This month the newly launched Glossybox USA partners with the popular blogger Man Repeller to curate a special limited edition box. I have been subscribed to this service in its earlier months (Glossybox just launched in the US last May, although it is available in other countries all around the world) and this is the first time their trademark pink box has been upgraded to a limited edition silver.
Inside, nestled within silver wrapping paper were the following:
Tarte Glamazon pure performance 12 hour lipstick in color Fierce (full size, $28)
OPI “Can’t Let Go” Liquid Sand Nail Lacquer (full size, $9)
Narcisco Rodriguez for her Eau de Toilette Spray (regular sample size)
Le Metier de Beaute Replenishing Daily Solution (regular sample size: foil packet)
Sebasian Professional Potion 9 (deluxe sample)
Glossybox normally retails for $21, so as you can see the full sized products make up for what you spend on it. I was always intrigued by the concept, but previous boxes have been a hit or a miss. I do actually already own some of the products featured inside, although I did love the presentation, the value and the selection of brands. And I am very impressed by the OPI nail polish and the Tarte lipstick. I personally can’t wait to see what next month’s box will hold. What do you think, lovely readers?
USA Network’s new show Political Animals premiered on the 25th at the Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan. I love museum venues, and this one, which I hadn’t heard of before, once housed the rare books collection of American banking tycoon, J.P. Morgan. It was very cool to explore, although the small space made it a bit crowded (press had to view the screening in the lobby while regular guests got to go to a legit screening room).
USA outfitted the entire place with giant red, white and blue balloons in keeping with the theme of the show- which, if you couldn’t tell, centres around American politics.
Actually the show is basically a soap-y dramatized version of the Hillary Clinton story, starring Sigourney Weaver as a former First Lady turned Presidental Candidate turned Secretary of State, and Ciaran Hinds as the sleazy ex President.
I am (or used to be) obsessed with politics and basically worship Hillary Clinton if you didn’t know (I once volunteered for her campaign, and would go on possessed rants about all the unjust sexism I’d see in the media) so theoretically this show is right up my alley. It’s not a bad show, but it’s very heavyhanded and the dialogue is too on the nose (which means the characters unrealistically say exactly what they feel exactly when they feel it). It is a summer show on USA though, and not HBO or anything, so I can’t fault it or anything. I also enjoy that there is an Asian character.
On the other hand, the event itself was highly enjoyable, with both a photobooth and gift bags containing branded animal crackers and t-shifts.
I joked I would somehow charm creator Greg Berlanti into giving me a writing job on one of his shows but chickened out of talking to him (it was a bad day: I had to endure a pervert in an empty subway car going there). An actor he worked with did tell me he is one of the nicest, most genuine people in Hollywood. That is of course, completely expected: as if an asshole could create the sensitive father/ son drama Everwood.
Greg Berlanti, phwoar.
He is also extremely, extremely good looking- not even good looking for a writer, but good looking by general standards to. Prompting me to wonder why someone with looks like that would choose to write if he could act/ model/ run for political office instead. Actually, this was something that Carla Gugino said to some wannabe journalist in the show, except with porn star as top in the list of options. Never mind, I take it back, Political Animals is a good show. Go watch it.
First of all, I love Mad Men more than life itself. Okay, that’s not entirely true- at least this season it isn’t. Admittedly my life too suffers from ups and downs in quality, but this season has been uncharacteristically uneven. Nevertheless, Mad Men is still known as the little cable show that could. As AMC’s first scripted series, it put the scrappy channel on the map, and along the way, introduced the world to the glory that is Jon Hamm. And it is also a juggernaut in the fashion world, with its influence evident on catwalks since the very first season.
Surprisingly enough, with a plot centered around the Golden Age of the advertising industry, there have been relatively few media tie-in products capitalizing on its success. Most likely, Matthew Weiner, the notoriously anal showrunner, keeps a tight leash on the licensing rights. But in any case, in the years past, Mad Men has inspired a decidedly uninspired line at Banana Republic, and a line of limited edition Mad Men Barbie Dolls that little resembled the actors.
