Golden Beet Tatin and Meow's Amazing Vet Visit

This is really two posts in one, but I am behind in posting and need to catch up! The first part of my post is about a dish called Golden Beet Tatin - it's delicious, and easy, and a fun way to work beets into your dinner. I once believed I didn't like beets, but now I can easily say they are one of my favorite vegetables. The above recipe is from a blog called Closet Cooking that I read regularly. We started by roasting golden beets we bought at the Farmer's Market in Venice, then sliced them and placed them in ramekins. Over that we poured the red wine and honey gastrique:

At this point, I topped them with phyllo dough I had on hand in the fridge, and normally they get popped in the oven for about 15 minutes. But our oven was, unknown to us before we began, broken! So Jay microwaved the beet and gastrique mixes, and fried the phyllo dough topping. Below I am adding the phyllo sheets one by one. (You can also get a preview of my new haircut!)

We also sauteed some fiddleheads to go on the side:
It turned into a lovely dinner that we enjoyed immensely, and altogether (since we had pre-roasted the beets the night before) it only took us about 30 minutes. The beets still have a nice firm texture, and the smooth tartness of the goat cheese against the sweetness of the beets and gastrique is delicious!


But enough of our cooking, onto the real story. Meow's vet visit this week. I was once a dutiful kitty owner, taking Meow into her annual vet exams for shots and other assorted affronteries. But she is an absolute terror, and after moving away from our last excellent vet, Margo Golden, I neglected to take her. I could go on with the horror stories, but I'll just remind you of our previous post called Meow's first illness. We thought she was dying, but she fought off a vet and two techs. When she was brought in a second time they just put her entire carrier in a box, gassed her, then took her out for her exam. The screaming and fighting just tears my nerves apart, and I am a basket case when I take her to the vet.

I took the afternoon off work and met Jay at home. We got Meow into the car after dragging her from beneath the bed, crying piteously, and shoved head first into her carrier. She cried forlornly all the way. When we got to the clinic, the first thing I spy is two cats in the waiting room. Trouble with tails. But... she ignored them. She stayed quietly in her carrier while we waiting, no hissing, no growling... I am terrified. Clearly the cat is plotting something. It's at this point that Jay decides to take off to run an errand and left me alone with my nerves and the hell cat. Thanks, honey. So into the exam room we go.

The vet enters with Meow's chart, and I notice that written on the top in big red letters is: WATCH OUT. Her reputation precedes her, and the first question the vet asks me is, "So, when does she freak out?" Well, usually she already has. He has to give her a distemper vaccine, and decides to try it alone. So he dumps her out of her carrier onto a towel, and instead of exploding in a fluff ball of teeth and claws, my little cat curls up and mews. Mews! The vet petted her, and she didn't even hiss. Then he decides to get bold and weigh her, so he picks her up and puts her on a scale. She doesn't fight him, she doesn't do anything. She just sits on the scale and watches him. We discuss her diet, her habits, any unusual behavior, etc. and he then gathers her scruff and injects her quickly. This elicits a little hiss, but no swipes or howls. He then makes up a little bed for her in her carrier, and she walks back in. That's it. No howls or cries on the way home, no fights, nothing. All that nervousness wasted. Maybe Meow has turned over a new leaf with vets? Or, more likely, she plans to have them let down their guard so she can really do some damage next visit...

Sunday brunch in Topanga

A couple of weeks ago Jay and I were given reservations to Sunday brunch at the Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga Canyon. They serve a very California brunch, in a very California atmosphere. Brunch consists of a raw bar (for the raw foodists), a vegetarian bar, a pescatarian bar, and the omnivore bar for those who eat everything. The food was all delicious, and there was a lot of it! We also had mimosas.


The restaurant was once a church, and there were beautiful stained glass windows throughout. But most of the dining options are outdoors, on a terraced hillside that leads down to a small stream. We were seated on the terrace just above the stream, and of course there was new age flute music piped throughout the seating areas :). Little tables were tucked everywhere they could find a spot, and the whole thing was actually very charming. Some areas were covered in tents and swag, as you can see in the picture below:
We had a fun time watching the kids play around the stream while very well-dressed parents (most of the moms in 5 inch heels) tried to keep them from falling in.

Topanga Canyon State Park is just a short drive up the street from the restaurant, and it is one of our favorite places to go mountain biking. We drove to the park after brunch and changed from our dress clothes to hiking clothes, and headed out across a meadow. We hiked this time, going on new trails we hadn't yet explored. It was a perfect day for it, and Jay, my shutterbug, took plenty of photos.


