Saturday, June 30, 2012

6/29/12 - Apricot pie!

Got up and went to yoga class. Man, I love yoga, but I don't think they have AC at The Raven. It was sweaty up in there. And the guy next to me kind of smelled like cat food. Sometimes we have to take the good with the bad, I suppose.

The rest of the day was pretty much about making pie (and ice cream!). The Rebeccas gave me a wealth of apricots, and I've had them ripening in a paper bag on the counter top for a couple of day, but this was the day they were to meet their destiny. First I made the pastry - King Arthur Flour's gluten-free pie crust. While that was chilling in the fridge, I prepped the apricots. My feeling about fruit pies is that I want them to taste like and feel like the actual fruit, not sugar and cornstarch. So I used The Joy of Baking's apricot tart recipe as a guide for the filling, only I used even less sugar. I halved about 15 apricots, sprinkled them with salt, and dusted them with a handful of brown sugar.


The pastry for the pie sure does have to chill for a long time...and I have more apricots...well, the only thing for it is to make some apricot ice cream too. It's kind of absurdly easy. You cut up apricots and cook them in a little water for like 2 minutes (I added half a vanilla bean), then you add sugar, puree the whole shebang, add cream, and put it in the ice cream maker. I used pastry studio's recipe (adapted from David Leibovitz) as a guideline, but instead of a bunch of white sugar, I added a dash of brown sugar and a squirt or 2 of agave syrup. I'm not so much into agave syrup as I am out of regular sugar, but I wanted the sweetness of the apricots to shine through on its own anyhow.

What a gorgeous color!
Mmm...creamy apricot-y goodness...

So the dough was finally ready to work (after a whole hour!), and it behaved pretty well considering its gluten-free-ness. I assembled a pretty nice-lookin' pie if I do say so myself.


Unfortunately, it wasn't time to eat it yet! Alex and I had dinner plans. We ate at Red Hill in Echo Park, which was delish! They have a really interesting eclectic menu - just my jam. We shared a kale salad. I had exquisite blob of burrata with roasted asparagus and beet green pesto, and I scraped the topping off some of Alex's flatbread. There was Spanish chorizo, apple, blue cheese, and some kind of greens involved. Then I watched Alex eat papardelle with pulled pork ragu with some serious gluten envy. I was actually still hungry, so I ordered the venison meatballs with fennel confit and oranges. They were outstanding; spicy and just a little fatty, with the citrus brighten it up. I assumed Alex didn't eat any because he was full, but it turned out he was so distracted talking about the philosophical points of the film he and Jonathan are developing that he just forgot...until I had already eaten it all. Whoops.

We intended to go see the Silverlake Chorus, but we ended up getting in a rather serious discussion that caused us to miss the whole thing. We really should have had pie, but we were (Alex was) too full. It'll keep till morning.  Just before going to sleep, I came across my next culinary project: plum preserves!




Friday, June 29, 2012

6/28/12 - A Thursday

I've been sleeping in a bit too much, I've noticed. I've got to quit doing that. It kills my productivity, or at least it decreases the level of structure in my life.  Anyway, I got up and had some tea. Alex did the dishes from the night before, bless him. I wrote a blog entry, and did all the other silly little things I do on the internet. I went to see Jessie and Greyson, picking lunch up on the way. I was winging it, but I just had a craving for burgers, so I settled on The Habit. I must say, it really hit the spot. I was surprised how good it was considering the low cost, and vice versa. Jess, despite our best efforts, didn't get to eat her's until it was stone cold, between the baby's demands to be fed, and testing her blood sugar. Ah, the joys of motherhood. Still, she seems to be handling it like a champ, even now that Drew's back to work. And that baby is cuuuuuute! He was much more alert this time, looking around wide-eyed at everything. I hung out for a while, which was great. Jess and I get so little one-on-one time. Greyson was surprisingly obliging on that count!

