Ever wonder how your local barista gets those lovely little designs in the foam of your latte? Every time I see a pretty heart or rosetta in my drink, it instantly puts a smile on my face. This is called Latte Art.
Latte art uses steamed milk and a shot of espresso to make patterns or designs on the top of a latte. Most often, the steamed milk is poured into the shot of espresso but it can also be done by simply drawing on the foam itself.
David Schomer of the coffee house, Espresso Vivace, brought latte art to Seattle, Washington in the 1980s. Mr. Schomer says that the key to the beautiful designs is the development of “microfoam” by Jack Kelly of Uptown Espresso in 1986. Microfoam is the combination of creama and milk foam and its velvety texture allows for designs to be created into the espresso shot.
Scientifically, latte art is the mixture of the two colloids, crema (the emulsion of coffee oil and water) and microfoam. Neither of these are stable because crema will dissolve into espresso and the microfoam will separate into dry foam and milk. Thus, this beautiful art will only last minutes.
To make the art, the espresso shot must have the creamy brown surface on top “the crema”. Once the milk is poured in, the foam will rise to meet the crema from the shot, a contrast is created and art if formed! The milk must be poured perfectly into the espresso and the pattern will rise to the surface. A pattern can be designed with a stick once the foam has risen to the top as well. So next time you see latte art on your coffee, take a second to smile and enjoy this little luxury.
In selected theaters today, Beauty and the Beast is coming back to the big screen for a limited time! I have one really special memory about this classic movie. When I was younger and my family was living on Long Island, NY, I had called my mother from my friend’s house and asked her if I could spend the night. She said no, and that I had to come home because my father was going to be home from work in Manhattan. While we were living in New York, my father took the train every morning to the city to work all day and then went to school at NYU at night before taking the train back home so seeing him was a big deal. I reluctantly went home and my dad was there with the new Beauty and the Beast video! He and my mom had planned a surprise for my sister and I and we were so excited!
So that is my favorite Beauty and the Beast memory. I am so excited to go see it tomorrow in 3D. I have seen Chicken Little and The Nightmare Before Christmas in Disney 3D but that was a long time ago when I was in college! I am really looking forward to reliving a beloved part of my childhood.
Here is the trailer and below that, the movie description is below that for anyone who is not familiar with this family classic.
Walt Disney Animation Studios’ magical classic “Beauty and the Beast” returns to the big screen in Disney Digital 3D™, introducing a whole new generation to the Disney classic with stunning new 3D imagery. The film captures the fantastic journey of Belle (voice of Paige O’Hara), a bright and beautiful young woman who’s taken prisoner by a hideous beast (voice of Robby Benson) in his castle. Despite her precarious situation, Belle befriends the castle’s enchanted staff–a teapot, a candelabra and a mantel clock, among others–and ultimately learns to see beneath the Beast’s exterior to discover the heart and soul of a prince.
Featuring unforgettable music by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, and an enormously talented vocal ensemble, “Beauty and the Beast” was the first animated feature to receive a Best Picture nomination from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Remember when I was farmer for a day back in autumn? Remember all of the produce they gave me for my hard work? Well, here is what I came up with to use my winter squash!
It sat on the table for awhile before I made this. I had a little game going on with my family about what color they thought the inside would be. The winner was…
The guesses were yellow, white and green but I won out with orange. Yay! Anyway, if you cannot find a winter squash, you could substitute either fresh or frozen butternut squash. This meal would made a cozy Sinatra Sunday dinner for a cold winter night. Enjoy!
Winter Squash Gnocchi in Browned Butter Sauce with Fried Sage and Shaved Chestnuts
Ingredients
1 winter squash
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon of grated nutmeg
1/3 Cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 & 1/2 Cups of flour plus more for dusting
1/3 Cup of extra-virgin olive oil
1 Cup of sage leaves
4-5 chestnuts
2 Tablespoons of unsalted butter
Equipment Needed: A potato ricer
Instructions
Roast the Chestnuts
Preheat oven to 425°F.
Take chestnuts and make a cut across the round side of each to keep them from exploding, and arrange them on a cookie sheet.
