slumber party

A couple weekends ago we went over to our pals the Kanes's house for a good ol' fashioned slumber party.

Tim made watermelon margaritas - the maiden voyage for the margarita glasses! So delicious and so easy:

Fresh watermelon + Tequila + Agave nectar (or sugar) + Ice ---> Put in blender. Blend. Add squeeze of lime.

And Rob and Tracy cooked an amazing dinner - hoisin-marinated pork tenderloin with grilled pineapples, roasted asparagus, and delicious rice concoction that I need the recipe for.
Then, we watched Black Swan. which was crazy and very good.
In the morning we had breakfast at Martha's in Hermosa Beach. Delicious.

getting hungry...

Ever wish the cooks on Food Network would just SHUT UP?? Too much blah blah blah.

I would rather watch a channel of recipes just like this video. Beautifully shot, good music, delicious food.

the apple galette from rachelchew on Vimeo.

by elephantine

whale watching

Whale watching trips leave from Long Beach Harbor, right in our 'hood. So we got a Groupon for a 2-hour boat ride and a chance to see some magnificent sea mammals.

It's nearing the end of the gray whale migrating season, and there was rumor of a couple swimming by Portuguese Bend, but off in the distance we spotted a strong tall spout which could mean only one thing -- the BLUE WHALE. The Biggest living creature on Earth. Ever. EVER!!!!! Including dinosaurs!! Its tongue is the size of an African elephant! Its heart is the size of a Toyota Camry! I saw this dorsal fin and I thought it was huge. But on the scale of things, the dorsal fin is actually a tiny little part of its butt!

cinco de mayo, a la japonese

We know that our days in Long Beach are numbered, so we are trying to spend as much time as possible with our southern california pals.

Hoon and Joyce came over for dinner on Cinco de Mayo, but we were in the mood for sushi so we had temaki (hand rolls) with watermelon margaritas.

The best part: Hoon and Joyce! These moguls of 99cent jewelry crack me up.

The second best part: no cooking! There is some prep involved, but no fire and no pans. I made some sweet and sour Japanese pickles and miso soup too. Recipe (well, an ingredient list) below.
The set-up. (a little blurry, ech)

monochrome

We got the last of our spring farmboxes last week. Sad because gone are the spring veggies, like delicate salad mixes and pea shoots, but happy because in come the tomatoes! the eggplants! the basil! of summer.

We had fava beans for the first time. They are big tender beans that taste like peanuts to me. The pods are very spongy and cozy. We had them smashed up with fresh peas and mint, and paired with this asparagus ribbon salad. Recipe for Jamie Oliver's smashed peas and fava beans below..

poppies

I've been waiting for the poppies to bloom in Antelope Valley ever since I heard they bloom in March. It's about a 1.5 hrs north of Los Angeles, so luckily, the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve website is updated with poppy bloom status. Last week, a new crop of blossoms were reported, so we took a little drive toward Lancaster with the parents Chung.
It's been a cold spring, so the poppies were a bit sparse. Photos from other seasons show the hills blanketed in orange, which must be strange to see because it is so dry and brown all around the reserve.

perfect

Weather right now:


Perfect for right now: ice cold Korean noodles and a steaming hot plate of kimchi dumplings at Yu Chun in Koreatown.

a million little pieces

I picked up a Million Little Pieces at a used bookstore a long time ago... so long ago that it doesn't have the Oprah's Bookclub sticker on it. But after Oprah endorsed James Frey, then retracted her support, and the debate over the "nonfiction-ness" of the book, I just got sick of hearing about it and never started reading it. School also got in the way of leisurely reading (although some books just couldn't be stopped... the Harry Potters, for example. Oh, and the His Dark Materials trilogy). Welps, I finally got around to reading it. It's the story of his rehab experience. He's really bad and then, SPOILER ALERT, he gets better and he's off drugs and goes on Oprah.

Honestly, it all felt a little shallow. Truth or embellished truth, the other rehab characters make up a pretty cliched cast. Big shots that become addicts and lose everything. A girl on drugs who becomes a prostitute to feed her drug habit and commits suicide. I've heard it all before... maybe I've been watching too much Law and Order SVU. Also, there is this whole dentistry part where he gets two root canals and some procedure involving a sander (there is not such thing as a sander) without anesthesia. Which is RIDICULOUS. Let's just say I am a reliable source of dental information, including rehab patients.

Subject matter aside, the no-frills, almost mantra-like writing style works. The book starts with short, staccato phrases on a need-to-know basis. He's still under the influence and not much matters. As the drugs and alcohol wear off, the writing also becomes more lucid and detailed. I'm glad I read it. I work with guys in rehab and it doesn't look easy. The book has given me an idea of what it could be like for one guy.