Madeleine Magic!

I have a new friend and a new recipe to share.  Check out my latest on HuffPo:

Remembrance of Things Past

Independence

 

 

I have a few people in my orbit kicking cancer's ass, at various levels of independence from their cancer.  I am seeing one of them today so I asked what her favorite dessert was.  Carrot cake.  I made my tried and true recipe - Best Carrot Cake Ever -- but the purist version, sans chocolat!

 

I doubled the frosting recipe, which I highly recommend.  This allows you to make the frosting between the three layers a proper thickness AND allows you to do one thin layer of frosting, throw it in the fridge to set and then do a nice second layer that looks prettier and without the marring of moist cake crumbs.  This is the moistest cake of all time because it is drenched in a buttermilk glaze before frosting.  That makes it sound super-sweet but it's not.  It's just pure deliciousness.

 

I found these cookies at Trader Joe's the other day.  They have pop rocks on top of the chocolate so it's like eating fireworks: a must add! 

 

 

 

I added food coloring to the leftover frosting:

 



Then I painted the cookies and top of the cake with a watercolor brush.  So, no, this isn't mustard and ketchup -- it's color-zapped cream cheese frosting:

 

 

Happy Independence Day to all - whatever independence you may be celebrating today.  May it be colorful, love-filled, and may you feel kick ass independent in all the right and wonderful ways.  

Chocolate Cake + Milk, Please!

 

I went to the ever amazing T. Chick McClure's art show last night at the soon to be no more Bergamot Station.  It was so great to see his photos in large format.  When I stood in front of this one I felt like I was being showered with milk.  Look at the movement of that milk and the piercing blue eyes of her subject, comedian Bronston Jones!



 

 

And for another very good time you can make chocolate cake!  Chick asked me to make him a chocolate cake -- as chocolatey and moist as I could make it.  While I have made a million different moist and chocolatey cakes, I felt like trying something new to meet The Chick Chocolate Cake Challenge.

 

I bee-lined to my fave Smitten Kitchen and found this Double Chocolate Layer Cake recipe.  I just knew it would meet the challenge.  But I wanted it to be three layers, so I used three 8 inch pans and it worked great, but just bake for 50-ish minutes if you do that.  And, Chick specifically said he didn't want fruit in it -- just as chocolatey as possible -- so I didn't do the raspberry filling.  In honor of having just been blessed by all his milky portraits, I made a whipped cream mash-up for between layers.  (About a cup of heavy cream + a splash each of vanilla and coconut extract, a small handful each of shredded coconut and toasted pecan pieces), I just wanted to give a wee chocolate respite for the taste buds since I made the recipe (both the cake and ganache) with dark chocolate instead of semi-sweet.  It is kick ass chocolatey!  Wowza!

 

 

 

And, now your final treat, if after looking at the above photo of such a rich chocolate cake you need some more milk!  And maybe a little goooooooooooooold!  Isn't Chick a genius!?  Follow him on Instagram or Facebook for a very good time. 

 

 

 

 

Superpower Booster: Another Arrow for Your Superhero Quiver

I just saw Wonder Woman finally.  A mighty Superhero of Love she is.  Spoiler alert: Love wins. 

Made me remember how the more superpowers we have the better.  The more superhero tools the better.  The more areas where we are powerful, the more love we are able to give.

If you are looking for another arrow for that mighty quiver of yours, click this:

My latest HuffPo article

 

 

If it works for you, or inspires you, then pass it on.  Empower yourself, empower others and we all benefit from the generosity.

 

With love to all your kick ass superheroes out there!

 



Pi Love

Someone I knew who always brightened my path -- and that of everyone he met -- passed away a couple months ago.  His name was Jon.  He was sunshine.  It made sense then when I found out after he died that one of his favorite flowers was the sunflower.  I'm pretty sure they bowed to him whenever he passed them in his travels.

The person for whom his soul shined the brightest was his wife, Mo.  So when he died unexpectedly, suddenly, at far too young an age, it was most jarring for those of us who loved how they loved each other.  The solar system was thrown off its axis.  All hell broke loose in all of our hearts for her enormous loss.

A gathering was set for just several days after he died, so that everyone could somehow join hearts and heads together to try to rearrange the solar system in order to move forward. 

It rained all through the night and day leading up to the event. And then, just before the memorial began, the clouds parted and His Sunshineness came out to make his presence known. Many of us took it as a clear sign of Jon tapping us all on the shoulder in his elf-ish way: I. Am. Here.

Jon was famous for something other than his sunshine spirit, something tangible, edible.   People begged him to make his famous cheesecake.  So I asked Mo if I could make several for the gathering.  She led me to the fridge where she revealed all the main ingredients sitting waiting for me.  Jon had been scheduled to make one for a friend the day he died. 

