Birthday highlights

The best things today:

* Uncle Jason in Taiwan tries to time my birthday email at exactly 12:00 Midnight California time. So he can be the first to say Happy Birthday to me.

* Pomegranate Pinkberry is in season.

* Hannah attempts to sing "Happy Birthday" using only 4 words and tells me she is saving a Dora the Explorer tattoo for me.

* Kung Fu Panda is still entertaining after 5 times.

* The facebook alerts on the phone kept ping ping pinging all day from all the birthday chatter.

* Preston is fluffy.

* The house still has lingering delicious pork smells from last night.

Through the magic of transistors and Japanese fuzzy logic, my birthday oatmeal was ready when I woke up this morning. Birthday oatmeal had mix-ins such as goji berries, candied ginger, and lotus seeds. (These would make great Coldstone mix-ins too.)

Birthday Trivia:

* I share my birthday with the Suez Canal, Washington Dulles Airport, Isamu Noguchi, Soichiro Honda, Rock Hudson, Lorne Michaels, Rem Koolhaus, Howard Dean, RuPaul, Daisy Fuentes, and one of the Hansons. The boring one- not the little one, and not the pretty one that looks like a girl.

* Richard Nixon said "I'm not a crook" when I was born.

Pyrex OCD manifests itself inside the refrigerator.

The saddest things today:

* The ash and soot from the fires made it impossible to see the Leonids meteor shower this year. (But it's still totally cool that I get a meteor shower for my birthday every year.)

* I am no longer valuable to advertisers.

* Pottery class is closed today.

* My health insurance premiums are now in the next more expensive bracket.

Coconut Failure Cake. I managed to make a coconut cake with the texture of a dense brownie. I am such a failure at baking. And the burnt shredded coconut makes it more Snuffleupagus than pastry. Such a failure.

The strangest things today:

* Freaky hot weather.

* Birthday phone call from my car insurance agent.

* My Mom getting me a Nintendo Wii Fit. Is she telling me that I'm fat and flabby?

Happy Birthday Doug

Cheap greens, shiitake, and bamboo fungus. Brown sauce. In the pan, the ingredients were beautifully fanned out in concentric circles. But then I realized I don't own a serving platter large enough to serve in. Aie-ya! Food styling be damned, we scoop and plop cafeteria style. I will make a large serving platter the next time I'm in the clay studio.

Hellfire and brimstone in Southern California means I lose my view of the mountains. It also means itchy eyes, hacking coughs, and sooty boogies for a week.

For supper #1, we serve gnocchi with gorgonzola shimeji cream sauce. Luscious unctuous heart attack on a plate. This would instantly kill my dairy avoiding lactose intolerant kin. The fat content would kill my dairy loving friends a day later. If I served this to guests, would this be pre-meditated murder?

For supper #2, we crank up the fat knob to 11 and make pork belly two ways. First, pork belly braised in tamarind habanero cilantro jus. Big pieces of pork belly shrunken into soft porky jiggly jello cubes.

And salt cured pork belly roasted with plum vinegar. With a crispy cap.

Tamarind habanero braised pork belly with hibiscus reduction. You can't eat just one.

And sliced roasted pork belly. These would be awesome in sammiches- perhaps in a baguette. Or Korean style wrapped in a lettuce leaf with shiso and kochujang chili paste. A bit crunchy, a bit soft and squooshy, a bit chewy, and a bit tender. Pork heaven in a bite.

I'm setting myself up for failure by attempting to bake birthday coconut cake. Distracted by eating delicious pork, I've over baked the coconut layer cake and burned the shredded coconut. And I would probably ruin the coconut buttercream tomorrow. I am such a horrible horrible horrible baker. Why do I even try? Perhaps if I tried to make a pork cake, I will have success. We WILL have meat cake in the future! Meat cake!

Farewell to arms

Day 2 of our Mexico adventure brings us to our third family. Jesus welcomes us on our path. Well, not exactly us. Technically, Jesus faces the Tijuana Costco. His outstretched arms welcome value priced plasma tv's and aisles of mayonnaise as far as the eye can see. But that's pretty close to what I imagine heaven would be.

Our travels today take us to the hill country outside of Tijuana proper. Gorgeous views, unpaved roads, overweight car. Freak winds and rain.

Our task today- pouring the concrete roof. 10 tons worth of concrete.

And once again, there's a view of my ass.

Roof poured. Biceps sore. Seeking shelter from the driving wind and rain with a bit of nosh our familia kindly prepared for us. Then back across the border to our own complacency.

