Bloomfield Underground

We went to see our friend Joe's band play over the weekend. We have been to a few of their shows, pretty fun. The band that played after was a bit strange. I think Mike stated it best when he said, "It looks like their dot com business didn't work out".

Here is my best groupie sassy face.

Jekyll

I finished this BBC series Jekyll the other night. I have to say this is one time when the British smile really puts the character over the top {this picture really does not do him justice}. SCARY! When James Nesbitt morphs into Mr. Hyde and flashes those dagger like teeth, well it just fits the bill, and gives me the willies.



BTW I am going through a British TV thing right now.

Road Warriors

This is from last weekend, but some of the pictures were pretty funny. We went for a bike ride in the morning but my tire got a flat so we ended up getting a new tube and finishing the bike ride that evening. We rode down to the mushroom factory, what a smell! When it got dark we had a fire in the fire pit outside {one of my favorite parts of the house} and made s'mores. And yes, we take helmet safety very seriously.

Buy My Glasses

So the other week Mike bought a pair of flashes for our camera so he could do some off camera lighting with them. He built a light box out of cardboard and tracing paper to diffuse the harshness of the light. Here are my new glasses. The pictures look sort of like an advertisement. Mike wanted to know which one people liked better, the black or the white. Here they are, discuss amongst yourselves.

Blanket

This is my first finished project from the book, Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. It was really easy, except for the part when I sewed everything up and started to turn the blanket out only to realize I had sewn the top piece on the wrong way because of a typo in the book. But even with that setback it was really fast and easy. I just hope there are no more typos in the book.

Dinner with Reed and Bille

No one wanted to cook dinner tonight so my mom suggested we go out to eat. We went to Ragoots in Morgan Hill. It was pretty good. I got the savory chicken risotto, Mike had the charbroiled chicken sandwich, etc., etc.. But the best part was dessert. Banana coconut cake with ice cream, molten chocolate cake with ice cream, and bitter sweet hot chocolate. Yum.

Eye Can See!

Today was a special day, the day I brought my new glasses home! I've needed new glasses for over a year; what with the cloudy mess of scratches and scuffs I have been looking through. I have been looking and looking for new glasses for a really long time. As far back as last August I was looking for new frames {Ashley, do you remember that night we ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory?}. Anyhow, I can see SO much better. I can see individual leaves on the trees down the block people! Other than the slightly tired feeling of my peepers, the prescription is a little stronger, I love em. Thank you Paul Smith, for ending my search.

Weekend

We had a really fun weekend. Friday night we went to a shooting range in Santa Clara. We rented a gun, bought ammo, and purchased 4 targets. Mike was pretty impressed with my skills. When I was at Ricks I dated a guy who had a bunch of guns, and we would go out to the dump and shoot cans and bottles. Oh boring afternoons in Idaho.





Saturday morning we watched General Conference. Mike and the bird were sporting matching hairdos. I was really happy to be able to sustain President Monson as the new President and Prophet of the church, what a special occasion.



We decided Friday night that we would go up to Henry Coe Park and hike around for a bit. I have only been to the park a handful of times, and I have lived here my whole life {except when I was away at school or on a mission}. I think when you live close by something sometimes you take it for granted and forget it exists. Driving up to the park the gas light went on and I mentioned it to Mike and asked if he was planning on getting gas. Oh no, we have at least 30 miles left. Well, on the curvy road up to the park the car started to shudder and stutter. But we made it into the parking lot and decided that since we were there we might as well hike around and worry about getting home when we were done.






We took the trail to Frog Lake, which was more of a pond. On the way there Mike nearly stepped on a snake because he was not watching where he was going. We saw lots of wild flowers and a few more snakes. When we got back to the car we were pretty sure there was no way we would make it down to a gas station. So, after glaring at Mike and reminding him that I thought we should have bought some gas we set off. We coasted in neutral almost the whole way back, thanks to those steep winding hills. The stop light at the end of the hill almost killed us, but we managed to squeak into the closest gas station and fill up.








By the time we got down from the park we were starving. We went to the Trail Dust to have some really good BBQ. I had pulled pork {my favorite} and Mike had the 3/4 pound tri-tip. Man! That was some good food. We finished up with berry cobbler accompanied by two scoops of ice cream. So good! Finally to make the night truly memorable we got dressed up and went to Prom. No, not really but we saw these kids outside and had a good laugh at the horrific dresses and suits they were wearing. We did not even get pictures of the really bad dresses. It looked like dancing with the stars, or Miss universe. Oh man, kids these days. On the way home we took some pictures of the mustard green fields by the mushroom farm. Morgan Hill is so pretty in the spring time!

