been waiting a long time

can't get much better than that.

it's for real

It figures that the very same year we decide to move away from Philadelphia, the Phillies win the freaking World Series. It just wasn't the same screaming at the top of my lungs in my living room all by our lonesome selves. We did crack open a bottle of wine in celebration though, and I raised a glass to my girl Fran who is, hands down, the most loyal Philadelphia fan I have ever met. She also has a thing for Hall and Oates but that's a story for another time...

So congratulations Philadelphia, you deserve it. You made me proud, because I expected to log onto the internet this morning and read tales of celebration mayhem, which I did, but only 76 of you got arrested last night! As Pete says, way to keep it classy Philly, way to keep it classy.

photo courtesy of : http://jimmacmillan.com/Phillies_aftermath/

back in the day

When you are 9 and your mom tells you that you are going to go put on a "authentic" kimono, stick a bird type feather thing on your head and then get your picture taken in front of a hot pink background, you've pretty much just hit the lottery.

me and my sister circa sometime around 1989ish

move over martha

This weekend I decided to tackle #3 on my list, baking a loaf of bread from scratch, one because I have only done one thing on my list so far (did I ever tell you how much of a procrastinator I am?) and second because I knew we would eat it all before it went bad and I wouldn’t have to watch with tears in my eyes as something I had crafted with my own hands went into the trash.

I have actually made bread before, but in a bread machine, which to me is totally way easier, but why would I want to make anything easier on myself? Plus, with the bread machine, which now belongs to my little sister, you only get these tall, rectangular loaves. I wanted “rustic” round loaves. I used a recipe from The Bread Bible, a book I have owned for over a year and done nothing with, except to every once in a while caress the pages lovingly and then put it back on the shelf. Until now! The dough came together way easier than I thought it would, although from the amount of flour on the floor/myself, you would have thought it was a fight to the death. At the last minute as I was shaping the loaves, I decided to throw all caution to the wind and make a baguette. Woah, I know, calm down. 40 minutes later, this is what I pulled out of the oven:

I am pretty much the next Martha Stewart.

I know, I know, people have been making bread since the Stone Age (I wikipedia’d it), no biggie. But baking bread has been on my list of baking fears for years and years so this is totally a big deal to me. There are some improvements I would make, but truth be told, warm out of the oven slathered in strawberry rhubarb jam, this bread is slammin’.

my bounty

my bounty

click on the link and you can check out my radical notes

Originally uploaded by jessica mae

A few days ago, one of my girls liz talked about how she often has people asking her about how to eat local and organic on the cheap. I thought about this today as I unpacked my haul from the farmers market and decided to document exactly what I bought and how much it cost me. If I had more motivation, I'd head to Whole Foods and do a little price comparison, but even without that I think we can all agree that, seriously? this would cost WAY more at whole foods. Plus, it's all organic, grown within 5-50 miles of where I live with no pesticides or any other grody stuff.

making tuesdays a bit better since 2008

This Sunday, for a little change of pace, I paid a visit to the Hollywood Farmers Market. This place would for sure be my go-to market if it were a little closer, but alas, it is not to be. My farmers market is totally nice, maybe a little too nice. I am constantly dodging bougie moms and their tykes dressed in outfits more expensive than mine. At the Hollywood market, I was dodging hipsters and their tykes dressed in outfits more hip than mine. Way more my scene!

I paid a little visit to the cheese stand that was staffed by some hot farmer dudes, who gave me sample of their delish buffalo mozzarella. It was so descrumptious (that’s the word for something delicious and scrumptious), I didn’t even flinch when one of them told me it was 8 dollars a ball.

Yesterday for lunch I was patting myself on the back for the splurge, and also for being smart enough to grab a monstrous heirloom tomato on my way out (you know it’s the end of the season when heirlooms are $2 a pound. sad face that it's almost not tomato season anymore). You know what makes a blah Tuesday a bit better? Having this for lunch:

No, I didn’t eat it all, my eyes were a little bigger than my stomach, but that’s a-o-k because that means more for later!!        

