Cakes of Distinction, an occasional series part I

Here's a recipe for a lovely flour-less chocolate cake. Now, on Miss Nupur's blog I posted self-saucing chocolate cake as the food the I think of with the word saucy. Joanne has made it for me twice - it's a family recipe - and it's fantastic. Alas, I don't have the recipe, so... I present Laureline's Gooey Cake

Now, there's a story here. Laureline is a physicist friend Michael met while at RMC. She's so cool: one of those women who is competent, awesome and y'know French, but really nice. Her family own a patiserrie in France, and she taught me how to make this cake. Calling it Gooey Cake doesn't do it justice -unless you imagine Juliette Binoche, gazing deeply into the eyes of Johnny Depp and, while healing him with the magical powers of handmade chocolate, saying the word “gooey”. It's rich and unlike anything I had ever had. This is powerful stuff: Four simple ingredients that create something quite lovely.

1/3 Cup sugar
250 g good dark chocolate
1/3 Cup butter
6 eggs

preheat oven to 350F
melt butter & chocolate over double boiler
separate eggs- whisk whites until stiff.
Cream yolks and sugar
add the melted chocolate to the yolk mixture, fold in the whites
put 2/3 of the mix into a buttered springform pan (I cheat with this all the time & use a regular cake tin)
now-- put this into the oven in a water bath and bake for 40 minutes
the other 1/3 should be refrigerated until the baking is done-- use it as frosting.

I am not ashamed to say I have used this cake on two occasions to impress men. And it worked.

news to use

Friday morning- it's quite lovely here. Crisp and perfect. Too bad I have to visit the library stat!
I thought I'd do a little gossip round up.
Bump Watch 2005: first Britney, then Jennifer Garner and now... Katie Holmes! I love Tom Cruise and his insanity! two website (both being targeted by the litigious one)
http://www.tomcruiseisnuts.com and http://www.scientomogy.info/index.html
I think my favorite tidbit from the last couple of weeks is that Marilyn Manson is coming out with his own fragrance. Really, no words capture the horror of that one. What would it smell of? Blood?
And here's my sweetie Ted Casablanca with the Blind Vice of the week
http://www.eonline.com/Gossip/Awful/Blind/blind.051021.html
I keep getting spammed... so I know the comments section works!
hope y'all have a good weekend!

Creamy Lemon

I've had a very productive day! That almost never happens...
With hours to go before I sleep, I thought I'd waste a little time posting.
So, I was checking out one of my favorite sites, For the Fork and the Spoon
http://nupur-inthekitchen.blogspot.com/
(fabulous veggie Indian food- I was scared I'd lost her site forever but managed to track it down- thanks Google!) and she has a quiz. She names a word and you try to match the word to a food. She said creamy- i said Creamy Lemon Pudding. And have been craving the following recipe for the past day as a result:

Creamy Lemon Pudding
2 T butter
¼ C sugar
2 lemons
2 eggs
½ C flour
1 ¼ C milk
Cream butter. Add sugar, beat well. Grate the lemons, squeeze out the juice, strain, set aside. If you'd like it more lemon-y, add more rind and juice.
Separate the eggs, add one yolk at a time to the butter/ sugar mix, beating well in between. Stir in flour and gradually add the lemon juice and rind. Add milk
Whisk egg whites until stiff and fold gently into batter. this is actually quite important, it'll taste as good, but won't be as fluffy- so take the time and do it right
Place in a pie plate and bake in a 350° oven for about 40 mins. it'll be a bit golden and lovely smelling. I just use a casserole dish and it turns out fine

I got this recipe off a website awhile ago and just love it. The lemon is so creamy and yummy and the top is fluffy. Not a pudding as we in North America know it – this is a true English pudding and quite yummy. So- that's my helpful hint of the day. Sometimes, i eat it for supper.

ok- I'm off. Property Law won't read itself, darn it...

To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best. ~ Logan Elchols
(a little something for all the Veronica Mars fans out there)

Confused? Directionless? No where to turn? Introducing Miss Legal Manners

Miss Legal Manners is a new column that will be appearing occasionally here at sadiebelle. We will try to answer any etiquette related issues, especially as they apply to legal studies. Any queries should be left in the comments section and will answered when we feel like it. Please note that this is in no way legal advice: neither Sadie nor Belle are qualified for that.

Dear Miss Legal Manners,
I am so confused! I recently started attending law school and, well, I don't know what to wear. I am quite torn: do I wear macramé to a court hearing? Do I show off my assets (or my briefs)? and what do I do with my hair?
Please advise me, I simply have no where to turn.

