I'm in the Gardens

Last week I wrote about my trip to California, about how we didn't see to do much except visit family and eat good food. Except one thing we did manage to fit in was visiting the Huntington Gardens. I'm told I've been there before, but this was the first time where I've been old enough to remember. And since these photos don't really require a lot of description, here's a glimpse to help transport you.

In the Chinese Gardens

A giant tree

My brother and his girlfriend with koi

In the Japanese gardens

Rock gardens

Me and Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire

In the herb gardens

A pomegranate bonsai tree

With the mountains in the distanceWhen was the last time you found yourself at a public garden?

Giving Thanks in California

On Tuesday I about our Thanksgiving trip to California. Except I never actually got to Thanksgiving. Finally here is the second installment where we're together as a family feeling thankful.

Thursday morning we went over to my Grandmother's house, we're we started making gumbo. And by we, I mean I made the beautiful roux below, while the boy did the rest. And when I say made, I mean the boy added everything to it and stirred. But you all understand, right?
My grandma had the table all dressed up and cooked a ton of delicious food.
Of course, there was a turkey.
The boy made duck and sausage gumbo.
And there were a ton of side option. My plate below has turkey, mashed potatoes, oyster stuffing, green beans, roasted squash, pickles, baby corn, olives (including a few cured by my mom), cranberry sauce, and a roll. My favorites are always stuffing and mashed potatoes, which you could probably tell based on the fact they take up almost half of my plate!
For dessert we had pumpkin loaf, pumpkin pie, and cranberry upside-down cake topped with freshly made whipped cream. (This is where my camera flash finally started to work again!)
To end the festivities we all took a group picture.
The following day, we drove up to Hollywood to watch the LSU game over lunch at Fuku Burger. I had their Kinoko, which was a burger topped with mushrooms. And while I don't tend not to drink a lot of beer, I could help by try their pumpkin cider.
All to soon through it was time for us to fly to Louisiana. Although for one final food photo, here's the salad I bought from LaBrea Bakery to eat on the trip. It was a great time back in California, but too short as always, and hopefully we're able to get back soon.
Where do you celebrate Thanksgiving this year? And what's your favorite Thanksgiving dish.

What Could Have Been

This weekend the boy and I are finally putting down a deposit for our wedding location! Now that it's starting to feel at least a little bit real, I can't actually starting blogging about it. I just hope you're all as excited to read about it as I am to write about it.

The first decision that really had to be made is where to have it. I don't mean the exact place, but what state. I grew up in California, which is also where my family still lives. The boy is from Louisiana, which is where we met and where we're currently living. (Hence the title of my blog. I'm glad we're all keeping up!) So the question was L.A. or LA? There's the fear if it was out in California none of his family would come. Or if it was out in Louisiana would my family make the trek?

What it really came down to was that the boy and I are currently living in Louisiana. It just seems so much easy to me to be planning a wedding where I'm living instead of halfway across the country. And I like the idea of showing off my new home to my friends and family. Not to mention the prices in Louisiana are a little different that Southern California. But even though we've made the decision, it doesn't mean part of me doesn't wish for the wedding that could have been.

Since it's not actually happening this way, here's a glimpse at what our wedding could have actually been, if we made the California decision.

sourceAt a winery, posing in the grapevines

sourceor celebrating amongst the wine barrels.

sourceOr at the beach.

sourceNeither of these two beaches are actually in California, but I think they get the message across. But moving on to actual CA locations.

sourceUp in the mountains. (This is Big Bear specifically.)

sourceOr at a historical L.A. location like the Biltmore hotel.

But as much as I love all these possibilities we won't be doing, I can't wait to share what we actually will be doing! Do you also have two very different locations you had to choose from? What type of locations did you have to give up when making your wedding location choice?

From Shanghai to L.A.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
This isn't the type of book I normally choose to read, but I found it one a "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" table, and since I already had two books (One Day and You'll Never Nanny in This Town Again) I picked up this one being the most appealing option. It was good reading something out of my normal comfort zone, but even more than that I was pleasantly surprised by the book.

