Sona's birthday is coming up, we celebrated at Maturi, it was low key and delicious and very cozy. Thank goodness for all the girl talk!

much needed new clothes

getting cozy... isn't it nice to be a dog? at least sometimes?

at the end of day making a good dinner is really all it takes to make me happy. Days are getting cooler and now I'm getting busier, which is good! I can't wait for winter to come, so I can snuggle up in sweaters and boots, and looking forward to a Christmas tree:)

piano studio/office

My last computer was brutally murdered by a glass of milk spilling all over the keyboard. I just replaced it with a new one, let's hope the best for this one:)

A new cookbook! When I first came to the states years back I used to attend this private school in Santa monica and lived with a bunch of kids in a house from the same school. My piano teacher was a member of the school and I would go to her house for dinner every monday evening and have piano lesson afterwards and then stay over at one of their daughter's room, which was left vacant since they were older at the time and already moved out. She was an excellent cook and for a kid who was so used to eating only Chinese food, all these scallops and artichoke and pasta and her special salads were so amazing that I immediately fell head over heel with her cooking. I remember she had A LOT of cook books in her kitchen and countless spice jars and this book get used so frequently that the cover made an impression on me even though at the time I read very little English.

I can't wait to make some delicious dishes out of this book. Come to think of it, besides playing the piano, this was the teacher that inspired the love of cooking in me, otherwise I'd never pick up a spoon or turn on any stove!

a student of mine brought in this pot of orchard a few days ago, it's been sitting at this corner of the room and finally there's a bit of zen in a house of complete landfill and chaos.

Red Rabbit from Egmont Mayer on Vimeo.

I was able to recover old files from my computer and found these pictures of George. He was such a good little hamster. Baby I miss you so much!!!

La Orange Grande

we ate at their outdoor spaces which was really nice and cool for the weather.

If you haven't seen this movie, get up now and go see it!

my attempts of BBQ have always been disasters, though I am getting the hang of it. Tonight's BBQ chicken was pretty decent, I need to control the timing better with charcoal but otherwise the chicken tasted great. The key is to marinade them for a few hours before they go on the grill, I only used dried rosemary, salt and pepper. Guess I will do even better next time, practice, practice!

I have a cook book by Julia Child and since I bought it it's been on my book shelf collecting dust, today in honor of the movie I saw over the weekend I made filets de poisson poches au vin blanc, a recipe from the Julia Child cook book. It turned out quite good, especially the mixture of onion, green onion and white wine, hmmm, yum!

I had so much fun today at the flea market! After that I couldn't figure out why anyone would want to buy anything from a shopping mall again. There were countless junks and treasures, I bought two necklaces and earrings from a lady who makes these herself, summer dresses and a vintage purse. What is a better way to spend sunday morning than picking out summer dresses? Honestly I don't think anything tops that. Over the weekend I saw two movies, In The Loop and Julie AND Julia, they were both excellenct movies, and so much humor in it. I was instantly inspired to cook again after watching all these yummy food in Julie and Julia, honestly, these days, all I eat are either fast microwaved foods or take out.

had Japanese with a friend, we both ordered jumpo shrimp and it was good, otherwise I'm going to clean my house from inside out tonight!

kosher cookies, I got them while waiting for a ramen place to open for lunch a few days ago. I don't really know what makes food kosher but they were really yummy!

a bowl from anthropologie, it's perfect for my jewelry and looks pretty on the night stand:)

sleep? who needs it? breakfast with coffee with do;(

work party, it's ALL musicians, at John and Yolanda's house. I'm done with my last week working at the music school, I will really miss this place and the people:,,,(