A new addition to the neighborhood...

 

In mid-October, our Echo Park extended family gets a little bit bigger. Neal's writing partner and his wife, two of our best friends, are expecting a little boy. Nick and Chelsea live two and a half blocks away so I expect we'll have a lot of babysitting in our future.

 Last weekend, Rachel, Ashley and I threw them a "Baby Warming" - we didn't dare call it a shower.

A pile of great food, a bunch of wonderful people, cute presents and lots of advice and words of wisdom.

 

 This will be a lucky baby with these two as parents...and with the rest of these people as a support system.  Excited to meet him.

Maybe we have a new career ahead...

Neal and I cameo in our friend Amelia's latest post on her amazing blog - Bon Appetempt!

Click on the screen cap or here to watch.

Yeah, maybe we shouldn't switch careers quite yet...

Amelia, on the other hand...she is a star!

The weekend ahead...

This weekend is going to involve lots of blog post writing (have a big batch of new stuff), lots of pool floating, and LOTS of live music.

Photo from theseunitedstates.com, by Todd Roeth

First off, Friday, my friend Jesse Elliott comes to town with his band These United States. They play at The Satellite tomorrow night - doors open at 8:30. Here is their newest music video for their song MAPS. The animation is amazing. 

(Apologies for the very low-rent way of linking to these videos...I have no idea how to embed stuff. Need to take a class from Amelia or Morgan!)

On Saturday, we're dragging Neal's little sister to the FYF Fest in downtown LA. Our friend Eric's band Tanlines will be playing as the sun sets and we'll be dancing along. Here's my favorite of their videos from the catchiest of their songs, ALL OF ME.

Talented friends, good music and lots of sunshine. Happy Labor Day!

Putting the kitchen to use...

I love my friends. I love having people in my life who will try anything - who get an idea in their heads and then follow through.

Rachel and Tannaz are the all-stars of making good ideas happen. Months ago, we were riffing about our shared love of cured meats...and thought, WHY CAN'T WE DO THIS!? And our club, which we named "Panacea" was born. (Apologies in advance for any photos that may be NSFW!)

Our first attempt was simple - curing salmon to make grav lax and some homemade ricotta. It was quite a success if I do say so myself. Check out Tannaz's blog - All Kinds of Yum - for pics from that glorius evening.

This time, we got a little closer to our dreams of cured sausages and animal legs (I need to get a thermometer and see if a dark corner of our basement might be right for hanging meat!) and ground up pounds of pork and fat with a lot of herbs and spices to make spicy italian sausage.

Our day began with an email chain about where to get pork back fat and some pig intestines as sausage casings. (One of the grossest things I've ever purchased.) Then we met, over white whine and some homemade potato leek soup, and started grinding and mixing.

Using Michael Ruhlman's great book CHARCUTERIE, which I'd given Rachel as a wedding shower gift, we used my kitchen aid attachment to grind the pork, fat, basil, oregano, garlic, paprika, chiles...

...mixed it up with water and vinegar, and began the process of stuffing.

Yeah, not that pretty, but man was that stuff tasty!

Rachel manned the stuffer like a pro.

I have to say - this was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done. (Warned you about potentially gross photos.)

Take the finished, um, tube of sausage and give it a twist every six inches. VOILA!

Thanks to Jared Mark for the photo of his dinner last night. Grilled up with a salad. Mmmmm...

What's next ladies?

A plug for a friend...

One of our best friends and frequent dinner party guests, Cassidy Lange, has just started a line of handbags. They are fun, loose, practical shapes, made out of amazingly soft leather right here in Los Angeles. Not only are the bags great, that she's pulled this all off while having a busy day job as a film studio executive is pretty damn impressive. 

Go check them out here: www.cassidylange.com and from now until Labor Day you can use the coupon "firsteditionlondon" and get 30% off your order. 

How yummy is this "Glazed Vintage" one?

Hurrah for local Los Angeles businesses and creative friends!

Friends in the Neighborhood...

Our amazing friends Matt and Amelia just bought a house 5 blocks away from us and moved this past weekend. We could not be more excited. Matt and Neal have been close friends since freshman year at NYU and when he moved out here with his high school sweetheart Amelia, they've been one of the best things about living here.

Amelia also happens to be a beautiful writer and author of the award-winning blog, Bon Appetempt. They documented their move (and the move of Matt's prized possession - The Vivianne) with some beautiful shots of our neighborhood, great music and a little bit of comedy.

Enjoy!! http://www.bonappetempt.com/2012/06/video-attempt-vivianne-moves.html

And you should definitely be reading Amelia's blog if you aren't. She chronicles her adventures in attempting recipes from magazines and cookbooks as well as becoming the cook, wife and woman she is today. We're even featured sometimes - from the original attempt, to some that, um, weren't as delicious.

This could become a habit...

S'mores by our new firepit.

This weekend was with college friends Cheryl and Rachel and their husbands.