Shanghai Girls is told from the point of Pearl, a "beautiful girl" living in Shanghai in the 1930s. But early in the book she, along with her younger sister, are "sold" into an arranged married to two American men. The story follows the girls from their life in Shanghai in the last '30s all the way through their life in Los Angeles in the late '50s.

I love reading book where I learn information and being that this was a slightly new time period for me I seemed to learn a lot. The book picks up on so many things I'd never thought about before. For example, when I normally think of oppressed Chinese in America I imagine those building railroads in the 1800s. I never really think about what it was it was like for Chinese American living through WWII and dealing with the effects of Communist China.

I also found intriguing the number of family secrets explored in the book. While this isn't based on one specific family, it is still based on the stories of several individuals. It made me think about family history, and how we're basically only relying on information based down, and having to trust that we're getting the full story from them.

Finally I loved hearing about L.A. during this time period. It's always fun reading about places you recognize, and I loved it when I knew exactly where certain scenes were taken.

When I started the book I couldn't put it down. I had to know what would happened chapter to chapter. But as the book progressed instead of have chapters take place back to back, it would often skip several years between chapters. I'm not saying I lost interest at this point, that's to strong of a description, but at that time the book did start to lose it's grip on me.

And then there was the ending, which I wasn't a big fan of. Part of me understand it ended the way it did, but it just wasn't what I wanted to read. Although there's a few open ends left at the ends. But after a little research she is planning on writing a sequel! I definitely do plan on checking the sequal out, and can only hope it's as captivating as this one.

4/5

Bon Appetit

I bet you thought I was finishing recapping my trip out to California. But if so you'd be wrong. I've only been saving the best for last... the food of course!

Since I was going home, it means there has to be home cooked meals. They were several great ones, but the only one I was patient enough to take a picture was at Christmas dinner itself.
We have salad with cranberries, squash, and walnuts, prime rib, roasted potatoes, green beans, rolls, and yorkshire pudding. But what exactly is yorkshire pudding? Well I really had no idea either. But its basically a pastry made in the drippings from the meat that rises a bit like a souffle. He's what it looks like right after we pulled it from the oven.

But not only was I home, I was back in California, which only meant I had to trip a few local favorites that I crave when I'm back in Louisiana.
The world famous In-N-Out burger and fries with their pink lemonade.
And the not quite as famous, but really should be, Rubio's fish tacos. Rubio's is also the only place I've found where they still have Vanilla Coke as a fountain drink.

Finally there were a few new tastes as well, such as the night we went out to Delphine in Hollywood. I started off with the lobster bisque.
For my main course went with the mushroom ravioli topped with shavings of butternut squash.
And for the last course, had one of the more interesting desserts I've had in a long time. It was a green apple risotto, topped with a slice of canalized apple, and finished off with a scoop of salted caramel ice cream. Such a created concept that really lived up to expectations.
But alas that does bring my tales of my trip out west to an end. At least until the next time I'm able to get pick, which is hopefully soon!

Anyone else find that one of their favorite parts of heading home is all the delicious food you get to try?

California Gurls

I've really been loving the new Katy Perry song. Of course the fact that its called California Gurls makes it almost impossible for me not to love. Since I grew up in California I have a soft spot for any some that reminds me of home. So I figured I'd share a few of the songs that remind me of home.

First there's the original California Girls by The Beach Boys

And who could forget the classic California Dreaming by The Mamas & The Papas

Getting a little more modern with California Love by 2Pac

And a little bit closer to my actual home, I love L.A. by Randy Newman

Not only can I find songs about California in general, and even Los Angeles, there's a few songs that remind me of my home town of Long Beach specifically.

We have Snoop Dogg's Gin & Juice, which starts with that classic line "With so much drama in the L.B.C." Yes, that's me, lots of drama!

