We have a horseshoe nailed to the wall above our front door for luck. But I also like the idea of something outside to symbolically ward off evil. Like this doorway at the Santa Barbara Mission.
Enter (or Exit) at Your Own Risk
Road Sign Warning
I’m amused by signs by the side of the road. Wish I’d seen this one myself.
http://www.kxan.com/video/videoplayer.swf
Beachy Street Signs
Sandyland Road is in Carpinteria and Beach Way is in Half Moon Bay.
The Great Outdoors: Books
I’m still new enough to California to try to wax poetic about the weather. I will say this: it’s heavenly. And this: It’s sunny and warm enough year-round that the climate can support an outdoor bookstore. An outdoor bookstore! Bart’s Books in Ojai is an independently owned shop open since the ’60s that has charm in spades, with open-air bookshelves and an honor system to pay for those bargain books stacked on the outer wall shelves during off-hours. (There is an inside as well, where you’ll find a protected section for first-editions and other collectible tomes, plus cookbooks in a room that was once a kitchen.) Sunshine overhead, a citrus tree dangling fruit above the shelves, and books galore (worth adding: this visit was in January).
Seafood Paella on the Grill
Last weekend, we put my shiny new paella pan to use on the grill and invited Dara and David, who had gifted me with the pan, to join us for the feast. I found a Food & Wine recipe online for Mario Batali’s lobster paella on the grill and then Dara said that they had a container of lobster stock in the freezer, so it was easily decided that we’d make seafood paella on the grill (Mr. MVP insisted we use the Weber). Because Dara doesn’t eat meat and I don’t eat bell peppers, we knew we’d have to adapt whatever recipes we found and we ended up using Batali’s as a base. We dropped the meat and bell peppers and added grape tomatoes, a chopped habanera pepper, and smoked paprika. It was delicious. Recipe below.
6 cups lobster stock
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 habanera peppers, sliced and without seeds
3 cups grape tomatoes
8 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
3 cups Spanish rice
2 lobster tails
1 pound manila clams, scrubbed
½ pound mussels, scrubbed and de-bearded
1 tsp. saffron threads
2 tsp. smoked paprika
Hot paprika
Sea salt
Ground pepper
Lemon wedges
Parsley
Light a grill with mesquite charcoal.
Heat the lobster stock on a saucepan, for use later. Chop 2 cups of tomatoes in half and set aside, separately from the remaining cup of whole tomatoes.
Place the paella pan on the heated grill and add the olive oil. Add chopped onions, garlic and the 2 cups of cut tomatoes. Stir occasionally until onions are softened, about 5 to 8 minutes.
Add the rice and stir it in with the vegetable mixture and stir for 3 or 4 minutes.
Add the warmed stock, saffron, paprika and a pinch of salt to the pan. Cover the grill and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, until the stock has reduced to 2 cups.
Drizzle olive oil and a dash of hot paprika on the lobsters and place them on the grill beside the pan, shell side down.
Add clams, mussels and remaining tomatoes to the paella pan and cover the grill. Cook for 10 minutes, checking occasionally to see if the clam and mussel shells have opened.
Remove lobster tails from grill and serve on top of a platter with the paella. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and lemon juice and garnish plate with lemon wedges.
Finish with ground pepper.
Serves 6 to 8.
Uses for Kitchen Leftovers
Here’s another self-promotion for a story I wrote for Sprig.com: This one is about how you can use almost everything in your kitchen. I’ve been making stocks from leftover chicken bones and veggie scraps, finding inventive uses for leftovers (like the pictured Thanksgiving cranberries, which were used for a jam) and I’m zest-crazy, using lemon and orange zest for baking and vinaigrettes. I have not started composting yet, but that’s next. . .
Graffiti: A New Day 4 USA
Photo taken at the Venice Beach graffiti wall.
Lunch: Seagull, Starfish
Lunch for a seagull at Jalama Beach.
New Year Blooms
Just in time for the new year: the jasmine is starting to bloom! If I were a person to make New Year’s Resolutions, I would resolve to take more time to smell the jasmine (roses are fine, but jasmine is divine). But I do not need to make a resolution like that; our jasmine is strategically planted so it can be smelled while we’re sitting on the porch and it blooms around L.A. throughout the year. When I’m away from the blooms, I wear perfumes scented with jasmine and only truly natural jasmine. (Quick green living rant: synthetic fragrances are made of nasty and toxic chemicals. Also, synthetic means fake and why on earth would you want to wear something fake?) One of my favorite splurges of recent years was the jasmine solid perfume by Aftelier, which is packaged in a silver compact and fits in my makeup bag so I never have to leave home without it and I can dab a little behind my ears for a whiff of the most beautiful scent anytime I want a little lift.
