A Real Happy Cow...

...would be saved from the cold Canadian confines of wolf-bait territory.





Vote for Kirsten!!!!



In all seriousness, I think this fresh new take on the "Happy Cows Come From California" campaign is really well done. And timely with its election concept.

Don't Vote??!!?!? What? Do Vote????

Help! What should I make to go with my pumpkin pie?

A glorious photo by endless beauty on Flickr; one of my new feasty-favorites.

To celebrate Halloween, we're going to have a pie contest here in the office. I'm going to make a Gingersnap Pumpkin Pie (soooo tasty). I was going to make Bourbon Vanilla Whipped cream to top it, but now I'm wondering if I should make some Pumpkin Guinness Ice Cream to go with it instead?

Decisions...decisions...


What do you think? I need to make the goods tomorrow night.

Bringin' Turkey Dinner Back

Thanksgiving's around the corner and I thought it would be good to note last year's posting of these gorgeous Thanksgiving Dinner Cupcakes.


If you make them, let me know! Share pictures!

Last Week's Supper Club

I love and am embarrassed by the fact that my friends know me as the food-partying-entertaining gal. I love good food. I love to cook, I love fine dining and I love, love, love wine. What’s not to love about a great bottle of wine?

Lately, it’s been brought to my attention that many of my friends have been enjoying reading my status updates on Twitter and Facebook. And by “love” I really mean they often despise my updates because I make them hungry.

Last Tuesday, October 21st, I Twitted/Updated that I was going to Cooking Light Supper Club for an evening of food and wine. I definitely got some envious replies, and I also got some inquiries the day after – “how was it?”

So here it is…the answer to “how was it,” while rating the overall evening and the different courses with a five star rating system (1 = “It made me gag,” and 5 = “I died and went to heaven”).


Date: Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

Location: Fairmont Miramar, Santa Monica – Starlight Ballroom (4 stars)

Description: Cooking Light Supper Clubs, French Bistro Evening – a reader appreciation party hosted by the publisher and its advertising sponsors Eucerin (?), Mountain High yogurt, Kerrygold Irish Cheese, Tillamook Cheese, Gnarly Head Cellars, Potatoes Goodness Unearthed, Mahatma and Carolina Rices, and Tylenol. In the formal setting of the Fairmont Miramar, our Supper Club setting provided a convivial evening of food, wine led by the event planners of Cooking Light and Chef Billy. The Chef entertained us on an upscale cooking stage where a whiz-bang camera operator allowed us to view his tips and tricks via a wall-sized viewing screen. While Chef Billy cooked and meandered through the crowd to visit and get us excited, we sat at our linen-dressed tables while waiters helped take us through the four-course meal. Each course had a Gnarly Head wine paired with it.

Station appetizers (pre-dinner demonstration): Before the demonstration and sit-down meal started, there were a few food stations outside in the ballroom’s foyer. We only stopped at one – the Kerry Gold station where they served Warm Irish Cheddar and Artichoke Dip with toasted pita (5 stars), and Irish Cheddar and Garlic toasts (3 stars).

And now the sit-down portion of the evening…

First Course - Table Appetizers: Mixed Olive Tapenade with Toast (2 stars – not any different than the stuff I can buy at TJ’s), and Country Chicken Pâté served with coarse brown mustard and gherkins (3 ½ stars). Up until this evening, I never had pâté before. I have to say, it was darn good. Unlike my hubby, I had almost all of it. With this starter we were served Gnarly Head’s 2006 Chardonnay (0.5 stars) – I just can’t stand Chardonnay.

Second Course: Caramelized Pears with Blue Cheese salad with a Ginger Gastrique (3 stars). It was just okay. The dressing needed more acid. With this we had Gnarly Head’s Old Vine Zin (3 ½ stars).

Third Course – Dinner Entrée: Pan-seared Beef Filet with Green Peppercorn Sauce (4 stars – AWESOME!) – cooked to a perfect, perfect medium-rare. On the side we had Haricot Verts with Champagne-Shallot Vinaigrette (3 stars), and a Potato Gratin with Goat Cheese and Garlic (4 stars of AWESOMENESS). With this course we had a Gnarly Head Cabernet Sauvignon (3 stars – just really not as good as the previous Zin).

Fourth Course – Dessert: Cinnamon Crepes with Peaches and Cream Cheese (2 stars). First of all, the crepe was just below room temp. Second – according to my hubby – the walls were too thick. The Loredona 2007 Viognier paired with this dessert was odd. The Viognier wasn’t sweet enough for the course – I think a more appropriate pairing would have been Loredona’s 2007 Riesling. Who was asleep when this pairing was made up??????


