It's a project kind of weekend

Actually it started last night with the first round of wrapping. Now the living room floor is covered in little bits of paper scraps and ribbon trims. And I'm enjoying an eggnog-y coffee and listening to Christmas with the Rat Pack and plotting my course of project action for the next few days. Which includes a bit of baking, a few little errands, more wrapping, two birthday parties, and beginning to pack for 10 days out of town to San Diego and then to Mammoth.



And since they don't let hugely pregnant people on the ski slopes, I have to bring an entire car full of project supplies to keep me occupied in front of the fire. I have a SNEAKING suspicion that my most wonderful husband has succumbed to my incessant whining and will be giving me my sewing machine for Christmas. yessssssssssss. Which means I will be bringing it to Mammoth along with stacks of fabric so I can make a few things while I'm up in the snow. Including a few more strands of bunting flags for baby presents to a dear friend and to myself.

In a moment of weakness, while innocently looking up a project on their blog, I ordered a few more yards of fabric from Purl last night. Now that I am a "seamstress" I can do things like that. Maybe sewing will be my true calling. I will buy a lot of fabric and see how I take to it.

Happy Birthday to my ladies Leslie and Deja today!

And everyone have a festive weekend wearing sequins and tights and other cute things that I don't own because I cannot fit into them.

For winter

I saw this vintage postcard at Solo in Solana Beach over Thanksgiving. Finally downloaded it from my phone:



"Quite cold here too, so what's the use of getting hot about it?"

I love the simplicity and the wit.

Cold weather = pampering for skin. I for one cannot resist delicately scented, sumptuously textured lotions.

Take Kiehl's Imperial Body Balm. The black packaging is a nice marketing tool, don't you think? OOOOH SPECIAL AND LUXURIOUS AND BLACK.



I actually waited on this one until we got our annual Kiehl's holiday coupon thing in the mail. $20 off a purchase of $50 or more? Someone's getting her fancy lotion.

It's gloriously buttery with a teeny hint of cloves. I so deserve it for my tightly stretched skin. Highly recommend getting a sample next time you're near a Kiehl's store. Or just buy it online and bathe in it.

Raw chocolate pudding

This recipe isn't exactly a seasonal delight, but guess what? Sometimes pregnancy doesn't care what season it is. Sometimes it wants mangos in December or raw chocolate pudding.

This is one of my favorite, incredibly delicious, incredibly simple recipes and because it's raw, it for some reason doesn't feel like it's bad for you. I haven't made it forever but yesterday it sounded like a perfect diversion from the huge numbers of things that need to be finished pre-Christmas.



It's from the book, Raw Food Real World, which is a great raw cookbook if anyone out there is into that sort of thing. I'm not, but I was for a brief stint. Sooooo time consuming. My entire kitchen was covered in sprouting beans and I spent all day thinking about what I would make for dinner. Not a functional lifestyle if you have things to do other than prepare and eat food.



ANYWAY, the recipe. The only thing special you need for this is a cleaver. Or some other heavy sharp knife that will reliably split coconuts. Which is the only complicated part of the process. I'm always afraid I'm going to chop my hand off. But I haven't yet. Also, when I say coconuts I mean the young white coconuts that come wrapped in plastic. NOT the brown ones.


Chocolate Pudding

2 cups young coconut meat (roughly 3 coconuts worth)

3/4 cup coconut water (err on the conservative side with this one. You can always add more if it needs thinning).

scant 1/2 cup maple syrup (maybe less, depending on how sweet you like things. I might use 1/3 cup next time).

1/2 cup unsweetened, high quality cocoa powder

2 tablespoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon sea salt


Quickly, one note on sweetness. The original recipe calls for 1/2 c maple syrup and 1/3 cup agave nectar. (Raw food recipes tend to be over the top on flavor). If I used all of that, I would consider this recipe inedible. I used just the 1/2 cup of maple syrup this time and it's still a little on the sweet side. Perhaps consider trying just a third of cup if you don't like things too sweet.



And now onto the "instructions". Put everything in a blender and puree until smooth. If you have a Vita-Mix, I am jealous of you and your pudding will be like silk. If you have an old Osterizer like I do, some fine chunkiness may remain. Definitely adding a Vita-Mix to the baby registry. Must have it for the making of baby food.

The pudding will be pretty runny to start so I definitely recommend refrigerating for a few hours until it's a little firmer. Then eat by the spoonful out of the jar. Or serve yourself a sensible helping garnished with chopped almonds or berries.