I decided I might as well go to yoga class, after which I went home and ate...and ate...and ate some more. All that harmonious energy flow made me hungry! I had a fantastic salad with mini heirloom tomatoes, wild rice, nectarine, and avocado. Pretty tasty, but the piggie in my tummy was still hungry. So I had the leftover beans from the night before with some more wild rice. You'd think I'd be full by then, but I had a chocolate chip peanut Larabar for good measure. And I'm such a fat-ass, that the whole time I was eating, I was sitting at the computer looking up recipes for gluten-free cherry clafoutis. Which is going to be amazing, by the way.   Apparently, the traditional way to make it is to leave the pits in, and I must say I'm quite tempted to go that route, if only to save the labor of pitting the cherries. Still, the idea of having to spit out pits from a baked dessert doesn't really appeal to me. Still mulling it over. That, and the apricot pie. I need to find some people to feed this to!

The nice thing about having two shows in a week is that you already have your gear packed up for the second one. So I was able to just put on a dress, and take off to our show at Taix. Fortunately, the scheduling snafu that threatened to have six bands showing up with only 3 time-slots, seems to have been resolved. I got there a bit early to hang out with Helene and Franco, who I hadn't seen in way too long. It was lovely chatting with them. All chatting was halted by a rockin' set from Blackwater Jukebox. Loved it! It was a mix of bluegrass, rock, and the band from the cantina on Tatooine, delivered with boatloads of charm from singer, Geordie McElroy. There was a bassoon in the band, y'all! Awesome.



We set up as quickly as possible to try and maintain the energy flow. It went pretty well. We lost a few people, which I guess is to be expected when it's after midnight on a weekday. But a decent crowd remained, and we were pretty well received. We're getting much tighter. That much I can say for sure. Now if I could just sell some t-shirts...


Thursday, June 28, 2012

6/27/12 - Taco domination

I woke up later than I meant to. Shocker. I made breakfast for Alex and myself using pretty much all 4 things in his refrigerator. Grating baby potatoes was sort of a hassle, but the resulting mess of crispy potato, aged gouda, rosemary, and whole grain mustard was close to divine. Thus fortified, I took off to take care of my ailing instrument. I figured I'd take the old girl into The Fretted Frog and get her restrung. No big deal. Luckily I checked their website because damned if they aren't closed from June 26th to July 9th! Curses! On the flip side, I guess that took an errand off my plate. Great, now I have more time to spend on the computer. Puke. Actually, I did some useful things online yesterday, for a change. Boring but important stuff like linking the band's website with our Twitter page and messing with our widgets. Heck, while I'm at it, I might as well add a link the website here: http://www.thepictureandtheframe.com

I wrote a couple of Yelp reviews. They're here in if you're interested: http://www.rosehastime.yelp.com

I've recently come into a wealth of apricots, courtesy of Rebeccas Asher and Lowman, so I browsed around for some delicious things to do with them. I think I may have found some good options. I was sort of hoping to avoid having to make pie crust, but I might just suck it up. I'll let you know what I settle on.

I also came across an event that looks really fun. The Skirball Center is having an event on July 13th called Into the Night: Playtime. Sea Wolf and Geographer are playing, plus a "once-a-year chance to roam the campus after dark, also enjoy a museum-wide scavenger hunt, non-kiddie crafts with Julianna Parr of CraftNight at Akbar, balloon art and strolling puppets, screenings of famed director Jacques Tati’s comedic masterwork Play Time, card and board games—including over-sized Jenga and checkers!— outdoor hula hooping, experimental arcade games from UCLA’s Game Lab, plus a cash bar featuring specialty cocktails."



Doesn't that sound like fun?

I decided to forego the Barnsdall Park farmer's market, since I already had a wealth of stone fruit, so I fooled around on the bass and played a little guitar until it was time to go to yoga class. I love Yoga at The Raven. It's such a nice space, and Tony is the nicest guy. I walked to Trader Joe's, and got some essentials (and some non-essentials), and made my way home.

