"I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive."
 - Henry Miller

Saturday Happy Song: Robert Plant- Heaven knows

I haven't posted a video in so long, and this one makes me happy. It's Robert Plant and as we all know, I love him. I am actually bordering on obsessed...but we won't talk about that right now. Let's just enjoy that it's Saturday, and Robert is singing, just for you.

Friday Favorites

Yay! It's Friday! How's it been? It's also after 5pm here on the west coast, so I'm sure many people are out enjoying happy hour and the start of a three day weekend, AND the unofficial start to SUMMER! Hooorrray!

So, what have I been looking, laughing and wondering at this week?

♥ I am not really a follower of Oprah, but once in a while her site provides insight. 5 Things Happy People Do is a very inspiring read, give your life a little thought.

♥ This Shirt!

♥ 25 Horribly Sexist Vintage Ads left me, laughing, speechless, and blown away all at the same time. Some of these are just...amazingly bad. How do you douche with Lysol and not die?! Well, this woman did it for years and lived to at least 89 to tell the tale! Wow!

♥  Sunday is the 10th Annual Masturbate-A-Thon, don't forget to love yourself a little, it's...therapeutic. ;)

♥ Have you ever thought about the random people you come in contact with every day? This amazing perspective, articulated by Sarah Wilson will give you pause if you haven't. I hadn't, in fact it amazed me how much I completely ignore all the people I come in contact with everyday. This really made me think!

♥ Stephan shared these amazing, creepy, beautiful dolls with me, now I shre with you. I love, love dolls. I used to makeover dolls myself but none so amazing as these!

♥ Think about your routines, all the things that make up your days, week, months. (I've been thinking a lot about my life lately, can you tell? Haha!)

♥ I'm a little late on this one, since we are at the end of May already. But, May was National Photography month. Punk Turns 30 had a great write up on it. She also has some wonderful photos of punk musicians during the 1970's and 1980's. I am working on my own photography more seriously these days, as well as going back and organizing my fathers photographs. It was going to be a book. That has become a bit too overwhelming for me...I have a lot of projects on my plate currently. So instead I am gonna blog it. So here for the first time ever I present to you...my father's Edgar Winter! :

There will be more as I get them cleaned and organized. It's been kinda...daunting. Lots of people have asked about them, and I gotta get some of it out there. So, Now I've started. Enjoy!
Till next time, have a great weekend!
-Syd

Maple Walnut Chocolate Cake and Marshmallow Creatures

This cake is gone, long, long gone. I meant to post the pictures and recipe that long, long ago...but, there are a lot of things that I mean to do, and some days life gets in the way. Anyhow, this cake rocked my world. Seriously.

This was a great chocolate cake for two recipe from eHow. It made a really moist, chocolaty 8X8" cake that lasted...2 days. To be honest, it wasn't as good the next day, I mean, it wasn't BAD. It had dried out a little, but I still thought it was better fresh. I topped it with a quick maple frosting and sprinkled it with toasted walnuts. YUM! It was sooooo good! (Recipe below)
I have baked a lot lately, aaaaaannnd it looks like none of it gets posted. Mostly because I bake late at night, due to munchies, and it all gets eaten up or given away too quick. I have followed food blogs and drooled over food photography for quite some time now, in fact all I have made sure to do since we moved into a bigger apartment back in September is make sure that I cook a lot. We have had two parties in which we made sure that all the food was homemade and delicious (although I have to make a lot more food a head of time or not drink so much cause I feel like food runs out mid-party) yet, none of it gets posted here! I am too busy eating all of this amazing food! So, once a week or so I'll force myself to stop inhaling whatever weird creation came out of my kitchen and take a damn picture. I have to warn you though, it may lead to strange stuff like this:

My dad brought me Peeps and non-Peep pink marshmallow bunnies two weeks ago! In crazy bright colors! And I made them do all kinds of odd crap in my kitchen, then I ate them. Yes,  I know,  sorry to The Man who pointed out that it was a month after easter and my dad gets all manner of odd stuff from some...strange individuals. So, don't eat them ok? Because you don't know where they came from. Oops. I only ate the Peeps. The bunnies are still in the kitchen cause they were not all hard dried out marshmellow like the peeps. Like what you would expect from month old easter candy. No then bunnies were still really soft pillow like. I was amazed. So mushy. AND they smelled very strongly of artificial vanilla flavoring. Overpoweringly strong.
I just went into the kitchen to feel the bunnies and they are just now approaching Peep firmness. Of a fresh peep, not a stale one. Yes, these were mushier than Peeps when I opened them, weird. They still smell like the artificial Vanilla, but not as much.
More crazy pictures, cause making marshmallow creatures do dirty stuff is fun!

