I took a little photowalk in the Silverlake neighborhood when I stayed in Los Angeles. On the outside facade of a salon was a wall covered in a permeable fabric. The fabric was cut and formed pockets in which were inserted tiny plants. It looked amazing! I wanted to do this to my house.
I spent an extended weekend last month in Los Angeles with my good friends Sean and Bekah. A bit of a last hurrah before they welcome their beautiful baby into this world and I don’t have a spare room to sleep in anymore. They always show me a great time-they are the type of host who has fun activities planned-interesting places to visit both intellectual and low brow. Good times had by all.
One of the highlights of my trip was visiting the Huntington Library. I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical just by the name. I do like libraries, but it was a vacation after all. But I was more than surprised. And they pretty much had to drag me away from the place when it was time to leave. It is basically a giant fun-land for people who like art, books, and plants. I could have spent days wandering around the property.
This was an entire collection of each edition of The Origin of Species.
I’ve been participating in an experimental garden in east Gilbert. My gardening partner and I share the same love of beets and brussel sprouts. We planted pretty much every winter seed we could get our hands on which included borage (which we really have no idea what to do with although it makes lovely purple flowers which attracts a LOT of bees), and romanesco cauliflower which looks gorgeous and tastes fantastic. I prefer mine oven roasted.
The Lions of Scoodah had our first official ride; we took a tour around Mesa. The ride included a stop at Bookman’s for coffee, a stop at Pioneer Park for photos, and a stop at Pro’s Ranch Market for groceries. We then went over to Joe’s for a Sonoran dog barbecue! Then we had a meeting where we set forth the qualifications to be in the club.
This month my scooter club “The Lions of Scoodah” went on a tour of some local gelaterias here in Phoenix. We hit three gelaterias, an ice cream shop, a restaurant, and a coffee shop.
This is Anthony. He is the manager at Joe’s Farm Grill and he just bought Joe’s old green 200.
This is Monica and Andy. They are really cool and are going to tour Europe on their motorcycles together. They have little walkie talkie things they wear inside their helmets to communicate while riding.
This is Joe telling us how to decide if the gelato is awesome.
This is Beatrice. She studied how to make gelato in Rome. But now she makes it in Mesa. Try her Patron sorbetto-it has tequila in it.
I don’t know this guy’s name, but he runs Gelato Makers in North Scottsdale. Also considered the winner in our tour.
This actually is one of the few pictures of gelato I have. Well, sorbetto. I kept eating mine before I could take a picture.
At Sweet Republic, I was tired of ordering the dark chocolate and lemon which were the flavors I sampled at every shop. Here I ordered pumpkin with a homemade marshmallow on top. Torched of course.
We ate dinner at Radio Milano, stopped at Arleccino’s, and finished up at Cartel. Here is a picture of Cindy laughing, and the dude behind her is Glen who is the President of the Phoenix Metro Scooter Club.
See the rest of my photos on flickr.
Awhile back ago, I twittered to Wildflower Bread Company that I was willing to help test their food out. They ended up inviting me to their fall taste testing, and they said they do it with Tastecasting. So I registered quickly (day of), and headed over to the 44th St. and Indian School location.
It turns out that Tastecasting is sort of a symbiotic relationship between food bloggers/twitterers and local/regional restaurants. You eat for free (and I mean eat-you should be in training), and the then you blog/tweet/FB/yelp about your thoughts. The restaurant gets a little physical traffic and feedback from it, and you get dinner and a little virtual traffic.
So here’s my photos:
This is the founder of the company-and it is a local one. It was really cool sitting down over food and hearing him describe how he came to the Valley originally to work for Coffee Plantation, and ended up starting his own restaurant. Louis really loves food and is a cool guy. The company does a lot of community work and donates all the baked goods every night. Here he is holding the Apple Streusel Pancakes. They said it was syrup but it was a caramel-praline sauce. So thick and gooey.
Here’s the Fiery Roasted Butternut Squash Salad. Quite a lot of heat. I liked the dried corn too-nice texture in a salad.
This is the Turkey and Cranberry Walnut Stuffing Sandwich. With bacon. I think the bacon was a little over the top, but everyone else seemed to really like it. But hey, bacon’s really popular.
I’ve been wanting to try this Butternut Squash Ravioli for some time, and finally got my chance! So good. The garlic bread was divine.
We actually got to try three desserts; the only one I didn’t get a picture of was the Roasted Nut Pie. The other two are Pumpkin Cheesecake and Pumpkin Pie. That was the creamiest pumpkin pie I’ve ever had. And I loved the nut pie-not too sweet like some are. I prefer my cheesecakes plain, but if you like flavored ones, you’d like this one.
At the end of the night, they sent us all home with a giant bag of bread. I was able to try the dinner rolls, the Pumpkin Spice Bread, the Stuffing Bread, and the Cranberry Walnut Bread. They were all really good, but my favorite was the Cranberry Walnut Bread.
If you like food, blogging or twittering, meeting new people, supporting local businesses, and telling people about it, I encourage you to sign up. I had a lot of fun, and it is all around good for all.
I finally named my vespa. After she sunk into a freshly paved street and fell over, she was christened LaBrea. I think it’s fitting. A couple weeks later, she was backed into by an anonymous car. I found her tipped over on her side. A lot of damage. Fortunately, she landed on the same side where the minor scratch from the first incident was.
I dropped her off at Vespa of Chandler today (with Stephanie’s help). Hopefully, she will be ready soon. I twittered about it, and Joe offered me a loaner Vespa! Hooray! That means I can ride over to redPear and take some photos! And perhaps get over to Sarah’s and visit baby Ellie!
This summer is drawing to a close…everyone is going back to school. I am going to get a full time job. I wish the weather would suddenly cool down to match the season. My cousin in Calgary said the trees are already turning color. Granted, I do not wish for the intense winters they have, but a ten degree drop in temperature in late August would be nice.
Tuesday night, my friend Sarah gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. I witnessed the birth of her last baby as well, and I am always in awe of the strength and beauty of Sarah. She is a wonderful mother, and she inspires me with what she does. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being my friend, Sarah!
Yesterday, I went to Cartel with Jacy, Stephanie, and Tracy (the newest addition to the girlhouse). Cartel makes a great cappuccino, and the vibe is pretty cool. Kind of a garage feel mixed with college art building. (If you’ve ever been to the school of art over at ASU, you’ll know what I mean.)
Jacy got her change in PHXBUX which is a new local art project/discount token. I thought initially because of the name that the tokens would actually be used as a form of cash, but the website states that the tokens “are only good as a dollar off coupon at the participating businesses.” One token can be redeemed per person per business each day. A bit misleading from the impression one gets from the little information one receives at the register.
The tokens are interesting though-they are made from American Pewter and each one is polished by hand. On the edges, they read: PHX BUX IN ART WE TRUST. It seems to me from what I read on the website, that this is more of an experiment in art than an alternate form of currency. I’ll be curious to see how things progress considering that the tokens were just released.