Constance Jablonski by Craig McDean for Estee Lauder Mad Men Collection.
This year, however, Estee Lauder teamed up with the show to introduce a limited edition creme rouge blush and lipstick set, in Evening Rose and Cherry, respectively. I’ve been drooling over them since it was announced three months ago, right when the current season first premiered. Estee Lauder was nice enough to provide a set for review, to coincide with the season finale this Sunday.
And what is not to love about the whole thing? The retro ’60s inspired ads feature a Betty Draper-like blonde ingenue with a “who, me?” look on her face. You know- the dream. The packaging itself is also vintage inspired- old fashioned typography on a box with a lovely floral design and a wallpaper like feel. Not unlike something you’d dig up in your grandmother’s trunks in the attic when you were a small child- if your grandmother was a rich white lady that is, which mine was not.
Obligatory Instagram shot
A gold pleather pouch house the shiny gold casings of both the compact and the tiny bullet sized lipstick (the size is true to lipstick size in the olden days). The overall effect is incredibly classy. Way too classy to carry around and wear on a daily basis, at least for me. I will have to save it to whip out only on special occasions- like during the intermission of an opera or whathaveyou, right after I catch the eye of a Daniel Craig lookalike and right before I make a fool of myself in front of him.
But in all seriousness- the creme rouge is soft and quite easy to apply, and the color is a classic shade suitable for just about all skin tones. The lipstick, though lovely, is a bright, pink red, that I don’t quite think can be pulled off by just anyone. At $25, the lipstick is a good collector’s item for vintage makeup junkies, but you’d get more use out of the $40 blush.
Fancy creme rouge making a mockery out of my other blush
I applaud Estee Lauder for reviving a part of its history, and only wish it wasn’t limited to just the one lipstick color and blush. They will launch a second collection to coincide with season 6 next year, so hopefully that can be remedied. The supply is highly limited, so get it at Esteelauder.com while it lasts. And don’t forget to catch the season finale of Mad Men this Sunday. I myself will be attending a dressy season finale party in Manhattan, where I expect to show off my newest toys at every opportunity.
Betty Draper would approve.
The Mad Men Limited Edition Collection was provided by Estee Lauder for review purpose. There is no pay for play unless specifically listed as advertorial or sponsored. See FAQs for more details.
I’m Jessica, the new contributing writer from the US. I’m based in New York City, where grew up, and went to high school and college (university to you). After attending series of pretentious schools, I graduated with a very expensive degree in Dramatic Writing (screenwriting and playwriting) and history, which is pretty much as useless as you’d imagine.
I, among other things, enjoy accumulating useless entertainment industry gossip, and consuming an unhealthy amount of media. In my spare time, I love to travel, getting into conversations with random people, being sneaky and getting myself into sticky yet hilarious situations. I also love politics and current events, enjoy being right all the time and have a particular knack for pissing off self important people with a well timed cutting remark. As you can expect, I am an insufferable little know-it-all, unemployable in any other field except writing.
My love for fashion was started by the TV shows Mad Men, and What Not to Wear, as well as all the gorgeous European models I hung out with while studying abroad in Berlin. I also love online shopping, Broadway shows, Taylor Swift, swimming and good food.
It’s well known that the modeling world in the West is dominated by teens and preteens from the developing world. Eastern Europe, in particular, supplies the swaths of alien eyed, wispy, thin young girls on the runways every year, while Brazil sources the more curvaceous types you’ll find in Victoria’s Secret catalogues. These women- and you can barely call them women, as they’e barely hit their teens – come from poor countries, have few years of proper education, and usually barely speak English. And for every household name that came from rags to riches, hundreds of others struggle for years on end with no payoff.
Every so often, rumblings about the problems that are so pervasive to the industry makes its way to the press. Those stories usually centre around eating disorders, or exploitative labor practices, or the antics of Terry Richardson and are often sensationalized. Girl Model on the other hand, attempts to tell the truth of what does goes on in the modeling industry. If you ever wondered how the hamburger is made, “Girl Model” follows the supply chain to the very beginning, a beauty pageant in a small town deep inside Siberia.
