Getting back in the game

Once upon a time, I used to blog. Many of my blog posts were of  food and restaurants. Then came baby, life, work, all the other things that had always been there but felt more difficult to deal with, and there went my time, patience, and hoseleh to blog. Plus, when I do get to go out and eat, my hands are kind of busy with you know who...


One of the reasons we don't eat out as often

 After a busy week for both of us,  Cary was asked to be a part of a project with some friends. This meant Layla and I would be alone most of Saturday. So we went to Home Depot (because we're moving next month!), Mom's house, then Aunties house, then to a small shop that does interesting things with succulents and wood and other interesting pieces of furniture and accents.  That was a pain; Layla asleep, stroller didn't fit in store, had to put it back in the car, all with Layla asleep, lots of transfers to carseat, carried her limp/sweaty/sleeping body throughout the store, all by myself. Needless to say, by the time Cary got home, I was beat. I told him to go out with Layla and leave me at home to veg out. He insisted we go out together all three of us. Reluctantly I agreed, and we tried this little burger and beer joint called Stout. 

This was the IOS 3am chicken burger. Sort of Greek themed. It came with fries inside the burger.
Love that. Really yummy and perfectly filling.

They had this giant oven baked pretzel that Layla liked. She loved the fries of course. We each got beers we never tried before. Cary got the Italian themed burger, it had prosciutto in the form of bacon bits, mozzarella, nummy.



Mmmm, more french fries? more french fries?

 Despite a rough start, Layla was great. She stayed in her stroller the whole time watching Elmo on Cary's phone. She had a bite of my burger meat, some pretzel and a bunch of fries. Not the balanced meal that I would prefer for her to have, but Mommy and Daddy got to chill out and unwind a bit.

We were leaving Stout to go back to the car and this young, punky tatooed couple that were walking in front of us, turned and shouted to their friends behind us that they would be right back in 20 minutes....after they f@$ked. Then the guy, sort of embarrassed points out that there's a little kid right there, and the girl apologizes for cursing in front of Layla. We were laughing at all of it because we saw it coming.

The little strip mall type corner that Stout was located in is pretty cool. Next door is a hookah lounge, and next door to that is another bar/restaurant that offered sausages and other yummies on the menu. At the opposite corner is Big Wangs, which is a sports bar with wangs...um, I mean wings. Chicken wings. It's just off Sunset between Ivar and Cahuenga near cool newish shopping and art space.  It's still gritty and not polished, so we were the only ones there with a stroller.  No other kids around. Cary prefers this. Not that we have anything against fellow parents and families. But he likes that we will venture out and try new places. Just like in the old days. Maybe I'll start blogging more too.

Sunday Funday

Even though Sunday started off with chores, we managed to squeeze in some fun stuff. After a run to the car wash (first one this year...of course it rained today :-/ ), we hopped in the clean car and went to the Farmers Market on Ivar, bought a bunch of veggies, fruits, bread, ran into my friend Gina's mom who's family has an orange grove and she gave us a ton of oranges, blood oranges, tangerines, tangelos (yum!), and then we walked to Go Burger for lunch. I haven't taken pictures of my food in a while, and I should have taken pictures here. The Philly smashed burger was possibly one of the best I've had in my life. They also have "adult" milk shakes  spiked with various booze and ice cream floats, like Guinness with a scoop of vanilla. I'll have to try one next time.

Then we dropped off Cary at home with the groceries, and Layla and I headed to Hannah's house for some swimming. I would have taken pictures, but would have risked dropping my camera and phone in the jacuzzi. So no pics till after we got dried off.

Rolling around being silly

Exhausted from jumping on the bed

 Layla and Hannah just ran around screaming and laughing. It was so sweet. Layla would jump on the bed and say "boing! boing! boing!" and Hannah would say "I'm gonna get you". You can't have that kind of fun when you're not a kid. It's so fun to watch.

Then Layla and I went home. I opened the fridge and Layla saw the strawberries and started saying, "a-strawberries? a-strawberries?" everything starts with an "a" and is asked like a question. Recently, everything is plural as well,  "a-Elmos?" or "a-Hannahs?"

Turns out that the Farmers Market strawberries were extremely sweet and delicious. Layla smeared some into the couch to remember them by.

