My New Dinner Jam

I may be late in figuring this out but I finally jumped on the slow-cooker bandwagon. This device is a working mom's best friend! Seriously this guy has the best advice. Actually I have been wanting one for some time and my husband and I still have a drawer full of gift cards leftover from our wedding to stores like sur la table and crate and barrel that are just collecting dust. I hope there are not expiration dates on these cards. Anyway I finally caved in a couple weeks ago and bought this guy:

You toss a bunch of stuff inside in the morning before you leave work and when you get home you are bombarded with delicious smells and braised meats or veggies. I have experimented with a few recipes and I must confess I am a bit disappointed there aren't more resources out there for a hip, urban gal who wants to slow-cook something. Most of the websites I found don't seem quite my speed. The best seems to be from my old pal Martha. She has a roundup of a bunch of slow cooked things and so far each one I've tried has been delicious. I think I am going to make this one again tomorrow.

It's chicken with pinto beans and veggies. It was great with some tortillas. I am hopeful that I will find some other great crock-pot or slow-cooker recipes soon. Still not sure exactly what the difference in terms is but oh well.
And I just thought I would add this photo because once again Hank insisted on walking this morning. Our morning strolls now seems to consist of one block (we go back and forth and back and forth) but my God is he proud to be walking.

Morning Sunshine

Every so often Hank goes a bit stir crazy in the morning. Especially if he wakes up at 5:30 am like he has been doing most mornings these days. Today was one of those days so I put a sweater over his pjs and we headed out. We stepped outside to one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen. We really do have spectacular light in Los Angeles. I wish my iphone could do it justice but here is a sorry representation of the brilliant colors we saw. I think even Hank was awestruck.

I love our new neighborhood so much. There is an amazing bakery in the neighborhood that serves delicious coffee and dangerous treats but unfortunately they aren't open on Mondays and they don't open early enough for us early risers anyway so to Starbucks we trudged. We share morning treats and spend a few moments relaxing. Hank flirts with everyone in the store and then he grows tired of it and we head out. Lately he is so excited about walking he is desperate to get out his stroller by the time we get half way home. I took a little video this morning of his cute little walk. He is so much better now then he was just a few weeks ago but there are still a lot of spills and he has the cutest drunken-man gait ever.

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is upon us. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. I have planned the next 48-hours of cooking down to the minute so hopefully everything will turn out great. Until next week here are some recent instagram shots of my family.

Fifties Coed

It has been downright chilly in Los Angeles, but I have been loving it mostly because I just got myself this guy

I am not sure the photo does it justice. It is really cute and I feel like a fifties coed straight out of "Dead Poets Society" or "Flirting" but since I couldn't find an image of those movies that captured the feel of what I am talking about. This is what I found:

I am not even sure if I ever saw "Mona Lisa Smile" but I am pretty sure it captures the vibe of my new fall coat perfectly. I am Julia Roberts in case that wasn't painfully obvious. I guess my next buy might have to be a beret. Just kidding I would look like a member of the Griswold family visiting the Eiffel Tower in a beret.

Photobooth

My affection for photo booths began at an early age. I used to beg my Mom to take me and various friends to Ed Debevics (a fifties style restaurant in Chicago) where they had a vintage black and white photo booth near the entrance. There was something so satisfying about holding the still wet photos and being able to smell the lingering chemicals. Soon after I discovered a funky vintage store that had a photo booth and  props to bring into your impromptu photo session - think vintage hats and oversize glasses. Somewhere in a box in my house are tons of cut up old photos of my fourth grade self posing away. Since I couldn't find those I found these lovely vintage examples including one of Audrey Hepburn, her husband Mel Ferrer and Truman Capote.

When I frequented bars in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles the criteria for me was often does it have a photo booth? Even if the night was terrible you could walk away with some artifact proving the night wasn't a total bust. I could always pile in with a friend and try my best to look cute. There is something so flattering about a black and white photo booth photo. I am not sure exactly what it is but there is definitely something forgiving about the light. 

These days I think I go to a bar maybe once every four months or so if that. This weekend we stopped by a friend of my husband's party at a bar in Highland Park on Saturday quickly as part of our date night and I had to really think hard about the last time I had ventured into a bar. It just isn't a part of my life these days but I still long for a strip of photo booth photos to put on my fridge. Luckily I discovered this amazing Ipad app called incredibooth. And while it doesn't 100% satisfy (you don't get to shake a strip dry and slip it into your purse) it comes close for someone who is never around a photo booth. Here are a couple recent favorites with my number one co-subject these days. 

