitar Fast Tips
• Easy Guitar Tabs for Beginners

French Friday with a guest!

This week's French Friday features a very famous American actor, speaking French. I know I'm slow with this, as everyone and their mom has already commented about it. I even Tweeted it awhile back.

Generally, I'm not not a huge fan of Bradley Cooper. He's played a-holes in most of his roles and I didn't even like the Hangover. BUT, now that I know he's fluent in French, I'm kind of in love. See for yourself:

Bradley Cooper : la coqueluche de Hollywood sur le plateau de TF1 Vidéo jt_tf1_20h sélectionnée dans Actualité

This comes from one of my favorite French news stations, TF1. I linked my favorite sites for watching French news in my last post, so here they are again: FRANCE24 | BFMTV | iTele | TF1

From the interview, we learn that Cooper learned French in college when he studied abroad in Provence and stayed with a family who only spoke French.

What most impresses me is his intonation. I find that French is a hard language to speak. Not so much pronunciation and accent, but as far as intonation is concerned (if you're curious, you can read more about it). While he does botch a bit of the grammar, I am impressed because he speaks quickly, understands most of what she is asking and his intonation is impeccable for an American speaker.

Even if you don't speak French, I think you should still watch it! :)

Breakfast and a bike ride

It’s been awhile since I busted out my bike… in fact, when I hopped on it this morning, I thought the brakes were sticking because of a horrible noise coming from the front tire. Turns out it was so flat, that was the excess rubber dragging on the ground. So I rolled up my sleeves and pumped some air into those suckers before heading out on a pretty leisurely ride.

You see, there was a really good motive behind my ride this morning.

FREE STUFF!

That’s what’s up.

If you haven’t heard yet, Starbucks is giving away a free iTunes 10 song summer mix to anyone who purchases a frappuccino this month (supplies are limited, however). I guess this deal began yesterday because sometime in the afternoon I received an email telling me so. What makes the deal even sweeter are the birthday gift cards I’m still using two months later! Free drink and music?! I think I’m in love.

Also, I tried something amazing. I’ve had hot green tea lattes before and enjoy them. I saw on their website that the green tea frappuccinos were also included in the deal. So I went with an unsweetened nonfat green tea frappuccino with coconut syrup. It’s a mouthful, but it’ll change your life. I promise, I can’t get over how good that was!!! I mean, I’ve had the coconut mocha before and wasn’t a huge fan. I think this is a much better use of Starbuck’s coconut syrup!! Please, try it ASAP if you enjoy tea. Now that I’ve discovered this combination, the possibilities are endless, raspberry syrup? Peppermint? Vanilla? This chick is about to go nuts… (And if you’ve got a registered account with Starbucks soy milk and extra syrups are F-R-E-E, theme of the day here).

Speaking of free, Starbucks, you can thank me for the free marketing/publicity. If you’d like, you can send me coupons for more free drinks!!! :)

Now about that bike ride…

There’s the little guy. Don’t let it fool you, it’s basically a cruiser with seven speeds. I can’t wait to have a full-time job and buy a nice bike and bike shorts and a helmet (I’m embarrassed to say I don’t own one. I know, that’s HORRIBLE and I’m considering going to Target just to get a cheap one for now. I kind of like having my life, you know…)

I went about six miles round trip and probably worked off all the calories in my drink ;) It was nice! On the way there I even listened to a random assortment of music on my iPhone.

Once there, I ordered my drink, found a nice shady table and downloaded my free songs. Then I enjoyed a Larabar, my green tea frapp and read a few chapters of my newest read, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. To be honest, I’m basically reading this book because it’s going to be made into an English movie over Christmas.

I literally knew nothing about this book, other than everyone has read it and loved it. If you can’t wait for the English movie to come out in six months, I hear the original Swedish version is streaming on Netflix – you can be assured I’ll watch that as soon as I’m done reading the book.

Now back to my ride. On the way home, I decided to ditch my over played tunes and went for my favorite French newscasts! And get this, I can stream French news live for FREE (there’s that word again). I have about six apps and links I love, so if you’re curious and are a Francophile, look for those in a future French Friday post!

