Breaking Bad!

So wish we had cable so we could enjoy this as it comes. However, new baby in the house + seriously violent cable tv show = terrible parenting aware?

Although, we'd be following in the show's footsteps....new baby + Meth cook papa = REALLY terrible parenting award.

Backyard Chickens and Bees

I want to go to this this weekend. At the Arboretum in Arcadia. Since I have no plans for this Memorial Day weekend other than making a pretty pretty nursery for impending baby-dom.

Wouldn't it be great to have baby chickens and baby humans running around our backyard at the same time!?

And a dog...

And a cat....

And a skunk, apparently.

Dinner #2 - Brad cooks!

Oh how I love my husband's spring break. Let me count the ways.....1) He remembered how to cook! 2) He remembered how to clean! 3) He had time to go to the movies. TWICE! In one WEEK! 4) He washed the car! 5) We went out for drinks. With FRIENDS! (oh...and he also managed to make time to go to Amoeba Records and Rockaway Records twice EACH. But record stores, now that's hardwired into his DNA. If he ever gets struck with the Alzheimer's, he'll probably forget my name, but still be able to describe in great detail all the best record stores in a 50 mile radius.)

When he wasn't reliving his 90's nostalgia kick (he got a Tori Amos album for pete's sake!) he was cooking dinner for us! One of Brad's dinners this week was Lentil Minestrone. Oh and how beautiful and delicious it was. He used up some lentils we've had in the back of the cupboard and some collard greens that I bought in a fit of produce delusion. 9 times out of 10 when I buy a vegetable I'm unfamiliar with, it usually ends up in the compost pile after we scrape it's rotting corpse from the bottom of that drawer in the fridge. But I buy anyway. I think to myself: "Collard Greens - I don't know how to cook these, but I'll buy it anyway in hopes that I'll get struck with an amazing recipe for collard green brownies." (Note -- no such recipe struck me this week. I'll keep you posted for the future veggie inspired desserts). Needless to say, I was happy when Brad told me he needed a 'bunch of greens' for the recipe. Another dollar saved from the compost!

It turned out delish. We ate it with some crusty bread and shaved parmesan and I enjoyed a glass of rather cheap white wine (gotta love a student's salary!). We picknicked on the living room floor. The lentil minestrone warmed us. The wine warmed me even more.

I give his minestrone a 4/5. Anytime Brad cooks, though, he's very thorough and meticulous when it comes to following recipe instructions, so his dinners usually come out in top form.

With all the work he was doing around the house, I had extra time to work on my garden! Next spring break I might just have to rent Brad out to the highest bidder. Any takers?

Dinner#1

For dinner last night I had to use up four potatoes. In my fridge loomed a scary site -- but I managed to find a large hunk of monterey jack cheese, which looked promising. In the door I found a jar of Trader Joe's pesto I forgot I bought (almost as good as finding a $5 in your jeans). Conveniently, there was also the necessary dairy products that are almost required to make baked potatoes really tasty (butter, milk, sour cream? Hells yea.)

My go-to book for awesome recipes is the wonderfully helpful "New Best Recipes" by Cooks Illustrated. In it's pages I discovered Twice Baked Potatoes. I normally don't like baking potatoes in the oven, mainly because I think about dinner right about the time that I'm hungry for dinner....not the best timing, but when have I had great timing? Plus, heating up the entire oven for over an hour just for potatoes seems a little energy wasteful.

There recipes for Twice Baked potatoes has some variations that I'll try another night -- Indian spiced? with pine nuts? (I've even made a variation with crab - so tasty.) But this version was substituting regular cheddar with monty jack and adding pesto! Zing! Dinner is on.

They turned out well, even though the process did take about 1.5 hours total (baking potatoes 1 hr, scooping out inards and mixing with yummies, 20 min, the twice baked part -- another 15 min). I'll definitely make them again - and maybe for company.

Twice baked potatoes might make a fine meal for some vegetarians I know, but I like some green with my meal. I've had a mini-obsession with Brussel Sprouts ever since Figueroa Produce has started selling them for so cheap and fresh. Brad cooks them much better than me, but he had just given his first lecture at USC, so I thought I'd give him the night off. The problem with that is my penchant for not reading recipes all the way through. . . which lead me to conveniently skip the part that told me to 'trim the bottom of the sprouts'. Whoops. This apparently helps them cook more evenly and absorb more flavor. NOTED. These turned out tough and not as flavor as when Brad cooks.

All in all a good, tasty, veggie laden meal that filled us up. 3.5/5.

C3PO USB

So, I'm nonchalantly doing my thing on the internet and reading someone's blog ( I don't know who's.... I just click around ), when she mentioned buying curtains from Urban Outfitters. I thought - well, I don't NEED curtains, I stopped shopping at Urban Outfitters YEARS ago, but HELL! why not.

And that's when I saw these ! C3PO USB drives! I wish it was Christmas again so I could buy one for my brother and for my hubby.

Shucks.

