A Hearty Hiatus

I'm here!
I forgot my password....

Don't believe me? 
...I tried ;)

I took a hiatus. 
A summer hiatus. 
I was busy having fun and figuring out life. 
And the kicker! I'm still figuring out life. But aren't we all :)
Sounds about standard for me really. 

Since writing last I've been up and down the coast. Eating and drinking until my heart and arteries content. 

Food and drink from...

Coastal Traveling. Farmers Markets. Wineries. Baseball Stadiums. Outdoor Cemetery Movies. Weddings. Birthdays. Graduations. Concert Venues. Holidays. Happy Hours. County Fairs. Beaches. Families.

.MAY. MAY. MAY. MAY. MAY. MAY. MAY. MAY. MAY. MAY. MAY. MAY. MAY. MAY.

.Sisters Weekend. Wine Country. Farmers Markets.

.Boutique Hotel That Said It Slept Three Which Meant It Had One King Sized Bed...

.Perfect.

.Memorial Day Treats. Margs.

.JUNE. JUNE. JUNE. JUNE. JUNE. JUNE. JUNE. JUNE. JUNE. JUNE. JUNE. JUNE.

.Birthday Celebrations.

.Work Party. Salad Bar For RD. Cake x 2.

.The One. Highway. Twenty13.

.Los Angeles.

.Palm Springs. Pioneer Town.

.Santa Barbara. San Luis Obispo.

.Big Sur.

.San Francisco.  

 .JULY. JULY. JULY. JULY. JULY. JULY. JULY. JULY. JULY. JULY. JULY. JULY. JULY.

Outdoor Movies. Fourth of July. 

.Wedding Bells. Groomswoman. Surprises. Mom's Birthday.

.Roof Top Happy Hours.

.AUGUST. AUGUST. AUGUST. AUGUST. AUGUST. AUGUST. AUGUST. AUGUST. AUGUST.

.Graduations. Swamps. Music.

.Farmers Market Bananagrams.

.Monterey Bay.

.Too Much Fun Resulting in Fevers Worsened by Broken Air Conditioning.

.Melting Candles. Weight Loss Secret.

.Irony.

.County Fair. Labor Day Beaches.

.SEPTEMBER. SEPTEMBER. SEPTEMBER. SEPTEMBER. SEPTEMBER. SEPTEMBER.

.Cafe Banagrams. Topanga Family. La Habra Family. Hikes.

.LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. 

.until...october. october. october.

xo

Top 5

It was Saturday night. Lauren and I headed to Lotus, or something like that. An organic, vegan restaurant.
Only in "SoCal."

It was the second night in a row I had Tom Kha soup with tofu and vegetables. And it was ten times better at Lotus than the place off Sunset on Friday. I could have it every night. I could have a vat of it sitting on my stove top. One day, I will. 
If you've not had this soup, you're probably from the Midwest. Try it. Go to a Thai place and you will not be disappointed. And if you are, give it to me. I'll gladly finish it for you.

Of course I couldn't shut up about it during dinner. So I asked Lauren, "what's your top five favorite meals?" after about 20 minutes of debating and knocking things off her list and replacing and deliberating, I asked her "ok, so what are your top five favorite foods?"
Hot dogs topped both her lists. Amazing. A dietitian who loves a dog. 
This is why we are friends and we are both also eating at an organic vegan restaurant. 
Her first three picks were the following:
1. A hot dog
2. Italian beef
3. A really good pulled pork sandwich

Hysterical. And really good picks. I'm pretty sure she hardly eats any of these on even a quasi regular basis. 

It was my turn. 
...In no particular order...
1. Chicago style deep dish pizza
2. Tom Kha with tofu and veggies
3. Thanksgiving dinner with all of its accoutrements 

...these three are a given. 
Then it gets a bit hard. 

Some things that flash into my brain:

• 2% plain Fage Greek yogurt (yes, I'm being serious. Jerk)
• Cereal, even though I don't let myself have it for fear I would never stop
• cottage cheese/peaches/granola
• something like this caprese sandwich I used to pine over at my uni cafe in London 
• Red wine..? And all the nosh that comes with-cheese, nuts, dark chocolate!
• Sweet potatoes-in any form or fashion
• Irish soda bread
• Bread pudding, shortbread, macaroons, scones, biscotti, any cookie imaginable but sugar cookies hold a special place in my heart or those pistachio coated toffee pieces at Trader Joe's that I contemplate buying every time. yum.yum.yum.
• Froyo-I could get really specific about flavors and toppings but I won't for self preservation purposes
•  Sashimi and one or two damn good sushi rolls with a little hot saki
• Some kind of pasta with vodka sauce-I can't recall the noodle type but it's like this long, never ending spongy squiggly pasta that this mom and pop restaurant near my folks place makes and pairs it with their homemade vodka sauce- Ugh! So good. It's so rich that it makes me sick and I still day dream about it.

4. Corn beef sandwich on marble bread with fries and a pint of beer.  
(This one really rivals with sashimi)
5. mama murph's homemade banana bread. So good. Sometimes I even like to put natural, crunchy peanut butter and chocolate chips on it. Sometimes margarine. However it is, it is delicious.

