Tales of a Magpie

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all!

So far, it has been a very fine start to the year but I have to say, it has also been incredibly quiet. It was quiet last night here in our neighborhood in San Dimas but today, on our New Year's outing, it was quiet, too. So, just what did we do with our day?

I started out with some beading, always a fine thing, but I will post what I am up to on that in a few days.

We decided to go out to lunch at a place by the little airport in LaVerne.

The weather has been perfect this week and today was nice and warm so we sat outside where you can watch the planes take off.

And you can watch them as they come by.

The restaurant might have been fairly busy but I tell you, the airport was extremely quiet and there were only a few planes in and out while we were there. Still, it's a fun place for breakfast or lunch when the weather is so perfect.

Then we came back to San Dimas and thought we would check out the Veteran's Memorial that had been put up recently.

It just wasn't the time of day to take a shot in front so I had to find some shade behind a flag pole to get this one. 

The skies are so blue today.

We walked around town a bit but San Dimas is pretty much a ghost town on New Year's Day. I suppose quiet is a good thing to start out the year. Relaxed, contemplative and enjoyable. That's how I would describe the start to 2012.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful start to this year!

 

 

Happy Birthday, Danielle and South Pasadena

Yes, you may remember Danielle from an earlier post.  Today is Danielle's birthday, so a big Happy Birthday to you!  Danielle has been staying with us for the past month or so.  She was traveling on her motorcycle from Vancouver on a trip similar to mine (but many more miles) and unfortunately, her bike broke down.  Looks like a new bike is in the works, though, so that is fine news. 

So this morning, Danielle decided she wanted her fantastic pancakes on her birthday.

I tell you, these are tasty pancakes.  The first time she made them, she poured the batter in the pan, shook the pan to thin the cake out and I said, "Oh, they're crepes."  To which she replied, "Yes, I am French."  Pancakes will never be the same, these are sooo much better.

Happy Birthday, Danielle.

And now on to this past weekend's adventure to South Pasadena.  We took the Gold Line train so there would be no worries about parking or traffic.  We ended up having dinner at a rather odd place, a Grilled Cheese and Cereal Restaurant.

It's a strange thing to think that you can go into a restaurant and order a bowl of Cocoa Puffs or Fruit Loops.  They also have grilled cheese sandwiches with Spam.  Yes, Spam.  This, I did not try.  I'll leave Spam to my past.  They did have little Cokes.

I swear Coke tastes better in these little bottles.

Danielle went with me and we walked around a bit; went into a few shops.  One shop had a very fine shop cat:

This was a fun shop and in a minute, I will show you what I found.

But back to South Pasadena.  Christmas lights had been put up and shops were playing the usual very awful Christmas music.  But the lights were really beautiful in the Ginko trees:

We ended up at Buster's Coffee House:

A photo of the coffee and treats we enjoyed:

A really fine time.

So now, I will show you some of the odd things I bought at Zinnia, the shop in South Pasadena.

Here are some charms and odd things:

Then, there's the creepy little, hairless dollheads:

A little strange, aren't they?  Well, I do have plans.  Of course, I do.

But this is the real kicker:

Imagine, this is a photo that was taken from someone's photo album.  It is comical, disturbing and downright sinister.  So naturally, I bought it.  Not sure what I am going to do with it, maybe just look at it from time to time.  There are so many captions that fit this picture, such as "I think I really screwed up this time (said by the baby)."  What I wonder, since it obviously was torn from a photo album (the tell-tale pieces of black paper were on the back) what the rest of the photo album must have been like.  I would have liked to take a look at that.

Sunday evening, we had a very nice storm.  Wind, rain, thunder and lightning.  When I got up Monday morning and went for my walk, it had recently stopped and everything was glistening and fresh.

And I will end this post with a photo from Monday's walk:

I hope everyone is having a great week!

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello Everyone and Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, this year we have decided to fix Ethiopian food.  One of the things I think make this country so great is the fact that it is a melting pot of people from different countries.  So every Thanksgiving, Asbjorn and I like to celebrate this by picking a country and preparing food from that region for our special dinner.  Last year, we celebrated the Indian people in this country and this year, we celebrate Ethiopians.  