Bunny Buttsex!

Bunny Daisy Chain!

Bunny 69! (this one was a little dark huh?...working on my food photography skills along with everything else...)

♥ Chocolate Maple Walnut Cake for Two ♥ :
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Assemble ingredients: 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup hot water, 1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 beaten egg, 1/4 cup melted butter. Stir until thoroughly mixed.
Combine all ingredients, mixing well after each addition. Do not beat, just stir until thoroughly mixed.
Pour into a greased square 8" baking pan. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until cake tests done with a toothpick inserted in the middle.
Cool completely on a wire rack. Put 1/2 cup or so of confectioner's sugar into a small wire strainer, and dust over the top of the cake,cut into squares and serve.
Frosting: 


1/2 Stick salted sweet cream butter
1/2 Box Powdered Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 Teaspoon Pure Maple Sirup
1 Cup Toasted Walnuts


Beat all together till fluffy. Spread on cake, sprinkle with Toasted Walnuts. 


Cake: eHow Frosting: My own concoction. 

Chocolate sticks

A couple of weeks ago The Man and I were coming back from Hollywood on a rather frustrating night and stopped to get gas. I decided I needed chocolate and headed inside. To my surprise I discovered this gas station (somewhere near Santa Monica and La Cienega) carried Fling! I love Fling! I had meant to write about it months ago when I first had one (all completely unsolicited by the way. Fling, or it creator Mars has never sent me anything or asked my opinion on their product. I just have to tell you about random crap like the different types of sugar I consume in ever growing quantities.) , but then I ate it before I could take pictures, then that happened again the next time I bought one, then I gave up figuring I was a gluttonous slave to chocolate and forgot all about the whole thing.

Enter gas station with Fling bar.

Looking over the shelves I noticed the 3 Musketeers Truffle Crisp Bar, it looked like the same thing. I had to get both, damnit and compare them. Since I was feeling lazy and there was no way I was gonna work on taking decent photos I also had to buy chocolate that I could eat then, it was a peanut butter Twix, had them before, love them, highly recommended (told you I was a glutton).

Fling is really good, and really...girly. That was what I first noticed, it looks, girly. It's got cute bright pink packaging, it's slender and shiny, and at 85 calories a stick it's supposed to let you indulge in chocolate while keeping you...slender and shiny. Flings has a creamy chocolate truffle layer on top of a "subtle crisp layer" (no one explains what this crisp layer is,  but it tastes like chalky Violet Crumble. It's sweet and has a great snap to it but it's not real clear what it's made of), then the whole thing is covered in chocolate and the best part? It's covered in rose colored Luster Dust! It's so, cute!

                                           (^^^Fling ^^^ can you see the shimmer? it was kinda hard to capture on film)
The 3 Musketeers Truffle Crisp Bar is almost EXACTLY the same, same calories, same truffle layer on top of mysterious "crisp layer", covered in chocolate, made by the SAME COMPANY! But, not cute shimmery luster dust. Oh well. So, how does it taste?

Side by side, the 3 Musketeers is WAY better!
The Fling had a better snap to it, firmer truffle layer, was a little wider and flatter, and had that great shimmer. But, it was...Fake. It tasted, stale. And in it's defense maybe it was...but...3 Musketeers was creamier, a little more slender of a bar but thicker, softer truffle that melted in your mouth. I missed the crisper snap of the Fling but, 3 Musketeers tasted so much fresher. I like the cute packaging of Fling, but I don't really require a gender specific candy bar. I will definitely buy the 3 Musketeers again. Have you tried either? What did you think?

A Great Adventure

One way to get the most out of life is

to look upon it as an adventure.

~William Feather

Short life update, Grilled Cheese love, That One Guy

Hello!

Happy...Wednesday. If I had a 9 to 5 job anymore this would be monumental 'cause it would mean it was Hump Day, or that the week was half through. As far as work goes it's Monday for me, I just got another reel of transcribing from Laurel Canyon Productions. Yay! This one may end up paying less, it's shorter. But whatever, it's money.

The Man is doing his part on it now, I work on the second half so it'll be a couple of hours before I can start. Which is fine, it's been a pretty blah day for me. I don't like this day. This fifth of May, this Cinco de Mayo, this Battle of Pueblo celebration day. Blah on that. Blah on you. But, it's better than it has been, best attitude in years actually. I thought about going downtown to Olivera Street and watching the parade, the aztec dancers, drink the margaritas. But, I don't have the energy, and I should go see my father. This is my mother's Death Day and my father should not be all alone. In six years he has only gotten crazier and, shouldn't be all alone. So we'll go to dinner later or something, I have to go find my younger sister and that's a whole other matter which may require hours of tracking I don't feel like doing right now.

