Category Archives: LA

Signs of Fall

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Happy weekend! Sorry for a lacking of posts the past two days. Yesterday night I had a blast with my friend David. We volunteered at an event for Glsen and I saw the cast of Big Love, the cast of Modern Family (I told Manny where the bathroom was!), the screenwriter of Milk, and some of the cast of Dancing with the Stars. It was super fun but I didn’t snag pics. Gotta maintain cool around the celebs. I dad have red wine and a dirty gin martini at the Polo Lounge. It was fab!

I woke up this morning and high tailed it to the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market. Signs of Fall were everywhere! Love that crisp Fall air!

Beautiful, right? I love the farmers market. After a busy past 5 weeks I finally have a weekend with very few commitments (beyond 250 pages of reading, a group meeting, and a 1o mile run). I took advantage by cleaning my apartment and watching The O.C. I also have something epic in the works for dinner so stay tuned! I hope you are all having a fab weekend!

Posted in LA

How to Survive a Rainy Day in LA

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I know I shouldn’t complain, but it has been rainy for the last few days. This is a rarity in LA and a mark of Fall and Winter. I especially shouldn’t complain especially to my family and friends who live in Chicago and Boston and put up with crappy weather for most of the year, but when you are used to perpetual sunshine rain can take you by surprise. Here are the essential steps to take.

1) Get your cute rain gear out! Its harder to be upset about rain when you have a cute outfit on. I suggest an olive colored trench coat and adorable rain boots. Mine are hot pink.

2) Get ready for a long commute. Good news: rain in LA is almost apocalyptic so everyone else will be late too.

3) Watch “Rainy Day Women”, from Season 2 of the O.C. Yep, its that episode where it rains. Seth and Summer kiss upside down while he wears a Spider Man mask because he has no rain gear (in So Cal, no one carries an umbrella on rainy days because its ‘so crazy’). Other highlights include Lindsey moving to Chicago, Sandy vowing to help Rebbecca and her fleeing after a car accident, Julie and Kristen drink at the office and try to one up each others drama (husband helping convect ex girlfriend vs. lesbian daughter), and everyone talks about how no one can drive in Southern California when it rains. Overall, it is a rainy day in So Cal classic and MUST be watched.

Source

4) Pour yourself a cup of tea. That is what I did when I came home from school. It was chilly outside and wet. All I wanted was a cup of tea. I used Winter Tea that my brother bought me from the coffee shop he worked at in Wilmette (our hometown), Links Sweet Bean.

Yum.

 

“What’s that Mom?”

“MMM! Tea!”

“Can I have some? Please?”

Because the Tea is loose I used a lovely tea pot I got for last Christmas.

The tea was exactly what I wanted on a cool, wet day like today. Nothing is better than wrapping up in a blanket, drinking tea, and watching the OC. And never fear. The number 1 rule of rain in LA? It won’t last long. The sun will come out tomorrow (or the next day at the very latest) so enjoy the rain while you can.

The Nasoya Tofu U Pledge Party

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**It’s not too late to vote for my champagne luxe on a PBR budget in round 3 of Project Food Blog. You can vote here. Thanks for your vote!**

Tonight was such a treat! I was invited to the Nasoya Tofu U Pledge Party hosted at Palihouse in West Hollywood. I was excited to attend this great event.

If your a reader you probably are thinking, “tofu?! I’ve never seen her eat tofu!” You would be right. But something that I have been discovering recently is that I really like a lot of foods I thought I didn’t like. Recent discoveries include Brussles sprouts, beets, and mushrooms. I had a sneaking suspicion that tofu would go the same way as beets and tonight confirmed my suspicions.

felt so official with my name tag!

First of all, the Palihouse in West Hollywood was a beautiful venue. I loved the decor, it reminded me of my apartment.

The event was to promote Nasoya’s new website, Nasoya Tofu U which give you the low down on tofu including tofu basics, several different recipes, how to videos featuring Sabrina of Rhody Girl Tests, and a pledge (you get coupons!). We sampled some of the Tofu U recipes at the event. Guys, I’ve officially changed my mind about tofu. Here are a few reasons why…

Tofu Spring Rolls

Was there even tofu in this? It was delicious. My biggest gripe with tofu and the reason it hasn’t been incorporated into my diet is the consistency. I could not tell that this dish had tofu in it and it was yummy.

