Pasta with Garlicky Broccoli Rabe

This pasta has been a long time coming.  When I first saw it in mid-April, I wanted to make it immediately but was too busy to do so.  Then I made a trip to the grocery store and absentmindedly bought a bunch of broccolini, realizing my mistake only when I got home.  Broccolini and broccoli rabe (a.k.a. rapini) are very different creatures, with the latter being bitter and the former much more mild.  I sighed and put the broccolini in the fridge, intending to find something else to do with it.  A week and a half later, I threw it out, all wilted and sad-looking.

Then came a couple of weeks where I frequently scoured the Ralph’s and the Whole Foods near me, hoping to find broccoli rabe but leaving with empty hands.  (Well, not quite empty.  Boxes of ice cream sandwiches kept somehow making their way into my cart).  As the weeks went by, my frustration mounted to the point where, a few nights ago, I had a dream in which I was arguing with a friend, came across a guy selling broccoli rabe, and became super excited.  Upon hearing of this dream, one of my favorite people in the world said, “That is SO YOU.  Conflict — food — conflict resolved.”  Agreed.

Pasta e Fagioli

If a homebody is someone who enjoys staying at home, then lately I think I’ve carved out my own niche and become a bedbody. I cannot emphasize how much time, in the past couple of weeks, I’ve spent buried under mounds of soft pillows and comforters. Each morning when the alarm goes off and I have to get ready for the day, parting with my bed is the saddest goodbye ever. And when I’m at work, my thoughts frequently turn to how nice it would be if I were slumped in my bed with my iPad instead of shuffling through mountains of paper.

Peanut Butter and Jam Milkshake

It’s May and I’m itching for summer weather, but we had some gloomy weather last week in Los Angeles – gray skies, temperatures in the low to mid-60s. It’s not exactly what I had in mind when I was still in Boston and picturing a stereotypically sunny L.A. But I’ve heard enough references in the last couple of days to the impending “June gloom” to have realized that sadly, the weather here is not perennially perfect.

Stecca

I’m late jumping on the Hunger Games bandwagon.  I’d heard of the books but never felt any desire to read them, which is odd considering that given my fixation with food, you’d think a series where food features prominently would appeal to me.  But no.  I stuck to my first beloved series, Harry Potter, eagerly awaiting the releases of the movies long after the final book had been published, and mourning the end of an era when the final film came out last July.  And when Entertainment Weekly featured the Hunger Games movie as its cover story in early March, I tossed aside that particular issue as one that I wasn’t interested in reading.  Oh, how wrong I was.

Vegas!

I went to Vegas last weekend.  Even though I was there for less than 48 hours, I ate a ton of yummy food and had a lot of fun (except Sunday morning…we’ll get to that later).

Post-arrival midnight snack meal at the Oyster Bar in Palace Station.  Slightly depressing casino, awesome pan roast (seafood in a lobster bisque-style sauce, served with rice).  Hits the spot at 2am.

Bottega Louie

A few weeks ago, I had dinner with an old friend at Bottega Louie in downtown LA. This was my first time venturing into downtown, having previously been put off by tales of horrendous traffic, but I have to say - I will gladly brave any bad traffic to eat here again.

The first thing you see when you walk in is the pasty area, full of brightly-colored goodies.  Sensory overload.  I arrived before my friend did, so I hung out here for a while and tried not to get stampeded by the ever-jostling crowd surrounding the display cases.

Peanut Butter Blondies

Guys, I promise that I’ll stop talking about the bar exam soon. But for now, hear me out on one more thing. During my month of bar leave, I spent a lot of time studying at cafes so that I wouldn’t go crazy cooped up in my apartment, and so that I could have a tiny bit of human interaction even if it was just in the form of ordering a latte. With my laptop in front of me and my bright orange Barbri books spread out on the table, I felt a lot less cool than the aspiring screenwriters around me, but at least I got to eavesdrop on their conversations.

A.O.C.

Friday night.  It’s gray and rainy.  I’ve had two consecutive hellish work weeks, with a possible third looming on the horizon.  I’ve actually even been dreaming about the briefs I’m writing, and I literally cannot think straight anymore.  Solution?  Small plates and good wine at A.O.C to celebrate a friend’s Match Day success.

Cheese plate.  The one in the middle is a triple cream.  Triple creams and I were introduced a couple of years ago and it was love at first bite sight.  Though to be honest, I think I put more into the relationship than the triple cream does.

Speck with apples and arugula.  My friend thought the apples were going to be in the speck.  In her defense, she’d been working for two weeks straight without a day off.  But actually…that would have been awesome.

Lately

Second day back at work and my desk is already a mess.  This is what brief writing looks like.

Mid-week drinks at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills.

The Perfect Yellow Cake

It always seems that when I need to focus on something, I can’t. While I was studying for the bar exam, I would check Facebook, People.com, Weather.com, various blogs, and my email a million times an hour. And I’d often find my thoughts drifting off on pressing life questions such as “Why do I always need to wear sunglasses when I’m driving in LA? Is the sun brighter here?” or “How many omelettes could you make with one emu egg?” or “Should I create a Twitter account just so I can follow the food trucks in LA?” (The answer to the last question turned out to be yes. I have become what I hate.) I don’t know if it’s because I have ADD or that pretty much anything in the world is more interesting than the Statute of Frauds but let me tell you – it was a damn struggle sometimes to get through my outlines.