FlipClips

I just saw this in the April Martha Stewart magazine. What a great idea, turn your video clips into a flip book. Now I just have to find of the perfect video clip. Here is the web site.

Mexican Chicken Soup

I made this last night for dinner via the Barefoot Contessa. As far as tortilla soups go I think this is the best I have ever made. The clincher was adding the 6 corn tortillas, that gave it that elusive authentic tortilla soup taste. I used 3 boneless chicken breasts and five 14.5 oz cans of chicken broth. Enjoy.

4 split (2 whole) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
Good olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chopped onions (2 onions)
1 cup chopped celery (2 stalks)
2 cups chopped carrots (4 carrots)
4 large cloves garlic, chopped
2 1/2 quarts chicken stock, preferably homemade
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes in puree, crushed
2 to 4 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves, optional
6 (6-inch) fresh white corn tortillas
For serving: sliced avocado, sour cream, grated Cheddar cheese, and tortilla chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Place the chicken breasts skin side up on a sheet pan. Rub with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until done. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, discard the skin and bones, and shred the meat. Cover and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the onions, celery, and carrots and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, or until the onions start to brown. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the chicken stock, tomatoes with their puree, jalapenos, cumin, coriander, 1 tablespoon salt (depending on the saltiness of the chicken stock), 1 teaspoon pepper, and the cilantro, if using.

Cut the tortillas in 1/2, then cut them crosswise into 1/2-inch strips and add to the soup. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Add the shredded chicken and season to taste. Serve the soup hot topped with sliced avocado, a dollop of sour cream, grated Cheddar cheese, and broken tortilla chips.

She and Him

Mike and I caught the middle part of this interview with Zooey Deschanel, on NPR the other day. While I was thinking, oh man she is not very articulate or interesting to listen to I did like the snippet of the song we heard. Very sweet and Hi-Fi-ish, I liked it. See if you like it here.

Spanish 2102

So I finally did it! The one thing that has been hanging around my to do list for literally months, just waiting, waiting, waiting to be checked off. This Spanish class finally opened up and I have signed up to take it. I am now waiting for the paraphernalia to come in the mail so I can begin to slog through this class. Darn* you Dr. R for not passing me, that's right, darn* you.

*I felt bad for swearing, please forgive me.

New Book

I have had my eye on this book for a while, so I got it yesterday. I am so excited to start some new projects. Here is a Flickr group of projects from the book people have completed.

Internet loathing

I am currently hating our Internet: connection, provider, speed, everything. Good luck to me if this even gets posted.

Recipe

Here is the recipe for the cookies below. If anyone makes them tell me how they turn out.





The blurred text in the corner of the picture says: corners squared, like a business letter, edge faces right

Palmiers

The other day I was feeling rather ambitious and decided that I would try and make palmiers. The dough is a puff pastry, so there is lots of butter (5 sticks), lots of rolling, and chilling for hours. I wanted to have something special to bring to Mike when I picked him up form the airport. I think they turned out quite well.

and that is where my lover is.

Last Days in Hawaii

For some reason I had it in my head that I put these pictures up. Well I thought wrong. These are from about 2 months ago {but who doesn't like seeing pictures of themselves?} when our friends threw us a little going away party. It was the prefect way to say goodbye. After the most perfect day at Pipeline. While we were enjoying the perfect surf conditions {the locals were saying they had not seen Pipe break like that in years} we noticed way out beyond the break a bunch of whales splashing around. There must have been 3 or 4 of them and they were going crazy. I said, well I think the only thing that could make this day even better is if we see a rainbow. A few minutes later Mike pointed behind us and said, there is your rainbow. It was the perfect last day in Hawaii. And thanks Andy, for teaching us all about the wonderful world of colonics.

Desert Living

So, by now you have probably seen the new J.Crew Spring looks shot at the Kaufmann house, gorgeous. I first became aware of this wonderful home two years ago when I saw the Americana Manhasset Spring 06 look book. I would pour over the images, just staring at them and taking in everything over and over again. Living in the desert never looked so good. So, a bit of trivia, remember that W shoot with Brad and Angelina and the "fake family"? That was shot down the street from the Kaufmann house. And, if you are in the market to buy, and have 15-25 million in spare cash, well then you can be the proud owner of this historic and beautiful home {here is a slide show for you}.