SO!

Let's talk about happier stuff that happened earlier this week and of course last week cause I didn't recap about The Grilled Cheese Invitational and all it's rad-ness.

First I am gonna wind back to January, when I didn't have a computer and was doing all my blog posting (and blog reading, and other goofing off cause I had nothing better to do) from that amazingly boring temp job in Hollywood. So, I couldn't upload photos and I wanted to show you a few pretty cool ones of That One Guy. Mostly cause I need the ego boost today, but also cause I had a mild freak out last week (2 weeks ago? Fuck the old brain is starting to go...damn weed.) about my photography...and had a fit. I have since regretted said fit and am trying to convince myself again that I am capable of making a living as a photographer.

I have been pretty lazy about my own photographs since the computer died in Jan. and haven't water marked or edited at all really, these are straight out of camera...but I like them. So, there.

Also, our apartment building almost burned down when one of the microwaves upstairs caught fire, and I went to the beach with Jillian and we took pictures. Fun!

I have lots to upload, but I wanna talk grilled cheese before I forget all the damn details since I am such a procrastinator.

We had such a blast! I competed in the Karma Sutra category, but completely forgot to take a picture of my sandwich! Duh!

This year was Jim's Garden Dream, a name I made up at the last minute. I entered at the last minute cause I never got an email telling me registration was open...So without ample time to consider my endless choices I went with a sandwich my father used to make in my youth. Rye bread, sharp cheddar, tomato, onion, and DILL pickle relish and butter. YUM! It's SO freaking good. It's this weird tangy, sour, creamy taste. The rye, sharp cheddar and dill all play off each other so well, it's tangy from each one, then smooth from the cheese and sweet from the tomato. My dad's original had mustard (EW! GROSS!) and margarine, but I try not to use margarine very often cause...well, it's plastic.

There are 3 categories, Missionary (bread cheese and butter), Karma Sutra(bread, 60% cheese any other ingredients [meat, veggies, fruit, whatever] and butter) and Honey Pot (bread, cheese, any other ingredients and butter, but sweet, for desert.

I was in the middle of people with serious edge, and I had no gimmick. So I didn't win anything, and I didn't really try. I liked my sandwich, I was going to have fun, and all of that came together so beautifully.

The guy behind me was a professional chef at the Allston Yacht Club, which is on Echo Park Ave and no where near anyplace you should park a Yacht.

His sandwich was Guinness braised short ribs with horseradish mousse, grilled onions and melted feta cheese. The Man was floored.

The girls beside me were not pros I don't think, but they did make their whole grain raisin breadthemselves. With peppers that they grew at home too. Annnnnd...that's all I know about that one since they weren't very friendly with other competitors before grilling, which is fine, I just didn't get a picture or a taste.

Porkgasem had bacon, onion and cheese, these girls rocked! They were so happy to be there!

Some of the Honey Pot competitors:

Go Lakers had peanut butter, banana, mascarpone cheese, butter; and then they rolled it in cinnamon sugar. OH MY GOD! YUMMY!

Fudge You was also amazing:

Chocolate Bread (yes, I said CHOCOLATE BREAD!), a slab of homemade fudge and guerre cheese. This was surprising, the cheese was creamy, the fudge was very creamy (almost fluffy too, like thick frosting), then the salty was brought out of the cheese with all this sweet.

It was really, interesting. I was only disappointed by the chocolate bread, which was overpowered and had little flavor.

This one won best in show and best Honey Pot category:

I took this picture of a sample the lady next to us got though, she held it up for me. So, I didn't actually sample the sandwich, but I heard it was lovely. The winners look happy right?

Yay for Grilled Cheese!

I could have sworn this was Gala Darling:

I thought I knew this girl, but was so tired I didn't feel like trying to explain if it turned out I didn't know her (I know, I'm lame) so I didn't go say hi. Instead like the weirdo I am I took her picture to ask a mutual friend later...it was her!

Opera singer Rachel Staples! Hi Rachel!

More grilled cheese loving rock-tacular people:

Me, with beer:

Mmmmmmm.....Beeer.

We also ran into The Man's friend/cousin in law Scott and his lovely wife Julia. Yay for pictures taken by others drinking in beer gardens! Beer gardens rock! (Actually, on a side note I was disappointed the first time I entered one cause there was little actual garden part. Silly me, I thought we were going to drink beer in a grass and plant filled place.)

I then dragged myself to the car and dragged myself home where I fell asleep by 7:30pm.