Tasty Tuesdays-Let them eat Cake!

Tonight I was feeling a bit ambitious so I decided to make Raspberry - Almond Cake. Thanks to Alissa at 33 Shades of Green, I can tell you all how to make it too.

Here's what you need:



2 Tbsp chopped almonds
2 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1/4 Tsp cinnamon
2 cups low fat all-purpose baking mix (such as Bisquick)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup plain fat-free yogurt
1/4 cup fat-free egg substitute
3 Tbsp light stick butter, melted
1/4 Tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
Raspberry sauce (optional)

1. Preheat over to 400 degrees F. Wrap bottom of 10-inch springform pan with foil: attach springform ring. Spray foil and sides of springform pan with nonstick spray. 2. Mix almonds, brown sugar, and cinnamon in small bowl. 3. Combine baking mix and granulated sugar in large bowl. Whisk milk, yogurt, egg substitute, melted butter, and almost extract in small bowl until blended. Add milk mixture to baking-mix mixture; stir just until blended. 4. With rubber spatula, gently fold in raspberries just until blended. Pour batter into springform pan; sprinkle top evenly with nut mixture. 5. Bake until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cool in pan on rack for 15 minutes.



I didn't have this "springform", in fact I still don't know what the heck a springform is.... So, this is what happened when I took the cake out of the tin I cooked it in.....


I'm really disappointed with how it looks now but it's still very tasty so I guess that's what really matters. : )

Hawaii and Lost Luggage!

I know I haven't blogged in about a week but A LOT has been going on! First things first, I just got back last night from Honolulu, Hawaii!! I was there attending a high school friend's wedding and also to go to a Marine base, an Army base and a Military hospital with my roommate, Gina with Pin Ups for Vets.

While it was a great trip and Hawaii is absolutely beautiful, it was hard to forget the fact that our luggage NEVER EVER made it there with us. Yep, that's right, NEVER! Gina and I checked one large black suitcase and evidently, it was tagged incorrectly and it ended up going all the way to Switzerland!! Ridiculous, right? How does something like the even happen?! I'm currently working on an angry letter to send to United right now. Has something like this ever happened to you? What did you do about it?

While we were in Hawaii shopping for clothes to wear, Gina's sweet mom was tirelessly calling United Airlines, trying to find out where our bag was! In the midst of all this mayhem, she found this funny poem that I had to share on here:

"I understand the mistake, but I need all my things
please find my bag, I need all the comfort it brings.

I can see from your eyes you wish I'd leave you alone
that I'd just go away and head right on back home.

But my ticket back is not for a couple of weeks
and without my old bag, this trip will be bleak.

Please find my bag, I need all the comfort it brings
without my stuff , the thought of staying here stings.

Please find my bag, without it I'm lost.
If a bribe will help, I'll pay any cost."

But the show must go on and Gina and I certainly went on with the trip the best we could. I'll put up a few pictures of our trip to Hawaii tomorrow when I finally get them all uploaded to my computer. Until then, enjoy this youtube video of our trip, Visiting Tripler Army Med Ctr, Schofield Barracks & Marine Corps Base Hawaii : )

Welcome me to Twitter!

"Love it or hate it, Twitter has certainly taken the web by storm. In just a few short years, the social networking/micro-blogging website has grown to be one of the 50 most popular websites in the world."

Well, guess who finally joined Twitter?! Me, that's who! Yep, it came to my attention that professionally/socially I needed to join the Twitter world. It really is a great social media outlet and I knew that eventually I would have to learn how to use it for artists that I will work with in the future.

Honestly though, I'm not good at twittering or tweeting..not sure what the proper verb usage is here. I feel immense pressure to be funny, ironic or just downright thought provoking in every tweet and that's difficult in only 140 characters!! Shoot, that's difficult for me in any number of characters! : ) At this point, I'm really more interested in what other people are saying or more importantly what my favorite celebs/musicians are saying.

For those of you not on Twitter yet, it's similar to Facebook except that it's all about your status and communicating with others via your status's. The strange thing is that you can follow anyone and anyone can follow you. Unlike Facebook where you can reject people's friend requests and you usually "know" all your friends. I really do know all 800 of my Facebook friends. As of right now, I have 48 followers on Twitter and I seriously only know about half of them. Why are these strangers following me? Who knows? Perhaps, I tweeted about something they found interesting or possibly we share a common interest or maybe they just like my Twitter name. : ) FYI, it's LAnLA3 if you want to follow me!

