Favorite Thing #3: Dinner Parties

As stated on one of my favorite blogs, "Stuff White People Like" (check it out, its hilarious), white people love dinner parties. Dinner parties provide excellent opportunity to:




1: Show how much of a better dresser you are than your friends. You will receive numerous compliments on how nice you look. In addition, by putting on a dress or a fancy bow tie and jacket - you are telling the host that their little get together was important to you. Hosts always appreciate this behavior


2: Impress people by cooking something simple, yet making it taste hard. Desserts are a good way to show your cooking prowess without going through a lot of effort. Try making molten lava cakes. From start to finish, they take 20 minutes, but your guests will think you are a master pastry chef. You can then tell them "its nothing" but secretly take pleasure in all of their compliments. I personally like Giada De Laurentis's recipe the best:


1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted softened butter, plus extra for buttering molds
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder
4 large eggs
4 large egg yolks
2/3 cup granulated sugar
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting molds
3 tablespoons Frangelico or hazelnut liquer
1 cup fresh raspberries
1 cup fresh strawberries
Fresh mint, for garnish

Butter and lightly flour 6 (6-ounce) ramekins. Tap out any excess flour.
In a small saucepan, bring to a boil 2 inches of water. In a large glass bowl, add butter, chocolate and espresso powder. Lower heat and place bowl over the simmering water. Slowly whisk mixture until the chocolate is almost completely melted. Remove bowl from heat and continue to whisk until all chocolate has melted. Allow to cool slightly.
In a large bowl, add eggs, yolks, and sugar. Using an electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy and pale in color. Reduce speed to medium-low and slowly pour in the chocolate mixture. Add the flour and mix until just combined. Do not overwork the batter. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Divide the batter between the molds. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place chocolate molds onto baking sheet and place in oven for 7 minutes. If not baking immediately, cover chocolate molds with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve, up to 8 hours. When ready to bake, place refrigerated chocolate molds onto baking sheet and place in oven for 10 minutes. The top and sides should be cooked and dry and the inside will be runny.
Using oven mitts, carefully invert each mold onto a plate and let it sit for 10 seconds. Then lift 1 corner of the ramekin and the cake should slip out. Sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon Frangelico over each cake. Spoon berries around the chocolate cake and garnish with mint. Serve warm.

3: Show off your taste in wine by bringing something not too common. Its best to bring something that you alone have tasted so you can feel special when other people delight in your choice. Alternatly, bring a wine that may not be too common. Perhaps something you used to drink at a restaurant you worked at, or a wine you tasted at a wine tasting. You must also take pictures of you and your guests enjoying wine because it makes you look classy and grown up.

4: Finally, you must make sure you play games (guitar hero always works) and come up with enough inside jokes that people who were not invited feel left out of all the fun, and people who were invited feel special for being in on all the fun. It helps if you can document your fun for posterity, and also if your inside jokes can be long running jokes that span several weeks/months time.

Favorite Thing #2: Le Petit Prince

I first read Le Petit Prince, a children's novella by French aviator turned author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in high school French class. It was love at first read. Though technically billed as a children's book, the theme behind the book is distinctly adult. Le Petit Prince tells the story of a downed air pilot in the Sahara who comes across a strange little boy from a far away planet, B612 where he spent his days taking care of a rose that he comes to love very much. He leaves his planet and travels to different planets to see what the rest of the universe is like. Through the stories that the little prince tells about his travels and the people he has come across, Saint-Exupéry reveals the mistakes that adults often make and the things that they forget after they cease being a child. My favorite line of the story (so much so that I now have it permenantly etched on my back for all time) is "On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." Roughly translated it says : One can not see well except with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes. What makes the book even better to read are the little illustrations and drawings by Saint-Exupéry himself throughout the book. Don't worry if you don't speak French, the book has been translated into more than 180 languages, and to date is the 3rd on the worlwide most published book list, behind the Bible and Gone with the Wind. Give it a read. It won't take to long, and you just might love it as much as me!

Favorite Thing #1: Mika

As you may or may not know, Queen is probably one of my all-time favorite artists. So, when my sister told me "you have to listen to this guy Mika. He sounds just like Freddie Mercury", I was a little sceptical. How could anyone sound like Freddie and not be just a hack. So, I did a little research and found he was described as "Freddie Mercury meets the Scissor Sisters meets David Bowie." Anyone who knows me knows that while I may love Queen, I absolutely HEART Bowie. I gave Mika a shot and I was not disappointed. His song "Grace Kelley" is such an exuberant, head bopping song that I could listen to it on repeat a million times and the kitschy lyrics of "Big Girl (You are Beautiful)" and "Lollipop" get me smiling every time. And if his songs are good, his videos are even better. I first saw a Mika video for "Grace Kelly" in Greece last year (Europeans and South Africans are obsessed with him) and I laughed the whole time. But the best video (and song for that matter) by far has to be "Big Girls". Check it out and hopefully you too will become a Mika fan.

Hello!

Since all the cool people I know have blogs, I decided that to be cool , I must too have a blog. I've decided that the theme of my blog should be my favorite things. Since I am not very creative, I'm hoping to come up with a favorite thing every week.