aninnocent

going home

aninnocent — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:46:48 GMT

I am at the Portland airport playing with my new iPod touch while I wait for my flight. I love this thing! On the way here I watched gossip girl and the office and since wifi is free in the airport I have been catching up on all the news that I missed. Awesome.

Trip in short:

-my hostess does not watch tv. I miss tv.
-I bought wine in Washington so American charged me to check a bag. Stupid airlines.
-I love Portland and I wish I lived here.

Can't wait to see the kitties and catch up on all the posts and news that I've missed!!

Helo!!

aninnocent — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:51:40 GMT

Dollhouse better be good -

Whedon has tapped Galactica stud Tahmoh Penikett (aka Helo) to play Eliza Dushku's "twisted romantic foil" in Dollhouse, a spokesperson for Twentieth Television confirms. Also joining the Dollhouse ensemble are Fran Kranz (CBS' Welcome to the Captain), Aussie actress Dichen Lachman and relative newcomer Enver Gjokaj.

Mia is famous!

aninnocent — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:33:30 GMT

Scroll down to Mia in the sleeve

March

aninnocent — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:27:26 GMT

Since I have been out of the country it completely escaped my mind that it is almost St. Patty's day. Do I care about green beer? Nope, but St. Patty's day means Shamrock shakes!! Two weeks of Shammie shakes have been missed by me their biggest fan.

I am ashamed.

Movies in Chicago

aninnocent — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:38:18 GMT

Yesterday I was walking down Michigan Ave. and I noticed a film crew lighting a car that had a couple standing next to it. As I got closer I realized it was Jerry O'Connell and Heather Graham just hanging out on the street. I so wanted to tell him I loved his Cruise parody, but I held my tongue and kept on walking. According to IMDB they are filming Baby On Board.

Happy New Year!

aninnocent — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:48:57 GMT

I can't believe how fast the holidays went by! Over break I managed to see a bunch of movies most of which were really good.

Atonement - James McAvoy is hot. The movie was good, but damn JM is hot.

Waitress - Aw, this one was adorable. I liked it more than Juno.

Juno - Oddly enough I think it was Jen Garner who kept this movie from being too cutesy.

National Treasure - Shut up, my friend made me go see it and I was so bored I did my grocery list in my head while watching.

I am Legend - I think this one was entertaining as long as you didn't think about it too much.

Aside from movies I also managed to hit my goal of reading 50 books in 2007.

The World Without Us Alan Weisman
A Great and Terrible Beauty (Readers Circle) Bray, Libba
Stranger, The Camus, Albert
Dead Until Dark Charlaine Harris
All Together Dead Charlaine Harris
Definitely Dead (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 6) Charlaine Harris
Artemis Fowl (Artemis Fowl, Book 1) Colfer, Eoin
Letters to a Young Chef (Art of Mentoring) Daniel Boulud
Middlesex Eugenides, Jeffrey
Memories of My Melancholy Whores Garcia Marquez, Gabriel
Guilty Pleasures Hamilton, Laurell K.
Bite Hamilton, Laurell K.
Telling Ain't Training Harold Stolovitch
Dead as a Doornail (Southern Vampire Mysteries) Harris, Charlaine
Club Dead Harris, Charlaine
Dead to the World Harris, Charlaine
Living Dead in Dallas Harris, Charlaine
Dead Witch Walking Harrison, Kim
Good, the Bad, and the Undead, The Harrison, Kim
Thousand Splendid Suns, A Hosseini, Khaled
The Physics of the Buffyverse Jennifer Ouellette
Who Moved My Blackberry? Kellaway, Lucy
Killing Yourself to Live : 85% of a True Story Klosterman, Chuck
Smashed : Story of a Drunken Girlhood Koren Zailckas
Into the Wild Krakauer, Jon
All Saints Liam Callanan
Rebel Angels (Readers Circle) Libba Bray
Undead and Unappreciated Maryjanice Davidson
Dead and Loving It Maryjanice Davidson
Road, The (Oprah's Book Club) McCarthy, Cormac
The Reach of a Chef: Beyond the Kitchen Michael Ruhlman
Runaways, Vol. 3 Mike Norton
Dirty Job, A Moore, Christopher
Choke: A Novel Palahniuk, Chuck
Omnivore's Dilemma, The: A Natural History of Four Meals Pollan, Michael
Garlic and Sapphires : The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise Reichl, Ruth
Plot Against America, The Roth, Philip
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) Rowling, J. K.
Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute, The Ruhlman, Michael
A Fighter's Heart: One Man's Journey Through the World of Fighting Sam Sheridan
The Ruins Scott Smith
The Professor and the Madman : A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dict Simon Winchester
White Teeth: A Novel Smith, Zadie
On Beauty Smith, Zadie
Maus a Survivors Tale: My Father Bleeds History Spiegelman, Art
Runaways, Vol. 2 Takeshi Miyazawa
Runaways, Vol. 1 Vaughan, Brian K.
Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3: Torn Whedon, Joss & Cassady, John
The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes WILLIAM URY
Shadow of the Wind, The Zafon, Carlos Ruiz