But the star of the night was the Moroccan Tofu.

The seasoning in this dish were spot on. It almost tasted like pad thai because the dish had peanuts. The tofu, again was well prepared and the consistency didn’t both me. I ate several spoonfuls of Moroccan Tofu and it was delicious. I really want to recreate this at home.

I also got to meet Kim Barnouin, author of the Skinny Bitch Cookbooks! She was so nice and chatted with all the bloggers. We got a copy of her new cookbook “Skinny Bitch Ultimate Everyday Cooking”. Based on a perfunctory reading it looks like it will be a great addition to my kitchen. I love how she lists servings and calorie information after all of her recipes. You will be seeing it on the blog!

Overall it was great to meet some LA area foodie bloggers and get more acquainted with tofu. Now I can put it on my list right next to beets!

The Olive Kitchen + Bar

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**Please vote for me and my Luxury Dinner Party (feat. truffle butter and honey roasted veggies) in Project Food Blog. You can vote here. Thanks!**

To celebrate both the end of midterms and the start of Restaurant Week LA, Kelly and I had dinner at The Olive Kitchen + Bar in the Grafton Hotel. We got an awesome three course meal at a fraction of the usual price. We’re talking three courses at the price an entree and a glass of wine would typically be. Great deal!

Yep, we braved the rain. Nothing keeps us from a good deal!

I really liked the space that the restaurant is in. The Grafton seems like a really trendy boutique hotel. I’d love to see more of the actual hotel. The restaurant was casual which was refreshing. The prices on the regular menu are pretty pricey but the restaurant itself didn’t seem stuffy.

Because its restaurant week the menu was three courses and there were three options for each course. We had no problem picking because everything sounded amazing.

We started with  Beef Carpaccio seasoned and thinly sliced tenderloin, summer asparagus salad, grape tomatoes, shaved parmesan, parsley piccata and mustard balsamic aioli.

This was one of the stand out dishes of the night. The meat literally melted in my mouth and the sauce on the beef was amazing and had a horseradish flavor. The salad was light and wasn’t over sauced. Very delicious! This is something I would order again.

We also ordered Roasted Beef and Buratta roasted beets, burrata cheese, horseradish sicilian pistachios red beet and sherry puree.

This dish was another favorite of the night. The beets were fantastic and paired well with the cheese.

For our entrees we ordered Linguine with Clams.

The clams were delicious but the white sauce left a little to be desired. The flavor fell a little flat. For me, I think I prefer clams in a white wine sauce but I did like that this dish was a different take on a classic. The clams themselves were delicious. I totally horded them from Kelly.

Our second entree was Kelly’s choice, Crispy Roasted Chicken.

The chicken came with mashed polenta and grilled asparagus. The slaw on top was delicious and flavorful. I wish the mashed polenta has more flavor but have I ever had bad grilled asparagus? Obviously not.

The final course was dessert. We ordered White Chocolate + Wildberry Bread Pudding.

The creme sauce was good but the cake was a bit dense. The creme broke it down a little bit. Overall, not the best dish of the night but not poor.

The real stand out of the night was the Traditional Homemade Tiramisu in a Burnt Caramel Sauce.

I always love tiramisu  this did not disappoint. The tiramisu was light like a pillow or a cloud and so delicious. The best part of the dish was how the tiramisu was on top of the burnt caramel sauce. I’ve never had tiramisu with caramel before but it was so good. This confirms what I already believe, that there is no dish that cannot be improved by the addition of caramel.

Overall, I liked the Olive Kitchen + Bar. I didn’t try the cocktails but they looks delicious (there is a pear martini I had my eye on) and the appetizers and tiramisu are the clear standouts.  This would be a great place to hit for happy hour in the future!

*also, the midterm is over. It never tasted so sweet.

Do you plan to participate in Restaurant Week? If so, where do you want to dine?

Bagels and Old Pasadena

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Today was an adventure.

