Obligatory Poultry

This is the day not to be a turkey. This is also the day when pre-Christmas crazies officially start. I'll spend the next month and a half avoiding the mall (even more than usual) and pretty much all stores in general. Yeah, I'm a grinch.

Vanilla Bean Pots de Créme (Minty)

I collect cookbooks. Not on purpose. I'm just a sucker for food porn. I look at those beautiful photos and my head is filled with lofty visions of me cooking fine meals. Unfortunately, I'm also lazy, and the books end up collecting dust on the shelf. Not that I don't cook ever, just not that often.

I could call myself a Foodie, for my ability to appreciate (consume) fine food, but that would be pretentious. I'm more of an Eatie.

Costco is evil, in a good way. Or good in an evil way. Where else could you buy a dvd copy of The Young Frankenstein for 5 bucks? Recently they had two large, hardcover books for sale, Bouchon and The French Laundry Cookbook - for almost half price! Now, if you are 'in the know' (i.e. food snob) you know that those two are The Cookbooks to have. I could not resist.

Out of guilt I made one of the recipes: Vanilla Bean Pots de Créme. Bouchon, page 268. It's a custardi thing, consisting of milk, cream (lots), sugar, egg yolks, vanilla bean. It has downtime of cooling and chilling, but otherwise very easy to make. There are also for flavoring options offered: chocolate, cinnamon, almonds and mint. I did mint. It's very nice, rich, creamy, yum.

Intermission

I started hiking in June. I'm not keen on most popular forms of workout, gyms bore me to death, but I always liked walking and the outdoors. I most often hike in Griffith Park, because I live close by, so it's incredibly convenient - especially at this time of year.


For those who are not from around LA: Griffith Park is five times as big as New York's Central Park, but also much more rugged, wild. It's also full of hiking trails of all sorts. The biggest elevation difference between the lowest and highest point must be around 12-1400 ft.

There is a considerable amount of wildlife around. Coyotes are a common sight, but deer, rabbit, lizards, bats, an wide variety of birds can be observed. At one point during the summer a large rattle snake was taking up residence in Amir's Garden, but I didn't actually see it.


Another common sight in the park is film crews. These pictures are caps from a music video parts of which were shot at the 'view point', aka heli spot. In the background is the Observatory. That spot provides a great view of half of LA. When you are up there it really looks like just the picture: The city bellow is laid out like a shimmering carpet.

Strange and Goofy

I've been slacking off lately. I've been distracted, scattered even; feeling a strange sense of unreality at times. So perhaps digging up some of my wackier finds is in order.


I love this family; the gangly, goofball father, the different expressions of the older son and the mother have gazing at him. I most of all love the discombobulated look of the younger child - the severity of being born into this family of crazies must have just hit him. (I might be projecting.)


I understand the compulsion of taking a picture of Elsie the calf, but why in the living room?


This one is more of a disturbing one.

I saw Where the Wild Things Are recently - a movie about an angry, frustrated boy. It's not a children's movie. It doesn't really have a plot either. It's scary and disturbing at many spots, yet I found it compelling.