Monthly Archives: May 2010

Boredom Sets In…

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So, day 5 of vacation and boredom is setting in. I could feel it this morning when I just wanted to lay on the couch and not get dressed but I forced myself up and out on a 4 mile run. Post yoga running is a whole new world! No pain in my hips or knees. Then I came home to see Iz just hanging out in her favorite perch:

Oh, hi Izzzzz!

Then I had lunch: small salad with arugula, chopped walnuts, orange flavored dried cranberries, brie and balsamic vin. I supplemented my lunch with apple sauce and edamame.  I made sure to eat immediately when I returned from my run and drank a ton of water:

Yum! Then I did a variety of things in the afternoon, which included buying a pair of size 28 skinny jeans from jcrew! This is UNPRECEDENTED! I pretty much hit puberty and became an 8, but a 28 in jcrew translates to a 6. This might be too early to call it but I feel good. Also, I am feeling healthy which is the most important thing.

So I arrived home triumphantly and made a healthy dinner which I’d been dying to try for a long time: eggplant and tomato towers. I preheated the oven to 350 and cut eggplant and tomato into slices. Then I added salt, pepper, and EVO to each side of the slices and roasted for 20 mins.

Then after 20 mins you add cheese and stack em! The recipe calls for mozzarella but I forgot to buy it so I used the left over cheddar with garlic and apple flavor. It was a decent replacement (although would have been SO GOOD with alternating levels of buffalo motzo and basil on top, now that I consider it!) After 20 mins you add the cheese and stack it and cook until the cheese is melted and browned (10-20 mins, make sure to keep an eye on it). Unfortch, my stack kinda fell down while cooking. Eh, you can’t win them all. It still turned out well and was totally delicious and healthy.

It turned out really well! I can’t wait to try with motzo and basil, but this was a great dish and so healthy. I love eating a healthy dinner and feeling good at the end of the day especially after a long run. I need to make sure that I am structuring my time this week which means healthy eating and exercise. I have just a few more days before the little bro arrives in LA so I better enjoy my alone time!

The Riley Dinner

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So the long awaited Riley dinner occurred last night and I can report that it was everything I wanted it to be and so much more. Her house is beautiful, well decorated, and her daughters are so sweet and adorable. We had red wine to drink and a great spread of cheese, apples, and chips for appetizers. Then we started dinner with an amazing salad that had beets, tomato and avocado. It was a great and very summer appropriate:

For the main course we had grilled salmon (prepared by Riley’s husband who FYI- card counter), roasted chicken, grilled asparagus (um my favorite), and risotto with artichoke (umm probably the only thing I love more than grilled asparagus).

And obviously I had two helpings and a cupcake for dessert. The dinner was awesome and Professor Riley is probably one of my favorite profs. Shes super likable, very personable and I enjoy talking to her because her world view is so well rounded. You can tell that shes is both a CRS affiliate and also that shes experienced so many different things in her life. Very interesting and very likable. Juicy tidbit? Those amazing shoes are a result of online shopping! Anyway, the dinner was awesome and I was so glad that Kelly invited me. Thanks, Kelly!

The Santa Monica Day

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Vacation, sweet vacation. I love it! Today I took advantage of my car and drove to the Santa Monica library to open an account and get some books.

This library is ah-mah-zing! First of all, its super modern and clean looking. There is a little courtyard with a coffee shop and a beautiful water feature and gorgeous desert plants. It’s a total oasis. On the inside the library looks like a bookstore. There is so much light and the books are laid out so nicely. I have love in my heart for the Boston Public Library, but this is a pretty damn good replacement. This time I got several “light and fun” books. I love non fiction but I just can’t read them right now. My brain needs to detox from law school for a while. So I grabbed my books and hit the cafe:

It was so relaxing. Then I went to the Third St. Promenade and took a yoga class at Yoga Co.  I was a bit early so I took some pictures along Ocean Ave. More reasons I love California:

Now, that is a beach!!! After kicking around taking pictures I headed over to Yoga Co.

