The Sartorialist

The Sartorialist is a fashion blog that Scott Schuman started in 2005. He had been working in the fashion world and then decided to start taking his digital camera around NYC to take pictures of everyday people on the streets and the fashions they were sporting. His blog has become the source for many designers inspiration and is well known all over the world. He travels to all the fashion capitals and takes candid shots of people. I love getting on everyday and seeing who he has on there. There are all sorts of styles-some I love to look at and pull inspiration for myself and others I just have to chuckle at and appreciate their sense of personal style. Either way I enjoy looking at people's sense of style. For a fun blog to look at I suggest going to it http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

Chocolate Cake

So if you are familiar with Utah County and its restaurants I won't have to name the restaurant that is local and is known for it's most divine chocolate cake. I feel like a thief-but obviously not too much because I am going to share the recipe with you. My co-worker got this recipe for some of us. I won't go into the shady details of how he got it. But let's just say when I got the email I was as giddy as can be. So I made it the other day. My goodness it was DIVINE. So here are some pics of the process and because I am so giving here is the recipe. I am hoping since I probably only have about 5 readers that the restaurant police won't find this and charge me with something and end up in court.

Chocolate Cake

1 2/3 cup water
1 2/3 cup butter
½ cup Hershey’s cocoa

3 1/3 cup AP flour
3 1/3 cup sugar
½ tsp salt

1 cup sour cream
1 Tbs + ¾ tsp Baking Soda
4 eggs

In medium saucepan, combine water, butter and cocoa and turn on medium/high heat. Stirring occasionally. While that is on the stove, in a mixing bowl add – flour, sugar & salt and add to bowl in that correct order(very important for some reason). Set aside.

In another bowl mix sour cream with baking soda and let sit still until it about doubles in size and gets kinda foamy like.

Ok, so hopefully your cocoa mixture is about to boil at this point. When it starts to boil and your butter is completely melted, add that to the flour/sugar bowl. And turn mixer on low speed. When you don’t see any more dry flour, stop mixer and scrape the bottom of bowl very good(also very important).

On medium speed, slowly add the sour cream mixture. When that has almost all incorporated, add eggs one at a time. Scrape bowl one more time. Mix for another 20-30 seconds.

Pour cake batter into GREASED pans and bake for about 30 min @ 350 degrees.

The baking may also very on this cake so just keep an eye on it. You don’t want to fill the pans too much either because it will rise very high and then fall. If that happens, don’t worry though, it still tastes good. Just make sure it’s completely done on the inside.


Here is the frosting. Now it’s best if you know a day in advance that you will be making this cake because I like to the leave the butter sitting out over night so that it is nice and soft. If you can do that, it will help the frosting. Also, at the restaurant I wasn’t allowed to mix the frosting with an electric mixer, I only used a big whisk. And it does make a little bit of a difference. It’s less airy if you do it by hand. Now at home I use a mixer, just try to not whip too much air into it.


½ lb butter (soft but NOT melted) (2 sticks)
5 cup powder sugar (sifted)
3/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup + 2 Tbs milk
4 tsp vanilla

Well friends there you have it, ENJOY!

A Thankful Bev

Yesterday was one of those days that you just want to throw your hands in the air and say, "I GIVE UP"! I had been talking to a girlfriend and was telling her what was going on and immediately she said, "Come over tonight, I am making you dinner and we are have a girls night out to just chat." We ate, we laughed, and it was just what I needed. I am so grateful for wonderful friends in my life. I have one of my dearest friends that lives all the way across on the other side of the USA(you know who you are); but yet our friendship is as strong as ever. I know I can call her at any hour and she is there listening. It is what we do for one another. We listen, and the roles reverse at different times in our lives. Sometimes I am the listener-other times they are.

Lately my friends have been doing most of the listening as I am blabbing to them about my life and this crossroads I am faced with at the moment. What to do, where to go, am I making the right decisions? All these questions and decisions. I was at this same spot last year around this time. The time was not right for me to move apparently because I sent out a million applications and nothing. Time has passed, things have been checked off the list that needed to get done and I am now at the same lovely crossroads again. Such is life right? Live, learn and grow. That is what we do, and I have learned it is best to just sit back and enjoy the ride. Learn to love where I am at right now and look forward to what the future holds.

So to all my dear friends I say THANK YOU, GRAZIE, GRACIAS, MERCI from the bottom of my heart for always being there for me. I really am the lucky one.

I'm Going To......

TEXAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Love Me Some Musicals!!

I remember being about 5 years old and seeing The Sound of Music for the first time. I was in heaven! That was my first memory of falling in love with musicals. I can't even remember how many times I have seen The Sound of Music, too many to count-I have every song memorized for crying out loud. My parents knew how much I loved musicals that they bought an entire collection of them. I grew up watching most of the Rodgers & Hammerstein productions such as Oklahoma, South Pacific and the list goes on. As I have gotten older I still love musicals, Moulin Rouge being one of my newer favorites. I just saw the trailer for Nine and am so excited I can hardly wait until November when it comes out. Rob Marshall is the director and I loved what he did with Chicago, so I can't imagine being disappointed with his latest production. November get here already!