|
|
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
| |
3:25 pm
|
us on the last day of our honeymoon, in beautiful san francisco on a gorgeous sunny fall day! sipping champagne on my friend benny's rooftop and enjoying the spectacular view of the bay. we had a twelve hour layover in s.f., which was more than enough time to swing by benny's apartment [he was away on a business trip but had a bottle of veuve waiting for us in the fridge, best friend EVER!!] and do some champagne-fueled walking around in our favorite city afterwards. jet lag began to get the better of us, and after mike and i both almost fell asleep in a park [laying in a sunny spot on the grass] we decided we'd better make our way back to the airport, for safety's sake. but we'll be back, san francisco!! we'll be BACK!! ;)
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| |
1:12 am
|
|
home again, home again!! back safe and sound after our incredible odyssey in hong kong. approx. 500 photos or so coming once i get re-adjusted to phoenix time. right now we have been awake for 32 hours and counting.............. :)
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
| |
5:11 am
|
|
on my way to HONG KONG with my brand-new husband (!!!!) for our kickass honeymoon......will be taking copious notes and photos!! see you all after 11/23/09.............. :)
|
|
(6 comments | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, November 8th, 2009
| |
7:42 pm
|
[ me & dad at the farm, about to head down the aisle ]
just stopping in to say a blanket thank you to everyone who wished us congratulations/good luck yesterday! the wedding was AMAZING.......seriously, i can't even quite believe it, but nothing even went wrong....and best of all we got MARRIED! it was the greatest day, start to finish. today has been a whirlwind of goodbyes and rides to the airport and now we're settling in for a quiet evening with our two remaining houseguests and an early night for once.
i'll try and post something more coherent tomorrow about the details of the day once i get some sleep and get my head around the fact that i am married, MARRIED, dudes!! until then, good night, and thank you all. your kind words were very much appreciated. i love everyone tonight. :)
|
|
(11 comments | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, November 7th, 2009
| |
8:04 am - mawwiage!!!!!!!!
|
there's something i'm supposed to do today, but what could it be......what could it beeee........what..............
oh.
yeah.
I'M TOTALLY GETTING MARRIED TODAY, DUDES!!!!!!
see you on the flip side. ;)
|
|
(18 comments | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, October 31st, 2009
| |
6:16 pm - HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEEENN..............
|
|
| |
6:11 pm
|
like whoa, dudes:
1. happy halloween!!
2. i am getting married in seven days!!!!
current mood: wheeee!!!!
|
|
(6 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
| |
12:17 pm
|
[ RECENT WORK: ]
 
[ NASH COOK & SHEA COSTELLO, 9/26/09 ]
i did this recently as a wedding gift for one of my oldest friends--that's the gentleman in the top hat, there--and his lovely new bride. they got hitched at the graceland chapel in fabulous las vegas which is outrageously wonderful and really the only way i could ever envision dr. n getting hitched. unfortunately we couldn't attend (a surprise $700 vet bill a few days before took care of that), which was terrible, i've never been to a wedding in vegas (much less one performed by elvis himself) and i really wanted to be there to see n get married, but i think i made it up to them with this painting. it's the thought that counts, right? :)
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Monday, October 5th, 2009
| |
10:24 pm
|
okay, i realize it's kind of completely asinine to ask a question like this on lj, but i do need some advice........does anyone know anything about long-distance cycling? specifically, information that might be useful to a novice hoping to train for her first long-distance ride......what kind of equipment/training/length of training might be necessary (for, let's just say, a very long-distance ride, but broken up into manageable chunks per day)? specifically, what kind of:
a. bike?
b. helmet?
c. all-weather gear (for the west coast in maybe april/may)?
d. what kind of training recommended to get a novice in shape in 6 months?
e. extraneous advice? ;)
i am really hoping that at least a few of you respond....specifically, i know of a few of you that might be able to help me. just gathering information for a future adventure, to be revealed at a later date. any advice welcome. thanks!! :)
|
|
(15 comments | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, October 4th, 2009
| |
11:50 am
|
|
| Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
| |
10:33 pm
|
|
just found an interesting article on urban foraging, which is what i'd like to do. this pretty much sums it up...... :)
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Thursday, September 24th, 2009
| |
4:18 pm
|
|
| Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
| |
4:25 pm - SOOOOO EXCITED......
|
oh my god, oh my god!!! i hate to sound like a materialist bitch [i know, i know, i'm gonna sound like one anyway, but i have ALWAYS WANTED ONE OF THESE!!!]..................someone bought us the kitchenaid mixer from our wedding registry!!!! $300 of omg mixy goodness, and look at the color [i picked it]:
..........this 'materialist bitch' [ha ha] is happy. i really really wanted this, we are going to make such good things with this machine. i don't yet know who purchased us this magical appliance, but we are forever grateful. in fact, mike and i have been poking each other all day and going, 'hey!! we may be poor, but we have......a kitchenaid mixer!!' ;)
|
|
(5 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, September 7th, 2009
| |
3:00 pm
|
a brief list of things that bother me:
- 'the human digestive track'........it's digestive tract, people. i don't care how similar the words sound to one another, one is not a substitute for the other. that's like being excused for confusing a book with a cook, a snake with a snack, a summer with a hummer. it's just inexcusable.
- 'the tenants of modern civilization.' it's tenets. unless you're actually talking about those who lease space in a building or section of land from a landlord, in which case, my mistake and carry on. sure, it's a seldom-used word [i'd argue that it's likely more often misused than used correctly, but hey], but that's no excuse. see above answer.