We started last night by preparing Berbere, a spice paste and Niter Kebbeh, a spiced clarified butter.

For the Berbere, I had to toast the spices in a skillet.  Here is the paprika, two cups!

It was like making some magical concoction, all the toasting, blending and grinding of ingredients.  Asbjorn was simmering butter (so you know this food has to be good with all that butter) as I made the paste.  We put them in jars to be used in the rest of the cooking today:

I will have to take photos later of all the good eats.  I made a lentil stew and there will be Doro W'at, a chicken stew and the national dish of Ethiopia.  A salad of black eyed peas and eggplant and a side dish of mixed vegetables will be served along with injera, the bread used to scoop everything up.  I have a feeling that utensils will be used around here.  But from what I have read, Ethiopians usually eat with their hands, the injera acting as the utensil.  I will give this a try.  

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

New Favorite Restaurant

I have been going to Old Town Orange to have lunch with a friend periodically for quite a few months now.  It is sometimes sporadic, these lunches, but for the past few weeks it has been every Thursday.  I had a display on a layaway of sorts at the shop Dragonfly and needed to pay on that every week.  But three weeks ago, we decided to try a new restaurant.  We would walk by it and say to each other that we should try this place sometime; it looked like a pleasant place to eat.  Finally, one Thursday, we said we would meet there.  The Byblos Cafe:

We went in and the day's special was written on the board, Lebanese Spaghetti.  What was that, I wondered?  So I asked as I looked over the menu.  Her description sounded good so I thought I would try it.  Now before I start waxing poetic about this dish, let me explain.  Where I grew up, in Northern Kentucky, we had (still have) chili parlors although I don't think they are exactly referred to as a parlor anymore, sadly enough.  Anyway, it was a particular chili served over spaghetti.  You could get grated cheese, onions and beans.  There are unique spices in this chili like cinnamon and even cocoa.  It is one of those things that you grow up with and then once in a while get a taste for.  But there aren't any Skyline, Dixie or Goldstar Chili parlors here in California.  But now, there doesn't have to be, because Byblos Cafe has Lebanese Spaghetti.  Only on Thursdays.

They have feta cheese instead of the bright orange grated kind. But that's fine, in fact, I think i prefer it.  I have been to this restaurant for the past three Thursdays.  It wasn't until yesterday that I remembered to get a photo of it before I dug in.  It is truly a wonderful thing.  And now I am wondering if I will be able to go next Thursday and the Thursday after that...and the Thursday after that.

Maybe on some nice sunny Thursday, when I have taken the bike out to have some Lebanese Spaghetti, I will see you there!

Bon Appetite!  

And a Happy Friday to all! 

Cinco de Mayo

Yes, that was yesterday!  But I suppose I am a day late and a dollar short as the saying goes. 

Here is a hint of where I went:

Aren't you suprised?  I went to see my friend Irene at her shop:

I have been experimenting with some things lately and wanted to show her but also get some feedback on the experiments that didn't work.  Sometimes that happens and you just have to figure out a plan b or in this case c or d. 

Here is a view inside the shop:

It's a pretty shop, isn't it?

Now you may wonder where the title of this post works into the picture.  While I was there, Irene asked me how I was going to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.  I had to be honest and tell her I had never celebrated it before.  I am of German descent, grew up in a German community where you could get all the bratwurst and mettwurst your heart might desire and where we had Oktoberfest but alas, no Cinco de Mayo celebrations or even a real Mexican restaurant.  So I went home, thought about this a bit and Asbjorn and I decided to indeed celebrate Cinco de Mayo at Zendejas restaurant where we knew the festivities would be lively.  And they were. 

The margarita I had was also a fine, festive thing to have on this day:

Now, some may think the margarita, chips and salsa are not Weight Watcher's friendly fare, but I disagree.  I am sure all combined they only amount to one point.  

It was a very fun evening, with a very loud band and dancing (I watched from the sidelines) and women wearing some of the highest heels I have ever seen.  I felt a little underdressed with my flip flops on.  I'll have to keep that in mind for next year.

I hope everyone had a fine Cinco de Mayo!

A new, excellent restaurant

Hello to All!