Napa Part 2

aninnocent — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:35:49 GMT

My friend Amber had some pictures that actually have us in them so I figured I would post those too.

	Group at Buena Vista It took a few tries to get this pic because someone kept grabbing her boobs.
	Group at Plumpjack Here we are chillin' in the back of Plumpjack. They were really busy so we got more wine then we shoud've.
	Group at Silver Oak Early in the bike ride so we still look fresh.
	Me and Morris at Saddleback Me and Mr. Morris. The guy in the background made a gross joke about me giving the cat a handjob.
	Dinner Between courses at French Laundry.
	Mike sleeping at dinner Late into the dinner, Mike is getting tired.
	Stolen Canadian car Our car in Sonoma. It had Canadian plates so whenever we made a bad manuever on the road we figured they couldn't blame us!

Napa recap

aninnocent — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:01:51 GMT

Riding the wine trail

We didn't want to get too drunk on our first day in Napa because we had dinner reservations at The French Laundry. While it was a great plan we still managed to hit six wineries on our ride. We visited Turnbull first and quickly decided to change our course so we weren't on highway CA 29 anymore since riding a bike with cars flying by at fifty miles per hour is not exactly relaxing. Once we were on a less busy road, we went to Silver Oak and Saddleback. The latter was a favorite because their cat Morris let me pet him for a while and it didn't have a fancy tasting room so it reminded me more of the wineries in Oregon. Down the road we stopped at PlumpJack and Miner and we were still feeling good until we hit the hills before Sinsky. Ruined by the hils and the snotty Sinsky pourers, we called it a day and went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Giant bottles

We were fascinated by learning the names of all the giant bottles (Magnum, Imperial, Methusalem, Balthaza, and Nebuchadnezzar were favs) and Miner had them all up on display on the wall.

French Laundry

Oysters and pearls

His signature dish did not disappoint.

Gone

I loved the pearl spoon - nice touch.

Butter

The butter on the left was soft and salty - by far the best butter I have ever tasted.

Summer salad

This was a chioce between the salad or foie gras. I had the snow pea summer salad. Light and amazing.

Foie gras

Mike got the foie gras.

Mackarel

This was also a choice and I was the only one to get the mackarel. I figured where better to get a fish that is difficult to cook? It was juicy with a light citrus sauce.

Lobster mittens

My favorite dish. Lobster mittens! I looked over and saw Marisa cutting hers up, but I couldn't resist the buttery goodness so I devoured this dish in 10 seconds.

Duck

I started to get full here, but this piece of meat was so beautifully cooked I had to finish.

Lamb

I liked the lamb, but not the veggies it sat on. Really full now.

Cake charlotte

This was another choice and my friend got the Smores so I got this. I was not really happy with it.

Smores

The Smore that would've made me happy.

Creme brulee

Oh, but wait! Extra dessert in my favorite form. Happy again.

