I'm domestic, who knew? The Pecan Pie Adventure

It's one of those classic stories from my childhood that I'm still teased about - one time while trying to make chocolate chip cookies with my best friend, we didn't read the recipe correctly and put a 1/2 cup of baking soda in the batch instead of a 1/2 teaspoon. Salty and disgusting, it was determined that I was not a baker.

Over the years I've learned how to cook various things, and when provoked, I really can cook a nice meal. Problem is, I'm not provoked enough and the "kitchen" in my studio apartment is literally the size of a small recessed closet, so it's extremely difficult to make anything of substance in there. I'm a work in progress and still waiting to figure out what kind of cook I'll be when I "grow up."

My mom is what I'd call a good midwestern cook - she loves the crock pot, her top dishes are meatloaf, chili, baked mac 'n cheese, and homemade soups/stews, and she's known for her crunchy fudge sandwiches (a butterscotch and chocolate version of rice krispie treats - yum). And somehow, she didn't know until about 5 years ago that garlic came in other varieties than powdered seasoning. My dad is the grill master - he loves his classic Weber charcoal grill, and uses any opportunity to bbq. Every year we do our Thanksgiving turkey on the grill in fact, and it never disappoints.

In college, I dated an Italian guy, and discovered all sorts of delicious foods I hadn't been exposed to previously. I never thought I'd learn to like anchovies or olives, and never realized just how delicious a good veal cutlet was. My stomach grew 3 sizes while we were together. I acquired so many great recipes from his grandma and impressed my Irish/German/French/Dutch/English family (I'm basically the European Union) on vacations with alige, mashed chi-chi beans, zucchini pie, and sauteed vegetables.

Living in France, I learned the value of eating real things versus synthetic and processed foods. There is no substitute for real butter, herbs, cream and sugar - if you're gonna do something, do it right. Helping the chef Bernard in the kitchen of the monastery in the mountains, I saw the care he put into each dish, and the joy of creating a meal from scratch and presenting it to others.

I try to take something from all the great cooks that have touched my life, but I've never conquered baking. I don't have as much interest in it (I have a latent sweet tooth, and I'm a mindless eater, so it's best for me not to make or buy sweet treats) and I'm always afraid of screwing it up. With cooking, you can sort of fudge your way through things, but not so with baking - one little mistake and the whole thing gets messed up!

This Thanksgiving, however, I decided to learn to make a pie. I wanted to pick an interesting one to be my sort of "signature." I decided on Southern Pecan Pie. Yes I knowww it's like one of the sweetest, worst-for-you pies, but if you only eat it once a year, it can't be that bad. Plus, it's delicious, not your basic apple pie, and reminds me of my Florida roots and my Aunt Regina that used to always make it for holidays growing up. And guess what - it was easy and I didn't mess it up! Maybe I can bake after all!

Here's my Aunt's recipe:

3 eggs

2/3 c. sugar

dash of salt

1 c. light corn syrup

1/2 c. melted butter

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 and 1/2 c. broken/chopped pecans

1 nine-inch unbaked pie crust

Beat eggs thoroughly. Add sugar, salt, corn syrup, vanilla, butter and continue mixing with a whisk or hand mixer on low setting until it starts to foam/bubble (about 5-10 minutes).

Layer the bottom of the pie crust with pecans. Make sure the bottom is completely covered and that no pie crust shows through. Pour mixture over pecans (the pecans will rise to the top).

Bake 350 degrees for 50 minutes and voila - all done!

I admit I used a pre-made Pillsbury pie crust, though. One step at a time people!

Ombre Hair

I first read about "ombre hair" around January of this year. I was bored with my haircolor and kept seeing pictures of celebs (including one of my favorite style icons, Rachel Bilson) with dark hair that gradually faded to a light brown/blond at the tips. It looked so naturally un-perfect with just the right hint of surfer chic. It made me wish my hair could be sunkissed despite the frigid cold temps and I made the goal right then to go lighter and get these "ombre" highlights as soon as the weather warmed up.

As the months went by and I continued to daydream about kickass highlights, I saw more and more articles about the style... WhoWhatWear, Allure, Glamour, etc. It seemed like every actress I loved was embracing the look, too. So I assumed that when I went to a Manhattan salon in late May, the hairstylist would totally understand the look I was going for. Au contraire, my friends. She had no idea what I was talking about when I said "ombre highlights."

