. In 2010, I packed my life into 
Not typically one to be a d-bag about my Valentine’s Day, as I realize it’s unpleasant enough to be single without 78 photos of roses popping on on your news feed. But had to post this for posterity’s sake - CAKE, you guys. Y’all should have seen the surprise and delight on my face.
FYI - cake is my favorite food. And for the uninitiated: This is my favorite cake in all of Manhattan - green tea crepe cake from Lady M Confections! (Testament from a girl who eats a LOT of cake.)
I only wish I weren’t completely congested so I could taste it more. :(
I love what RueLaLa did with their sign-in page today.
Prosciutto wrapped scallops and scallops with mushroom in white wine sauce
Today was one of those days I woke up to snow falling outside and was simply unable to motivate myself to do anything at all but lay on the sofa watching Breaking Bad. (Which, by the way, is almost as addictive as it is disturbing.)
The roomies and I had planned on getting dinner together tonight, but I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather this weekend (I feel like I’ve been writing that on my blog every other month - germy New York will do that to even the healthiest girl!). Rahul got stuck at the office, too, so Bobby and I decided to traipse on over to Whole Foods to pick up some groceries.
Cooking together is one of my favorite things about living at the Superlounge- I’ve lived with a lot of different people over the years, but my current roommates are the first who truly appreciate food the way I do. Without them my cooking ambition extends as far as: throw shit into a wok and hope for the best. With their motivation I’m OK with a little more experimenting. Even with some major modifications the recipes below still turned out incredibly.
Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus (via AllRecipes)
Ingredients
1/2 pound prosciutto, sliced 1/2 (8 ounce)
package Neufchatel cheese (we used thinly sliced Grafton cheddar that we had in the fridge)
softened 12 spears fresh asparagus, trimmed
Directions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
- Spread prosciutto slices with Neufchatel cheese.
- Wrap slices around 2 or 3 asparagus spears.
- Arrange wrapped spears in a single layer on a medium baking sheet.
- Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until asparagus is tender.
Scallops with Mushrooms in White Wine Sauce (via Epicurious)
Ingredients
1/4 cup coarse fresh bread crumbs from a baguette
1/4 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (1/2 ounce)
1 1/4 cups dry white wine
1 cup water
1/2 small onion, sliced
1/2 Turkish or 1/4 California bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 lb sea scallops, tough muscle removed from side of each if necessary and scallops cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1/2 lb small mushrooms, halved lengthwise, then thinly sliced lengthwise
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
8 cups kosher salt to stabilize scallop shells (if using)
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
Special equipment: 16 (2 1/2-inch) scallop shells* or 8 (2-oz) ramekins
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Toast bread crumbs on a baking sheet in middle of oven until pale golden, 6 to 8 minutes, then toss with cheese.
- Simmer wine, water, onion, bay leaf, salt, and pepper in a 2 1/2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan, uncovered, 5 minutes, then add scallops and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until just cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer scallops to a platter with a slotted spoon to cool, returning any onions to pan, then boil cooking liquid until reduced to about 1 cup, 8 to 10 minutes. Pour cooking liquid through a sieve into a bowl.
- Cook mushrooms in 2 tablespoons butter in a 10- to 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until most of liquid mushrooms give off is evaporated, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
- Whisk together cream and yolk in a heatproof bowl. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in cleaned 2 1/2- to 3-quart saucepan over moderately low heat, then add flour and cook roux, whisking, 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat and add reduced cooking liquid in a stream, whisking constantly. Return pan to heat and simmer, whisking, 1 minute. Pour sauce in a slow stream into cream mixture, whisking constantly, then pour sauce back into pan and simmer, whisking, 1 minute. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.
- Preheat broiler.
- Stir scallops and mushrooms into sauce, then divide among scallop shells or ramekins and sprinkle with bread crumb mixture. If using shells, spread kosher salt evenly in a large shallow baking pan, then nestle shells in salt. Dot scallops with remaining 2 tablespoons butter, then broil about 4 inches from heat until golden, about 2 minutes.