Also, if you happen to be into raw food items, one of the authors of the cookbook has a raw food supply website called One Lucky Duck that's worth checking out.

A goodbye

oh look, it's Monday again. Which means time for my weekly post? No, no. Let's not make this a habit, self. But yes, I am slacking a bit in the blogging department. This time of year is so busy with so many things and to be honest, in the morning I don't want to be sitting in front of my computer. Hence the sparsely spaced posts.

This weekend was the memorial service for my uncle. He passed away the weekend before Thanksgiving. Expected? To some extent, yes. But that doesn't mean you're prepared. He waged an intense battle against a particularly aggressive cancer that in the end took him very quickly. We are all so sad. He was an amazing man, father, teacher and generally essential member of our small family. I don't think I can do him justice in a post, but it's very strange that he's not here.

The only bright spot was hearing from so many of his students and colleagues and friends that he made in his 51 years. He truly touched so many people, which is the mark of a good teacher I think. One whose untimely memorial service was jammed full of students and former students he taught at Santa Monica High School for so many years. He was the front man in a band in his youth, he was a wild adventurer, a philosopher, an inspiration to everyone he met. There's no reason on earth that his life should have been cut short. Except that cancer sucks.

But I will say that as terrified as I was that my family would never be the same once he was gone (and we clearly won't), I think we will be okay. And I know this because as sad as Saturday was (and the weeks that preceded), we still found moments of laughter. And for a family that thrives on silliness, things would have felt truly dire without those windows of happy normalcy.



My aunt asked me to make bookmarks to give out at his memorial. And I did have fun with the colored ribbons I tied on the tops of each. Sort of therapeutic, to be making something nice for people to remember him with, tucked inside a book I hope.

So that was the focus of my weekend. That and the surprising back pain that ensues when you wear heels all day when you're 7.5 months pregnant and you haven't worn heels since May.

If you're in LA and haven't been to Lincoln Fabrics in a while, I strongly suggest stopping in for their crazy ribbon and vintage trim selection. They have fluorescent ribbon people. It's pretty cool. But warning, the store is not fancy, some of the fabric is decades old. Kind of like a scavenger hunt...

More soon, I promise.

weekend doings

So last week I slacked a bit. Somehow the week passed without anything interesting to report. But look! Here I am on Monday with pictures. This week I'll be a less delinquent blogger. Maybe.

The weekend was pretty satisfying in terms of crossing things off our to-do list. Not the BIG to-do list, mind you. The mini one intended for just the weekend.




Christmas tree and lights in place. Makes the house smell so nice.




On the nesting front, started to rearrange the 2nd bedroom which is now a complete disaster. Why do people have so much stuff??? But it did mean ripping down a FLOR tile bulletin board, (Note: tacks don't actually stick reliably into FLOR tiles... thanks so much for the idea Martha), and turning it into a rug for our bedroom. Yay. Free rug.






FINNNAAAALLLLY started weeding out the overgrown vegetable patch. And found these pretty carrots and this collection of tomatoes and peppers, plus lots of yummy tangerines from our little tree. I'd love to get some new things in the ground before baby, but that might be pushing it. Yard work is not that fun later in your pregnancy.




Forced narcissus bulbs, approximately a month late.




And then spent Sunday afternoon in the kitchen...




Making pumpkin soup in the pumpkin. More on that soon.

And today it's positively pouring rain. Which is nice for catching up on work and maybe baking something tasty? We shall see.

the end of november

The beets from the market were mighty delicious. Not that you can really mess up the little gems. I said this was going to be my go-to beet recipe when I made it for Katya's shower and I've now made it 3 more times in the last month. (So reliable. Or obsessive. Either way.)

The recipe being: little beets tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, and balsamic, roasted on a baking sheet at ~400 until perfectly tender. I usually cover them with foil for the first part of roasting to make sure they're cooked through before the edges start to burn.

This time I finished them with a sprinkling of blood orange olive oil that we brought home from Napa. Yum.

And I'd recommend using every variety of beet you can find... for prettiness. I used bull's blood, chiogga, golden, and white. (not sure if the white ones have a special name or not).







Last weekend was also the official weekend of leftovers...



Hoping I can convince Brock to eat this bread pudding for dinner again tonight. I'LL MAKE A FRESH SALAD I PROMISE.

And the Christmas decorations are slowly assuming position.



I couldn't resist a simple Scandinavian style wreath at Solo this weekend. It reminds me of the straw bird ornaments my mom always hangs on her tree.