I found this list of funny Twitter quotes to share:

"Oh this is going to be addictive" – Dom Sagolla, Twitter co-creator

“The qualities that make Twitter seem inane and half-baked are what makes it so powerful” – Jonathan Zittrain, Harvard law professor and Internet expert (Source)

“Twitter lets me hear from a lot of people in a very short period of time.” – Robert Scoble, blogger (Source)

“Using Twitter for literate communication is about as likely as firing up a CB radio and hearing some guy recite ‘The Iliad.’" – Bruce Sterling, science fiction writer and journalist (Source)

"Whoever said that things have to be useful?"
– Evan Williams, Twitter co-founder and CEO

"For the uninitiated, here’s how Twitter works – I have no f***ing idea. I have no idea how it works – or why it is." Jon Stewart, comedian and host of The Daily Show

"Facebook is to 2007 as Twitter is to 2009. It’s the most open communication platform out there" – Roger Kondrat, social media consultant (Source)

"The people drawn to Twitter are people on the cutting edge, the real nerds who are resentful of the fact that the general population have found and taken over Facebook" – Steve Dotto, host of Dotto Tech (Source)

"HI TWITTERS . THANK YOU FOR A WARM WELCOME. FEELING REALLY 21st CENTURY" – Oprah, yes that Oprah, on Twitter

"Ummm . . . I don’t think it’s as big of a dilemma as people seem to think. We haven’t focused on it yet and I can’t say for sure how it’s going to work." – Evan Williams, Twitter co-founder and CEO, on how Twitter will make money

Uninspired, Busy, Tired

So, why the sudden absence in my blog? Well, I'm sorry but I've been feeling uninspired, busy and too tired to blog lately.

First things first, why oh why, do I feel like I have to apologize for being inactive on here?! Is this normal to feel bad about not blogging? Like borderline guilty even? Geesh! What's wrong with me? Do other bloggers out there feel this way when they haven't blogged in awhile? Are we really letting anyone seriously down if we don't blog all the time?

1. Uninspired- Two things here, one, I haven't felt very inspired to write about anything.. And two, while I have a ton of cool things going on in my life right now, for the first time in awhile, I don't have this incredible urge to put it all out there on the internet for the world to read about. I want to keep it private for awhile.. at least for a little bit longer. : )

2. Busy and Tired- Life has gotten busier and blogging is the first to get knocked off my list of things to do. In the past, I've used my nights to blog but lately I'm so tired at the end of the night that the last thing I want to do is sit in front of my computer for another hour and create a post. I can't even tell you the last time I read my book. Before turning off the light at night, I barely have time to take off my glasses! I guess we are all always tired, huh? It's the never-ending quest for more sleep that everyone seems to be searching for. Will we catch it? Probably not...

While I'm on the topic of blogging woes, can I just say how frustrating it can be sometimes when I see most of my fellow bloggers getting these amazing and insightful posts out each and everyday! How do they do that?! Where do they/you find the time?

I guess that I have officially decided that from now on, I'm only going to post when something neat or interesting happens to me. That's totally fair, right?

Can we say 'blogging burnout' or what?!

Cupcakes Make Me Happy

I saw this amazing display of cupcakes the other day at a grocery store and I just had to take a picture of these adorable little guys. They are almost too cute and pretty to eat!

Cupcakes will always make me happy. I'm glad that I live here in LA where delicious cupcake shops are all over the places. I'll go ahead and plug Sprinkles, Crumbs, Frosted and Susie Cakes right now in the hopes of getting free cupcakes one day! : )

This post is for Wordless Wednesdays. Thanks to Alicia over at Project Alicia for keeping this meme going!

A New Work Out Class!

The Bar Method work out class is my new obsession. And before you ask, no it does not involve going to bars or drinking at all. : )

Well, I guess you can't really call having only gone to two classes an obsession but it's definitely something that I'm about to dive into. Today I even purchased a month long package deal. I've been bored with the gym lately and my running routine outside is slowly getting too hot to do when I want to do it. In comes my dear friend Belinda who has been going to bar method classes for a few months now to help her trim down a little in time for her amazing Hawaii wedding at the end of this month. We had plans to meet for dinner last week and she suggested that I come with her to one of these classes before we grab dinner. I am so glad that I took her up on this offer because the class felt amazing!