A Cat Haiku

Linus Henry, cat
Likes my jalapeno plant
More than my warm lap

An Equation

New Car + Pajamas + Morning Off = Happy Brad

....A New Car!!!!

Oh Boy. Oh Boy. Oh Boy! We bought ourselves a new (to us) car!! A 2008 Pontiac Vibe, which is identical to the Toyota Matrix, only thousands cheaper. Hazah!

In attempting to be smart consumers, after looking at The car once, we went across the street to a different dealership looking for a better deal. The salesman tried everything, from getting us to lease, buy a brand new car, and even took us around the lot 3 times in hope of 'hooking' us. After we explained the deal on The car, the mileage, the price, and the financing, he whispered to us "Go buy that car." I'll post pictures of our actual car when I can, but for now, this is from Pontiac's website.

We're so excited! Not that we don't LOVE the Corsica, but this new one is going to be the car in which we bring our babies home from the hospital!

Brad graciously let me drive it home from the dealership. Somebody sure did raise him right.

Cool white t-shirt

There are few things I like more than coming into my slightly cool home after a warm walk on the sun-baked streets of my LA neighborhood and slipping into a plain white T-shirt. Ahhhhh.

Organic White House

Check out this website that encourages the new First Family to plant a garden on the White House Lawn. eattheview.org

My Diner

I'm not sold on Los Angeles. The winter's not winter - I'm from the East Coast (capitalized, thank-you-very-much), really the Mid-Atlantic, that nether world of Maryland where no one will claim us. When I lived in the South, everyone assumed I was a Yank. When visiting New England, people claimed I had a Southern accent. You just can't win when you're from the great small state of MD! But we DO have seasons. Seasons that I can get down with. Just when you're really done sweltering from the terrible humidity, fall breaks the heat and releases you from the stress of having to take at least 2 showers a day, because you immediately start sweating after the first one. And then winter comes, and you curse it because blah, blah, blah there's ice and it's cold and my lips are chapped and my hands turn to to the coarseness of a paper grocery bag...but at least it's different and you have lots of excuses to spend the day wrapped in a blanket drinking hot things in mugs and praying that it snows so you'll have a good excuse to be late for work, but of course it never does because you're in the Mid-Atlantic which is halfway between Antartica and Florida (approximately) and it only really gets that cold and precipitous roughly 3 times a winter, if you're lucky. But it's a change, is the point I'm trying to make. A change that kills ants and other squirmy things so they don't climb into your kitchen and try to attack your freezer on a balmy January day. Which is what they do when you live close to Mexico.
Which really is where I live these days, and will for the next few years, thanks to hubby's job/perpetual schooling, so I'd better learn to like it and get over the whole seasonal thing (I do prefer deciduous trees....but that'l be another post.)
One thing that is helping me get over my aversion to this coast is the local coffee shop Brad and I have discovered. The Coffee Table in Eagle Rock is blissful. Free refills, helpful staff, good diner food, it's what I crave. We are always glad to find a coffee shop that is successful and not struggling (we seem to always work at the flailing ones) and we seem to end up at the Coffee Table at least once a week, which consumes the meager 'going out' part of our budget, but it's well worth it. It's always nice to have that one place you can count on.
Like last night, we got a little adventurous and tried out a Chinese place. If I knew a good Chinese swear word, I would insert it hear, but I don't, so please just use your imagination. Our food was expensive and made us feel overstuffed after three bites. And if there's anything I hate it's not getting your money's worth. If there's anything I hate even MORE is not getting your money's worth and feeling like crap after.
I always feel like I get my money's worth of The Coffee Table and rarely feel like crap, so I'm going to go with that. LA's got my Luke's, my Caffe Pronto. Life out here just might be bearable.

Puppy Cuteness

Broadcasting Live with Ustream.TV

If I can't have a puppy, this is the next best thing. As my husband says "Oh! For Cute!" Seriously -- puppy TV?! This is genius.

New favorite blog

The Writer's Almanac

Visiting and reading this blog always makes me a little happier each day. If you try it and like it, then definitely get his book "Good Poems". It'll make your brain feel good.

Frugal Cartoons

Ouch. I think this guy cut through all the BS and media hype surrounding this plumber sitch and hit a nerve. I mean, who likes taxes? But, as Randy Newman sings, 'This is my country, these are my people.' So we should take care of America and we should take care of AMERICANS. Maybe I'm only a bleeding heart liberal because I live teetering above the poverty level, and understand that government is sometimes necessary to HELP people. That's what I want from my government! And that's what I expect out of our leader.

Now, I understand this country is in the fiscal shitter, but I know that the government needed to step in with taxpayer money to dig these douchebag bankers out of the potty or else soon we'd be renting out our concrete patio as an 'outdoor sleeping oasis' just to make ends meet. We, as Americans need to start living within our means! I for one didn't step up to buy a house I couldn't afford. I don't have thousands of dollars in credit card debt (only school debt, tee hee). I cut coupons, take public transport to work, don't buy plastic water bottles, and buying a drink at a bar nearly sends me into a writhing, foaming-at-the-mouth seizure like state. What I'm saying is, my husband and I basically live within our modest income and we try really hard to be frugal. But I do work, I try to give a little back to my community, I save what I can and I pay my taxes!