Overall it was an amazing meal and the best b-day present ever (thanks!). A note of advice if anyone plans on going, while dinner seems like a good idea, eat lunch instead. It is the same menu and you will have hours to digest before bed. We sat for dinner at 7:30 and got back to the hotel exhausted at midnight so it would've been nice to have some time to digest my meal before crawling into bed.

Our last day in the area we spent in Sonoma. First we hit Nicholson Ranch and Gundlach Bundschu, then Sebestiani, Buena Vista (get their cream sherry - yum), and Ravenswood. Continuing the culinary tour we had lunch at Girl and the Fig - another amazing meal.

<td>Love

In San Francisco I spent two lovely, relaxing days with thesaucyone. On Saturday I went to visit a few friends and then we all met Saucy at the Hemlock for a little Prague Rock and beer. It was great to move from Napa to Sf and add mroe to the group to have fun. Sunday we went to Foreign Cinema for brunch; its this beautifil french restaurant in The Mission that shows movies on a wall in the back. My brunch easily makes it into the top ten ever.

For dinner that night, Saucy and I headed to Boulevard and sat at the bar in front of the line so you we could see all the food get plated and go out. Perfect end to my culinary tour! The food was delicious, as I expected since Saucy knows her stuff. Sadly I think all the eating caught up with me because as soon as we got back home I had to go to bed.

Monday I was on my own so I decided to walk off the food. I took the train to Embarcadero and walked past Pier 39 and up Columbus to City Lights were I got lost in books for a while before going to my SF office to meet some co-workers for lunch. After dim sum I got the chance to meet my new Global Manager (it was her first day in SF) which was weirdly formal and unexpected so it jolted me right out of vacation mode. To recoup I went to the Ferry Building and shopped for food supplies and had a glass of wine while I finished up my third book of the weekend. I can always judge whether or not I have had a relaxing weekend based on the number of books I manage to read. This was a great vacation, I read A Thousand Spendid Suns (Very Good), Dead Witch Walking (good, but not as enjoyable as the Sookie books), Letters to Young Chef (interesting) and Garlic and Sapphires (great book about being a NY Times food critic).

Sorry this was so long.

Happy Birthday!

aninnocent — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:24:18 GMT

Big birthday wishes to thesaucyone!!!

My top ten careers

aninnocent — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:37:53 GMT

I took the career test floating around.....

1.Hospital Service Worker

2.Family and Consumer Scientist

3.Curator

4.Foreign Language Instructor

5.Fast Food Worker

6.ESL Teacher

7.Historian

8.Chef

9.Tour Guide

10.Librarian

I think I would enjoy 3, 8, and 9 and of course I already do number 10. Its nice to know I can always just go work at McD's.

TV

aninnocent — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:58:31 GMT

I read Kristin Bell is going to be on Heroes and it inspired me to put together my Fall tv grid. I am now super depressed.

Monday

7 - HIMYM
7 - Chuck
7 - Prison Break
8 - Heroes

3 shows I really want to watch all at the same time. Ugh

Tuesday

7 - Bones
7 - Beauty and the Geek
8 - House
8 - Reaper (For as long as I can take it)

Wednesday

7 - Pushing Daisies
7 - ANTM
8 - Private Practice
8 - Bionic Woman
8 - Kitchen Mightmares
8 - Gossip Girl
9 - Dirty Sexy Money
9 - The Ultimate Fighter

4 shows on all at the same time??!??! If Gossip Girl sucks that gets me down to 3, but still.

Thursday

7 - Ugly Betty
7 - My Name is Earl
8 - Grey's
8 - The Office
8 - Supernatural
9 - ER

I need a quadruple tuner tivo.

Friday

7 - Ghost Whisperer
8 - Moonlight

Sunday

8 - Dexter

Once

aninnocent — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:58:46 GMT

Last night I went to go see Once and it was the best movie I have seen in ages. The movie has very little dialogue and is mostly told through the songs that the main characters sing - I know it sounds hokey, but it was done really well. You can probably only go see it if you live in a major city so if you don't add it to your Netflix now. Do it.

This is the movie's Myspace page where you can listen to some of the songs.

