"I wrote stories from the time I was a little girl, but I didn't want to be a writer. I wanted to be an actress. I didn't realize then that it's the same impulse. It's make-believe. It's performance. The only difference being that a writer can do it all alone. I was struck a few years ago when a friend of ours--an actress--was having dinner here with us and a couple of other writers. It suddenly occurred to me that she was the only person in the room who couldn't plan what she was going to do. She had to wait for someone to ask her, which is a strange way to live."
I will be back shortly with photographic memories of Paris and Tokyo (how I miss thee both). For now, take your own trip to Paris this summer with Lucy Knisley's delightful graphic novel French Milk:
I'm not a massive sugar hound. If I had a choice between sweet and savory, the salty and crunchy would win every time. I can dig some dark chocolate and hang out with a lemon meringue pie now and then, but sugar's not my thing. "I'll take the cheese course," she says all European-like after her meal.
It took one trip to BabyCakes NYC--the delightful bakery owned by the lovely, talented, and always stylish Erin McKenna--to slay my sweet snobbery for good (and it had nothing to do with sugar). Erin's cupcakes, cookies, frosting shots, gingerbread, brownies, blueberry crumb cake (my faves), and ridiculously addictive Cinnamon Toasties are made without refined sugar, eggs, or dairy. We're talking all-natural, organic, and--dare I say it with the blood of 1,000 cows coursing through my Texas-bred veins--VEGAN. The sweets at BabyCakes NYC are so magically delicious that you find yourself exclaiming, "Nuh-uh-no-way!" when you find out they're actually good for you.
I have to pace myself when it comes to how often I rush to the Lower East Side for a Red Velvet fix. I wish I could go every day. I need to go every day. The BabyCakes Banana Chocolate Chip Loaf wants to live in my fridge permanently. Luckily, for all of us, Erin has decided to share her secrets with the new BabyCakes Cookbook, hittin' a bookshelf near you on May 5th. Chock-full of recipes for most of the items that have made her bakery famous, you can now bring BabyCakes into your home whenever you want. Find out what makes regulars like Mary-Louise Parker, Natalie Portman, Pamela Anderson, and Zooey Deschanel "fan club" members for life. Learn how to make Jason Schwartzman's favorite Triple-Chocolate Fat Pants Cake. It's all in there, and it's all good.
Plus, how can you resist this BabyCakes Cookbook video? Sweet Sensational!
An expanded edition of Jane Austen's literary masterpiece Pride and Prejudice, only with the walking dead and a whole lot of British brain eating? Elizabeth Bennet as a Buffy-esque zombie slayer? NINJAS?!
My partner in crime, "Mr. H", just returned from a wild adventure in the trenches of glittery Hollywood. Lucky for me, he brought gifts back with him. Here are some new additions to our cabinet of curiosities courtesy of the always awesome LA stores, Time Travel Mart, Family and Ooga Booga.
This album from The Sads is designed by Mike Mills:
I plan to sit cross-legged on the floor to feed my brain and ears with these West Coast delights. Mr. H may have gone on an intergalactic flashbulb ride with James Bond and Princess Leia's mom, but I'm gonna come out of the sticks with new tunes to hum and new quotes to strum.
My lovely friend India and I conducted our first Swap-n-Share on Sunday.
She loaned me this:
And I loaned her this:
India also indulged my inner Cha-Cha with her famous salsa because A) I'm missing my beloved homeland and B) her salsa is INCREDIBLE and H & I have been requesting another taste of it since she made it for her Oscar Party. This deliciousness you see below, in the words of Robert Smith, is Just Like Heaven:
It's also gone! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that it's in the Mt. Olive jar, too!
Why don't you conduct a swap of your own with a favorite friend, co-worker, or someone who lives far away that you haven't seen in awhile? While you're at it, whip up something yummy or throw in an extra little tidbit that your swap partner might enjoy. All Hail the Swap-n-Share! And thank you for my special goodies, Miss India! Can't wait to chat about Dolly wit' ya. I just started reading...
"ONCE UPON A TIME and far, far away, back in the hollers at the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee there lived a little girl with yellow hair, blue-green eyes, fair skin, and freckles..."
