Mom's Weekend!

My mom came to visit this past weekend. Here is a picture of us:

No, this picture was not taken this past weekend, it's from Vegas. But all of the pictures from this past weekend are on her camera and I forgot to put them on my computer. Oops.

The weekend was FANTASTIC. Action-packed, sleep deprived, and lots of fun. She got in late on Thursday, so we just went to the hotel, had a glass of wine, and went to bed. Friday morning, we woke up and went golfing with my roommate and a 9-hole course in Venice. The course was ok - no water, few obstacles, but decent yardage. Plus, it was my first round using my 'new' (aka dad's old) clubs. Let's just say that I like the clubs. A lot. Moving on. After the game, we had a couple rounds of drinks at the 'clubhouse' then dropped the roommate off at the apartment. That night we went to dinner at the Stinking Rose (amazing!) and saw South Pacific the musical, which I enjoyed a lot.

Saturday, we woke up early and took went to my favorite breakfast restaurant, the Griddle Cafe. Now Dad is the only immediate family member who I need to take there. After breakfast, we went hiking at Will Rogers State Park and checked out Inspiration Point, which was a really nice view, though it was a little cloudy. Then it was off to Mom's first pedicure at my favorite place in Santa Monica, a little shopping, and I made Tyler's Ultimate Pork Tenderloin with Chimichurri, Pioneer Woman's Crash Hot Potatoes, and Mom made her tomato/mozzarella/balsamic vinegar salad. All in all, a very tasty dinner.

Once again, we woke up early on Sunday to play softball. My team was one female short, so Mom got to play, which was fun. Then we played tennis (I won!) and headed to see the Anaheim Angels play. Somehow I picked seats that were right in the sun and the genius that I am sat cross legged for most of the game, so I am now the owner of 1/2 a sunburned leg and a wonderful shorts line. I look like a freak. After the game, we headed to the Block in Orange County to do some shopping and grab a snack at the Alcatraz Brewing Company before heading home and lounging on the couch for the rest of the night.

Like I said, action packed weekend, but TONS of fun! Mom, come back soon, I miss you already!

And Dad, if you're reading this, I think it's time for a Dad's weekend :)

Tyler's Ultimate

Wow, third post this week. I told you summer was slow :) Actually, I'm just trying to make this blog thing more of a habit, which for me, requires me to work on it almost daily. Let's see how June plays out.

Anyways. As mentioned in the previous post, I like to cook. I watch Food Network shows and want to cook most of the food I see the pros make. Tyler Florence from Tyler's Ultimate is one of my favorites. He calls everything - aromas, textures, etc - "beautiful" which gets a little annoying, but eventually you learn to love it.

The other day I watched the episode where he made Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars. Normally I'm not a huge fan of lemons, but I thought I'd give these bars a try. I had to use my cheese grater to zest the lemons, and I only had an 8" baking pan, but other than I followed the recipe exactly. It came out looking like this:

I had a hard time telling when they were done, so I may have overcooked them a little. Also, the wax paper kept ripping, which made it hard to lift it out of the pan (definitely not as easy as Tyler made it look on TV). I was going to show a nice picture of the plated final piece, but due to the difficulties with the wax paper, the cut up version did not look as pretty. Didn't affect the taste though - I'll make these again :)

Testing Out the Green Thumb

I've never been a gardener. I think flowers look great in the apartment, but I rarely get them to last more than a week. However, I do like to cook. And all the cooking shows I watch (like this and this) and cooking websites I read (here and here) always say that fresh herbs make a huge difference in your dishes. I've bought them a few times at the grocery store, and would definitely agree, but at the store, it seems like I have to buy way more than I use in the dish I need them for.

Enter IKEA. While shopping for frames for a work event, I came across these little plastic containers with dirt and seeds ready to go, just add water. For $2 each, I figured, why not? I'll give it a try. If it works out, maybe I'll search out some more herbs to try. Anyways, I bought the parsley and basil (it's all they had) and added water. I think I almost killed the parsley, but with the lack of wording in IKEA directions, can you really blame me? Anyways, it's been almost three weeks and I haven't killed them yet. Check them out:

I'm guessing that at some point I will have to transfer them to bigger containers, but I'm going to put that off as long as possible because these fit way too nicely on my window sill. If anyone has any tips for making these not die, feel free to comment away.