pleasant street

uncontaminated and unaffected

Oct 26, 2009
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it's that time again, people!!! come out and support us at a hip hop showcase at the san mateo performing arts center on november 14th. there's only one nighttime show, and we are aiming to fill it up, so bring a hot date.

it's cheaper to get your tickets in advance here- http://dcproductionspresents.com/

hip hop showcase

better late than never?

Sep 4, 2009
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i really can't believe how fast the year has flown.... and i never posted the rest of our wedding photos! so, almost 11 months later.. here they are.

travis took these during and just after the ceremony and did such an amazing job. actually, some of the best ones ended up being in black and white film. he caught our first kiss as an absolutely perfect series of three photos that are framed and look just beautiful. and some other favorites were taken by all of our guests with polaroid cameras; they show what a bunch of characters our friends and family are, and capture how special and fun that day was for all of us. maybe some day i'll get around to posting all of those, too. :)

enjoy..... andrea and jed's wedding photos, at last!

vows

ceremony

summer reading

Sep 3, 2009
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the vox books feature isn't currently working, and it made me realize how much i've enjoyed being able to list books on here as i read them. so, i'm just going to tell y'all what i've been reading in a post instead.

as previously mentioned, i brought new moon with me to the farm in illinois, and as predicted was finished by roughly the second day there. lucky me, the local grocery store was selling the next book in the twilight series, eclipse, for $7.75.... i had promised myself i'd curb spending on new books, but how could i resist that? my hubby finally put the brakes on my compulsive teen-vampire-romance reading and refused to let me get the last book, breaking dawn, until we got home. lucky for me, i have the best sister EVER and when i got home, it was already sitting on my nightstand! so, i am currently reading that one, attempting to take my time with it.

in between all of the trashier summer reading, i did read a couple of actual novels. sister of my heart by chitra divakarbuni has a very, very unfortunate title (um, could you make it sound any more like a lifetime movie starring tracy gold?) that almost turned me off from reading it altogether. in fact, it was a really engaging story about gender, family and class in india, focusing on the strong relationship between two young girls. each chapter alternated being narrated by each of them, and the undeniable girl-power aspect was hard not to love. most importantly, it was the first book i've read in a really long time that had a completely surprising ending. as in, i actually gasped and shouted "no way!!" at the book. pretty good stuff.

the best book i read this summer, by far, was the master butchers singing club by louise erdrich. i really can't believe that i hadn't read anything by her before. i don't even want to say too much about the story because i really would encourage you to read it, but i can say that her characters are perfectly imperfect, and her writing just blew me away.

the main character delphine, addressing her father's alcoholism:

When Delphine had asked him the obvious question, Roy's answer often was "I drink to fill the emptiness." Delphine hated that line. Once, she pushed him backward into a chair and yelled "Hey, I've got news for you. Everyone does everything to fill the emptiness."

i'm excited to have another of her books waiting for me to pick up at the library.

Master-butchers-singing-club-a-novel

hip hop part deux

Sep 2, 2009
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i am looking forward to starting my second hip hop workshop of the year this weekend. anyone want to give it a try this time around?

DC_Web2a

mango, vanilla and blackberry ice cream mosaic

Sep 1, 2009
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mosaic

i remember finding this dessert in an issue of gourmet magazine a couple years back, and drooling over this photo. i made it for the first time for some friends on saturday using blackberries jed had brought home from sebastopol. it was so well received that i had to share it here.

the recipe calls for creme de cassis, a blackcurrant liquor that i remember well from the summer i spent in england- it was added to pints of hard cider to make a "snake bite." well, they don't exactly sell it at our corner CVS, so i decided to use what we had around the house- namely, peach schnapps. awwwww yeah....

i received two of the best compliments i could have hoped for- B said it was the best dessert he'd ever had, and tara, who has a strong reputation as a chocolate-only dessert fanatic, ended up showing off her clean plate.

for me, the best part is scooping and drizzling the ingredients into the loaf pan. it felt more like art than cooking, reminiscent of playing with sculpy clay or swirling colors around to make marbled paper. very, very fun.

and now i am inspired to make some different versions- chocolate and vanilla ice cream with peanut butter bourbon sauce? vanilla and peach ice cream with amaretto? ohhh this is going to be a tasty experiment.

