from raleighwood to hollywood

sometimes i eat ramen,

and sometimes,

i eat this.

well seeing as you can't serve ramen to guests--especially one who furnished your apartment and brings you bags of nice clothes each week and one who gives you boy advice and takes you to fun places like chinatown and the fashion district--i decided to make this meal the other night for stella and keltie.

the chicken was stuffed with oven roasted balsamic tomatoes and lemon basil goat cheese and the potatoes were what we call in the slater house "sara potatoes" (because sara can never have enough of these). the sara potatoes are roasted with olive oil, rosemary, paprika, salt, pepper, and garlic. i added my special touch of tossing them with caramelized balsamic red onions.

and of course...there was a balsamic drizzle on top of everything. keltie was in charge of the vegetable and the green beans with pine nuts were a perfect match to the rest of the meal.

needless to say, things were devoured...

however, the highlight of the meal for me was seeing two girls--who both chose to give up television in their apartments--stare at my big screen TV with fascination as leonardo dicaprio and kate winslet clung onto the big door in the middle of the ocean.

at one point, keltie dropped a forkful of green beans back onto her plate, sat upright on the couch, and leaned in towards the TV repeating to herself,

 "i forgot how epic this was" 

as titanic slowly sunk into the freezing water.

i guess that's what happens when you hang out with people who don't own TVs.

i wish i had taken pictures in the fashion district, but i was too busy sorting through jeggings and jewelry to get out my camera. i was, however, so fascinated with chinatown that i remembered to snap this one picture of the endless rows of porcelain elephants for the bff. keltie and i were on a quest for white lanterns, and after an unsuccessful journey through little tokyo, we found exactly what we needed at the first shop we walked into in chinatown. this store had every funky chinese gadget and decoration you could imagine, and it was just one of a TON of shops along the street. i didn't buy anything, but i certainly did leave with a craving for lomein.

sadly there was no lomein my future that night, but there was this.

while searching for a very specific kind of ice cream (the exact text from sara said: "next time you go to the grocery store, go to the ice cream isle and look for edy's apple pie. it's limited edition, so buy every single one they have.") i stumbled upon a brand of frozen yogurt i had never even heard of. one of my recent obsessions--besides coffee bean--is tart frozen yogurt. pinkberry was where i tried it for the first time, but i've had it a few other places now and holy CRAP is that stuff addicting. i didn't even know that anybody sold it by the pint in grocery stores, but thanks to gelson's and a company called cefiore, i found my new after-dinner treat.

it's been a long time since my spoon has seen the bottom of an ice cream container. there's generally an old, freezer burnt pint of ice cream that i only got through half of in my freezer. granted, i've had this frozen yogurt for a few days now and have been religiously eating it after dinner...but i was still impressed with myself last night as i discovered that i was on my last few bites.

in other news, olive discovered my hamper yesterday.

since she made a new discovery, i decided that i should as well. knowing that i had a babysitting job last night from 5 pm until at least midnight, i decided it was a good idea to bring dinner with me. i was in the mood to try something new and if you know me, you know i was going for greek food. i did some research on places close to where i was babysitting and i came upon a little hole in the wall joint called city best chicken. i liked that the name didn't really make sense. like when you go to a thai restaurant and one of the dishes is "noodle with shrimps." i also liked that everyone raved about this place for the fact that you get four--yep, FOUR--sides with every plate you order. almost every yelp review claimed that the chicken was moist and juicy, so i knew that a chicken kabob was in my future.

as for my sides: pickled vegetables, hummus, babaganoush, and cucumber yogurt sauce.

the verdict: let's just say i'm glad no one was around to see this gloriously deliciously messy meal.

since i knew i would be picking up dinner, i decided to do lunch homemade-style yesterday. just my luck, i had bought an "acai machine" naked juice the other day and was craving something healthy. clearly we all know what happened next.

homemade acai bowl.

duh.

acai juice, blackberries, strawberries, and ice in a blender. sliced bananas. raisins. granola.

holler.

one of the main reasons for the energy packed lunch was because i didn't know a thing about the little boy i would be babysitting. all i knew is that if he wanted to build forts, play trains, and do jumping jacks--i would have the energy to do just that. turns out that my plans for the night of running around in circles weren't what this little boy had up his pajama sleeve. his priorities were very different, and i couldn't have been happier.

turns out...we have very similar interests.

speaking of similar interests, you know the moment when you realize that someone is perfect for you? the moment when you see them doing something that makes you think: wow, we really DO belong together.

welcome to my moment.