Now, I'm a pretty good cook, if I do say so myself, but sometimes I really knock it out of the park, and last night was one of those times. I had a taste for sauerkraut and tacos...and a few odds and ends in the fridge that needed using. So I set about it. It took about an hour, but I made the most delicious tacos in recent memory.

Blue corn tortillas, wild rice, spicy canellini beans, homemade sauteed sauerkraut with cumin seeds, salsa with heirloom tomato and shredded carrot, topped with avocado, four pepper goat cheese, and roasted pepitas. Bam. This is why Alex loves me.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

6/26/12 - Nothing like a ripe stone fruit

An uneventful morning, other than my absolutely delicious breakfast of toast with super-ripe plum gooped all over it. I'm telling you, there is nothing like fresh ripe stone fruit. It's like butter in silk. It was so good, I had three pieces. Just squeezed those sweet plum innards all over. Mmm!

My big project for the day was to silk-screen some t-shirts so we could have some merch to sell at the show. Turned out to be a little less simple than I originally planned (but isn't that always the way?). I did a test print, which revealed some areas on the screen were in need of repair. So I touched it up with Mod Podge, and tried another test. That worked out pretty well. Keep in mind, in between this test-printing, there's a lot of rinsing and waiting for things to dry. During one of these waiting periods, I made myself a delicious salad with baby romaine, nectarine, and a homemade ginger soy dressing with a dash of sriracha.

Finally, I was ready to print. I used grocery store circulars for the only thing they're good for: protecting my floor from ink. I did come across this little gem.


The printing went...okay. I knew I had some supplies already, like the ink I had cleverly hidden from myself. Found that eventually. I guess I should really go through my closets. I also have a really sweet squeegee, made specifically for this application, except that it's too big for this screen's frame. Dang! So I found a little plastic brayer under the kitchen sink, the condition of which suggests I last used it to scrape hardened epoxy off gravel. Less than ideal. But what was I going to do, go out and buy something? It worked well enough, although the ink density was a bit variable in the prints. This could also be my fault. I'm told the right pressure is everything. The result is actually kind of cool, and gives the shirts a vintage look. Each one is totally unique!


The unique little bastards weren't done yet though. Closer inspection of the ink jar revealed that it needed to be heat set for three to five minutes on each side, which if you ask me, is just unreasonable. Of course, no one asked me, so I spent the next 45 minutes or so sweating over my ironing board, watching the minutes tick by slowly on the clock on my stove. This put me behind a bit, so I was running a teensy bit late to the show. Who even shows up to a rock show at 8? I'll give you a hint. Pretty much no one. Fortunately, as I was tuning my bass, one of the brand new strings I just put on it broke (note heavy sarcasm). There was nothing for it, but to go home and get the other one. It stressed me out for a minute, but it did give people the chance to arrive, so we didn't have to play to an empty room. I don't mind telling you, we rocked it. Even though Rickett broke a string on his guitar during the set (yes, really), things went off really well. We stuck around to listen to the Sunset Drifters, who were stellar as always, with their country songs about urban life. Ray Argyle and his other band impressed as well, although the bass player isn't as good looking and charming as the bass player in Ray's other band, Sunken Ships.

That's me, by the way. The good looking charming one. I kid, of course.

I made it through Rob Melancon's set, but by that point my old lady-ness (actually Alex's) was setting in. I regret that I missed Ted Z and the Wranglers, but sometimes it's just too darn late, ya know?

Overall, I'd say the evening was a success. We made a new fan, and we even sold a t-shirt!

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

6/25/12

The day started out a little rocky. I was supposed to be at Becky's in Redondo Beach at 10, but I woke up at 9:12, not sure why my alarm didn't go off at 8 like it was supposed to. I think I made pretty good time, all things considered. We made it to the Hermosa Beach pier just in time for the Kings rally. It was kind of surreal: a pep rally for a hockey team...at the beach. I guess most of the Kings' players live down there, so the Hermosa Beach chamber of commerce arranged an opportunity to show off the Stanley Cup. It was short and sweet, and they talked more about the chamber of commerce than hockey, but the the cup was there in all its glory, held aloft by a very nice-looking Canadian.