Gentle No Where/ No Wear,
I understand your dilemma. School has always been difficult to dress for and law school presents its own problems. I realize not everyone can acheive the satorial splendor that is Miss Legal Manners (see picture above). However, there are guidelines, rules that one can follow that will ease the difficulty.
1. Never wear macramé. It simply never a good choice. I don't care how "funky" that cardigan may appear in the second hand bin, nor do I care how "sexy" you feel you look while wearing your macramé tank top and a bra. It simply won't do. When one thinks macramé, one thinks of the 1970s and casseroles and communal living: all great fun. Not law school however.
2. Don't wear hats indoors. Ever. This is a rule that one may think has simply gone out of style. Gentlemen of all ages wear hats inside. Women choose to wear any kind of hat at all times. When Miss Legal Manners was young, such ideas were thought of as signs of poor breeding. Times have changed and apparantly, so has the hat rule. Miss Legal Manners does not bend to the tides of changing fashion. Here, then, are the rules of hat wearing. A gentleman takes off his hat when going inside. This is the rule- the LAW if you will. There is no debate on this subject. Miss Legal Manners does not care if you have bad hair or a nice cap or anything really. Take it off. A woman is able to wear *most types* of hats inside, although why one would want to is another question. Care should be taken not to obstruct the view of those around one by the hat. Also, the Carrie Bradshaw newsboy hats? are ugly. And adding flowers or bows a la Miss Bradshaw? Don't make them pretty.

3. Ahhh... the issue of assets and briefs. Now, when Miss Legal Manners was a young girl... but it seems odd somehow to think of the 1980s as a time of modesty when one Miss Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone was tearing up the charts wearing her Boy Toy belt buckle. But really. How young, how innocent we were. Times have changed and today Miss Legal Manners sees plenty of both assets and briefs on the way to class. Obviously, I don't think this is particularly pleasant viewing, even when it is if you know what I mean and I think you do. My advice? Law school is not a day at the beach- there is no need to dress as if it is.

4. Hair. Well, Miss Legal Manners knows from hair. Although you may not guess it, she has often struggled with hers in her search for the perfect hair. Two small points to consider in choosing a hairstyle. Scrunchies are bad, and should never be used except when washing your face late at night. Secondly, playing with one's hair incessantly makes one look deranged. Or, at the very least, like one is trying to do the deli scene in When Harry Met Sally and that is not the image you want to project in class.

I hope this has been helpful Miss NW/NW. Another resource I use for all things fashion are the Fug Girls at http://gofugyourself.typepad.com They are both useful guides at what not to wear and also very funny to boot. I leave you with a picture which sent chills down my spine, before provoking much laughter. Yes, it's Miss Legal Manner's favorite Beckham wife, Posh Spice! Posing with fashion designer Roberto Cavalli. Enjoy.

Now, off you go! Miss Legal Manners

Dear Miss Legal Manners,

I have a crush on my Prof. Is there something wrong with me? He's not my usual type- he's older and not at all handsome. Whatever shall I do?

Confused in Negligence

Gentle CIN,

Play with someone your own age. Miss Legal Manners

Dear Miss Legal Manners,

I have a crush on another Prof. He's very similar to the first Prof I crushed, but this is all different. He's craggy and less engaging and... he employs the Socratic method. Am I a slut?

Confused in Contracts

Gentle CIC,

Please understand, the academic crush or, as Miss Legal Manner's new friend CGM refers to them, the grandpa crush is perfectly natural. However, it is simply against the Rules to act upon them. And no, not The Rules, that silly book that told women to look busy while waiting for a man to ask her on a date but the Rules- sensible guidelines by which we live our lives. You are a smart (albeit) confused young person with a lot going for you. Now seriously, go play with someone your own age.

Miss Legal Manners

Not! withstanding

Tough Week

I choked in Contracts. It's the weirdest feeling in the world- you are so freaked and struggling and trying to find that word that will end the humiliation. It's just beyond anything I've experienced. Not bad (that comes later) just disorienting. I ended up pulling it together thank heavens: I'd briefed the case, so I knew it. I even shut down Tweetle's yammering, which the prof loved, but it was still pretty horrifying to choke. I'd like to say it won't happen again, but it will. I was prepared and ready and it happened.

And today? I was mean girled! Seriously mean girled in class. Little bee-yotch. She's on the list. Hard to believe that this could get so cliquey so fast but there you go. I was talking to a friend about this and she said that this was more cliquey than anything she'd seen since high school. So at least I'm not alone.

But you know? i love this. this is where I'm supposed to be. the long hours and lack of sleep are ok. I can see others crashing too: one of the guys in class just shut down today. It's nerves and exhaustion and the knowledge that it's another couple of months before a break is in sight. I wouldn't say that I'm thriving. I don't think anyone is. I am surviving.

