Ella Vez Design

Reception Under the Stars - Lake Como, Italy -Villa del Balbianello

2012-02-20T14:10:00.004+01:00

Reception Under the Stars

With the sky as their ceiling, guests dine on an Italian meal of ravioli with basil, tomatoes, pesto, and sliced veal before dancing into the wee hours of the morning. The clear tent is lit with hanging chandeliers and oversize candelabras.

A warm glow from the candles creates a beautiful and romantic setting inside the clear tent.

Pashminas for Guests

Pashmina shawls in white, cream, and shades of teal are draped over the backs of guests' chairs.

Miso Salmon with Cucumber Salad by Oprah

2012-02-20T14:03:00.003+01:00

Miso Salmon with Cucumber Salad by Oprah: Very easy to prepare, incredibly tasty and as good cold as warm.

Miso Salmon with Cucumber Salad

Servings: Serves 4

Ingredients

Miso Salmon with Cucumber Salad

2 Tbsp. sweet white miso paste
2 Tbsp. mirin (Japanese rice wine)
1 Tbsp. low sodium soy sauce
1 Tbsp. fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 1/4 pound center-cut salmon fillet, cut into 4 portions
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1 tsp. olive oil for drizzling
2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds
Fresh sprigs of parsley or cilantro, for garnish

Cucumber Salad

6 Persian cucumbers, sliced paper-thin
1 Tbsp. low sodium soy sauce
1 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

Directions

Preheat broiler.

For the salmon: Line a baking pan with aluminum foil. Coat foil with cooking spray. Whisk miso, mirin, soy sauce and ginger in a small bowl until smooth. Place salmon fillets, skin side down, in the prepared pan. Brush generously with miso mixture. Broil salmon, 3 to 4 inches from the heat source, until opaque in the center, for about 8 to 10 minutes.

For the cucumber salad: Wash and slice the cucumbers paper-thin. Squeeze out excess liquid and place in a medium bowl and toss with soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame seeds.

Arrange cucumber salad on plate. Place broiled salmon on top. Garnish with scallion, sesame seeds, cilantro or parsley and drizzle with olive oil (optional).

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes

Cinnamon Rolls ... my favorite

2012-02-20T13:57:00.001+01:00

Mini Cinnamon rolls on sticks with dipping glaze.

Tadao Ando Architect

2012-02-20T13:53:00.003+01:00

Tto bring out the big time architects and one of my personal favorites. Tadao Ando makes beautiful and clean buildings including the Ryotaro Shiba Museum.

Lego

2012-02-20T13:48:00.003+01:00

LOOS.FM Creates Gigantic LEGO-Inspired Church Pavilion in the Netherlands

2012-02-03T13:41:00.001+01:00

Alfred Stevens

2012-01-27T09:21:00.000+01:00

Alfred Stevens (1823-1906) - Young Woman Reading, 1856

Wax votives

2012-01-27T09:01:00.002+01:00

Bike rack

2012-01-13T11:10:00.004+01:00

Bike rack for the urban home by the design firm BYografia

Vespa ♥

2011-12-27T13:32:00.003+01:00

Happy Holidays

2011-12-23T17:32:00.002+01:00

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a wonderful Happy New year 2012. Sending you lots of love. Enjoy great moments with your family and friends. Take care and see you in 2012. Thanks to all my lovely followers.

Wooden watches

2011-12-12T09:20:00.004+01:00

One Watch. One Tree. One Planet.

Rediscover nature in beauty with WeWood, the avant-garde approach to sophisticated sustainability. Made of 100% natural wood, these high-tech timber timepieces fill the forest, as WeWood plants one tree for each watch sold.

Strawberries & Chocolate

2011-12-09T13:57:00.002+01:00

Fill an ice tray with melted chocolate and put strawberries in them
and then leave it in the freezer.

Playing thes recorder

2011-11-23T09:14:00.003+01:00

What a funny thing, I just realized there is something that we all had to learn playing during our first years at School: The recorder. LOL what a terrible moment for our parents, we would all tell our mum or dad:
- please listen to me, and we would have to repeat the same wrong music notes again and again, but today that is still part of some of my good childhood memories.

What are you eating while travelling?

2011-11-17T09:55:00.006+01:00

Sharon Hwang started drawing in her Diary all the things that she has been cooking and eating during her different trip. I like the idea very much, that is cool and very clever I think. She is a Graphic designer, if you've got some time go and check her webpage.

What should be on my next shopping list...

2011-11-17T09:09:00.003+01:00

Cute blouse, might need one, well "need" is perhaps a strong word that "we" women are using way too often ... it is more like I would love to buy that white blouse, but I guess between what I need and what I want, I should think twice before spending too much money. But woo... I really like this style, very elegant.

Vintage milk bottles

2011-11-15T16:54:00.002+01:00

This is really cool, I would drink more milk if I could buy those vintage bottles.

How to bake a brownie in an eggshell

2011-11-14T16:10:00.002+01:00

La Receta de la Felicidad, a Spanish-language site, has Sandeea Cocina's great little HOWTO for baking brownies inside blown eggshells. You make a hole in the shell with a corkscrew, stand the shell up in a muffin tin with tin-foil supports, and fill the egg with brownie batter using a piping bag and bake (make sure to leave room in the egg to allow for cakeular expansion!). My mom used to make me Jello-filled hollow eggs, but this is a whole 'nother level of egg-hacking.

What is also possible is to make cupcakes from your eggshell brownies.Once baked, peel them and cut them in half and then pipe a generous twist of frosting, tinted golden yellow, onto the wide side of your egg half. Sprinkle with a bit of red sugar to evoke paprika and a bit of green-colored coconut as your pretend parsley and TA-DA, deviled egg cupcakes!

Halloween ♥

2011-11-03T14:42:00.002+01:00

I had one delightful amazing weekend of Halloween in London,
Anthony, Marilyne and I stayed at my cousin "Julie"s place. Hope you had a wonderful Halloween too.

The Tape and the Pencil

2011-10-07T16:45:00.000+02:00