The rally broke up, and they conveyed the cup in a convertible right up the Strand. That's where we got the best look.


It's so shiny!

Having beheld the cup, we headed to Uncle Bill's Pancake House in Manhattan Beach. I wasn't all that impressed with the menu, but the avocado was ripe and buttery and the hash browns were to die for. They were nice and crispy, and tasted like they might have been fried in coconut oil. They were so good, I didn't even mind that my poached eggs were pretty much hard-boiled.

Now Becky knows pretty much everyone in the South Bay, so as we browsed around after breakfast, she chatted with people about the cup, and found out that her friend had actually gotten her picture with it the night before at a local club. This seemed to awaken a desire in Becky, a desire for her own cup photo. And thus began our quest: the Quest for the Stanley Cup. We went back to Becky's to get the bikes, and headed back up the Strand. We stopped again in Hermosa, where we went into Silvio's (where Becky knows everyone), chatted about the cup, and traded pictures and gossip. Then we got frozen yogurt. Yeeaahhhhh.

We headed up to a little bar called The North End (where The Cup made an appearance the night of the final victory). We peeked in, and had decided we wouldn't stay when a voice called, "Becky!" As I said, she knows everyone in the South Bay. So we stayed for a bit and had a drink with her pal, Maria. While we were sitting there, an Australian gentleman (and I use the term loosely) came up and started chatting us up. He said, "First of all, you're all stunning, but I have to ask you: what's up with the fedora? My great-grandmother said never to trust a woman in a fedora." He said a lot of other things. He was pretty drunk, I think. Typical. It turned out to be a fortuitous meeting, however, because his country club was hosting The Cup the following night, and when he mentioned that, Becky decided to forgive his impertinent remarks about women in fedoras. Maria got a text saying The Cup was at Sharkeez in Manhattan Beach. This is when the chase really heated up. We biked to Manhattan Beach, and were walking up to the bar, only to realize it was Sharks Cove, not Sharkeez, so we got back on the bikes and headed further up the Strand to North Manhattan Beach. We walked into Sharkeez, and though it was immediately obvious that The Cup was not in residence, we asked the bartender about it. He explained that it had been in the Sharkeez in Hermosa at 11 am...when we were right there for the rally...Doh! So much for that. Luckily Becks had Aussie country club guy in her back pocket. Disappointed in our quest for The Cup, but spirits intact, we headed back to Becky's.

Mildly sunburned on my left side, and legs sore from biking, I arrived home to K-town. Alex and I went out for sushi. It was so good, and so much better than our last sushi outing (which Alex says was comically bad. I say it's only funny because we didn't get sick). Back at my place, we planned on watching a movie, but we didn't even manage to pick one out before we fell asleep. Party animals.


6/24/12

I woke up a little too late to go to the Farmer's Market, but I guess I didn't really need anything anyway. I had some breakfast and wrote my blog for Saturday, then I went to band practice at noon. We had a nice low-key session. We worked on a new song, which I'm very excited about! After practice I was all jazzed to do something fun, since I spent Saturday working, but it seemed like everyone I talked to was too hung over to do anything. No fair! I didn't even get to be part of the drunkenness, but I suffer just the same. I missed yoga for the day so I paced around like an angry panther for a few minutes fuming about how here it was, a gorgeous day, and I couldn't even enjoy it because everyone I know was nursing a hangover. Then I got over it. There was, of course, plenty to do. It was just all stuff I've been putting off because it's not fun. But now the slipcover has been put back on my couch, my duvet cover is back on the duvet, and my bass has lovely new flat-wound strings on it. It was around this time that Alex texted me, inquiring if I might like to take a walk around the reservoir (apparently after a miraculous recovery). We had a nice walk, after which we lay on a blanket in the Silverlake Meadow and drank wine out of plastic cups as the sun went down.






Sunday, June 24, 2012

6/23/12

I worked again. Same movie: Lucky Stiff. This time we shot at the Doheny Mansion near USC. It took me a breathtakingly short time to get there. It's a pretty sweet house. Apparently nuns live upstairs.

