xoxo

Happy Valentine's Day!! Hope your day is filled with sweets and hugs <3

art by creativethursday

valentines

last year's valentines...

...and this year's!

one of many valentines treats...

white chocolate covered oreos are probably one of my most favorite treats! the ones in the grocery store are so high in calories, so we decided to make our own using mini-oreos. they came out great!

nutella cookies

On this week's snow day I felt like baking. So, naturally, I searched Tastespotting to get some ideas, when I came across these nutella cookies. I LOVE nutella, so I had to try it. I accidentally baked them a little too long, so they're a little too crunchy for my liking, but they still taste great! I can't wait to try it again and get the baking time right!

Nutella Cookies
from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Ingredients:

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
½ cup Nutella or other hazelnut chocolate spread
1 egg
½ tsp. vanilla
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream butter with an electric mixer about 1 minute until smooth. Add in both sugars. Beat on high speed about 3 minutes until light & fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

With the mixer on low, add the egg and Frangelico (or vanilla). Then add the Nutella and mix well.

In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, and mix on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and mix just until the dough is smooth. Fold in chocolate chips.

Using a small ice cream scoop (or a teaspoon) form the dough into balls and place on greased cookie sheet. To prevent my cookies from spreading too much, I stuck the cookie sheets in the freezer for about 10 minutes before baking.

Bake 6-7 minutes (or 7-8 if baking from freezer). Let cookies cool about 5 minutes and transfer to a rack to cool completely.

more snow on the way.

makes me wish I had a cozy fire place to drink hot cocoa by...
photo by Emiko Franzen

my wonderful world of fashion

I saw this book, My Wonderful World of Fashion, in Anthropologie the other day and thought it was so cute! I always wanted one of those activity/doodling books, but never thought I'd be good at them. But I think I can handle this one! Here are some sample pages I really liked...

one

Last weekend I found this adorable book, One by Kathryn Otoshi, about bullying and I highly recommend it. It presents the message is a simplistic way using colors and numbers. It teaches the concepts of tolerance, acceptance, and what it means to stand up and "count." I also really enjoy the illustrations!

happy birthday kerri

Last night I went to Grotto with Kerri, Ashley, and Payson to celebrate Kerri's 25th birthday. This cozy little restaurant is hidden in Beacon Hill. To get in, you have to walk down a set of stone stairs. Inside the restaurant, the exposed brick walls, red accents, and dim lighting truly made me feel like I was in a room of a romantic castle. The food was spectacular. The offer a $35 prix fixe price for dinner that includes an appetizer, an entree, and dessert. It was well worth it. To start, I enjoyed a baby spinach salad with roasted beets, spiced walnuts, goat cheese, raspberry vinaigrette. For my entree, I ordered the pan roasted diver scallops "ravioli." The scallops were served in between two big circular pastas (hence the "ravioli") with a truffle sauce and leeks, arugula, and wild mushrooms. They were to die for! Dessert was just as good, between the four of us we tried all the desserts on the menu. My favorite was the lemon panna cotta, with a raspberry sauce and a crispy pizzelle cookie.photo credits: Grotto, Sweet 26

cup of something warm

I love watching movies under a blanket on the couch with a nice cup of something warm on a cold snowy day. And that is exactly what we all did with our snow day. I made chai tea lattes for Allie and Jackie and a chocolate latte for myself!

hot chocolate with soy froth and cocoa powder

chai latte with soy froth and cinnamon sprinkle

the soy froth is the key ingredient! and the cinnamon make it look pretty.

snow is falling

Today was the second snow day of the year. While I'm pretty sick of snow, it sure does look pretty! And it gave me an extra day to write report cards.

The Blue Notebook

“The Blue Notebook is a deeply moving story and a searing reminder of the resilience of the human spirit. It is a tribute to how writing can give meaning and help one transcend even the most harrowing circumstances. The voice of Batuk, the unforgettable child prostitute heroine, will stay with the reader a long, long time.”—Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns

“James A. Levine's The Blue Notebook tugged at my heart and opened my eyes. Levine's fictional protagonist, Batuk, stands shoulder to shoulder with the iconic Anne Frank, another brave young girl whose innocence was annihilated but whose spirit prevailed and whose gift to the world was the written testimony she left behind. To read The Blue Notebook is to bear witness, something we must do if we are to create a world that rejects the exploitation of children and creates a world where they can be safe.” —Wally Lamb, author of The Hour I First Believed

I just finished The Blue Notebook by James A. Levine this morning and I can't stop thinking about. I highly recommend reading this book, but I warn you that it is very disturbing and at times painful to read. It is the kind of book that you can't walk away from easily.


The author, Levine, is a well-known Mayo Clinic doctor who was inspired to write this book while researching child homelessness in Mumbai. He was interviewing children on a street called the Street of Cages, where child prostitutes are displayed in cages. A young prostitute writing in a blue notebook caught his attention. Levine was unable to get the image of the girl out of his head and began writing.

Readers are drawn into the world of sexual slavery through the perspective of a 15-year-old girl names Batuk. Batuk is sold into sexual slavery as a nine-year-old child by her father. She writes her horrific story as a child prostitute in a blue notebook as she lives in Mumbai's Street of Cages.

All of Levine's US proceeds from this book are donated to International and National Centers for Missing an Exploited Children. For more information on the Street of Cages read Levine's article about one way these children are being helped.

want. now.

I want this. I was just looking at Design*Sponge and came across this new "mook" (magazine/book) called SPACES. It's 256 pages of pictures of and interviews about the spaces of graphic designers, photographers, vintage collectors and shop owners from all over the world. It's being sold in Australia for about $22.50, but you can find more information about how to get it here by visiting Frankie Magazine. Here are some sample pages:

when Peter came to Boston.

This weekend my cousin Peter came to visit us from Wisconsin, so naturally we went to the Sam Adams Brewery! We learned all about how the beer is made and got to taste three kinds: Boston Lager (of course), Irish Red (which is actually red), and Octoberfest (my favorite).

These are some of the ingredients used in Sam Adams beers: barley (three varieties) and hops (bottom).

Dinner tonight...

Morrocan Lentil Soup

Recipe: http://aliceinparislovesartandtea.blogspot.com/2010/10/morrocan-red-lentil-soup.html

On a crisp fall night, this soup was perfect for dinner. The spices created a delightful flavor that definitely warmed us all up! I served it with some garlic naan, which tasted great dipped in the broth. I forgot to add the peas, which I am sad about because I love peas, but it still tasted fine without them!