“Girl Model” centers around two narratives. The 13 year old Nadya, wins the pageant and a coveted contract to model in Japan, with the 30something British modelling scout, Ashley. Nadya is an innocent girl with a dollike face from the countryside, as you would expect, while Ashley is coldblooded and unhinged, her job consisting of travelling throughout Eastern Europe signing childlike models for the Asian market. Ashley once modeled herself in Japan, and much of the dramatic irony in the piece are of the stories that she tells her young recruits of the glamorous life that await them. Her own life, however, says otherwise.
Model scout Ashley
Nadya, on the other hand, is genuine, and her narrative is the heart of the story. It’s to the filmmakers’ credit that her story isn’t sensationalized. Yes – she’s made to prance around in a bikini in the full glare of grown men at the beginning, and it is deeply unsettling; Ashley unflinchingly compares the process to prostitution later on in the film. But the worst moments that await her in Tokyo are the days and days of non stop rejection. She gets further and further in debt to her agency, and returns home a financial burden on her parents.
Ashley’s story on the other hand is manipulative and unnecessary. Apparently she herself pitched the idea for the documentary to the filmmakers and she wastes no time mugging for the cameras. She shows off the her collection of plastic baby dolls, which, of course, she dissects in her spare time, because she can’t have children of her own. She makes long and vague speeches about how lonely she is and gazes forlornly into the distance on multiple occasions. A lot of screen time could have been cut indulging her narcissism, and the film would have been stronger for it.
Ultimately Girl Model tells a story about the not so lurid, but still sad realities of the people that populate the modeling industry- the young girls forced to grow up all too quickly, and the adults, who never quite grew up themselves.
Jessica Wu is a writer in her early 20s from New York City. She has a very expensive and very useless degree in Dramatic Writing, enjoys travel, food and politics, and has a knack for mouthing off in front of important people.
Girl Model is available on DVD now and is screening worldwide. Check the site for a screening in your country.
Whenever I’ve gone to a press event for John Lewis I have never been able to find the correct entrance. The new beauty hall launch was no different. After being told various ways to enter, I was told to search for the black doors next to customer service. The service entrance. Not where I was supposed to be.
I was too exasperated to go where I was supposed to be, and the two ladies who followed me were also a little annoyed. Probably because they were real journalists unlike me (BAHAHAHA). I got over it soon enough. Jess, the press assistant from John Lewis couldn’t apologise enough and poured oil over troubled waters and took us (and the many other journos who were wrongly directed) up to the beauty hall. My waters were sufficiently oily, is all I can say. I get annoyed easily, but also abated easily. I would say mollified, but I wasn’t throwing a fit. It’s only an event, son.
Coming up through the back, I missed the huge flower wall, and the paparazzi snapping away at people who I assumed were famous in some way or form, but had no idea who they were. Ergo, I ended up photobombing many of the er, celebrities. If you see a chubby chino clad leg in the Metro tomorrow, it is I. Legbombing, I’ve never had it (thankfully)
Perhaps because I avoid Oxford St like the plague, but I failed to notice that there was a huge refurb going on. Jess told me whilst we were walking up the stairs, that it cost in the region of £7 million. That’s a lot of lippies and perfume gift sets, amiright?
But I could see, and appreciate the major effort that had gone into redoing the beauty hall. In all fairness, I never realised John Lewis had a beauty hall before. I merely thought it was a few tables with some haphazard samples of blush and half used mascara. Perhaps that beauty hall refurb was well overdue.
I entertained myself by taking photos of all the shiny new counters, and dazzling product arrays with the new HTC One S (review coming soon) and chit chatted to a few of the brand people at their counters, including David from Tom Ford Fragrances, who was very nice and let me fangirl over Tom Ford, and also gave me a sample of Neroli Portofino. He didn’t even correct my Cockney pronunciation of Neroli.
At the Chanel fragrances counter I was intrigued by the Microsoft Surface table, where you would put a Chanel fragrance on the table, and the information and ingredients would pop up underneath, as well as other content such as videos that you could interact with. Fancy! The Chanel rep however told me it would be only there for a week before it moved on – if pretending to be in Minority Report is your friend, I suggest you snap down there sharpish.