That's my pal, Matt Brewer, in the foreground, also taking a picture with his phone.

We were doing a Monte Carlo casino scene, mid-70s. It was a lot of work, but it was fun to see all the costumes. I would have worn a fair few of the ladies' dresses myself. 

Trouble is, when you have an 11:00 call, that means you don't get out until 11 pm or so. So my Saturday plans to go play volleyball at the beach, then go celebrate my friend Nick's 30th birthday were kind of dashed. But a girl has to make a living, I suppose. On my way home around 11:30, I considered trying to make it out, but I realized it was a lost cause. I am terribly old, after all.



Saturday, June 23, 2012

6/22/12

This one isn't going to rank high in the ranks of productive days off, but it wasn't such a bad day. I woke up not very early, had a hurried cup of tea, and went off to Tony's yoga class at The Raven. What a nice guy, and a great yoga teacher. After an hour and a half of that, I thought I was going to go for a jog with Alex, but  it turns out my thigh muscles had had enough for 1 day. After the first block or so, they started seizing up, as if to say, "uh uh." So I walked a little ways through Alex's pleasant Los Feliz neighborhood, and let him catch me on the way back. We rewarded ourselves with lunch at Gingergrass. I was really jonesing for a cold noodle bowl. I ended getting the green papaya salad with a side of cold noodles. Alex got a chilled carrot ginger soup that tasted like liquid pumpkin pie. Yum.

Back at Alex's, he got some disappointing news, so I hung around for a bit trying to cheer him up. I let him languish for a few minutes while I plinked away at the piano, using my rudimentary knowledge of that instrument to try and figure out how to play my new song. I think I might need some help. You know, from a legit piano player. We considered a few activities for the evening: a free concert at Levitt Pavilion in Pasadena, a wine-tasting in Barnsdall Park. We ultimately decided that we'd just make dinner at my place and watch a movie. Lest you think we're terribly dull, remember I had to work in the morning.

I gave myself a couple hours at home to play my Hofner and blog...and dick about on Facebook, before Alex came over. I read an interesting article on Yahoo about a newly discovered cache of fossils in Australia, full of giant wombats! http://news.yahoo.com/australians-huge-mega-wombat-graveyard-090046659.html
Speaking of edifying things I learned yesterday, there was a segment on NPR's The World about a new West African dance craze called Azonto. It's a dance where you kind of act out your profession while doing a little chicken strut with your feet. Obviously, Alex and I had to try our own Azontos. It turns out it's pretty hard to set up directors' chairs while dancing. http://www.theworld.org/2012/06/azonto-dance-ghana/

When Alex arrived, I put the bass down, and made us some delicious martinis with a splash of sage vodka - his with a cornichon, mine with a twist. For dinner we had a tomato avocado salad and a spicy black bean hash served over white grits with cilantro pesto and goat cheese. I took some lovely pictures of these things which I've just discovered my phone didn't save. It's got all the data about the pictures: date, time, location - but no image. I hate it when technology doesn't work. Anyway, after dinner we watched "Gattaca," which I really enjoyed. It's a good sci-fi movie. Thus fortified, I went to bed.

Friday, June 22, 2012

6/21/12

I woke up late. No big deal. It's not like I really had anywhere to be. I had ice cream for lunch. I played music for a while. I'm really digging my new Beatle bass. Best birthday present ever! The flat wound strings I ordered for it came. I stared at them for a little while, contemplated putting them on, but then decided against doing that just now. Then I thought about taking it into the Fretted Frog to have the nice guy there string it for me. But then I realized that costs money, and I can't really afford that sort of laziness at the moment. I made myself some Throat Coat and got out the guitar. I messed around with the new songs I'm writing, wished I was a better guitar player, then had a snack. Decided over my Larabar that the one song really needs piano.