Here is the description of what exactly the bar method is all about: "Exercise classes that integrates the fat burning format of interval training, the muscle shaping technique of isometrics, the elongating principles of dance conditioning, and the science of physical therapy to create a revolutionary new workout that quickly and safely reshapes your entire body." It's a combination of dance, pilates, yoga and then some strength training thrown in there too. Sounds easy enough, right? Uh, not so much! It's a tough hour-long work out that burns just about every muscle in your body. Tonight's instructor told us, "the more you shake and the more you burn, the better".

Apparently all the celebs are taking bar method classes so it's incredibly trendy right now, especially here in Los Angeles. Drew Barrymore and Kelly Osbourne specifically have recently lost a ton of weight and it's all because of these workout classes. They both are looking incredible these days! I'm a big of Ms. Drew Barrymore so that enticed me to try the classes out for myself too.

I'll keep you posted on my progress! Have you ever heard of the Bar Method?

A Vampire in a Leather Jacket

This week's Mama Kat's writing prompt that I chose was "A boy you had crush on... Where is he now?"

Ok, first of all, who didn't I have a crush on? Seriously! I have been boy-crazy since those long ago Kindergarten days. I honestly can't even remember a year when I didn't have a crush on some boy in one of my classes or even just a boy that I admired from afar. There was always someone who caught my eye one way or another.

Sure, maybe I didn't always have the guts to talk to him but I'm pretty sure they were aware that I was interested. You probably couldn't help but notice my staring! During my shy years, sometimes the only exchange that I would even have with a boy would be at the school dances where I would awkwardly wait against one wall with all the other hopeful girls for a boy to ask her to slow dance.

My friends and I would spend hours and hours discussing which boys we liked and why. Then we would analyze every second we ever spent with them and what their actions and words had meant. No gesture would ever go unnoticed. It goes without saying we would endlessly talk about their amazing hair, how cute they looked when they grinned at us, their bright eyes, their cool clothes and most definitely how their last names would look after our first names. I filled up so many notebooks with scribblings of the last names of crushes I had. It's a good thing I never had that embarrassing moment of one of them seeing this.

Despite the countless crushes I've had in my lifetime, I of course will never forget my very first one. His name was Mark.... Oh crap, I don't remember his last name.... (Guess that means I can't stalk him on FACEBOOK! :( ) How can this be?! Oh, maybe it's because I liked him WAY BACK in 1991. I was in 1st grade and he was in 2nd grade. My family and I had just been evacuated from Somalia in East Africa so we were living in Tucson, Arizona for the rest of the school year. For why I was living in Africa, read this post: Background on Moi.

Anyway, back to my crush, Mark. From what I can remember, he had these amazing dark brown eyes and his soft wavy brown hair would fall over them sometimes. He was slightly taller than most other boys in 1st and 2nd grade combined so he totally had that going for him. However, the best thing about him that I can vividly remember was his black leather jacket that he wore every. single. day. Yes, I was smart even back then at age 6 and I knew that leather jackets were the epitome of cool and stylish. He was a "bad boy" at 7 years old and knew what the ladies wanted. Ha! During recess and lunch time, we would run around pretending to be vampires and victims. Mark was the strong vampire every time and all of us little 1st grade girls were his innocent victims. I was usually the last one to be caught. ; ) Even in 1991, the vampire phenomenon was apparent. "Twilight" didn't start that up.


So, where is Mark today? Who knows.... Like I said, I don't remember his last name so I sadly can't look him up on Facebook. Isn't it a shame that I can't specify a search on there with where he went to 2nd grade and what article of clothing did he love.. Or can I? Hmmm.. I might have to investigate this further if only to talk to him about his vampire fetish back then and to find out whatever happened to that awesome leather jacket. : ) I'll keep ya posted!

Wacky Wednesdays

My roommate Gina forwarded me the link below and I immediately decided to start implementing "Wacky Wednesdays" on my blog. Perhaps, this meme exists already on someone else's blog but I have yet to see it...

This is kind of ridiculous! What do you think of it?

Click on the following link: Robotic Tongue Gizmo Lets You French Kiss Over the Internet or just go to the YouTube Video, Kiss Transmission Device

Seriously, what will they think of next? There's really no end to people's imagination and creativity. Despite how amazingly advance this is, I fear like this will keep some people from ever meeting people face to face? Why bother leaving the comfort of your home when now you can even kiss them there?! There already are so many sheltered and frightened men and women out there, I feel like this perpetuates it. What about those men and women who have never even been kissed? Will this count? This "communication in the mouth" certainly takes online dating up a notch! Haha

All I know is that nothing beats a real French kiss. ; )

What is something wacky that you've recently come across or discovered?