- 'i should of done that.' you should have learned english. especially if you're an american. we really are only required to learn one language our entire lives [our OWN! consider that], unless much of the rest of the world, and yet most of us fail even in this simple task.
thank you. the cranky grammarian now returns you to your regularly scheduled whatever. ;)
|
|
(7 comments | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, September 5th, 2009
| |
9:37 am
|
this morning i had a six am hike with my two favorite boys, a hot cup of strong coffee while watching the morning rainstorm and feeling the cool breeze, and then came back inside where breakfast was made & waiting for me.
i win. :)
|
|
(4 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, September 4th, 2009
| |
4:49 pm
|
does anyone know of anywhere cheap to stay in las vegas? a friend of mine is getting married there at the end of this month [adorable, i know], and i can't afford the hotel/casino where they and most of their guests are staying, but we don't want to be too far away, either.
any suggestions?
p.s. - this is my first ever trip to vegas. GASP! ;)
|
|
(9 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, August 31st, 2009
| |
6:27 pm - from laurel & mike's test kitchen, august special edition................
|
[ 8.24.09 // HAZELNUT BROWN BUTTER CAKE ]
[ let me say those magical four words again: HAZELNUT BROWN BUTTER CAKE. this is the food of the angels. i want to serve this as our wedding cake! i know i usually combine these 'test kitchen' posts into one long, rambling monthly post-with-pictures, but what can i say? it's been a busy august in laurel and mike's test kitchen, between being housebound by the stifling heat and the being too broke to go out and socialize much. besides, this one seemed special enough to warrant a special edition of ye olde teste kitchene, so here's the skinny on HAZELNUT BROWN BUTTER CAKE................it is amazing. combining liberal quantities of toasted, ground hazelnuts with equally liberal quantities of brown butter and a surprisingly small amount of flour. who needs flour when you have HAZELNUTS and BROWN BUTTER (why yes, the caps are absolutely necessary, as a matter of fact), ha ha. ;)
recipe comes from here, the smitten kitchen blog, although the original source of the recipe is credited as suzanne goin’s 'sunday suppers at lucques' cookbook, which i now want to immediately buy and add to my arsenal of cookbooks. i admit to tampering with the recipe here and there, so your mileage may vary on this, but considering the raves going out on the internet regarding this wonderful, wonderfully delightful cake, i doubt you'll be dissatisfied with either version. mine, for the record, was sublime. chef goin's is likely even more so. even my vegan mother ate a piece i put in front of her (GASP! okay, i did give her a warning that it was the most un-vegan thing imaginable, then mentioned that i'd turn a blind eye if she wanted to indulge and, well.......let's just say that it disappeared). my variations were as follows:
+ had no fresh whole vanilla bean to use, because i am not a rich person, and therefore used vanilla extract like a lowly peasant. whatever.
+ made mini-cakes in a cupcake pan instead of one large torte-like cake, because i (insert another GASP!) do not own even one cake pan. what can i say, i was never much of a baker? that is slowly changing, much to my ever-expanding waistline's chagrin.
+ also, i added about twice the salt that chef goin's recipe calls for. i can't eat more than a few bites of most sweetsweetsweet desserts, and vastly prefer them with a little extra salt or bite or something to them besides sugar. i wasn't taking any chances with this one, and besides, nuts and brown butter seemed a good candidate for the salty-sweet flavor profile, and.........oh my god, i just said 'flavor profile,' let's move on, shall we? ha ha.
+ i also had no electric mixer with which to beat my egg whites to the soft peak stage (am reeeeaally hoping our wedding registry will deliver in this area!), and so had to beat them the medieval way, which may have resulted beaten egg whites that were slightly less aerated than was ideal. but hey.
+ finally, i swapped the powdered sugar called for in the recipe for white granulated because i don't like the powdery (duh) sickly-sweet taste of powdered sugar desserts. i also swapped the granulated sugar called for in the recipe for light brown sugar, thinking that between the less-beaten egg whites, the extra salt, and the lack of fluffy powdered sugar, i was in for a much richer, denser, more salty-caramelly-sweet cake than the original recipe.........and IT WORKED. it was dense but well-aerated and not at all bricklike, moist (god i hate that word), tender, rich and brown and nutty.
i dipped the tops of each in lovely real dark chocolate ganache made with lovely heavy cream (oh god i am going to be 300 pounds by the time the wedding rolls around), barely let them cool, and then mike and i fell upon them like starving dogs. it was through a triumph of self-discipline and a not-so-minor sacrifice that we managed to transport some of the leftovers to my parents' for dessert the next night, so that they (veganism be damned) might also share in the unmitigated joy, the unbridled passion that is...........HAZELNUT BROWN BUTTER CAKE. ]
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, August 29th, 2009
| |
6:27 pm
|
|
| Friday, August 28th, 2009
| |
1:47 pm
|
update: I FIXED IT!!!!! I RULE. ;)
why, why, why, why, whyyyyyyy did the sound suddenly stop working on my computer? anyone??? aaarghh. the speaker is still plugged in, the little light is on, a check of the device manager states that every device is functioning normally......but there is no sound.
why why whyyyyyyy???
current mood: no longer annoyed!
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
| |
8:50 am
|
ahhhhh. absolutely nothing helps with monthly cramps like a mimosa*.
[ i did wake up at five thirty this morning and take a hike, also. gotta balance out all that virtue somehow....... ]
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
|
|
|