Cookie Time: Peanut Blossoms and Butter Cookies
I don’t feel compelled to take risks when it comes to baking holiday cookies. Classic cookies are beloved because they’re perfect, like the roll-out butter cookie (I used a recipe from Bon Appetit) and peanut butter cookies with a chocolate kiss on top. We call them peanut blossoms in my family and they’ve been a perennial favorite since I was a kid. I have the fondest memories of baking them with my mom and helping to push the chocolate kiss on the cookie while it was still on the cookie sheet. Eating them right from the oven is always best, when the chocolate is still gooey from the heat of the oven (pictured, Kristine and Rebecca digging in). I make them with a mixture of dark chocolate and milk chocolate kisses. The recipe from mom, which came to her from Aunt Ruth, is below.
Peanut Blossom Cookies
Makes 7 dozen
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup unsalted butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
Chocolates kisses
Preheat oven at 375 F.
Cream together sugars, butter and peanut butter.
Stir in eggs, milk and vanilla.
Sift together flour, salt and baking soda.
Combine dry and wet ingredients.
Shape into balls and roll in sugar.
Place balls on ungreased cookie sheet, leaving an inch between each ball.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and press on chocolate kisses, then return to oven for 1 minute.
Bite Size Delights
One sweet, one savory. A friend asked me recently for a quick starter she could bring to a dinner party and I suggested tuna with olive oil and capers on my new favorite chip—a multi-grain tortilla chip from a company called Food Should Taste Good (I know, genius). For a post-dinner snack: raspberries and chocolate wafer cookies (I love the ones from Newman’s Own Organics). Mr. MVP came out last night with the raspberry on the cookie and called it berry caviar.
The Perfect Grilled Artichoke
I went to an excellent restaurant last night to catch up with a friend and we started by ordering the grilled artichoke appetizer. I rarely pass up anything with artichoke on a menu and I always get them when they’re in season and available at my farmers’ market. This one we ordered was very good—but not nearly as good as the ones that Mr. MVP and I grill at home. That sounds like a big boast, but we give credit to the Hitching Post restaurant in Buellton for the grilling technique. Mr. MVP met the chef from the restaurant (yes, it’s the one from “Sideways”) and asked about how they grill the artichokes so that they’ve got that great smokiness but still remain tender. The trick: Steaming them first, then chilling them before you halve them and put them on the grill with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Ours are so good I don’t even bother with dipping the leaves.
Charmed, I’m Sure
I go through fashion phases and one involves wearing a plain black T-shirt or tank with a cardigan or jacket—complimented by a bold necklace. Perfect for this: some fun charms given to me by my mom, which I wear on roped chains or leather cords. Here’s a typewriter charm from mom I recently found at the bottom of my jewelry box. A friend told me that her son saw a typewriter in a shop window and asked about what it was. Before computers, kiddo. I’m sure he’s asked her about record players, too. To add to my collection, I’m searching on eBay for an old record player charm and found some adorable boom box ones. I see a boom box and I think of sitting on the front stoop at my friend Lisa’s house, blasting “I Love Rock and Roll” by Joan Jett until Lisa’s mother shouted from inside the house that we needed to turn down the volume. Oh, the good old days. I’m bidding on boom box and jukebox charms now…
Wilco Rocks: A Good Release
There are numerous public service announcements and other initiatives to remind Americans of our right to vote. But I particularly like Wilco’s effort: Simply promise to vote on their website and they’ll let you download a free MP3 of their cover of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released.” I’d promise much more for Wilco tunes; this was a no-brainer and totally worth the effort.
A Dream House
Day dreaming. There would be goats and I would learn to make goat cheese. And there would also be a walk-in closet.
The Roach Return
During a friend’s visit, I pulled out my memory box and found my collection of buttons (R.E.M.! U2! The Stranglers! The Pixies!). I am tempted to put them back into rotation on my denim jacket or on one of my canvas market bags, maybe one at a time instead of crowding them in a cluster like I once did. I also pulled out some hair clips (rainbow-striped and star-shaped!). What I didn’t find in the box: my lavender feather roach clip. I remember taking a trip to Florida to visit my grandparents and buying one at the mall. My grandmother had no idea what she was paying for and I was far too young and innocent to understand what a roach clip was used for—I simply liked the purple feathers and knew girls back home who were older than me and wore them clipped to their glamorous, permed locks. Soon I, too, would have a perm and I would clip the long, feather and leather piece to the back of my hair. This was a few years before I grew a “tail” of hair longer than the rest and braided the piece like Aimee Mann in the band ‘Til Tuesday. Yes, it was a time of taking risks with style. Now I have a notion to attach a roach clip to a handbag or a belt loop on my jeans, and while I would have loved to open my memory box to find the roach clip at the bottom, I am comforted by the fact that you can (almost) always replace what was once lost. What you can’t find on eBay, you can get on Etsy and here are two I might just have to buy.
