The Brentwood Hillbillies

Ok, so we are having a heat wave in the city of angels. Even in our Brentwood/Santa Monica neck of the woods it's over 100 degrees. Too hot to do much of anything except go to the beach..we decided to skip it today since Holly didn't have the "strength" to deal with the Saturday crowds. After a nice breakfast out at our favorite hole-in-the-wall Snug Harbor (seriously, some of the best eggs Benedict I've ever had) and a trip to Target we had a chill day at home. Elise played with some new toys and Holly spent several hours writing (very cool-I think I churned out some good stuff). A fairly quiet afternoon, UNTIL! Mike erected this monstrosity in our backyard:

LOL it has a filter...


This new addition has raised our family's level of trashiness significantly. Sigh. I was completely opposed to this-not too surprising-but Elise is so excited about it how can I object? After all, I said I don't want to raise a snob. But oh, the humanity.

I'll Break You

doesn't she look like she wants to kill me in this picture? I get that a lot...

ratatouille 2.0

I made some delicious ratatouille again a la my favorite little rodent Remy.

After I baked it, we ate that perfection with a crusty baguette and a dollop of goat cheese.

One of my favorite snacks in the whole wide world is fresh radishes served with sea salt or kosher salt. Every summer while I was growing up we planted a big garden in our backyard and by August we had an abundance of tomatoes, rhubarb (which I still dislike) yellow squash, zucchini, green beans, cucumbers, peppers, corn, sunflowers (for Holly:) and radishes. Radishes were my favorite and I remember being one of the only kids I knew who would eat them until I got a tummy ache. I loved them that much.


Mike wanted me to add an update that he does not, in fact, think wikipedia is as flawed as it once was. This is entirely due to the fact that he is constantly making changes to it and rewriting bogus information-NERD.
This post brought to you by Holly's love of radishes and a glass of La Crema Chardonnay;-)

choo choo

I took Elise on a little train ride this morning and all we got was this silly picture:-)

Holly's cooking corner

Today we are talking about Quinoa...

No I don't really have a cooking corner but I do speak very highly of this chenopod. What? I get my info from wikipedia..which Mike thinks is severely flawed but oh well. It's SO GOOD. I make it like it's a risotto but it's so much healthier and you can do wonders with it. Tonight I roasted red peppers, garlic and tomatoes (which I do every week and use them in meals throughout). I added a gourmet mushroom mix (but it doesn't really need it) and I also toasted pine nuts and threw in some green onions and parsley from the yard. With a little kosher salt and fresh ground pepper it's the bees knees! It really is so good...

I also have to give thanks to my handsome collection of Le Creuset cookware. I do enjoy my All Clad pots and pans but I have to say I believe Le Creuset is the real workhorse of the cookware set. Anyway, I know it doesn't look like much but it sure tastes good-and good FOR you. Yes, I live in California now, what can I say?

In other news I'm terribly excited about going to New England end of next month. I planned an impromptu trip out to see some of my best gals and my dad! This will be a trip sans Mike since his schedule is quite busy but a fun trip, nonetheless:-)

Why?

I was walking out to the mailbox and Elise (somewhat violently) shoved me out the front door and said "get outta here! I'm getting rid of you because you're old!" ouch.

I said "Elise, where did you hear that?" and she said "from daddy". that's nice.

"Elise's" vacation

Trust me-these pictures are likely to only be interesting to immediate family. Lots of us swimming and lounging and being silly...and they are in no particular order. We had a nice visit with everyone in Rochester! and yes, that is a real lasso Mike has. When he tires of interventional I think he may have a real shot at horse wranglin'


Elise "swimming" on her kickboard/floaty thing:


poor attempt to take a family photo:
Elise, dad and great grandma Nee:

not sure what I'm blabbing about here...one never knows:

Elise trying on her fourth new bathing suit:
We took a lovely evening stroll out back at grandma Jeanne's. Holly even found some animal bones..OK, that's not lovely but, ya know...
OK, In this picture Mike just learned how to use a lasso from Rebecca and Bryan's dare I say "eccentric" neighbor:
sunscreen face! Mommy gets the award for most diligent with the spf 60-we do live in the land of the sun, after all...