Roast them until the skins have pulled back from the cuts and the nut meats have softened. Exactly how long will depend upon the chestnuts, but at least 15-20 minutes.
Remove the nuts from the oven, make a mound of them in an old towel, wrap them up, squeeze them hard — they should crackle. Peel the remaining skin off and let them sit.
Roast the Winter Squash
Pre-heat oven to 400°F.
Peel squash using a vegetable peeler. Cut in half and remove insides with a spoon. Cut squash into 1″ pieces.
Brush cubes with olive oil and place on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Roast for 20-25 minutes until tender when pierced with a fork.
Make the Gnocchi
Force the squash through the ricer into a bowl and let cool completely.
Beat together egg, nutmeg, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper in a small bowl.
Lightly flour 2 or 3 large baking sheets or line with parchment paper. Gather squash purée into a mound in sheet pan, using a pastry scraper if you have one, and form a well in center.
Pour egg mixture into well, then knead into squash. Knead in cheese and 1 & 1/2 Cups of flour, then knead, adding more flour as necessary, until mixture forms a smooth but slightly sticky dough. Dust top lightly with some of flour.
Cut dough into 6 pieces. Form 1 piece of dough into a 1/2-inch-thick rope on a lightly floured surface.
Cut rope into 1/2-inch pieces. Gently roll each piece into a ball and lightly dust with flour.
Repeat with remaining 5 pieces of dough.
Turn a fork over and hold at a 45-degree angle, with tips of tines touching work surface. Working with 1 at a time, roll gnocchi down fork tines, pressing with your thumb, to make ridges on 1 side. Transfer gnocchi as formed to baking sheets.
Fry Sage Leaves and Chestnuts
Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until it shimmers. Fry sage leaves in 3 batches, stirring, until they turn just a shade lighter and crisp (they will continue to crisp as they cool), about 30 seconds per batch. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Season lightly with salt. (While this is frying, I started boiling the water for the gnocchi.)
Shave chestnuts thin with a vegetable peeler. Fry them in 3 batches, stirring, until golden and crisp, about 30 seconds per batch. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Season lightly with salt. Reserve oil in skillet.
Browned Butter Sauce
Add butter to oil in skillet with 1/2 tsp salt and cook until golden-brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
Cook Gnocchi
Add half of gnocchi to a pasta pot of well-salted boiling water and stir. Cook until they float to surface, about 3 minutes.
Transfer with a slotted spoon to skillet with butter sauce. Cook remaining gnocchi in same way, transferring to skillet as cooked.
Serve!
Heat gnocchi in skillet with the browned butter sauce over medium heat, stirring to coat. Serve sprinkled with fried sage and chestnuts and grated cheese.
that will either move our civilization forward a few tiny steps,
or else… begin to march us steadily backward.”
~Sir Patrick Stewart
Patrick Hewes Stewart (1940- ) was born on July 13, 1940 in Mirfield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom to Alfred, a career soldier, and Gladys, an industrial weaving worker. Patrick’s stage experience began early because Mirfield had a rich culture for such a small town of only 12,000 people. At the age of twelve, Patrick enrolled in an eight-day drama course where his love of the stage took off due to his meeting many influential professionals. Thereafter, Patrick’s participation in local dramas rose. At 15, he quit school to work as an employer who resented his dedication to the local theater. His employer gave him an ultimatum between acting and journalism. Patrick chose acting and his determination to succeed was solidified.
Patrick found work as a furniture salesman in order to save money for classes. At 17, he enrolled in the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He spent two years there both practicing acting and losing his accent. Patrick refers to this time of his life as living a “double life” because he spoke in his native Yorkshire accent with family and friends and with Received Pronunciation professionally. Mr. Stewart’s iconic baldness came to him as a teenager. An instructor warned him that his baldness would make him a young character rather than a juvenile lead but Patrick was able to convince directors that he could use a toupee and land roles as both lead and character actors. His professional stage debut came in August 1959 at the Theatre Royal, Lincoln and he played Morgan in Treasure Island. In 1966, Patrick became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and was an Associate Artist until 1984. January 1967 marked his television debut on Coronation Street as a Fire Officer. He continued to make small appearances on television shows and in movies.