And who could forget Sublime. I thought about going with Doin' Time, since I'm clearly "well-qualified to represent the L.B.C." But I went with April 1992, since one the addresses listed in the police background tape is only a few blocks from the house I grew up in.
I hope you guys have enjoyed this little musical tribute to home state and hometown. Do you have a favorite song (or two) that reminds you of home?

~Shoshanah

More Parade Fun

It's a Wednesday, so I'm participating in yet another week of Classy in Philadelphia's Where in the World Wednesday. This week I'm back in my home state in California.
To be more precise I'm in Downtown L.A. at Laker Parade. This was Summer 2002, just days after my high school graduation. The Lakers had just won their second championship in a row, and since I was officially done with school. So it seemed like a good time to celebrate. This was back in the days when Shaq was wearing the Laker purple and gold. (As opposed to back in the days when Shaq was wearing LSU purple in gold, in case you were confused!)

If you looking for more Where in the World Wednesday pots head over to Classy in Philadelphia. Or you can check out where in the world I've been here!

~Shoshanah

Hometown Tourist

I already told you about the trip to Disneyland the boy and I took, but that's not the only bit of sightseeing we did while we were there.

We also went to Hollywood & Highland, where I tried to take a picture with the Hollywood sign. (Except a silly palm tree got in the way.)
But if you look really closely you can see the start of the H behind one of the trees. Also at Hollywood & Highland is the Kodak Theater, which hosts Oscars every year. Which is why they have this walk of fame set.
Every best picture nominee is listed in chronological order in black writing on the side along with the year it won. This is also where they put the red carpet that all the celebrities walk down to go to the show.

Speaking of movies, we also went to the Warner Brothers lot. (I think this was the first time I'd ever been.)
We went to their own site museum which had props and costumes from some of their movies including Casablanca, Million Dollar Baby, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and even smaller films like Music & Lyrics.

Although my favorite tourist-y part was lunch a Philippe's.
It's funny because whenever I order French dip sandwiches at a restaurant, I'll remember I don't like them most places. But I absolutely love them at Philippe's. Seriously, there are the world's best french dip sandwich. If you're ever in Los Angeles I highly recommend them!

Its funny because living somewhere you tend not go to a lot of the tourist attractions. But now that visiting California has become more of a vacation instead of actual permanent home, I'm doing a lot more tourist-y things. Also there's the fact I want to have the boy experience so many of the things I love about Southern California.

Anyone else have a few tourist locations you'd tell people to visit if they visited your hometown?

~Shoshanah

Zombie Retreat

Couples Retreat
I've been really looking forward to seeing this, mainly due to the girls in the movie Kristin Davis (from Sex and the City), Kristen Bell (from Veronica Mars), and Malin Akerman (who always looks familiar, but I recognize her from The Proposal and 27 Dresses). The movie's about 4 couples who go to an island together thinking they they're going to have an awesome relaxing vacation, but instead are required to do all different types of couples skills building.

The movie itself was cute, but pretty predictable. One of the high points of the movie was a Guitar Hero Battle (yes, you read that correctly). But overall its wasn't amazing. Cute yes, I might watch it if it ever reruns on TV, but it isn't the type of movie I feel like I'll need to own when it comes out on DVD.

Zombieland
Again, the main reason I wanted to see this is because Abigail Breslin was in it. The movie is about zombie, but isn't anywhere near a horror movie. Its all comedy. Although there is a good bit of blood and gore throughout the movie. Gross, but mainly done for laugh.

The funny thing is, even though Couples Retreat was my pick and Zombieland was the boys, if I had to re-watch one of them I would pick Zombieland without a doubt.

A funny coincidence is that both movies had scenes at the very end of the credits. I always make the boy wait with me till the very end, mainly to show a little respect to all the people who helped to make the movie happen. I'm guess its part of growing up in Southern California. Very rarely do movies have scenes at the end of the credits anymore. But both of these movies do. So if you see either one be sure to stay to the very end. Although, not much of a surprise, the bonus scene at the end of Zombieland is by far the better one.

