A Badger, Badger, Badger...

My Uncle Greg has been a fantastic and innovative chef as long I can remember. He married my Mom's youngest sister 15 years ago this month and it has been quite literally a tasty treat to have him in the family.

He prepared a fine meal for us starting with the above sautéed mushrooms.

He let me get my hands into the meal as Sous Chef. (a.k.a. "watch and learn and mix these together")

I loved it.

Marlowe was hoping for a few more crumbs.

The red onion would add the perfect zip to the mushrooms before we threw them in the pan.

This dining experience was monumental due to the fact that I enjoyed my first parsnip, initially roasted and finally pureed.

The sauce for the mushrooms is a secret but I do know that it involved some of this goodness.

As Sous Chef I got to mince the onions for the main course: meat-loaf.

This turkey meat-loaf was packed with goodies.

I got a little hungry during prep and snuck some kimchi out of the fridge.

After a pre-bake we brushed the meat-loaf with a rich tomato glaze.

Unfortunately this recipe is undisclosed as well.

We were careful not drop any water on these gremlins. We did however give them a snack or two.

Yum. I never knew turkey could taste so good.

Dinner was delish and washed down with a fresh glass of Pellegrino Lemonata.

After dinner I returned to the Schultz home to prep for the next night in which I would prepare a send off dinner for them.

I then proceeded to catch some Z's

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

The best part of my summer was going home to California for a couple weeks to visit long time amigos and familia.

After an enjoyable burger, a car ride with a little Journey sing along and a good night sleep I hit the road for Simi Valley to enjoy the company of the Schultz family. I would house sit for them for a week and a half while they frolicked in the fields of Colorado.

I had a couple of nights to spend with them before they left. The first night we went to this awesome restaurant. The above pictured truffle fries were to die for!

Truffles kind of have that effect.

The tomato bisque was also exquisite. A creamy balance of sweet and savory.

I got the vodka shrimp, which actually turned out to be the least tasty of the dishes ordered. It looked good at least.

Holly's fried chicken was very good!

The chicken was nice and succulent but the exterior was a perfect crisp battered lightly enough to keep from weighing you down. The bed of mashed potatoes and gravy had a brilliant balance of garlic, butter and cream.

Mamma Schultzy had teriyaki. The chicken was moist, tender and coated with a rich sauce.

Papa Schultzy had the pepper crusted gorgonzola burger. I didn't try this guy either but, oh man, it looked scrumptious.

Papa Schultz had a June birthday so we coaxed the server to bring out a dessert for us to split 4 ways. Apple, peach cobbler (a first for me) accompanied with vanilla ice cream.

The Yardhouse's claim to fame is its large selection of draft beers. Here is a peak into the keg fridge.

Oh Holly, you're so cute. (Inasmuch as I use that word sarcastically, I am quite serious in this scenario.)

Am I right or am I right?

The next day Holly and I cruised down to Burbank to visit her favorite coffee shop.

I, of course, got iced tea due to my unfortunate allergy.

My apple bran muffin was huge and tasty.

A-OK.

Holly's scone looked quite good as well.

After breakfast we went for a little stroll past the WB back lot...

Holly's keychain.

It was nice to have such a good looking chauffeur for a day.

We headed back to Simi Valley.

Guinness in Cake? Pinch me.

I am allergic to coffee, as you will learn in a later post. Thankfully coffee isn't the only thing served at this coffeehouse and pub.

Take this five layer Guinness cake for example. Double yum.

Speaking of yum. Have I told you how much I love cereal?

This generic cereal made my day... mostly because they took the time to pay a good designer to amp up their packaging.

Don't these boxes look awesome? I'm sure they made the cereal taste better.

In all honesty I'm a huge sucker for packaging.

I probably wouldn't have tried this cereal otherwise.

(Well, the fact that they were on sale for a buck a box didn't hurt my motivation.)

After breakfast I picked me some awesome handkerchiefs at a yard sale. I love this color.

After some serious house cleaning I moved right on to lunch.

I was fortunate enough to enjoy a "doble doble" roll from Tokyo Seoul.

I needed to regain some energy for the Moscow Art Walk that would ensue that evening.

It was nice to see a decent turn out.

The fresh brewed beers might have had something to do with that. Although, as an artist myself, I'd like to think that people were honestly interested in the visual stimuli.

This asparagus was steamed, wrapped in garlic herb turkey and drizzled with curry.

Just to make sure that everyone had potent breath I toasted this thin crust garlic bread with LARGE chunks of garlic, small chunks of chicken and a good amount of mozzarella cheese.

This lightly dressed salad was complete with smoked almonds, slices of grapefruit, fresh shaved parmesan, sugar snap peas and a french vinaigrette.

I also took my first swing at an avocado mousse topped with a curried shrimp, shaved almond, a slice of strawberry, a flake of parmesan and a sprinkle of scallions. It turned out pretty tasty.

Ultimately we ended up with a fun and inexpensive snacky dinner dressed to impress.

We ate roman style around the coffee table.

Tyrone always appreciates it when we do this, it makes his job a lot easier.

Lying Through My Gold Plated Teeth

Just call me Sir Francis Drake.

Not in the "raid, pillage, plunder and otherwise pilfer my weasley black guts out" sense of the title but more in the "lying through my teeth" sort of way.

My blogging hiatus has been two months to the day. This is much less frequent than my predicted 1-2 posts per week.

Alas and alack if only I could be more like Captain Morgan, becoming governor and all. Although he did die of alcohol poisoning. That's ironic.

All that to say I'm here to clean up my act and not make any further predictions.

A few months ago I went to the grocery store with my buddies Maggie

and Telle.

I forced Maggie to have some fun on the "ride".

We proceeded to their apartment after our shopping ordeal and began to create some delectable strawberry and cream cheese muffins.

Our last baking extravaganza was moons ago.

We forgot about the "only fill the muffin cup half way with batter" rule and consequently created some monstrous muffins.

These turned out a little better.

Telle agreed that they tasted even better than they looked.

And, in the true Francis Drake spirit I photographed the girls as they washed the dishes.

Ok, I pitched in a little bit too.