We were all exhausted that night. Unfortunately, Layla coughed so bad that night in her sleep, that she vomited all over us in bed (our bed). We hopped in the shower around midnight to wash the chunks out of hour hair as Cary changed the sheets. Poor Laylie was so out of it, she just gripped my neck in the shower with this wide eyed dazed look on her little face. She coughed all night. Hopefully she'll be better today.

Sunday driving

I finally got a new car. I can't believe I didn't even write about it. I love it, it's a small SUV. Since we haven't really been going anywhere, other than the Grove, we decided to try a new breakfast spot as an excuse to (1) get out of the house, (2) drive somewhere in the new car, (3) dress Layla up in a new outfit.Here's Layla bug dressed in her ladybug ensemble. Daddy picked this out.

We went to Grub which is a little towards the east side just south of Sunset Blvd. They bring a bowl of fruit loops and coco puffs as table nibbles. I mowed through it and felt icky. I got the croissant french toast with strawberry butter. Salright. Cary got an omelet with chicken sausage and peppers. The people were super nice and we got there just before the 10am rush. The people sitting behind me were ooohing and aaahing over Layla and her cutesie outfit.

Then we decided to take a ride around Silver Lake and Echo Park. We're considering different neighborhoods as far as where we'll buy our first home. My commute to Pasadena is less than desirable with Layla. She doesn't care for riding in her rear-facing car seat when there is no one in the backseat to keep her company. I don't blame her.

After driving around for the east side, I pulled over to nurse Layla and she didn't want to sit in her cars eat after that. So we headed home. Made a pit stop at Mashti Malone's for some Akbar Mashti . We both got a rosewater and pistachio on wafer sandwich. It was deeelicious. We talked about how when we were still just dating, Cary lived right behind Mashti Malone's. We never came here when he lived around the corner. For 3 years, not one visit. I bought a hand packed poppy seed sorbet and we headed home. It was a lovely family day.

Then Grandpa came over and gave Layla her second serving of rice cereal. She loved it even more the second time. It's so much fun to watch her gobble down her food. My little fatty, bezan be takhteh.

The Little Next Door

Christine and Justin (aka Bubbs, Bubbsers, Bubba) came over Sunday to hang. After Mom and Dad came by to relieve us of the foozball table, Christine, Justin and I went to The Little Next Door for some late lunch.

Bubbs is such a cool cat. He's so easy to hang with. Christine said she couldn't believe how big my belly had gotten in the couple weeks since we had seen each other. Yeah, I'm large. We had some yummy sandwiches and then for dessert...
these yummalicious delights. They are St. Germain, pistachio custard, over chocolate macaroon, over vanilla cream, over strawberry puree. Fresh currents and berries on top. SOOO good.

Last class, maybe?

Today was our last class for this session of Improv Workshop B. We are still waiting for results from our audition yesterday. If we don't get in, who knows if we will have it in us to audition again in 6 months. Biting my nails isn't helping with the nerves. It's funny how you grow attached to people in your class. It was a really warm and supportive group of people. Even though I'm not best friends with everyone, I'll miss seeing them all once a week.

All in all, this has been a priceless experience. I'm not sure how to explain what practical skills I've learned, but I've definitely learned things about myself that I may not have otherwise. Maybe I've gained a little confidence, maybe I've exercised my creative mental abilities that would have otherwise gone unused. Bottom line is that I had a blast and I got to do it all while I was pregnant. Someday, I hope that little girl will read this and know that I was thrilled to include her in this special and unique part of my life. I'm a little worried that when she leaves my body, I will lose some of what I absorbed during the class. If she gains every ounce of it, I will be thrilled.

After class we walked over to the Groundlings theater and Cary asked if they had any results from the audition. Apparently the lady behind the desk asked if any one of us had submitted a "weird headshot" (we had to submit a headshot and resume when we auditioned). I didn't have a head shot, so I used a picture of Cary and I, and put 5 post-it notes over Cary's head and body because it was a really nice picture and I didn't want to cut the photo in half. Cary used a picture where I was kissing him on the cheek....and he cropped me out of the picture!!! That's much more cruel, if you ask me. I thought for sure that since she remembered my "weird headshot", that she was hesitant to tell us who was in and who was out because the person with the weird headshot was out. I am totally sweating it!!

