feeling lucky?

it's friday and it's been a long week - so my apologies if all i point out this morning is the little fact that the mega millions lottery jackpot tonight is over $540 million dollars, an all time record high. 
that's it, that's all i really wanted to share this foggy friday morning - that and the fact that the odds of winning are 1 in 176 million. 
have a mega lucky winning weekend. 

beautiful buildings

travel + leisure magazine published their list of the world's most beautiful buildings last month and though i disagree with some of the choices on the list, i would love nothing more that to get up close and personal to all 23 buildings and judge for myself - 23 buildings in 23 years - a girl can dream!

*photos courtesy of travel + leisure

spring reading

not exactly light, easy breezy spring reading material, but these are the three books on the top of my want to read list for the coming months... first up, anthony shahid's house of stone.

'behind the beautiful forevers' nytimes reveiw

'righteous mind' nytimes review

'house of stone' nytimes reveiw

1 year!

about 370 days ago i sat down and decided to jump in and give this blog world a go. i've been swimming with the warm tide ever since - an amazing, eye opening, rewarding, sometimes frustrating but always fascinating year here at ynotj. 290 posts and over 5000 visitors with so much more to show and tell and discover. thank you for continuing this little journey with me in my little corner of the world wide interworld. cheers!

make your own music monday

thanks to incredibox, you can now become the conductor of your own group of human beatboxes - a lighthearted way to start off a chilly monday morning or the perfect way to keep your cranky kids content.

salt water

i whole heartedly agree with this line by isak dinesen (who herself deserves her very own blog entry)!

have a drenchingly delightful weekend!

 print by tina crespo.

24/7 eggs

if you love eggs as much as i do then you will no doubt appreciate and agree with what mark bittman has to say in this new york times article.  i'm scrambling as i type. 

wild blueberry scones

i woke up craving fresh bakes goods this morning and because the sun is out and the birds were chirping (and because i felt healthy and deserving after a light salad dinner last night),  i decided to indulge and bake home made blueberry scones for myself.  this recipe is from one of my all time favorite cookbooks - alice waters' the art of simple food and is amazingly quick and easy. you can add any dried fruit, zest or nuts instead of the dried wild blueberries i used and believe me, they tasted far better than my sub-par phone photo depicts! 


ingredients
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup dried blueberries 
1 1/3 cups cream
2 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp raw sugar
directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a large bowl, combine the first 5 ingredients.
Stir the cream into the dry ingredients until the dough just starts to come together. The dough will be sticky.
Turn the sticky dough out onto a floured surface and knead just enough to bring the dough together completely. Pat it into an 8-inch circle.
Cut the circle into 8 wedges and place the wedges 1 inch apart on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Brush the dough with the melted butter and sprinkle with the raw sugar.
Bake for approximately 17 minutes, until golden brown.

gonna party like its 1391

happy norouz and 'eydeh shomah mobarak' to all my beautiful persian peeps. hope all of you who rang in the new year last night, found yourself with loved ones around a beautiful haft-seen eating some delicious sabzi polo with mahee. 

music monday - the joshua tree

u2's the joshua tree turned 25 last week. i remember vividly going to the record store after school the week it was released, paying $12.99 for the lp and listening to the album over and over again for weeks. running to stand still became one of my personal brooding teenage years anthems and my favorite song on my favorite u2 album. 
stereogun wrote a great anniversary review of the album last week. 

family recipes

grab all your old collected family recipes, upload your best digital food photos (i have to work on mine) and make your very own cookbook. if you're having trouble coming up with the right delicious words to help pull everything into place, then have no fear, contact a cookbook ghostwriter, which according to this new york times article, all celebrity chefs do these days - and i thought gwyneth wrote her cookbook all by herself!
have a home cooked family feast of a weekend!

marni at h&m

marni launched a collection for h&m last week and almost everything sold out within 24 hours. i must have been under a rock somewhere because i was completely clueless to the whole launch and missed all the hoopla. i'm not sure i would have camped out all night, but i definitely would have attempted to claw my way through the crowds for a chance to get my grabby hands on a delicious dress, bag or shoe. regardless, some of the items in the collection look absolutely lovely and are already being sold on ebay with a 100% markup. 

