The Farm restaurant, downtown Los Angeles

A perfect lunch on a dreary day: cup of asparagus soup and 1/2 a BLAT sandwich

Springtime

Organ cactus flower from my yard
This cactus only blooms once a year. Good thing we chopped down
some plants in front of it to reveal this gorgeous creature

Spring has sprung! Last weekend, we cleaned up all the winter weeds and grasses in the yard, trimmed back some aloes and agaves, cleared off the patio, made it ready for our first impromptu BBQ of the year! It was a glorious weekend, weather-wise, and getting outside in the sunlight did wonders for my mood and too-low vitamin D level.


AND we found a kitten!! It sounded like a bird chirping at 3 second intervals, so we followed the sound, and found the little guy between our yard and the neighbor's, tucked in between some plywood. Poor little guy. Only one eye open, fuzzy, grey and small. My husband was the brave one that poked around and found him. I contributed by having the bright idea of just walking down the street until we found his mama. And, strangely, that plan worked. I had already started thinking of names for him, completely ignoring the fact that I'm allergic to cats, and shouldn't even think about naming him. her? who knows with cats.


Also- I made a couple new and super easy dishes to go with grilled hamburgers that night: roasted lemony rosemary potatoes and steakhouse wedge salad. Flying by the seat of my pants on both dishes, they turned out really well. Hooray for somewhat effortless, successful pursuits!

The magical animal

Holy Swine! Carnitas' Snack Shack in North Park is amazing. A definite MUST in San Diego.

THREE kinds of pork in the pork sandwich. THREE.

Tremendous amount of succulent meat in the carnitas tacos

Lovely Fries served in a brown paper bag

And the patio in the back/side of the building is super cool looking. Looked to be made from renewable materials or sustainable or .. I don't know. But it has a nice feel.

Pork Chop Sammie

Made these with the Mister the other night. Really good, actually pretty healthy (came from a Weight Watchers cookbook) and easy. The super vinegary sauce was my favorite.

cauliflower crust pizza

I found this recipe through Pinterest, which is my newest networking obsession. That sounds funny to say in that lately I have been a real technology hater. Having so much information at our fingertips, it turns out that carrying on regular activities or conversations with people becomes impossible without everyone reaching for their own gadgets to check their messages, calendar, google something, search for an address, or cross check something or someone. What if we had to just talk about it until somewhere in the back of your brain, you actually REMEMBERED the name of that actor, without having to IMDB it?! That might just be too much of a mental workout! Better just google it. JFGI or GTS, if you will. I digress.

It's all about having this technology make your life easier, better, more fun, maybe even more efficient. So far, Pinterest is treating me right, by making it easier to do what I was doing anyway: collecting images, articles, and ideas and placing them into categories to easily find and review again later. And it's shared with your friends, thus the social aspect. Kinda cool.

Anyway, back to the recipe. It is from a blog called eat. drink. smile. I kinda screwed up the ratios from the get go, but it all turned out pretty well in the end. I will be making this flourless alternative again.

Oatmeal Friday

They enlisted me to make crockpot oatmeal at work. Something new and different (and actually healthy (shhh))!
It turned out pretty well, a little overdone for my taste, but loved by the masses. I'm amazed.

Tried a new veggie recipe

... and then made it a meal, by adding an egg, rice and some avocado.
From one of my fave blogs 101 Cookbooks, I tried the Spring Ragout Recipe. I had some asparagus and fava beans from the farmer's market I needed to use up, and they were delicious in this dish. The recipe also called for peas, but since I didn't have any on hand, I made due without, and didn't miss them at all! Ready in like 5 minutes (once you've double-peeled the favas).

And how cute is that plate?! (a gift from one of my BFFs)

quick and easy

Weeknight pasta

Palm Springs

On the last handful of vacations, I have had good intentions of taking snapshots to document great food, cool design, interesting landscape, and overall good times. Then I get there, take a few pics, and realize that I need to unplug. I want to just live it, and not struggle to document it (which often impedes the natural flow of living it). So, it is another balancing act, I guess. Such is life.
Anyhoo- my recent trip to Palm Springs was great! All of the above: great friends, good times, cool design, tasty food, new experiences, blooming desert flowers, etc. Few pics because of the aforementioned need to relax and just be. That and the fact that I was in water much of the time, at the pool, jacuzzi, or in the rain.

Lunch, brunch, cocktails, hip places, and friends

Palm Springs is an interesting place. Close enough to San Diego and LA, but feels far away from reality when you're there. California is such an extraordinary place; so many different worlds are right here, within a 2-hour drive! There I go again, getting all sappy with Cali-appreciation again. I will need to go back to the desert again before it gets too hot.

And to properly enjoy the Mad Men season premier, I will have...

I would have made one of my fave cocktails: A Little Bit Country. But apparently we are out of Bourbon. So, I used Irish Whisky instead. Thus I'm calling it A Wee Bit Irish.