"You don't want your roots done?? Umm okay..." (with a scrunched up stank face, I might add) was her response.

Uh oh. Thank goodness I brought pictures with me. I know every magazine tells you to show your stylist pictures of celeb hairstyles you like before a cut/color...but do you guys actually do that? I always feel so corny whipping out a fan photo of Nicole Richie. Well, pride aside, I've learned my lesson over the years, and sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand descriptive words. Good news - the highlights turned out great. It was subtle and pretty and grew out to look even better than it initially did. And, special bonus, once I actually got some sun over the summer, the highlights lightened even more! I haven't had to touch the color since May.

But now, six months later, the color is fading away and my hair is unruly (it's long and thick and turns into a knotty bird's nest if I don't trim it every few months), so I decided to redo the color and get a cut over Thanksgiving at a salon back home in Pittsburgh. Good ol' mom called and booked the appointment for me yesterday and guess what - hairstylists still don't know what ombre highlights are! Say what you want about Pittsburgh, it's no New York and sometimes trends do get there a little slower...but the term "ombre highlights" has been used on ten million beauty blogs and magazines over the past year and 1 in 5 Hollywood celebs are rocking the look. Why do I still have to fully explain myself and sound like a crazy person that "doesn't want their roots done?"

...Or AM I a crazy person? Does no one else outside of the beauty PR world know what ombre highlights are?

Sigh, someday you all will catch up to my coolness and ahead of the curve-ness (kidding).

*check out my lovely little montage of various ombre-headed actresses...plus me, with wind-whipped and messy but oo-la-la ombre hair in Cali this September. Jolie, ne c'est pas?

San Francisco and the Perfect Aura

A wise fortune cookie once told me (well, last month), 'The attitude within is more important than the circumstances without." I needed to hear that.

See this summer started out really fun, but somewhere towards the end of July, things started going sour. Financial issues, family stuff, career ruts....I started feeling a bit lost.

In the midst of all this, I remembered that I had planned to go to San Francisco over Labor Day. It's always good timing to go on a cross-country trip when you have no money! Argg. Well, I picked up weekend shifts at two different bars and worked hard to play hard. Despite the crazy work schedule, the trip gave me something to look forward to through the month of August (and my fortune cookie reminded me to refrain from getting too cynical or negative about things).

Well, the SF trip has come and gone. The outcome? I love San Francisco and my bank accounts haven't been frozen (...yet). It's the only city I've visited in California and it was only my second time there, but both times, the city completely brightened my outlook on life right when I needed it.

I love that people in SF seem happy and healthy. I love that dogs are treated like people, that everyone has one and that they run free in the parks. I love that people have active, balanced lifestyles and that laidback attitudes are more prevalent than stressed and unhappy ones.

During my stay, I got to do so many fun things. Our first day we spent doing touristy things (bang 'em out and get them out of the way in my opinion). We wondered through the streets until we found crooked Lombard St. and then headed to Fisherman's Wharf for chowder bread bowls. On a whim, we decided to go on a $15 boat ride around the Bay (the BYOB sign was calling us) and took lots of pictures. It was a great way to spend a sunny and windy first afternoon. That night we headed down to Chestnut St. in Cow Hollow for dinner and drinks with friends we knew in town.

Over the weekend, we headed to Napa. So pretty! We went on the Napa Wine Train one evening for a gourmet meal...our attempt at being classy after the previous night's debauchery. It was really scenic and the food was great, but we were clearly the youngest people there, and we were so tired and hungover that the older couples showed us up! They were partying and having fun while we were trying not to fall asleep and just wanted off the train, haha. I'd skip it unless you're 40+. The next day we did lunch at Mustard's Grill (yum!) and visited Rubicon Estates for some wine tasting. Rubicon happened to be Coppola's fancy pants vineyard (compared to his more family-friendly Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Geyserville). It was so picturesque! The wine was good, too...I suppose that's more important.