~Shoshanah

Show Us Your Team

This week's Show Us Your Life at Kelly's Korner is Show us your favorite team, tailgating or traditions. Now I might get run out of Louisiana for admitting this, but until a few years I really had no idea who LSU was. What a way to start this post off right?

Proving things have changedGrowing up I really didn't follow football of any kind. Growing up in Southern California I remember reading in the newspaper about the UCLA/USC game every year, but that was about it. I would want UCLA to win this match up every year, since I was raised in a UCLA family. But other than that there weren't any games that really mattered to me.

With Tiger Stadium in the backgroundFor a lot of people they get big into college football when they actually go off to college. Except for me, I went to a tiny liberal arts school for college that didn't have a football team. So nothing really changed then. Although I'm sure if I had gone to a college with a big football team things would have changed then.

Running into Death ValleyI did go to college in Maryland, which meant that when anything exciting happened in California I had to show my "home pride." And when I was in college USC started winning championships, so I become at least somewhat of a USC fan. Even a little bit of a fan of Matt Leinhart, even though he went to a rival high school. In 2003, all I knew what that USC had somehow been tricked out of a national championship they deserved. I wasn't completely sure how this occurred. Even more, I had no idea who actually won the BCS National Championship that year.

Soaked in 2006Until I randomly decided to go to LSU for grad school. Turns out LSU won the BCS championship in 2003. And LSU fans hated USC fans with a passion, for claiming half of their championship. I started dating the boy not too long after I started grad school at LSU. Slowly he started to turn me into an LSU fan. I may not bleed purple and gold yet. But I'm getting there. I know who the key LSU players are. I've learned far too much LSU football trivia. I get awfully excited and nervous during the LSU games. I've even started yelling at the tv. And I can guarantee you, that if USC were to play LSU now, I will most definitely be cheering for LSU. But, if they played UCLA it might be a different story.
Go check out Kelly's Korner if you want to hear more people's stories. And of course, Geaux Tiger! Here's hoping they're able to beat Florida on my birthday! What a present that would be!
~Shoshanah

The End of Summer

Sorry to disappoint anyone, but we opted not to see any of the new releases this weekend. If you were looking for a review of either The final Destination, Halloween II, or Taking Woodstock then I do apologize. Instead we opted for a movie we missed out on seeing originally. Since we normally she movies the 1st weekend they are released it makes it hard to see indie films. Since in Baton Rouge, they normally have no big opening, instead they'll just appear one weekend. But we did finally make room for

(500) Days of Summer
I've been looking forward to seeing this movie for what seems like the longest time, and thankfully it didn't disappoint. As you can tell from the poster its not really of love story, but more of the story of a relationship with a girl named Summer. Even so there were still a lot of cute romantic type moments. Of course there were a some sad parts, but it managed to have quite a few laugh out loud moments as well. Several that clearly amused the boy, although I'm not sure he'll admit it.

One tricky thing about the movie was the lack of chronological scenes. While I do enjoy he feel of movies that do this and understand the need for it, it still makes parts of the movies hard to follow. I think its partly that I feel the need to be able to fit every scene together. And while most scenes are preference by what number day it is, its hard to remember where each scene is supposed to go relative to the others.

Of course I love most any movie that takes place in Los Angeles. Even the little things like the scenes in Ikea make me a tiny bit homesick. (Really, someone needs to open up an Ikea in Louisiana.) Los Angeles itself feels the at least slightly the same way since they gave Zoey Deschanel a key to the city.
This photo was actually taken by my dad at the event. The bench seen in the background is facing towards a view of downtown, and is where several scenes of the movie were filmed.

I'm really glad I got a chance to see this film before it left theaters, and I'd tell you to do the same. Its a really cute movie, and even if the boy won't admit it I do think he enjoyed it at least a small bit.

~Shoshanah