Even though my favorite chef Dale fell by the wayside in the race to become Top Chef, I couldn’t be happier for Stephanie.

I was giggling during last night’s finale because she kept saying, “ My pound cake’s crap,” over and over again, and she had this agitated/frustrated/silently panicked look on her face, one that I recognize because I’ve been in that state myself during baking! I thought to myself: “Oh, that’s not a very attractive expression to wear around the kitchen!” Haha.

Stephanie Izard is the first female Top Chef. The curls did it, I tell you. Curls=kitchen powah.

Congratulations to Stephanie, who I some day hope to meet. Along with Dale, please. Teehee.

I used to have this dream (still do) about opening a bakery that would sell small versions of everything edible. Little finger sandwiches, tartlets, mini breads, all served with tea and coffee in demitasse cups–you get the picture. Why the obsession with teensy yummies? Maybe because it brings back memories of playing “tea” as a kid with those tiny plastic toys. (My imaginary friend loved my tea parties. He was a blue genie and I kept him in my backpack the whole day until tea time, when he was permitted to practice his social skills with Barbie.)

I remembered all this recently, as I made the mini chocolate cakes below for my brother’s girlfriend. She gave them to her boss as a thank-you gift.

I love the baking pan I used to make these. It’s from Nordicware, with mini versions of its popular Cathedral, Fleur de lis, and Bavaria Bundt shapes. I think if the house was burning, I would take this pan and run. (Did I just type that?)

I decorated the mini cakes with different toppings (two of each kind): Chocolate Glaze, Raspberries and Mint/Caramel Sauce and a dusting of cocoa and powdered sugar/White Chocolate.

Which one’s your teensy yummy?

I got the sweetest things via Snail Express from Little Miss Firefly’s Odette. I was beyond squealing (I think only the neighborhood dogs heard me) because all I get these days in the mail are junk–these were anything but!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Odette!

She personalized some beautifully handcrafted flat cards with my name and my blog’s and included a thoughtful handwritten note with recycled envelopes. Ah, a woman after my heart. Eyeluvdem.

Getting this reminded me of the charm and romance of handwritten letters. Nothing beats the craft of putting pen to paper, especially so when the stamps outside the note are from a country you love and miss, and even more so if they come from a friend you just met through blogging. Thank you again, Odette. My curls and I are still reeling from this pretty-paper-induced coma. I look forward to writing to you at that address you’ve been wishing for (and I’ve been wishing for, too!)

Today is the birthday of Diego Velazquez, iconic baroque Spanish painter. Why am I blogging about him? Because my brother showed me two paintings of his once, and I’ve never forgotten them. He is a craftster of the supreme kind. Above is Vieja Friendo Huevos (An Old Woman Frying Eggs), below is Las Meninas (The Maids Of Honor).

Vieja’s colors matches my blog’s. Eyeluvit.

Ah, I love this store–and all the original, crafty designs on it. I can’t believe I finally caught one of their sales. Many of their tees are $5 off, a lot are $10 until the sale ends on June 8th. My favorite is this design!

Hurry, hurry over there! (I am!)

I was online, checking if I could order stamps off the United States Postal Service (USPS) website, and hello, there–look at what I found. Eyeluv this Tropical Fruits series.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen good-lickin’, I mean, good-lookin’, stamps. The last time was probably a year ago, when I actually shelled out cash to buy some Star Wars Special Edition stamps at the Star Wars Convention. (No snickering allowed, thank you! I’m such a dorkfan, I know.)

But now, there’s this entire set of great stamps that’s part of the American Design series, featuring the history of U.S. craftsmanship. Eyeluv them too.

Can’t wait to get new stamps. And maybe this? Heehee.

Whenever my brother talks about my blog, he just says the acronym GWAC (for Girl With A Curl) out loud. It sounds like “gwak”. While he was designing the top banner, he kept saying “GWAC” over and over again. I was close to being annoyed with the oft-repeated name until an idea popped into my head: “GWAC” sounds just like “guac”, which is short for guacamole, and the way most of my American friends call that green concoction you serve tortilla chips with.

So, I decided to take some of my favorite flavors and create a curlified guacamole. This one’s filled with the delicious tastes and textures of avocados, lime, tomatoes, mangoes (a nod to the tropics where I’m from) and feta cheese. Why feta? I needed a cheese sharp enough to cut through the creaminess of the avocados.

Putting this together, I found out that the traditional Aztec way of making guacamole was through mashing the avocado with a molcajete, a type of mortar and pestle that looks like this:

I wish I had such tools to work with because I’m a stickler for tradition, but seriously, a plain old bowl and a fork worked just as well. Mash together two small avocados, the juice of 1 1/2 lime, 1/2 cup diced mangoes (firm, not mushy), and 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese. Tweak the flavors as you go along; trust those tastebuds!

A traditional herb that gets thrown into this happy mix is cilantro, which I hate with a passion. Most people expect this in guacamole, but I frankly think it tastes/smells like a stink bug we call “changaw” where I grew up. With this recipe, I can finally enjoy guacamole without feeling like I’m willingly ingesting the grossness of those insects. Hehe.

My secret ingredient? Don’t use traditional salt. Seasoned salt is the way to go! It has celery seed, turmeric, paprika and onion and garlic salt all mixed in, so you skip the step of adding all those in. The one I use is Lawry’s. (Another tip: season according to how salty your chips are. People sometimes forget that the chips are salty enough.)

After leaving your GWAC-amole in the fridge for about an hour (so the flavors can develop), plop it all onto a plate and make a round indentation in the mixture with the back of a spoon. Decoratively arrange a bit of the feta, mangoes and tomatoes in a ring in the hollowed part of the dip (I ran out of tomatoes!). Sprinkle a bit of seasoned salt on top for contrast, and fan out tortilla chips around it.

Ole! Enjoy!