It's just a game...

Yesterday we spent the day at the Rose Bowl, enjoying a magnificent tailgate followed by the USC-UCLA football game. Say hello to our not-so-little friend. Huck was kind enough to put forth the effort of buying the 70 lb pig, arranging and assembling the pit to roast it in, spending the night at the Wilmarth's to get the slow cooking process started the night before. There was a knife incident with the pig that resulted in a minor casualty.
Megan likes beans.All I know, is that this stance represents the "triple threat" in sports. But I have no idea what that really means even though it was explained to me more than once. I think its when an athlete can sing and dance in addition to being able to excel at a sport. No?It was a big day for all Trojans. Not so much for O.J. Megan and I are neither Bruin nor Trojan, so we represented UCR and I.E. as best we could.
We were lucky enough to get our tickets from Kenny who has 24th row seats on the 40 yard line and reserved parking right next to the Rose Bowl entrance. Megan and I were totally ballin'.
It was a good day. More to come from Parima's birthday/holiday party later that night

Kaleh Pacheh for Sunday Brunch

This ancient Persian recipe, which includes a whole sheep's head and an entire shin bone, is a rare find outside the motherland. Unless you're friends with my mom.
She threw in an extra 23 tongues and a dozen brains to flavor the pot. This is only a giant ladle's worth of what was in the giant pot on the stove top.
Finished off with a game of takhteh for the men.
It was time for Sheila to yaya (lala which means nap in Persian). She has to fiddle with her own ear and someone else's ear to fall asleep. I was lying next to her and facing her and she pushed my head aside and grabbed for my lobe while yelling/whining with her pacifier in her mouth, "need ear, Chachy!". "Chachy" is what "Katy" sounds like with a binky in your mouth. I had to take a picture.

Thai Scallops

Its been a little while since we cooked something new from a recipe. So last night we decided to try this Thai style scallops (I don't remember the exact name). The dish was really flavorful, light, tasty. The scallops where cooked perfectly, and the sauce we prepared was poured over them.
Here's the sauce that was prepared:
The problem I had with it was that after you cook the 6 stalks of lemon grass, one large can of stewed tomatoes, garlic, lots of seasoning, and spend time stirring it with love, you then strain it so that just the juice is used and you have to throw away all the lemongrassy tomoatoey goodness. That was kind of painful. You really can't eat the lemongrass stalks, but still. We did strain ever drop we could, and saved the extra for a Thai style risotto that we hope to make this week.

Tonight we cook squid.

Cedar Plank Salmon

I got a cedar plank from Whole Foods and Cary cooked a salmon on it the other night. So good. He put a bourbon and brown sugar glaze on it. The skin on the salmon was real fatty, so it turned out pretty creamy.We soaked the planks for over an hour and then put the salmon on it and stuck it in the oven.

Cary also made a cucumber, tomato, lime avocado salsa. Cucumber really adds a refreshing flavor to the salsa. The bean side dish is a take on the succotash that they serve at The Village Idiot.

Come back later to find out about the reporter that's interviewing us today about a piece on our company, MSE.

BBQ at the Websters

Today I went to Marjon and Heath's house. Kavon was in town from Austin, so Marjon and Heath were kind enough to host a tasty BBQ. Heath got a special recipe for BBQ sauce from his buddy who is the chef at the Salt Creek Grill in Manhattan Beach. He made baby back ribs and chicken breasts. So so so good.
We had margaritas in little octopus kids cups. Very refreshing.
Here is Miss Lauren being as cute as ever. Proud Uncle Kavon enjoying this family visit. Mamanjoon enjoyed some quality time with 2 children, 4 grandchildren, and 2 great grandchildren. Three generations Mama, Baby, Grandma.
This is the classic Sheila squirm. When she wants to be put down, she'll get down.

It was really hot, so Heath turned on the sprinklers just for Shashar and Marjon to run around in.
Looks like Lauren's trying to ward off the paparazzi (which would be me).

Miss Sheila got so hot that she felt the need to take her dress off, so she could eat her corn in comfort (or chorn, as Sheila calls it). Lobudge baby. Shoes, diaper, no clothes, one leg up, chompin' on chorn.
Miss Lauren decided to follow suit.
But before the girls stripped down to their diapers, I got some cute video of Sheila chasing Lauren. Sheila wanted to give Lauren a kiss, but Lauren just wasn't having it. You can hear Sheila calling out "Youyen!" (instead of Lauren).

Seafood Steam Part 2:The Friends

I have over 100 pictures from Saturday, so I need to split this post up into 3 parts. Since the first one was about The Food, I am making this one about our friends. If anyone can guess what Part III will be about, I will give you $5. You have till 11:59 PM Tuesday to leave your guess as a comment below.

Since this was an open house style get together, some people showed up around 2:30/3 and the rest showed up around 5:30/6.

The first shift:
First row: Cary and me, Sonia, Julia, John, John, Megan
Second row: Parima, Alan, Vicky, Ashley, Christine, Greg, Sheila, Conner, Steve.
Then Isabella, Mariana, Joel, Jeff, Shahrzad and Sheila came for the second shift.
Sheila was into Cary. My theory is that she was into the facial hair. Just like Baba (grandpa)
Here is me trying to get a kiss from Sheila, and Sheila trying get in my mouth for whatever reason.
Look at her grip on my arm and my jaw. And she's using her legs too. It's a hard to fight someone off when you're trying to make sure you don't hurt them.

Sheila managed to stick her little fist in my throat and gag me. She thought it was funny. She's a fierce monkey.