My favorites in fashion

I love perusing through the Vogue website. It is like dessert. After going through many photos, I have settled on my favorites. I hope you enjoy them.

I don't know who designed this. I'm sorry I could not find the name. I tried but gave up. I just love the contrast made with the tights.

This next one is ACNE Resort 2012. The worn jeans with the dress are perfect. The yellow jacket at first made battle with my inner self, but eventually won me over.

This next one was created for Marie Claire Russia. Every man likely has a crush on Audrey Tautou because she is simply the most elegant creature in the world. The color of this style is what caught my eye immediately. The pleats provide a classic flare to vintage. It is angelic, to be sure.

This next one is Bottega Veneta F/W 2012. It brings dangerous charm. The opera gloves are almost too daring to be black and shiny. The lips are death but the fire dress burns with creative passion. I love it!

Next is Christian Dior, F/W 2012. This one has another contrast that I adore. It is cold utility on top with delicate grace in the skirt. It melts my heart. It is like a ballet in Siberia.

Here is Dolce Gabbana, F/W 2012. 

Oh, my God! This one can't stop haunting me. It is Thakoon Spring 2012. Everything in it is so necessary yet so unique and refreshing. There is some chaos in it but things fall into place perfectly. Oh, my heart!

Dries Van Noten was introduced to me by a good friend in New York, bless her heart. I saw the angelic birds on this F/W 2012 Dries that just swept me away. Dries has this ability to take classic, geometric patterns and contrast them with solid blacks that finishes the style with fun nobility.

The boots and socks on this DSquared S/S 2012 look is what sold me. I love it.

This is Georgio Armani (F/W 2012)...

Holly Fulton, F/W 2012

Not sure who...

Marni Resort 2013

Peter Jensen, 2009

Prada 2012

 Not sure who... but the skirt is amazing.

Yukiko Hanai, 2012

Italian Olive Oil Wheat Bread

I was flipping through my cookbook and fell upon this nice recipe, which is actually pretty fun. I feel like it is a good recipe to learn on, which is exactly what I was doing. I am a bread newbie.

I took some pictures along the way for your edification. Enjoy!

Step 1: Make the Sponge

A sponge is a fermentation starter for bread. The benefits of using a starter is that you get yeast, enzyme, and bacterial actions on the starch and proteins in the dough. This process will provide your bread with a more complex taste and increase the shelf life of the bread after it is cooked.

Start by mixing incredients in a container that you can later use to store the sponge for rising. I use this Swedish mixer to incorporate the flour into the wet ingredients.

I sort of hate to post the next image because it really looks like shit. This is the beginnings of my sponge used to make the bread. I just started to incorporate the flour. Actually, I'm using freshly ground whole wheat even though the recipe calls for half white flour and whole wheat. That was a mistake!

Once you are done incorporating the flour into the dough, set it aside.

Step 2: Make the dough

Here I am kneading the dough after mixing the incredients.

Then knead it.

Step 3: Mix the sponge with the dough

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Step 4: Let it Rise!



Before rising:

After rising:

Step 5: Knead again

Step 6: Put in the oven



The End: Baked Bread!

Coffee cake makes me feel safe and loved

I woke this morning feeling like shit. Not like I was going to puke but like I was being defeated by a little annoying troll with bad breath. It was my mind playing tricks on me again. I think my wife felt the same way because I greeted here with a loud "Mornin' sunshine!" and she only grunted in reply. The clouds looked especially gloomy outside. The kitchen was a mess. My kids were not beaming. I needed a pick me up.

Nothing does it better than coffee cake! Use your hands to mix the topping, please.

I am very sneaky. I put whole wheat in the topping mix instead of white. The kids were distracted by Star Wars and shall never know. The whole wheat makes the sugar/flour mixture feel like beach sand. Come with me. Take a vacation. Do it before the holidays (before putting in the cinnamon).

Walnuts are very nice for the topping. Chop them up! Don't use peanuts. I made that mistake once. Here is the topping... Looks more like the beach sand you find in the Pacific Northwest.

The question I have right now is, should I use cream or yogurt in the cake? I went with a compromise!

Embroidery

Make your shirts more interesting!

Here is my run-of-the-mill shirt that is in need of a little flare.

I decided to embroider brown, dark blue, and light blue bars on the end of my sleeve. 

Here is the finished product. It turned out to be a fairly subdued finish. My next project will be more kick-ass than this one was. I think I will go for a floral on solid white!

Wheat Bread... 2nd attempt

I have been finding that it is fairly difficult to make fluffy wheat bread. You see it at the grocery store all the time. Why is that mine comes out so dense? Last week, I tried a new recipe from the America's Test Kitchen for regular wheat bread. Here is what came of my experiment:

Do you like how they glow?

Homemade Rustic Bread

I tried my first loaf of bread yesterday! Well, I've made bread before under the tutelage of my dear wife. This experiment was completely on my own. I started with grinding hard white wheat, then making a sponge and combining the sponge with my dough. This was the first time I had ever heard of a sponge. Apparently, this is a fermentation starter to help the bread to rise.

Well, here is a picture of the bread right after it came out of the oven:

Notice the slits I cut were not deep enough so they didn't blossom. I will try cutting them deeper next time.

The texture of the bread itself wasn't bad but I think it was a little on the dense side. The crust was also a little harder to cut through than I expected. The reason for this is likely due to the whole wheat. I need to find some ways to lighten up the whole wheat bread.

Happy baking, men!

Cookbook recommendation

I highly recommend The America's Test Kitchen cookbooks for those that thrive on details and structure. The recipes are very well spelled out and make for a challenging and rewarding experience.