cronies and foodies unite

i had some visitors this weekend.
rob, my brother
and maddi, my sister.

it is her birthday next week so we wanted to make it uber fun.
[please, not like it wouldn't be anyway. look at these peeps!]

saturday night,
[whilst we fancied ourselves to the 55 inches of my cousin's QB face
in the first UCLA game of the season,]

we made some seriously yummy food

chicken tikka masala
and naan

(recipes from allrecipes.com - i love that site!)

my cousin made this for us a few weeks ago
and i admit that this is the second time i have made it already

so so good. if you are not the spicy type (i am totally the spicy type)
go easy on the seeds of the jalapeno cause the first time it was a bit spicy for my guests...

this time was perfect.
it usually makes just enough saucy stuff to live in the rice the way you want it,
but i think i will just add more to it to have more on the rice.

and please, if you have the option, use basmati rice when making indian.
it begs for it.

we make our naan on a panini maker so don't shy away if you can't get to the grill.
in fact, we like it thin and then we paint it with lots of butter, garlic, and parsley to give it a little hint of yum.

cause i have been cravin it and it is just too much work for two,
we also made

gyoza

* 1lb ground meat (traditionally it's just pork, but i have used a mix with beef, and pork sausage is my favorite to use cause it cooks up nice and has a kick to it.)
* 1/2 head of cabbage (the green kind)
* about 3/4 cup green onion finely chopped
* about 1tbs fresh minced ginger
* about 1tbs fresh minced garlic (or the minced stuff - no powder though...)
* 2-3 tsp sesame oil
* 2-3 tsp chile oil
(both of those you get in the "international section")
* 1 lbs soy sauce
* (optional) a beaten egg
* salt and pepper
* white vinegar
* won ton wrappers
(usually these are near the produce section -
you will use at lease 1 pck,
sometimes you will need more though, so get two)


my asian friend taught me how to make this years ago and it is always fun to make with rob cause he lived in japan for a while and he's kind of a purest

between the two of us, they were pretty naughty.

put the ground meat in a bowl
rinse the cabbage, pull apart, and then boil it until it is soft.
finely chop the wet cabbage, and squeeze all the water out before adding to the bowl.
give it a few minutes before making fun of the man you gave that job to, but then give it a go.

add green onion, garlic, and ginger, soy sauce, and the egg if you want to.
(the egg is to help keep it all together - i never use it, but rob does.)

add the freshly ground pepper until the surface is covered.
mix it up with your hands.
yes, your hands.

drop about 1 tsp of the mixture in the center of the wrapper,
close them by putting water on two sides (or half if they are rounds)
and pinching them together. drop em on a floured cookie sheet.

throw about 15 or so (lots can fit) in a frying pan with only about 1 tbs of oil
after the gyoza brown up a hint, drop a small amount of water in the pan and immediately cover to steam. (i like em more on the fried side so i only steam em for a minute.)
one of the reasons you boil the cabbage is so that it will cook as fast as the meat. it should only take a few minutes per batch.

the dipping sauce is about equal parts soy sauce and white vinegar.
just taste it until you like it. i like mine more vinegary than soy saucy...

hope you enjoy!

crafty craft service mom and her big break

today is my mother's birthday!
she's like 40 something (cough...)

and this is what she looked like yesterday on her big break:

peg is in san jorge to help with a film my brother is doing.
and by help, i mean she is the craft service queen.

for those of you luck enough to have done that job-
you know it.
it's tough.

she is there all of august,
slaving away to make/purchase food products for important people
(one is "**pam" from "the office." apparently, they are good friends now...)
and today she is planning herself a little party (as she should be).

thanks for everything mom.
hope you get to take five today and chillax with your boyfriend.
sure glad he upped and surprised you.

happy day to you.


**afterthought correction:
apparently it is jan that peg is hobnobbin with - not pam.
oh oh well...

news flash 2...

this is the video we showed our parents this weekend...

featuring santa maria, santa barbara, and san luis obispo

[you will want to watch the whole thing. i know it's long...]

· NEWS FLASH ·

i always called myself the "west coast girl..."

but never thought i would actually get to live it!!

guess what...?

we're moving!!

side note:
[just found out last week.
we are in cali now finding a house.
we move in 3 weeks.
wow.]

hey california,
meet, the cliffords.

side note:
cc is kind of a big deal
so work is now in the santa barbara area.
tough for us, huh!
(all those pics are real!)

...in 18 months we will be in
san diego!!

i heart my life.

book review - eat pray love

done.

finally.

but i will soon be able to read lots more.

this one was fun and beautiful.

i love to read creative words- and she is definitely good at that

my two favorite quotes:

[a belief of Balinese people]:
"The child is taught from the earliest consciousness that she has these four brothers with her in the world wherever she goes, and that they will always look after her. The brothers inhabit the four virtues a person needs in order to be safe and happy in life: intelligence, friendship, strength, (and I love this one) poetry. The brothers can be called upon in any critical situation for rescue and assistance.

When you die, your four spirit brothers collect your soul and bring you to heaven."

"I looked into my heart, at my own goodness, and I saw its capacity. I saw that my heart was not even nearly full…my heart could easily have received and forgiven even more.

Its love was infinite.
I knew then that this is how God loves us all and receives us all, and that there is no such thing in this universe as hell, except maybe in our own terrified minds. Because if even one broken and limited human being could experience even one such episode of absolute forgiveness and acceptance of her own self, then imagine-- just imagine!--what God, in all His eternal compassion, can forgive and accept."

how beautiful is truth.

meet shelby

meet shelby

swimmer, musician, honor roll,
soon-to-be a class of '10 graduate of

westwood high school

congrats, for real this time!

easter bunnies

dear easter bunny,

i am still thinking about how you came last week,
and how magical easter was for some reason this year.

now in my top three holidays i think.

why?
because we are with family,
we still eat,
have some fun gimmicky thing with eggs,
and we get together
because of the savior.

i loved every minute of this beautiful day
and soaked in every word of truth that was spoken.

thanks for making this a memorable one for me.

elle loved easter so much she wanted to eat it.

then she was ticked when she realized we were going to eat chicken.
cooked.

kenna enjoyed the vitamin D...

and so did the grown ups...
[please excuse mr. waldo/30 rock's kenneth as he gleefully skips about the yard]

(after successfully locating 3 eggs...)
"but i jus wanta canny"

[note the 3 classes of egg-hunters in our midst...]

the easter bunny did something fun for the adults that might need to be a tradition...[cough]
he left notes with clues on them of where to find a larger wrapped gift in the house somewhere.
rob found his happy thought.

and then,

we played away the day...

i thought this turned out kinda cool:

a beautiful shot of g-ma:

theme of the day:

ooh... who's that?

cc just mentioned that we will be needing large, large large hard-drives when we have kids.
i take so many of my [not] kids already...

thanks everyone for the beautiful days of fun.
the Lord is good to me.
i am so glad to know that He lives and loves me.
my family is proof of that.