Julia.

Image provided by:  www.operationbonappetit.org

I serve tables at the engaging LA GRANDE ORANGE CAFE of Pasadena.  The owner of the restaurant is married to an artist/art collector.  One of my favorite pieces from our collection is the sweet print of Julia Child and her husband as seen below.

Julia Child is a local hero because she grew up in Pasadena, California. I admit that until two weeks ago, I only knew of Julia from her cooking shows.  Curiosity finally got the best of me and and I turned to the google machine for answers.  Julia is positively fascinating!  She led an incredibly interesting life, and like her cooking it was full of flava'. 

Some of my favorite Julia tidbits:

• Julia was six feet, two inches (Denied from U.S. Navy because she was too tall!)
  
• Earned a B.A. degree in History from Smith College
  
• Joined the Secret Intelligence Division after the bombing of Pearl Harbor as a researcher. 
  
• Child's primary French dining experience consisting of; oysters and Sole was described as a "culinary revelation."  The meal forever changed Julia and the course of her life.
• Shaken by life altering food, she attended culinary school and brought French cooking methods to the United States

For more Julia Child snippets click {here.}  I hope you enjoyed learning about this Pasadena trail blazer.  I feel a strange kinship with Julia because I have recently had a culinary awakening myself.  No longer am I satisfied by the bland and tasteless.  My culinary credo is to create food and recipes that delight and inspire even those who aren't vegetarian/pescatarian.  I want them to want to eat my food as eagerly as a they would a juicy steak.

A Muse for the Ages.

WHEN A BEGGAR BEHOLDS YOU...

Anonymous (c. 324 A.D.) Translated by Gertrude L. Joerissen

When the breeze inflates your two robes of silk

you look like a Goddess enveloped in clouds.

When you pass, the flowers of the mulberry tree

drink in your perfume.  When you carry the lilacs

that you have gathered, they tremble with joy.

Bands of gold encircle you ankles, stones of blue 

gleam in your girdle.  A bird of jade has made its 

nest in your hair.  The roses of your cheeks mirror

themselves in the great pearls of your collar.

When you look at me I see the river Yuen flowing.

When you speak to me I hear the music of the 

wind among the pines of my own country.

When a horseman meets yo at dusk he thinks 

it is already dawn, adn brutally he brings his 

horse to a standstill.

...When a beggar beholds you,

he forgets his hunger.

*************************************************************

The muse for this ancient poem must have been exquisite in the eyes of her suitor.  I wonder what she looked like.  I wonder if they loved each other for all time.

Snuggle Bunnie, You're The One.

Friday day I worked like a dog, and came home completely ravenous and exhausted. To my delight, I found a warm dinner made by none other than one Snuggle Bunnie.  It was warm deliciousness, and I was genuinely grateful for the kind gesture.

The hus took things up a notch further by taking me out for ice cream.  I had Cold Stone's 'Mud Pie.' Which is mysteriously fabulous!  I am completely enamored with coffee ice cream.  I don't drink coffee, but I adore it in dessert form-of any variety.

Later, Bryan went completely crazy and gave me a back rub.  {He hates doing that-so this was a huge deal.}  I bragged to all my friends at work about what a great man I have.  All the ladies swooned.  I really did entrap a great fella.  But, I feel like women are easy to please.  We don't want diamonds and helicopter rides over Napa Valley.  All we really desire is a sweet gesture now and again, and perhaps a kind word or two.  It's truly the little things that "thrill and delight me" to quote the infamous Ella and Louis.  What has your man done for you lately? Pray, do tell.

ALL MY CHILDREN.

Wednesday evening we gathered up the

 children of the Hollywood Ward.

Pizza was consumed.

Soda Pop was guzzled.

Margaret taught us how to make our own soap.

I learned something new.  

Above is my finished product.

I loved all the pretty, different molds. 

These little faces completely warm my heart.

I look forward to primary each week!

Wabi-sabi.

Bryan's previous design gig was working as a concrete artisan for Gore Design Co. Best known for their Erosion Sink, a mimic of water's natural carving through rock.  {As seen on the left.}

In Bryan's first few weeks of apprenticeship, he learned the new methods of designing and creating concrete. 

One afternoon Bryan was creating a counter top, when air pockets formed a distinct design on the surface.  Bryan asked his boss, Brandon if he should try to sand the surface smooth. Brandon explained that the beauty of their pieces lie within the imperfections, or Wabi-sabi.  No two pieces will ever be the same because of those precious imperfections.  That night Bryan came home with a small leaflet-of-a-book containing the ideology of Wabi-sabi.

