Photo School

We had a fantastic wedding photographer.  We loved working with her, loved our photos and heard nothing but good things from everyone she interacted with.

She recently started teaching a few photograph basics classes and last week I headed up to Orange to Check it out.

I think the most important things that I learned were reinforcements of what I already knew: I adore Jackie and I love taking pictures.  I also learned that I need to format my memory cards (I did it, btw, teacher!)

I left with a renewed sense that the world is worth photographing.

So when we headed out last weekend, I snapped a few pictures.  Just for fun:

My School

the Bruery

Hipster shot for Hipster spot.

Looking forward to leaning more from Jackie.  If you want to come, check out the details, here. 

o hai!

This is kitty Photobomb!

What's for Dinner?

A blog about what we had for dinner!  If you want to see our cookbooks, check out the cookbook shelf link at the top my the blog

Monday:   Eggplant and Pepper Stoup with Indian Spices (Rachel Ray 365)

I love Indian food.  My husband does not.  Hence I rarely get to eat it.  I never cook Indian both because my husband dislikes it and it smells so strong.  I chose this because it was mild but I thought it might be good enough to hold me over.  Eh... it was okay.

Tuesday: Paprika Chicken From Cori's Kitchen.

Tuesday I did the round trip Palm Springs commute (ick) so I was exhausted when I got home.  Gavin helped me make paprika chicken recipe his sister gave us last year at our wedding shower.  It was pretty good and smelled amazing.  The sauce didn't thicken up how we wanted, but it was still good.

Wednesday: Sushi Date with Gavin at Sushi Plantation in Mission Viejo

I've written about Sushi plantation many times before.  No disappointment here!  (I also had Indian for lunch to make up for Monday, Gandhi Palace in Anaheim, pretty good.)


Thursday:  Olive Garden, Palm Springs.

The think about traveling for business is that I'm all about doing as much business as possible.  That means 10, 12, 14 hour days if I have any energy for it.  So when it's time to pack up and sleep I usually just pick a logo I recognize (and an easy to get into driveway) and eat.  Hence, Olive Garden.

Friday: Javier's, Newport Coast

I met up with some friends at Javier's.  I had a shrimp salad.  The dressing was good, but it wasn't really my type of place.  I also drank my first Corona Light.  Beer is weird.



Saturday: Sushi on Fire, Huntington Beach with  Jen.


I had a super weird Saturday that involved photographing clouds, several shopping spree, glow in the dark bracelets, throwing sand, and having dinner with Jen.  Can't really beat delicious food with an insightful, sympathetic, understanding friend.  And free sake, too. 

Sunday: Rosemary Chicken and sweet potatoes and baby broccoli aka, whatever was left over from last week  

I think it's a sign of my culinary growth that I'm no longer completely daunted by the idea of cooking something with out set ingredients and a cookbook.  (To be fair, I used to always cook like that, which is why I was then terrified to attempt it!)  I didn't hear any complaints about today's results.

Last weeks goal was to not skip any dinners.  Mission accomplish.  Lunch and breakfast didn't fare so well, but hey, you gotta start somewhere.  This is gonna be a tough week, so no promises.  But I'll try.

Movie Date 2 of 6.

Read about date 1 here.

Gavin aptly chose Saint Valentine's Day for Date 2.  And appropriately chose Gnomeo & Juliet.

Our date night started with my gift for Gavin ,'Champagne', and his gift for me, flowers.

I say 'champagne' because it wasn't.  It was Sam Adam's Infinium, a champagne like beer.  I successfully took up beer drinking in Australia, so thought this would be an awesome gift for Gavin.  I disagree with their opinion that this beer is champagne like.  It was darker than most of the beers I've tried so far and thicker, but it was pretty good. 

For dinner, we had a Winter Chicory Salad with Roquefort Cheese Dressing and Potato and Leek Soup.

It was amazing.  The cheese was incredible!  The dressing was super easy, just heavy cream, vinegar and the cheese tossed with the greens and apples.  The leak and potato soup was similar to the soup we made for Christmas Eve and pretty quick and simple.

I thought the movie would be packed.  I was wrong.  It's not really surprising I guess that a kids movie would be mostly empty on a holiday designed for couples.

The movie was adorable.  We choose to skip on 3D this time and I'm not sure what would have been gained watching this particular movie in 3D (except a headache in my case).  I probably wouldn't watch it again, but it was a perfect date night movie!

Can't wait to plan next month's date!