Vintage photo booth photos found here. 

Adventures in Babysitting

I just read that Elisabeth Shue will be joining the cast of CSI as the new female lead. Now I have never seen CSI in my life but I am curious if this roll will surpass the best and most challenging roll of her career (no I am not talking about her Oscar nominated performance in "Leaving Las Vegas"). I am talking about the film with one of the best opening sequence of an eighties movie ever. Am I alone in my love for "Adventures in Babysitting?" Recently I watched parts one, two and three on youtube one Saturday afternoon. Yep the whole movie is online on youtube so I guess someone out there agrees with me. And did you know that it's Bradley Whitford of "West Wing" and "Billy Madison" fame who plays the caddish boyfriend? They just don't make em like they did in the eighties.

Our Old Stomping Grounds

Warning if you live in LA this post may be old news to you. During my maternity leave it was difficult to imagine walking more then a few short blocks from our apartment. I was nervous that Hank might start crying and then what (I eventually got over this thank goodness). Luckily our apartment was just above the cutest walking street in Silver Lake. While I love our new home and neighborhood Atwater Village I miss that stretch of Silver Lake BLVD between the reservoir and our old street that houses some of the best shops and food options on the East Side. Being able to roll out the door and throw Hank in the Ergo or the stroller and explore this area was the best.

Lake Boutique

Each journey would always include a stop into Lake where I was proud to be on a first name basis with a few of the people who work here (my husband might say this is NOT a good thing). This is truly the best store ever! They have amazing home goods, beautiful jewelry and the coolest clothes around - think Isabel Marant and Rag and Bone and everything else that I love and mostly aspire to own these days. I dare you to not love it. There is also always a cool espadrille direct from Spain in the summer or some cool rachel comey boot to dream about. If you are on Silver Lake BLVD you must stop here if only for the eye candy.

Lawson Fenning

If Lake is the place I dreamed I would purchase all my clothes from thank god there is a store right next to it where I can purchase all of my new home's furniture and accessories. Lawson Fenning is a really great mix of interesting furniture, beautiful strange accessories like wire industrial lamps and agate book ends. They have some beautiful art books in the back and giant canvas bags that seem like you should fill with an easel, canvas and a baguette and head to Giverny to paint some landscapes with a beret on.This store also has a good dose of masculine goods to you can grab something for your man while you are in the midst of all this shopping. This store is just great eye candy. I have yet to purchase anything from here but they don't seem to mind my endless wanderings. Apparently there is one in West Hollywood as well but I have never been to this location. 

Yolk

Since I have already purchased my fall wardrobe and furnished my home (in my head) I now must purchase a few things for Hank. Now yolk has cute gifts and furniture and clothes for adults too but I feel like where they really excel is with cute, amazing children's things. They have just about everything if you need a gift for a little one or a mama to be. They have so many amazing books and adorable clothing and toys and furniture, etc. And they have great ideas if you walk in a bit clueless late for a friend's child's birthday party. If you ask them what should I get a three-year-old little girl they have brilliant suggestions and they wrap everything up so pretty. Now a word of caution like everything else on Silver Lake Boulevard things can add up here quickly.

LAMILL

If all of that shopping or ogling in my case has made you fatigued luckily there is a high end coffee shop with six different choices in just how to brew your coffee alone right down the street. Seriously LAMILL has the most delicious iced coffee I've ever had. Somehow they manage to make a simple iced black coffee taste like it was dipped in chocolate. There food is really good as well. For you foodies out there the menu was designed by the chef at Providence  one of the most delicious and perhaps most aspirational restaurant of all in Los Angeles (there is a theme emerging). You can get a cold pea soup and a panini in the summer and delicious butternut squash soup in the winter and so much more but I usually go for soup for some reason here. After all that shopping and eating luckily there is the gorgeous reservoir just done the street to walk or jog around with your baby in hand. You can dream about all of the beautiful homes that line this little lake and park yourself in the meadow and just soak up the serene setting and wonder to yourself when did Silver Lake become so full of young, hip families? 

This pic is from my husband's bday party we had here last year. It doesn't do it justice. 

Lauren Lauren

Who knew Lauren Bush would have such a stunning wedding gown? I never really considered myself a Ralph Lauren gown kind of gal but this is stunning. I love the Western feel throughout all the pics in Vogue. Wow.

when to go to the emergency room

Hank visited the office with me this morning briefly while we waited for our pediatrician to have time to see us.