Mo gave me his recipe with the warning "I'm sorry but they just won't be as good as Jon's because he made them with so much love."  So I mustered all the love in my heart to do his cheesecake recipe justice.  But my heart was less full of love than angst. I was not only worried that they wouldn't be as tasty as his but I was also concerned they might make people miss him even more. I was getting far too serious about the whole process.  Jon would have jumped up and down in the kitchen waving his hands encouraging me to lighten up about the whole thing in a playful sing-song: "Let's have fun baking!" he would have screamed. 

And "scream" he did -- with the symbol you see in the photograph above that I took just after I pulled the third cheesecake from the oven.

Why the Pi symbol, you ask? A few days before I baked the cheesecakes, I saw a cartoon on Instagram:

Setting: a couple's therapist's office.

The patient couple: the number 4 and the symbol Pi. 

The complaint: 4 is bitching that Pi "goes on an on..."

The cartoon stayed with me for days and I remembered the punchline as "He goes on and on FOREVER."

So when I pulled the third cheesecake out of the oven (with a witness at my side who can attest to my not having manipulated it in any way) and saw the above perfectly etched Pi symbol, I had to bow like every loyal sunflower to the Mighty Sunshine Jon.  "Yep," he would have said "I will go on and on forever, so stop your fretting and get back to the fun part!"

If you have lost someone you loved dearly, take a moment this Pi Day to give yourself the gift of make believe: pretend you pulled this cheesecake out of the oven yourself and got this reminder from them. 

Happy Pi Love Day, Superheroes! 

The Power of Suffering, The Power of Healing

Carol Woodliff is a very powerful shaman here in Los Angeles.  She posted casually on Facebook earlier today that she was going to do a meditation for a half hour to "pray for courage and strength for all who suffer..."  She was inspired to meditate for those wounded at Standing Rock, and that led to her seeing images of Syrian suffering, and she realized she would be meditating for all those who suffer on the planet, not just those wounded by the conflicts in Standing Rock or Syria.

I joined her and listened over and over to the 16 minute meditation by Master John Douglas (spirit-repair.com) called "Karmic Repair" which leads you through an exquisite prayer on behalf of those suffering -- from the micro to the macro level.  First I did it for those in war torn areas, then again for people of color all over the planet who has suffered from abuse based on the color of their skin, then for all indigenous peoples on the planet fighting for their lands and cultures, then for all who suffer in any way.

I saw vivid images throughout this hour, each time being shown the abused and the abuser, and each time seeing that we have all played both roles at some point, whether intentionally or not.  We all suffer in our own way.  We abuse when our hearts are profoundly wounded, and we can't find the answers to end our own suffering.  One image I saw of a man beating another was that both of their hearts were in extreme pain, mirror images surpassing this snapshot in time where one would be perceived as in more pain than the other.

We all suffer.  And we all have the power to heal.  Ourselves and others.  We all have it in us to abuse and be abused, and we all have it in us to heal ourselves and others.

A very wise friend, another master healer here in Los Angeles, Master Bruce Sun, visited me the other day and pointed out my own suffering that I had not seen, which was the source of a physical pain I was having.  He saw a vision of a past life of mine where I tried very hard to save a group of people and I failed. Since that life I have felt the burden of that failure, feeling as if everything that goes wrong is my fault.  I created experiences and relationships in this life to confirm that.  In this meditation (which clearly appealed to my "everything is my fault" wound! LOL!), I asked that my own suffering born in that past life also be healed.  I think this may be the end of recreating experiences to make me feel this burden and suffering.

We can all make a difference.  We can all heal ourselves and heal others, and from this meditation I saw that they feed each other.  Healing begets being healed.  Being healed begets more healing, and so on.  

Most important, never underestimate your own healing power -- no matter how short the amount of time spent giving a smile, a love-filled intention or prayer.  You've got this. We've got this.  

Here's to each of us making a difference for the suffering of all on this jewel of a planet. 

Love Army

Miraculously, I just recently changed one of the major concepts in my book from "Love Army" to "Love League."  I did it, profoundly reluctantly on the advice of my book guru, Pat Verducci.  It turns out she was a genius, yet again, for so many reasons! 

Van Jones has just stepped into his superhero suit to stop the freight train of ignorance, and leap into healing the heart of America with his #LoveArmy!  Go Van

The movement will officially launch in March apparently, but why not get in on the Love Army now?  

You will sign the most beautiful pledge ever when you Click here to Join the #LoveArmy!

Do it now. It'll feel good.

Here's to love love love and more love!