Sunday, June 24, 2007

Backyard Korean BBQ

Pulling into the busy parking lot of HanNam Chain Supermarket on Olympic, just West of Vermont, I knew I would 't see too many non-Korean shoppers.

I pulled out a recipe for Korea-town Beef to BBQ this weekend and love that I can find a local store that carries everything I need. I'm sure I could have found the same ingredients at Vons or Ralphs, but I like the authenticity and the adventure of going to a Korean market. They carried several items with Korean/English labels, some only Korean.
I wish I knew my bean pastes. I ended up getting a nice red bean paste because I liked the color. Everything else was pretty easy. Soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, brown sugar, garlic and things like that. I also picked up an assortment of seasoned Korean cucumber and bean sprout salads but steered wide of the 5 gallon tubs of kimchee.

Monday, June 18, 2007

The Rebel in Me

I've been pretty happy with my little point and shoot cameras, and before our spring holiday to Venice and Paris, and all points in between, I did buy me a new Canon PowerShot SD900 with 10 mega pixels. But I still couldn't get all of the shots I wanted. I couldn't get the depth in my close ups and I was really limited in the zoom area, and even with 10 mega pixels I still wasn't getting the clarity I wanted. So I went and bought a Canon Rebel XT with 8 mega pixels and a standard 18-55mm lens, plus a super 75-300mm lens.

Now I'm not the most technically advanced person on the planet and I thought that this camera might have too many features for me ('cause I don't know all the lingo or my f-stops and shutter speeds), but I do know what I like and I don't think this is too much camera for me. I've been shooting everything there is to shoot around the house and I'm playing with the settings and all. And when I can take a shot of Jiggy's little black padded paw with the depth that I've been wanting to see in my shots, well lookit:I've been captivated with photography from a very early age. And travel is a passion and where there's travel there's photos to take. So, all full of guilt for not spending where I need to (that running bathroom faucet that is just money down the drain) and instead spending on a pure want... well I haven't quite reconciled that in my brain yet.

And the more practical part of me is shaking her head and making a mental list of better ways I could have spent my money, and tisk-tisking myself for this, the visual part of me that loves order and symmetry and colors and light and spontaneity and slices of life and moments in time, she is lit up inside and can't wait to capture the next journey (or flower or cat or cloud in the sky).

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Paint Me a Placemat

I'll tell you how wonderful my husband is. On our first anniversary last year we returned to the Edendale Grill where we went to dinner on our wedding night. I remember the Fried Green Tomatoes were out of this world delish. It was also the paper anniversary and I got my Sweetie a book (which obviously qualifies).

However, not being aware of the
anniversary gift content tradition my adoring husband was lacking in this department. Not that I expected anything at all. But this year when we both came to realize that our anniversary was approaching and that the content of cotton was in order, not only did I receive two gifts (a new cotton covered down comforter and a cotton blanky) but I also received from my loving husband a paper gift (that covered last year's content).

And not just paper, but the paper place mat from a cafe
where we had dinner one glorious night in Paris. Le Notre Dame Cafe and our hotel are wonderfully reproduced on the paper place mats of this cafe and while admiring them Will said he was taking one with him. I didn't think he would get the paper place mat home without creasing it, but he rolled it up and somehow got it home crease-free. Now, a month later, I'd forgotten all about the place mat, but not my Sweetie. He went out and did this, for me. How sweet is that!?! And I think we'll find a nice place for it in the kitchen, our own little cafe.

Second Anniversary Photos here.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Tea in the Shade of a Palm Tree

Some weekend happenings around the house. We invited Will's mom, Casey, over for BBQ on Memorial Day. I made pasta salad and fresh Bruschetta from an herb blend we bought in Positano. I set the patio table with the linens from Positano and Paris along with my little Venice oil painting and the winged lion sculpture standing on its slab of marble. Will, the grill master, cooked our steaks and we had a lovely bottle of wine and a lovely visit with Will's mom. After transferring about 80 minutes worth of our vacation photos to a DVD to show her, I was thoroughly surprised that she sat through the entire length of it in one sitting and mostly seemed to be interested in them and to enjoy them.
This afternoon out to the back yard I lounged with some tea and the shade of the palm tree and hearing a little chirp I was quite amazed to spot the little hummingbird tike on a fig tree branch. Soon the mom came along and the little tike opened his little beak mouth and mom fed him. I saw her go and come back to repeat the feeding one more time. I finally decided it was time to go get the camera. I got a pretty good one of the little bird sitting on on it's branch. A while later it did a couple of very short flights to other nearby branches and poked around a fig leaf like I'd seen its mom do in front of them while they were still in ther nest. Then the little bird took off for good to the next tree over and out of sight.
I got a couple of snaps of the pretty hydrangeas coming into bloom and Ranger asking me could I please grab her ball from the other side of the fence.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

A Coin in the Fountain

Rome, Italy
05/12/07
Docking late in the morning and a 45 minute coach ride to actually reach Rome didn't help. We had a plan. We covered a good amount of ground and saw most all of the things we wanted to see, but it felt rushed. I need more time.
But I did throw my coin in the fountain and that should ensure me a return trip to Rome, some day. When I don't have a ship to catch.
Photos are up.