Each beauty concession now has their own unique look and spin on the traditional beauty counter. Gone are the standard stacked counters, and generic lit signs – welcomed are the flat screen TVs, padded walls, beauty lounges, fragrance bars, and candy coloured chairs. And the trees growing inside were a nice touch, along with the fresh flowers everywhere. Although the dearth of white picket fences was a bit annoying. I hope those aren’t permanent.
See, annoying. Fencebombing.
I snuck out behind the paparazzi, who were loafing around, playing with their phones as they waited for someone famous to turn up – when I stepped outside – some teenagers snapped a photo of me on their phones. They will be sorely disappointed when they realise that I am not on a reality TV show on ITV4.
I’m not one to usually kiss and tell about goody bags, but it contained a brand new tube of Elizabeth Arden’s 8 Hour Cream. Mr Lewis, however did you know?
SCHWING
John Lewis Beauty Hall, 300 Oxford Street, London W1A 1EX. Open 9am – 8pm daily. (12pm to 6pm Sundays)
**UPDATE** 1/4/2012 – I was switching my domain over, so my site was down for a little while and it looked like I was a cheap git who didn’t renew. That’s a lie! I never pay for it! It’s my annual birthday present from my brother. So I started writing this post ages ago, so bear that in mind. Oh and as usual, I will try and blog more blah blah blah.
I always said if I didn’t have a Blackberry, I’d go for an Android. Ok, I haven’t always said that, because Android hasn’t been around for that long. But if I didn’t have a Blackberry I’d go for an Android.
I no longer have a Blackberry. Well I do, but it broke, so I needed a new phone. Vodafone hooked me up with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the latest jewel in the Android crown, the contender to Apple’s mighty iPhone.
Ima tell you, it’s a big phone. It is bigger than the iPhone. I don’t have one to compare it to, so I’m going to let your mind figure that out. But it’s slim. Like super sexy slim.*
Ignore the mess and my sleeve isn’t dirty, that’s just ’shadow’
*Yes I just used italics to reiterate the word ‘sexy’. I’m a cock.
But look how pretty it is. The whole phone is a display. A HD display. Yes, it has the HD. You see those buttons on the bottom? They’re not ACTUALLY BUTTONS. They flip around to whatever orientation the phone is at, tip it upside down, and the buttons sit next to the speaker. Magic.
Back to the phone in a bit. I especially wanted to try the Samsung Galaxy Nexus out because of the new Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0. Android just has the best names for their OS’s. Previous incarnations were Honeycomb and Gingerbread. And of course, there’s a cute icon to go with it.
It’s an…sandwich made of…ICE CREAM!
All yokes aside, everything about this phone was pretty damn sweet (all jokes aside.) Let me count the ways:
1. That Big Ol’ Screen
The display is absolutely ridiculous. When I say ridiculous, it is ridiculously good. The screen is a 4.65 inch Super AMOLED 720p screen- which I have no idea what that means. But it means it has the HD. Samsung dropped these screens on their latest Galaxy (also the Note) devices, meaning a super sharp, super clear display – the icons look phenomenal (as seen on the photos), and video playback is crisp and the size of the phone means that watching shows on a piddly little screen is part of the past.
I was a tad worried with having a phone which was effectively a huge screen, but Samsung screens are all made with Gorilla Glass (not made from real Gorillas, so calm yo tits PETA) meaning you can ‘apparently’ fling is around, and it’s scratch, break resistant, and remains cool to touch, which is top banana* since I can be a bit of a clumsy Colin.
*no pun intended
2. Social Sharing
I like to share things. I like to overshare often. The Nexus allowed me to do that, and do it well. Since it is a Android phone – it reallllllly wants you to use Google +. Which is good, because I would like to use Google+ more, but I forget. Too many social networks to remember. But I do have a lot of subscribers on G+ (because my surname is Bangladesh and lots of brown guys get super excited) and that translates to *bing bing* TRAFFIC. Apart of G+, it synced really easily with all my other social accounts, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube… you name it, it did it.
