12.27.2011

christmas gumbo


living across the country makes you feel like a 6 year old for the holidays again. the excitement of coming home for the holidays was overwhelming! getting to see my family and friends ... and the city i love so much was the best christmas present this year. christmas day was low key at our house. we spent christmas eve at my aunt's house eating, opening presents, trying new drinks and laughing a lot. christmas day was just us four and we cooked a huge pot of gumbo together. cooking with my family is simply my favorite thing to do! we had some marinated crab claws and then we all got to work. peeling shrimp, making a huge roux, and chopping veggies. then it cooked for hours and at the end of the day we all sat down with our bowl of gumbo and tea ... and critiqued. the gumbo was fantastic but after any good meal, we take it apart ... maybe we could have added this, or it was a perfect amount of that, or maybe next time we will try this or that. we do this with our cooking and at restaurants. i love this process ... it both drives us all crazy and yet we all love it.

11.21.2011

santa barbara

view from lauren's apartment
clouds and kites
really loved the reflections
beach treasures

jess and i drove up to santa barbara on saturday to visit her little sister, lauren. the drive there is on the 101 along the ocean, and through the mountains ... it is so pretty. when we got there, we went for a walk on the beach down the street from lauren's apartment. it was so beautiful and felt secluded .... i did not want to leave. certainly my favorite beach so far. after we drove down the beach, had brunch at sambo's, and went shopping on state street ... not a bad day!!!! oh and we stopped at the outlet mall on the way back!! :)

11.13.2011

pink, pink, pink

pink peonies
got to break out my umbrella with a touch of pink, since LA was expecting a "major storm"

bright pink became the theme of the weekend!

11.06.2011

sick days


i have been sick, so the last couple of days have been full of warm camping socks, cuddling with oscar, watching the rain, catching up on tv shows, reading, pumpkin spice cream cheese (i am obsessed), plenty of vitamin water, and tea ... lots of tea! jess even made some homemade chicken noodle soup that was so yummy!!

pendleton blanket


i am sick, it is cold, and i need this very warm pendleton blanket.

11.05.2011

surfing in malibu

our teacher

ashley and i took a surfing lesson in malibu when my family came to visit in october. It was so much fun but so much work. although the waves look tiny, they are strong and its a lot of work to get out there. the rocks are insane and very hard to walk on, and we were exhausted after ... but I loved it and can't wait to go again (i might try to get in shape first).