CCRE Weekend!

Hipstamatic

I will be the first to admit, I love my iPhone. I am glued to it, almost to the point of absurdity. I don't download a lot of apps, or play games with it, or anything high tech. I check my email. I read my blogs. I'm a simple person. But one thing I love to do is take pictures, and when I heard about the Hipstamatic app, I knew I had to have it. I have taken tons of pics with it already, and it makes the most common place item look fantastic. I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who loves Holga or Lomo photography. It creates the look without the wait.
On a secondary note, look how awesome my skates look! I just got new wheels put on them and they are fantastic. I'll be playing my first game June 12, so anyone in the Mt. Laurel, NJ area should come check it out. (www.phillyderby.com for the details) 
I just got back from seeing Iron Man 2. Not bad. Its what you would expect of that sort of movie.  There are a few summer blockbusters I'm looking forward to seeing, such as Harry Potter 7.1 and even Eclipse. (I know, I'm a little ashamed to admit that) Hopefully I can redeem myself by seeing Prince of Persia or something equally as cool when it comes out.
At my local used music store, I picked up a few cds with some awesome 80s and 90s hits. Looking forward to it. : D

Oh Julia...

Julia Child... That name inspires and invokes so much in the culinary world and for damn good reason. The woman was pure gold.
I received "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" as a wedding gift, from a friend who knew I loved to cook, and liked the movie "Julie and Julia".
Some of the recipes are indeed daunting, but if you persevere, you will not be disappointed.
One of my favorite things that I have tried from the book is the DIVINE chicken with mushrooms and cream sauce. I have made it a few times and it never disappoints. In the picture above, the sauce is smothering pork rib meat and mashed potatoes with the addition of green beans on the side. Julia's recipe calls for a whole roast chicken, but I have yet to try it that way. I definitely recommend this recipe, if you have the book or look it up online. It is just absolute heaven. Even my longtime friend who hates mushrooms loved the sauce, and who can blame him? Cream, butter, port wine, onions... whats not to love?

Mango pudding!

This Japanese style mango pudding takes me back to my honeymoon last November. The husband and I spent hours trekking around Tokyo, Japan. Tired of walking all day (and shopping!), we would stumble into this little cafe in the Shibuya district for tea and a snack. This amazing little cafe is a gem, and we would always have blossoming Jasmine flower tea with lychee icecream and red oolong tea syrup, and mango pudding with cream and one tiny red currant for decoration.

My poor husband had a pretty rough week last week, so I decided to cheer him up, and picked up a few mangoes at the store.
The recipe for this pudding is so simple.

1 cup hot water
2 packets gelatin
3/4 cup sugar

2 mangoes
1 5oz can of evaporated milk
6-8 ice cubes.

dissolve the gelatin and sugar in the hot water.
puree the mangoes. ( i strained them to make it less stringy)
add the evap. milk and ice cubes to the mango puree.
pour in the gelatin mixture and stir.
pour into your molds or dishes and set in the fridge for 3 hours or so, and voila!
very very simple and delicious, and a great pick-me-up.
I poured my pudding into the sweet little jar pictured above. I actually bought them on our honeymoon in a little shop in a train station along with the adorable little spoon pictured with it. But of course, any jar or dish will do.
Next on my list is to make that ice cream!

Spontaneous Bread Pudding

The inspiration for this bread pudding came after eating at the Cheesecake Factory. I had a whole mini loaf of their sourdough bread leftover (because the honey wheat is far superior). It, of course, went stale overnight. I was at a loss of what to do with it, except throw it out, when I remembered that stale bread is a key ingredient of bread pudding. I followed a pretty standard  recipe, adding  coffee brandy to the suggested ingredients. I also browned the butter a bit when I melted it, giving it a richer taste.


Ingredients

* 6 slices day-old bread ( I used a mix of the Cheesecake factory sourdough, and wheat bread I had in the freezer. I think challah would probably be fantastic, or any thick white bread. )
* 2 tablespoons butter, melted
* 2-3 tablespoons coffee brandy
* 4 eggs, beaten
* 2 cups milk
* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Break bread into small pieces into an 8 inch square baking pan.  Melt butter and add coffee brandy to butter.
Drizzle melted butter or margarine over bread.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread, and lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.


It came out fantastically. Rich, custardy, eggy goodness.  Try it for yourself :D

Hello daddy

This past week was pretty busy! As I have mentioned before, I recently joined the Philadelphia based Penn Jersey Roller Derby She Devils (Say that three times fast!), and am a part of their Rookie program . Practices are going well, we have two great coaches, and from what I hear the other girls on the actual team are jealous. Their coach is roller derby hall of fame-r  Judy, "the Polish Ace", Sowinski, and from what we hear she is one tough cookie. 
I attended my first game last night as a volunteer to sell 50-50 tickets with another Rookie. Our team played another OSDA team, the South Jersey Roller Girls. The game was definitely intense as well as super exciting. If there are teams in your local area, I definitely recommend checking them out! PJRD won the game 60-44!!!  Go She Devils!

Friday I went to see the new movie "The Runaways" based on Cherie Currey and Joan Jett's band in the '70s. It was really, really great. I was pleasantly surprised, as Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart aren't on my top actress list, but they both managed to pull off a lot of maturity and presence for the film. It was also amazing to see how much all the actresses really looked like The Runaways. Fanning and Stewart are almost the spitting images of Currey and Jett. I recommend seeing this if you like coming of age biopics, or all girl bands, or chicks making out.

I'm still waiting on details of the package exchange over on Oh! Hello Friend but I will definitely be posting pics of my packages when they are announced.
I'm going to spend the rest of the night relaxing with the husband and kitty, HBO's new show 'The Pacific' is on tonight! Need to recharge for the week.
All my best!

Busy bee!

So! Some things are happening that I thought I'd share:
1. Sadly, my grandmother passed away last week and I will be attending
a service for her next week in my family hometown in Maine.
2. I joined a roller derby team! I tried out for local Penn Jersey
roller derby and made the rookie program so I am looking forward to
everything that entails. I love to meet new people. All I need now is
a cool roller derby name.
3. I signed up for oh! Hello friend's lovely package exchange and
could not be more excited. I am all about pretty paper and packaging.
Gives me an excuse to break out my washi tape from japan and maybe the
sewing machine. Check it out, but hurry because she's only taking 350 people!

Oh! Hello Friend 2010 Package Exchange

4. Me and my husband are all settled into our new home! I am so happy
that we managed to find a place we could afford in such a great buyers
market even though mortgages are a ridiculous gauntlet of paperwork.
Renting is great, but nothing beats the feeling when you come home and
know it's yours. Of course until you discover your outlets don't
work... A story for another day. The decorating is coming slowly but I
will post pictures when it's more settled.
That's about it for now, but lots of great exciting things coming up!
When life hands you lemons, make lemon bars. : D