Thursday, August 26, 2010

I am not Martha.

Just when you think you have this whole cooking/baking/decorating grown up business under control, THIS happens:


Baaaahhhaaaaahaaa haaa! THAT, friends, is zucchini bread.

Faced with loads of zucchini from our garden, and feeling super confident, I decided to bake a  loaf last night.  As Mr. J studied away in his little room, I turned on the radio, preheated the oven, grated the zucchini, mixed it all together, poured it in a loaf pan and popped it in the oven.  La la la!!!  One hour later, I pulled it out, and it looked like this.  WTF?!

It was all sickly and sticky on the top, and crispy brown on the bottom and the sides.  Deflated, I started to wonder what I had done wrong.  First things first, I used a loaf pan that was way too huge.  Not sure what it was appropriate for, but it sure wasn't meant for this.  I found another pan in our stash that was probably half as big as the one I used.  Whoops.

I'm not going to let a little funky zucchini bread get me down.  Oh no. I sliced it up and ate it with my coffee this morning.


Seriously, how bad can something with chocolate chips be?  I'll take another crack at it (so.  much.  zucchini.)
and let you know if it turns out any better!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Wanna see my living room?

So it's been a month since we've been here in California, and I figured it was high time I showed off our new place.  Here are a few shots of the empty space, right before we moved our stuff in.  Uhh.  Please excuse the image quality.  It was hot, I was tired, the movers were waiting to get in with our stuff.  So I ran around and snapped a few photos before all hell broke loose.

The living room:


The corner of the living room:


The living room from the dining room:


And, the finished space:


A bit of a close up:



And dear god, help me out here, our new TV:



It's enormous, ginormous really, and totally ridiculous.  My dad was getting a new TV, and asked us if we wanted it....I said NO!  Mr J, predictably, was super enthused.  And here we have it.  Though I must admit, now that I've been watching it for about a week...I'm sort of into it.  Who knew I was a big screen sort of gal? 

So that's it, my living room for the next two years.  I gotta say, I'm not crazy about the paint color--never would have picked it myself--but we're too lazy to proposition our landlords with the idea of us repainting.  It'll work for now.  With that huge TV taking up most of the wall, you can barely see the paint anyway, huh?




Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Hello California

Mr. J and I are officially Californians now.  Moving is a crazy, hectic, umm....kind of a traumatic experience, and I don't recommend it for the faint of heart! But, the dust is settling here, and things are getting back to normal. 

We found a small house to rent while Mr. J is in school, and as a bonus, we've inherited a sort of neglected, but super productive vegetable garden. There's a horseshoe pit, and the previous tenants even had a chicken coop.  Not that I'm into that sort of thing.  A couple of friends who've come over called it our little farm.  Awww.  We've always wanted a farm!! 

Check out our cherry tomatoes (there are literally zillions of these):


And our heirloom tomatoes, ripening away:


Lemons!


Corn!


Squash!


Horsehoes!



Sunflowers! Bees!


And our lone farm animal, chewing sticks in the shade.


We have so much produce, it's kind of ridiculous.  We've barbequed corn, onions, squash, zucchini, and made salsa, pasta and bruschetta with the tomatoes.  What do you even do with that many tomatoes??  Help!  I'll keep y'all posted on some of our successful summer recipes.

It's good to be back!
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