He hasn't downloaded those pictures yet, but maybe I can convince him to post some of the newts if they turn out nicely! That's right, newts. We were hiking down into the canyon, where we ended up following a little brook:

When we came to one shaded spot, I noticed a quiet, relatively deep pool near some rocks. I came over and was peering intently, wondering if I could at least spot some tadpoles. It was then a pink creature with four legs and a long tail swam up towards the surface from the leafy bottom. I was flabbergasted - this was far too large to be a tadpole, unless we had been invaded by some giant frog species! I called for Jay. He tried to take pictures, as the bottom of the pool turned out to be home to several of the newts, and although it was difficult to count them (they are extremely well hidden) I think there were at least six, and likely more. They turned out (upon google inspection) to be California newts, and it was their breeding season, thus they were living a few months in the seasonal stream pools where they had been born. We didn't touch them, which I am glad of since they excrete tetrodotoxin. You have to ingest it to die, but it is extremely potent and there was no place to wash our hands well. I know me. I would've wiped my mouth on the hike back and died somewhere on the trail.

It was a fun and relaxing Sunday, and we were very happy to have spotted such an elusive little creature as the newt. I hope all of you have had some nice relaxing weekends as well!

Just to clear the air...

So it's been a while since we have posted. And the usual excuse still applies: "we're really busy!" Blah blah blah.

Anyhow, I wanted to make this post real quick:

Occasionally we will put political stuff up here, and I know that there are people that read our blog who are on both sides of the Health Insurance Reform debate.

Frankly, I haven't seen so much dishonest, scare-tactic B.S. in a long, long time, than I have seen from the extreme Right Wing, than is being spread in regards to this reform.

http://my.barackobama.com/WhatItMeans

Go here to get a more clear picture of what's really in this. And yes, this will be the "optimistic" view, but it's really pretty accurate. I have read about 900 pages of the legislation, and skimmed through all of it.

Yes, there are problems. It doesn't do enough to limit insurance companies costs, and federal subsidies will probably be higher than estimates. Yes, the plan will probably cost more than is being estimated.

But there are also parts of this legislation that haven't been reflected in terms of likely cost reduction:

• Reduced administrative costs for healthcare providers by reducing uninsured non-paying patients. If more patients have insurance, they will have a significant reduction in bad debt from patients that can't pay. Simple stuff. Just like any business, the cost you charge for your goods and services has to have enough profit built into it to cover the losses. That means that your Doctor bill, or Hospital bill, has a certain amount that is built into it to cover the expense of non-paying patients. Therefore, your insurance company covers that cost. Guess what? You and your employer, for the majority of us who have employer-based insurance, then end up footing the bill. So for those of you that are complaining that you shouldn't have to pay for someone else? Guess what? YOU ALREADY DO! It's just like any other business. The cost you pay at Wal-Mart covers the loss that they have in stolen merchandise. It's really exactly the same thing. So by reducing this lost revenue and the expense of debt collection, cost will be reduced.
  
• Preventative Health Care services- The same people that go to the emergency room when they are sick and then can't pay, have basically no access to preventative health care. By having access to this, the average person will be healthier, and make better healthier, decisions. Oh, and by the way, they won't be clogging up the emergency room when they have access to a regular physician! This will drive down cost.
• More patient and Doctor control over your health care decisions- The bottom line is that this legislation has, to a limited degree, taken power away from the insurance companies, and put it back in the hands of physicians and patients. Less limits on coverage. No ability to refuse coverage due to pre-existing conditions. No lifetime caps on payouts. The false information that is making any claims that the government is getting in between you and your Doctor is patently false. The opposite is true.
  
• Strengthening Medicare/Medicaid- Contrary to what is being said, these programs are not being robbed. And I want to point out that Republicans have been screaming for decades that Medicare needs to be more efficient. That's happening as part of this legislation. But Republicans are trying to claim that Medicare is being raided, when what is really happening is what they have called for for a long time: Making Medicare more cost-efficient!
• Better for small business- The vast majority of small business won't be penalized. If your employer doesn't have at least 30 employees, they are basically exempt from the penalties. It's really only employers with more than that who get hit with a big penalty for not offering health insurance. And if you work for a small business that doesn't offer you health insurance, the federal subsidy will bridge the gap. And that will make it much easier for small businesses that aren't large enough to offer insurance, to be more competitive! Say thank you! BTW it really pisses me off when people complain about this one- if our ENTIRE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IS BUILT ON THE CONCEPT OF EMPLOYER-BASED INSURANCE- then shouldn't there be some provision THAT REQUIRES EMPLOYERS TO OFFER INSURANCE??? Seriously, it's really that damn simple!
• It's not going to bankrupt the country. The bottom line is that there are at least 30 countries that do a more efficient, effective job of providing healthcare than the US does. And don't thing that just because it's the US that we're the best. Sometimes we're really not. And we really suck at making sure that everyone has access to healthcare. And we shouldn't.
  
