Raspberries and surprises :)

Bonjour! So I'm currently sitting at a coffee shop while waiting for the surprise of the century (details to be revealed later) and drinking probably the most delicious cafe mocha I've had in a long while. Not to mention that it looks beautiful...who knew you could make a flour design out of milk?? After spending a few days at home with my parents and greatly expanding my recipe repertoire I am newly inspired when it comes to my adventures in cuisine. It never ceases to amaze me the different ways that one flavor can be transformed into a plethora of dishes. Take one of the main ingredients in a dessert I made Thursday night: marsala. It can be used in combination with chicken and mushrooms to make chicken marsala, or in the opposite direction combined with egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla to make an outstanding sabayon. Which  brings me to my dessert...Fresh Raspberry Gratins courtesy of one of my favorite chefs, Ina Garten.  The recipe consists of lining a gratin dish (I just used a small rameken because I didn't have any gratin dishes) with fresh raspberries, making a sabayon (a light, foamy custard-like dessert served hot or cold...I chose hot) and pouring said sabayon over the raspberries, and then to top it all off coating it with sugar and popping it in the oven to caramelize. The sabayon was surprisingly easy to make, but does require constant attention, and the marsala and the raspberries create a wonderfully sophisticated flavor. I will say though, the sabayon could have been a bit thicker and I had some trouble getting all of the sugar to caramelize, but overall I would say that the recipe was a great success! 

Well, I'm running out of time so my fashion portion will just have to wait I suppose. Stay tuned for details on the surprise and more lol.

With a touch of love,

Jill

Hello everyone!!

So I've been reading some of my favorite blogs for years now and they continually inspire me with their creative posts. I have yet to find one, however, that combines both my love for fashion and for cooking...so I decided why not make my own and this is the product. I'll be sharing some of my favorite recipes as well as some of my favorite fashion trends; all "with a touch of love." 

Without further ado, here's a delicious recipe I made two days ago...wait for it...Grilled Chicken Taco PIZZAS! And may I say that they are just as delicious as the recipe sounds. Granted I didn't have access to a grill so my lovely boyfriend and I came up with the idea to cook the chicken in a pan rather than on a grill and then grill the dough on his rather small George Foreman grill. The results, may I say, were just as delicious as if we had done it on a grill. It's amazing what a bit of creativity can do! 















And now onto my bit of fashion inspiration for the day...I've been obsessed with Paris for about a year now in both my cooking and my fashion. French cuisine is probably the most difficult cuisine I have tried to master yet, but I will promise you this: the effort is definitely worth the payoff! Anyways, Paris tends to find it's way into every portion of my life whether it be the music I fall asleep to or the clothes I wear (ask anyone if my black beret is one of my favorite accessories at the moment and they'll probably just roll their eyes and say "yeah". I may wear it a little too often lol). Well I'm going to call it a night, so good night everyone out there in cyberland! Until tomorrow!


With a touch of love,
Jill