I'm kind of excited for December.

happy thanksgiving

A few iPhone pics from the market yesterday. I went early and it was completely mobbed (obviously) and absolutely stacked to the sky with beautiful produce. I wanted to make 3 extra things for today just to take advantage of all the vegetal options. I restrained myself however. As much because I couldn't carry anything else as other reasons, like remaining sane.







Which had me thinking... do I need one of those farmer's market trollies? They do look tempting when you're lugging huge winter squashes and pounds of apples and tangerines around with your 7 month pregnant belly. I've been jabbed in the shins by those on more than one occasion so I'm a little hesitant.

Or maybe just a more sturdy basket? In a few months I will have a stroller after all and that seems like it would serve the same purpose?

Hope you all have a delicious weekend of friends and family and food!

Our trip north

A bit late, but sometimes it just feels like too much to go through all the photos and post them. See our honeymoon. Wait you can't see it, because I never posted it. Because I took like 1,000 photos and can't get it together to go through them. BUT honeymoon album is on the pre-baby list so maybe I'll end up posting them before February. I did post some lovely Australian seed pods...

Now on to the trip where we eat our way through the bay area and take pictures of menus to prove it.


First stop, dinner at Full of Life Flatbread for our first anniversary dinner. Man, it was good. And beautiful on the porch with the sun going down.








Then up the coast in the winding dark to Big Sur, where we stayed here (SO CUTE) and ate our wedding cake my mom had be saving in her freezer since last year. She packed in into a cooler for us to take on our trip because she's such a good mom and I have to say, it was pretty darn delicious. Some traditions are kind of cute.




Had breakfast at Big Sur Bakery as planned...





And saw a flock of wild turkeys in the early morning.




Then we drove north on the coast through Carmel and Pacific Grove and stopped in Monterrey.









The jellyfish are clearly the coolest thing at the aquarium.


And made it to San Francisco where we proceeded to eat and walk around the city.



Seriously enormous sandwiches at Tartine. Why is this not a published fact??





Chanterelles and eggs at Boulette's Larder.





And some of their lovely cookies and spices.






As you can see, the taking of photos has started to slow. In Napa I barely took any. But I do have a few to PROVE that we were there.









Ubuntu was completely deliciously amazing. I would consider flying up to Napa for the weekend just to eat there.

The French Laundry, if I'm being honest, was a great experience but I'm not sure it's worth it if you're eating vegetarian. It was delicious, especially the desserts. My god, the desserts. But when the table next to you is eating lobster poached white truffle infused filet mignon, and you're delicately savoring 7 mushrooms (delicious mushrooms to be sure), it's hard not to feel like one menu should perhaps cost less than the other? Now I'm going to culinary hell, but I think honesty is best. And I'd have appreciated reading such a review before we went. So there you have it. I'm glad we went, but we could have also had a lovely new coffee table instead.

I do have to make special note of the butter cookies they pack up and send home with you. OMG. omg. Perhaps the most delicious little morsels I have ever tasted.

Also of note: Solage. It was such a perfect place to stay and relax and do nothing. We swam laps in their huge pool in the morning, took spin class, dipped in their mineral pools, had a spa treatment, and read in the sun. Definitely worth the splurge and they were so so nice.

Kay, that's it. Our trip. It was great and now we're in full on nesting mode.

a little engagement package

Overall it was a sad weekend for my family. Perhaps I will write more about it in a bit, for now I'm just processing.

But I did manage to put together a cute little package for our friends Becky and Shane who had their engagement party this weekend.



That's homemade chocolate chip + sea salt cookies, Sofia Blanc de Blancs (one of my all time favorite bubblies, though I think I like the 2007 and Whole Foods only had the 2008), and a cute little set of Sweetie Stats journals.

Sadly, I had to miss the celebration, but Brock went and celebrated for both of us. I'm so so super excited for their wedding in June. I've decided it will be my first big event post baby and am pinning all my hopes for upcoming adult fun on this one weekend at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa. We've already booked our room. No pressure, B&S. Plus from what I've heard, Becky's dress is amazing. I cannot wait to see it in person.

And thanksgiving is this week! Already. Wow. I think I'm finally going to make this.

500 pencils

This would be the most awesome present for anyone who loves color and making things.



It's like the hue of the month club! Every month for 20 months you get 25 pencils. And then at the end you have the entire spectrum.

My only question, after nearly 2 years, wouldn't the first ones be just tiny little nubs by the time you received the last set? I think they should have an expedited package where you get 50 per month for 10 months. Some of us couldn't wait that long to have every option.

500 pencils