sunday afternoon

sunday afternoons were made for hanging in your favorite coffee shop, sipping an exceptionally well made latte and reading a new book (not becoming my mother by the always amazing ruth reichl).

i love the scene here, there are four stations, and each one is staffed with a vest-wearing hipster barista to craft your delicious drink. it's pricier than most places, but they really know what they are doing here. intellegentsia, you have my heart.

special delivery

no, i'm not going vegan, i love cheese too much to do that.

yesterday i came home to find a package from amazon waiting on my doorstep! i love getting things in the mail, especially things that aren't bills. a few weeks ago i made the chickpea cutlets from this book and they were SO good that when i saw it on sale for half off on amazon the next day, i went for it.

boris and i teamed up in deciding on the first meal: chile cornmeal crusted tofu with southwestern corn pudding and green pumpkin seed mole? or maybe potato and kale enchiladas with roasted chile sauce? too many choices.

things i've been doing

The Hollywood Bowl is a magical place to see a show, it’s all outdoors and you can bring your own wine and food to nibble on as the sun sets over the Hollywood Hills. A few weeks ago, I dragged Pete to the Sound of Music Sing Along and joined 18,000 other people (the show was sold out almost instantly, that is how popular it is) to watch my all-time favorite movie and sing along to every song (they put the words at the bottom of the screen in case you don’t know them- as if!). Before the movie started there was a costume contest, with a grand prize of a 7 day cruise to Mexico! The winning costume? Three little kids dressed as “Tea with Bread and Jam”. So cute. It was loads of fun, even though we seriously underestimated the amount of wine we needed as we ran out before the movie even started! Oh well, there’s always next year.

what's for dinner

Smitten Kitchen's lemony zucchini goat cheese pizza. I officially want to spread lemony goat cheese onto whatever I can get my hands on.

While cutting off the tops of my radishes from the farmers market, I tasted one and discovered that the tops are totally delish. It made me so sad I had thrown so many away. The tops were tossed into the salad bowl with some other mixed greens, an impromptu lemon vinaigrette and some Parmesan shavings.

On another note, my garden is starting to finally show some life, which makes me totally excited, since I thought for sure this year was going to be a bust. I guess I need to learn a little patience. pictures to come.

and they said "i do"

Pete and I just returned from a week in Vieques, Puerto Rico celebrating the union of two of the most wonderful people, our friends Mia and Ira. To say that it was an honor to be a part of their most special day is an understatement, and I can't think of two people more deserving of a lifetime of happiness. Cheers!

the full set of pictures can be found here.

i'm back

I can’t believe I’ve been away for over two months. Things got a little hectic for a while, with jobs, school, moving, family, life, but now that summer is here, I’m ready to relax, slow down and enjoy life.

As an offering of my sincerest apologies, I decided to bake you a cake. Back in March, Abby gifted me with the loveliest of books, Molly's A Homemade Life, and I've had the recipe for her Winning Hearts and Minds cake tagged ever since. This cake is so delicious and impressive, you would never guess how simple it is to make. I made a few modifications, such as using Trader Joe's chocolate instead of the recommended "good" chocolate, a 9 inch cake pan because that's all I had, and a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder instead of regular flour (gluten free bonus!) and I don't think it hurt it one bit.

"it's basically like the moistest, richest, bestest brownie you've ever had" - pete

sweatin' to the oldies

Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning to find an email from my mom containing this picture. Apparently old Richard likes to hang out at 30th Street Station wearing tank tops bedazzled with the word "SWEAT".