In 1987, Patrick agreed to move to Hollywood due to Robert H. Justman, the producer of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Mr. Justman was planning a revival of the original series and Patrick had no knowledge of the series nor its iconic place held in American television. He reluctantly signed the standard six-year contract but was sure that he would fail and return to his London stage career shortly. As Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Patrick felt unprepared for the long production hours of television and had difficulty working with his less-disciplined castmates. Much of the success of the show is credited to Mr. Stewart due to his professionalism and dedication to acting. He better understood the cultural differences between the stage and the television and still remains very close with his fellow Star Trek actors.
Patrick was so typecast as Picard that he was unable to find other Hollywood roles easily. Fortunately, the X-Men film series is an exception. With his portrayal of Charles Xavier, Mr. Stewart was able to infiltrate the superhero film genre. He has played Professor Charles Xavier in 2000’s X-Men, 2003’s X-2, 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, and 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Stewart and his first wife, Sheila Falconer were married in 1966 and have two children together, Daniel Stewart and Sophie Alexandra. Patrick and Sheila divorced in 1990. In 1997, he became engaged to Wendy Neuss, one of the producers of Star Trek: The Next Generation and they married in August, 2000. Three years later, Wendy and Patrick divorced.
After The Next Generation began, Patrick found that he missed acting on the stage. Although he remained associated with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the lengthy filming for the show prevented him from participating in most other works. He instead began writing one-man shows that he performed in California universities and acting schools. Stewart found that one—a version of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol in which he portrayed all 40-plus characters—was ideal for him because of its limited performing schedule. In 1991, Stewart performed it on Broadway, receiving a nomination for that year’s Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show. He staged encore performances in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, and again for the benefit of survivors and victims’ families in the 11 September attacks, and a 23-day run in London’s West End in December 2005.
Patrick Stewart’s Shakespeare roles during this period included Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Othello with the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. in a race-bending performance, in a “photo negative” production of a white Othello with an otherwise all-black cast. Mr. Stewart had wanted to play the title role since the age of 14, so he and director Jude Kelly inverted the play so Othello became a comment on a white man entering a black society. He has also held Shakespeare inspired roles in Hamlet, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, and a King Lear inspired movie called King of Texas.
In 2009, Patrick appeared alongside Ian McKellen as the lead duo of Vladimir and Estragon, in Waiting for Godot. Mr. Stewart had previously only appeared once with Sir McKellen on stage, but the pair had developed a close friendship while waiting around on set filming the X-Men films.
In June of 2010, Patrick was awarded knighthood by Queen Elizabeth, II. His official title is now, Sir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE. On receiving his Knighthood: “This is an honour that embraces those actors, directors, and creative teams who have in these recent years helped fill my life with inspiration, companionship and sheer fun.”
“Having spent so much of my life with Shakespeare’s world,
passions and ideas in my head and in my mouth,
he feels like a friend -someone who just went out of the room
Man Ray: A man in love with a woman from a different era. I see a photograph! Luis Buñuel: I see a film! Gil: I see insurmountable problem! Salvador Dalí: I see rhinoceros!
~Tom Cordier as Man Ray, Adrien de Van as Luis Buñuel, Owen Wilson as Gil, and Adrien Brody as Salvador Dalí
in Midnight in Paris
Midnight in Paris is one of those movies that you will immediately fall in love with. The dialogue is witty, the music is lovely, and the scenery is beautiful!
Woody Allen both wrote and directed this cinema delight and it has been nominated for both Golden Globes and SAG Awards for 2012.
With Owen Wilson playing Gil and Rachel McAdams as the unlikable Inez, these seasoned thespians make you fall in love and in hate with their characters. The cast is sprinkled with other actors including Marion Cotillard, Adrien Brody, Kathy Bates, and Carla Bruni (France’s First Lady) who play the artistic royalty of 1920s Paris. The characters include: Cole Porter, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Salvador Dalí, Joséphine Baker, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, T.S. Eliot, Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse and more!