On a call

aninnocent — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:21:38 GMT

I am on a call with a vendor who is demoing their product. A co-worker just asked if a certain kind of search was possible. The vendor's answer: "If it is possible than you can certainly do that." Glad that is cleared up.

Weekend Update

aninnocent — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:21:17 GMT

I went to Lollapalooza on Sunday to see just how many events with hundreds of thousamds of people I could attend in one summer. We saw a ton of bands, but here are the highlights.

Amy Winehouse - should I jsut be glad that she bothered to show up? Her set was good, but it was really low energy so I don't know if she is the type of artist who should play festivals.

Paulo Nutini - Along with Shia, he is so my early 20's boyfriend. Seriously his set was my second favorite of the day.

Pearl Jam - easily the best thing I saw all day. They closed out the fest with all their major hits and there were fireworks behind them as a bonus.

Modest Mouse - Like Amy they were a little low energy, but they played a bunch of my fav songs so I can live with it.

Also good - Tv on the Radio, Yo La Tengo and Kings of Leon

;

	Amy Winehouse
	Paulo Nutini

Celebrity Update

aninnocent — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:38:47 GMT

Seriously people, who on earth let Ms. Lohan drive again? I guess someone also fforgot to turn on her alcohol bracelet. Do they have one that detects cocaine?

Grant Achatz the chef of Alinea was diagnosed with stage 4 mouth cancer and is having sections of his mouth removed to fight it. The cancer hasn't moved too far into his lymph nodes so he is expected to survive, but will most likely lose his ability to taste. So sad.

I heard the next Top Chef is being filmed in Chicago! Woot!

Comic Con in two days! Let the Joss stalking commence.

Weekend Update

aninnocent — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 14:30:59 GMT

My weekend was fantastic. Friday night I picked up the new Harry Potter, but sadly I was too tired to really get into it. Saturday was crazy busy so I also didn't read much, but I did have a fabulous dinner with manoosha, sunni26 and kayess at an Italian restaurant that just opened up in the hood. After that we got ice cream and watched Beckham play for the Galaxy for the very first time. Of course we ended up at Carol's which never leads to good things. La la la.

Sunday I buckled down and read Harry Potter which made for the best birthday ever. Despite having to stop to clean my floors and rugs because Mia got sick on every surface of the condo on Saturday, I still managed to finish it. Thoughts on that later.

TGIF

aninnocent — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 16:27:12 GMT

We got an email today that two consultants from our Sao Paolo office likely died in the plane crash earlier this week. They were working at the airport and haven't been heard from since. So sad.

In more uplifting news, it is my birthday weekend would should be fun. Today I am taking off early to go to my favorite semi-annual wine sale and after I teach the kid's class tonight I plan to go to Borders to pick up the new Harry Potter. Hopefully I can control myself from reading it all night. Tomorrow a bunch of us are going out to dinner and on Sunday, my actual birthday, I plan to read all day and then have dinner with my folks.

In even better news, its less than a week to Comic Con!!!!

I love my city

aninnocent — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:47:16 GMT

Yesterday I went to Millennium Park to see The Decemberists play with the Grant Park Orchestra. The Pritzker Pavillion looks like a giant metal monstrocity, but I must admit the sound is fantastic and the Decemberists rocked, yo.

Tv problems

aninnocent — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 14:39:10 GMT

Saturday morning I had a cable appointment between 8-12. The Comcast guy showed up at 11 and didn't finish until 5:30 PM. First he couldn't get a signal and when he finally managed to do that he then couldn't figure out a way to make the cable cards work. Finally he seemed to have it all down pat so he left. However I have now realized that something is wrong. irst I couldn't find all my shows in the list to record them. I went to my channel set-up and I realized that a bunch of them were not checked so I went through and picked all my channels. About 20 minutes later half of them started working but they had no data on the shows. No problem - I manually set up a call so that tivo would download the data. Now I am missing some of my channels I had before and instead of having no information on the shows it now says To Be announced on the show info. Ugh. I have a feeling soemthing is wrong with the cable cards and I am way to frustrated to deal with it. This tivo series 3 has been a huge pain in my ass.