• It's not going to bankrupt you- Do you make more than $200k per year? Really? That's awesome! Thanks for helping provide healthcare for the single mother that works for the pest control company in your town, that's too small to afford to offer insurance! She really appreciates it! And she also works for a living. Oh, you don't make more than that? You make less than $150k combined? And YOU work for a small company that can't afford to offer Health Insurance? Well, You're welcome! You're healthcare costs just went way down!
  

Summary: While it's not perfect, (and oh btw why doesn't the republican party help address the costs by working with the Dems on improving the controls?) it's a very solid start.

Comment away! But be reasonable.

St. Patrick's Day

Despite the expression on my face in the picture above, I am very pleased it is St. Patrick's Day. Happy felicitations to all our friends! I remembered to wear green today, and Jay and I are celebrating tonight at home with some Irish ale and potato bread for dinner. A quiet evening, but very relaxing which is just what we need.

Hope you all are drinking a toast to Irish eyes today!

Golden Dragon Parade in Chinatown

This weekend Jason and I finally paid a visit to old Chinatown here in Los Angeles. This month is the celebration of Chinese New Year, the year of the Tiger. The Golden Dragon Parade was on Saturday, and we headed down. We got to enjoy lots of floats and dragons. Below are the gates that mark the entrance to Chinatown from downtown LA.

Here is a video of the fan dancers:


There were several types of dragons I saw. There were short dragons that consisted of two people, longer dragons that were many people covered by the dragon's head and body, and long dragons carried on poles. The video below shows the short dragons as well as the long dragon on poles:




We were exhausted but had a great time. But my day didn't end there. Jay headed home, while I met one of my workmates to see a performance of the Los Angeles Ballet. They performed three separate pieces by Balanchine, called Serenade, Kammermusik #2, and Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto #2. The performance was at the Freud Playhouse at UCLA. We had a wonderful time, and thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

I hope you all had a fun weekend as well! Hopefully this week we will also find the time to post pictures from last weekend when we attended the Scottish Festival and Highland Games at the Queen Mary in Long Beach.

A rainy weekend in Solvang

This weekend was more rain here in Los Angeles. The winters here are incredibly mild, with temperatures rarely dipping below the 60s. It is however the only time it ever rains. So we decided to get away for a little trip to Santa Ynez Valley, where we visited one of our favorite spots, Solvang, CA. We arrived late Friday night and stayed at the Kronborg Inn and slept in till 9:30 the next morning (I remember when 9:30 was early...). We headed into town and had a light breakfast at one of the Danish bakeries, then visited a few of the stores. One of them was the Book Loft, a used bookstore that also houses the Hans Christian Anderson Museum. Here's Jay browsing for books, and a shot of the entrance to the museum:



We also popped into the Solvang Antique Center, which is full of some of the most beautiful (and expensive) pieces I've ever seen. We try to visit every time we go, just to drool over the unusual and rare furniture, jewelry, paintings, and other items. Afterwards we popped into the Mandolina tasting room to sample some of their lovely wines.

Solvang is full of little shops, most of which we've never even been in. It's also surrounded by wineries and beautiful scenery, also most of which we haven't visited yet! We often visit Gainey Vineyard and Curtis Winery, and we always stop at Bridlewood Winery. Normally we picnic on the beautiful grounds at Bridlewood, but because of the rain this time we headed to Buellton to have lunch at a place called Pea Soup Anderson's. Jay loved the split pea soup and sausages we had for lunch....

After our delicious lunch we headed to Bridlewood where we sampled wines and picked up several months worth of wine club shipments. Yay for wine club! Bridlewood is lovely, and here are a few shots of the tasting room and the grounds:


We then left Solvang and headed back to Los Angeles, but stopped along the way to take pictures and have dinner with our friend Linda in Ventura. Jay was taking a few pictures when we dropped the D300... oh sad day when the lens is broken! There was much lamenting over the accident. Lucky thing the Nikon repair center is close by!

The view of Santa Ynez Valley from Vista Point:


And the intrepid photographer just before the tragic accident:

Europe is in our future...

Okay, so that probably reads like we are moving.

Again.

To Europe.

Well, we are not (at least not yet... Who knows what the future holds, right?). We are, however, in the planning stages of a trip we will be taking this year. Many of you who read this blog have been across the pond to visit, to live, or for your own birth, so we thought it would be a good idea to reach out to all of our wonderful friends for suggestions on places to go and things to do. As of right now we are planning to be in the following places for at least a few days:

London
Dublin area
Glasgow area
Amsterdam
Southern Germany, Ramstein specifically (couple hours southwest of Frankfurt)
Northern France
Somewhere in Italy

So if you have a favorite spot in or near one of these places, now's the time to let us know!

Thanks everyone!