1 of 2 recipes

I am not a cook and I don't pretend to be, I set of my fire alarm at least 2 to 3 times each year. But there are two things that I do enjoy making and that I haven't messed up yet. The first is a bread pudding with Panettone Bread (Italian Christmas Bread) I bet you have seen it in the grocery store or been given one as a gift and wondered what the hell to do with it (besides maybe make french toast.) Well here is what I do...

Panettone Bread Putting with Cinnamon Sauce

Cinnamon Sauce
-1 cup water
-1 cup brown sugar
-4 tablespoons whipping cream
-1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Bread Pudding
-1 (1-pound) loaf of Panettone bread, but into 1" inch cubes
-8 eggs
-1.5 cups whipping cream
-2.5 cups whole milk
-1.25 cups sugar
-Amaretto Liquor...just pour it.

For the bread pudding, pull out your pyrex and butter her up. Put in the bread cubes and spread them out in an even layer. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, cream, milk, amaretto, and sugar to blend. Pour it over the bread cubes and press the cubes gently to submerge them in all of the happiness. Let it stand for about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 and bake for about 45 minutes. It's sooooo damn good.

For the cinnamon sauce (which I usually make while the thing is baking) combine the water and brown sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring it to a boil and stir until all the sugar dissolves. Boil until it reduces to about 1 cup (roughly 15 minutes) Remove the saucepan from the heat and whisk in the whipping cream (I just pour until it gets a little thick and lovely--I don't necessarily follow the measurement on this part) at this point you can also add the cinnamon--again I usually add more then what the recipe calls for. Then I put it over the head for another 15ish minutes until it gets thick and lovely.

When both are done, combine them for a happy dance in your mouth. Kate Moss said that "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels"--stupid model, she's never had this bread pudding. It rocks, eat up, and enjoy!

Thanks BPF!

My super tall and talented friend Brian Patrick Flynn was embarrassingly complimentary of my in his latest post on his new website Decor Demon. Check it out here!

NCIDQ Certificate #26375

I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can not even begin to describe how beyond thrilled/ecstatic/elated/__________ (fill in the blank) I am right now! Thank you to everyone who helped me study and put up with my insanity all Summer long while I prepared, specifically my amazing husband Sandy!

Inching towards holiday spirit...

I am not really one for the holidays. Nothing against Christmas, Jesus, Santa or any other holiday entity, it's just not my thing. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy certain aspects, gift giving & getting, family gathering, and all of that heartwarming stuff. So far our holiday season has been pretty fun and I am gearing up for another round of yule-tide events. Holidays are tricky for our family, with half of us not being from Atlanta Thanksgiving is the trade off holiday where we all scatter and flee the south. I go home to San Jose, where my favorite thing occurs right after turkey day....Christmas in the Park! It's a tradition in Downtown San Jose that I drag my husband to every year. This year I realized how cool it was when I was younger...and not so much now since it took us about 4 minutes to walk through the whole thing...but it's still a necessary event that begins to put me in the holiday mood.

Where are these Gingerbread People's mouths?

Sorry Sandy, I cut you off...

I think it's an owl? Not entirely sure.

Creepy plastic Santa.

The Rat King from The Nutcracker

NCIDQ rubbing off, the Underwriters Laboratories had a Christmas Tree, ironically it had no lights. Any time you have anything electric and you see a little circle with UL in it, that means these people checked it out for you.

Rows and rows of Christmas Trees

The Fairmont Hotel had a life size gingerbread house in their lobby. I remember when I was little they used to have giant nutcrackers and Christmas trees made out of chocolate & candy.

Yummmy!

Rhoda moved out

Oh how I will miss flying down West Wesley Road to that big beautiful blue house! I had gotten quite used to going up there once a week to change the flowers, fluff the pillows, see if we had sold anything, etc. I really should be focusing on getting my own house ready for the Holidays, but it just doesn't seem as fun. Anyway, as you should know, the Christmas House is officially closed. It was open for a fabulous 4 weeks, it was so well received with a fantastic turn-out--I am hoping we raised a great amount for the Alliance Children's Theater. Anyway, if you were not able to make it out to see the show house you really missed out, and to make you feel worse, here are the professional photos we had taken of our room by Lauren Rubinstein. She is amazing and so much fun and I am enamoured with these photos that she took of Rhoda's apartment!

Chapter 2 - Zara Home

So as a follow up to H&M potentially launching a Home Collection/Division I noticed that people didn't seem to know that fabulous Spanish discount line, Zara has a home division. It is not available in the United States, pretty much only in Europe. You can click here to go to their website, and if you were in Greece, the UK, or Monaco (or a few other counties) you could shop online! But alas, we are not so lucky. Do not expect lots of furniture or upholstered pieces, but there are some occasional & smaller items, along with really lovely blankets, throw pillows and all that happiness. One thing I do like is if you click on the ZH ShowRoom feature, it directs you to a page where you can select from a bathroom, bedroom, living room, or dining room. From there, depending on where you click, it offers you pre-styled rooms to choose from, select the one that appeals to you most and you will be able to see all of the available items for purchase to create that space. Pretty fantastic for the design disabled. All in all it's pretty lovely, simple and just European chic.

HuMmmmmmmm

So this just in, thanks to Womans Wear Daily & The Cut....H&M is rumored to be plotting to launch a Home collection in the next year...thoughts?