Another thing which was pretty handy is that it synced with my Picasa and the albums I’ve shared using Picasa online automatically. It doesn’t download them onto your phone, but is linked through your Google Account. Pretty handy.
I however didn’t set up WordPress with it, because for some reason, WordPress apps really don’t like self hosted WordPress accounts, and after trying to set up my account for a while, I gave up. I don’t think this is an Android app specific problem because it’s happened to me with Blackberry.
3. Slim Jim
For such a powerful phone, I was hella surprised at how thin the phone was. But the phone is HUGE. It has a 4.65 inch screen and it’s not too easy to just slot into your pocket. But I am known for having big pockets. But slipping it into your jeans pocket may be a thing of the past.
4. 1080p Video Recording
I scoff at most technical specs that manufacturers lay on thick because most of them are bare-faced exaggerations. But have a look at these videos… (in some of them you can hear my honking laughter or terrible Cockney commentary. I do apologise). The phone microphone cannot deal with very loud music, or sound, but in all fairness, I’ve yet to find a standard consumer device that does.
I suggest very strongly you mute this video, the sound is awful.
These videos were both taken at the Bjorn Borg Lights Off Pre LFW launch party at Battersea Power Station, where Robyn and Coco Sumner performed hence the very loud music, ergo terrible terrible sound.
Louise Gray AW12 LFW finale. The sound is a little better, as the music was still quite loud.
Here’s a bonus video of me blowing out the candles on my 25 Birthday Cakes on my actual 25th birthday. Sorry if you ate the cakes after, since I coughed all over them, and I know a lot of people did. *cough* 5. Android Market (now Google Play)
As I write, Google Play was just announced a few hours ago. From what I can see, it’s just a fancy term for The Cloud (but the new Google Cloud). Alas I didn’t get much time to try it out, although I think I’d have seen more benefits if I had an Android tablet as well.
6. The OS
The phone only froze on me once, and that’s because of the free version of Fruit Ninja which kept trying to get me to post my score on the global leaderboard (No that’s just sad). It handles an inordinate amount of apps running at the same time. Granted they do deplete your battery as they’re running in the background but you don’t realise it because the phone is running rather smoothly.
7. The keyboard
I have stupidly big hands for a girl, so I never want to use a touchscreen keyboard that isn’t the size of my head, but the autocorrect on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is actually rather good. There were only a few times were it made errors, and never as serious an error as an iPhone. It did however correct “HIHIHIHIHI” (sp) to “GINGIVITIS” (?) and although I added it to my dictionary, ‘ducking’ came up more than once. A phone that tried to improve my propensity for filthy language is a good thing.
8. Automatic Screengrabs
No need to download any extraneous apps for this, but hold down the volume buttons and power button and a screengrab is taken and saved to your pictures folder. This took me a while to figure out, and I only took one screengrab… which I then deleted by accident.
9. Face Unlock
You’ve seen the adverts with the kid doing a dictator moustache to unlock his daddy’s phone, so I gave it a whirl. It recognised me fine without my glasses, but as soon as I put my hair up, it was game over. A nifty feature, but not always accurate. I however thought it was hugely entertaining and kept locking the phone just to unlock it.
Does not like camera face. That’s reassuring.
The oh no no’s
1. The problem with the screen
It kills the battery way down. Way way down. A way to counteract this is to turn on automatic brightness and turn it down low. It goes a long way in saving the battery life as well as turning off the flashing LCD notification that you have a message or notification. However the screen at any one time will use 40% of the battery at a time. Food for thought, if you’re considering this phone. You do have to charge it every day – after changing the display settings, I did manage to eke out a day and a half.
2. IT DOESN’T PLAY ANY OTHER VIDEO FORMAT BUT MP4.
Finding that out after waiting for my .avi files to transfer was intensely frustrating. What gives? I don’t own a Mac, not everything is automatically encoded in Quicktime format. Grrrr.
3. The horrible plastic back
The back of the phone is not particularly attractive. In fact it looks like Samsung spent all their time on the front and there was a “No more twist!” situation but there was no mice to save them. It’s a thin piece of plastic, which is very annoying as the tabs don’t always line up and clip in properly. It also makes the phone look a bit cheap.