Back in SF for the remainder of our time, we did sushi and sake bombs off Chestnut St. the Sunday evening before Labor Day. Of course we were THAT group being loud in the restaurant while other people were on dates...oops? We followed it up by sake-fueled dirty dancing until who-knows-what-hour. We spent Labor Day laying in Golden Gate Park (hungover) and soaking up the sun when it peeped out from behind the clouds. Perfection. The other girls left a bit earlier than me, so I spent the rest of my California escape hiking through Sausalito and the Marin Headlands, and thrift shopping in the Mission and along Haight. I even hit up a Yang Yoga class at a climbing gym in true West Coaster fashion - I could get used to that life. Sigh, why does California have to be SO far from my family in Pittsburgh and my friends in NY?

More than just having a great time, being away from work and stress in NY gave me time to do some soul-searching. For laughs, the girls and I visited a psychic in Napa and the strangest thing happened. The woman read everyone's palms but mine! She actually stopped, looked at me and said, "I'm sorry sweetie, but I can't give you a reading today. You don't need one. When you walked in here, I saw your aura right away, and it was full of bright, beautiful colors. Your life and your karma are perfect, and everything will figure itself out within a year."

Um, what?

I mean, I just wanted to give the lady my $25 and have her tell me if I should stay in NY or consider a move, and if I was meant to have a career in PR like everyone else. But hearing that made me happy. It was quite an oddball thing to tell someone, but I think it was a reminder that I don't need to worry. All the issues I've been having are temporary (and there will always be issues and pitfalls to deal with), and all-in-all, my life is coming together. More importantly, my life is fun.

Thinking back on 2010 so far, I have to agree that this has been a pretty great year (and my horoscope tells me that the rest is gonna be fab, too. The Pisces is the luckiest sign for the remainder of 2010!).

Despite the bumps in the road, I've been able to look inward to figure out who I am and what I really want this year. I finally released an old sadness that I held onto for far too long, developed a lot of new friendships and strengthened old ones. I set goals to try new invigorating activities (running a 5k, learning yoga), and remembered to keep up with the things that make me happy – other than boozing with friends (painting, reading, Marlon, being independent...I like sober activities, too!).

I also accepted going with the flow this year, and embraced trips and people that landed in my lap. Going to a wedding in Alabama where I didn't know any other guests? Sure why not? And now I have new friends, a couple of which were just in SF with me. Planning a trip to SF for no particular reason with a girl I only met once (at said wedding)? Sounded like a great opportunity to get back to a city I love and get to know her even better. And it was.

I can't wait to see what else is in store for me...I think I'm on the cusp of something big. Hi life, I'm here, along with my perfect aura. Help me figure out what to do next!

Montauk...the end. And the LI summer beach roundup

This summer I've done a nice lil' tour of Long Island beaches - first a week in Long Beach, then 4th of July on Fire Island and finally a weekend in Montauk. I can't decide which I like best! Each time I arrive at a new beach, I'm in awe all over again and immediately wish I lived there.

I don't know what it is, but I've been craving natural beauty lately. It's a strange feeling for a girl that left Pittsburgh for 'the big city' to have an exciting life. Right now all I seem to want is peace...space...and to be outside! I just get this sense of release when I'm in the fresh summer air, whether it be laying in the sun and walking through the park with Marlon or bobbing in the ocean and tackling waves covered in sand and seaweed. No rushing to get somewhere, no stress, no doing my hair or makeup, and most importantly - no staring at a computer screen all day.

I love being outside on a beautiful day no matter where I am, but for me, the beach takes the cake. I guess I've always been a beach girl - growing up I constantly teased my parents about wishing we would've stayed in Florida (the 3 rivers just didn't do it for me). Honestly, at the moment I think it's just that I'm sick of New York. NYC in the summer is hot, sticky, smelly, and empty. Everyone deserts the city on weekends via the LIRR or the Hamptons Jitney to hit the beaches...it was about time I joined in.

Here's my sum-up of my fave beach spots so far on Long Island:

Long Beach is great because I have a bunch of friends that live there, and it's one of the closest beaches from the city by car or train. Plus it sits on a strip of bars and restaurants that are fun every night of the week. I also like the community feel - you could live here year round (most people do!) and it wouldn't be strange.

Fire Island is fun because you take a ferry to get there and are on a literal island with no cars. On Davis Park where we went, there was one bar/restaurant for the whole beach - Casino (and it was a-maz-ing), one grocery store and snack shop (that ran out of eggs one morning - what??), and a boardwalk flanked by tree-shaded beach houses. Another plus? TOTALLY dog-friendly - Marlon's coming with me next time!!

