Boogie Boarding

Growing up in Santa Barbara, I have always loved the beach. One of my favorite things to do at the beach is boogie board. I've been doing it practically all of my life. This particular board has been to Hawaii multiple times, and countless beaches in LA and SB. There's something about it that is just pure joy. When the waves are decent, it's incredibly easy, fun, and a little bit crazy - a perfect recipe for a good time. While surfing is more of a "zen" activity (we did a little of that today, too), boogie boarding is just pure instant gratification, and brings back tons of childhood memories. For example, I'll never forget the huge (scary) shore break at Big Beach on Maui.

Most recently, Sarah and I have been taking the bus to the beach on Sunday mornings. This week, we brought the boogie boards. Despite a pretty wicked sunburn on my back (I guess SPF 15 just isn't enough), boy did we have a good time. See for yourself:

Tea

So, this blog seems to be fairly food oriented. Maybe b/c meal times are times of connecting. One of these days I'll do a post of my favorite place, but that one will need lots of attention. For now, I'd like to talk about tea.

We found this teapot at Cost plus World Market while we were furnishing our place, and the teacup is from our Pottery Barn wedding registry dish collection. In this picture, the teapot was brewing some delicious dandelion detox tea from Yogi. After a series of stressful events, I have some time off so I'm using them to only drink juice from fresh vegetables. That's what everyone does, right? The tea was amazing, refreshing, and a tasty break from carrots and kale (which are very very very difficult to enjoy in bulk... I'm enjoying the long term benefits of the detox diet more than the taste)... in short, this scrumptious tea made my day!!

A short note on tea: Always remember to prep your teapot by swishing some hot water in there first, let the heat soak into the pot, then splash that out and pour in the rest of the water. That way your tea really brews Hot! :-)

Goat Cheese Omelets

You may notice a theme on this blog...food. Well, here we go again. Food makes me happy. Good food makes me happier. Good food that reminds me of especially good times makes me especially happy. That's where the goat cheese omelet comes in. For our honeymoon, my wife and I went to Jamaica. One of the best things about our resort was the food, including 24 hour room service. During our time there we got obsessed with goat cheese omelets, delivered fresh every morning. Not only are they delicious, but they remind us of a really fun time in our lives, and relationship.

That brings us to the present. Last weekend I spent my carmageddon (also known as the best traffic weekend in LA, EVER!) at the Eat Real Festival in Culver City. They had lots of craft beer and local food, including a local goat cheese producer, Drake Family Farms. I picked up a couple packages of their cheese, and wow, is it delicious. We made goat cheese omelets this morning and they turned out great! We also got the fixings for a great goat cheese salad later this week. Yum! Check it out the finished product below (just egg, goat cheese, and sliced green onions):

Fresh Tamales from the neighborhood!

This is a more recent obsession. There is a woman who walks all around the neighborhood every morning selling homemade tamales. They are $1 each, and absolutely delicious. She doesn't speak any English, so it's been fun to practice my (admittedly fading) Spanish skills. I've even acted as a "translator" for my neighbors! She seems very nice, and although I don't even know her name yet, it's been really fun getting to know her. And she makes incredible Tamales. I'd never even had one until these, but they are amazing. Just look:

Anyway, it's a delicious (although probably not too healthy) way to start your day in true Los Angeles fashion! And don't worry Mom, they're usually only a weekend treat :-).

Making things from scratch that you usually just buy

My wife Sarah and I have been getting in to cooking, like many young married couples do. Lately we discovered making croutons and chips at home! We always have a little extra bread laying around, so croutons are a perfect use of starting-to-harden cracked wheat sour dough bread. That's Sarah's specialty...she cuts them up, adds olive oil and Italian spices, then broils them in the oven. They taste amazing...absolutely no comparison with store bought!

 We also were left with quite a few extra corn tortillas after a big fajita making housewarming party, and decided to come up with a use for them. I found some recipe's online, and realized it's pretty easy! Just chop up the tortillas (I use a pizza cutter), lay them flat on a cookie sheet, spray both sides with cooking spray, top off with some cayenne pepper, salt, and paprika, and cook 'em at 450 until their done! They seem healthier than most chips, and taste great! Plus, there's no bag of chips laying around the house to tempt you (I stopped buying chips about a year ago because I can't control myself). When you want them, you just make them!

Plants Vs Zombies

I'm not much of a gamer... I swear. I was happier watching my brothers beat Final Fantasy VII and Starcraft and all the classics, rather than try and get past level one myself. But! I admit I have a new game love: Plants vs Zombies!


Does that picture look ridiculous? That because it is.... a ridiculous amount of fun!!!!! I was very skeptical when Kevin showed me the game on our Xoom Tablet. I didn't think I'd give it an entire minute. Three days of planting pea lobbing plants and sunflowers to kill oncoming undead attackers later, I finally beat the adventure mode. Phew!!! I couldn't think about anything else until I did. So addictive! But I think it activates a part of my brain, the intelligent strategy creating war game lobe of the brain that doesn't get activated very often in daily life. Whatever the reason, this video game makes me so happy!!!!!!!

It's available in the iOS AppStore or the Amazon AppStore on Android. Go kill some Zombies!!!

The way your mouth feels drinking coffee after a spicy breakfast

OK I know this one is really specific, but it really does make me happy. For example, I made spicy omelette's for breakfast yesterday (eggs, onions, peppers, pepper jack cheese, and habanero sausage). It was delicious, and left that subtle burn in my mouth; not overpowering, but there. For some reason, I just love drinking coffee after eating a breakfast like that. My mouth is still tingly and full of flavor, and the coffee just blends in with a weirdly satisfying mixture. Maybe it's because it reminds me of fun brunches, like on the beach in El Salvador with my sister, or my honeymoon with Sarah. Or maybe it's just awesome on its own. Or both.