Damn Squash Bugs!

Back in the late summer, I had a mess going on in my garden.  I had a squash bug infestation that took over my zucchini  my squash and my cucumbers.  I eventually had to call it a day and just rip them out.

Damn Bagrada Bugs!

Then my garden (and every other garden in our community garden), got a nasty case of the bagrada bug.  Which basically will eat anything in sight.  And while I was slow to get them eating my veggies, it turns out at the end of my garden, hidden under my  nasturtium I was hosting a bagrada bug mating factory.

Which of course means, once they made it to my kale, it was high time to rip E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. out.  So sad.

So after not stepping foot in my garden for over a month, today I stopped by the local nursery to pick up some seedlings so I could get things growing again.

But what the hell?!?  I stopped at two different nurseries (Sunset Nursery – one of my all time faves) and OSH (one of my local hardware stores) and neither of them had much of anything.

And I mean nothing.  Some lettuce and some herbs.  And plenty of flowers. But not much else.

New Plants for the Winter Garden

I was able to pick up a new kale seedling and some purple cauliflower.  And a couple six-packs of flowers.  But that’s it.  No broccoli, no peas or beans.  Nada.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the crazy hot temperatures we’ve got going on these days.

Oh well, I guess in the end it’s better to test with fewer items to see if those damn bagrada bugs are still around.

Wish me luck!

Somehow, the conversation turned to talk of making perfect hard boiled eggs.  Now I will admit, for years and I do mean YEARS, I had no idea how to hard boil my eggs. I’d over cook them.  I’d under cook them.  Nothing worked.

Then one day, I was watching Rachel Ray and she shared her secret.  Since then, I’ve never had a bad batch of boiled eggs.  Which means, we’ve also been enjoying egg salad (with lots of dill…yum!).

So here’s what I learned from Rachel.  It’s so simple you’re going to wonder how everyone doesn’t know about this.

1. Put your eggs in the smallest pot they can all comfortably fit into, cover them with water (no lid) and turn the heat on high (meaning, the flame heats the bottom of the pot, not the bottom and half-way up the sides).
2. Let the water get to a rolling boil.  It should look something like this *
3. Turn off the heat and cover the pot (I use a silicone lid, but you can use whatever works).
4. Leave them for about 15 minutes, covered, without heat (you can even remove them from the stove – I usually don’t).  I’ve actually left them on the stovetop for hours and they were still fine.
5. Now you can do whatever you want with them: paint them for Easter baskets, peel them to eat or to cut, make deviled eggs, make egg salad, the choice is yours.

In the time it took me to write this, my eggs are now ready for me to turn into egg salad…yum!

* photos to come

Funny how when you think about it, both are so closely related.  I mean, writing is clearly a form of expressing ones self creatively. Yet for some reason, while I’ve managed to write a weekly newsletter and weekly blog posts over on my business side of things, as well as create two books over the summer break, I’ve not carved out time to write over here.

I blame part of it on Facebook.  Before we had social media, the main way that bloggers shared our thoughts with the world was to blog about them.  And well, that took some time to do…you had to write it out, find photos (because they kept telling us that we need photos or our posts won’t ever get read), format it, pretty it up, and post it.  Then you had to wait for folks to find it and fingers-crossed, read it and leave a comment.

Then we had Facebook (which I’ll admit, I was way slow in getting into), where we could share whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted with our friends and we had instantaneous feedback in the form of comments or likes (or back in the good ol’ days, even dislikes).  And on Twitter, we had an even bigger audience to share anything and everything (as long as it was 140 characters) with the entire world.  Much like with our blogs, anyone could follow along.  Things went by so quickly on Twitter that it really didn’t matter if folks commented or retweeted or whatever, as long as you had those followers, you were golden.

Which is really just my way of saying that I kind of left the more personal side of blogging, for my social networks.  In particular, for Facebook.  You know where I could share any photo, story, article, or random thought.*  It’s so easy. Oh, how I love me some Facebook *sigh*

As for that “creativity” thing…this is something that I’ve actually been leaning into for the past couple years. I’ve read books. I’ve taken a couple classes.  I’ve picked up art supplies to play with.  I’ve taken my camera everywhere (and now I’m rarely without one thanks to my iPhone). I’ve written, drawn, stamped, colored, painted, taped, glued, and sparkled.

Yet, I still find that I struggle with this concept a bit.