After class, with some post-audition-dazed feeling, Cary and I drove to Skye Taco on Pico for some lunch. The turkey tacos are the best!! And they have this drink called sorrel that is sooo good! They serve their sorrel and lemonades in a mason jar, which I love.
I couldn't eat my second taco, which was beef. This giant mastiff was tied to the fence post behind Cary and when I was about to bite into my beef taco, I saw the long strings of saliva hanging down from both corners of the dog's mouth and almost vomited. I have a high tolerance for getting grossed out while eating. Still,I had to spit out the first bite I took of the beef taco and I couldn't eat anything after that. Bummer.

First audition ever!

I haven't been writing much about the Groundlings classes we've been taking since I first posted about it in January (here and here). I took a 6 week improv class ("Improv Workshop A") during the first session in January/February with Cary, then I stopped because I was still nauseous from the first trimester nausea. Cary took the next class level ("Improv Workshop B"). in February/March. Then Cary repeated this class and I joined him for the most recent session of "Improv Workshop B" from April-May. Cary also took the sketch writing class, but I did not.

In order to advance to the next level of classes, called "Basic A", you have to audition. So Cary and I (and little girl in my belly) had our very first audition this morning. We went with 3 other of our friends from class, which was comforting. Normally the auditions are held in one of the classrooms and include exercises very similar to the ones you do in class. Since the main theater was not being used, the instructor decided that we would audition on the actual Groundlings stage. Needless to say, it was slightly intimidating...but AWESOME!! I even got to use one of the fake doors on the side of the stage.

Of the 5 of us that auditioned, I messed up the most, I felt. Everyone else got to do at least one scene with someone from our class, except me. I don't know if it would have made a difference in my performance or not, I was really nervous. Cary did awesome, I was so proud of him. Everyone from our class did really well and we were all rooting for each other. All of a sudden, it felt like we were a mini-family. I was really proud of everyone.

Afterwards, Cary and I drove around in a daze looking for somewhere to have lunch. We drove by Lemonade off of Beverly. It's always closed on Sundays after class, so we've never been.

I got the corned beef with Gruyere and a side of shaved fennel and sun choke. Fancy. Cary got the turkey and avocado with a side of sugar snap peas and edamame. I also got a cucumber mint lemonade which was freaking delicious. We ate in silence because our thoughts were deep in our audition. Every once in a while one of us would bring up something we noticed and then go back to eating in silence.

We don't find out till Monday if we passed or failed. If you fail you can't audition for 6 months and you only get 3 chances to audition. I've been anxious all day. The suspense is killing me. I want all 5 of us to make it. Mostly I want Cary to make it so he can continue moving up the ranks for the sake of his writing (and sanity... advertising isn't leaving him with much sanity). Finger crossed!! Or is it break a leg?

Beautiful Downtown Culver City

Kavon and Chelsea were in town, so Shashar, Jackie, Cary and I met them at Akasha in Culver City. First some drinks at our place, though there were already drinks that had been had, if ya know what I'm sayin'. Akasha is a restaurant that features locally grown, organic ingredients and cruelty free meats. Good stuff. They use a lot of "small family farms, organic growers, sustainable and fair trade companies , and artisan food makers" according to their website.

I got the short ribs, really good. The side was a mashed potato and turnip dealy. Really really good.

Chelsea got the meatloaf. I waited for her to leave to take a picture of her food because I was too embarrassed. Kavon got some sort of chops, but I didn't take a picture.
Cary and Shashar got the scallops on forbidden black risotto. Yummy.Desert was a salty chocolate tart, aka salty balls as Jack referred to it all night. He suggested the waitress add salty balls to the menu and she had enough of a sense of humor to say she would make sure the chef heard about it.

Then we mosied over to The Culver Hotel. It has a great lobby/lounge area. Cary had a gin and elderflower cocktail that he still talks about. It was that good.

This guy, who sort of looked like Santa with a "Jesus Dream Team" ball cap on, was jamming on the piano. So Kavon goes up to him and asks if he can play Rocket Man, and he shakes his head "no" and says "its just too good the way it is" or something like that. Kave and Jack remind me if I quoted it wrong.

