redeemed

My first small success after all those disasters was this attractive dish called GRANDMA’S CHICKEN CHARDON.  Relatively easy, pleasing to the eye, and best of all… healthy!  Not my best chicken dish to date, but definitely not bad since it rolls in at only about 260 calories per breast.  It wasn’t full of flavor, but was similar to the shish kabobs I recently made, so the next time I make it I’ll probably smother it in this HONEY MUSTARD DIPPING SAUCE and it very well could turn out heavenly.

As a side I used our decidely go-to veggie recipe PAN-FRIED ASPARAGUS only this time, instead of asparagus, I used green beans and the little bit of broccoli we had.  The green beans were good but the broccoli was delicious!  I’ve come to the conclusion that you can’t really go wrong with pan frying green veggies.

Click the link below for recipe:

GRANDMA’S CHICKEN CHARDON

Jeroen and Kees from the Netherlands

The boyfriend, Vanessa, Jeroen, Kees, and me posing on a couch at MOCA because that is what couchsurfers do.

Our first international couchsurfers originate from the Netherlands, but actually flew into LA from Fiji, all part of their trip around the world.  They didn’t know about couchsurfing.com when they started out, but somehow heard of it during their travels, and we had the pleasure of being their first experience.  Because of this we wanted to make sure they had a great time so they would have a good impression of CS and continue being part of it even after their trip, but this was going to be difficult considering they were only going to be here during the week, and of course we would be working.  Here is how it all played out…

Day 1 – They took public transportation all the way from the airport up to Pasadena and then walked around our lovely town for a bit until they knew we would be home from work.  They weren’t hungry so I made dinner just for my boyfriend and I as he sat and chatted with them about their travels, me piping in every so often from the kitchen.  I soon joined them and we all talked for hours about the various countries they had been, what they were looking to do in California (their first time in the States), and mostly about their home country.  My boyfriend lived in the Netherlands for a few months not so long ago and they enjoyed hearing his impressions of their country and what he had done there, and helping him get back his Dutch accent when speaking the handful of words he remembered.  And then it was time for bed, us needing to wake up for work in the morning and them exhausted from traveling.

Day 2 – Exhausted they must have been, or simply enjoying the roof over their head and the air matress underneath them (they had been camping a lot of their trip), they slept in as my boyfriend and I carried out our normal days at work.  When they did eventually rouse themselves they took our advice and did the Hollywood scene since it is easily accessible via the metro.  They arrived back at the apartment just moments before we did, stocked with groceries and ready to make dinner for all of us.

Dutch home cooking, yum!

Since we couldn’t act as tour guides during their stay, we had contacted another local couchsurfer named Vanessa who is free during the days, has a car, and likes to show people around.  We invited her over for dinner as a sort of “meet and greet” to see if her and the guys got good vibes from each other and would want to spend the next day together.  All went according to plan and they mapped out an idea of where to go.  After dinner the five of us walked to The Cheesecake Factory for dessert because they don’t have cheesecake in the Netherlands.  In fact, they had never even heard of it!  Judging by their cleaned plates, I have a feeling they will be missing it when they return home.

Day 3 – Off to work again, but today Vanessa picked up the boys from our apartment and the city tour began.   She took them hiking in Santa Monica, then they strolled past the crazies in Venice Beach.  After that they headed to Culver City for a pre-arranged meet-up with my boyfriend at Sony Studios where he works so that he could show them around the lot.  Kind of a cool experience that not all travelers get.  Unfortunately it was a bit rushed because we all had plans later that evening and there was still much to do!  After the Sony tour my boyfriend came and picked me up from work and the other three headed to historic Olvera Street in downtown LA for some good Mexican food.  Next they met up with us at MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) for an interesting night of playing mini-golf through the not commonly seen parts of the museum, a one-time event they called Emptiness is Form (Golf and Donuts).  We got to decorate and keep our golf balls and they were programmed to our phone numbers so that each time we made a hole our phones rang and we got to hear an interesting fact about holes, and with every ball that went into a hole a donut hole was made on site.  However, people were making holes faster than the staff could make donuts and by the time we finished the line for donuts was too long and we decided not to wait.  Oh, and did I mention all this was free?

