weakness

hooray!

everyone, big, small, tall, short, we all have weaknesses.

there i said it.

one of my weaknesses is the color yellow. my kitchen is yellow and if i can help it, my appliances are yellow (my kitchen aid standing mixer is the perfect shade of yellow)

so, it comes as no surprise that when i see an appliance that is yellow, i want it.

YELLOW!

wandered into sur la table and there it was...

oooooooo! aaaaah!!

that's right. i never wanted/needed an ice cream machine before. my father has one and he makes delish ice cream. i even have an old copy of his old school ice cream cookbook (with detailed pictures of how to churn perfect ice cream) my friend p has an ice cream maker and she has made amazing ice cream. me? i don't know the first thing about making ice cream.

but there was in sur la table, with a great big yellow ice cream maker clutched in my arms because one of my favorite things in the world, alongside pizza, is ice cream. (weakness number one)

i just never thought about making it from scratch before!

and it's yellow!

(weakness number two)

i also love books. all kinds of books. so what was the next thing i had to get after buying my amazing ice cream maker?

an ice cream book

even though i already had this one

LOVE books

(weakness number three)

i decided to make chocolate ice cream, a classic (weakness number four) and after calling my mother so she could confirm that dutch cocoa was the same as unsweetened cocoa (close enough) i made my way out of Vons to go home and start making some ice cream

silly me

i thought making ice cream was like making cookies. you throw it all into the ice cream maker and watch it churn and bam! ice cream

boy was i wrong

first you have to melt, stir, whisk and create a light airy custard that has to cool

then, after 12 hours (i did 24 to make sure it was cool), you put it in the ice cream maker to churn and puff up.

before:

and after:

beautiful!

i froze it for a couple of hours but couldn't wait. it's still a little thick and not frozen enough. seems to be the consistency of thick frozen-y (that's a word i just made up. deal) mousse but it is damn good!

SUCCESS!!!

summer is here. it's the perfect time to experiment with frozen treats, don't you think!?!?

a busy weekend...

saturday, hubby and i went exploring to the griffith park observatory. we have lived in los angeles for many years but had never visited, until now!

beautiful place in the day

and at night

when you walk in, there is the pendulum below. super amazing.

we tried to go see THE telescope, but the line was an hour and a half wait. we promised we would go back another time (probably on a weekday) to see it

and of course, we saw the show which was really really surprising very good. we had a wonderful time. i have a day dream of my friends hanging out there with a picnic.

on sunday, i went with some friends to the arboretum in san gabriel valley. they were having this "LA Garden Show: Living Green".

i bought two lovely grape vines and two beautiful blackberry vines for the fence on the side of my house. i am optimistic. will plant next weekend and let you know!

we also toured the gardens. lovely! there were peacocks everywhere!

front

and back!

not only do they hang out at the arboretum, but they also hop the fence and chill in the neighborhood. they are gorgeous and it is unreal you find them on people's lawns, sitting there, surveying the area. (wonder what the neighborhood dogs think!)

the lovely cottage- Queen Anne's Cottage

the awesome looking catawampus

i had injured my foot the day before (don't ask) and i was hesitant to go.

my dear friend was good enough to push me around in a wheelchair so i didn't have to hop along the entire day (i was very reluctant for many reasons, but he can be very stubborn)

here is a shot of my view of him

special thanks to bill who pushed me around in the heat all day. i'm really glad we went.

partay!!

so much has been going on!!!

first of all, my sister got married! yay!!

hubby and i flew home for a long weekend and the rehersal went well. beautiful day outside.

sis, very full from the delish rehersal lunch

sis asleep and future brother in law

day before was filled up with getting our nails done

and basketball

(luckily, no one accidently hit either the bride or the groom! looking back, probably not a good idea to play a contact sport the day before a wedding...)

fiance's brother, fiance, sis and hubby

she was married on sunday at njbg. amazing!!

it did rain, oh well. beautiful ceremony and reception. new brother in law is a musician (they're trouble) and he wrote and performed a love song to lil sis. so awesome. def made all the girls in the room swoon and all the guys think- "great man. thanks. now you've raised the bar..."

father of the bride and ring bearer extrodinaire! (my lovely little cousin Tyler)

awww, kids

and lauren looked beautiful. that dress was so long, even tied it was taller than me.

more pics to follow when we are able to get some from the photographer.

gorgeous wedding. had a wonderful time. and i hear my speech went over well too! :) thankfully.

honeymooners are currently in figi. LUCKY!

today, i took a vac day. besides running errands, i bought a new shirt (or two), had a nice lunch out with hubby, watched tv and read outside. oh... and gave the bunny some treats!

stretch bunny! stretch!!

yum!

gardening update

had to replant my herb garden

found a lot of sow bugs in the bed, but hopefully got rid of a number of them. also found a snail! and put him in the bin as well, but i felt really bad about it. my hubby says "they are pests!" but i feel bad because it is a snail and for some reason, i think of cartoon snails and they weren't pests. i didn't say it was logical.

Spearmint

Rosemary

Red Romain lettuce

Green lettuce

back row: regular parsley, curled parsley dill

front row: italian basil, lime thyme, sweet basil

i planted a lot less than i did last year because i didn't think the plants had a lot of room to grow. i hope this helps them a bit.

and i'm a little concerned about the lettuces in particular because they will need a lot of water, and i am bad at remembering to water my plants. so fingers crossed!!

and an orange tree update:

lookin' good kid!