Blume for Banned Books Week
It’s Banned Books Week! Makes me want to go back to high school and sneak one into physics class to read (Mr. Masters would occasionally bust me for reading poetry during physics—yep, I was a real badass). Or maybe I should go to graduate school to become a librarian so I would be able to create a display to promote the books. Be a rebel: Read these!
The American Library Association has links to lists of the most challenged and banned books. There are some literary heavyweights that have been banned, but I will admit to being most happy to see Forever by Judy Blume on a list. Here’s my copy, along with my Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. I wish I could say the Forever copy was one I had when I was a kid, but I had only the PG-rated Blumes in my childhood library and had to grab glimpses of the “dirty,” dog-eared pages of Forever in the school cafeteria, holding the tattered paperback under the table so no adults would see. I picked up this copy at a yard sale a few years ago and gleefully read it cover to cover in one sitting.
Rock T-Shirts That Rule
When I was a teen, I remember the excitement of arriving at a music venue to see one of my favorite bands perform and going right to the merchandise stand to see what the T-shirts looked like. If I liked the artist or band, there was no question about the fact that I would splurge on a tee. (I still have many of the ticket stubs but I regret not saving all those T-shirts.) Then I grew up and stopped buying rock shirts, but I’ve made some good purchases this year. It started with a Wilco tee; I loved the color and the design (see it above) and when I found out it was made of a bamboo and organic cotton blend, I was sold (“it’s eco-friendly” is one of my favorite rationalizations these days). At yesterday’s Radiohead show at the Hollywood Bowl, I was tempted again. The shirts come from the band’s merchandising company, called W.A.S.T.E. (We Are Sensibly Talking Endlessly), and it’s made of a polyester that comes from the fibers of recycled plastic bottles and organic cotton. Yep, easy sale; I got one for me and one for Mr. MVP (both pictured).
Knock at My Heart: Charmed
Looking at the contents of my mother’s jewelry box has always been a treat. Oooh, pretty jewelry. She’s got a minimalist style—her constants are her wedding ring and my grandmother’s diamond pendant necklace—so the other pieces only come out for occasions. I have always viewed the jewelry box as a treasure chest and especially love the charms, which she began collecting as a teen and wore on a chunky gold charm bracelet. She wears the bracelet occasionally now without the charms and recently asked me if I wanted any of them. (“You’ll get them eventually,” she said. “If you want them, you might as well take them now!”) It’s hard to pick favorites, but I might have to say it’s the gold charm affixed to a rectangular plate; it’s a heart with a banner that reads, “Knock at my heart.” My father gave this to my mother when they were still dating and the charm originally had a knocker on it that was removed by the jeweler when it was attached to the plate. This peaked my curiosity and a quick search on eBay brought me to a version of the original charm in silver. The knocker moves (it really knocks!). So now I’ve got both versions.
Oh, and one more thing: Both my parents asked about the “when they were still dating” mention. Well, they’re married now so they’re past the dating stage. But it’s definitely worth noting that they’re still married. Happily, too.
Earthquake Survival Bags
As I type this, the top headline on the L.A. Times website reads, “Ho, hum, another not-the-Big-One” (funny, considering the fact that the L.A. Times was offline for several minutes following the quake—I went to the NY Times website to find out info on the quake in the minutes that followed the rumbling.) Today’s earthquake measured 5.4—that’s big for me. I’m from NY, where hurricanes are the big natural disasters, but the good thing about hurricanes is that they never sneak up on you. I was at the office when today’s quake hit and I was relieved when my chair and desk stopped shaking. At home, I have an emergency bag that I packed soon after experiencing my first earthquake (a 4-something a few years ago). Water, transistor radio, batteries, vitamins, tissues, toothpaste and floss, canned goods and can opener, nuts, some cash. I know there’s more I should pack in it and consulted some online sites today. But I stopped reading when I saw DROP, COVER, AND HOLD ON! on the Red Cross site (caps are theirs). At the office and in my car, I have nothing. So now I’m thinking it could be good to have a bag packed and stored in the back seat or trunk of my car. Perhaps this should be an excuse to purchase a cool tote bag for such a purpose. Hmmm. (No, it’s not necessary to have a reason to add a new bag to my collection, but justification is always good.) Certainly an LL Bean Boat and Tote bag would work; it’s timelessly stylish and sturdy and the colors I’ve selected here are neutral. I have also recently been obsessing over Rebecca Minkoff’s new Wine & Bread tote, with outside pockets for the wine and bread. Think about it: that’s a good place to start….
Stef McDonald 