Kees putting past somebody’s cubicle office.

Tired out from so much fun in the middle of the week, my boyfriend and I went straight home and crashed into bed while Jeroen and Kees stayed out with Vanessa for a few drinks.  They didn’t stay out late, but they were so quiet coming home we didn’t even wake up.

Day 4 – Time to say goodbye.  After spending some time on the internet figuring out where they would go next and how they would get there, they departed.  But not before daring to compete for the best couchsurfers ever award.  When I came home the kitchen was SPOTLESS, all the dishes were done and put away (there were a lot of dishes and we don’t have a dishwasher), and they left us a bottle of wine as a gift.  These guys can come back anytime!

They’ve been gone for over a week now, but we keep tabs on their travels.  After LA they rented a car and headed down South towards San Diego, then over to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon, and I believe they are now enjoying the glitter of Las Vegas.  Best part is they have since updated their previously very sparse CS profile, so it looks like they have enjoyed their CS experience thus far and plan to continue on with it.  Mission accomplished!

not my smartest move

They say you learn something new everyday, and this is what I learned last night.  If you’re frying something in hot oil and flipping it over with a fork, do not turn right around and use the same fork to eat with.  If you do, you could end up with a really nasty blister on your lip like I did.

Yes, this is a lesson I probably should have learned twenty years ago when I was five.

the good, the bad, and the veggie

Those of you who know me personally have been reading about my mini-successes in the kitchen with disbelief.  Well, I may have just started out on a lucky streak afterall because recently I’ve turned out some things that barely classified as edible, which is more what I was expecting in the first place.  I debated not writing about them and pretending like they never happened, but the disasters are generally more fun to read about.

We’ll start with the crock pot, which I’ve been eyeing for months and finally purcahsed.  The first meal I made in it was actually pretty good, but we had guests that night so I didn’t want to look like a dork  and take pictures of the food, which is why there is no post about that dinner.  It was my next attempt in the crock pot that was an utter failure.  A pork roast that was so tasteless I ended up throwing away the whole thing.  This was the same day I made the egg noodles and they were now already cooking, as was the edamame, so scrapping dinner and going out to eat wasn’t really an option.  Instead I warmed up leftovers from the first crock pot meal, then put them in the crock pot which still had the new sauce in it, let it soak and tossed it on top of the egg noodles.  It actually wasn’t bad, but was just such a mish-mosh of stuff that it definitely tasted like it came from a beginner cook.

The Good:

AWESOME SLOW COOKER POT ROAST (Even though I used a pork roast because I didn’t know the difference, whoops)

The Bad:

TANGY SLOW COOKER PORK ROAST

The Veggie:

CRISPY EDAMAME

The next night I really wanted to redeem myself so I went with a lamb recipe that sounded delicious and has a five star rating.  The first time I cooked lamb (before starting to take pictures and blog again) it was a great success so I figured this would be an ace in the hole.  Barely edible in my opinion.  My boyfriend said it was okay, and we both cleaned our plates, but I wasn’t happy while doing so.  I am sure I did something wrong and it isn’t the recipe itself, but all the same I don’t think I’ll attempt it again.  It did at least look sorta pretty.

ROSEMARY PESTO-CRUSTED LAMB STEAKS

Oh, and even though I misjudged the timing of everything and we had to treat the side dish more like an appetizer, it was yummy and definitely worth making again.

BROCCOLI WITH GARLIC BUTTER AND CASHEWS PINE NUTS

The good news is all this was about a week ago and, despite the discouragements, I kept on trying and am back in the game.  More to come.

egg noodles

Yeah, that’s right, I made my own noodles.  If there ever was a time to say, “Who are you and what have you done with Sarah?” this is it.  They weren’t as pretty or as good as those I ate in China, but they sure weren’t bad.  Easy to make, but not easy enough to make every time I want pasta.  Special occasions only… dinner party anyone?

