v.2

I went out to dinner with Theresa last night to Da Andrea. I forgot my camera so no pictures! I really, really wanted to go to Sapore but they lost their lease. I was totally bummed because I was really looking forward to their homestyle Italian cooking and cheap prices. Well, I decided to try Da Andrea’s because I remember that Joy was raving about that place for awhile. I ordered the warm octopus salad with potatoes and olives. The octopus was good but I wish there was more of it. And there were way too many olives. I ate a few of them and there were still at least a close dozen left on my plate. There must have been a special on olives. Theresa ordered the grilled calamari salad and hers was really good. I wish I ordered that one! It had a nice amount of calamari and a nice salad with it. For entreé I ordered homemade cavatelli with shrimp and salmon in a light pesto sauce. There was a nice amount of shrimp in there and frankly, I almost forgot there was salmon in there. It was little pieces. I don’t know what possessed me to get pesto sauce since I’m not entirely a big fan of it but I wanted to try something different. Theresa got the artichoke ravioli and she said it was good but nothing fantastic. Of course I was stuffed because of the bread basket and I’m such a bread whore that I ate all the focaccia. And I was a little buzzed from one glass of red wine!! That was good! All in all I was not terribly impressed with the food. I wonder if it’s because I expected more since Joy raved about it so much. The food was good, wasn’t fantastic and it’s likely I won’t be craving that place. Oh well. It was good to see Theresa and catch up with her.

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For the holidays, I did a lot of pretzel related treats. I made a lot of chocolate covered pretzels for Yves’ co-workers, the ‘band’ and the neighbors. I made paper snowflakes out of origami paper to cover up the containers. I wasn’t really thrilled with them so only did them with Yves’ co-workers. For the tops, I printed out vintage Christmas ads.

I also made a butterscotch crumb apple pie. I was curious about how butterscotchy the crumbs were going to taste. At first, I didn’t really taste it. It’s subtle and I suppose it’s better than it being overpowering.

I made more pretzel treats for Liz and her family and this time included the candy cane kisses because I know she’s a fan of peppermint and chocolate, just like I am. Plus I forgot how to make peppermint bark.

And I made some ice cream with the maker Yves got me for Christmas! I only made half the recipe because the full recipe sounded like too much for just us. Yves was very good about making ice for a couple of days because you need 8-10 lbs. We found rock salt at the supermarket (the same as the sidewalk rock salt when it snows). It wasn’t as hard or complicated as I thought!

This is what it looks like after churning for 40 minutes. It’s supposed to stop automatcally but because I didn’t use the full recipe, I stopped it myself. It didn’t taste bad! A little too sweet for our tastes tho but now I can revise it for the next batch. I originally put more ice and rock salt around it to harden the ice cream but Yves said why not put it in the freezer? So I did! The cover is a pain tho because it doesn’t snap closed.

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Tuesday night I met up with the members of the band and had dinner at Pearl Oyster bar. Me and Tammy tried to go there in July but we did not want to deal with the hour wait. We made sure it wasn’t going to happen again so we tried to meet up early, between 5:30 and 6. I guess it’s easier to get in during the winter as there were only a few other people waiting to get in when I got there around 5;45. Well, once everyone showed up, the eating began!! Me, Joy and Peter shared a small order of steamers (no picture because it’s too blurry.) Pete and I also each got the clam chowder while Tammy got a ceasar salad. Needless to say I polished off my soup and also helped Tammy with her salad (she asked for help and as a good friend, had to help her!) Joy got the lobster. The rest of us got the infamous lobster roll. It was delicious!! Again Tammy needed help with hers and how can I, as a good friend, let her down? And how can I let good lobster go to waste? Well, I was stuffed by the end of dinner and Pete wasn’t surprised as he quite clearly pointed out everything I ate that night. Thanks Pete! (LOL, love ya!) Here are some pics:

Chowda!

Mama to be and her caesar.

Joy and her lobster

The one, the only Lobster roll!

Another satisfied Pearl customer!

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Last night I met up with Pete and Joy and had dinner at BLT Burger. I forgot the camera so no photo evidence of the gluttony. I was anxious to try the American Kobe burger (too cheap to try the Japanese version) and sadly was not impressed. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised since the price was pretty reasonable (that was one of the reasons I decided to try it) but I figured it would just be a smaller patty. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t terrible but just not what I thought it would be. I also got sweet potato fries (I’m into sweet potatoes now!) And was pressured into getting a milkshake. 😉 I got a black and white and usually don’t get something so heavy during dinner but it was a delicious treat. Joy got the lamb burger, which I am totally getting next time, and onion rings that were good. Pete got the classic burger and regular fries and they were good too. I was quite stuffed so did not have room for the Sour Cream Apple Pie I spied on my way to the table.