OVERALL SCORES:

*Venue: 4 Stars

*Food & Wine: 3 Stars (not a fan of the wine)

*Company: 8 STARS! ;)

*One of the reader-guests puking from too much wine in front of the hotel by the valet stand: Priceless. 5 STARS!!!!

Today's Lunch: Corn and Bacon Pie

While perusing through Epicurious.com last night looking for St. Patrick's Day recipes, I came across this delectable recipe for Corn and Bacon Pie. It didn't catch my eye because it was appropriate for the upcoming green holiday. It did catch my eye because it was the featured Recipe of the Day, AND most importantly it had my favorite five letter word, "bacon." So I made out my grocery list. Knowing my husband would give me a hard time about the bacon, I opted for turkey bacon instead. And, accidentally leaving off the required red bell pepper, I found a smiling jar of Trader Joe's julienne sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil in my pantry.

[TRADER JOE'S SIDEBAR: I love Trader Joe's. I feel sad for those who 1) have never experienced the joy that is TJ's, 2) now live in another city/state without a TJ's, or 3) have been living under a rock and have no idea what TJ's is; when there's one nearby.]

I work from home, and thought this would be easy to make after breakfast and then cook in time for lunch. Boy, was I wrong. It was more time consuming than expected. But that's okay because my house smelled wonderful during and after it baked.

Eagerly awaiting the 30-minute cooling period after I took it out of the oven, I whipped-up a simple Dijon sherry vinaigrette to have with some lovely mixed greens and teardrop tomatoes. So I dug into the warm, heavenly scented corn and bacon pie and arranged it onto my plate with my heaping mound of salad.

First bite, amazing. Exactly what I thought it would be. Roasted sweet corn and turkey bacon gave it an amazing smoky taste. Wasn't too egg-y; perfect. Heft of the crunchy cornmeal crust matched the weight of the abundant filling.


























Do I want another piece? Yes. Will I grab another one? No; I'm going to be good.

Will I make this again? Abso-freakin'-lutely. :) Should you make it? Yes.

When I make it again, I might try to make it southwestern:

• Use red bell peppers and a diced jalapeno.
• Instead of turkey bacon, consider using chicken chorizo.
  
• Instead of Gruyeres, use pepper Jack cheese.
• Stick with TJ's roasted frozen sweet corn kernels.
• Instead of Worcestershire sauce, use my favorite Tapatio or Chipotle Tabasco sauce.

This One's For You...

...T.S. You know who you are!!!!

My friend, and former colleague, T.S. reminded me today over a brief IM conversation that it's been AGES since I have posted to my blog. So, I dedicate this post to him.

I have a lot of former colleagues like T.S. - we have all gone our separate ways for one reason or another career-wise, but we always seem to stay in touch now and then. It's nice. Those of us who haven't scattered to the East Coast, Northern California or New Zealand (whut???!!!), do get a chance to get together now and then for a lovely imbibing.

I must say, that most of my best friends now are those whom I have met within the past eight years of living here in SoCal. And really, they're the most diverse group of friends I have ever had. So if any of my friends are reading this (and you know who you are because we stay connected on IM, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, e-mail, phone or get together for dinner/movies/drinks/Rock Band) - thank you.

Y'all keep in touch, you hear?

Insanely Cool Thanksgiving Cupcakes

I think I'll have to make these. They are HILARIOUS!

You can find the recipe here on FamilyFun.com: Click here

If you do end up making these, or anything else equally entertaining, please let me know how they turned out.

MMMMmmmm...Wine

My husband and I went up to Santa Ynez wine country (Lompoc and Los Olivos) this weekend with friends. We drank a lot of great wine, and ate A LOT of wonderful food. Like a few other times, we headed out very early on Friday morning so that we could get to Ellen's Danish Pancake House to fill up on their glorious pancakes before drinking the rest of the day. (Ugh, when is lunch?) I highly recommend getting their "2x2" Danish Pancake special...2 Danish pancakes and two eggs. I also enjoy getting a hot chocolate (with a tower of real whipped cream) and a side of Polska Kielbasa. MMMM...good eats.

We visited with a couple of winemakers that we have met with before (Loring and Ampelos). Loring's fall mailing list orders just opened up yesterday. We're still trying to figure out how much we want (lots). Ampelos has a lovely pinot noir rosé this time around - we picked up a couple of bottles. What I really liked about their rosé is its sweet floral scent and crisp finish. It's not too overly sweet of a rosé. We also met Chad Melville, one of the winemakers of Samsara Wine (and yes, he's related to the Melville Wine family). He has a couple of very nice wines that were great fun to try.

The surprise wine of the weekend was Palmina. Not typical of winemakers in this part of California, Plamina makes Italian style wines. And they do a GREAT job of it. Tasting room manager Hether Briggs hosted a private tasting for seven of us on Saturday before their official open at 11:00 a.m. (yes, we were drinking vino at 10:00 a.m., perfect). These are all excellent food wines. While tasting, we were enjoying sopressetta, dry parmesan and bread sticks. We left with six bottles (Malvaisia Bianca, Tocai Friulano, Barbera, Dolcetto, Savoia and a rosé). We also joined their Stagioni Wine Club.