Running Away
Tonight was the last night of the marathon clinic that I've been involved with. I've seen a couple of our people run their races, heard the stories from another couple people who were in Chicago. It's so wonderful to see people reach their goals (I cried seeing Blair last weekend and watching Ken the weekend before that). And I'm a bit jealous. I miss the training. While I've enjoyed the runs I've been doing lately and have loved the shorter races, I do believe there is another marathon in my near future. Gayle and I have tentatively floated the idea of doing one together which would be fantastic. She's awesome and I think my time would improve quite a bit under her tutelage. And it would give me something non law school to do.

What else? My sweetie is coming this weekend so I'll see someone from outside.

The fearless are merely fearless, only those who act in spite of their fear are truly brave.

Belle's a genius!

Belle Update...

I've been remiss and haven't kept anyone up to date on the most important aspect of this blog: news on Belle. Here's a recent picture of the little one under my desk (her new favorite place to sleep). She doesn't photograph well.

Belle's been doing ok. She isn't in love with the new neighborhood. The dog park is of little interest to her and she hasn't made any dog friends. She misses Einstein. Now, Einstein is Janine's dog and Belle fell in love with him over the summer while we were living in Vanier/ New Edinbrough. She's only seen him once since we've moved to Sandy Hill and she misses him quite a bit. Of course all of this makes me feel like a bad owner.

She hasn't been enthralled by many dogs over the past couple of months. Younger, rambunctious dogs really bore/ annoy her. The other day at the park a bunch of dogs were playing rather rauctiously and she turned around and started walking home. She wouldn't stop long enough for me to put her leash on, she just wanted out of there. It's a part of getting older, I guess and Miss BlueBelle will be 7 years old in December. I know! She's so young looking!

And she's a genius. I did a dog IQ test on her. The test is to put a cookie on the floor and cover it with a dish towel, the length of time it takes for the dog to uncover the cookie? is inversly proportional to their intelligence (the shorter the amount of time? the faster they are). I put the cookie on the floor and off we went. She was eating her breakfast when i put it on the floor. she looked at it, tried to get it, realized it wouldn't be easy and went back to eating her food. After she had finished her food? it took her less than 10 seconds to get the cookie out from under the dish towel. Sure this is only one test. But I think this bodes well for her overall intelligence. Although she did just start barking at Michael, so maybe not...

If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as work.--William Shakespeare

Long Weekend

Canadian Thanksgiving never really meant that much to me until I moved to the US. There it became one of my favorite holidays. I always tried to have a nice meal or something on the Sunday before Canadian Thanksgiving Nothing traditional (can't remember the last time I had a traditional Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving) but something nice. Then I moved back to Canada and... not so much.

This year my father is visiting. I hadn't seen him in 3 years so I was very excited. He's been given projects including the storage space downstairs and fixing the lack of closet space in my room and I must say, my place does look pretty good (he's in the storage area downstairs now, I check on him once in awhile). I have spent way too much time at Ikea over the past couple of months but the place is beginning to look pulled together.

And this morning, my father ran his first 5 KM race.

There's a story here. When I was young(er) I was a bookish child. I didn't really play sports (although I loved skating in the winter) and I really wanted to win something. With the annual school track and field day coming up, my father decided he was going to teach me to run. So, we'd go over at nights to the school field and we'd run. I won the blue ribbon for the 50 m dash that year.

I've run throughout the years, I did track and cross country in high school but hadn't really run that much in recent years. Until I moved to Montreal and took it up seriously. Now it's a lifestyle and something I can't imagine not doing for the rest of my life. It's wonderful going to races and seeing people I've gotten to know over the past couple of years, they always feel like a bit of a homecoming.

Dad was coming to town and I thought hmm... Fall Colours Marathon is going on this weekend, maybe we should do a 5? He said yes, Mom said no- I registered him and the rest, as they say, is history. We ran and- well, he's not a runner but the man's a racer. We finished the race holding hands and our names were called together over the loud speaker. I thought it was touching. Anyway-- he finished in the top of his age category! I saw the rankings and started screaming-- pushing Dad into the awards tent just as his name was called and up he went to get his gold! I was so proud!

A picture of us with our bib numbers and medals (I got a "participant" medal- baah!). Please note the all black outfit: my father, the man in black ;)

He rows competitively and is ranked quite highly in the World rankings for his gender and age (in the heavy weight category) you can look up Frank Wilmot on this sight http://www.concept2.com/sranking03/rankings.asp And, I may have started something because I believe I heard him say (over beer later in the day) that maybe he could get Mom into this? Ahahahhahaha! I may never go home for Xmas again.





Also, Jeffrey May- awesome musician and father to my friend Simone- has a new website!
I first heard him play on a lovely Saint Jean Baptiste Day at a street party on St Urbain. It was lovely and perfect-- jazzy, soulful and captured the mood. His site is http://www.jeffmaymusic.com/ If you are in Montreal or headed there and want to hear some great live music, I think you should check him out.