Lately, I’ve gotten more comfortable with the fact that while I might never call myself an artist (let along an artiste!), as an entrepreneur and a writer, I AM creative.  When you think about it, one can’t create a business if they’re not creative.  The mere process of running your business, setting up the systems, creating the products and services…that’s all a creative, artistic process.

I don’t think I really understood that fully until I read Tara Gentile’s The Art of Earning.  She goes into a lot of explanation how the very process of earning income, is an artistic process.  Essentially going on to say that when you get down to it, living life is a creative process.

And this makes sense to me.

As a teacher, I think it’s really important to get our children comfortable with creativity.  Not just art and music.  But the outside of the box thinking that is necessary to succeed in life and business.  The sports, the dance, the story telling, the critical thinking.  All of it. It’s all part of embracing your creativity.

If you’d like to dig a little deeper and learn more about your creative side, I’d recommend you pick up Tara’s book (it’s only $3 for the digital copy – less than a latte at Starbucks).  I think it might get you looking at your daily experiences a little differently.

* if you’d like to follow along my FB journey of randomness, feel free. I don’t friends folks I don’t know, but you’re more than welcome to “subscribe” (and I do share things regularly that my subscribers can access).

It was a difficult job.  You’d meet these men (during my time, there was only one woman), that we charming and funny and sometimes even good looking, and you’d hear their stories.  During all my intakes, I never got the bitter guy that said “she deserved it”.  No, I always got the charming ones.

So of course, there was also this teeny, tiny part of me that kinda believed that it was an accident.  I mean, the logical part of the brain knew that they were just telling a story.  But the naive, young woman in me sometimes thought that maybe this one was telling the truth.

Which, I must say, make it difficult for this single gal to trust the men she was dating…Were they telling me the truth? were they making up stories? Were they lying through their teeth?

That is, until the day my former boss came in for his intake.

Just to clear the air, he wasn’t my direct boss, but he was the owner of the salon I was working for.  So when I answered the phone, so I recognized his name.  I scheduled his intake and told my boss that I knew him so someone else would need to take the meeting.

When he showed up, he said that he was fine with my doing the interview (clue one he’s convinced he did nothing wrong).  During the whole interview, he went on and on about how it was an accident.  How his wife called the police but it was just to “get back at him” during an argument.  Et cetera, et cetera.

Thing is, I knew him.  Personally.  I was there, both inside his salon as an employee and outside his salon when I worked across the way.  I’d seen the short tempers.  I’d heard the yelling.  I’d seen the rampages.

I didn’t believe a word he said.  I knew better.

That day I decided that I could no longer work with this population of individuals (or substance abusers – domestic violence and substance abuse tend to go hand in hand) and quit.

My heart goes out to anyone that has suffered any sort of abuse…physical, sexual, financial or emotional.  I know they must feel trapped and they don’t realize that there is a way out.  And just as importantly, that they’re not alone and there is support out there.

Which is why when a friend shared this video from YouTube sensation, make-up artist, Lauren Luke I had to share it.  I later realized that it’s a fictionalized account, but it looks so real (especially the fear in her eyes at the end).

It’s a short one (under two minutes)…watch it.

And if it moves you, do whatever you feel you can do to help the cause and support other women in similar situations.  And if you need help, please, know you’re not alone and help is only a phone call away (800-799-SAFE).

This particular campaign is with Refuge.org – if you’re in the US and need help you can contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline (800-799-SAFE)

* A flowchart by Wendy MacNaughton for a Forbes article on how and why to ignore your inbox.

I found this Black Bean and Vegetable Soup recipe on All Recipes (it had great reviews), and tweaked it a bit. I cut down on the veggie broth (reviews said it was way too much), added an extra can of beans (pinto as it was all I had on hand), used roasted diced tomatoes with garlic and I didn’t have chili powder so I used red pepper.  And if it matters, one can of black beans was a Trader Joe’s cuban black beans (already seasoned so I didn’t rinse them much).

Even cutting down the broth it was still a little too runny.  I’m thinking that next time I’d add some rice to thicken it up.  And yes, it was a little too spicy for me, but it was so yummy.  And let’s face it, with enough sour cream, nothing is too spicy!

