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?

Veggie "Lasagna"...

Did a post over at Saucy Little Dish today...go check out the super easy Veggie "Lasagna" I made for Neal's return home from a weekend in New Orleans.

Hope everyone is having a good week. We did a few little projects this weekend that I'll put up soon. AND we're finally having our housewarming party this weekend!

The Kitchen!

FINALLY! Our much overdo kitchen pictures! Hurrah! Let's first remember what we started with...

Gross. And NOW (almost the same view):

Ahh...so much better and brighter! I can't imagine having that terrible WALL where the peninsula now is. Yesterday I prepped dinner while watching the Olympics and was happy as a clam. There will soon be a dining room table in the middle there.

Here's a BEFORE of the actual kitchen - 

And AFTER: 

 I still want to put something on that back wall - maybe these cool graphic prints we got as a wedding gift in colored frames? And I will paint that wood stool something fun someday.

Here are some other details for you:

Normal size stove! (If you remember what I had before...)

Awesome flexible faucet.

Big deep drawers for storage - LOVE THIS.

Some green friends in our window.

Big ass sink.

Breakfast area.

SO HAPPY!

Here's all the materials we used if you are curious:

Cabinets - Ikea Akurum Adel Off-White

Drawer and Cabinet Pulls - Pulls Direct

Countertops - Honed Absolute Black Granite

Stove Hood - Pacific Sales

Appliances - From Sears

       - Bosch Dishwasher

       - LG Convection Range

       - Kenmore Elite Fridge

       - Kenmore Microwave

       - Kenmore Washer & Dryer

Sink - Kraus

Faucet - American Standard

Hanging Lights - Restoration Hardware

Kitchen Chairs - Restoration Hardware - On Sale!

Table - Neal's Grandmother 

Map - Style De Vie inside HD Buttercup

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!

Fire! (Not ours!)

Hi all...this is not our house:

...but it IS in our neighborhood. Yesterday afternoon we heard tons of sirens and helicopters swirling...turns out a house 6 or so blocks away caught fire. See this post on The Eastsider for details. Yikes. Too close for comfort. Luckily, it sounds like no one was hurt and the fire didn't spread.

Even freakier is the fact that our backyard is basically a tinderbox of dried out weeds and trees that was making me upset because it is so ugly, but now Im panicked because it's probably not very safe.

Ironically, we had gone that morning for the second half of our landscaping consultation at Burkard Nurseries, where the owner Frank talked us through, not only adding a few walls to flatten out some yard for a garden, but how to put in super simple pipe irrigation to get water down to the bottom of our yard so we can start planting something more attractive then the weeds and old tile and drywall that exists now.

I will take a few BEFORE pics so you can see what we mean. Ugh. It's going to be a big project, but one that this house reminded me, is even more urgent for the safety of US and our neighbors.

Good News!

We FINALLY took some DONE kitchen pics yesterday and will fix em up and post them very soon. Back in the swing so vow to do a little more posting.

Stay tuned!