The real story is – Do you get this phone? A resounding yes, and it is more than worthy to the Apple crown. I did keep discovering new things about the phone as I used it. The size is important to consider, as it seems that Samsung’s keep getting bigger (see Galaxy Note) as well as battery life. The plastic back is a bit off-putting, but it’s not a deal breaker. The ease of the OS and the super easy social sharing makes this an ideal and (almost) perfect phone for us digital girls in a digital world.*
*Not just for girls
Samsung Galaxy Nexus courtesy of Vodafone UK. All opinions my own. There is no pay for play unless specifically listed as advertorial or sponsored. See FAQs for more details.
Since I’ve been sorting domain and hosting stuff, I have a whole bunch of posts on on my dashboard to be published (yes it’s true! It’s really true!) including the review of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, but for the meanwhile, please enjoy a selection of photos I took with the Nexus:
As many of my followers, and readers know – I don’t have a camera because some bitch broke mine, and legged it. As a blogger and stylist, I need a bloody camera. Something more substantial than a point and shoot, but I don’t need an SLR. So I asked my friend Bay for suggestions, and he said Fujifilm X10.
The Fujifilm X10 is 12MP, comes in black with a retro body which I loved, with a viewfinder and LCD monitor. As soon as I opened it, it took me a half hour to figure out how to turn it on. Why? It doesn’t have a power button. That was pretty annoying. It turns on, by taking the cap off, and turning the lens. Additionally you can’t view the photos you’ve already taken by just pressing the Play button, but have to turn the camera on via the lens before you can. That’s pretty annoying.
Not obvious in the slightest.
Despite that foible, I immediately starting monkeying around with it. It’s got a decent heft to it, but not as much as an SLR and you would definitely notice if you dropped it. And it has a pretty decent battery life without flash, for me it lasted for about 2 days of continuous picture shooting everyday. The Fujifilm X10 also has a cute pop up flash, which does tend to kill the battery pretty quickly if you’re shooting at night or in a dark place, primarily with flash, as well as multi-shot, taking seven pictures at a time.
Oh but the settings, the wonderful settings, and the things you can do with the camera. I found that I didn’t really have to use the flash too much, as the lens is absolutely fantastic – F2.0-2.8 Fujinon Optical 4x Zoom Lens (28-112mm), extends to full telephoto and really picks up natural light. Some may say there are TOO many settings, but I like that. It’s the kind of camera where you can just use the Auto setting and be done with it, but I started shooting in Manual and monkeying around with the settings. And as a bonus you can shoot in JPEG and RAW.
The Fujifilm X10 has 360 Mode where you sweep the camera with purpose and capture a 360 image. I kept being interrupted by people whilst trying to sweep, so I got about 300 degrees. These two were taken with no flash in a very dark room.
Action shot with flash in low light.
There’s also a mode where the camera takes two shots: one with flash and one without flash, which is helpful in low light.
Auto mode, no flash, indoor lighting.
Soft focus mode, no flash, indoor lighting.
Firework mode, outside, no flash, long shutter speed.
Interior shot with low light, no flash.
Outdoor shot, low light and rain. No flash.
Interior shots, bright light, I was tweaking with the ISO here, but I can’t recall the exact settings.
Zoomed image, exterior light.
All outdoor shots on Oxford St, pity the glare was picked up from the windows. I changed up the modes to try avoid the glare on the windows, but as it was black inside, the glass reflected all the light outside.
Additionally the video recording on it is superb, recording in full HD and with a pretty decent microphone with no tinny sounds. I’m no super techie, but from what I used of the cam, I was very pleased.
It is a lot pricier than other similar models such as the Panasonic Lumix, it’s retailing at the moment from £416 about the price of a lower end DSLR, but for me, it’s so worth it, as it performs imo just as well as a DSLR and with a huge range of options and settings and more importantly is more compact. I’ve never fell in love with an electronic device, but I think this might be it.