And then, there's Montauk, the end of Long Island. Literally. I had fond memories of Montauk from a childhood vacation - my family came out to NY for a relative's wedding and then stayed in a little beach shack for a week. I loved it! We went sailing, saw the lighthouse, and my dad and I went on a deep sea fishing excursion. Actually, the deep sea fishing trip wasn't so awesome - the seas were rough that day and both my dad and I got seasick. First memory (and only I think/hope!) of watching my dad barf over me into the ship's port-o-potty. Good times. I felt like my body was rocking with the waves for 3 days afterwards. I digress.

I didn't really know what it would be like this time around...had it become more like an extension of the Hamptons? I mean, the Hamptons are tres mignon and all, but I like a laid-back, barefoot beach town. No shoes for me please. Montauk didn't disappoint. After 3 hours on the train, we stepped off and got into a cab painted like a surf board with a 40 year old driver blasting metal to head to the hotel. Our room's patio doors opened to the beautiful, simple beach. We drank on the deck that night, walked to all the bars on our block, and ordered pizza to be delivered to the pool the next afternoon hungover. Perfection. And let's not forget about our amazing dinner at the open air Crow's Nest restaurant, the 'Main St.' of boutiques and shops, and of course karaoke with Nanci and Jim (ha).

I wish I had a job that let me peace out for the summer months so I could get out of the city and into a cool and vibrant beach town. Sighhh wishful thinking I guess. Until then, at least I live in a city surrounded by beaches!

Makeup and the Morning Commute

I've lived in NY awhile now and I take the N train everyyy morning to work, and there's one thing that I'll never understand (actually there are lots of things I'll never understand on the subway, but that's besides the point) - the ladies who get a seat and immediately whip out their cosmetics bag and proceed to spend the rest of the stop n' go bumpy ride to apply tons of makeup.

Not just a little lip gloss mind you, I'm talking LOOSE powder, mascara and eyeliner - as in a SHARP pointed object aimed at your EYES.

I just don't get it! In my opinion, if you wrangle a seat it should be used in one of 3 productive ways:

1. reading a book

2. reading a trashy magazine

3. zoning to music/sleeping.

I can barely function on the morning train sitting still, let alone apply makeup coherently. I'd end up looking like a freak show with eyeliner streaked down my face! Not only that, but I don't really like to do my makeup in front of other people - it makes me feel like I rely on it too much and seems superficial. Maybe it's because I'm at the wise old age of 25, or maybe because I have some summer color, but I don't really care that much about having lots of makeup on for work.

I'm not judging because I remember a time when I thought I needed a full face of makeup to be seen in public (basically late middle school through high school), but that me has come and gone. Unless I have an awful breakout, I'm meeting with clients at work or I'm going out at night, I have a 5 minute makeup routine. A little tinted moisturizer, concealer, mascara and cheek/lip stain and I'm good to go.

What do you think? How much makeup do you wear in the morning and are you one of those girls that does it on the train? If you are, HOW do you manage?? You have a skill I have never acquired - props to you!

My BFF Becky Bloomwood...and other ways of learning French

Last week I watched Confessions of a Shopaholic with Isla Fisher, and though it got pretty terrible reviews, I have to admit, I thought it was sorta cute. Sure there were a lot of hare-brained schemes that wouldn't pan out in real life (Pretending that you can speak Finnish? Knowing nothing about finance and becoming a popular finance writer? Getting out of massive amounts of debt through a garage sale?), but I have a soft spot for Rebecca Bloomwood.

See, me and the main character of this book series-turned-movie have a special bond - she helps me practice French.

Please don't laugh, but I've found the best way for me to practice French is to read French editions of cheesy chick lit novels, and L'accro de shopping dit oui (Shopaholic Ties the Knot) was the first full French novel I ever read. It happened to be the third book in the series, but in a series of books about a girl that shops too much, it doesn't really spoil the thrilling plot to work backwards. I was amazed when I understood it and finished all 300-some pages of it!

It makes sense - when you first began reading, you stuck to simplistic books with easy to understand plot lines. Even if you were unsure of the meaning of a word, you could guess through pictures and context clues, and gradually learn more and more vocabulary. My simplistic books just happen to be chick lit.