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese concept of accepting an aesthetic in an imperfect, transience state.  The beauty behind the aesthetic is often compared with being incomplete or impermanent. Wabi-sabi beauty is defined as rugged, asymmetrical, modesty, roughness or asperity.  

Isn't that absolutely beautiful?  I am reminded of my art history days-learning of handsomely commissioned portraits that were painted with the subjects slightly askew.  A button missing, a tiny tear in a fine silk gown, a wisp of hair mismanaged.  These planned "imperfections" were to give the impression of a natural state of being to the onlooker. Only, that is how life truly exists in nature. We have frizzy hair, our stomachs aren't naturally washboard flat, relationships aren't perpetual truffles and sweetly scented bouquets.  

Life is imperfect.  I am imperfect.  You are imperfect.  {All together now.} We are imperfect. And that is the way we were designed. I have had a few weak moments this week where I was extremely perturbed by my own imperfections.  I had to stop and remind myself not to curse my own air pockets.  Rather to choose to see them in a new light; the cathartic release and relief of Wabi-sabi.   Celebrate this ideal within your own existence.

Procrastination Station.

Foreward: I give all creative credit to the Glendale visual team at Anthropologie.

{A very bright idea ladies!}

Yesterday I made a family calendar composed entirely of post-its. Bunnie and I are huge post-it advocates, and this just makes sense for our ever changing schedules. I can't wait to buy more post-its for special day color coding. AmaZing....with a capital Zing!

Pea Soup.

Obsessed with my new cook book, 

I determined to make pea soup yesterday.

All was well until I accidentally 

brushed the pulse button whilst the top was off.

.... and I scalded my hand on boiling, hot, pea soup.

Yes, I had hot rollers in.  

After the great pea burn, 

they remained in for over three hours.

The Pea Soup was delicious though!

Serving Oddities 2nd Edition.

Friday afternoon one of the guests left the following at my table.:

I'm curious about:

1. What does Tim Peyton look like?
   
2. How old is Tim Peyton?
   
3. Does Tim Peyton want to be a baseball player or a fire fighter when he grows up?
   

I'm fairly certain I met Tim Peyton's father.  He seemed like a nice man.

**Whiskery nose compliments chez Soba Sobes.

Breakfast to Live For.

Melissa gave her "A Time to Love" pancakes a thumb up.  P.S.  Don't you love her new hair cut?

An avid and enthusiastic consumer of food, I was quite curious about THE GRIDDLE'S mythical pancakes.  Every local yocal knows about THE GRIDDLE.  Where have I been?  Phoenix apparently.

The lovely Cindee and I boasting our culinary delights.

Mr. Yazzie and I both concur that we had a lovely weekend.  Food was part and parcel of our punctuated happiness.  This weekend we tried two new places that should be placed on your To Dine List:

1. Vegan Express of Hollywood (click for information)
   
2. The Griddle of West Hollywood 

Our menu favorites for Vegan Express includes; the faux chicken wrap, the faux chicken sandwich (positively uncanny chicken-like taste!) great with a side of roasted potatoes.  

The Griddle was a hoot.  I usually avoid West Hollywood like the bloody Bubonic Plague due to the fact that parking is absurdly expensive.  However, THE GRIDDLE  has their very own parking lot!!! That alone is enough to make me a customer for life.

Melissa, Cindee and I met at the eatery around 10:15am on Saturday. The joint was already jumping with a long line waiting out the front door. We waited approximately twenty minutes, which wasn't bad at all.  I called ahead in attempt to make reservations, they only do so for parties of six and above.  So, the earlier you go the better.  After we left, the line was like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.

THE GRIDDLE is best known for their Uncle Buck sized, larger than life pancakes.  The three of us ladies opted for the short stack, which were still obscenely humongous.   All three of us thoroughly enjoyed our selections if you care to cheat off of our menus.

• Ashley:  "Scotch on the Rocks":  Pecans, oats, butterscotch chip filled pancakes topped with whipped cream and powdered sugar.  (Absolutely heavenly)
  
• Cindee:  "Banana Nana":  Brown sugar baked bananas inside buttermilk pancakes
  
• Melissa:  "A Time To Love": Streusel, butterscotch chips and caramel filled pancakes topped with whipped cream and powdered sugar

I feel completely confident that you would enjoy everything I consumed this weekend!  Where's your favorite place to grab a bite? Do you live for for brunch, lunch or dinner?  Who do you bring with you?