Ingredients:

2 pints mango sorbet (4 cups)

1 pint vanilla ice cream (2 cups)

6 ounces fresh blackberries (1 1/2 cups)

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons crème de cassis (black-currant liqueur)

Equipment: a 9- by 5- by 3-inch loaf pan or other 7- to 8-cup capacity mold

Preparation:

Put sorbet and ice cream in refrigerator until evenly softened, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Meanwhile, purée blackberries, sugar, and cassis in a blender until smooth, then strain through a fine-mesh sieve set over a bowl, pressing on and then discarding solids. Freeze to thicken slightly until ice cream is ready, 20 to 40 minutes, then stir until smooth.

Lightly oil loaf pan, then cut a piece of parchment to fit bottom and long sides of pan, leaving at least 3 inches of overhang on each side.

Fill pan decoratively with spoonfuls of sorbet and ice cream, pressing down and filling empty spaces with blackberry purée as you go. Smooth top, pressing down with back of spoon to eliminate air spaces, then fold parchment flaps over top and freeze until solid, at least 3 hours.

To unmold, run a thin knife along short sides of pan to loosen mosaic, then open parchment and invert onto a flat serving dish, discarding parchment.

Cut mosaic into 1/2-inch-thick slices.

Cooks' note:

Mosaic can be made 5 days ahead and frozen, covered with plastic wrap.

eat real.. for real?

Aug 31, 2009
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i promised that i would try not to be a big complainy-pants, but it was a little hard not to be disappointed in the eat real festival yesterday. it was a great excuse to hang out at jack london square on a sunny weekend afternoon, that much i can't argue with. unfortunately what ruined it were the long lines. i just noticed a reader's comment on sfgate which referred to the lines as "manageable," and i just can't agree... an hour's wait for a plate of paella? when we found a line for turkish food that wasn't too bad, we waited about 15 minutes, just to hear the people in front of us get told that they had run out of food entirely, just like three other booths next to them.

once we sat down in the shade with christine, stefan and the twins, listened to some decent live music and just enjoyed the laziness of a sunday by the waterfront, things didn't seem so bad after all.

my belly growling by 4 pm, jed and i left the event and walked three blocks away to eat at everett and jones. as far as i am concerned, that is how you eat real in oakland.

new moon

Aug 5, 2009
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Dimond Branch Library
3565 Fruitvale Avenue
Oakland, CA 94602
(510) 482-7844 07-29-09

This is an automatically generated reminder. Please do not respond via
email. To contact us by phone, please call the phone number in the
return address.
**********************************************************************
HELD ITEM READY FOR PICKUP.
The following item is being held for you:

AUTHOR: Meyer, Stephenie,
TITLE: New moon
CALL NO: FICTION MEYER
BARCODE: 32141030862175
LOCATION: Melrose Library Fiction
PICKUP AT: Dimond BY: 08-12-09

drool.

i'm about to embark on two and a half week trip to the midwest with my man. and now i've got the second book in the twilight series, too. what more could a girl want in this world? (okay, books three and four, i know, i know...)

the book of love

Jul 29, 2009
1 comment

i just had to post this video of the beginning of pam and thom's wedding ceremony. thom sang her their favorite song, "the book of love" by magnetic fields. the shaky camera work can definitely be attributed to me being teary and reaching for tissues the whole time! and go figure i ran out of space on the memory card mere seconds before the most perfect of of all lyrics "....... you oughta give me wedding rings."

the expression on thom's face while he's singing to her is just so, so sweet. and you just know she's thinking "that's my man!" the whole time. :)

the book of love

6 a.m.

Jul 28, 2009
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one of the few perks of an early morning flight is this view of the sun coming up over my town....

whole lot of pretty

bakefest

Jul 23, 2009
2 comments

thanks to kate for reminding me to post about baking for my sister's wedding.

i made a boat load of frosting last night, and am just about to embark on baking roughly 90 cupcakes plus a small round cake today. wish me luck!

cupcakes-to-be

the chocolate cupcakes i am making are from barefoot contessa, with a martha stewart vanilla frosting. the hardest part will be waiting until saturday to eat one.

oh, and in case you were wondering, what you see in this photo is not the total amount of butter used for the cupcakes- it will actually take more than that. :)

UPDATE: the first 40 cupcakes are in the oven, and my only complaint is WHY CAN'T THEY MAKE LEFT-HANDED ICE CREAM SCOOPS?? at least if any of them come out funny shaped i have the excuse of having to do it with the wrong hand. hah.