When I started L'accro de shopping dit oui, reading in French finally clicked. In college I took so many French Literature classes, and reading even excerpts of classic French novels made me want to rip my hair out. I couldn't understand the archaic language, I would get bored from working so hard to comprehend it, and I would fall asleep. Or I would attempt to skim and understand the story through my intuition and street smarts, only to fail miserably during the class discussions the next day.

Reading comprehension of a foreign language is one of the quickest things you pick up, and one the skills you tend to retain the longest - but if you hate what you're reading and the language isn't modern, it won't help you in day-to-day life if you ever visit that country. I learned so many commonly used phrases and new vocabulary from reading the French Shopaholic series. How to say 'blow dryer' in French? Learned it from Becky Bloomwood!!

We're so secluded over here in North America and I feel like foreign language and international travel are often pushed to the back burner. Our schools generally don't begin teaching foreign languages until high school, roughly two thirds of the population has never gotten a passport (about 200 million people - via nodebtworldtravel.com), and we don't have easy access (aka cheap puddle jumpers and trains) to as many foreign countries as Europeans do. So unfair.

While we can't change the location of our country, I do wish we could change our attitude about the importance of other languages and cultures. Even though French isn't the most useful foreign language to know (Arabic, Japanese, Mandarin anyone?), I realized when I first set foot in Charles de Gaulle Airport that there's a whole other world out there where those vocabulary and reading comprehension lessons suddenly mattered.

When it comes to language - the way we communicate just about everything in life, full of nuances, slang, dialects, changing vocabulary and difficult grammar (where there's an exception to every rule) - you need to practice daily. I've always had such a strong desire to "get it" when it came to the French language, but I realize now after all those classes and my 2 month immersion escape in '08 that gripping the ins and outs of French will always be a challenge and every little bit helps.

Entertainment is one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to maintain language skills but I wish things like this were more accessible in the US. At FNAC shops in Paris (a French version of Barnes & Noble), you could buy English or French translations of most popular books. I stocked up on the Gossip Girl series in French, the Shopaholic series and some books by Marc Levy (a well-known French author that's supposed to be easier to read). Here it's a lot harder to find popular novels in foreign language editions (it's all mostly textbooks and classics - blahh). You can try ordering books through Amazon.fr (or whatever other country you're interested in), but navigating the site in another language and with foreign currency can be complicated. I also recently found this site, French Bookworld where I saw French editions of Harry Potter and other recognizable titles.

If you're not a huge reader, watching DVDs with the foreign subtitles is also interesting. Anchorman with French subtitles is pretty hilarious (as if it wasn't already). Actual foreign DVDs are even better, but you'll need to invest in a zone-free DVD player...yet another annoyance of trying to immerse yourself in a different country's culture without leaving the States. Due to copyrights and other things I'll never fully understand, there are certain coded DVD zones throughout the world and our DVD players and laptops will not play DVDs made in a different zone. Sighhh.

Until I can get myself back to France (and with the look of my current bank account, it's gonna be awhile!), I can always pretend through books and movies, and make sure I don't forget all the vocab I worked so hard to learn over the years.

PS - Happy Early Bastille Day! :)

Newsies and their Influence on Boy Bands

Today we were talking about Newsies at work. Don't ask me how the 1992 Disney movie about newspaper boys in New York came up, but regardless, any convo about Newsies is a convo I want to be a part of.

I feel like the movie was a little under the radar for anyone my age or younger - I was only in 2nd grade when it came out. You need to be more of a preteen girl to properly appreciate the awesomeness of Newsies, and when I was 13 and was part of a dance recital number to a song from the movie, my friends and I become obsessed. Like OBSESSED. My fave character was Spot...you know "never fear, Brooklyn is here!" My thirteen year old self is swooning.

Let's also not forget that Christian Bale was the lead character - he's done more than just Batman and An American Psycho people!

Annnnyway, I'm getting off topic. After a thorough discussion of our favorite scenes and characters, we decided that watching the musical numbers from the movie was a necessary part of our work day. Just as amazing as I remember! However, I noticed something that I never caught before....Newsies is totally the precursor to the boy band movement of the late 90s/early 2000s!!! Check out these sweet moves from the Seize the Day video:

And now, for your viewing and comparing pleasure, let's go back to 2000 and check out 'NSync's Bye Bye Bye video. Ummmm do their dance moves during the chorus look familiar?

Love it.