Those of you that know me fairly well know that I love Indian food.  To those of you that don't know me very well, I love Indian food.  I mean I REALLY love it and could eat it every day.  And sometimes I do, for a week at a time or as many days in a row as I can.

Well, Asbjorn and I went to a new Indian restaurant that opened up in Rancho Cucamonga called Koyla:

This restaurant is in the shopping center on the corner of Foothill and Haven and is where the old Daphne's restaurant used to be.  

This is Deep:

We know Deep from Pozzetto's Italian restaurant in San Dimas.  When he told us he was opening up a restaurant in Rancho, we couldn't wait to try it.

It was excellent.  Really excellent.  My all time favorite is Palak Paneer and it was wonderful.  Everything I had on the buffet was great and I had quite a bit, I can tell you.

Here is a shot of the interior of the restaurant:

And yes, that is Asbjorn sitting at the table to the right.  It was a truly enjoyable lunch.

After lunch, we decided to have a coffee so we headed to the Coffee Klatch.  The newly opened one on Haven in Rancho was actually closed on Sunday so we went to the one on Vineyard.  There is also a Coffee Klatch in San Dimas on Arrow Highway in the Target Plaza.

This photo was taken in the back of the shop.  They have the very best coffee.  I mean, the best.  I can't understand why anyone would go to a Starbucks when you have a chance to drink an excellent cup of joe.  I don't drink coffee very often anymore but when I do, I always go to The Klatch.  I had just a plain coffee this time (I have a bit of a pet peeve about going into a coffee shop, ordering a plain coffee and it being palatable enough to actually drink but enough of my coffee tirade).

We sat outside:

That sign for wine tasting looks like an interesting thing to do.  Indeed the folks there seemed to be having a really good time!  You will find little wine tasting places around here and there.

It was a very nice outing today.  The weather has been beautiful. 

I wish Deep the best success with his new restaurant.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

 

A little picnic

Hello Everyone!

It is a beautiful day today; maybe a little cold and certainly a bit windy, but still...sunny and beautiful.  So I decided to take my lunch to a local park and have myself a little picnic.  It was a bit too cool to sit under a tree in the shade (it's got to be at least 75, preferably 80 degrees), so I found a picnic table in the sun.

Nothing fancy here except my lunchbox.  I had a leftover half of sandwich from yesterday's lunch and a soda from Trader Joe's, which by the way, was quite good.  I am into a vintage phase so of course I like the bottles. 

And how about this fancy lunchbox?

I remember in an issue of Somerset Studio or maybe one of their sister publications, someone had fancied up an old lunchbox.  I was quite envious and looked around until I finally found the Fred Flintstone type lunchbox that I wanted to doll up myself.  I painted it blue inside and cream on the outside.  The paint on the outside bubbled up and looked rather ugly so I covered that up with some doilies.  I also glued on some rhinestones.   I carry this lunchbox when I teach locally (I have always been a lunch packer).  I've not tried carrying this on a plane when I travel and teach and think maybe it's not such a good idea.  I'll just keep it local.

I also wanted to tell you what I am currently reading, The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  I'm not very far into the book but so far I am enjoying it.  I have to wonder, if I started my own happiness project, what would I start with?  Now that I think about it, maybe I have started it.  It began with a little picnic.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Sunday Morning Croissants

Hello Everyone!

Well, I sort of disappeared again.  And I didn't do the final update for the Pasadena show.  I guess I'll have to be punished!  I hope to get the last installment plus all the things I have been up to lately, which has been quite a bit, over the next few days.

But just for a quick post, this morning I made some croissants!  I started them on Friday, using a recipe from the book, French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano.  I think the trick to not getting fat is to not eat all of them at once.  Which is difficult because it's truly amazing how good something tastes when it is made with a stick and a half of butter.  Honestly, I did reel myself in, but they were really good and it was a fun recipe to make.

Here is a photo of the beautiful, decadent creation:

They were buttery, flaky and I believe all the things a croissant should be.  Since I have never had a real croissant, I can only imagine that these are close to the real thing.  I'll tell you, they are in no way similar to the monstrous, cardboardy things at Starbucks.

I would make these again, especially for company.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!