I loved my experience at Yoga Co! The last time I did yoga was 9 months ago and it was Bikram. I like Bikram but its really intense and expensive and isn’t that relaxing. I look a vinyasa flow class which was awesome. I really needed to stretch out after all the running I’ve been doing and this did the trick. Nice, slow, long poses. My hip seriously cracked 20 times.

Overall, the studio is amazing. The classes in two of the rooms are by donation, so I wasn’t sure how nice the studio would be but it was clean and well decorated. The studio themselves are some of the nicest I’ve ever practiced it. My teacher, Joey Soto, was so nice and so is the rest of the staff. I was in the earth room today and my class only had 5 students which was great. I love a small class because the teachers give more attention to the students and the postures. At the end we got to do a 20 min meditation which was relaxing. I haven’t done a full meditation in a long time and it was nice to take stock of my body and my breathing and just let go of any tension and worries. When I left I was so serene.

Even though I haven’t done yoga in a long time I fell right back into it. My teacher said that I have a good practice. I think it because Bikram is very focused on the postures and perfecting them which I was able to translate into my yoga practice. Plus, it totally strengthened my muscles. I can’t wait to do back to Yoga Co!

New Car!

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Sorry I didn’t blog yesterday, but I was busy getting this…

Yay! Proud owners of a 2006 Toyota Corolla! Yes, its used, but it’s in great condition and runs well. I went to carmax and it was super easy to get my car. Literally, test drove it and decided I liked it and drove it off the lot. I also went to Target and got a beach chair and stocked up on cat food. Bonus of having a car is that I can buy 24 cans of food at one time. The I drove home on the 101 to the 405 (I went 70, I felt like a 16 year old). I got off the freeway and drove directly to Susie Cakes.

Yum! I went on a run (which was something I hadn’t done for several days between finals and being hung over from celebrating finals). Then I enjoyed my cupcake. I got Mocha this time and it was really good. Super moist, but not as moist as the pineapple upside down cupcake.

Today I have a busy day planned: reading the New York Times, going to the library and donation yoga. I cannot wait to drive all over the city! This means great things for Left Coast Contessa!

#101 Finish 1L

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I cannot believe this year is over! This has been a challenging year for me and I feel so accomplished now that its over. Nothing matches the feeling of taking on a challenge, working hard, and finishing the task. Of course, yesterday was a gorgeous LA day:

Seriously, I’m never leaving. I love that its almost always going to be a perfect day is LA.

We had our final from 1:15 til 4:45, then we were shuffled from the testing room directly to the courtyard for this…

and this…

I knew when I got the email that there would be cake after the final that I picked the right law school. I love UCLA because literally all I wanted after the final was cake and champagne. And of course there were picture.

And there were drinks…   Car bomb and margaritas and champagne oh my.

I have to admit that I’m a little sluggish this AM but that’s OK because I have NOTHING to do today. Well, actually not nothing. I have a pool party in the Valley to attend. But nothing that requires brain power. I have to get going but, UCLA LAW class of 2012, we did it!!

3 done, ONE TO GO!

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Can you see it? The finish line is in my sights! There will probably not be any blogging here until Friday. I have my final final in two days (Civ Pro) and Thursday night will be a party night with no blogging. There are so many things I cannot wait to do after I’m done with finals:

  • Get a car
  • Read the Sunday New York Times
  • Go to the beach
  • Get a library card
  • Try a donation based yoga studio in Santa Monica
  • See my little bro, whose visiting LA a week from Thursday!

There is so much to look forward to, not to mention the huge feeling of relief when 1L ends. I mentioned getting back into yoga, and I definitely need to. My hips and knees have been really tight since I got back into running and are starting to hurt slightly. On my off running days I’m going to start going to yoga. Until I get my car I’m doing yoga from home. This presents a slight challenge:

Perhaps “play with Izzy” should be on my list of things to do. I get the feeling she is restless. And hungry. The past two nights she has started counter surfing and trying to eat a bag of bread. I almost always have some type of food on the kitchen counter and its never been an issue.I had to hide all the food!