Oh, Colin Powell...you fickle, but well-spoken man!

My dad showed this to me this morning. I don't think anyone has laid out such a logical explanation for why McCain should not be president. This speech is so fantastically lucid. It cuts through all the crap that the political pundits spin day in and day out. I'm so glad MSNBC gave C. Powell airtime.

GOBAMA!

OK, L.A., you win!

I am about to eat my words. Last week I complained about the weather here in the city of angels, but this weekend has totally won me over. It's been BEAUTIFUL in Los Angeles this weekend. Crisp, breezy, clear. Very fall-like for a 'right coaster' like me. Now if I could only get the leaves here to change color and for the cast of 'Friday Night Lights' to live in my neighborhood.....

Also, Brad and I got together with some of my college friends for an un-Homecoming and 5 year reunion for those Furman '03 grads that live in L.A. We headed to Venice to this GREAT barbeque place called Baby Blues. The food was A-mazing. Brad and I sat at the bar while we waited for the friends I hadn't seen in 5 years. They serve PBR in cans, which is just how we like 'em. I got the sweet tea just to make sure it was authentic (it was). The woman who was plating meals at the grill showed us the greatest hospitality by treating us to several little nibbits of food. The mac'n'cheese? Out of this world buttery and downright terrible for you. But that's what you want in southern mac'n'cheese. Am I wrong? A sweet potato mash that will make you slap your momma. Oh, and she grilled us some shrimp that could kick your ass and take your lunch money. The ensuing meal was equally as good.

The reunion was fun and just the right size - only four of us showed up! But it was great to see people again and remind myself that I have a lot to do to use my education to it's fullest potential (damn overachievers!). Hope everyone at real Furman Homecoming had as much fun as we did here in L.A.!

Jumping the Shark

Uhhhggg! I've had it. I have to break up with them. All of them. Those crappy things I've been devoted to that just aren't producing.

I'll start with the one that bugs me the most: Blender Magazine. This magazine disappoints SO much that I actually groaned when I opened the mail box today. And you know why I groaned BEFORE I open the mag? Cause they put Miss I-don't-own-a-pair-of-pants Katy Perry on the cover. E-gads fellas. I know you're owned by Maxim and have a line item in that contract to put hotties on the cover, but Pink doesn't wear pants, rocks harder than Katy Perry and has a new album out. Plus, she's way quirkier and I'm almost SURE she's kissed a girl, she just doesn't have to sing about it. The other reasons I'm done (READ: FINISHED!) with Blender is that they have lost most of their quirkiness that makes them so damn likable. Where are the brilliantly silly captions? Where are the random song lyrics scrolling the bottom of each page? What about the latest celebrity arrests? But honestly, it's the captions I miss the most. Wherever the old caption guy went -- get him back! He was genius! That's about 85% of the reason I renewed my subscription. When you get him back, I might think about reading you again.

Heroes. I'm done. Can't watch. They have absolutely jumped the shark. I understand that it's hard work making good TV. But come one! You can do so much with super heroes! I got miffed last season when you just kept introducing new characters just to have them killed off by Sylar. Whatever happened to the girl from New Orleans? Was that a lame attempt to get a more diverse viewing audience? Heroes -- you make me sad. And I just can't have that kind of negativity in my life right now. I'm sorry, but it's over.

Fall Heat. Gross. So sue me-- I'm not in love with SoCal weather. I'm from the east coast and really enjoy Fall. I would go so far as to say it's 1 of my top 4 favorite seasons. Colors. Swetta Weatha. Chilly mornings and football games! It's going to be 96 in LA tomorrow! Jeesh! Shame on you L.A. for making me sweat when I'd rather not.

Ham Butter

So while researching a recipe for biscuits to make with dinner I stumbled upon this:

Biscuits with Ham Butter

"'Whether as a finger food or brunch dish, these are a great way to use leftover ham,' advises Andrea *&#^@ of Unionville, Tennessee."

Can anyone please think of a good joke about ham butter?

Plant Thieves

I woke up this morning to take my CBEST test and as I was leaving my house I noticed that someone had swiped one of my potted plants right out of it's pot! It wasn't my favorite plant, but COME ON!

Maybe one of the regular 'Can Collectors' took it. Those are the peeps in my neighborhood who come by EVERY morning with their shopping carts looking through our recycling bins trawling for cans and plastic bottles. And as annoying it is to have a shopping cart rumbling along the concrete sidewalk right outside your bedroom window at 6:30 in the morning, I am all for those can-trepeneurs. At least the stuff gets recycled! Brad and I took our recyclabes in the other day and got $5 back. Hootenanny! That's like 2 apples at Whole Foods or 5 double cheeseburgers at McDonalds!

I vote for Cute!

See why I want Tina Fey to be my friend?