Banana Ice Cream

Sometimes, you have a banana that's just begging to be baked. And sometimes, you just don't have anything in the idea-queue. Did you know you can freeze them, and they'll defrost perfectly fine? I didn't know people were doing this. It's brilliant.

But I was ready to skip a step. Slowly but surely, I collected bananas in a ziplock baggie in the freezer. Why? Because I read this article and knew it was absolutely necessary to try it.

I was especially motivated, because we were moving and I needed to clean out the freezer. So in to the food processor they went ...


It took a while to get this way. But totally worth it.


Three bananas made two huge bowls of ice cream. So much, that we couldn't even finish it in one sitting (must be all that air in there). Since there's not much to it, it's actually pretty healthy. I could see adding yogurt, or chocolate chips, or whatever you might be possessed to put with bananas.

4 Furniture Stores & a Wedding

Even if you haven't moved many, many times, you can imagine how much work it is. And moving in to your own home somehow quadruples the work. Which leads us to the first real weekend in our home ... where we hardly spent any time at all.

Friday night we drove to north for dinner. My husband and his brother went on an expedition to Argentina a few years ago, and said brother had discovered an Argentinian restaurant not far from where he is staying in LA. So away we went to Empanada's Place.

As we were crossing the street to get to the restaurant, the clock turned eight and they closed. Closed! We were about to shuffle back across the street to Fatburger before they unlocked the door and offered to stay open, if we would get our order to go. I'll bet they're glad they did, because we walked away with an order of 15! I wish I'd taken a picture of a pizza box full of empanadas, but you can imagine how late it was. They're all a little different, which I suspect is means to identify the different types, like a box of chocolate. I personally tried the corn and the spicy chicken. This place is small, but utterly amazing and worth the trouble to get there.

Saturday we planned a trip out to Mathis Brothers for furniture, based on a family recommendation. Keep in mind I like going to Ikea, but really don't like furniture shopping. At all. We looked for a while, but found out that anything we would save by driving over an hour to the middle of nowhere was outweighed by the delivery charge. There were quite a few other furniture stores, but many were out of business. We tried a few more stores before going through the whole Ontario Mills Mall. I love these. But, again, nothing worth spending the money.

We ended up coming back home and having ice cream for dinner at Rite Aid. When we first started looking at houses, we looked at one that wasn't far from this particular Rite Aid. And I imagined walking there on random evenings for ice cream, like we did when we lived in Huntington Beach. And now, here we were. Quite a moment for me.

Sunday we got up to run. Being 2.5 miles away, I was bound and determined to run to the beach. Unfortunately, it's a brutal 2.5 miles; huge hills up and down the whole way. And I'm used to running on an utterly flat trail with the occasional slope that I'd previously refused to run up. The hills make my minute per mile average pretty pitiful, but running along the beach is entirely worth it.

We then went out in search of some of the things we'd liked at Mathis Brothers, but hopefully closer to home. A few stores later, without any luck, we came home and got ready for a wedding! I've been in the mood for a good wedding for quite some time, and it was certainly a nice evening out away from house work.

Congratulations to the bride & groom, and here we go on another week!

Pizza & Macaroons

We had our first houseguest the weekend before last! Yes, it's a hectic time to be entertaining. But it was one of my roommates from college, and you have to understand - I love these ladies. We were "randoms," and I was very, very fortunate to live with them! We don't get to see each other too often, so this was too good a chance to pass up!

I made pizza for dinner on Saturday night, which turned out to be perfect timing. My husband is quite particular about his pizza. Meaning it's not burned. It's supposed to look like that. Underneath all that cheesy goodness are artichoke hearts, spinach, and tomatoes. Have you tried making pizza crusts with the recipe I use? Did you know it's supposed to make two? And if you did, why didn't you tell me??


With a full day to play around, we attempted to make macaroons. Emphasis on the attempted. I fail as a cooking teacher. I could blame it on the change in humidity, as our old inland apartment is very dry, but let's face it - these were just a fail. My friend had brought us real macaroons and they were so soft and light and fluffy - definitely not the way mine turn out. So I thought putting less dry ingredients would make them soft and light and fluffy. It made them runny.

So we had lunch, visited the Huntington Library, attempted lobsterfest (never run out of lobsters my foot), had tapas for dinner in Hermosa Beach, and tried for round two. And failed again. Foil is not a good approximation for parchment paper. Wax paper is, but the last time I used it, the wax was hard to get off the baking sheets.


