turkey tom

my first thanksgiving away from the fam! okay, i lie. i did spend thanksgiving in chicago with my friend and her family my freshman year of college. i suppose you would call this my first adult thanksgiving. can i just tell you, it was lovely! i feel a bit guilty that i had such a wonderful time without my parents :/ not to say i don't enjoy spending holidays with them, but it was pretty cool having more than 3 people at the table.

the bestie was hosting the dinner and we all split up the list so it was pretty even-stevens. i brought the green beans (none of that nasty casserole nonsense, just classic green beans) and these tasty sweet potatoes topped with fresh rosemary, garlic and chopped walnuts. i need to thank mr. bob greene for that recipe! i also volunteered to bring the thanksgiving dessert. i will admit, i love baking. absolutely love it! i'm pretty confident in my baking skills, but why i decided to bring an apple pie when i've never made any sort of pie in my life is beyond me. but none the less, that's what happened. this one was pretty apple-liscious and i topped it with streusel. check out the before and after photos.

i tried to scale it with the recipe card and the tea kettle, so as you can see it was chock-full of apples. nom! and after all of my worrying, the pie came out perfectly and everyone had a piece and loved it. perfection!

with only 8 of us, we had quite a spread. and i didn't want to be rude and neglect anyone's dishes, so i tried everything! check out this mighty tasty plate.

 

happy thanksgiving!!

i'll be home for christmas...?

i'm slowly getting a taste of reality and i'm happy to say it doesn't taste as bitter as i had feared. the traveling thing has been a bit of a kick in the pants. i feel like i've been missing out on some really amazing moments that i delusionally (yes, i just made up that word, let's go with it) thought i'd be able to make, but thank goodness there's facebook! srsly. not to say that really replaces  personal interactions with friends and family, but i do enjoy living vicariously through photos and comments.

my dear friend from high school got married to his super hot girlfriend a couple of weeks ago. it was like a high school reunion, wedding-style. missed that one. boo :/


also missed my grandpa's 95th birthday party in minnesota. i'll be honest, that was pretty devastating. i'm just going to throw this out there, my grandpa is the best grandpa in the world. really. and that's not even a biased opinion. he's just amazing. how many 95 year old's do you know enjoy dancing, bowling and playing a mean game of 500? did i mention he's blind in one eye, but can still pick up the spare? you just have to tell him what pins are still up (he's pretty stellar at making strikes, though). i try to make it up at least once a year to see him. check out this pic from last november. my cousin's and i made some spectacular tacky christmas sweaters. grandpa rocked his sweater out on his birthday. loves!

thanksgiving is right around the corner, but i won't be going home. i thought it was going to be hard since i'll be missing a visit from my grandma and uncle, but i've come to terms with it. i'm excited to enjoy a potluck dinner with the bestie and some new cali friends.

i'm crossing my fingers that i'll be able to make it back to texas for christmas, but no job = no plane ticket. in wonder if another cross-country drive is in order?

houses of the holy

church shopping in LA is a bit overwhelming. there are SO many options. i will admit that i really haven't been putting in the greatest effort thus far, but slow and steady wins the race, right? 

i was raised lutheran but i'm pretty open to checking out other similar sects. i went to a local presbyterian church a few weeks ago. pretty building but definitely not for me. maybe i was put off by the fact that the average age was 70. or that they asked everyone to hug three people near them. hmmm... no thanks.

this weekend i set out for a lutheran church down the road. to my surprise the service is lead in spanish. you'd think they would mention that on their website?? i quickly relocated to another lutheran chuch closer to LA. with only 7 cars in the parking lot five minutes before the service i moved on. 

i decided to go further into town and found myself at a lutheran chuch in hollywood. i think they lied about their average 150 member attendance. more like 40. definitely a laid back environment and i liked the sermon, but the old lady next to me had some sort of horrible sinus leakage or something so i was a bit distracted with her constant back throat ticking. ew. i also wasn't really vibing with the 7 member choir, but they did have a killer saxophone player.

the search continues...

louder than ever

talk about a great week! no, not this week, although it's definitely unfolding nicely, but last week was pretty darn stellar. here's a quick play-by-play.

monday - met a new friend of a friend for lunch. she's also looking for her dream job out here in LA so it's nice to find someone with a flexi schedule like myself.
tuesday - i brought the bestie to a sxsw film mixer party in hollywood. so nice to see some friendly austin faces on the west side! we grabbed a couple free beers and mingled with some LA film locals. sweet. late-night dinner at umami burger. a little too pretentious for me. tasty, yes, but when asking to sub a veggie patty for a beef patty their response was 'we don't add anything, we only take away. if you want a veggie burger you have to order the (whatever).' meh. if you have a burger craving i recommend the counter or taylor's automatic refresher. yumz.
wednesday - hiking at escondido falls in malibu with new friend of friend. after we parted ways i headed up north with a cold mountain dew and relaxed at zuma beach. probably one of my favorite spots out here, thus far.

that evening i went to the sxsw music mixer at this beautiful hotel called the sunset marquis. i was told it's a major celeb hideout. taylor swift was there that morning. i did some music mingling and met some cool music industry kids who were also in their 20's. it was encouraging to see that it is possible to make it in the scene when you're still young. we (i took my friend from venice) ended up hitting it off with those kids and met them at sofitel hotel's stone rose lounge for a post-party cocktail. they have this crazy junk food platter that comes complete with ice cream, cookies, rice krispy treats, cotton candy, cracker jacks..... the list goes on. you'll definitely need a large posse to handle it.
thursday - i was able to get some down time with one of my sxsw friends and we grabbed a chillax lunch at real food daily. they're an organic vegan restaurant. i think even you carnivores would dig it. go in with an open mind :)
friday - one of my flashback friend's from my college days was in town so we had an easy afternoon on the coast. we went out to bay cities in santa monica (highly recommend for you serious sandwich lovers) and then up the coast, back to zuma. also meandered through topanga canyon. such an amazing drive.

 

that evening i grabbed my friend from the getty and we drove 55 miles east to pomona to catch the cold war kids at the glass house. kind of crazy that this was their closest show to LA, considering they're from long beach. great venue, great show. if you do check out the glass house, make sure you don't stand under the ventilation pipe. srsly. i was there all evening, felt like i was in downtown chicago in march. these cali kids couldn't take the chilly air so i didn't have people crowding up around me, but i did get a few goosebumps after an hour into the set. if you bring a sweatshirt, you'll be golden.
saturday - pet-sitting with chula!!! a true joy. chula is my bestie's sweet little boston terrier. we went on a lovely 2 hour hike in the santa monica mountains. perfect weather to boot. pretty easy breezy day.
sunday - back to the hollywood farmer's market. my favorite. caught the movie 'due date' with bestie and her boy toy. rdj + french bulldogs. what more could you ask for? highly recommend. 
oh yeah. we saw holly robinson at the arclight theatre in sherman oaks. i'm sure most folks remember her from '21 jumpstreet' or her recent stint on 'the apprentice' but i remember her on the classic 'hangin' with mr. cooper.' phenom.

i definitely have a few sweet plans in my back pocket for this week. i'll keep you posted on my west coast antics.


and no, no job to report yet. just trying to enjoy my free time out here while i still have it. *fingers crossed* for some good news this week! or next week! whenever really :)