Click the link below for recipe:

EGG NOODLES

oh shish kabob

When my boyfriend pseudo-cursed on the car ride home, he suddenly had a craving for shish kabobs.  Him having a dinner suggestion is so rare I eagerly jumped on the idea, despite not having a grill.  While there were tons of kabob/skewer recipes to be found, very few called for baking rather than grilling so I finally had to go against my rule and chose something that had lower than a four star rating.  That rule has now been banished because these DIJON CHICKEN KABOBS were fabulous!  Like in previous recipes, reviewers had mentioned it being a little bland so I came prepared and made a HONEY MUSTARD DIPPING SAUCE to go along with.

While the kabobs were good on their own, I have to say this sauce made them delicious!  Even though this meal was over a week ago, my boyfriend still talks about it and has begun to use it as his standard to which he compares my other dinners against.  And what makes it even better is how simple it was!

Click the links below for recipes:

DIJON CHICKEN KABOBS

HONEY MUSTARD DIPPING SAUCE

fountain community garden work day

Continuing with our recent theme of “why not now?” my boyfriend and I finally decided to get serious about volunteer work instead of just talking about it in a “one day” fashion.  All it took was a quick google search and up popped a site called LAworks.com.  It is a really comprehensive and nicely designed site which is an instant draw for me.  We both registered, which is free and only took about two minutes, and signed up for an event taking place the next day.  Still new to the volunteer scene we started off easy and chose a project that was literally getting our hands dirty.  That comes more naturally to us then say, working with at-risk youth or teaching adults how to read.  The site does incorpaorate all the above and much more, so we’ll work our way up to the more challenging tasks.

Anyway, back to the task at hand.  The project we chose is called “Fountain Community Garden Work Day” where they are taking an abondoned lot and turning it into a garden for the community.  When we got there they had us sign up for a specific job and we decided on coating garden beds with water sealant.  Other choices were weed pulling, tree planting, building garden beds, or building a shed.  As is the case with a lot of “easy” volunteer work, the turnout was huge, at least 100 people, and our group got through painting the finished garden beds rather quickly.  The last thing my boyfriend and I wanted was to be standing around, so we took charge of placing the newly built garden beds in place as they were completed.  This was way more fun for us anyway, the perfectionists that we are enjoyed measuring the exact distance between one bed and the next and seeing the plot look more and more like the colored pencil drawn blueprint with every one we set.

By the end of the day I was covered in water sealant, remanants of it remaining on my hands for days afterward, but it was all worth it.  We are happy to have had a positive experience on our first go because now it has encouraged us to keep going, both with LAworks and other organizations too.

If you are in the LA/Hollywood area and want to check out the garden, it is supposed to be finished later this month.

5620 Fountain Avenue
(at St. Andrews)
Los Angeles, CA 90028

UPDATE:  Click here to read about day two at the garden and watch the ABC News segment to learn more about the project.

wine & cheese hike

On the way up to Rocky Peak, overlooking Simi Valley.

After bidding adieu to Charles and Mark, my boyfriend and I continued on with the couchsurfing spirit and took part in an organized event near us.  The event was advertised as “Rocky Peak hike with a little wine and cheese” and it took no more than that for us to get excited and sign up.  Even as I write this I want to start singing My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music.  Being who we are, and not knowing the other people who would be going, not only did we want to get a good wine and a good cheese, but we wanted the two to compliment each other.  After sampling about eight different cheeses at the Whole Foods cheese counter (Whole Foods in Pasadena is my Disneyland) we finally settled on three after a long drawn out process, much to the amusement of the people behind the counter.  Next stop was BevMo to pick out a medium bodied red as suggested by the WF cheese people.  We didn’t want to get a Cabernet, Merlot, or Pinot figuring those would be the common wines and their was likely to be an abundance from other people on the hike.  So after spending forever in the store (now you know what I was referring to when I said we had errands in the last post) we finally settled on a Malbec, honestly we’ve never gone wrong with a Malbec.