I also spied some of these:

Does anyone know what the heck these are? The management here at hotgingerlove would appreciate any information leading to the identification of this mystery gourd.

me + the getty = true love

This weekend was the first visit by one of the parental units since we’ve been here in La La land. Pete’s dad Wayne flew in for a conference, so he decided to kill two birds with one stone, and visit me! Oh yeah, and Pete too. Wayne once tried to trade me for Pete. True story.

this is Wayne talking on Pete's "blueberry"

This is the tree planted in the entrance to the Fairmont Hotel, which is my fave hotel in Santa Monica (ok, so I have only been to one hotel in Santa Monica). This tree is ginormous and was planted in 1869, which officially makes it the oldest thing I have seen since I have been here.

Friday night we went to Ma’Kai Lounge in Santa Monica. The food was great, and of course, we had the calamari. If you don’t know already, Pete is on a one man crusade to sample the calamari offerings at every restaurant in America. 10 down, roughly a gazillion to go.

Saturday afternoon brought us to the Getty Center, a place that I have been wanting to visit ever since I caught a glimpse of it off of the 405 our first week here. Really, this place is amazing. You park at the base of a hill and a tram takes you up to the top and the most amazing views of LA. The grounds themselves are just stunning. I could seriously live in here for a few weeks just taking pictures of all of the amazing flowers. I was in some major flora heaven; I might have even drooled a little bit.

Pete and I decided that this is the place we are taking every single person who visits us from now on, because it is just so impressive. And we like to impress people. We spent so much time walking around outside, that we hardly saw any of the actual art on display, but never fear, a follow-up visit has already been scheduled.

I am always thinking deep thoughts.

Pete loves it when I make him stop every few feet to take another picture.

We ate dinner at the restaurant in the Getty, which was equally impressive. Their seasonal menu changes weekly and includes a ton of local ingredients, plus their entire wine list is made up of wines from California! California wine = delish. Huzzah to the buy fresh, eat local! You know I love ya.

to see some more pics click here and/or here.

back to life, back to reality...

I guess you can’t party forever. We’re back from the fabulousness that was Eric and Abby’s wedding extravaganza in the great city of Santa Fe, NM. Great friends, amazing food (seriously, Fackey's, you can amuse my bouche anytime you want), dance-licious music, a farmer's market to end all farmer's markets, stunning scenery, a seemingly endless supply of booze, crazy shuttle drivers, a cowboy riding his sidewalk-pooping horse cross country, the best burger in the country, a slow-jazz rendition of "Straight Up", really what more could a gal ask for?

Well, a functioning camera would have been nice. Yes, on Friday evening, the beginning of the festivities, my brand new Canon Powershot SD1100 decided to punish me and stop working properly, so none of the festivities were captured on film. Well, by me at least. You can check out Ali's wrap-up of the events once she stops celebrating her birthday (which should be right around the time her next birthday rolls around if she has anything to say about it).

I was able to capture one of the many, many highlights of the weekend for me on my phone. On Sunday we stopped by the Cowgirl BBQ & Western Grill, because I needed to satisfy my bbq cravin's and boyee was it lip smackin' good. Too bad I left the other half on the table on our way out...

and good thing Jed is making me his amazing pulled pork for my birthday in November when I invade Philadephia. That's right Philly, I'm coming atcha.

update on the camera sitch: took it to best buy and their "geek squad" had to send it out to get repaired. looks like it's going to be 3 weeks without my new awesome camera so i'll have to settle for my old, slightly less awesome camera.

welcome back boys.

I know about a million people who are so totally geeked out right now.

PHISH TO PLAY THREE CONCERTS 10.01.08

Phish returns to the stage for three concerts at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia on March 6, 7 and 8, 2009.A limited number of tickets are available directly through Phish Tickets' online ticketing system at http://phish.portals.musictoday.com/ . The ticketing request period is currently underway and will end on Wednesday, October 8th at 11:59AM EST.Tickets go on sale to the public on Saturday, October 18th at 10 AM EST and may be purchased online at http://ticketmaster.com or by phone at 757.671.8100, 757.872.8100 or 804.262.8100. Tickets will not be available at the venue box office and there is a two-ticket limit per show.The band intends to announce additional touring in 2009 early next year.