This movie not only made my desire to visit Paris stronger, it also inspired me to go to my local library and check-out an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, The Beautiful and the Damned. I love The Great Gatsby and so far, The Beautiful and the Damned is just as delightful! I also bought the movie soundtrack on iTunes for $9.99 because I loved the music! If you read my piece on Cole Porter, you will already know the background of this fabulous musician whose music is a central part of the movie. Check out the trailer below and the synopsis from IMDB and then watch this movie!
The successful Hollywood screenplay writer Gil Pender is spending vacation in Paris with his fiancée Inez and her parents since his future father-in-law is doing a merging business with a French company. Gil is an aspirant writer that loves Paris, and dreams on living in the city after getting married with Inez. Further, the romantic Gil believes that the golden age of Paris was in the 20’s and he loves to walk on the rain through the streets of the City of Light. When the shallow Inez meets her former boyfriend, the pseudo-intellectual Paul with his girlfriend Carol, they spend sometime together visiting touristic places. In the night, they drink wine in a party and Paul invites the couple to go dancing with Carol and him. However, Gil prefers to return walking alone to the hotel. At midnight, an old car stops and the passengers invite him to go a party and sooner he realizes that he is back to the 20’s, where he meets his favorite writers, musicians and artists and lives his dream.
***UPDATE! You can now buy these ear plugs on my Etsy site by clicking here. I will make a pair just for you!***
My most popular post is by far is the Holly Golightly Sleep Mask DIY. When I made the mask, I also made a matching pair of Holly’s darling earplugs! The trick to making them like the pair Holly has in Breakfast at Tiffany’s is to make them short. The pairs that I have found on sale online are way too long! Holly’s are short and have gold thread in them! Like I said with the Sleep Mask, since I could not find a pair I liked, I made them myself from tassel directions on Sew 4 Home. Maybe even Mr. Yunioshi would have slept better had he made these earplugs!
Materials
Tapestry needle
Cardboard
Lilac embroidery floss
Platinum embroidery floss
Ear plugs
Instructions
1. Determine the finished length of your tassel and cut a piece of cardboard that is 5″ wide x twice your determined length. For example, if you want your tassel to be 2″ from top to bottom like mine, cut a piece of cardboard that is 5″ wide x 4″ high. Fold your cardboard in half. If you are doing my measurements, the folded piece is now 5″ wide x 4″ high.
2. Cut a strand of floss about 12″. Most stands of cotton embroidery floss are actually made up of six twisted threads.This twisted set of threads makes up one strand. Insert your 12″ floss strand in between your folded cardboard. This strand will eventually become your tassel tie.
3. Wrap floss around and around the cardboard. The more you wrap, the fuller your tassel. Start with the lilac and then switch to the platinum and then back to the lilac. Wrap around the cardboard around 100 times.
4. With one hand, hold the wrapped cardboard flat against a tabletop. With the other hand, grab both ends of your tie strand and gently pull it down and out the open end of the cardboard. Once out, you can let go with your first hand and use both hands to make a knot around the floss bundle with the tie strand.
5. With your scissors, cut along the opposite, folded edge to free your tassel from the cardboard.
6. Make two to three additional knots with the tie strand to secure, adjusting your floss bundle if necessary to make sure you’re knotting as close as possible to the exact middle of the floss bundle.
7. For the wrap, cut at least a 24″ strand of floss. Fold this strand in half and thread both cut ends through the end of your upholstery needle.
8. Take your floss bundle and fold it in half at the knot. Circle your wrap strand around the bundle approximately 1⁄4″ to 1⁄2″ from the top. This section from the top to the wrap is the head, you can adjust the size to whatever you’d like, but the rule of thumb is: the thinner the tassel, the smaller the head. Pass your needle back through the strand loop and pull tight to secure.
9. Once secured, circle your wrap strand around your floss bundle as many times as needed to achieve the look you want. Again, the look is up to you, but about eight to ten wraps is a good average. When you’re finished going around and around, pass your needle back through the wrapped threads and pull tight. Trim off the excess. Trim the bottom of your tassel to shorten and even edges as needed. If you want, you can also separate and fluff each strand’s individual threads to fluff it out even more.