Red Velvet Pancakes?!

Yesterday morning I had the pleasure of going to breakfast with a college friend that lives here in LA. Kathleen took me to the infamous Hollywood restaurant called The Griddle Cafe. It was amazing and I'll definitely be taking my next visitor there.

Apparently during the weekend, this place is a madhouse and the line to get a table wraps down the street but this morning being a Monday, we walked in and were seated right away. The menu is fairly easy to navigate and the page with the list of pancakes all sounded delicious and creative too. Kathleen and I decided to each get one pancake and share them. She chose the Black Magic, "Disbelief will possess you as you're pulled under the spell of our crushed Oreo-filled flapjacks!" Um, yeah, I usually think that anything at all with Oreos is great but these were downright delicious!
I chose their signature "Red Velvet panCake". While it was also super tasty, I felt like I was eating an actual red velvet cake so I couldn't eat too much of it. The swirls and swirls of cream cheese icing was seriously decadent. I can imagine eating this particular pancake as a dessert.


Breakfast food is definitely my favorite! What's yours?

I Am. . .

I spent the better part of yesterday singing the alphabet and asking my almost 2 year old nephew, Lucas, to name letters so in honor of him, below is a neat poster that I found awhile ago in a magazine. I hope it reminds each and every one of you what you really are. : )

I Am. . .

Ageless, Adventurous, Active, Beautiful, Balanced, Blessed, Charismatic, Creative, Capable, Dynamic, Determined, Divine, Enthusiastic, Eloquent, Extraordinary, Feisty, Faithful, Free, Graceful, Genuine, Gutsy, Hardworking, Honest, Happy, Imaginative, Insightful, Individual, Influential, Joyful, Jovial, Kind, Kindred Spirit, Knowledgeable, Logical, Loving, Luminescent, Luscious, Magical, Motivated, Magnificent, Natural, Never Late, Noticeable, Optimistic, Observant, Original, Perceptive, Poised, Persistent, Quick-on-My-Feet, Quirky, Resilient, Reliable, Radiant, Sensational, Self-Assured, Spiritual, Trustworthy, Thoughtful, Unique, Unabashed, Understanding, Vibrant, Valuable, Versatile, Witty, Whimsical, Wise, eXuberant, fleXible, eXcited, Youthful, Zany, Zealous and Zingy.

Project Smile-April

The challenge is to find something to smile about every single day of the month. Thanks to Kristi for keeping this going at Live and Love...out Loud.
Here are my smiles for April:

1st- A lazy Friday spent with my roommate shopping and watching TV.
2nd- "It really is a small world"-type situation.
3rd- A 2 year old's birthday party!
4th- A day spent at Disneyland with my family!
5th- Target always makes me happy.
6th- A yummy dinner with family in Santa Monica.
7th- I had an easy pain-less drive to Phoenix, Arizona.
8th- This was all around fabulous day spent visiting with long-time awesome friends in Phoenix.
9th- I went to a very good friend's sweet baby shower. Lots of awwwing over all the gifts!
10th- Nothing puts a smile on my face more than great girl talk, especially when it makes a long drive go by faster. A good audio book helps too.
11th- I was whistled at on the street in my work out clothes!
12th- Morning yoga, an awesome interview and seeing a friend's band play down the street from where I live.
13th- An easy and fun nannying day.
14th- A ridiculously long run on the treadmill! Whew!
15th- A fun night out to the movies and dinner with new and old friends.
16th- A first date.
17th- 1 blissful hour at a park with nephew.
18th- Having time to go to the gym and run outside! Whoa!
19th- Hearing Tina Fey and Steve Martin chat will make anyone smile.
20th- Snuggling in bed with my nephew and hearing him say "I love you" as I said good night.
21th- Wine and simple girl chat.
22nd- Going to a Prince concert! Need I say more?
23rd- For once, a super productive Saturday.
24th- A long talk.
25th- A promising/interesting interview.
26th- Cheers to being impulsive. : )
27th- Getting soaked by my nephew when I gave him a bath and not really caring at all.
28th- Getting a mani and a pedi with my sister.
29th- A LONG work day spent with a sweet 2 year old named Jake.
30th- I spent the afternoon at the beach and didn't get burned and even made a new friend. : )

Can you think of 30 things that made you smile this month? It's really easy and I urge you to do on your own. Here's what had me smiling back in March.