As mentioned today I had a final. Then I went on an awesome run! My post final runs are always some of my best. After I had roasted brussle sprouts with multi grain pilaf. After I entered my calories into “Lose It!” I realized that with my food, minus the running and walking calories I burned, I still had 900 calories that I could consume. Obviously I went to the promise land:

And obviously I had no problem finishing it off:

Red velvet + chocolate = amazing. OK, I’m going to enjoy my night off because tomorrow it is ON!

Mint Juleps

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As some of you might be aware, today is the Kentucky Derby. I decided long ago that this was the year I would make my own mint juleps, the traditional Derby drink. I made a half-hearted attempt to throw a derby party, but apparently law students with a massacre-like con law final two days away aren’t that into day drinking. Shock! Or not. I wasn’t that into hosting people over. That would require cleaning my apartment, making a lot of drinks, and honestly I have a lot of work to do also. So I decided to mix a mint julep, keep the con law flash cards in front of me and enjoy the Derby.

My Grandfather’s family is from Kentucky. As a child we took a lot of trips to the Kentucky Horse Park and we even have water glasses that list the winners of the derby. There’s lots of family lore which my Grammy would regale my brother and I with while we were growing up and every year we pay attention to the Derby. I don’t exactly put my hand over my heart when they play, “My Old Kentucky Home” but I’ve always enjoyed the Derby. It should also be noted that attending the derby is on my bucket list.

So this year, I decided to make Mint Juleps. The traditional Mint Julep recipe includes bourbon, simple syrup and mint. For my recipe I deferred to my Aunt who is the family expert. The Old Family Recipe includes: crushed ice, mint infused simple syrup, bourbon, and a mint sprig. First I made the mint infused simple syrup several days before the derby.

I took equal parts water and sugar, one cup each, and heat it until the sugar dissolves. Once the sugar has all dissolved, the syrup will be clear at that time, turn off the heat and let the syrup cool. After turning off the heat, let a container of mint sit in the syrup until the syrup has completely cooled off.

Once I let the syrup cool off and the mint “infuse” I put the simple syrup in a container and refrigerate until I wanted to use it today.

I was told when making mint juleps its important to use a short glass…

And, crushed ice is also important… and since I don’t have an ice crusher I did this:

Eh, It worked! Then you measure out simple syrup and bourbon. I used a jigger of each because I have to run later. Also, I bought the cheapest bourbon that they offer (whoops, 101 proof).

As mentioned above, I bought the cheapest bourbon that Trader Joe’s has to offer. Wild Turkey doesn’t scream “class and distinction” but it was cheap and whoops 101 proof. Seems like I’m going to have an interesting boozy run later. Yeah, not ideal, but I’m at the end of my loan money so I have a hard time justifying more classy bourbon.

anddddd Viola!

Delicious. That’s all I have to say. The syrup definitely tastes like mint but isn’t overpoweringly sweet or minty which is good. This is the perfect warm spring afternoon drink, and no wonder its a derby staple.

The horses are getting into their stalls so I have to stop blogging and pay attention! Happy Derby Day everyone!

Mad Sprint to Freedom

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We’re almost there!!!! Less than a week. Ugh, everything I’ve been eating lately has, sadly, not been blog worthy. But I have other announcements:

First, Happy May Day

Not only is May Day a day that raises awareness of important social issues, but it’s a major Simmons College tradition. Above you can see me with long hair my Sophomore year on the far left doing the may pole dance. The tradition involves running through the senior dorms way too early in the morning with pots and pans, waking up said seniors and then dancing around the may pole. Then we indulge in a strawberry breakfast. I loved participating sophomore year and it was great being woken up by the sophomores last year, about two weeks before graduation. May day is one of my many cherished Simmons memories. Plus, how New England woman’s college is this tradition? I love it.

Secondly, I have an urge to blog about issues again. I had a short lived blog on the Simmons College network where I talked about actual political and social issues. Maybe its the finals stir craziness, but I have an urge to write about the racist email that was sent at Harvard Law last week. BUT. I will NOT write anything until after finals are over because it would only serve to be a distraction. Yell at me to focus on my studying via blog comments if I post any sort of commentary. But check this article which I think does a good job of summing up several main issues related to the email. I’ve been appalled by the commentary on above the law and was glad to find another source of commentary.

That’s it for now. I promise to have something more interesting later.