10. Use the tie strand to attach the tassel to the earplugs.
and then just walk for about four hours and look at the moon.”
~Rafer Johnson
Ever feel like you need to wash your hair but you don’t have time to blow dry, straighten and style? This is where dry shampoo comes in handy. I found this recipe for a DIY dry shampoo from Hookable Designs and have been using my own dry shampoo for weeks now!
Ingredients
1 tbsp of cornstarch
4 tbsp of water
1 tbsp of rubbing alcohol
spray bottle (get one with a big enough nozzle so that the cornstarch will not get clogged when you spray it)
Instructions
Mix it all together in your spray bottle and shake it up!
To Use
Spray it on your scalp, in your hair and anywhere the your hair needs to be de-greased. You do not need to drench your scalp, just dampen it up.
Run a comb or your fingers through your hair to distribute it evenly.
Let it air dry or quickly blast your scalp with a hair dryer.
Do you love crescent rolls as much as my siblings and I do? We absolutely loved having them for holiday meals when we were younger. I remember the first time I went grocery shopping for myself in college, I was so excited to be able to buy crescent rolls in the middle of September… with no holiday in sight! The “quick” part of this recipe comes from the canned crescent rolls. If you want to make a homemade version, King Arthur Flour offers a seemingly simple recipe which I will have to try in the near future. I just happened to have a can left-over from when I made the Portabella Brie Cups.
Ingredients
Crescent roll dough (canned or homemade)
Black Forest Ham
Brie cheese
Dijon mustard
Instructions
Prepare dough either from King Arthur recipe or according to the can’s directions. Lay out on an un-greased baking sheet.
Cut the ham and brie into small squares. Place on the bottom side of the dough. Add a bit of Dijon mustard to the top of the ham and Brie.
Roll the dough into the crescent roll shape by rolling the bottom up towards the tip of the triangle. Pinch together any holes to prevent the cheese from oozing out… we want to keep that all in the roll!
Bake according to the directions on the can or recipe. Serve and enjoy!
Cole Porter (1891-1964) was born June 9, 1891, in Peru, Indiana to the pharmacist Samuel Fenwick Porter and Kate Cole. Kate was raised on a 750-acre fruit ranch. Kate married Samuel in 1884 and had two children, Louis and Rachel, who both died in infancy and then had Cole. Cole’s grandfather, J.G. Cole, was a multi-millionaire who made his fortune in the coal and western timber business. Cole’s mother introduced him to the violin and the piano at an early age. Cole started riding horses at age six and began to studying piano at eight at Indiana’s Marion Conservatory. By age ten, he had begun to compose songs, and his first song was entitled “Song of the Birds”.
He attended Worcester Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1905, an elite private school from which he graduated in 1909 as class valedictorian. That summer, he toured through Europe as a graduation present from his grandfather. The next fall, he entered Yale University and became a member of the Freshman Glee Club. In 1910, he published his first song, “Bridget McGuire”. During his time at Yale, he wrote football fight songs including the “Yale Bulldog Song” and “Bingo Eli Yale,” which was introduced at a Yale dining hall dinner concert. In his senior year he was president of the University Glee club and a football cheerleader.
Mr. Porter graduated from Yale in 1913 and went on to attended Harvard Law school from 1913 to 1914 and the Harvard School of Music from 1915 to 1916. In 1917 he went to France and distributed foodstuffs to war-ravaged villages and then in April 1918 he joined the 32nd Field Artillery Regiment. During this time he met the woman who would become his wife, Linda Lee Thomas, a wealthy Kentucky divorcée, at a breakfast reception at the Ritz Hotel in Paris.
