Moved

Hi there! I’ve moved to …

http://www.jisabird.com/

Thank you!

J.

Lemon-scented Quinoa Salad Recipe

Ok, I know I told you that you wouldn’t get a lot of food recipes from me but every once in awhile I’ll have to sneak one in.

Here’s my new favorite fast and easy thing to make. The basic recipes is below, but to that you can add, chopped sun dried tomatoes, chopped artichoke hearts or hearts of palm, or roasted pine nuts. I actually make more dressing than the recipe calls for because I like to put a little dollop on top just before serving.

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001493.html

Cheers!

J

Lemon-scented Quinoa Salad Recipe

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 can garbanzo beans, or dried equivalent
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped

Tahini Dressing:
1 garlic clove, smashed and chopped
1/4 cup tahini
Zest of one lemon (I use lime and lime juice – J)
scant 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons hot water
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

Rinse the quinoa in a fine-meshed strainer. In a medium saucepan heat the quinoa and water until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until water is absorbed and quinoa fluffs up, about 15 minutes. Quinoa is done when you can see the curlique in each grain, and it is tender with a bit of pop to each bite. Drain any extra water and set aside.

While the quinoa is cooking make the dressing. Whisk together the garlic, tahini, lemon zest and juice, and olive oil. Add the hot water to thin a bit and then the salt. Toss the cooked quinoa, beans, cilantro, red onion, and half of the dressing. Add more dressing if you like and season with more salt to taste. Serve garnished with a bit of cilantro.

Bob Hope Airport

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Memorial Day.

We took the kids to Bob Hope Airport on Memorial Day. Bob Hope was a patriot and did so much for the troops in his day, it seemed to make a weird sort of sense to go pay “him” a visit.

The airport (well any airport) is an unfriendly place for people these days. No one wants to go to the airport (even a small one like Bob Hope) unless they have to. Most people think of airplanes as buses with wings.

The glamour and excitement of air travel is gone.

There was no observation deck to take the kids to, so we drove up to the top level of the parking structure instead. For little while today, we watched our two young children as they watched the planes taxi down the runway and fly far away overhead.

The Rose Garden

GeoTagged, [N34.01538, E118.28503]

Sneak peek pic. More to come

edited to add:

Here are a few more shots from The Rose Garden.

Frankly I sometimes find it hard to believe that place like this even exists in Los Angeles. While the area around USC has been an area to be avoided in the past, it’s now being improved, with an extension to the NHM planed for 2013 and a new train line running right in front of both The Rose Garden and the NHM. Sure to  bring more tourists and more tourist dollars. It’s nice that a grand old building like this won’t be torn down like so much of Los Angeles already has.

Pavilion of Wings

GeoTagged, [N34.01538, E118.28503]

I’ll post a few more shots of the butterflies later on but here a sneak peek.

edited to add:

Well I have a few more shots I’ve uploaded from the Pavilion of Wings. I must admit that going on a warm day is definitely the way to go. The butterflies were everywhere.

They even got up close and personal.

The Handbook

Since I have two small children, the time that I actually get to sit down and concentrate on a book is very limited. I when I do crack one open it can’t exactly be Kafka. Nope, I’m keeping it light these days. Harry Potter or Dan Brown is about as heavy as I can get.

Some of you know that I am an follower of The Secret and Law of Attraction. Heck, I even have The Secret  iPhone app.Well one of the most common tenants in both books is the idea of thinking like a weathly person is better than thinking about being dead broke.

And to think like a wealthy person you have to know what weathly people think about. Which brings me to my current light reading. The Official Filthy Rich Handbook (You might remember something similar in the 80′s called The Official Preppy Handbook.).

It’s funny, tongue-in-cheek sort of thing, filled with some very useful information if you find yourself suddenly rich. Like the fact that Cannes really is pronounced CAN and not Con.

There are chapter headings like “The Plutocrat Primer”, “Buying a Better You” and my favorite ” Float Some and Jet Some” about yacht and private jet ownership.This chapter includes my favorite quote by our current Governer, Arnold Schwarzenegger…

“You have pilots at your throat about vacation, that their wife is pregnant, why can’t they have New Year’s Eve off? It’s on and on and on.”

Poor Arnie.

A visit to Rolling Greens of Hollywood

Well, what started off as a day meant for traipsing around Main St of Santa Monica, ended up full stop at Rolling Greens in Hollywood instead. What a wonderful place to loose yourself. Think Anthro without all the clothes to get in the way and more plants and flowers. Here are a few pics of my favorite things. I was especially fond of the love seat,  made from a vintage crib. As you can see, my dear Simone found it quite relaxing spot as well.

Green Tea

By now we’ve all heard that green tea is good for you. It lowers your risk of heart attack, stroke, blah blah blah. Trouble is, I’m not very fond of the stuff, till now.

During my husband’s last trip to London he stopped into Fortnum & Mason’s for me. Unfortunately for me his trip happened to coincide with the Easter holiday and Fortnum was out of all of my favorites. At least in a portable size anyway. So hubby picked up something he thought I might like to try … green tea.

Honestly, this stuff is far better than any green tea I’ve every tried, not bitter at all. I find myself skipping my usually PG Tips for breakfast at the office now and I’m actually drinking green tea.

Hopefully my heart will thank me;)

Cheers!
J
http://www.fortnumandmason.com/

Vanilla Vodka making. A Sweet Success.

A few months ago, my husband and I were having drinks at Morel’s French Bistro at The Grove. It had been a busy weekend for them and consequently they ran out of Irish Whiskey and had none for our Irish Coffee request. The bartender recommended we try their very own home made vanilla vodka. We had tried vanilla vodka before of course, of various brands, and were less than impressed. But when he pulled out the bottle and we saw that lovely carmel color, we decided to give it a shot (pun-intended). And boy we were glad we did. We loved it. Hubby had his in his coffee and I had mine with a good, old-fashioned Coke Cola.

Armed with instructions from the bartender, we set off to make are own. Well it was even better, most likely because we don’t have so many “costumers” and could let the vodka set up for a good long while before sampling.

As a matter of fact we were so successful we needed to move into a bigger bottle. So below are the pics and instructions for making your very own.

Cheers! J

You’ll need a clean dry bottle with a tight fitting top.

Add whole vanilla beans.

We decided to stain out the old beans as they’ve given pretty much all they had to give.

To get even more vanilla flavor (and if you’re in a hurry) you can scrap some of the vanilla out of the pod and drop it directly into the vodka.

Finish product!

It’s pretty pale now, but give it a few days in our sunny window sill and it will turn a very fine color. Depending on where your pods are from will also have an effect on the flavor that’s produced. These new beans have a slight tobabaco scent to them and lend this flavor to the vodka.

Until next time friends….A little imagination goes a long way. J