Monthly Archives: August 2010

Hiking in Temescal Canyon

Posted on by

1

On my family’s first full day in LA we decided to take a hike in Temescal Canyon. I heard there are great views so I was excited to check it out!

The first half of the trek was entirely uphill and most of it was heavily wooded. After one mile we reached a waterfall.

There wasn’t much water in the waterfall (it is LA in August after all) but you could hear the trickle of water which was really relaxing. Then we continued uphill to the views…

Hey guys!

When we got to the top we were excited for the view…

Which was blocked by the marine layer. Oh well. This is West LA, and you can’t win them all. We were able to look at the styles of the houses below (a favorite activity).

Overall, it was a great hike! Short, only around 2.4 miles but I was sore the next day!

Can you spy the lizard?

It was am awesome hike. Highly recommended.

Posted in LA

shenanigans

Posted on by

0

Today there were a lot of shenanigans like this…

Before my family arrived my Feta Package arrived! Last month I won a feta giveaway hosted by Jenna.

Swaggage:

So excited for this bag. I can pack my lunch for school everyday now 🙂

Izzy was very  interested in the new package.

Once my family arrived I had Mozza (OMFG so freaking fantastic! No pics, they are NOT camera friendly!) and Magnolia bakery. There was no dinner. Dinner was 1/2 a devils food cupcake with meringue icing. I also had some Red Mango which has reopened in Westwood as a self serve yogurt place! Like yogurtland but healthier.

We pit stopped at my house for some kitty cuddle time:

And I went shopping where I got a pair of size 28 jeans at JCrew. This is TWO sizes smaller than I wore last year. Whomp Whomp. Hard work and healthy eating pays off. I am tossing all my size 8 pants. It’s not my size anymore. Keeping it would be setting myself up to fail, right?

Ok, busy day tomorrow with food pics! I promise!

The Spa Day

Posted on by

1

Today was my birthday/one week til 2L rejuvenation day at Burke Williams.

I love a “no cell phone” area. No pictures but it is so worth it!

Overall, I had an awesome Burke Williams experience. My favorite treatment was the Hunter’s Retreat which took place in a water room. Basically you lay on a massage table and have several shower heads spray you with hot water. Then you get exfoliated followed by the application of some body wash which they used a giant seaweed thing to rub into your skin. There were so many bubbles. Then you flip over. Did I mention that they are massaging you also? It was amazing. Guys, I’ve never felt so clean in my life. It was awesome.

After I got some lunch. I went to Umami again. Oops, I did it again (but this time with the So Cal burger)…

So amazing. Probably my favorite Umami burger so far!

I also had a refreshing drink:

After lunch I went back to BW and took advantage of the amenities, which really are the whole reason to go to Burke Williams. I went to the quiet jacuzzi for a while. Then I went to the quiet reading room where they have rows of lazyboys and blankets with low lighting. I read a bit of “One Day” which is very readable. I love getting hooked on a good book. I think I’m going to make my summer reading goal!

I also had a few other treatments. First I had a relaxation massage which was so nice on my aching runner’s legs. Because it was my birthday I got a free aromatherapy upgrade. I opted for muscle relief and I got a bottle to take home with me! Great perk!  Then I had a manicure and pedicure which was awesome! I got an oatmeal neck pillow which smelled so delicious and I had my first paraffin wax treatment which was so cleansing. My skin felt much smoother afterwords.

While getting my mani/pedi I read September Glamour and I read about Operation Beautiful and surprise, surprise I came home to this waiting on my doorstep…

Yay! Thanks Carolyn! Caitlin is one of my favorite bloggers and I was so excited to get her book. I’ve already started reading. For those that don’t know Operation Beautiful is a movement where people post positive notes about beauty for others to get. Notes say things like “You are Beautiful” or “You’ll always be beautiful no matter how many miles you run” or  “relax and smile, it’s not that big of a deal”.

If you’ve been in my bathroom this summer then you know I posted my own note last June. I thought I’d take this opportunity to share it.

It’s so nice to see some positivity when I wake up in the morning!

That’s it for now. Tomorrow my Mom, Dad, and David (AKA LCCMOM, LCCDAD, and LCCBRO) descend on LA for my birthday weekend. Let the par-tay begin!

Cleaning out my closet

Posted on by

0

Today as part of my vacation/cleansing before the semester starts I decided that I should clean out my closet. Don’t we all have that one place in our houses where we thrown everything? This is mine…

My head hurt just looking at this mess everyday. I mean, the shoe stack, the law books. This had to go. I have to say that I am a pretty good purger of things when I put my mind to it. I do not want to end up a hoarder and  I am type A enough to operate better in a clean environment. So I got cracken’ and actually found some pretty fun stuff in the process. Don’t you love when you clean and find random things from your past? I sure do.

First, I found pictures from college and high school!

