things that make me smile: summer fruit

When I was a toddler, I had a red splotch on my back that my mom and grandma swore looked like a strawberry. As a result someone bought me a cute dress with a strawberry on it that I think all of my living relatives own a copy of and that my mom decided to sketch out as a big piece of art ... which she then decided should hang in my house in the exact spot in my bedroom where the previous owner also had a sketch of a young child. 

I tell you all of this because in addition to (or maybe in spite of  ;) the above, I LOVE strawberries! They are not only my favorite fruit, but quite possibly my favorite food on the planet. So summer (aka strawberry season) is a faboo time for my sweet tooth and taste buds. 

But strawberries aren't the only summer fruits I adore. Here's a peek at what is currently taking up at least a quarter of the space in my fridge right now (thanks to a trip to the Costco refrigerated room today ;) 

Why can't these be in season all year like boring apples are?

Cherries! Love them! Hate that they cost so much :(

Green grapes. Red grapes. As long as they're seedless, I don't care :)

Nectarines! I always forget how much I love these till I buy them. 

PS: I'm also a huge fan of plums, but don't have any to take pics of right now. Boo.

PPS: My LEAST favorite summer fruit is kumquats... if you've ever been to my backyard you know why.

an awesome four-day, food-filled weekend

Sadly, the awesome 4th of July four-day weekend is coming to an end. It started out cray-cray as I prepared for my annual BBQ (under my new "pergola"), but by Friday, was super-relaxing and fun. Here's a recap of a great weekend packed with good friends, food and fun!

The BBQ

While I will never be Martha Stewart, when it comes to gardening and party throwing, I am getting better. I have a bunch of 4th of July decorations I've been using outside for years. But this year, I decided to make the indoor buffet table look more fun. 

Inspired by a recent Hawaiian birthday party I attended, I created fun buffet table decorations out of red rock candy sticks, blue and white gumballs, and stars and stripes pinwheels I got at Michaels.  

I also used those pinwheels, plus a block of foam and blue painters tape, to create little food labels. (And for those of you making fun of me/my OCD, some people can't eat certain things, so a caring hostess labels things on the buffet table :-p)

Speaking of food, this year, rather than hot dogs and hamburgers, I decided to actually make food that required some thought and prep work. I kept the hot dogs for the kids, but then was debating between shrimp and carne asada. I couldn't make up my mind, so I made both!




Upon hearing I was making grilled shrimp and veggie skewers, a co-worker suggested that -- rather than soak the sticks in water -- I should soak them in white wine. This, he said, would prevent the food from having a popsicle stick aftertaste. So I broke out a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck and poured it into a casserole dish and soaked the skewers overnight.







I didn't get around to eating any of my chili-lime shrimp (marinated with a variation on this Bobby Flay recipe) but the veggies I ate, including these gorgeous red onions, tasted great and included no wooden aftertaste. ;)

Last Sunday, after driving by for four and a half years and thinking, "I need to go in there for carne asada one day," I finally went into the Vallarta Market and got carne asada, fresh tortillas, salsa, guac and churros (!!! five minutes from my house!!!). Then I did a test grilling run for family dinner at the 'rents. 

It came out pretty good and, emboldened by my first attempt at making a marinade from scratch (guided by master chef Mom), I searched the interwebs for a similar but slightly different marinade recipe.

I found this one, prepped it Wednesday night with some slight variations so the meat could marinate overnight (that's it marinating at left :) and then on Thursday grilled it up to yummy deliciousness!

I think carne asada is now going to become a staple of summer grill nights! Did I mention is was delicious?




In addition to shrimp, carne asada, veggie skewers, hot dogs and Aidell's yummy chicken apple sausages, we also grilled up corn (with yummy homemade lime butter provided by Diana). Here's the grill in action! Thanks to James and Dad for helping me grill in the heat :)

After grilling, it was time for dessert-a-palooza, with fruits and sweets provided by Diana, Maureen and Erin. Over the last three days, I've tried all of these and can attest, they were all amazeballs! (Note: the recipes I'm linking to are just similar recipes I found online, not necessarily the ones my friends used.)

Hamburger Cupcakes

Berries with cheesecake frosting

White chocolate-covered strawberries

Red, white and blue parfaits

"Brookies"  (aka a brownie with a cookie in the middle!)

Saturday Playday

On Saturday, the poker people (minus one) convened on Maureen's pool for a swim and lots of food, including BBQ leftovers, fruit, In-N-Out french fries, and a lot of new food Maureen felt the need to make us, cuz she's the hostess with the mostess. 

When not eating and swimming, we were entertained -- for a while -- by looking over the deck wall at the street below every 20 minutes to compare and contrast the different "Star Tours" tour buses driving by on their way to Justin Timberlake's gate and security guard booth, then turning around to go back down the hill. One of the tours blares "Sexy Back" as they drive up the hill. We don't like that one. 

Following pool time, I came home to do exciting things like laundry. I also lit the inaugural fire of the season in my chiminea. 

