Springtime Cannoli Cake

The other day I was trying to come up with a dessert to serve my beloved. His favorite sweet treat is a cannoli while I love anything in cake form with cream cheese frosting. I decided to combine these two concepts into one super simple treat. Instead of making cannoli dough and frying it, I chose to make only the filling and spread it over a slice of pound cake (you can use homemade or store bought…I chose the latter!) For this cannoli “icing” I just mixed a bit of mascarpone and ricotta cheese together and added a touch of confectioners sugar (I don’t like it too sweet), vanilla and orange zest. For extra pop I topped the cake off with fresh rasberries, the colors were amazing! You could also use strawberries, blackberries, preserved lemons or any bright fruit you love. Want to take it to the limit? Just slightly toast the pound cake slices before topping with the filling…It is sooo good! -Christine

Style

Wooster

Style has been a big part of The Leisure Study since its inception. Style is personal. It's a set of beliefs. Fashion is an idealology, created by retailers, as a means of business. Fashion is something so old it's new again. It's your parents laughing at the $160 sweater you bought because they have the same one in their closet that's 30 years-old (well broken-in and probably more bad ass) and bought it for $50 bucks, hand-sewn.

Zen Buddhism suggests, "We are all two things: what others see us as being, and what we see ourselves as being." Although all monks wear the same maroon robes, that is great style advice (technically, they're ahead of the Italians and cartoon characters in the uniform dressing ideal*). You have to be comfortable with yourself to know what you want to project. You don't have to follow every fashion blog to be stylish, but street pictures exemplify great usage of patterns, textures, colors, etc. for those with an advanced sense of haberdashery. Incorporating what you see on the Internet into you takes a great sense of self. If you simply copy and paste outfits worn by others into your closet, you're accumulating costumes. You

I bet you like your cucumbers spicy

The Leisure Study's resident chef, Christine Collins, freshly imported [via interweb] from The Cedar Kitchen in Phili. If you're in the area and hungry, hire her! She makes delicious ubiquitous dishes like this Siracha Spiced Cucumber Salad. Takes 10 minutes and serves 2-4. Get some.

Ingredients:

• 2 cucumbers, halved and sliced (If you use a garden cucumber, not english style, make sure you peel them, seeding is optional!)
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce (Tamari or Ponzu sauce work great as well!)
• 2 tablespoons Siracha (less if you don’t like spice…More if you love it!)

Be Your Best You

Jazz musician Jason Marshall sums up why you should look your best in a minute and 20 seconds.

Fuck Bracketology

March. A month typically associated with spring and college basketball. Emails invites are flooding inboxes and office pools are recruiting all employees to feel the excitement of March Madness and picking a winning bracket.

Spare me how much you like the cinderella stories, the upsets, the pageantry, the support for your alma mater (has it been confirmed that you actually graduated from there, anyways?), the bullshit. March Madness is about one thing. Money. Pretty much like the rest of the NCAA and higher education in general.

So throw $10 bucks in a pool and laugh at the fact that for one month out the year gambling isn't frowned upon, but celebrated with blatant public participation. Which team of student-athletes do you have winning in the first round?

drawing courtesy of Elitistjerksports.com

The NCAA merchandising booths are stockpiling cash and credit card reciepts at event sites. Advertising dollars are pouring in and the first two days of the tourney, typically taken off work by sports fans for the non-stop stretch of college hoops on television. There is betting of all different sizes and strengths during the second half of March. All of it on amateur athletes, most of whom are just trying to get some exposure to go pro. All of it accepted by society, especially because those with no knowledge can participate, just fill out the bracket. Most of it resulting in shitty basketball (that is until the sweet 16 onward).

But what else is there to watch? NBA or NHL regular season games or spring training baseball (if there is a TV broadcast available).

The NCAA has slowly taken over the holiday season with football's BCS Bowl Championship Series which is code for 30 bowl games means 30 sponsors and assloads of advertising money. March rolls around, there is no ratings competition with any pro leagues, so the NCAA holds a 64-team tournament that is chosen not just based on merit, but also on preference.

The Day Sports Died

My sports teams are better than your sports teams. It's not anybody's fault, simply the byproduct of living in Massachusetts and going to college in Miami. Timing is everything, as is being in the right place at the right time.

From my senior year of high school through my senior year of college, I thought I had seen it all. Chronologically, it goes something like this [starting at the beginning of the millennium]: Miami Hurricanes win college baseball title, Miami Hurricanes football goes 13-0 and wins national champioship, New England Patriots win Super Bowl over highly favored St. Louis Rams, Miami football loses national championship to Ohio State in overtime on pass interference call, Patriots win second Super Bowl against Panthers, Boston Red Sox lose ALCS Game 7 to New York Yankees on Aaron 'Fuckin' Boone's walk-off home run, Patriots win third Super Bowl against Phili Eagles, Red Sox win first World Series in 86 years, on an 8-game win streak, after being down 4-3 in the 9th inning to the Yankees, Game 4 of the ALCS, trailing 3-0 in the series and on the verge of being swept out of the playoffs.

It was quite a run.

Throw in the Giants snapping the Patriots perfect season in '07 on a David Tyree miracle catch, the 2008 Champion Boston Celtics beating their rival, the LA Lakers, for their NBA-record 17th title, the 2011 Boston Bruins winning the Stanley Cup, and there is a legitimate case to made that I've experienced the emotional gambit as a sports fan.

And that doesn't include putting a friendly wager on things. (shuddering at the thought)

She brought chocolates

Fresh off her People's Choice Award Win at the Phili Chili Bowl, here's Chef Christine of The Cedar Kitchen: 

Oh boy, have I got a recipe for all you chocolate lovers out there! This chocolate tart is so phenomenally easy to make, and doesn’t involve any baking at all (ok, well 10 minutes for the crust, but that’s it!) You can make this dessert a day in advance, and it will only take you about 20 minutes from beginning to end. To give it a little twist I added orange zest, but I think this dessert would be lovely with lemon or lime as well. Serve this with a dollop of whipped cream and lots of spoons, I promise you won’t have any leftovers!

Velvety Chocolate Tart with Orange Zest (Prep: 5, Cook: 20, Serves: 6-8)

Ingredients

• 5 oz of chocolate graham crackers
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips, about 12 oz
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 orange, zested (have extra for topping)
• whipped cream, for garnish

Instructions

Fight

A great two minutes for the creative minds out there. If it were easy, everyone would/could do it.