We all had a great time and can't wait to go back to Culver City.

The Farm

When we go to The Farm, Cary and I usually order the same things we always do. This usually includes the stuffed baguette sandwich with sweet potatoes below. But Cary spotted something on the menu we hadn't noticed before.

Fried chicken, with grilled corn on the cob, and truffled mac and cheese. IT WAS SO GOOD!!! I could barely finish it, so I got to enjoy the leftovers the next day. Then we went and saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which I really enjoyed. Today was a good day.

Dinner at XIV

Tonight we were treated to an amazing dinner with Kenny and Aly at XIV (that's fourteen). Very unique dining experience. The serving style is both small plates and family style. For every dish you choose, each person at the table gets a small plate of that order. We had 11 small plates that night. I took a picture of every single one (thanks in part to Kenny for reminding me!). The lighting was dim, so the pictures don't do the works of art justice. We started with the Nantucket bay scallops tempura, cauliflower, passion fruit, almonds.

Followed by the dungeness crab springroll, avocado, cumin, roasted almond.

This was a special that day. A cavatelli, with truffle, and a cheese I can't remember, but it was really tasty. Cary's favorite.

Black cod, spaghetti squash, matsutake mushrooms, foie gras dashi.

Jidori chicken, truffled mac and cheese, caramelized onion sauce.

Liberty duck, seared foie gras, cornbread, spinach, lavender honey jus.

Angus rib cap, chanterelles, haricot verts.

I think this was the venison, but I am not 100% sure. I should have taken notes.

Aged mimolette, apple, chamomile foam, juniper shortbread. The chamomile foam really tasted like chamomile. What you can't see is that under the foam, is a little divot in the dish with a spoonful of gelee.

Lemongrass custard, cola, buttermilk, sweet potato- yuzu mochi (so yummy).

Bitter chocolate cream, mozzarella ice milk, elderflower, violet.

Overall, it was a great dining experience, excellent food, and best of all, really great company. Aly and Kenny, thank you for this very special dinner. We will never forget it.

Mangiamo with the Sarns

Cary and I were lucky to enough to spend time with Robin and Jason on Saturday night. I'm embarrassed to say that we have not seen them since our wedding last year.Robin spent the entire rehearsal and wedding taking amazing pictures. As a part of our wedding gift (which included gorgeous Nambe candle holders), she put together a photo album with pictures from the rehearsal and wedding. I can't even express how meaningful and special the album is to us. Not only was it so thoughtful, personal, sweet, and just wonderful, but its the only album we have. THANK YOU, ROBIN!! (and Jason of course, but I'm pretty sure Robin gets full credit for the album)

Dinner was really really good. I got the king crab diavalo. Above is the fig wrapped in prosciutto.

Thank you Robin and Jasen! I hope we get together much more often. I miss Kaitin and Dawson.

Feeling Lucky

You know when something happens that you wish hadn't happened, and you replay the event in your head and notice the many possibilities that could have lead to avoiding it from happening?

I think I was able to narrowly avoid something from happening Saturday night.

I went to an art gallery, where a friend of a friend of my parents had some work on display. My Dad still has jet lag. So his nap went a little too long. So they picked me up a little later than they would have. We got to the gallery a little later than we had planned to. Who knows what would have happened had we showed up when we planned to.

On our drive to the art gallery, we kept having to pull over because police and fire trucks with sirens were whizzing by us. So when we get there, all the streets we need to turn onto are blocked by police cars and yellow tape. Finally we get to the gallery and it turns out that a shooting across the street from the art gallery had just ended. Two people were shot, one of which was killed. We would have had to drive right by the shooting to get to the gallery. Had we arrived a little sooner, who knows where the cross fire would have ended up. So scary that I can't even wrap my head around it.

We decided to have dinner far from the scene of the crime. So we went to Amalfi on La Brea. Always good. We were really hungry. Everyone loved their dinner. Cary liked his pumpkin ravioli with braised short rib so much, that this morning he slaughtered a pumpkin and I'm looking up recipes.

There was a movie prop store near where we parked our car.

I couldn't help myself.