Saturday night I did the LATE ride which is 25 miles around the city in the middle of the night. It would've been fine, but we biked to and from so I did 40 miles around the city at 2 in the morning. My butt is killing me.

interesting

aninnocent — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:54:31 GMT

So I called Directv to cancel my service today because along with my shiny new HDTV I got a series 3 Tivo that only works with digital cable. I should've threatened cancellation a year ago. First they offered a discount on my pricing and when I said no to that they offered their HDTV fake tivo for no charge and no fees. Sorry, I love my shiny new tivo too much.

If only I were a rich girl

aninnocent — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 21:53:30 GMT

Now, Joss has teamed up with Dark Horse and eBay to offer fans a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sit down to a private dinner–with Joss himself– at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Beginning on July 2nd, fans will have the opportunity to bid on seats at his table, all for a worthwhile cause. The charity auction will run from July 2 to July 12, and also offers additional rarities, including signed editions of Dark Horse’s upcoming Serenity hardcover. For complete details, visit ebay.com/josswhedon.

Have a good weekend!

aninnocent — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 03:34:49 GMT

teleri025 are off to play like hippies at Bonnaroo. Heat, no showers, and 3 days of music. Can't wait!

The tour begins...

aninnocent — Thu, 24 May 2007 04:39:28 GMT

Yesterday was the start of my culinary tour at Alinea. For background, here is an excerpt of what Gourmet Magazine said about Alinea when they named it the best restaurant in America:

In the 1970s and '80s, young chefs and restauranteurs redefined the American restaurant for a new audience. Wolfgang Puck gave Los Angeles the dazzlingly casual celebrity spot, and Alice Waters put the focus on producers when she created her ingredient-driven restaurant, Chez Panisse. In New York, Danny Meyer was reinventing business dining for people who wanted satisfying food without pretense and in Boston, Lydia Shire was playing with cross-cultural cooking long before it was chic. It's heartening to note that decades later, those standard-bearers march on, their flags flying high.

Meanwhile, someone new has entered the arena. His name is Grant Achatz, and he is redefining the American restaurant once again for an entirely new generation. And that - more than his gorgeous, inventive, and delicious food - is what makes Alinea the got-to-go-to restaurant in the country right now.

The restaurant is one of those fancy places that you could totally walk by without even realizing it. Had it not been for the valet sign in front I might never have found the place. It didn't get any less confusing upon walking in the door. Basically you enter into a long dark hallway and when you get to the end there are two silver doors on your left that open up once you are in front of them. From there you walk in to see a staircase and a beautifully minimalist kitchen to your right. Out of nowhere a hostess popped up and took me to my table where the rest of my party was waiting.

The first course was a croquette with smoked steelhead roe and a bunch of little garnishes that I can't remember. It was in the top three of the things I put in my mouth. The casing was fried yet thin enough that when you bit into it the inside just popped in you mouth. Simply amazing.

The second course was octopus with shiso, papaya and tosted soy. The great thing about it was it was served just as you see it in the picture. The waiter hands you the bowl and instructs you not to place it on the table for it will topple over so you have to eat the octopus on the fork and then drink the toasted soy and then you can place it on the table. This made taking a picture very hard.

Next up was chantarelle mushroom puree with carrot, curry and ham. There was also a "pouch" of spinach in this dish that I kid you not was the best spinach I have ever tasted in my life. My favorite dish by far. In the picture below it looks like a mound of mush, but it is acutally served in a kind of bottomless shot glass which the waiter removes so you can eat it.

A shot came next and I won't lie, it was weird. It was apple and celery in a horseradish orb. The waiter told us to be sure to open wide and not to open our mouths or we would lose the juice inside the orb. Its nice that he told us how not to make asses of ourselves. Anyway the orb is much bigger than it appears in the glass so it was harder than it looks to get the whole thing in my mouth. This was interesting because of the way the horseradish flavor mixed with the celery and apple, but it wasn't my favorite.