- Sprinkle with parsley.
paradise on call
Last weekend: sunshine and celebrations in Hollywood Hills.
#alwaysbestudying
- (at halftime)
- Lisa Salters: What do you want to do better?
- Jeremy Lin: Hit Tyson Chandler with better passes. I'm going to go watch film.
- Lisa Salters: Right now?
- Jeremy Lin: Yeah, right now.
Linsanity Friday
Jeremy Lin - capturing hearts on Saturday night. Incredible.
Grabbed brunch yesterday at Tart with some of my favorite ladies-I-met-on-the-internet, Violet and Elaine. I ordered the California scramble (of course - any excuse to eat something with beautiful Californian avocado in it, I will take).
That’s two meals in one weekend in the great outdoors. LA friends, y’all don’t even know how good you have it.
Tart
115 Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
tartrestaurant.com
First meal of our weekend in LA: Prosciutto panini and Japanese green tea latte at Urth Cafe.
This weather is doing wonders for me - I miss getting my vitamin D on!
My Serena & Lily duvet cover is on sale on RueLaLa, my favorite sample site, today - along with a bunch of other pretty bedding, including W Hotel sheets. My friend has them and they are GODLY… I’ve “accidentally” taken naps on his bed on more than one occasion. Click through for invite. You get $10 credit if you shop by 2/14! Gogogo.
(Much to my chagrin, my room is not this lovely.)
Casey’s DIY Chalkboard Tree Wall
If you’ve been following the adventures of the Superlounge for the past year, you’ll remember that in April of last year, we painted our kitchen wall with chalkboard paint.
In the fall, my friend Casey stayed with us for a weekend visit to NYC. Inspired by our chalkboard wall, Casey - who is a homeowner in San Jose (of all my friends, he is most passably a real adult) - decided to paint a chalkboard wall in his own kitchen. I have yet to see it in person but he recently uploaded a photo of it to Facebook, and I’ll admit he has totally outdone ours. Since I never got around to writing my DIY chalkboard wall post, I asked Casey if he could share the details of painting his. In his words:
I was looking for ways to decorate my place to give it more of a homey feel, but didn’t want it to look like a cluttered college apartment with random posters and objects. One area that needed some personality was my kitchen - since all the walls were white. The back wall looked like a place where I could hang a picture or make it a colored accent wall.
A friend of mine suggested putting up one of those tree sticker decals you find at places like Urban Outfitters.
Procrastination got the best of me so I never got around to doing anything with it. Fast forward to October, where I had the pleasure of staying at the Superlounge while traveling to New York City for the first time. In their kitchen was a large wall that had been turned into a black chalkboard using a special paint. Who would’ve thought that there’s such a thing as chalkboard paint! Genius! There was a bunch of stuff written all over their wall, ranging from thankful messages from party guests to house rules. I loved it!
(I would’ve preferred something like this on my wall, but obviously painting this or commissioning someone to do so would be way too difficult.)
So came the idea of combining the original tree wall design with a chalkboard. I didn’t trust myself to have the artistic capacity to free-hand anything, so I took the tree shapes from a Googled image.
Step 1: Drawing the design on the wall.
Step 2: Sand and prime. All the reviews on Amazon recommended smoothing out the surface you plan on painting so the end result will be easier to write on with chalk. My walls have a very hard and heavy texture, so sanding it smooth would’ve been a bitch and a half. The only solution was to skim coat it using wall joint compound, and then sand that afterwards. I left the tree areas the original wall color and texture.
Step 3: Paint! Apply the chalkboard paint to the finished smooth areas. I used Rust-Oleum chalkboard paint, which you can get on Amazon for $15.
The finished product.
Have you painted a chalkboard wall before? I’d love to see what yours looks like! If you’re looking to do something similar and have questions for Casey, let me know.