On Saturday evening, we enjoyed another visit to Mattei's Tavern for dinner in Los Olivos (it was Brian's first time there). They have the best steak EVER. So, of course everyone at the table got that. So funny. First, I started with the puree of summer corn soup. My main course was t heir 6 oz. prime fillet with caramelized onion potato gratin with a stilton cheese-port wine sauce. To. Die. For. For dessert I enjoyed their apricot raspberry almond crisp with vanilla ice cream. The apricots were amazing (came from the huge tree outside from where we were sitting). MMMMMMmmm.....steak!!!!!!! This is a "must visit" if you're headed out to the Solvang/Buellton/Santa Ynez/Los Olivos area. Make sure to call ahead for reservations.

Olive You

Again, posting while I'm hungry. I'm sitting here waiting for my husband to finish up work so that we can scurry off to get dinner and then go to the movies at The Arclight.

I'm feeling sick today (summer cold coming on), and for some reason I decided to Google "sick cookies" and in a round about way, I stumbled upon Jumbo Empanadas' site where I found this amazing recipe for Deep Fried Olives. Yup. Beautiful jumbo green olives stuffed with Maytag blue cheese, breaded and then deep fried. It sounds like heaven.

Reminds me a bit of this crazy green olive appetizers my parents used to make on special occasions (birthdays, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve). Basically, it's a Spanish olive surrounded by a cheesy dough and then baked. MMMMMMM...I need me some of those right about now.

Alas, maybe I'll satiate my hunger w/ a medium-rare burger from the Arclight Café. Y up, that should do it. Maybe that will cure my cold too.

Bon Weekend.

How cute are these????!!?!!?!

I just love these Farm Iced Mini Cookies from Williams-Sonoma. Can't you just taste their brightly-colored sugary goodness?

They somewhat remind me of Mother's Circus Animal Cookies. MMMMmmm.... I could really go for some of those right now. (I really need to NOT post when I'm hungry.)

[Added 08/07: My husband told me this last weekend that his ex-girlfriend's family used to manufacture the Mother's Circus Animal Cookies. Too bad they got rid of that factory.]

Hope Floats

I just wanted to say "hello" to the person in the dark blue Toyota Matrix w/ the Texas plate and Beaumont frame who passed by me on the 110 south through Downtown this morning. I wanted to send this cordial greeting to you because your old Kerry / Edwards bumper sticker made me smile.

I wish there were more people like you in Texas.

HOLY COW

I can't believe it's been nearly a year since I have last posted. My, my, my how time flies.

In a nutshell, since then:

• I celebrated my birthday; and I'm about to do so again (:::sigh:::)
• My middle sister and her finance FINALLY settled on a wedding date (thankfully after the holidays, with enough time to plan for a wedding, and after she graduates from grad school this May)
• After three years, I left my old gig mid-September
• Just HOURS after leaving my old job, I flew to Chicago for a freelance gig for a few days (moolah)
• Started a new gig a week after my old one
• Visited w/ the hubby and friends in NYC in November
• After two years, I finally got a replacement digital camera (last one got stolen; long story)
• I made Luxe status within only three months time (if you know what this is, you know how crazy this is to accomplish in such a short time)
• I had an 84.5 hour work week over seven day straight time period (only to continue working the regular five day work week afterwards)
• I've been busy helping my sister plan her wedding
• I FINALLY figured out what that financial stuff I was touting the past three years really means to someone in My Next Stage
• My husband and I bought a 52 bottle wine fridge, and it's already full
• I'm excited about my concert outings this upcoming summer at the Hollywood Bowl and at Dodger Stadium (THE POLICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

That's it! I'll try to do a better job of posting.

I Hate Drivers (A.K.A. One More Reason to Hate Texas, Part II)

Here's my rant.


So last Thursday morning while on my way to work, traffic was busier than normal (for a late commute at around 9:50'ish a.m. in Los Angeles). Seeing that traffic is NOT going to get any better as I try to drive through Downtown on the 110 South, I decided to take a detour and exit the freeway through Chinatown.

And that's not much better either.

After exiting on Hill Street, in stop and go traffic, to make matters worse, a pedestrian has activated the crosswalk ahead at Gin Ling Way (at the back-entrance to the Chinatown gate). So there goes the light at the crosswalk...blinking red. Now, smart normal people understand that this blinking red light just screams, "DRIVER, NOW I AM A STOP SIGN."

Apparently an unintelligent weird person was driving behind me.