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Earlier this month I got another wooden shelf for Sienna’s room to get all the stuff off of her changing table. She’s getting taller and with her constant kicking, she’s kicking all the stuff off her table! Yves got a picture of me painting it.

And here it is up!

A close up detail:

And I don’t know if I ever showed the smaller shelf I painted:

Yves asked me to make something to hold Sienna’s mittens and hats to put by the door for the wintertime.

And he had to help me put the eyelet in since I couldn’t figure it out no matter how hard I banged on the hammer! (Turns out I was just doing it wrong.)

Here’s the one I made for Yves’ hats and gloves. And maybe I’ll put my one hat in there. I think the 2nd girl from the left looks like Britney Spears. LOL

And although this isn’t really crafty, more resourceful or gluttonous, depending on how you look at it! LOL. I made cranberry bars from the leftover sauce from Thanksgiving and potato/turnip pancakes also from the leftovers. They both turned out yummy!! I’m on a roll! And I will literally be rolling if I don’t stop this eating!

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We had my parents over for Thanksgiving yesterday. We don’t really do a whole big deal but I wanted turkey so we ordered it from our favorite deli. They sell individual dinners with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, mixed vegetables and cranberry sauce. It was all very good although I wouldn’t have minded more turkey and less of the mashed stuff. I did like the turnips and was pleasantly surprised with the vegetables. I was afraid it was going to be peas and carrots.

(there was more turkey in here but it was already eaten!)

In the making

YUM!

I made pumpkin pie for the first time and it was so easy and delicious! I also made whip cream and that was also so easy and delicious! No reason to ever buy cool whip or readi-whip again!

Thanksgiving Table 2007 from Lisa on Vimeo.

For some reason, Sienna is fascinated by the stereo/dvd player/Tivo and is always going over there. I cleaned off the dust and pushed back the playstation games so we have no worries when she heads over that way. The units are covered with the glass door. Grandma M bought this pretty dress for Sienna.

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Wednesday night was the mixer and {gasp} I did not have a mix! I do plan to make one for November and put it online. Which I actually prefer to do now so I don’t have to use cds and waste paper! The majority of us met up for dinner at Mama’s. It was good! I had the grilled salmon, roasted carrots and beets (sliced thin so they were chip like YUM!) and bok choy. I wasn’t crazy about the bok choy because it was regular bok choy and baby bok choy is so much more tastier. Practically everyone else got the fried chicken and they gave you like 3 huge pieces! The bar we went to was The Back Room. It has a secret entrance and their decor is bordello like and they give you mixed drinks in tea cups and beer in mason jars. It was cute. I was impressed with the bathroom! Three stalls! It was really nice to catch up with everyone

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Well, I don’t have any Ryan Adams shirts to drape Sienna in so this ticket will have to do. I went with Joy to the show last night. First we met up at Mandoo, a yummy Korean dumpling place. The kimchi dumplings were fantastic!! We were pigs, besides the kimchi dumplings, we also got the pork and vegatable mandoos and bibimbob. And I was burping it up all night during the show but Joy didn’t smell it. HA.

Out of the many times I’ve seen Ryan, I have to say this isn’t one of my favorites. True that he played for close to 3 hours with a 20 minute break in between and no opener but it was too mellow for me. There was energy but not the energy I was looking for in a show. He went from one song into another and didn’t have any banter in between. He jammed but I just wasn’t feeling it. I was a little disappointed. I was waiting for him to rock out! Here is the set list as I got it from Music Slut

[Set 1] Peaceful Valley. Blue Hotel. Mockingbird. Beautiful Sorta. The Rescue Blues. The Sun Also Sets. When The Stars Go Blue. Goodnight Rose. Cold Roses. Freeway To The Canyon. Off Broadway. Please Do Not Let Me Go. [Set 2] Bartering Lines. A Kiss Before I Go. The End. Dear John. Nightbirds. Wild Flowers. Shakedown On 9th Street. Everybody Knows. Why Do They Leave. Two. Halloween Head. Goodnight Hollywood Blvd. I See Monsters. [Encore] Let It Ride. Down In A Hole. What Sin Replaces Love.

Me and Joy left during the last song of the encore. My feet hurt!

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