Working For The Man: February 2013

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Tomboy Outfits

Here's the latest R29 article I contributed to!

My special someone flew in to see me on actual Valentine's Day and I went a little crazy (very) trying to figure out what desserts I wanted to make him for the holiday. I decided to make homemade ice cream for the first time with my new ice cream maker that I got for Christmas as well as a cake recipe that came from one of my favorite bloggers, Emily Schuman of Cupcakes and Cashmere.

Since I like to make things harder for myself, I found probably one of the most difficult ice cream recipes to make. My Valentine LOVES mint chocolate chip ice cream so I wanted to find a very rich and creamy one unlike the store bought kind he eats every night. This recipe definitely delivered. With egg yolks and actual mint leaves (aka no mint extract) added to the recipe, I knew it was going to be fantastic. AND IT WAS. It tasted exactly like Sweet Rose Creamery's mint ice cream - and when I first tried Sweet Rose's, I was blown away. The ice cream is refreshing and completely different from the artificially flavored kinds that most people are used to. Honestly, the first bite is always a bit weird because you're not used to it, but then you find yourself wanting to eat more and more because the aftertaste is that good. The fact that this was my first time making ice cream and that I was successful with such a difficult recipe, I believe I will be making many more batches in the future.

Next up, I made this raspberry almond cake. I had a lot of trouble with this recipe and I was worried that I was going to hate the final product. I wasn't a fan of the raspberry jam I bought; I had never tried almond extract before and was iffy about the smell and the taste of it; and the directions for the frosting are definitely incorrect! I ended up using more milk (like 3 tbs) and it was just so sugary that I had to keep adding salt to balance it out. And then, after throwing a fit about hating basically every aspect of the cake, I remembered that my Valentine doesn't really like nuts... and I made an almond cake... yeah, I'm dumb. BUT. It was incredible. I don't know how it happened, but everything decided to come together after sitting in the fridge over night and the end result was insanely good; something I had never tasted before. I didn't feel like documenting the entire cake process because I was so fed up at that point, but I still have a few pictures.

So if you are into very unique flavors and desserts that you're not used to having, try these out! I was very pleased with the outcome of both, but more importantly, my Valentine finished eating all the ice cream and cake before leaving (with my help of course). Apparently he enjoyed it as well.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Friday, February 8, 2013

Best Pasta Dishes

For my latest assignment, I shot three of the top 10 pasta dishes in LA for a R29 article. I went to Son of a Gun (where I was hoping I would be able to meet Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, because I absolutely love them, but they are just too popular these days!); then I went to Osteria Mozza; and then finally made my way downtown to Bestia. Bestia was very interesting: driving there was slightly scary because I'm pretty sure I drove by Skid Row and I did that slowly-lock-the-doors-when-at-a-stoplight move because it was THAT bad. So I'm in a deserted, industrial area and I cannot find this damn restaurant. Turns out it's in this huge warehouse section and it was just AMAZING. Like heaven in the middle of nowhere. I cannot wait to go back and have dinner and drinks. I got to eat the pasta dish I shot there and it was freaking scrumptious.

Here's the article!

Osteria Mozza