I was one car away from being at the front of the queue at the BLINKING RED LIGHT CROSSWALK. The guy in front of me is stopped - cars all around me are stopped because there is a BLINKING RED LIGHT CROSSWALK. Most everyone is taking turns stopping, looking both ways, and then proceeding. Such is NOT the case for the person behind me. The guy in front of me proceedes, and then I move forward to the front of the queue and stop (note: the light is STILL BLINKING RED).

However, Dork-Boy behind me, who is CLEARLY NOT PAYING ATTENTION must have thought to himself when I moved forward, "COOL, NOW I CAN DRIVE DOWN THE ROAD, TRAFFIC ISN'T STOPPED ANYMORE."

WRONG.

Yeah, Mr. "I'M-NOT-PAYING-ATTENTION-BECAUSE-I'M-A-DORK-'MOVED'-HERE-FROM-HOUSTON-FIVE-DAYS-AGO-DIDN'T-CHANGE-THE-CLOCK-ON-MY-MOBILE-SO-I-THOUGHT-I-WAS-ALREADY-LATE-FOR-A-NOON-MEETING-WHEN-IT-WAS-REALLY-10:00A.M.-SO-I-WASN'T-PAYING-ATTENTION-AND-I-OBVIOUSLY-COULD-NOT-SEE-THERE-WAS-A-STOPPED-CAR-IN-FRONT-OF-ME..." (a.k.a. Mr. Dork-Boy) hit me.

Sure, I would have totally NOT called my insurance company had Mr. Dork-Boy given me a straight answer. And maybe if he hadn't hid behind his girlfriend (the owner of the car) to negotiate with me, instead he hid in the car. Sure, I believe your "we just moved here five days ago to Glendale from Houston, and we took everything out of our car already and we don't have our insurance in here" lame-ass excuse. And, okay...so you STILL think it's after NOON when it's now really 10:17 a.m....I said you were incorrect, so don't hastily jump back into your car and leave. Bastard!

Deal with my insurance now biz-natch. And learn what time it is.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

This just killed me. Startled all of my co-workers.

Dandelion and flame

Dandelion and flame
Originally uploaded by catmadogma.

Took my breath away when I first saw this. It's just gorgeous. Whispy. Intricate. Soft. Sexy.

Odd Stone #2

Odd Stone #2
Originally uploaded by joctaviothomas.

Another shot from my trip to Scotland in March. It's quite interesting. Very surprising to see as we were walking across the garden.

Albino Squirrel!

Albino Squirrel!
Originally uploaded by phlezk.

Thanks to "phlezk" you all know how large a squirrel's family jewels can get. And an albino squirrel at that too!!!!

Who Knew??? Another Reason to NOT Like Texas

Before you know it, "Big Brother" and its relatives will be implementing a "One Child Per Family" policy. Maybe when the Rolling Stones play anywhere in Texas again, they can make sure they censor which songs they can play. Maybe then can have Mick Jagger wear an unsexy flannel pajama set and have him waltz around the stage?

I swear, the only think I like about Texas now is the bats that live under that bridge in Austin, and Texas BBQ.

Anyhow...here's the article that got me ranting about Texas, again:



Texas college bars students from posing for Playboy
Thu Apr 20, 2006 9:31 AM ET
Reuters

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Baylor University in Waco, Texas, which bills itself as the world's largest Baptist college, has threatened to discipline female students if they pose for Playboy magazine, which is trying to recruit models from the college.

Playboy photographers came to Baylor's hometown seeking models for a photo spread on women of the Big 12 college athletic conference, of which the college is a member.

Baylor Vice President for Student Life Samuel W. Oliver sent an e-mail to women students this week warning that any who "associate" with Playboy would be subject to the university's disciplinary processes.

"Playboy is clearly antithetical to Baylor's mission and associating with the magazine would be a violation of the code of conduct," Oliver wrote in the e-mail. University officials said punishment could include suspension.

Read the rest of the story here.

This Makes Me Feel Icky Inside

And it BEGS the question, "What the F**K was she thinking???!?!?!?!"

 

 

ROSS COUNTY JAIL

Prisoner pat-down misses gun hidden in body cavity

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Aaron Marshall

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Move over, Bond girls.

A Ross County jail inmate hid a gun so well that not even the guards who did an extensive pat-down found it.

The Cleveland woman hid a loaded handgun inside her body and smuggled it all the way to her jail cell, where it accidentally fired when she was trying to hide it.

"While in the holding cell, she removed a .25-caliber semiautomatic from her vaginal cavity," Chillicothe Police Capt. Tom Hewitt said yesterday.

Victoria Lundy, 41, hid the gun in the toilet-paper holder. It fell to the floor and discharged. The bullet lodged in the ceiling as guards scrambled to quickly recover the weapon, Hewitt said.

Read the rest of the story here.