Another photo-heavy post as I’ve been reviewing the FujiFilm X10 and of course, I had to get snap happy with everything I did. So much so, that I miss having a camera more than ever.
Christmas tends to be the only time of year I cook, not because I can’t, but because I feel too lazy the rest of the year. I tend to live off ramen and yoghurt/cereal combos. But Christmas I go all out because, well, why not. It’s usually cold, and having the oven blazing most of the day warms me right up. Also I didn’t have a kitchen for two-thirds of a year and it was tres difficile.
Near the end of last year I had a penchant for churros and I started eating them about three times a week (for about a week). I looked up the recipe, and saw it was hella simple, and thought why not make my own?
1 cup water
1/2 stick (4 oz.) unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup flour
2 eggs (at room temperature)
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
I actually have US measuring cups which is why I tend to use American recipes, but if you need to convert you can find lots of converters on Google. I like to use The Metric Kitchen.
I looked up that it’s good to use eggs at room temperature, so I stuck my eggs in a glass of warm water (there’s a joke here). My laptop is old and heavy, a bit like me.
This was my first foray with using the camera, and since my friend Bay had borrowed it, killed the battery, and also forgot to return the charger to me, I was snapping quickly in a somewhat panicky fashion before the battery ran out. Grrr. I used the Auto setting at first (because I am a camera n00b) with no flash (and I have a bright kitchen).
Dumped the water, boiled it then added the butter, sugar and turned it down and melted it ‘gently’. (Gentle-ish) until it makes a ball.
Baller Baby.
I then cracked the eggs and beat them separately and added them a little bit at a time AFTER turning off the dough on the cooker and letting it cool for a bit because
otherwise you get scrambled eggs with your churro dough. And mix it fast. I don’t have a paddle beater because I’m not middle class, so I beat it like a beggar boy in a foreign country.
I’m looking at you, street rat.
I was going to try fill them with dulce de leche and my older sister brought some over, which turned out to be mouldy. Moron. Never fear, being a brown person means I have (my mother has) a plethora of spices in the cupboards.
1 part cinamon (a tablespoon) to 3 parts sugar (3 tablespoons – I used light brown soft sugar)
I have a concertina bottle with a star tip (seen in first photo) which I use for icing, but the thought of forcing the churro dough into it just to force it out made me feel a bit ill. So I cut off the corner of a freezer bag and stuck the tip through to pipe the dough into a pan. I thought I was so snazzy. I didn’t bother using a thermometer to check the temp of the oil, that’s for fassies. Just warm it up on a medium heat for a couple of minutes.
Don’t they look nice and churro like? Then the bag burst and this happened.
They turned into churro blobs
Don’t get me wrong, they tasted great and were very crunchy and sweet. I couldn’t be arsed to faff around with another freezer bag, so I decided in the style The Amateur Gourmet to just fuck it and make balls. Except I used my hands instead of spoons, because of the butter content, it was so smooth and greasy. It slipped right off the hands. Into the pan. Where it fried nicely.
Since the balls are more doughy than the strips as such, they take a little longer to cook. If you need me to tell you how long they’ll take, I despair. About 3 minutes on each side on a medium-low heat (I have a violent cooker). Just don’t burn them. They should be a nice bronze shade.
I waited for them to cool for a bit, and then tossed them all in the other freezer bag containing my cinnamon sugar mix and shook them with vim and vigour. Don’t bother rolling them around on a plate in your sugar mix. It takes ages, you’re more likely to burn your fingers and it’s wasteful. Just do what I say.
There ya go. Homemade churros. Simple fatty goodness you can whip up easily.
Photos taken on a FujiFilm X10 courtesy of BEAM PR
I am Sabrina, someone who loved fashion and fell into it purely by accident. I'm an accidental stylist (truly an accident) and journalist. I also know a lot about the internet and social media. I have worked for MTV, Time Out, The Sunday Times Style and Cosmpolitan to name a few. My portfolio has nice photos. Once I had to dance up on Kevin Bacon dressed as a tiger.
Obligatory Instagram shot
Fancy creme rouge making a mockery out of my other blush
I’m looking at you, street rat.
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