Good friend, firm member, and former roommate Kat at the Clothesline Project Junior year at Simmons

Top is Jr. year Simmons Soiree with Alice, Pati, and Cristina from SGA Executive Board. Bottom is Grad Night with Brenna, Katherine, Claire and Melissa. Notice the white dresses? Yep. We graduate in white dresses because that’s now we roll.

Speaking of high school, I found a ton of t shirts! There was an inside joke at New Trier (my alma mater) that it takes three girls to screw in a light bulb: one to hold the bulb, one to screw it in and a third to make a t shirt about it. As such, I have an insane surplus of New Trier t shirts from every occasion under the sun.

Lets take a walk down memory lane…

Prom 2005. Why yes, the theme was candy land. A gratuitous opportunity to play “Candy Shop” by 50 Cent? You betcha!

Winter Carnival 2005. At New Trier the Sr. class always takes on a philanthropy project building Habitat for Humanity houses. In order to finance this the Sr class throws a carnival. Nice, right? Very nice. But don’t be fooled… that grad night party costs the same as building, like, three habitat for humanity houses. Just sayen’.

Shameless braggary. Oh the New Trier swagger…

DEM CLUB! Really more of a “we hate Bush” support group. Yep, I was a member because I have always been “left”.

And now from the Simmons Collection…

Women’s College Represent. I miss Simmons…

Remember this from Simmons Cup 2006?

Then I went through some clothing and found this cute skirt I bought when I was 15! It fits!I remember wearing this around New York City on my first trip with my Mom in July of 2003…

One final cute thing. Buried way in the back I found a Lexis swag bag which had a bunch of notes that I took during Orientation last year…

HA! How to read an opinion. Rule application. How far have I come? WOW! As comical as it might seem I remember being so intense and scared about learning to read opinions and what would be expected of me in class. I am so glad that I am starting 2L. Phew!

Here is the after:

Better. Overall, I had two bags of trash and I rearranged everything to be more accessible. I made a stack of things to give away, a stack of things to be taken in, and a stack of 1L books to sell.

After I was exhausted but I managed to find the strength to make it to Coffee Bean.

I opted for oatmeal raisin because it generally is fewer in calories.

MMM Iced Tea. I came home and went on a very good 4.1 mile run. After I had an insane pilaf mashup for dinner featuring goat cheese, okra, onions, and yellow pepper:

Very good. This is a marathon post. Hope you all enjoyed cleaning my closet!

What is lurking in your closet?

-LCC

Short Announcement

Posted on by

0

You know how I blogged a while ago about my frustration with always weighing over 140lbs? Well, if you don’t you can read “Me Against 140”. In the post I announced that I wanted to beat 140 lbs before my birthday (August 15th). When I went to the doctor about one month ago she informed me that I was 140 (this also tipped me to the fact that my scale weighs a bit heavy). Well, today I stepped on the scale and it read 139.2. You heard it here first people! 139.2!  I even weighed myself twice to make sure it wasn’t a mirage. I did not eat a cupcake in celebration- which is a major accomplishment for me. But I was excited enough to go to yoga. Love love love that this weight is still coming off. Thanks for all the support!

Linguine with Eggplant Puree

Posted on by

0

Since it is vacation week I have been trying to really step up my cooking. Tonight I adapted a recipe from Smitten Kitchen, a beautiful food blog! I’ve never made a recipe from Smitten Kitchen but I often salivate while reading her posts. Def check it out if you haven’t already. I love eggplant so this recipe was an easy choice.

First things first, you have to roast cherry tomato, egg plant and garlic. Chop up the eggplant and tomato and add S&P, red pepper flakes, and EVO. 400 degrees for 54 mins…

While doing that put a generous handful of pine nuts in a dish and put on the bottom rack of the oven for 5 mins.

I present before:

and now for after:

I highly recommend NOT skipping this step. Toasting the pine nuts really makes all the difference.

While all of this is going on, cook the pasta in salted water. It’s all about the multitasking people. Tonight I found a bag of linguine I didn’t now that I had so I used that. Side note: not a huge fan of trader joe’s linguine. It gets very mushy very fast. It was still ok but mushy pasta isn’t my favorite.

When the eggplant and tomato and garlic is done roasted combine it in the food processor. Smitten Kitchen warmed of the sauce not getting “saucey” enough. Probably due to the amount of tomatoes I roasted. Well mine was pretty saucey so I only pulsed the processor a few times.

Then transfer to the pot you used for boiling the pasta and add a small amount of balsamic vinegar and some pasta water. Add the pine nuts.

Then add Parmesan cheese. Heat and mix, then add the pasta.

Now I will admit that roasted eggplant isn’t exactly the prettiest thing on earth, but I love eggplant and thus I highly enjoyed this dish.