You can't tell from this photo but he is sporting a serious fat lip after a scary slip in the bath tub last night. He just started walking in the last month and he is now trying out the new skill everywhere, including the slippery tub. I try my best to spot him but he slipped and his teeth hit his lip which hit the side of the tub. There was a lot of blood and tears from both of us. After multiple calls to family members and his doctor we decided not to take him to the emergency room but instead to the doctor today. It turns out he is fine and has some serious Angelina Jolie lips for the time being but a good chance to think about when do you go to the emergency room. I have a feeling this is something I will be thinking about a lot in the next few years.

Dreaming of ....

a winter cape. Stylish friends have been rocking thrifted capes for years. I have to say I never thought I could rock one of these until spotting so many cute versions. Here are some lovely versions

top row: 1. pendleton   2.zara  second row: 3. gryphon  third row: 4. see by chloe  5. lanvin bottom row: 6 bird by juicy couture .

gobble gobble

It is that time of year again when I scour epicurious, martha stewart, bon appetit, old gourmets, and recipe blogs for days on end to try and concoct the perfect turkey day plan. This kind of thorough planning definitely borders on insanity since I have never hosted more then a few people and this year will be no different. We are literally having my step-father, my brother and the three of us (and Hank doesn't really count yet as one full person when it comes to eating although he is close).

 Here he is on his birthday digging into a cupcake. 

I spotted this great plan to cook things in advance on the New York Times website yesterday. Hopefully we will be organized this year and get a lot of our cooking done ahead of time. Here is an image from one of our past Thanksgiving day feasts. 

This year our table should look lovely because first of all it will be the first Thanksgiving we host in our new house! And because our table will be covered in our wedding china. 

I think it is beautiful and elegant and well they don't even make it any more so who knows some day it might be really valuable??? If you were to ask my husband I am not sure he would agree. I know we were not the only couple who were divided on the merits of registering for wedding china. In the end he went along with my love for these gorgeous plates. Hopefully when he sees how incredible our table looks with Empress Elizabeth china filled with Brussels sprouts and corn bread stuffing he will finally see what a great idea it was. We shall see. 

My New Lunch Jam

Atwater Crossing is on the outskirts of Atwater Village. The area reminds me a bit of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. There are industrial buildings, artists spaces and even a little theater. There is also a big, shmancy million-dollar plus building complex going up. In the middle of all this growth and happening is Atwater Crossing Kitchen.

I guess this place has been around for a bit but I just discovered it and its great. The seating area is mostly outdoor and you can watch trains whiz by while you are eating a delicious flatbread. The best part for me is we took Hank here over the weekend and there was so much room for him to run around and no one was really bothered by his non-stop running all over the place .

Visit

This weekend my Mom came out to stay with us for the second time since we moved into our new house. Last time she was here I pretty much forced her to open boxes the entire trip and traipse all around the city in search of the perfect lamp. We basically spent the whole time driving to and from Home Depot so thank god she wanted to come back again. This time we had a great relaxing weekend. I got a babysitter for Hank Friday night and we went to Hatfields just the two of us. This is definitely one of my favorite restaurants in Los Angeles. The dining room is stunning. 

The food is so good. Unfortunately I let my Mom convince me that the little tasting menu was a good idea. It was but it meant we couldn't order the most delicious sandwich ever. 

This sandwich is literally the best thing ever. Next time. We also had lots of quality family time. We took Hank to the playground where he literally did not stop moving for two hours. The playground is definitely his happy place. 

After years of talking about it my Mom finally came with me to the Rose Bowl flea market.  Anyone who lives in Los Angeles knows this is the mother of all flea markets. I was so excited to finally take my mom here. I have a very long list of things we need for our new house. I was hoping we would hit the jackpot. While we had a great time wandering around and we did spot some things with potential 

we found this cute set which reminded me of a cute vintage outdoor set from the lovely neighborhood store potted. My mom and I enjoy a good challenge but I am not sure we are quite ready for the task of building cushions and finding glass for this guy quite yet. We left after only a few hours and I was determined not to walk away empty handed. We decided to head to Tini. I had heard about the store on this amazing show. The store didn't disappoint and we walked away with this amazing new addition to the living room. 

It was not so cute trying to get it in and out of my husband's car but in the end it is a lovely addition to our living room, and a wonderful weekend with my Mom. I can't wait till her next visit. 

year one video