I was dispatched to a bagel shop in the westlake/silver lake area on behalf of a student org that I’m apart of. This is not close to where I live (at 3:30 it took an hour), but I had a task to complete.

Lets just say that this excursion culminated with me pushing a broken shopping cart with twenty dozen bagels a block and a half through a residential neighborhood with a German Shepard barking at me. Only in my life. I will say that once the task was complete I was treated to a free bagel. Brooklyn Bagel Co. has pretty good bagels compared to what I’ve had else where in LA.

I will admit to going to Noah’s and Panera to get my bagel fix, but Brooklyn Bagels has the real deal bagels. It would have been wrong to turn down a bagel. Right? I went for onion with low fat cream cheese.

Not only was the smell in Brooklyn Bagels intoxicating, but the bagel was damn good. I hadn’t had anything to eat since lunch and it was nearly 5. We all know that is the “Katherine gets angry from lack of food danger zone”.

After picking up the bagels I discovered that I had to drive them to Pasadena. I was a little worried about the traffic back west. I was unsure about getting to Pasadena. Overall I was worried. But I arrived at my destination to discover that I was in Old Pasadena!

There was a metered parking spot waiting for me near both a cupcake shop AND JCrew. I am not one to question a gift like this from the heavens. I quickly ditched the bagels and went shopping! Old Pasadena is so cute. Lots of little shops and some big chains including Kate Spade (!). Is it weird that my career goal is to wear Kate Spade shoes to work everyday? I didn’t think so. I was only there for an hour and will have to spend more time exploring Old Pasadena in the future.

First stop, cupcake shop, Dot’s Cupcakes. I am never one to ignore a cupcake shop sitting right in front of me.

Because I had just thrown down a bagel, I got a mini cupcake. When I saw that they had chocolate with caramel and pink salt I knew exactly what to order. I have a documented obsession with salted caramel.

Rich and delish! I really like how the salty caramel was complimented by the dark, spongy chocolate. Plus, a mini cupcake is the perfect size if the treat is rich. I would definitely go back to Dots in the future.

Then I went to JCrew.

If loving JCrew is wrong, I don’t want to be right. Don’t worry M&D, I only bought a sale tank top.

Today’s lesson? You never know where a simple task will take you! Hope you all have a happy Friday!

Study Night

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Nothing goes with hours upon hours of reading like salted caramel macaroons from Tavern.

Last weekend was so busy I had no time to read ahead. Normally, I work ahead on the weekends so on Monday and Tuesday I only have to read half of an assignment. Reading for law school is hard. Generally assignments will only be 15 to 20 pages but they will be dense, the court will not spell out why it did what it did and it will take longer than an hour to read. Suddenly you’ve been reading for hours. Your head is spinning and attention waning. After reading one paragraph you realize that you have no idea what the court was saying and you have to read it over and over again. Obviously after reading from 3 til almost 6 I needed a change of scenery. Since my birthday dinner a month ago I have wanted to go back to Tavern and sample their goodies without the impediment of stomach flu. I was not disappointed.

Decaf Iced Non Fat Latte, the perfect thing to accompany a salted caramel macaroon. I think the salted caramel macaroon is my new favorite thing of all time. It melts in your mouth, is salty and the caramel is rich. You can’t have just one.

The food at Tavern is some of the best I’ve had in LA. The Larder, which is next to the restaurant and bar, is light and airy. There was no one around at 6 when I arrived. It gave me the final push I needed to get through the reading I had to do. I will be back to the Larder soon, perhaps to sample their lunch menu!

Milk

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After the race on Sunday I wanted more food (running 6.2 miles with an 8:44 min pace per mile will do that to you). Kelly and I have been dying to try Milk for months and Sunday was the perfect day for it.

Milk had a mixture of sandwiches, salads, ice cream and treats. The star of the show here is the ice cream. I asked my friend Molly a few months ago where the best place to get ‘real ice cream’ in LA is and she said ‘Milk’. Tangent: most ice cream in LA is in the vein of Pinkberry. There is a special place in my heart for Pinkberry and Yogurtland, but sometime you want good old fashioned ice cream like you ate when you were a kid. I am not afraid to indulge every once and a while. From time to time you need to have something you really like. In my opinion, if you don’t occasionally give in to ice cream a healthy lifestyle can’t really be maintained. My opinion only.