When it came time for the hike we chose two out of the three cheeses to bring, a Gruyere and one called Midnight Moon.  In addition to becoming a wine snob I may be well on my way to becoming a cheese snob too.  OMG, if you shop at Whole Foods check and see if your local store has Midnight Moon because holy cow is it good!  (Yes, pun was intended.)  I used to think I knew a thing or two because I could say something classy like “smoked gouda is my favorite cheese.”  Little did I know gouda is really just a small step above your chedder, swiss, etc.  A whole new world has been opened up to me now.  Anyway, people liked our cheese and those who got a chance to try our wine raved about it.  That wasn’t many though because one guy kept coming back for more and drank about half the bottle himself.

The group was actually a mix of both couchsurfers and another organization called the outdoors club.  While everybody was cool, it is interesting how quickly we bonded with the other couchsurfer who attended.  She was raised in the area but currently lives in Guatemala and had great travel stories to tell.  We definitely plan on visting her there, but hopefully we’ll see her again sooner than that when she comes back to LA in April and we may all go on a little domestic trip together.  Until then, stay tuned for more couchsurfing episodes… two guys from Holland may be waiting on our doorstep when we get home from work today!

Mark and Charles from Boone, North Carolina

photo courtesy of dallasnews.com

I know it has taken me a week to finally write about our first couchsurfing.com hosting experience, and I hope you didn’t think it went terribly wrong and I was abducted or something like that.  Quite the opposite actually… it was such a positive experience I wanted to give it the attention it deserves and not just do a quick post which is all I’ve had time for lately.

Mark and Charles, two guys in their early twenties, met at college where thay are both studying exercise science.  Unlike a lot of couchsurfers, they actually were vacationing with an objective.  They came to LA to watch a bike race, apparently one that is quite huge and almost on par with the Tour de France they said.  After flying in to LAX they rented a car and drove to our place, arriving around 10:30pm.  Despite it being a friday night, my boyfriend and I were already curled up in bed at that point and just trying to stay awake until they got there.  We had planned just to let them in, show them the air mattress and then crawl right back into bed.  However, there was an instant energy as soon as they walked through the door and the four of us sat up talking until past midnight, suddenly not tired anymore.

New at being hosts and eager to please, we made them pancakes in the morning before they headed out to get a good viewing spot for the race.  Ok, my boyfriend made them as I watched.   Anyway, they weren’t expecting it and were extremely appreciative of having full stomachs since they were on a tight budget.  My boyfriend and I had planned to maybe meet them at the finish line of the race, but errands got in the way and we couldn’t make it.  After the race was over they called and asked for directions to In-N-Out Burger (where everybody wants to go when they come to LA).  They brought their meals back to the apartment and told us all about the day, constantly saying things like “it couldn’t have been any better!”  They had a great spot at the summit and were able to run along with the riders for a section, then got in their car and drove down to the finish line.  After the race they hung out and were able to meet and talk to their favorite riders.  Mark got the t-shirt he was wearing signed and Charles got a few magazines signed.  They were just so euphoric about their day, we kind of felt like proud parents.

That night they wanted to go out and see a little bit of Pasadena so we pointed them in the right direction at let them do their own thing.  They were looking for live music, which Pasadena has but it is mostly jazz, and Mark doesn’t really like jazz.  His couchsurfing profile even says so.  But we found out the next morning that they did in fact end up listening to some live jazz and really really enjoyed it.

That morning it was time to say goodbye because they were going South to watch the final leg of the race then would head back up to LAX from there.  We didn’t want to let them hit the road with empty stomachs though so we made them some fruit smoothies before they left.  Mark helped with the dishes and Charles deflated the air matress and folded up all the bedding.  After they returned to North Carolina we got an email telling us how day two went and the adventure continued to be amazing for them.  They even got a chance to talk to Lance Armstrong for more than a minute.  Afterward they had some time and hung out in Hollywood, getting at least a bit of sightseeing in.

These guys were so self-sufficient we actually wished we could have spent more time with them.  In no way did they encroach on our space and we were sorry to see them go.  My boyfriend even got some good medical advice for the pain in his elbow he has been having lately, and one of them has a sister in New Zealand who they said would be happy to host us if we wanted.  These guys were just awesome people, the kind of people that couchsurfing attracts.  It was a great experience and I’m sure only the first of many to come.