When my sister was visiting a few weeks back, we went to a screen printing class and I made a pretty cool design to put on t-shirts for the band. The only problem is the little guy on the t-shirt looked like he had a Hitler mustache. So I fixed that with some Mod Podge. At least I hope I fixed it. I haven't done a test print yet. I washed dishes. I wasted some time on Facebook. Then I went to yoga class. It was pretty cool, except for when I got attacked by a spider. Ok, I didn't really get attacked by a spider. A spider came rather too near me for my liking, I brushed it away, then spent the rest of the class feeling uneasy about it whereabouts.

I came home and ate dinner: heirloom tomatoes and avocado over pea sprouts and leftover "wild cheese goat rice," as Jacob called it. I felt so mellow after my yoga class that it was kind of hard to convince myself that I really did have to go play a show, but somehow I pulled it together to make myself beautiful and get out the door. The show was a lot of fun. It was last minute, but there was a good group of Eastside characters in attendance. The Beatle bass performed admirably. We played our set, had a drink, and then I boogied before I had to sit through any more of the last act. Sorry girl, I wanted to like you, but it's after midnight and I got yoga in the morning.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

6/20/12

Two days in, and I'm already messing things up. I worked yesterday, so I suppose technically it was not funemployment. It was a pretty pleasant day though. We shot in the courtyard at Pasadena City Hall, gussied up like a European plaza where one might enjoy a glass of wine in a cafe and sing about dogs...well the characters were singing about dogs anyhow. While I did get rather sick of the song, not being a huge fan of the musical genre in the first place, the weather was lovely and the people agreeable.



The best part of the day came when I left work (naturally), and went to Alex's where he cooked me dinner and basically forced me to watch Casablanca. Turns out I'm very glad he did. I know it's crazy that I had never seen it before last night, but you know a lot of so-called classics feel very dated when you watch them now. Not so with Casablanca. It feels very modern in certain ways. The romance is engaging, and it's interesting to think that this WWII film was made in 1941when the US had just gotten involved in the war. It must have made it that much more effective for contemporary audiences. Now I understand why that film and it's stars are so iconic. Late to the party, I know. Here's lookin' at you, kid.



Tuesday, June 19, 2012

6/19/12

Today I woke up not very early. I wanted to eat breakfast, but Alex is a dude and had nothing in the fridge but potatoes and a few things that were way past their expiration date. We walked to Trader Joe's and bought a few things, which I then whipped up into a delicious breakfast (or really brunch). Home fries with 3 colors of potato, orange bell pepper, and garlic. Egg white omelet with dino kale and some kind of tasty cheese. Gluten-free toast with olive oil. By now it's past noon, so we head to Glendale to see Jessie and Drew and their new baby, Greyson. Alex was excited to meet the little fella. We passed a pleasant afternoon in which the infant in question did lots of cute things including a fair amount of (adorable) farting.

On the way home, the unthinkable happened: I got a call for work! In light of this development, I decided it was about time I replaced the Leatherman I lost months ago. Then my voice teacher called to say she'd had a cancellation, so I could make up the lesson I missed on Saturday (because the band was in the studio!) this evening. Score! So I played guitar and drank Throat Coat until time for my lesson. After my lesson, I came home and made dinner - Red chard with tomatoes and goat cheese over wild rice. You'll never guess what I did then. I messed around on Facebook. And started a blog.

It's about time I start keeping track

So it's been a little while since I worked. Won't say how long. It's kinda fun, but then...well a girl's gotta eat.  In honor of my first day of work in a while, here's my first entry in the boredom blog.

Things I've been doing (in no particular order):

Cooking
Learning how to silk-screen on the cheap
Hanging out with my mom
Hanging out with my sister
Watching Game of Thrones
Reading Game of Thrones
Turning 30
Writing songs
Watching Downton Abbey
Spending too much time on Facebook
Getting tattooed
Recording the beginning of an album
Meeting my best friend's baby
Doing yoga
Freaking out
Playing shows
Going to the farmers market
Going stir-crazy
Thinking of ways to make money
Thinking that I should really start a blog...