Monkfish prepared three ways followed. One was fried, one was simply grilled and the other was a puree. All three had banana, onion and lime. The fried was my favorite, of course.

The next course was duck with mango and yogurt. The duck was fantastic, but the thing about this dish was that it was served on a pllow that released lavendar air while you ate it. Eventually the "pillow" went flat, but it was really cool to taste and smell at the same time.

It was about now that I started to get full.

Short ribs were up next. This was cool because it was under a sheath of guiness with fried broccoli and peanuts. I thought the peanuts overpowered the dish a bit, but like it overall.

Another favorite dish was hot potato, cold potato with black truffle and butter. Not only did this one taste great, but it also had the coolest presentation. You are served a little dish with a round scoop of hot potato at the top and cold potato soup in the dish. The hot potato was on a little pin that you pulled out and then you drank the whole dish. It was amazing.

A lamb with consumme, peas and morrels came after. It was good, but I am not a big fan of peas so this one looked prettier than it tasted to me. I also am not a huge fan of the gel consummes.

I got in trouble on this course. It had started to get dark (we are now about 2 hours into the meal) and I couldn't get a shot so I had to use my flash. I only intended to do it once, but then I accidentally took 2. That is when we were kindly informed that while pictures were allowed we couldn't use flash. Oops! Leave it to me. To top it off it was another gel so it was not a fav.

Mmmm, bacon makes everything better. Bacon on a swing, no less! This was another dish the waiter had to explain so that we didn't shoot our bacon across the room trying to get it off the little serving thingy. I love bacon, but the butterscotch and apple brought this to a whole new level.

Bored yet? We are almost there. Next up were the three dessert courses. The first two were very complicated and just ok. The one with the funny looking tubes was chocolate and guava and the other one was various pastes and ice creams.

The best for last, as my friend said it was like a fancy churro. This was another dish that had to be explained so we didn't hurt ourselves. No biting into the cinnamon stick!

long time no update

aninnocent — Thu, 17 May 2007 15:22:23 GMT

Gas is between $3.80 and $4 in Chicago right now. I hate to think what would happen if a hurricane hits the Gulf this year. Looks like I will be riding my bike more this summer which is scary considering I fell off it last week and sprained my hand. Earlier the same day I stabbed the same hand on a shrub while doing volunteer work cleaning up the river. I am officially a mess.

I am not taking any big international trips this year so instead I am treating myself to a sort of culinary tour. It begins next week when I will be dining at Alinea in Chicago under chef Grant Achatz. Grant worked for Thomas Keller at French Laundry for a few years and then came to Chicago and opened Alinea which was named best new restaturant by Gourmet magazine in 2006. The reason I have been dying to eat there is Achatz is one of a handful of chefs who serve what is refered to as molecular gastronomy or small very unique dishes that are meant to create emotion in the eater. Since I will never make it to El Bulli in Spain or WD-50 in NYC this might be only my shot at this type of cuisine.

Next up will hopefully be a trip to Michigan to visit Five Lakes Grill with Chef Brian Polcyn. I read about Polcyn in The Soul of a Chef and have wanted to visit his restaurant ever since. His food will be more traditional and it relies on fresh and locally grown ingredients.

In August a bunch of us are doing an event done in several cities in the US called Outstanding in the Field. Basically a top chef in the area makes a dinner at a local farm. The farm outside of Chicago is hosting Paul Virant who cooks at Vie. He was recently named one of the top new chefs in the city by Chicago Magazine so I have been wanting to eat his food for awhile. This way I can do it outdoors with a bunch of friends. Can't wait!

The end and highlight will be in October or November when a bunch of us plan to hit Napa to eat at French Laundry which is often named the best restaurant in the U.S. and tops in the world. I wish I could've made it there while Thomas Keller was still in the kitchen, but I am sure it will be great either way.

TV drive by

aninnocent — Tue, 15 May 2007 22:00:15 GMT

How I Met Your Mother and Jericho might not be renewed and I am sad. I actually didn't initially like eaither of the shows, but they grew on me and now I love them.

Veronica Mars is probably canceled and I don't even care.