Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Fall in Los Angeles

A short work week in Los Angeles allowed me to see some fall colors.
This house had really cool landscaping along the stone fence.
View from the top northwest of Los Angeles.
Lunch at Brent's where I had breakfast and some well done steak fries.
Another lunch at Small Island for ramen and sushi.
And a final stop before home at Dreamy Creations Bakery.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

November Spin Group

Shelley hosted spin group with just me and Jeri.  It was cozy and I brought knitting as my spinning mojo is missing.

We caught up and I visited with the dogs.
Shelly prepared a vegetable stew served over brown rice and quinoa.  I contributed a potato casserole and Jeri brought a fruit salad.
It seems to have been such a long time since our last get together.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Perfect Roasted Chicken

I'm trying to clear out my freezer for the holidays and pulled out a chicken.  I searched for a good recipe and found this one purporting to be the perfect one.

Prepping was easy.
After an hour, it came out of the oven with super crispy skin.
Meat was juicy and tasty.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Visit with Val in the Frigid Cold

I visited Val for some sewing and it was bitterly cold.  It was a great time since we stayed indoors most of the time watching TV, chatting, and sewing.

I hung with the animals or they hung with me.
I continued working on the Glacier Star quilt and was almost finished the with pieces, but discovered an error so there will be redos as well as getting fabric from home to finish.
Val worked on a strip quilt that I really liked too.
We ate mostly in like this salmon steak meal with roasted brussel sprouts.
Costco provided some instant chicken pho and breakfast burritos.
We went out one day and it was in the single digits and too cold for words where we had Smash burgers with the chipotle buns.
Cold and snow!  I could not live in that environment unless it was the hibernate during the winter without leaving the house.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Another Colorado Field Trip

Made another field trip to Colorado arriving on a cold day, but was pleasantly surprised by the warm temperatures.  We spent a lot of time in the car again driving from place to place and surprisingly we found some good food along the way.

The first night we ate at the hotel - Embassy Suites and I had the bison burger.  The waiter was kind enough to bring me some ginger ketchup for the burger and fries.
We also found a pho place called Pho 82 owned by Chinese people.  Pretty good for the middle of nowhere.
We got a recommendation for a sushi place which took a bit to find as the name was spelled wrong, but the rolls were good and they had a bunch of cheater chopsticks at the counter.
There was a great moon one night but the camera just could not do it justice.
The last meal was at the hotel since we were beat where I had the chipotle chicken flatbread.
The view from our floor to the lobby.
Breakfast is still the best meal of the day.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Dinner at Josephine's

I was lucky to receive an invitation to dinner from Josephine who gave me the recipe for the Tapioca Almond Jello.

It was great as it was on a weekend in between two trips so I didn't have to think about another meal.  I brought my almond sponge cake for dessert.

We had a wide variety of dishes including short ribs and mushrooms, Jo's crab dish, steamed fish, sprout greens, and a dish of glass noodles with tofu, turkey meatballs, fish, and pig skin.
Jo also prepared a flan that came out of a box.  Lovely dinner and interesting conversation to learn more about each other.

We finished out the meal with tea and it seems a staple now when I get together with these friends.