Final product:

I have to say, if you like eggplant, you will like this. The red pepper flakes add a little zing and the toasted pine nuts really stand out in this dish. I loved it, and a very easy sauce to make!

I will make this again but I will likely use a different pasta. Stay tuned for another EPIC dinner tomorrow night!

HBO Night

Posted on by

0

At the risk of sounding like an advertisement: If it’s Sunday, you know I’m watching HBO. What can I say? I love True Blood and Entourage is starting to get interesting again (in my opinion).

But first let’s rewind a little bit:

After my long run this morning I read some of my book, The Help, which I am loving! Then I spent some quality time with Izzy Cat. We played with her new bird toy:

Oh hi Izzzz!

Then I cleaned the house and prepared for guests. Emily and Catie came over to watch HBO and have dinner.

Before they came over I made some guacamole.

I made this last week when I made fish tacos and I ate it all week. I love the fresh, creaminess of the avocado. It’s great to put on sandwiches, dip veggies into or pita chips. Don’t you love the bright green color?

I also cracked open one of my favorite beers of all time, Sam Adams Summer.

I love Sam Seasonal. It takes me back to last summer and being around Boston. It’s the perfect cure for homesickness. Also, I’ve shared before that after running I sometimes crave a beer. After a long afternoon of cleaning it sure was nice to unwind.

Then I got down to the business of dinner. When having a group over, pizza is an excellent default. I started with Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat crust. Then I prepped my ingredients.

Holy Heirloom Tomato! Check out those colors! I know that I have blathered on in more than one post about the color of my foods, but I like to eat eclectic colors. It’s how you know you’re eating healthy.

A ball of mozzarella. Cheese is always better when it isn’t from a bag that says Kraft.

I also diced onion and garlic and I tore some pieces of prosciutto. When I constructed my pie I used those ingredients and S&P.

Check out the before. I sparsely distributed the  cheese and baked at 450 for 10 mins. While I waited for the pizza to cook I shredded some Parmesan from the biggest wedge of parm I have ever seen! Emily bought it from costco.

I present “After”:

I let the parm melt on top of the pizza after I took it out of the oven.

Simplistic but delicious, this was one of the best pizza’s I ever made.

Melting the parm on top of the good mozzarella was a great idea. I used a lot of tomato paste as a base and used a nicely proportioned bit of prosciutto. But the standout of this dish was the heirloom tomatoes. Let me tell you, they taste as delicious as they look. The heirlooms were actually kinda sweet compared to the best of the dish. Having simple, minimal ingredients really let the heirlooms stand out.  Now that they are in season at the Farmer’s Market I will have to cook with them more often. This is was way higher quality tomato then I typically use and I should utilize it more often!

This was my portion (+1 slice after this photo was taken). Definitely delicious and I will be making again.

Sunday Run Day

Posted on by

0

Hey Everyone!

We all know that Sunday is Run Day for me. Before going out on my run I ate a quick breakfast:

With a side of fruit:

Then I headed out on a 6 mile run. I wasn’t sure how it would go because I went out last night and had a Maker’s Mark Old Fashioned, a Whiskey Sour and a Whiskey Smash (like a Whiskey mojito). It was a major Whiskey night. I was slightly hung over, but not too bad. Mostly just thirsty.

The run went pretty well. It was nice to tune out from life for a while and just run. I was still able to sprint at the end which is nice. My feet kinda hurt. Word to the wise, always wear running socks. Came home and beasted these leftovers:

And I am still hungry. I think it might be small amount of peanut butter time…

Classic Pesto

Posted on by

1

Today while walking through the farmer’s market I was drawn to something that I couldn’t resist.

Who can say no to a bundle of pesto? Not me! I decided it would be nice to makes some classic pesto. Pesto is a great sauce/spread and it’s super easy to make. You can “wing” pesto which I like because I am not a super precise cook.

First I got together my ingredients.

Pine nuts

Minced garlic from 2 cloves

EVO

Parm. Make sure that it is from a block people. There is a difference between pre-grated and from a block. From a block is much better plus it’s an arm workout.

Put the parm to the side and combine all the other ingredients with S&P in the food processor. I like to start with less than more especially when it comes to the garlic. Unless, of course, you want it super garlickey.

Mix it up! The more you mix the better. Do a taste test, add more garlic or pine nuts or EVO if you want to. Once you like the flavor then you can add the parm.

Mix it up until the parm is combine. While mixing it pour yourself a nice glass of this…

While I was making the pesto I made pasta and roasted some eggplant to add with the pesto.

Yum! It’s been a while since I had fresh pesto and this was such a treat! I made two portions so I can have an easy lunch tomorrow after my run. Tonight I am going out for birthday drinks at Varnish, a speakeasy-ish bar in Downtown LA that I have been dying to go to for months! Love birthdays, you can go for drinks where ever you want!