So That Happened

Roasted Sugar Snap Peas

I am a big fan of roasting vegetables.  It's a ridiculously simple way to prepare vegetables while giving them a texture and depth of flavor that steaming or boiling simply cannot impart.  Sure, roasting vegetables may take a little longer, but the end result is so very much worth it.  Using the Cook's Illustrated recipe for Roasted Green Beans (it's a subscription-only recipe - sorry! - but you can sign up for the 14-day trial) as my template (you can see one of my initial attempts of roasting these here), I've roasted several kinds with varying (but mostly positive) results.

Last week I tried roasting one of my favorite treats, sugar snap peas.

Pretty, no?  These came straight from my local farmers market.  I love eating sugar snap peas raw by just splitting them open and popping out the peas like candy.

Here they are halfway through the cooking process.  Yes, I took them out of the oven for this picture.  You can see how much water they have lost so far.

And here are the little guys after roasting.

Don't they look delicious?  Don't you want to dip them in wasabi mayonnaise and snack away?  Or, if you're like me, just eat them hot right off the baking sheet?  Ahem.

The One About the Resolutions

Merry New Year!  (If you know where that line is from, I will buy you a cupcake.)  I hope this finds you well.  I am watching the Rose Bowl, eating a tamale and shredding documents like it's going out of style.  Thank goodness for my Mom's office shredder and its 17-sheet capacity.  

So, resolutions.  It's all anyone is talking about today.  You see it in the news: reporters doing stand-ups in front of gym windows with rows of eager and/or hungover exercisers running in place, man-on-the-street interviews asking Joe Blow about what they would like to do this year.  I always say I won't make any resolutions but then I keep a short list in the back of my mind:

1. Take a self-portrait a day.  (This was going to be 'take a picture a day' but I changed my mind, mostly because I want to document how freaking long my hair is now.)
2. Be more patient with others, especially my Mom.  It's a long story.
3. Eat better/exercise more (aka The Usual).
4. Make a significant dent in my debt. 
5. Get more sleep.
6. Reduce my clutter. 
7. Blog daily again.  
8. Develop that other blog I've been thinking about.  
9. Take more photo booth pictures.  

Like this one which I took last Saturday night at my birthday party.  It is my favorite current picture of myself:

 

In other somewhat related news, my childhood friend Jen with whom I reconnected via Facebook (thanks, FB!) started a blog last month.  It's wonderfully written; she's funny, sharp and introspective without being annoying.  I very much like her December 30th entry in which she discusses her 2008 resolution of not buying any clothes last year.  I KNOW.  I find that admirable on so many levels.  Please spend your New Year's Day getting to know her.  You won't regret it.

I Clearly Need To Live On This Street

Surprisingly, it is not in a place named Boozetown or Drunkyburgh.

Vintage

I wrote earlier about finding a bunch of old photos, including some of my Mom at Disneyland from 1968.  I'm going to post those later - once I recreate the same shots, that is - but I wanted to share this shot of my Mom and her friend from the same year.  

My Mom is on the right, and her friend (and my sister's future godmother) is on the left.  Don't they look awesome?  I really love their dresses.  I still don't see any resemblance to her.

Flashback

I finally got around to using my scanner and boy oh boy, someone should take that thing away from me because I've now become a scanning MACHINE.  (As opposed to, well, a scanner, but you know what I mean.)  I found some great old photos I can't wait to scan and save - the most important ones being of my mom at Disneyland in the late '60s.  The photos are so beautiful and vintage; I love them a lot.  I'm also compelled to go back to DIsneyland and pose for photos in the same places my mom did for perspective.  What do you think of that plan?

Here's one photo of me as a wee bairn: it is at my ninth birthday party in 1983.  I remember how much I loved my Flashdance-style dress, as well as the clear jelly shoes you can sort of see under the bench (the white socks make the shoes' jelly-ness not so obvious).  And look - it's Santa E. Cheese!  Or is it Chuck E. Claus?

Hi There

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, although it might seem like it being that I haven't blogged in some time.  I want to.  I really do.  But life have gotten in the way - a death in the family a few weeks ago and other assorted issues - and so I haven't.  I'm sorry.

If only something existed to make things easier...

(Photo taken by me in a downtown L.A. elevator earlier this week.)

Amor Para Todos

Taken by me in Mar Vista on April 23, 2008.

Twu Wuv

Here's a quick shot from my Vegas trip:

We stopped in Baker on our drive to Vegas for some good ol' Dairy Queen, where my faithful traveling companion Mr. Bear found his soulmate in the form of a Dipped Vanilla Cone.

Old-School Olympics Style

I'm kind of obsessed with the Olympics.  I'm recording the prime-time broadcasts AND staying up late to watch various matches.  Is it because I'm watching them in HD this year?  Is it because Michael Phelps is just that awesome?  Or is it because I'm having too much fun casting the TV movie version of the U.S. men's gymnastics team with Dr. No?  (You should hear what we came up with, by the way.)

Proof that I've been loving the Olympics long time: here I am (thanks to Mac Photo Booth) in a 1984 Los Angeles Olympics baseball cap that has managed to not get thrown out of the house.  It's made of foam and mesh and everything carcinogenic, I'm sure, and just look at that pom-pom on top!  Westside REPRESENT!  (Just so you know, I'm wearing the sunglasses not to look cool, but because I took this picture in the morning and I wasn't exactly camera-ready.)

Trivia Still Life

Taken by me before our weekly trivia night:

Dinner on the left (I eat my vegetables last) and Dr. Horrible on my laptop.  Awesome.