Elise driving Pop-pop's boat: silly face(s) at the summer soiree-martinis may have been responsible:
Fran, Holly, Rebecca, Mike and Bryan..I shamelessly stole this photo from Fran and Pat-sorry guys-mine didn't turn out:

Lysie decided the party was too much for her..the morning after she decided to chill with mom before another boat day:

she was still a little sleepy on the boat:

She calls these her movie star sunglasses:

Elise met a few new people while traveling and I have taught her to say "Enchante!" when she encounters a new soul. I think it's charming but I'm silly and droll...

Rain? What's rain?

wow. It's raining sideways, upways and downways. with thunder. I loves me a good NY rainstorm. of course that means I'm inside on my computer instead of outside playing. We're looking forward to our last dinner here tonight in Rochester at our beloved Esan. We are so still celebrities there;-)

Summer Vacay

Rochester NY as the premier vacation destination. We made it to NY without any Elise catastrophes. She was a darling angel for mom and dad. We have already made it through another one of Mike's parents' epic parties. We have SO MANY pictures to post but probably not until we get back to lalaland. Right now the weather is beautiful (I know, that's hard to believe) and we are headed to our second boat day on Canandaigua Lake. YAY! fun and boat drinks. Well, maybe for everyone but Holly. "Did I need to have that last martini at the party? No. Did I enjoy it? Tremendously;-)"

someone got a new toy

I'm pretty careful about copyrights with internet pictures..hopefully I won't be in prison anytime soon. But anyway, Mike got his new designer computer today and I have to say it's b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l. I'm insanely jealous as my computer is about to retire..so sad that the lifespan is like, what? 3 years? He has told me to choose one I would like: Mac or PC? read: Macbook air or Dell Adamo like his. I'm leaning towards the Mac. Any suggestions?

Fantastic

you know you are an outstanding parent when your 3 year old daughter has been singing this all day:

Mike's birthday weekend Part 2

The remainder of Mike's birthday weekend was just as he wanted. Saturday started with a trip to Amandine, followed by some dad and daughter time while Holly was running errands. Later in the afternoon we went to El Cholo, our favorite Mexican place to get a margarita and some snacks. On Sunday we got up and went for a hike in Runyon Canyon. This is an interesting hike due to the fact that it's located smack dab in the middle of the Hollywood hills. You can imagine what an "urban" hike it is. It's not one of our usual spots but we wanted to try something new. Elise got to see some horses-even better than celebrities! It's conveniently located off Mulholland drive a little ways from Elise's school so when she starts in September I know where I'll be hiking every morning:-)

Nothin' says nature like haze, power lines and graffiti on a bench:

In case you forgot where we live; a bit hazy but there it is:
And Elise helped mom make this beautiful apple pie for dad!

Mike even got his wish to eat at Pink's Hotdogs in Hollywood again...he was happy to have the weekend off but it's back to 14 hour days until vacation!

Mike's birthday weekend part 1

Our big guy is turning 35 on Monday! whoa..It gives me pleasure to keep saying "you're 35 but I'm only 32" It just sounds so much older;-)

While Elise stayed home with her beloved sitter Anna, Holly and Mike went out for a night on the town. We started our evening at Vincenti, an Italian restaurant in our Brentwood neighborhood. We had a lovely bottle of wine and a delicious dinner. We then hit the Santa Monica/Venice neighborhood for some more fun and drinks.

And we were still home by midnight...

our obligatory family picture before we leave so Elise doesn't feel left out:

Later that evening:

and even later:

So..

Elise just came up to me and said:

"Mom, where did you get these apples?"

mom: "At the grocery store."

Elise: "well, I've gotta say, I'm out of my shorts about them"

mom: "um. wow. what exactly does that mean?"

Elise: "oh it just means I'm excited about them. super-duper excited"

Where did that come from? I'm positively certain neither Mike nor I have ever used that expression but man, we will now...

and it was a nice day...

Mike came back from his Fresno moonlighting gig earlier than expected and we were able to all spend a nice Sunday together. Our morning started with an early walk to Amandine Patissiere-our favorite neighborhood breakfast spot. We spent the afternoon relaxing and reading and filled Elise's $10 ghetto pool from the grocery store. Yes-as much as she makes fun of them, mom caved and bought it. Elise also had fun trying on mom and dad's sunglasses and hat. We are very relieved and delighted that she will be starting school in one month..mom is running out of patience things to do with her:-)