But if you can’t wait…

Si vous parlez français, il faut cliquer sur liens suivants pour écouter/voir en direct des infos et des émissions sur les sites français: FRANCE24 | BFMTV | iTele | TF1

Ce sont mes sites préférés!

Oh yeah, I’ve also been breaking in my NEW shoes (sadly, they were not free. But my sister did score me a 50% off discount at the Nike employee store in Portland)!!! The best part? I now have the capability to run Nike+… I just don’t have the censor yet to put into my shoes. In time… :)

Aren’t they pretty?!?! :)

Week 22: First Friday Phoenix

Every week in 2011, for 52-straight weeks, I hope to try something new and blog about it here. This is the 22nd week of the year, when I had my first food truck meal! Here you can find a list of all my weekly adventures in 2011.

All week long I was looking forward to Food Truck Friday in Downtown Phoenix. One day I randomly stumbled across @PHXStreetFood on Twitter and have been reading about all the awesome food trucks around the area. However, there was one small problem. I failed to notice that Food Truck Fridays only takes place at lunch and not dinner!

But tonight I got lucky (don’t be gross, I’m talking about eventually stumbling across the food trucks). It just so happens that they all meet up downtown on the first Friday of each month! So I picked up J.D. from work at 5 p.m. and we headed over to the meeting area (thank you, Twitter) in Roosevelt Row. While it was small scene, it sure hit the spot!

 

In attendance were a Cajun truck, grilled sandwiches and BBQ truck, Asian fusion truck and the best for last: ice cream truck! In the past we’ve found a creme brulee truck, but I can honestly say I’ve never had a full meal from a food truck until this evening.

Let me back up a bit… we arrived early while everyone was still setting up and decided to take a walk around the area first. It’s a very trendy, hippie co-op type of place. In fact, we found such a market and wine bar. We would have ordered wine or beer in a bottle, but instead I went with some mango kombucha – quite the change of heart – to have with the food later. We explored the streets and found some neat bars before heading back to the trucks. Coincidentally enough, there was also a little street festival going on as well.

As the sun set, we found a shady table and ate our dinners. The catfish/andouille bowl and fried pickles (from the Jamburritos Cajun truck) for J.D. and a coconut curry chicken burrito with a cucumber raita sauce  and jasmine rice for me (from the Sunshine & Spice Asian fusion truck).

 

We both agreed how AMAZING everything tasted! I was very surprised, and sufficiently full. Except, if you know me you know that I couldn’t pass up on ice cream. Instead, the street festival started gaining steam really quickly. Basically, as soon as the sun set Phoenix’s finest came out to play. I felt like I was at a rave, with people dressed up in the craziest costumes and outfits roaming the blocked-off streets. It was kind of like being at an emo/hipster/goth/hippie party. If you can imagine that.

So I did a little research online. Turns out First Fridays are actually for all the local artists and musicians! All the art galleries and exhibitions downtown were free to the public and open very late hours.

First Friday is organized by Artlink, a nonprofit organization “...dedicated to bringing together artists, the public, and businesses for a greater understanding, appreciation, and promotion of the arts and the development of a strong and vital downtown Phoenix arts community.”

Basically this was an open-door urban jungle. And it was so rad. I really don’t know what to say about it, so I’ll let my meager offering of pictures try to do it for me :)

  

Fun times, right?! Wrong. The night was incomplete until I had my coveted ice cream!!! And then it was a solid night :) I tried the basil lime sorbet from Sweet Republic. It was light and refreshing and amazingly packed a punch of basil. I can’t explain how good it really was :) I’m glad I opted for that instead of the mango margarita sorbet or salted butter caramel swirl ice cream... flavors for another time! Trust me, there’ll be another time. Just like the three times we’ve sought out the creme brulee truck at farmer’s markets.

Like I said, I really don’t know what I can say about this. It was amazingly fun and the food trucks were SOGOOD!!! I was way bummed when I moved to Arizona because gourmet food trucks were starting to get huge in the San Francisco area where I used to live. Unfortunately I was never able to visit the food truck rallies before moving. But now, the void in my life has been filled. Phoenix has a very large and active food truck community. This was merely the tip of the iceberg :) So glad we decided to splurge on a meal out and do this! If you have food trucks nearby and haven’t gone yet, YOU MUST!