And no photos as I’m not a food blogger here

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter or vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 teaspoon red pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can pinto beans
• 1 (8.75 ounce) can whole kernel corn
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• a sprinkling of pepper flakes

Directions

1. In large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat; cook onion, garlic, and carrots, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until onion is softened. Add chili powder and cumin; cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add stock, the beans, corn, and pepper; bring to boil.
2. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 30  minutes or until carrots are tender.
3. Puree with an immersion blender or save one can of beans to blend/puree with the tomatoes
4. Serve over rice, with sour cream & a sprinkling of jack cheese

For the past couple years I’ve taken on the salad and corn casserole.  Last year I added some fresh baked no knead bread.  So this year I decided to go that route again.  And maybe throw in a few extras ‘cuz I’m crazy like that.

So we’ve got my now standards: spinach, gorganzola, cranberry and walnut salad; corn casserole; and no knead bread. But I’ve also added on a cranberry upside down cake (it looks so good).  And quite possibly cranberry and brie puff pasty bites – I haven’t yet decided if I have enough time in the morning.  I’m also not quite sure how well they’ll travel, so I might just scratch the puffs.

So what did you decide to make this year?  Any new recipes you want to share?

About a week ago I found out about Pinterest (and yes, I know that I’m so, so, SO very late to the game here).  I find that I spend more “extra” time poking around an pinning things than I spend poking around on Facebook.

I’ve found recipes, art projects, cute clothes, gardening tips, beautiful pictures and motivational quotes.  And that’s just sticking with only 2-3 categories.

It’s some good stuff.  It’s some addictive stuff.  But I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Feel free to…

Late one night, two cooks were hanging out at a local bar after their hard night working the dinner shift.  They got to thinking that if they could bring together many of the rising young cooks and showcase their talents, that they’d not only give the people a memorable dining experience, but they could also give back to the community.

…and Cooks Menu was born.

According to one of the coordinators and participating chefs, Howard Ko, “it’s about creating a collaborative effort not by head chefs, but by sous chefs, meat cooks, fish cooks, entremets, garde manger, pastry cooks and the front of the house.”

Chefs, mixologists and staff from renowned LA hotspots such as Mélisse Restaurant, Church and State, Il Grano, Joe’s Restaurant, Katsuya and Bottega Louie will be cooking things up in the kitchen to benefit Breast Cancer Connections.  The featured wines will be sponsored by Palimina and Brewer-Clifton Wines.

If you want to be part of this talk of the town event, be sure to act quickly as they only have 60 seats open.  And as would be expected, they’re going quickly.

Here’s everything you need to know about this sure to be fantastic dinner*:

When: Sunday, November 6th – 7:00PM – 11:00PM
Where: Il Grano — 11363 Santa Monica Blvd
Price: $75 per person, all inclusive, 6 course family style meal including featured wine and cocktails
Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/204531
Menu: http://cooksmenu.org/bccnov6dinnermenu.html

Dinner Brought To You By:

Howard Ko, Fish Cook – Mélisse Restaurant
Brian Maynard, Meat Cook – Mélisse Restaurant
Charlie Skidmore, Sous Chef – Church and State
Sal Marino, Chef/Owner – Il Grano
en Gell, Meat Cook – Joe’s Restaurant
Dawn McElhare, Mixologist – Katsuya
Eulogio Rios and Ethan Stiffelman, Pastry Cooks – Melisse Restaurant

* sadly, I won’t be able to attend as I have a previous engagement that night.

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One of my favorite fashion events is the Sassy City Chicks event.  And lucky for us, there’s another one coming up on November 3rd.  There’s shopping, there’s cocktails, there’s even spa treatments and goody bags!  It’s a fun night with your girlfriends.

And you can WIN FREE TICKETS: the first 25 fashionistas who enter LAGAL at checkout will win a Sassy Tote Ticket!

*Ticket includes: admission – swag bag – cocktails – spa treatments

And I’ve yet to leave empty handed.  So definitely check it out!

WHO: Sassy City Chicks

WHAT: Los Angeles Fall Fashion Bash

WHERE: 6060 Wilshire Blvd. (@ Fairfax)

WHEN: Thursday, November 3^rd, 2011 from 5 – 10PM

Major discounts on Fall apparel & accessories- just in time for the holidays! Featuring deep discounts on major labels like Free People, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Elie Tahari, Denimocracy, Members Only, and LNA. Complimentary cocktails will be served, courtesy of Pinnacle Vodka and Qream Liqueur. Guests can also enjoy FREE mini spa services from a selection of LA’s hottest salons.