I have decided I might be a minor pyromaniac.... I was highly entertained by keeping the fire going for two hours. I also toasted the marshmallows I wanted to toast on the 4th of July but didn't (see photos of five desserts above) and made some smore's. More yummy deliciousness. Now I need to go figure out how many times I can make it to Pop Physique this week to work off all this food!

bye scuds... and thanks for getting your face smashed

A little over a year ago, Rob Scuderi got his face boarded into the glass at Staples Center by Steve Bernier of the New Jersey Devils in the first period of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals.



Bernier received a five minute major penalty. What that means to you non-hockey people, is the Kings had a one-man advantage for five minutes. But unlike a normal power play, when once you score, the power play is over and the penalty ends, on a major power play the penalty doesn't end when you score. It goes the whole five minutes. You have a man-advantage for five whole minutes. And you can score as many times as you're able during that power play.

The Kings scored three goals in that five minutes, putting them up 3-0 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals with a series lead of 3-2 games. The Devils were deflated. And the Kings and crowd at Staples Center were not only able to breathe a bit, but were totally fired up on their way to a joyous celebration 50 minutes of play later :)

Today, Scuderi -- as an unrestricted free-agent -- left the Kings for a better deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He's the first significantly contributing member of the 2012 Championship team to leave the Kings.

Scuderi (aka Scuds) was one of our veteran, reliable, stay-at-home, help-the-newbie-D's-get-their-footing defensemen. And for that, he will be missed.

But he will always be remembered for sacrificing his face (and coming back to finish the game!) the night the LA Kings won their Stanley Cup! And I wish him well.

the "pergola" is done!

While talking about my fabulous new patio covering during my 4th of July BBQ last night, four of us got into a debate about a veranda (which is what I've been calling it) vs. a pergola. I was told I have a pergola (which has a latticed, open roofed covering vs. a verdana which is a completely covered roof). So now that I've been corrected (and have also confirmed said correcting on wikipeda), here for all to see it my new shade-creating, non-paintchip-raining PERGOLA.  Thanks for the two weeks of hard (hot!) work Vince!  

finally finishing the backyard to-do's

"Finally" is the word of the day today. I'm "finally" catching up on a bunch of blog posts I've been meaning to write for weeks. And they are mostly about things I'm "finally" getting around to doing after recovering from the end of my sabbatical and adjusting to only two days of free time again.

Since I have a house with big backyard, I always have something "to do" back there. Here's the stuff that's finally happening this week!

I am finally -- after 4.5 years of having paint chips rain down on my patio (because I'm 99.9999% sure the previous owners just threw whatever paint they had up there to make it pretty so the house would sell) -- having the paint on my verdana stripped and redone. My friend Lisa's handy hubby Vince (who does all sorts of remodel/construction/home improvement stuff) worked (and sweated in the 90-100 degree SFV heat this past week) to strip and repaint the main structure (with exterior paint this time. Woot!). And now he's painting new boards to put across the top to create more shade. This shows the two spacing options he gave me for the new boards... single width (left) or double width (right):

Seven of seven people surveyed yesterday chose the single width spacing for more shade, which means Vince needs to paint more boards this week. (Sorry Vince.) But it's looking super awesome and I can't wait to spend the summer out there under the new shade... when it's not 115 degrees outside.

Also in the finally department, my gardener brought me little pieces of bermuda sod (which is really hard to find since most people buying sod get marathon sod, which is green year-round) to fill in the dead spaces in the very back of my bermuda grass-filled backyard (aka: the area previously occupied by the "pony shed"). When it was placed, it looked like this:

But after watering it by hand every single night for the last two weeks, it's starting to blend in with its surrounding grass (since bermuda grass grows outward, not just upward and is good at spreading) and now looks like this in some spots. Others still need some more time/water to meld.









In the veggie/herb garden department, I "finally" have numerous peppers popping out of my jalapeno and habanero plants because, unlike my basil and sad sage, they LOVE the heat!

The jalapenos will make their debut on top of a taco dip on the 4th of July -- because what's more American than taco dip with jalapenos on top? ;)














And "finally," I "finally" gave in and bought the bright blue Adirondack chairs I've been looking at for two summers at Le Target and wanting to place in the shade of my giant orange tree. Here they are in their new home:

a meal at a mozza ... finally!

A few weeks ago my friend Katharine invited me out for a belated Birthday dinner and suggested we go somewhere on my list. I said I'd love to go to one of "The Mozzas" but really didn't feel like having a birthday dinner at 9:45pm on a Wednesday, since that appeared to be the only time you can ever get a reservation at either of the trendy establishments on the corner of Highland and Melrose. 

But lucky for me, I have really smart friends! Katharine emailed a week later saying she'd figured out the secret to getting a reservation on a weekend at a normal dinner hour. (I'd tell you what it is, but then it wouldn't be a secret anymore, now would it? Sorry. Yes, I know. I suck.)

Soon it was Saturday night at 7:45pm and we were being seated at Pizzeria Mozza, home of gourmet pizzas, delish sharable appetizers and a dessert menu to die for! But before the food, just a few notes... 