I made almond flavored buttercream for filling, but I think I put too much extract in, because they seemed to reek of alcohol. At least the second round survivors were tasty!

Slow Cooker Chicken

Man, you guys missed a couple of really good dinners. One night was burgers on sandwich-thin buns, with scalloped potatoes and corn on the cob. There was also a chicken experiment. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. The camera was right there on the counter, but we were just so hungry and it smelled so good that it didn't make it!

On our first grocery trip to our new grocery store, we found whole chickens that were actually quite reasonably priced. The chickens at our old store all seemed to run $10 and up, and I have no clue why. For about six or seven dollars, it seemed like a good time to run this experiment. Especially since I couldn't wait to cook at home again rather than eat out every meal!

I did double check how to cook a chicken in a slow cooker, and got this recipe during my search. Doesn't it sound fantastic? It most certainly was. I won't lie, though. The clean up was a major pain. All the empty jars I'd saved for the occasion of getting rid of excess grease were at our apartment, and it was a nasty job to do without. But it's another win for cooking meats in the slow cooker: the chicken just rolled off the bone.

I also made couscous, which I've started buying plain and then seasoning myself. I added rosemary and parsley, since I'm now the owner of a can of parsley when I meant to buy cilantro. Oops. And a microwaveable bag of snap peas. That's just too easy.

Of course, I didn't mean to make couscous - I meant to make this stovetop flatbread instead. There's just something really nice about having fresh bread with dinner, and this was a quick and easy one. I also learned that some kind of oil - olive, vegetable, margarine - makes the bread flaky. This opens a whole new world for me. Flaky pastries here we come!

Since I'd call this one a success, I'm sure there will be another opportunity to photograph a whole chicken sitting in a goo bath.

The Move Post

So, not long ago I was reading this article about a stealth pregnancy. And I realized that was sort of what was going on with my little home. We were doing a stealth move. And it's been enough work to feel like suddenly having a child! (and no, there are no babies in the future.)

Finding a place to live, more permanently than we ever have before, has been really tough. It seems like most people find a house in a few months. We took over a year.

But, we were holding out for what was right for us. Having lived all over the LA/OC area in the few years I've lived in California, it's become apparent what's important, specifically, when looking for somewhere to put down some roots. The place we finally chose is really the best place for us.

It's been a very hectic month, from packing and moving to getting to know the new neighborhood. The actual move, with truck and all, went incredibly smoothly. We had amazing help, to whom I am entirely thankful. Did you know you can feel pampered even when you're carrying boxes that are half your mass? We've met neighbors and tried local restaurants and now, a little over a week in, have quite a bit put away and organized.

My drive is longer, but it's a happy drive. Because I'm going home.

Disneyland Half Marathon 2009

Oh, how I love this race. It's the happiest race on earth, you know. Oh wait. This year it's a magical celebration from start to finish. My mistake.

We got up at 3:30 am to get over in time to check our bag. Yes, am. No, I don't like getting up early. Yes, I do like running.

It's been 51 days since I've been to Disneyland. That's just plain wrong.

Anyway, we bummed around a little before getting in the corrals. My poor husband did not have proof of time and was in the last corral, and now fully understands the horror. You can read about his run here.

But I ran last year in 2 hours and 26 minutes. I guess this, combined with it being my third year, granted me corral B status. Which, I'll confess, seemed a little generous. But as the race went on, it seemed like I was in the right spot.

I put on my headphones without turning on my iPod because some guy insisted on talking to me and telling me about how it was last year. I was polite but really, not interested. There were 13,500 people there to run, and they were all eerily silent for the National Anthem. Very awesome.

After the anthem and the big fanfare to start the race, my corral started moving up. Normally corrals and waves are one in the same, so I thought it was a little odd when people started running to the start line. Little did I know. My race start, in my head at least, sounded like: "Seriously, running? These people are really eager to start. Hm, we're awfully close to the archway, why are they running so fast OMG WE'RE STARTING!!"

I had a good but unremarkable 5k. This is actually important, because there's another 10 miles to go! Even still, I was just below a 10 minute per mile pace. The route through Disneyland was a little different this year, going through a part of the backlot I've never seen, where they keep horses! Funny how it smelled there, and yet, I've never smelled animals anywhere around the park.

Let me just say, my least favorite part of the course is the overpass over the 5 highway. It's probably the biggest "hill" and I hate it. A lot.

