Week 10: Korea Town

In an effort to get to better know my not-so-new-anymore city, I made it my mission to visit and have a meal in each of L.A.'s small ethnic enclave. First up - Korean barbecue in Koreatown. According to Yelp (and Tom's Korean coworker) Park's BBQ is where it's at.

This was not only my first visit to Koreatown, but also my first foray into the world of Korean food. Korean food is very...meat centric. I can get on board with some kimchi, but I don't think I'll be making a habit of this...

Korean food also comes with a lot of accessories.

Also, Korean beer? Not that good.

Overall-Korean barbecue is not my thing, but it was a fun first stop in around the world dining.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know it's a cheesy Hallmark holiday, manufactured by corporate America (Maybe? I don't know if that's true.  I honestly haven't bothered to research it.) to make us feel like we must buy cards, flowers, and candy. I'm aware of all that, but I can't bring myself to get mad at Valentine's Day because a.) I love holidays of any ilk and b.) How bad can a day that celebrates love be? Which brings me to my mantel...

{Festive, no? Calla lilies courtesy of my valentine.}

So, yeah, I spent an hour on a Saturday night cutting out hearts and sewing them together... I drank wine while I did it. Does that make it less lame? I may or may not have cut out a few extra to include with the card that I mailed to Tom's office... He sent me the following picture today in a text. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but the text said, "You're adorable."

In some sort of Valentine's Day miracle, I was struck with a bolt of V-Day inspiration this weekend when I realized that my contribution to Valentine's dinner should most definitely be cannolis. See, in case you were somehow unawares, the husband is Italian, like three generations removed from the motherland, but Italian nonetheless. Soooo, I thought I would throw my hat in the ring for Wife of the Year and make cannolis for Valentine's Day.... Turns out, you need a special tool called a "cannoli form." I do not own a cannoli form, so I talked the Whole Foods bakery peeps into selling me some empty shells.

So, hey, new thing for the week! I made cannolis...sort of. I dipped the shells in chocolate, made the filling, and...filled them. Maybe next year I'll invest in these so-called cannoli forms...probably  not. In any event, my half-homemade cannolis turned out to be quite delicious.

I also gave my valentine a present that was more about the wrapping than the actual gift... (something he apparently realized before he opened it...)

Then he made me an ah-mazing dinner of seared scallops and shrimp with balsamic strawberries... Seriously, it was next level delicious.

So, yes, February 14th is technically no different than any other day. And, yes, we should demonstrate our love every day. That said, Imma stick by Valentine's Day. Here's one of my new favorite love quotes to close out this V-Day post.

"We're all a little weird.  And life is a little weird.  And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness - and call it love - true love." - Robert Fulghum

Week 5: Fake Lashes, Pace, and Bar Marmont

***Sooooo...apparently I never hit publish on this post. I swear I had it done last weekend though.***
 
Actually, for real, written on February 5th, 2012.

Friday was the day for all kinds of silly new things. I got my hair did at a new place, Tom took me out to dinner at a new restaurant, I went to Bar Marmont for the first time, and I decided to attempt applying fake lashes for the first time. Some things (hair cut, dinner) were more successful than others (fake lashes, Bar Marmont)... Here's the recap.

Tom promised me a nice dinner out as thanks for burning all of his CDs so he could sell them, and since I had my first hair appointment in a looong time scheduled for Friday, it seemed liked a good time to take him up on his offer. I felt like continuing the primping after my hair appointment, so I popped into CVS and bought myself some fake lashes and lash glue.

I did absolutely no research on this prior to my purchase, but I was pleasantly surprised when I found plenty of information on the internet about how wonderfully easy it is to apply fake lashes. The internet lies.

This is how applying fake lashes looks on the internet:
               

This is how applying fake lashes looks in my bathroom:

I did not document any of the first 87 attempts I made at getting the lashes on, but trust believe, it was not a good look. Eventually I just gave up and cut the lashes into more manageable sections and applied a few lashes to the outer corner of each eye. You could hardly tell and the whole thing was way more frustrating than it was worth.

Also, it's not easy to take a picture of your own eyes.

I was so fed up with the whole schmozzel that I didn't even attempt to smize.

{In case you aren't familiar with smizing, you should probably watch Tyra teach Larry King how to smile with his eyes.}

Anyway, fake eyelash application was a fail, but dinner was delish. Pace (pronounced pah-chay, peace in Italian) focuses on local, organic ingredients and has a hippy-dippy feel befitting its Laurel Canyon location. It was appropriately dark and romantic, which is why we are barely identifiable in the pictures.

We shared a salmon tartare appetizer and then went for entrees involving homemade pasta and lobstah. Yumbo. Dessert was one of those collapsing molten chocolate cakes that takes takes forty minutes to prepare and can be relied upon to drag out the dining experience. Again, yumbo.

After dinner we decided to stop for drinks at Bar Marmont on our way home. The line and the packed bar made me feel old and crotchety.

{That about sums it up.}

We lasted about fifteen minutes and then opted to end our date on the couch with a glass of wine...much more my style. Plus, we saw a Jesus lookalike on our way home. All in all, a great evening.

Family Fun - Part II

The weekend after Mo and Buckley came to up, my parent's arrived to scope out the newish digs and see some L.A. sights. On Friday we had a leisurely dinner at Taste. Taste has been one of my favorite L.A. restaurants since the old days when Tom and I were splitting weekends between L.A. and San Diego. It was also the site of of my first major celeb sighting - Mila Kunis and Macauley Culkin, back when they were still an item. An item? Do people still say that? People under eighty? Anyway, they sat at a table right across from me and Tom; I played it cool for a second and then went to the bathroom to text my roommates. I realize his star has faded, but, man, Macauley Culkin! I loved him. Annnyway, dinner was delicious and the Stags Leap brought it to a whole new level of dining experience fabulousity.

On Saturday afternoon, we headed up to the Getty for another visit to the gardens and some more QT with our friends the Impressionists.

{The Portal of Rouen Cathedral in Morning Light, Claude Monet}

After our Getty-lite tour, we headed downtown by way of my dad's old stomping grounds at USC. We cruised by fraternity row, and Dad pointed out his old frat house, the restaurant he used to work at, Dedeaux Field, and other things that we had to imagine because they've been replaced by Taco Bells and Starbucks-es. Eventually, we made it to Olvera Street, the birthplace of Los Angeles. Olvera Street is on my list of things to do in L.A., but I think I'm going to need a return trip before I can really cross it off.

The sun had just about set by the time we got there and a lot of things were closed, but there was an undeniably festive atmosphere, and there was music and dancing around every corner.

{I always know where to find Tom.}

 

Olvera Street is right across from Union Station, L.A.'s beautiful, old train station, so we strolled in for a look around. I'm glad that I don't have to spend day so on a train in order to visit the East Coast, but man, airports got nothin' on train stations. Train stations, hand-written letters, hard cover books - I guess we have to sacrifice a certain amount of beauty for the sake of efficiency and expediency... I don't have any plans to give up airplanes, email, or my Kindle, but it is a little sad.

 Look how in awe they are of the beautiful architecture! Actually, they kind of look like they are expecting to be beamed up to the mothership... Either way.

The "birthplace" of any Southern California town is always steeped in Mexican culture - probably because it actually was a Mexican town originally, but that is an entirely different post... Anyway, point is - we had Mexican for dinner, and it was delicious. El Paseo Inn - highly recommended. They passed my dad's test of a good Mexican restaurant (warm tortilla chips), my mom's (good, strong margaritas) and mine (guacamole made tableside, ok, and the margaritas).

After dinner, we decided to cram one more classic, L.A. activity into our day. We headed to the Santa Monica pier, by way of Tommy's Burgers, to ride the Ferris wheel.

{Me, Tom, and a creepy, little man with green wing hair}

Our classic L.A. weekend was complete when we (might have) spotted a couple of celebs a Mass in Beverly Hills. To be honest, I'm not entirely convinced, but Dad was pretty sure that we were sitting two rows behind Max Von Sydow (yeah, I didn't know either), and he was very confident that we walked out next Joe Torre. Who knows? Anything's possible in LaLa land.

Week 3: Adventures with KitchenAid

It's time for a recap of my new thing for the third week of 2012, so a review of fun with the parental units will have to wait until tomorrow. Speaking of my parents though, this week's new thing came courtesy of a generous Christmas gift that they gave me - a fancy-pants KitchenAid mixer. Look how pretty!

I'm not sure what it says about me that I was excited to find a kitchen appliance under the tree, but I totally was. Fifteen-year-old me was probably shaking her head in disgust, but 31-year-old me was super pumped. I know the mixer is going to be awesome for baking, but in the spirit of New Year's resolutions, I'm trying to steer clear of that for the moment. I was anxious to give my new toy a test run though, and a nice, whole wheat pizza dough seemed like a reasonably healthy option. Making pizza dough in the mixer? Way easy.

It took longer to get the ingredients out than it did to make the dough.

I opted to try out a recipe for winter pizza - caramelized onions and roasted butternut squash.  Actually, now that I think about it, this recipe involved several culinary firsts. In addition to the first go round with my new mixer, this was also the first time I have ever successfully caramelized onions, and quite possibly the first time I have ever made a pizza without tomatoes. This is fascinating stuff, isn't it? Annnnnnyway, inspired by my success with the mixer and giddy with the confidence that comes from perfectly caramelized onions, I decided to freestyle and deviate from the recipe, so I roasted a head of garlic and sautéed some swiss chard. End result? Yumbo!

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving was lovely, far lovelier than my photos will demonstrate. In fact, I was too busy drinking and chatting and eating to take many pictures at all. And it seems that I was too eager to continue the drinking and chatting and eating to spend much time on the pictures I did take so they are mostly out of focus and over exposed. I am choosing to see this as evidence of the fact that I was enjoying the moment.

{The Give Thanks glitter banner was the result of a lazy crafternoon last week.}

You don't really need pictures to get the idea anyway. We drank, we chatted, we ate...a lot, and we gave thanks. For the third year in a row, everyone wrote down what he or she was thankful for, and we looked back at the things we were grateful for last year and the year before.

This year we were extra fortunate to have some extended family celebrating with us. My dad's aunt and cousins joined as did my mom's brother, my uncle Steve. My dad's cousin Karen is also my godmother, and as a woman of excellent taste, she is a big fan of my blog. [Hi, Karen!]

{Karen and her mother, Caroline}

 I used to think of it as a pit stop on the way to Christmas, but I must say, I have really grown to love Thanksgiving. It's pretty great to have a day dedicated to focusing on all of our blessings, all of the things that make us happy. Plus, it unites us all as Americans. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists can all get on board with a holiday that calls us to draw our families close and tell them how thankful we are for them.

Gratitude - Day Ten

Today I'm giving thanks for silly, spontaneous celebrations (and alliteration, apparently). When I was listening to, you guessed it..., NPR this morning, I heard a short piece that inspired me to throw a mini 11/11/11 party. The only guests were Tom and myself, and he left early, but still... Spontaneous parties for no real reason are fun!

Anyway, the NPR piece was commemorating 11/11/11 by choosing eleven songs that are meant to be played "at eleven." This is, of course, a reference to the scene in Spinal Tap where Christopher Guest's character talks about how his amps "go to eleven" instead of the standard ten volume setting.

     

The NPR broadcasters then continued to talk about songs (their choices and those sent in by listeners) that have to be cranked up to full volume - songs that when they come on, you reflexively reach for the volume control. In addition to being proof (in my mind at least) that NPR is not as stuffy as some people (coughTomcough) would make it out to be, I thought that this would be a super-fun basis for an evening's festivities. It had not previously occurred to me to celebrate this auspicious date, but I do love a holiday and this seemed like as good an excuse as any to drink wine and make a special meal. I headed to the store for some wine and the fixings for chile rellenos. [I'm not sure why chile rellenos are an appropriate choice for this particular celebration, but given enough time, I'm sure I could come up with some sort of connection to the Mayan calendar's prediction that we won't see 12/12/12.]

When Tom got home, I told him to start thinking about songs that have to be played at full volume. After some serious consideration, he made our party playlist. I was allowed to contribute three songs to the eleven (obviously) song playlist. Here's what we came up with...I'm sure you won't be able to guess which ones I contributed...

{If I had been allowed more than three selections, I might have also included I Wanna Be Sedated - Ramones, Music is the Victim - Scissor Sisters, Paradise City - Guns N' Roses, and Con te Partiro - Andrea Bocelli. I'm only partially kidding about that last one, which I suppose, is why I was not allowed more selections...}

So, that was it. We put on our eleven song playlist, cranked the stereo up (to a level that was respectful of both the neighbors and the songs), poured ourselves some ($11, now that I think about it!) wine, and chowed down on some chile rellenos. Happy 11/11/11!

{Apologies for the truly horrific picture, but it was getting cold; I promise it tasted much better than it looked!}

In case you haven't had the pleasure, I give you Con te Partiro...


             

You can't tell me that doesn't deserve to be played loudly... It also makes me want to speak Italian...and possibly cry. So, in closing, I am thankful for silly celebrations and Andrea Bocelli.

Gratitude - Day Five

I'm thankful that it's so, so easy to eat local here. I promised no rants for a while, so I will not go on and on about the value of eating locally. If you are interested, check out Mark Bittman's recent column in the New York Times.

Annnnyway, I am pretty happy about the fact that I am now managing to get just about all of our produce, eggs, and poultry from local sources. I would feel all virtuous about this, but it's really requires so little sacrifice that I don't feel like it even counts. Plus,  I really do enjoy my weekly trips to the farmers' market.  Even in November, the market is overflowing with colorful produce.

 

I started trying to eat locally out of a concern for the environment, but the added bonus is I feel like I have a much greater appreciation of the seasons. I took full advantage of summer's tomatoes and cucumbers, and those light, salad-ready foods were perfect for late night dinners after a long day at the beach. Now that the temperatures are dropping and the days are getting shorter, I'm excited for heartier fare like butternut squash risotto followed by apple crisp. When asparagus shows up at the market again, I'll know that it's time to dig out the tank tops and start preparing for bikini season again.

There's actually a great app for keeping track of what's in season. Locavore is a free app that uses your current location to pull up a list of what's in season in your area, how much longer it will be in season, and what's coming in season next. According to Locavore, I have two more months to enjoy dates, but will only be able to enjoy local okra for another two weeks (I've never actually had okra, but - good to know). It can also tell you where to find a farmers' market nearby. Good times.

 Added seasonal bonus - I got to break out my rain boots today, and with actual golden leaves on the ground, it felt like the perfect fall day.