Last night Catie and I had an impromptu meet up at The Griffin.
The conversation went like this:
“Let’s do a shot”
“Ok, but I don’t like vodka”
“I don’t either… humm… no one really does gin shots. What else can we do?”
“Tequila!”
And that is how we end up with this:
Better picture:
Happy weekend! Hit the FM this AM, cleaned the kitchen, and now headed out for a fun day of pool hanging. Love summertime!
Tonight I had happy hour at the Allston Yacht Club. Bostonian’s might find this amusing because 1) Allston is student central 2) the idea of a yacht club in Allston is a little ironic. Angelino’s will be amused because the idea of a yacht club in Echo Park is verrrry ironic.
I have to say that the food and cocktails were really good and CHEAP! All food is $5 during happy hour and the cocktails are around $9. I don’t mind the cocktail prices because the cocktails are great and normally high quality cocktails in LA are > $10.
I ordered a “Blue Moon of Kentucky” which had bourbon, and blueberry mint lemonade.
So fruity and clean. I hate cocktails with sour mix and I love when I get a fresh, delicious and minty cocktail like this one.
And then, there were plates….
We started with cucumber carppacio (very light and kinda garlicey)
Then we had roasted Brussels sprouts. Frequent readers know how I feel about roasted Brussels sprouts
Broiled shrimp and feta gratin
Calamari with citrus, soy fish sauce and sweet chili
and eggplant parmagiano – because I love eggplant!
Then the waitress said something magical to us, “Do you want to hear about the happy hour desert menu?”
Umm, yes, we would!
Whoever decided to have happy hour dessert, I love you.
One bite and we were BOTH hooked. The seasoning! The whip cream! Le sign. Go to the Allston Yacht Club. It is deeeelish and they have fantastic drinks and great food deals at happy hour. AND happy hour dessert. Who doesn’t want dessert happy hour?
Tonight I met up with my Uncle for dinner at an old school steak house near my work, Taylor’s. Taylor’s is a great place to go if you want to go to an old school steak house. There are no windows so the restaurant is super dark. The booths are red and they made a decent martini:
Yes please! There is no pairing better than a steak and a martini!
For an appetizer we had bacon wrapped scallops and a cream of mushroom soup which was pretty good. Have I ever not appreciated something wrapped in bacon? Forgot to take a picture of the bacon wrapped scallops but they were good. The scallops were cooked to perfection. I never liked scallops until I moved to Boston and they always remind me of my “other” city.
For an entree obviously I had the “Taylor Special” which was a filet with onions:
I chose mashed potatoes on the side, always a good choice. It also came with a side of spinach which was good. I only managed to have three bites. I would totally live off of red meat and potatoes if I could. You just can’t go wrong. The steak was perfectly cooked exactly to the level of rare that I like it.
Unfortch I did not save room for dessert. I couldn’t even finish the steak and potatoes before I was stuffed! That’s what I get for scaling back portions for the past 7 months. I just can’t thrown down like I used to.
Overall I really liked the vibe of Taylor’s. I can always go for a martini and red meat. The atmosphere is very old school and more “Old LA” than most of the places that I frequent. The change of pace was delightful and I always love having dinner with Joe.
In other news: Tomorrow I am going to happy hour at a bar that has a bacon and egg martini. Yep, bacon infused vodka with a quail egg. Should I be adventurous?
Words of wisdom from the Coffee Bean. Happy Wednesday!
Tonight I came back from my run and had no idea what to eat. After standing in my kitchen for 10 mins contemplating it I decided on pizza.
I used whole wheat crust, tomato, goat cheese, prosciutto, onion, garlic, and S&P. Goat cheese is so delicious and I love the FM tomatoes right now! Pizza was yummy, carby, and easy to make. Clearly all of my favorite things.
Tonight I used about 1/3 of the dough that comes in the package and it only made about three slices.
Also, if you were wondering, eating a brownie before running isn’t motivating, it just hurts your stomach when you run. Although I cannot complain too much. It was not too hot, not too cold and not too humid. Love running in LA.
Finally, Iz is trying to escape…
or she’s hunting… I can’t decide but I thought it was amusing.
Tonight was not a blogger fail. Tonight was an eggplant sandwich. I’ve made it before, but there were some select alterations this time. 
This time I used panko instead of breadcrumbs (as you can tell there was a small amount of burning, but not so burned as to taste bad). Toppings included goat cheese, prosciutto, tomato, and an onion that the farmers market man said was “so sweet you can eat it raw”.
Side dish was potato “chips” and roasted chickpeas!
Love a roasted chickpea!
I also had some citrus. According to Real Simple it boosts your mood and contributes to a sunny disposition.
Two important items of business:
1) I need to stop buying things because I love how they look on me. I will go broke if this habit continues. Don’t worry M&D, it was only an $18 dress from the Buffalo Exchange.
2) I have a new fav blog! It’s called yes & yes. They have a variety of “lifestyle” related posts and I love their “words of wisdom” section. I found this there:
That is your reality check for the day. Lets be zen now everyone and don’t sweat the small stuff!
Sorry gang, today was a blog fail. I took this picture of onions with the expectation of blogging the actual meal.
After I took this picture of onions I forgot to take more. What can I say? It was a blog fail. I will say that it was whole wheat pasta with goat cheese, prosciutto, red onions, and broccoli.
Earlier today I posted my training plan for the 1/2 Marathon. Read about it here. I mostly plan to run like I normally do, get to yoga once a week and do a longer run on the weekend.
Also, in other important news: I changed a light bulb all by myself. This may seem like a small task but I have been putting off changing the light bulbs until a tall male is in my house because hey, that’s what they’re there for. All my lights were out except for two (one of which was the bathroom) and it went out on Tuesday. There is no natural light in that part of my apartment and I toughed it out for several days but yesterday I had to face facts and do it myself.
Success! Moral of the story? Sometimes you have to be a woman and take care of business yourself. Ah, the milestones you experience living along.
Can you ever pass a cheese and bread display and not buy something?
Obviously the answer is no.
This cheese was incredible, better than the brie I usually buy.
Excuse me because I have to eat more.
I finally put something on my workouts page! Check it out to hear about which races I’m doing and how I’m prepping for them.
Left Coast Contessa 
