Il Diplomatico Cake

Watch How To Make Il Diplomatico Cake

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Video and recipe for how to make an updated version of Marcella Hazan’s classic—and foolproof—Il Diplomatico, a rum-and-coffee-flavoured mousse cake.

Teresa Syrnyk discovered the recipe for Il Diplomatico when she decided to cook her way through Marcella Hazan’s The Classic Italian Cookbook. Originally published in 1973 and now out of print, this cookbook was the first of many by the woman whose name is now synonymous on this continent with authentic Italian cooking, someone rightfully credited with having introduced most of us to dishes such as risotto and polenta.

Syrnyk’s version of Hazan’s recipe eschews the heavy whipped cream icing in favour of much lighter and infinitely more attractive dusted cocoa for the top.

RMO Media has collaborated with Doris Cheung Art + Media to produce a video on how to make Il Diplomatico, the first in a series on topics designed to appeal to Frugalbits readers. Click through to view the video and/or obtain a printable version of the recipe. Read more

Flour Sack Towel on Amazon.com

Serious Cooks Prefer Flour Sack Towels

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Serious cooks say there is no better vehicle for hand drying dishes or mopping up spills than the humble flour sack towel.

Flour Sack Towel on Amazon.comCULT PRODUCT ALERT | Don’t you just love it when you discover a product that is beautiful, useful—and inexpensive? If you haven’t already replaced the fancy cotton or terrycloth tea towels in your kitchen with ones made of flour sack material, here a few good reasons to make the switch. Read more

Karl Lagerfeld’s Fashions For Macy’s

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He’s gone high-end with Chanel and low-end with H&M, but can Karl Lagerfeld produce a fashion collection that appeals to middle Americans? We’ll find out August 31.

SAVE ON CHIC | It’s kind of funny to think that Karl Lagerfeld, one of the most influential fashion designers in modern history, the face of Chanel, a man defined by his elitism and snobbery, most likely invented diffusion fashion—clothing lines by top fashion designers for inexpensive off-the-rack shops. Lagerfeld’s groundbreaking 2004 collection for low-end fashion house H&M, every piece of which sold out worldwide in under 60 minutes, unleashed an army of copycat courtiers itching to collaborate with mass-market retailers on low-cost apparel lines, starting a trend that continues unabated. Read more

Why Reupholster When A Nip And Tuck Will Do

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Why flat out reupholster your old, classic sofa when a nip and a tuck may be all it takes to give it a lift.

SERVICE ALERT | Although home décor and design are all about modernism right now, I’m still in love with the George Smith-inspired scroll arm sofa and chair I bought on sale at Conran’s in England when my now-teenaged son was small. One thing I appreciate about my pieces is the way their fabric has faded ever so softly over the years in that endearing English country house way. It made me sad to think about completely recovering them when two of the arms frayed, one each on the sofa and chair, but what else can you do when your living room starts to look more shabby than chic? I had pretty much resigned myself to an expensive upholstery redo when Susan Poling walked into my life. Read more

Forecourt Fountain - Portland, Oregon

Shop This Town: Great Buys In Portland Now

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In Portland, our dollar is high, the sales are ongoing, and the merch is to buy for.

Forecourt Fountain - Portland, OregonTRAVEL ADVISORY | Last week we shared some of our favourite places to sleep and eat in Portland, Oregon. Today we cut straight to the shopping (after a toe dip in Lawrence Halprin’s Keller Fountain Park pictured here, arguably the most beautiful water feature in North America).

Maybe because there’s no sales tax or because Portland’s less than stellar economy means sales are constant, but PDX brings out the shopper in me. What I love about this place is that there are plenty of malls and big box emporiums for those who want them, and lots of indie shopping neighbourhoods for those who don’t.

Here’s where to shop in Portland, Oregon, right now. Read more

Marble Quad Tray 18Karat - Doris Cheung

Go, Go {Kitchen} Gadget: 2 Top Products

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Sweet solutions for ripening and peeling your favourite fruits and veggies.

Marble Quad Tray 18Karat - Doris CheungMONEY WELL SPENT | With so many kitchen gizmos out there, you’d have thought that someone, somewhere would have long ago designed an attractive receptacle for ripening market-hard fruit on a windowsill. You can find clear plastic fruit ripening bowls, of course, dome-lidded containers that sweeten up a pile of fruits simultaneously (doubly quick when you add a banana to the mix), but I find these products cumbersome counter hogs. What I want is something that will tuck up out of the way on my windowsill and ripen just a few fruits—pears, tomatoes, avocados, the occasional cantaloupe or pineapple—in natural sunlight; something that looks attractive empty. Read more

Portland, Oregon, White Stag Sign

3 Reasons To Visit Portland Right Now

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The perfect last-minute no-brainer getaway. Here are three reasons to go right now.

Portland, Oregon, White Stag SignTRAVEL ADVISORY | Did you get sidetracked and forget to plan a vacation this year? No worries: you’ll always have Portland. It’s the perfect last-minute no-brainer getaway. You could fly, of course, but why not drive? If you leave Vancouver at 6 a.m. and ignore the siren call of Seattle, you’ll be in the City of Roses by early afternoon with plenty of daylight remaining to dive into interesting things.

Here are three irresistible reasons to visit Portland right now. Read more

Nordstrom Rack

Ambushed By Low Prices At The Rack

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Ambushed by unbelievable prices at Nordstrom.

Nordstrom RackSAVE ON CHIC | While I am seriously involved with a website that deals with shopping topics, I am not a shopaholic. When it comes to buying clothes, I like to have a specific goal in mind, like buying a bathing suit for example, and I can usually resist pulling out my wallet for anything other than the exact item I have on my list. Where this blue steel resolve always breaks down is when I am standing on the threshold of one of my favorite deep-discount meccas, Nordstrom Rack, where the deals are usually so crazy good that I never fail to find something I wasn’t necessarily in the market for, wonder if I’ll ever use but always wind up wearing till it dissolves into a few random threads. Read more

Toms-The Row Fall 2011

Shoe In: TOMS New Euro Shoes By The Row

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Last week TOMS introduced its new pricy classics by The Row. Does this mean a Three For One program will follow?

Toms-The Row Fall 2011SHOPPING AROUND | I’ve been wearing the same pair of classic TOMS shoes for three years now, and I love them. I don’t know whether the alpargata, the Argentinean farmer/polo player’s shoe (a variation on the Spanish espadrille) that is the basis for the TOMS design has any arch support, but TOMS shoes have some, which makes them particularly comfortable—and a foot-healthy alternative to that other ubiquitous casual shoe, the flip flop. Read more

The Dukan, The Duchess & Me: Diet Like Royalty

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Kate Middleton followed the Dukan diet before her wedding. Now the book is also reduced.

Kate Middelton

 

LOSING IT | Losing weight wasn’t at the top of my To Do list. It hovered somewhere between sorting out the basement and organizing the family photos, promising to be just as much of a chore. Then recently, I looking around on Abebooks.com and I noticed that they are practically giving away copies of the The Dukan Diet.  Read more