Sunday Nights

Well, I'm happy to report that I have made it through the first week of 2011 

 and it has been really great. We were very busy and had a lot going

 on (as usual) but it was still nice and a perfect start 

to this new year. Last Sunday was Paul's and my two year wedding

anniversary and we spent the day in two fun places. The day 

started out in L.A. at Alcove for lunch and it was so 

delicious. It was the best veggie burger I've ever had, really!
We went to a fun bookstore near the restaurant that we ate at and read
some really interesting books. On our way home, we stopped
in Pasadena to take a little peep at where we got married, had a
hot cup of coffee and did some shopping. It was
good to be in our city... or at least it feels like our city. :)
We got in early and I made vegetable risotto for din din, it was
quite good. What a day.

This weekend has gone by so fast. We have been pretty lazy today,
with the exception of going to the farmer's market this morning
and getting our grocery shopping done. It feels good to start the new
week out with a full refrigerator and full cupboards, so thankful
for that. Paul recently expressed that he wants to start
cooking with me every night. Can I tell you how nice that is?
I'm loving it and I can tell he is too.
Tonight we made paninis with my new panini maker that
my parents gave me for Christmas (such a good gift!).

Sorry for the terrible cell phone photo.. I'm workin' on getting a new camera!

Our paninis were paired with a brown rice and cannellini 

bean salad with spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts.

It was so good, not a bite left on the plate.

We're winding down with a movie and then it's time for bed

to get a good night's sleep for the new week.

Well..

I was going to start out this post by saying sorry again for my absence..

but then I decided that I need to stop doing that. If I am able to blog,

then I will and if I can't because I'm busy living my life, then I won't. Easy, simple. 

I'm not going to feel guilty whenever I think about this thing,

knowing I haven't updated in a while. Done. :)

Here are a bunch of random things that have been happening
as of late in a list because I don't feel like
using complete sentences.. hehe. :)

-busy with work(s)
-in September, my love and I celebrated 6 years together

-my sweet friends, Chelsea and Brandon, got married -- and I danced for hours

-remembered, partook in and celebrated a few High Holy Days

-got a perm.. yes, I really did
-became very afraid of the perm
-perm relaxed.. A LOT
-fell in love with the perm and became a little too obsessed
-friendsies visited and stayed with us :)
-moved from brewing sun tea to hot tea
-have been successfully shopping, cooking and eating vegan for the past month or more
-feelin' well, eatin' well
-my love is moving to a new position in his job in two weeks
-listening to Christmas music for the past week and a half (I can't help myself)
....
I think that's it. :)

Before I go, I wanted to share this video. I am a huuuge lover of music
and one of my favorite musicians is Feist and she just so
happens to be coming out with a documentary in the next week or so.
I'm pretty excited. Very excited. Are you?

Fried Zucchini Flowers

These beautiful little sweeties are in my top 3 most most most favorite foods.
They are incredibly easy to make, it's just a shame that they are so
hard to find in regular grocery stores. You can find them in specialty food stores,
we get ours at Claremont's farmer's market. I have to be sure to get there
early because they go quickly in the morning, they are quite
the popular item. Now, these pictures aren't very fancy or good quality because I hadn't
really intended on taking pictures. But in the midst of making them,
I decided to whip out the camera so I could share them with you because they are
just that tasty.

Fried Zucchini Flowers

• Fresh zucchini flowers
• Flour, 1 cup
  
• Cold water, 1 cup
  
• 1 egg
• Veggie oil, 2-3 cups (extra virgin olive oil will do just fine as well)
• Salt

Heat the oil in a pan. It needs to be hot enough to be able to fry the flowers to a golden brown color. (I like to toss a little piece of bread in before to make sure it's at the right temp. If it floats to the top and starts frying nicely, you're there. But if it starts to burn right away, turn the heat down...I guess that's kind of obvious. Hehe.) Pull out the stamen from each flower before dipping in the batter (this takes a few minutes). Wisk together the flour, water and egg until smooth, no lumps. Gently dip the flowers in the batter, letting the excess run off into the bowl. Put into the oil and let fry 2-3 minutes on each side. When they are ready to come out, put them on a plate with a paper towel to drain the excess oil. Salt immediately! And enjoy. :)

There is so much you can do with these flowers. They are great just
by themselves with salt but they also taste great dipped in ponzu sauce or soy sauce.
You can also put a small block of parmesan cheese in the center of each
flower before frying, yuummmm... or any kind of cheese mixture. Make a tomato
dipping sauce too! Paul and I have enjoyed them many times and look
forward to asking the farmer every Sunday, if he has
any flowers left.

June 18th

My darling husband turned 29 in June, he's so handsome.. .. .. Anyway, the day

was incredibly beautiful: the weather, the breeze, the sky. I planned a surprise outing

in L.A. (Los Feliz area) and did the things he loves most. We went to

Skylight Books, have you ever been there? It's worth the trip out there to visit.

There is a beautiful tree that grows in the middle of the store

that you can sit around and read. Paul is a major bookworm, so we really

enjoyed exploring the store, grabbing books off the shelves and sitting under the

tree to relax and read.

We walked around and shopped a bit and then headed down the street for dinner

at Alcove. I think this was the highlight of the day. Originally, Alcove

was a duplex built in the early 1900's that was completely renovated into this glorious

restaurant. There are so many little details that we both really appreciated

and their food was so yummy. We think about it often and want to go back real

real soon! Oh, and their baked goods... Oh My Gosh!

I was really bummed that we didn't get a 29. :/

After dinner, we got a chocolate cream cupcake and coffee to go for later. We

drove around the hilly neighborhoods and looked at the massive

houses and picked out the ones that we liked best. When we were done, we

headed over to Griffith Park to enjoy our dessert.

That was our nice day.. and I want to go back.