Friday!

Today is Friday and I can't wait for the weekend!

Also, a big Happy Birthday to my best friend in the world! I wish I could be celebrating your birthday with you in SF but I'll be sending lots of good wishes your way from LA!

Elderflower Soda

Last week when we had out of town visitors we went to the Galco's the soda pop store. Its a store dedicated in its entirety to soda and old fashioned candy (and a little bit of boozey). I've been there a bunch of times but its always fun to go and pick up a few new flavors. I tried the Elderflower Soda because recently I've discovered I'm a huge fan of St. Germain which is made from the elderflower.

via. exp. realm:wurstkuche

Here's a great little music video that Greg Laswell filmed in Galco's. At the 1:10 mark you can see the owner walk by in his apron!



Last night I cracked open the Elderflower and thoroughly enjoyed it!

The Addam's Family

With Halloween only a month or so away all fun things of fall are showing up again - pumpkin lattes, fall leaves, pumpkins, and fun movies such as the Addam's Family! Who doesn't love little Christina Ricci who was in that movie at 11!

I need to dig out my Halloween Movie collection today - Sleepy Hollow, Edward Scissorhands, The Addam's Family and I'm sure there're more! Any suggestions?

How fun is this fashion based off the Addam's family movies?


How sexy is Morticia! I love her eye makeup and long red nails.
*All photo's via weheartit.com

Vanilla, Pear and Fig Jam

I had one last batch of fresh figs to use so I made another batch of jam. I walked around the grocery store with a bunch of different types of fruit but nothing caught my eye until I saw the crimson red pears and knew they were meant to be together.



My recipe was basically the same as the one for my rhubarb and fig jam except I had only 13 cups of fruit rather than the 16 cups I had before. I just followed the directions loosely again from pomona pectin and when the jam was almost done I added to big gluggs of vanilla to the pot and stirred. I tasted a couple of times to see what level of vanilla I wanted. Not to perfumey but enough to add another layer to the flavor.

My favorite way to eat this is over some vanilla bean ice cream. Yum.

Rhubarb and Fig Jam

The saga of the never ending figs continues......I had another big batch to use and rather than make a cake that would disappear in a day I made jam that would disappear in a day! I realized how much I love to cook as I stirred the moltenous pot (see injury picture below)of fig and rhubarb until it was just a goey sticky lava. I then stretched my design skills and made pretty kraft paper labels to go on top of the jars.


I made 2 big jars of jam - one for us and one for my boss who has been supplying me with the figs.


There was something so satisfying as stacking up all my labeled jars and looking at them.


But it wasn't all glitz and glam. A blob of jam lept out of the pot and landed on my skin leaving me with a nasty jam burn that coincidentally looks like an exclamation mark!

My recipe was based off this website and I used this pectin (which is sold at my whole foods). I have another batch of figs and trying to decide what to do with those!

Laguiole Knives

An oldie but a goodie! I'm crushing hard on these Laguiole knives. One of our favorite french restaurants has a giant stock in these knives. I've had everything from the pearl, stainless steel and neon. J'adore Laguiole!