Then I thought about it, in the last year, how many times I actually ate numbers 1-5...
1. I think I had Chicago style deep dish for certain on two separate occasions but it provided leftovers for a couple of days on both occurrences.
2. Tom Kha-I can't even tell you but if I had to think about it....10-15 times would be a guess. If I had my way, more.
3. Thanksgiving, just once. Sadly. But that's kind of standard I suppose.
4. I cannot recall the last time I had corn beef. What a shame. My ancestry is saddened..
I'm pretty sure it doesn't really exist in SoCal. This climate is not really made for the Irish folk. 
5. I probably shared 3 loaves of bread with my roommates over the past year. I recall bringing one of the foil wrapped dense bricks back with me nestled in my carry on only to have security paw my intimates to get at and probe my banana bread. Still don't regret the effort it took to bring a little home with me back to SoCal.

Sometimes things taste so good because they remind us of home. Of family. Of who we are. I'd say all the choices on my list except Tom Kha do that for me.
...So the fact that Tom Kha made the list, means that it is a soulful soup that literally brings me back to life.

Pot Belly Pizza

I was invited to a belly dancing pot luck dinner up in the hippie dippy Topanga canyons nestled between Malibu and Santa Monica. I was totally game. The thought of showing my Irish colored, pot (lucked) belly was intriguing. 

But really. What does one bring to share? 
I considered my options...
It seemed like the kind of place to bring something vegan, something local, something that screamed quasi ethnic and uber healthy. Can't have too much roughage to induce pot bellies. Shouldn't be too rich or too spicy to induce GI problems...

I looked in my fridge for ingredients. Leftover Chicago style deep dish pizza? 
If anyone took a smell of that, leftovers or not, to hell with being vegan. 

Alas, driving the hour across town and up the canyon was just too much for me. Especially following a night of Masa deep dish pizza, beer and Italian pastries.

So what did I do instead you ask? Literally went through Travel + Leisure with a fine tooth comb. A guilty pleasure of mine. Leave me alone for hours. I will be happy as a clam. 
Unmotivated to drive around LA but literally scamming on dozens of restaurants from the comfort of my home. As if I could light this town on fire.

It all starts by going to CNN's website and finding some link that brings me right to T+L. I have to act like I stumbled upon it. I love you CNN but I'm really just using you to get to something better. I mean, food just sort of trumps news on SUV car crashes and the latest Obama discussion. I'll spend 10 minutes reading about how to elect a new pope but when push comes to shove, I really went on the sight to find "Best Desserts Around the World." 
That headline screams, "tell me more!!!"

This recent T+L romance went from "Best Brunches Around the World" to "Best Domestic Coffeehouses" to "LA Dining Guide" and then "LA Dining Guide" surely brings in a whole other element when I must check out the location + menu of each establishment. 
You can see how this might take longer than electing a new pope?
...or driving up to Topanga for that matter. 

The particularly fun part about T+L these days is that it's actually accessible. No offense St. Louis, I love you times one hundred, but you will hardly find a feature dining spot when you're up against the world. 
ie: Huckleberry in Santa Monica is pinned up against places in Bangkok to Timbuktu. And when the menu says something like...

Fried egg sandwich

with sunny side up eggs, Niman Ranch bacon,

Gruyère, arugula & aioli on country bread

and

Niman Ranch Maple-Bacon Biscuit 

..can you really argue? 
Really? With Maple-Bacon Biscuit? It's like going up against the pope himself. Holy. 
So you can see why STL may have it rough. I mean, I unknowningly frequent a "best" coffeehouse listed in the US.
 

So what do I do? Create email bucket lists. From A-nimal, the restaurant of the Top Chef winners, to Z. 

As the night grew on, so did my food cravings. This should be the warning label for T+L.

So did I go out you ask? God no. I couldn't even get up off the couch. Let alone belly dance. 

No, I invited some San Francisco company over. 

We looked in my fridge. Guess what was the only thing in there. 

Pizza + Beer.

My San Franciscoan had never had Chicago style pizza. 

un.heard.of. 

And let me tell you, this was like the best buttery cornmeal crust you could ever sink your teeth into. 

L+T may not have a warning label but I provided one. I warned said company, "Company, when you eat Chicago style deep dish pizza you are making a commitment to being uncomfortable. This is what happens: You will eat half a slice and say to yourself, "should I finish that off? Because I am Oh so full." And guess what? You inevitably do. Because you are powerless to that Chicago factor."

So we ate Masa California veggie Chicago style deep dish pizza with some San Francisco Mission Street pale ale in Los Angeles and had ourselves a combo meal of us and it and all things good. 

So I will take on the annual pot luck belly dancing extravaganza another night when I can "stomach" it. Which may not be ever. Especially considering my LA to Z dining plans.

That only-in-Chicago factor helps explain why the Windy City once again won the No. 1 spot for best pizza city, according to Travel + Leisure readers. This year’s America’s Favorite Cities survey—in which readers rank 35 cities for such enticements as luxury stores, live music, and good-looking locals—revealed voters’ reverence for Chicago’s deep-dish magic.

...Oh glorious confirmation. 

You have not let me down.

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.