In 1919 he rented an apartment in Paris, enrolled in a school specializing in music composition and studied with Vincent D’indy. On December 18, 1919, married Linda Lee Thomas. This was a “professional” marriage, as Cole was, in fact, gay. Linda had been previously married to a newspaper publisher and was described as a beautiful woman who was one of the most celebrated hostesses in Europe. The Porters made their home on the Rue Monsieur in Paris, where their parties were renowned as long and brilliant. They hired the Monte Carlo Ballet for one of their affairs and once, on a whim, they transported all of their guests to the French Riviera.
In 1923 the Porters moved to Venice, Italy, where they lived in the Rezzonico Palace. They built an extravagant floating night club that would accommodate up to 100 guests. They conducted elaborate games including treasure hunts through the canals and arranged spectacular balls.
His ballad “Love For Sale” was introduced on December 8, 1930, in a revue that starred Jimmy Durante and was introduced by Kathryn Crawford. Walter Winchell, the newspaper columnist and radio personality, promoted the song, which was later banned by many radio stations because of its content. In 1934, his hit “Anything Goes” appeared on Broadway. During the show’s hectic rehearsal Mr. Porter once asked the stage doorman what he thought the show should be called. The doorman responded that nothing seemed to go right, with so many things being taken out and then put back in, that “Anything Goes” might be a good title. Cole liked it, and kept it.
Coe Porter wrote such classic songs as “Let’s Do It” in 1928, “You Do Something To Me” in 1929, “Love For Sale” in 1930, “What Is This Thing Called Love?” in 1929, “Night and Day” in 1932, “I Get A Kick Out Of You” in 1934, “Begin the Beguine” in 1935, “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” in 1938, “Don’t Fence Me In” in 1944, “I Love Paris” in 1953, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, In the Still of The Night”, “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To”, “True Love”, “Just One Of Those Things”, “Anything Goes”, “From This Moment On”, “You’re The Top”, “Easy to Love” and more. He also wrote the music for the film High Society in 1956, starring Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Louis Armstrong along with his band. The clip above shows Bing and Frank singing Cole’s “Well, Did You Evah?” from High Society.
On October 24, 1937, during a break from a re-write of “You Never Know”, as a guest at a countess’ home in Locust Valley, New York, Mr. Porter was badly injured in a fall while horseback-riding. Both of his legs were smashed and he suffered a severe nerve injury. He was hospitalized for two years, confined to a wheelchair for five years and endured over 30 operations to save his legs over the next 20 years. During his recuperation he wrote a number of Broadway musicals.
On August 3, 1952, his mother died of a cerebral hemorrhage. His wife, Linda, died of cancer on May 20, 1954. On April 3, 1958, he sustained his 33rd operation, and still suffering from chronic pain, his right leg was amputated. He refused to wear an artificial limb and lived as a virtual recluse in his apartment at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. He sought refuge in alcohol, sleep, self-pity and sank into despair. He even refused to attend a “Salute to Cole Porter” at the Metropolitan Opera on May 15, 1960, and the commencement exercises at Yale University in June of 1960 when he was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, or his 70th birthday party arranged by his friends at the Orpheum Theater in New York City in June 1962.
After what appeared to be a successful kidney stone operation at St. John’s hospital in Santa Monica, California, he died very unexpectedly on October 15, 1964. His funeral instructions were that he have no funeral or memorial service and he was buried adjacent to his mother and wife in Peru, Indiana. In 2004, the movie De-Lovely premiered starring Kevin Kline as Cole and Ashley Judd as Linda. In Woody Allen’s 2011 movie, Midnight in Paris, the main character Gil played by Owen Wilson loves listening to Cole Porter records. Cole Porter’s music is still relevant today and will be enjoyed by generations to come. I know my children will know many of his songs!
Ever wonder how your local barista gets those lovely little designs in the foam of your latte? Every time I see a pretty heart or rosetta in my drink, it instantly puts a smile on my face. This is called Latte Art.
David Schomer of the coffee house, Espresso Vivace, brought latte art to Seattle, Washington in the 1980s. Mr. Schomer says that the key to the beautiful designs is the development of “microfoam” by Jack Kelly of Uptown Espresso in 1986. Microfoam is the combination of creama and milk foam and its velvety texture allows for designs to be created into the espresso shot.
Oh Lovely Lolo 