fallaci

yesterday, i came across an article about an adrenaline junky and offence-playing interviewer and journalist who unsettled men of power with her words and not her legs, mostly. oriana fallaci.
her last years seem to have been tainted with bitter racism and xenophobia, but look at her being the only woman interviewing khomeini in 1979 and taking off her chador in front of him. look at her going to dozens of war zones and recording so much history. look at her asking the last shah of iran: “if i were an iranian… and criticised you, would you throw me in jail?” and him replying, “probably.” 
i remember attempting to read her book 'inshallah' about 15 years ago, and not quite getting it, not understanding what all the fuss was about.  perhaps it's time to give her words another go.  perhaps. 

ichef

the industry-standard textbook for aspiring cooks is now available as a beautiful ipad app. i don't have an ipad and i'm far from being an aspiring chef, but i still would love to have access to the 850 recipes and and over 1000 video instructions, not to mention all the useful food info and techniques.

music monday - i burn for you

the documentary bring on the night featured the best music mr. sumner released after leaving the police -  with the possible exception of the first 6 songs on nothing like the sun. he should have rode off into the sunset after that, started charities or gone back to teaching english, this time at oxford...you know, finished at the top - not slowly yoga his way downhill...

nowness

i am a big fan of most of the videos posted daily on nowness. a new short video is featured everyday, previewing and showcasing the latest in food, fashion, film, travel, design and music. wednesday's  video was about marjane satrapi, whose fantastic graphic novel series, persepolis, sits on my bookshelf, front row center. 
and just on a side note, my stomach has been begging to watch today's video again and again all morning (and demands to be taken out for a sushi dinner pronto)!. 
have a brilliant and perfectly delicious weekend. 

almond cake

it turned windy and chilly here a couple of days ago and i wanted to do nothing more than fill my apartment with the smell of freshly baked cake (what is it about chilly weather that makes me want to bake)? i was craving something sweet and buttery but not too heavy. 
alice waters to the rescue. i found this easy recipe in her the art of simple food cookbook and after a quick trip to the market for some almond paste, made a delicious, buttery almond cake. 
with some imported sicilian orange marmalade, it was the perfect breakfast, afternoon pick-me-up and midnight snack. 
Ingredients
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
7 ounces almond paste
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 pound plus 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 eggs, room temperature

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325°F (160°C).
2. Butter a 9-by-3-inch cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Butter the paper and dust the pan with flour, shaking out the excess.
3. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
4. Stir together the almond paste and sugar until the almond paste is in very small pieces. Or, more easily, pulverize together in a food processor or stand mixer.
5. By hand or in a stand mixer, beat the unsalted butter until lightened. Add the almond-paste-and-sugar mixture to the butter and cream together until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract. Beat the eggs into the butter mixture one at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl repeatedly to ensure that all the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.
6. Gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.
7. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool.
8. Turn the cake out of the pan and remove the parchment paper. Serve the cake plain or with sliced fruit and whipped cream.

party for 1

some days are just meant to be forgotten - washed down with small lovely cozy yummy treats and thoughts and things that make it all feel warmer, tastier and better.
a pity party pit stop on your way to the brighter coming days ever...
cozy clothing - check
coffee ice cream - check
favorite movie - check check

image courtesy of wit & delight

snow circles

simon beck walks all day to create snow art.
and i thought snow angels were tricky! the giant snow shoe made patterns are absolutely beautiful!

music monday - and i say

this song came on the radio while i was driving home last night - a perfect warm california evening and driving with all the windows down tune...

jiro dreams of sushi

i remember drooling and craving and wanting nothing more than to eat at this sushi master's sushi bar when i first saw this no reservation's episode a couple of years ago

and now, still craving a sushi feasting journey to japan, i can not wait to see this new documentary 

have a mouth watering and perfectly delicious weekend.

kiwano

the day before i left brazil, we walked into a hortifruti market, the best local spot to ogle the vast array of brazilian tropical fruits. it was my personal version of feeling like a kid in a candy store. 
here is the little spiny fruit i picked up, a kiwano mellon, which tasted like a kiwi combined with a cucumber. tasty, but won't be quite replacing my fragrant maracuja just yet.