I was still hungry from throwing down 6 miles that morning so I got a sandwich before sampling the ice cream. I read the words prosciutto and I knew which sandwich I wanted.

The sandwich had prosciutto, slivered potato, picked onion, arugula, provolone and black pepper cream. The sandwich was delicious. The bread had crispy crust and the potato in the sandwich was unexpected but a great choice with the prosciutto and the arugula.

It also came with a delicious side dish.

Lunch was delish but the real star of the show was the ice cream. There are several flavors of ice cream and several delicious sandwich and drumstick treats!

I opted for a scoop of nutella flavor and a scoop of coconut flavor.

The nutella literally tasted like ice cream fudge. It was AMAZING. The coconut flavor was better, can you believe it!? It tasted like I was eating a coconut. The flavor was fragrant and delicious. I will be coming back to Milk whenever I need my ice cream fix.

Big Foot Lodge

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After the beach we all headed back to the apartment in Glendale. On the way home we stopped at Fresh and Easy. We grabbed a frozen pizza and some ingredients to kick it up a little bit and make it special.

Once we got home, everyone prepared for a night out and I prepared dinner!

Cooking mayhem, as per the usual.

I added salt. pepper, garlic salt and prosciutto to the pizza:

It turned out pretty good! The little added punch really made it so much better than your typical store bought pizza.

After dinner my friends and I went to the Big Foot Lodge. As you can tell from the name, we were working a wilderness theme.

Yep, there was a mechanical bear peeking his head out of a log. It was amazing. Love love love a theme bar.

There was more taxidermy on the walls and smokey the bear signs. There was a fire place and lots of seating. Overall, it had possibly the perfect bar layout. Lots of space, places to sit and not too large. Plus, I’ve been to three bars this week with taxidermy on the walls. Apparently I have a thing for it.

We had heard about the toasted marshmallow cocktail and we knew that we had to try it.  It featured vanilla vodka, butterscotch liqueur, Frangelico, and Bailey’s. The crowning glory is a toasted marshmallow which they torch in front of you.

Finished product:

It was pretty good, although very sweet. The Bailey’s was the main flavor that came through. I could also sense the vanilla. The marshmallow was like wise good but very sweet. It was also pretty affordable, in my opinion, for a specialty cocktails ($10). I couldn’t have more than one of these.

My second drink was St. Germain, gin and lime. It was light and delicious. Having St. Germain is major points in favor of the Big Foot Lodge in my opinion. I like a bar that appears dive-ey but in reality can mix a killer drink.

BFL also gets major points for playing good music. Lots of oldies. I danced and sang along. I was in a happy place.

Friends equal happiness. Hope you had a great long weekend!

Corona del Mar

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Greetings from Orange County!

Yesterday I woke up bright and early to spend the day at the beach (and then the bar) with the Glendale girls, Catie, Leanna, and Emily. Catie always talked about the beaches at Corona del Mar so we headed south to the “O.C.”

Look at how blue the water is! Beautiful!

After we arrived Catie and I took a walk down the beach looking for photo ops

Houses!

Other activities at the beach included: giving children throwing sand dirty looks, gossiping, reading, eating, walking, and snacking.

More to come…

Posted in LA

Thirsty Wednesdays

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Last night Catie and I said goodbye to Kat by bringing her to one of our favorite bars, Thirsty Crow. The first time Catie and I went to “The Crow” we looked at each other and said, “Kat would love this place!” Of course she did.

Last time I got a whiskey cocktail, but this time I ordered a Violet Vapor.

The violet vapor is a combo of creme de violet and champagne. I know we were at a whiskey bar, but what can I say, I’m a champs girl. We had a great time reliving college memories. Lets just say I learned some interesting facts about my trash can last night. I got home late and woke up at 6 am today to go to court. Revelation of the day: I really, really want to be a litigator. Ah, we learn something new everyday. It’s nice to have some direction.

Back to reading and then a run. What is everyone doing for the long weekend?