It's been pretty warm lately because of (or the reason behind) the recent fires. Here, the sun should have been up and in full force, but a miraculous marine layer had blown in just before sunrise. Thousands of people are thankful for that. Also around this point, I realized there were water/Powerade stations about every 1.5 miles. Excess, if you ask the girl who runs 6 miles without water. In the summer. But I also decided to walk through the stations to actually get water and because honestly, I was getting a little tired.

At each mile marker I checked the time, and I was still at a 10 minutes per mile pace. So I decided I should run as fast as I could the whole way and beat two hours. You'd think with all that time alone with your thoughts, you'd be able to do simple math.

One of the awesome things about the race is how many volunteers come out to entertain you along the way. The race goes through industrial Anaheim, which is kind of boring, and makes it seem like they just got lazy toward the middle of measuring the course. But there are
cheerleaders and dancers along the way, which really breaks up the monotony.

Around the Pond, down the bike trail, and up to the stadium. This was about mile 9, but I missed the marker. This year, we got to run through Angels Stadium to the cheers of hundreds of little boy and girl scouts. It was a real boost. Being on the field always reminds me of high school marching band, looking up into these stadiums that didn't seem so huge from the stands but were like mountains from the field.

We finished off through California Adventure, but the finish line wasn't at the end of Downtown Disney this year. Going by the hotels is a little less scenic, but we'd seen the finish line setup the day before so I almost didn't need mile marker 13. And for that 0.1 mile, I emptied out the last little bit of energy I had because honestly, I was kind of tired of moving. And around mile 10, my knees and hips started to go on strike. Thanks, knees and hips. I guess all your whining requires new shoes.

Normally volunteers attack you after the finish line with foil sheets and pliers to clip your chip off your shoe. This year, there was some winding around, but no chips to clip (where did these d-tags come from all of a sudden?). It was actually pretty calm. So I got some fruit and went to wait at our prescribed meeting spot.

A whole orange and a banana later, my husband hadn't shown up. Even though he started after me, he's much faster. Although I hadn't seen him pass me (our six minute time difference explained that later). He finally turned up utterly exhausted, and we loitered around a long time
before going home.
Such was my third half marathon. I wouldn't say I was in particularly good shape, but I'm pleased with my time. There's always the hope of breaking a major milestone like the two-hour mark, but with recent events, I'm pleased with beating my last time by almost a minute per
mile. In fact, I'd kind of forgotten a little how much I like to run. So, once we're settled again, the weather and location should be very conducive to running much more.

My only regret is that I wasn't more present in the moment while running. Although, my brain probably needed the break.

Pitas and Hummus

It's two for one!

I needed something to take to a picnic besides some ribs. I'd been meaning to make hummus out of the two cans of chickpeas in the cabinet, and to try making bread on the stove. This seemed like as good an opportunity as any! Obviously it's easier to make a simple appetizer from scratch than to spend $5 at the grocery store.

Our grocery store just started carrying pitas in the last year. In fact, they now have a little shelving section to all different kinds of flatbreads. But I'd seen this article on baking without the oven after watching a silly video of a man making English muffins on an iron in a hotel room. Did this actually work?

While the (whole wheat!) pita dough was rising, I got to work making hummus. Hummus is one of those foods that you shouldn't use a recipe to make. I loosely based mine off of this recipe, but after a long and bitter battle with the food processor, I really don't know how much I ended up putting in aside from two cans of chickpeas and 1/3 cup of almonds.

That's right. No tahini. Just almonds on hand. Tahini is just sesame seeds whipped in to a paste, so it stood to reason another nut could stand in. There's a wealth of information on the internet about tahini substitutions. It worked out just fine. Over-filling the food processor did not work out as fine.

There was plenty of extra-light olive oil involved. Hm, I wonder how butter or margarine would fare?

Embarrassingly, it took probably about an hour to get the hummus blended. The dough hadn't really risen much, but it was time to get cooking anyway. I'm starting to wonder, though, if my yeast is too old. Or if it just didn't have enough power to lift up the wheat flour, which seems extra heavy to me. Regardless, I pressed out six inch flat rounds and threw them in a pan in some olive oil cooking spray. They didn't puff up, but they did cook in about a minute in a half on each side as advertised.

Whatever. It came out tasting good. And even though there were leftovers, I'd say they went over with the crowd pretty well.

Very, very simple. And it's pretty Martha to show up at a picnic saying "Oh, I just made some pitas and hummus to bring this afternoon."