Month: July 2015

I do, I really do love burgers

With a strict diet, mostly eating healthy and simpler meals, my body has adjusted to a regimented eating, seldom craving fatty, and high-calorie foods. Although once in a blue moon (which by the way is in full gear tonight) I crave burgers. The kind I want to load up with mushrooms, jalapeno, grilled onions, avocado, cheese, and anything else I can manage to stack in a sandwich, with that in mind I share with you one of my favorite blogs-Porn Burger. Check out just SOME of my favorites and for recipes go here:  

Boutique Hotel Picks from Rawsilkandsaffon

I’ve been writing about boutique hotels for a while on this blog, listing all of the ones I’ve stayed in, or simply walked through, or even considered writing about in my novels. A few I have, and some I am saving for future storytelling. Either way here are some of my favorites. I apologize for all the travel posts lately, I just can’t get my mind off traveling.

Location Is Everything When Writing a Novel

Like a film set, location in books are equally important, finding just the perfect house or apartment, cafe down the street, a restaurant, hotels, and cabins, beach scenes or inland, all of it play a major role while writing–enticing the imagination. What’s funny is that I’ll stumble upon a place while exploring the world, or even in the bay area, and I’ll stop and take a picture, and take it home, download it on my laptop and arrange it in the order I want to see a story pan out. In light of this style of writing if you will, I want to share with you the four significant hotels I used in my first novel – Piazza Navona – click here to read about them and here to order the book  

There Is This Show – Velvet – From Spain

I am always fascinated withthe 1950s-1960s fashion. I think the whole pencil skirt, A-line dresses, form-fitting jackets, red lipstick, perfect colored stockings and the best shoes, most of the fashion to this day appreciated and  incorporated here and there. I love it when I see a period film perfectly detailing the fashion for  the period (50-60s) and  I think for me Mad Men was the best until just recently I discovered Velvet, a soap opera from Spain. The show is pretty cheesy, in a funny and cute sort of way, and I have grown to love all of the actors passing through, or staying on so far in Season 2 on Netflix. Also perks on brushing up on my Spanish of course. But what I love the most is the show is based on a department store in Spain competing with the likes of Dior and Chanel, introducing to us the best of fashion, haute couture anyone can wish for or imagine.  I love it when a show gets it right in costumes and in Velvet’s case, set decor as …

shoes: sale at nordstrom my picks

Working in the city, we are no longer required to dress up. Let me rephrase, maybe dress up  just in retail and some banks. I laugh. Only because a decade ago everyone was required to look corporate. Lots has changed, and I am okay with it. Love coming to work dressed in jeans if I want to or dress up if I choose to.  So, shoes play a part in the look, as we know it, and most of the time I prefer to be comfortable  to walk everywhere for lunch, to climb hills, and hop on and off busses and trains, running to them on occasion. Anyway, long story short, I walked into Nordstrom to simply order my favorite pomegranate ice tea, and ended up walking out with a few pairs of shoes. Ehmm. Oh well. Click here to go there-Norsdstrom Shoes

recipe: fried apples and toast

This is part of my romantic morning after breakfast series. I hardly order dessert in restaurants and seldom even make them at home. As you see desserts are my weakness. Don’t get me wrong, when I’m in Paris, I do indulge, mostly puff pasty desserts with apples, or chocolate. Minus of course a daily intake of crepe here and there. This recipe stood out for me, not so much because it is a dessert(although it can be used as such), but the fact, its made with apples, cinnamon, raisin and almonds some of my favorites. Anyway, blogger’s rule, I cannot post the entire recipe here so click here to get there: