Single Servings

It's blatantly obvious at this very moment, more than ever, that I am a single, white female in her 20s. 

Looking in my fridge or asking my dinner recalls from the past week is proof as much. Without knowing me and just having this information alone, one could guess my age, gender, size, ethnicity, where I live and if I am single or married with about an 87.75% accuracy. 

Let's review...
One Day Last Week- A bowl of popcorn from scratch with parmesan cheese and celery with yogurt and chive dip.
Sunday- A half of a chicken sandwich with walnut pesto, tomatoes and cheese from the Hudson with about 3 pints of Stella and a a half a glass of $3 cab (funday Sunday anyone?) and later a walnut, nutmeg manhattan and bread pudding from Edendale. 
...As if the 3 pints weren't enough.
Monday- A glass of red wine, then out for carnitas taco and ceviche and later, plain tart mixed with mango Fro Yo topped with coconut, graham cracker and cookie dough.
Tuesday- The other half of my Hudson sandwich...
Wednesday- Steamed farmer's market broccoli topped with a homemade orange/ginger sauce paired with farmer's market tempeh eaten with some disposable chopsticks I found in my kitchen drawer that must have been left behind from my old roommate's old takeaway order, a glass of Coppola's white wine and later a Trader Joe's cookie and nighty night tea.
Thursday- Leftover "kung pow Tofu" from work...eaten out of the white styrofoam container and later topped off with nighty night tea and TJ's cookies.
Friday- Leftover mojito chicken and rice from work, again, eaten out of the styrofoam, farmer's market bread with natural peanut butter, white wine, some Charleston Chews and whoppers (see last post), a Larceny made manhattan, a pint of Allagash White and a hangover. 

When I write it out like this, it's utterly embarrassing. How does this not say single, 20 something year old, middle class, west coast city dwelling female...?
I promise this diet is atop spinning classes and Julian Michaels Body Shred workout classes. P.S. I've got a bone to pick with you, J. Michaels. No wonder I can't move today.

I'm either eating at like two yelp dollar sign restaurants Or I'm eating whatever I can find in my fridge or leftovers from free work lunch. 
And because I have this fantastic food perk at work, it really does nothing for my grocery shopping agenda.

As my roommate is off taking vacation, I have literally spent all day in my apartment either cleaning or lounging. The only noise I've heard today has been from the Mariachi music and construction happening in the lot next to mine, my clothes dryer, the occasional iPhone text message and the hum of the fridge. 

My day started slowly with aeropress made coffee and tri-colored quinoa cooked with slivered almonds, golden raisins, almond extract and cinnamon. 
..Now I sit here reviewing my taxes and eating chips out of a Von's plastic grocery bag...
Like my taxes even have to tell me "without dependents.."
The hardest part of my lunch/dinner today was opening up the salsa container without the gripper thing and trying to find the chips that would fit into the jar without breaking them in half first. 

And later on my Midwest and East coast friends are coming over to order Chicago style deep dish pizza and watch a Cheers marathon with me.
This is my life. 

I've Been Living a Lie

Oscars are to LA as smoking is to St. Louis folk or as pretending not be as cold as you really are in the winter is to Chicagoans. They thrive on it.

And I thrive on having an excuse to dress up and serve theme related beverages.
So if A equals B and B equals C, Oscar loves me! And we are so so happy together.

I sent out an Oscar party soiree invitation to most likely 30 people, including Angie, the 44 year old lady I forced into being my friend at the local pub the night before...and about 12 showed up. 
So LA. 
And on top of that, they were mainly my cousins friends. Which are the best people...but if the word gets back to my parents that I've lived here for a year and some change and still can't coerce people to come to my party, I fear the pity look. Nothing's worse than parent pity. 

I've gotten a bit more film savvy living here. The best part about my my cousins friends is that they actually work in this industry. A film editor, a producer a member of Django Unchained....they were all present. But still, I only saw maybe 2 to 3 movies that were highly nominated. If anything, the night acted like a long convincing movie trailer for me. 

...And an excuse to obtain sweet vermouth, bitters and Ikes. Without the Mikes.

The idea basically being: fancy cocktails paired with classic movie theater snacks.

popcorn. candy. pretzels. pizza.

The party preparation really just proved to me that I have been living a straight up lie. For years.

Coming from the 90s in the Midwest, I have only ever known microwavable popcorn. And how do you make it? You make sure you put the side up that says "this side up" and then you hit the button that says "popcorn" on the microwave. 
...what happens if you don't have a "popcorn" button you ask? Well then, I am sorry to say, you will not be eating popcorn.

The thing that kills me is that this popcorn isn't good. 
And you inevitably burn the first bag, ruining it and simultaneously making your house reek during the movie. 
And it's not even good! 
AND it's unnecessary! 

When buying good and plentys for the party (wink wink, nudge nudge), I decided to buy popcorn from kernel. This is a real step outside of the box for me. Or should I say, step outside of the bag, microwavable that is. God, I out dorked myself.
The vision being to make sea salt, garlic powdered and grated parmesean cheese sprinkled popcorn from scratch. 

I actually had to look up the directions online to figure out how to even make the stuff- and once I figured it out, I figured out that I had been living a lie. 

It was not only so easy, cheaper and tasted ten times better but it was so much fun! Watching the popcorn through the clear lidded sauce pan was possibly better than watching Argo. 

Ok, Argo was good...I'm just saying. 

I'm just saying, I have been living a lie. 

Orville, go F*** yourself. 

But watching the popcorn pop wasn't as good as watching these two. 

Or as good as watching Jennifer Lawrence fall and be awesome about it. 

Save Me, San Francisco

I drove through the heart of LA this morning while it was waking up. It had a rhythm about it.
I cannot lie, I was a sucker for this place today.

Still not sure it's a city. Not a suburb. Just, kind of...a place. With different pockets that elicit different feelings. All can be good but disconnected in some way. Making it lonely in some way. And cool in others. Making it hard to come up with a concise feeling about this "place" itself. And when you think you have some kind of feeling about it, it goes and changes on you.

I commonly hear the phrase "it takes a couple years to feel like home here." I heard someone say it takes at least 5 good years before you feel like you've figured it out. Five years? These are some five good years I'm in right now..
Call me selfish but they're pretty precious years. 

I must admit it is a wonderful place. I always feel like I'm cheating on it when I say otherwise.
Good food, good beaches, good vibes when you hit them. Not sure if it's my place but a great one when you're riding it's changing rhythm. Especially riding with windows cracked in February. Can't complain. It just feels more like a vacation than a home. And as much as we all want to stay on vacation one more day, it's really nice to get back home.
Giving into it is the way to get it. Letting it get you as opposed to you striving to get it.
When I stop trying is when I like it the most. I think...
I mean, I'm not thinking?

I went to San Francisco not too long ago. I felt an insurmountable love for the city before my foot even hit the pavement. It's a feeling I still haven't really gotten in LA.
But apples and oranges.
It's just love. You don't even have to know it to love it. And it certainly doesn't take much thinking. It just is. Between the sourdough, chocolate, beer & seafood. It's there. Between the trams, trolly, BART & gridded sidewalks. It's there. In the pulse. Racing through mine. The food and the love. The flow of it & me moving within it. And it within me.

 

Meatheads on a Bone

I went to a super bowl party at my cousin's condo in Silver Lake.

Everything feels so early here.
The election decision, watching the ball drop in NY...the super bowl. There is still so much day left when these events occur.
And on top of that, the balcony doors are wide open and the sun is pouring in. It seems so foreign coming from February game day in the Windy City.

In my history of SB watching, or lack there of considering I spend maybe 1 minute per quarter actually watching the game...I'm in it for the squares, people!, I have found myself to eat things that I typically disdain: Meat on the bone, things that have no business being fried but are, chips that unintentionally turn my fingers orange dipped in gluttonous dips.
It's all part of the party.

But at this SB party, there was not one, not two...Oh not even three but FOUR! Four "vegan friendly" dishes and/or trays scattered next to the baked pita chips and the natural pretzels.
Unheard of!
I don't think Chicagoans could even properly define what makes food "vegan friendly"...at least not those who are hollering at two teams of guys beating the crap out of each other on some field.

These vegan dishes were washed down by Brita filtered water
...and an inordinate amount of alcohol. Riddle me this.

Alcohol is a sort of cleanse, is it not? Sterilizes? I suppose it fits in to the soCal diet. 

Caloric Accounts

Yes the campaigns have come and gone. But the fighting remains. Apparently cease fires don't exist during the holidays. And cliffs are not made for compromise. Nor lame ducks.
Maybe dead ducks... that try and fly right off the edge without consulting their good American neighbors..

My patients must lose weight prior to surgery. I give them a caloric budget so to speak. It's hard to maintain. Especially during the holidays.
Just like our trillion dollar deficit. No one likes a budget. Not even those folks down on Wall Street. I think they're called fat cats.
We go big or we go out and buy a new belt. On credit.

I try to explain calories in terms of income and payment plans. I don't know if that helps anyone out. It doesn't seem like a tangible education piece these days.
Defenses rise! Overdraft protection pops up! And it becomes a battleground. My education attacks. Barriers of rising food costs fire back.

"It's too expensive to eat healthy!!"

Patients have gone over their cliff. And yet still have a barrier.
They're over stretching their caloric bank accounts without spending time expending energy at the gym.

I find the "healthy food is too expensive" claim a complete and utter flop.
Yes, good food is pricey but good food is not always good for you. And vice versa.
Speaking of duck, it's not really that terrific for you. It might cost you an arm and a leg. and an artery.

While I was expending some of my surplus energy at the gym this Saturday, I read an article in Time from none other than Dr. Oz. And I really liked his message. He said, "Nutritionally speaking, there is a little difference between the farmer's market bounty and the humble brick from the freezer case. It's true for many other supermarket foods too. And in my view, dispelling the myths- that boutique foods are good, supermarket foods are suspect and you have to spend a lot to eat well- is critical to improving our nation's health."

This is not a message trying to criticize the foodie. But rather a message to the general public. A democratic message to all. Because while the partisan foodie may find Parisian gourmet cheese within his/her local food and caloric budget, it's hardly the message we want to send about vegetables. 
Because ultimately, if we could agree upon a bipartisan market, the more canned and frozen vegetables could lead to less healthcare reimbursements and maybe a little left over to spend on some portion controlled gourmet cheeses by all. 
 
People only see what they want to see. Barriers are for self preservation regardless of size. I mean, sides.

But even if we fall over the cliff, ideally the masses will be super fit and have stock piles of super foods that provide enough reserves to run back up that hill and knock some sense into the people who sit on the top. 

Developing Tradition

This was a Thanksgiving of development. 

It started with a Long Beach flea market find I took upon myself to hang the day before Thanksgiving.

The unknown West displayed. 

We're both still developing.

My idea of development was trying something new and maximizing resources. 

So basically trying to find a couple dishes using similar ingredients. 

Otherwise my development would end along with my sanity at the checkout line in Vons on Thanksgiving eve. 

The only problem...

how does one make three different dishes using repeated ingredients 

...and get away with it? 

1. Make each dish for a different course (app, salad, side)

2. Pretend like someone else made one of them...

3. bring a bottle of wine to confuse and distract

App: Pumpkin dip

Salad: Quinoa spinach 

Side: Whipped sweet potatoes

See those pumpkin seeds? They get used later in the salad.

See the stale bread? It also becomes croutons.

But seriously. Did anyone know that this is what the inside of a nutMeg looked like?

Serious developments. 

A little sprinkle in the pumpkin dip. A little sprinkle in the sweet potato puree. 

Brown Sugar caramelized pecans...

Some to top the whipped sweet potatoes,

Some to add to the quinoa concoction.

Some dried cranberries go to the quinoa;

some to the pumpkin dip.

You've got to use what you've got. 

Trays made out of aluminum foil is what I was working with.

But I was working with some good timing. I planned that one well. 

...What I lack in materials I make up for in good times. 

What a development. We ate outside on Thanksgiving. A first for this midwest girl. 

You know those pottery barn catalogs you look at and go "Oh c'mon! Seriously? Who actually has pillows and decorations outside?"

LA does. All. Year. Round.

Brady made the shot.

This is Lil Kim getting in on some free smells. 

This is Lisa and Sondra surveying the yield. Getting some fixins. 

This is me trying to develop. 

Some experiences. 

Some friendships.

On the radio we heard November rain...

A blink and October is over. I used to try and write once weekly. Once weekly became twice monthly. Twice monthly became once monthly. And then there was the day that October was over. Flew by. 

The month began in St. Louis, visiting and celebrating. 

Wineries, brewpubs, being a wimpy Angelino and complaining of the cold. Pathetic.

Then the arrival of a new roommate. 

Acclimation is key.

And what better way to acclimate and celebrate her birthday than a trip to Malibu wineries?

Then the arrival of a best friend for a visit. 

All the food, fun, music, flea market and whisky one can get their hands on.

Then every pumpkin flavored anything I could get my hands on. 

Beer. Pancake batter. Ice cream. Dip. Frozen yogurt. 

The list probably goes on but for self preservation, I'm stopping there.

Then came the flu after a conscientious employee got her vaccine. 

Word to the wise, skip the vaccine this year. And for that matter skip the flu. It's particularly nasty. 4 pounds down with zero appetite. Guess what, it all comes back.

Then Halloween. 

I never realized how offensive the smell of beer on someones breath was until I went out for Halloween with the flu. 

Then the anticipation of pops for a weekend. 

Was really wonderful to see pops.

And here we are. Mid way through November. With my favorite holiday round the corner. Can't believe it. It was 57 degrees tonight. I thought I was freezing to death and also loved it. Two sides of me fighting. I'll be staying in SoCal for Thanksgiving. Maybe up to Santa Barbara for some wine tasting the days following. 

And then it'll be the holidays. 

I'm going to have to stop blinking altogether. 

I'm barely keeping up.