Fun guy

It doesn't take much to trigger a chorus of "My Humps" in my head.

Hot today. Over 100 degrees. It's nearly October. Damn climate change. I blame Dick Cheney.

Wild mushroom spaghetti. Well, not exactly wild. The 3 different kinds of perfectly unblemished hen of the woods, king trumpet, and shimeji mushrooms were cultivated at a Japanese laboratory under strict temperature and humidity conditions. Once the $50 million dollar, 250,000 square foot, green energy powered, zero landfill mushroom lab opens near San Diego, these mushrooms would be both organic AND local! Not exactly the kind of local organic farming the hairy pitted granola earth moms have in mind. But tasty.

Moon, my ass

It's the Autumn Moon Festival time of the year now. But I celebrate with rigatoni and meat ragu rather than Chinese food and moon cake. I should probably learn to cook Chinese food at some point in my life, but I've always despised moon cake. Moon cake. Ick. I was not even tempted to buy moon cake at Costco this year- and I'm normally a sucker for anything Costco. Moon cake. Ick.

August moon in September. Chinese mythology says there is a bunny that lives on the moon. Western mythology says the moon is made of cheese. I say, mmmm... braised rabbit with cheese souffle.

Preston is totally uninterested in the August moon. He might like Costco moon cakes though. And he definitely loves cheese and bunnies.

Cold feet

It's the start of wedding season. Wedding season pains me because I'm always tempted to open the boxes to play with the toys.

Crazy 95+ weather this weekend. I had a giant list of gardening and household tasks to do, but I'm just going to sit in the pool all weekend and marinate.

So hot even the new fishies are hiding.

And so hot that the fava beans are flowering too early.

And so hot that the angels trumpet flowers aren't so fragrant anymore.

So hot that the shrimp plant has turned completely pink.

Preston trying to cool things down.

Wee nip of something

The first of this year's limoncello! Gallons more to follow.



Not leaking, but no fishies. Hopefully the feral attack owls don't come back and destroy the fountain.



Self explanatory.



Walking Preston on garbage days after a windstorm is always interesting. Many a broken umbrella placed curbside today.



The winds were crazy enough that we also have broken patio furniture too.



Webster's Pharmacy around the corner carries packs of teeeny tiny condoms. For those with teeny tiny penises. This may explain the plethora of Hummer SUV's around the neighborhood.

Fowl weather

Mother Nature 5, Grape Arbor 0. Damn you Mother Nature!



Damn you all to hell!



A bad day all around since fountain has developed a leak.



Feral peacocks must be harbingers of doom and destruction. Damn ye pea fowl!

Black marks

Technically not pizza. Ham, gruyere, and caramelized onion tart. I'd like to say this Alsatian concoction was inspired by a particularly memorable meal I had in Paris a couple winters ago, but the truth is that I copied the ingredients off the back of a Trader Joe's frozen entree.



The torrential rains make ants seek shelter in my kitchen. I wish we have a pair of anteaters in the menagerie of animals within borrowing distance. With all the rains, and various livestock milling about, I've got an urge to build an arc.



Honey bear squeezy bottle is now panda bear squeezy bottle.

Feeding livestock

Finally a beautiful clear day after the cold rainy days. Perfect excuse for a stroll around the neighborhood. We have snow in them thar hills!



The neighborhood sheep like to sit on benches. There have been sightings of mountain lions in the neighborhood recently. So raising sheep in your front yard may just be setting out food for the giant kitties.



Preston like-y them sheep. Am I violating some kosher laws by feeding a sheep dog lamb and rice based kibble?



Must... stop... making... pizzas...

Kid in candy store

An dreary overcast day calls for playing hookey. Off to see the Murikami exhibit at the Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo! Clearance priced discounted sushi probably isn't a good idea. Please notify the authorities if there are no more blog posts following this one.



And this is what happens when Davy goes exploring Little Tokyo without adult supervision. Some seasonal Pocky sticks. Chestnut, milk, and limited edition winter flavors. And panda head shaped cookies. And 3 boxes of collectable itty bitty panda toys with gum. And a toy vintage television set. And bear shaped candies. And Calpis and CC Lemon candies. And instant ramen noodle bowls with pig in chef hat logo. And Boton rice candy that had a bald eagle temporary tattoo prize. And panko bread crumbs.



The rapping kitty collection grows. I think I've got the friendship and security kitties covered. And I must choose my wish carefully before before I fill in one of the eyes of the daruma doll.



Midnight snack of curry flavored ramen. With pig head shaped fish cake extrusions. Kawaii!