-- You can't slam these people for not having reservations. They have packed as many tables and chairs into their space as the fire marshall will allow. They literally had to pull the table back to let me slide into the booth side of our spot against the wall. So be prepared to get a good look at what your neighboring tables are eating (which is helpful if you can't decide what you want) and also for a pretty good noise level (although nowhere near as loud as say, the cavernous yet awesome Bottega Louie downtown).

-- Also, while waiting to be seated, we accidentally backed into the restauarant's private dining room. If you have a big group, this is the way to go. Although you won't get to see what neighboring tables order... or overhear their conversations (if you're nosey like that :)




And now, the food!

Course 1 - Antipasti

Everything looked delicious, but since we were having pizza, we decided to have healthy (okay, not fried) appetizers. First was this "Asparagus al forno with speck." Asparagus, proscuitto and cheese -- three of my favorite things --all baked together. Yum!

We also got an order of the "Olives al forno," which means baked olives for you non-Italian speakers. I've never had hot (as in temperature, not spiciness) olives. These came in oil with baked garlic too. After recovering from the burned tongue I got during my first bite (I wasn't thinking about the "al forno" part), these were great, especially with my Italian red wine.

Course 2 - Pizza, Pizza

I was craving protein, so I went all out and ordered the "Bacon, salami, fennel sausage, guanciale, tomato and mozzarella" pizza. Loved the crust, which was crispy yet chewy. And especially loved the sausage .... very flavorful.

Katharine went with something good she'd tried before, the "Squash blossoms, tomato and burrata" pizza.

Course 3 - Dolci 

We each decided to take home a slice or two of pizza in order to indulge in the dessert menu. Because, while the pizza is great, OMG, the dessert menu is amazeballs! Choosing what to get was a very difficult choice. We stared at other tables, used process of elimination and asked the waiter for his fave amongst two or three things, We finally decided on the little piece of salty/sweet heaven known as the "Bittersweet chocolate tartufo with olive oil gelato and sea salt." SO GOOD! And just what was needed to send me over the edge into food coma-ville. Can't wait to go back and try everything I didn't order! 

happy cup-iversary!

Exactly one year ago tonight, I was standing in the lower bowl of Staples Center with my dad watching this happen...

Sadly, I won't get to relive that experience again this season. The Kings' 2013 season ended last Saturday night in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals when the Chicago Blackhawks (who, ironically, ruined our home opener/Stanley Cup banner raising at the beginning of the season) beat them in double overtime -- the longest game in Kings history -- and eliminated them from this year's playoffs. The Blackhawks will now play the Boston Bruins in this year's Stanley Cup Finals, beginning tomorrow. (And by the way... GO BRUINS!)

Those who know me assumed that game was an extremely upsetting event for me. (I actually received condolence messages from multiple friends and coworkers.) But as someone who's been upset and disappointed for approximately 90% of my 25 years as a Kings fan, that was nothing. In fact, I was actually proud of them. Sure they were eliminated in five games. But they made it back to the Western Conference Finals the year after winning The Cup. Most teams who've won the Stanley Cup in recent years have been eliminated in the first round the next year. The New Jersey Devils, who we beat last year, didn't even make the playoffs this year. So to even make it to the Conference Finals was a big accomplishment. 

On top of that, after quickly falling behind 0-2 in Game 5, the Kings battled back to tie the game 2-2 in the 3rd. Then, with three minutes remaining in the game, the Hawks scored what many assumed was the game winning goal. But the Kings wouldn't go quietly, and with 9.3 seconds left in regulation, Anze Kopitar deflected a shot off of Mike Richards and into the net to send the game to OT. No Kings team of my first 23 years of fandom would've battled back like that. And yes, they were eventually beaten 32 minutes later when Patrick Kane finally got a puck past Jonathan Quick. But they went down fighting and that's all you can ask for... especially from a team that was too beaten up to realistically go much further. The Blackhawks were too good this year, and the Kings were hurting, bad.

In the playoffs, no one talks about injuries. But any Kings fan could tell things were not right with the team, especially the top lines. Hits weren't being thrown. Goals weren't being scored. Skating fast seemed reeeeally hard sometimes.

I was certain Kopitar had messed up his knee again -- that was the only way to explain his lack of goal scoring. But it turns out, he's the only top-line player who wasn't injured. Justin Williams had been playing with a separated shoulder since the San Jose series. Dustin Brown was playing with a torn PCL in his knee. Drew Doughty was skating on a messed up ankle for the last two series. And Robin Regher just had surgery today to repair his elbow that's been damaged since the start of the playoffs.

Considering all that, the fact that they beat San Jose in Round 2 was a minor miracle. So I can't be upset about losing to Chicago.

All I want now is for them to get healthy again so they can kick butt next year... specifically the Blackhawks' butts... and of course the Ginger Twins'. (Me, hold a grudge? Ha.)

And until then, I will enjoy not having to drive downtown twice a week to fight for parking spaces that haven't yet been vacated by downtown worker bees by the time nationally televised games start.

And I will watch this and remember the most amazing two months of hockey that culminated in the most surreal, amazing, fairy tale ending 365 days ago.

Happy Cup-iVersary LA Kings and Fans! It was an amazing ride... and I have no doubt we'll experience it again very soon :)