Queen of California

I know this blog has been John Mayer heavy recently, but this blog's supposed to be a reflection of my life and experiences, right? And my life and experiences has been heavily tinted with shades of John recently. His new album, Born and Raised, is on regular rotation around the house. If you haven't heard/bought/known about the album, I highly recommend it. It will be your summer music, I promise. 

Here's a new version of his song Queen of California. Enjoy!

This picture is from Deutsch Magazine. She looks like a California girl, see?

Tomatoes Round the World

I'd like to extol the virtues of tomatoes for a second. Think about it--tomatoes are used in so many different food cultures--European, South American, African, I can name more continents if you'd like. And each of these cultures uses tomatoes in its own unique way. For today, I'll be showing you a European, specifically Italian, way to use tomatoes. 

Tomato Bruschetta with Mozarella and Baguette:

Serves 2-3 as an appetizer or 1-2 as a meal

 

Ingredients:

2 whole ripe tomatoes

1/4 cup onion (I only had red onion when I made this recipe, but you'd typically use yellow onion. Actually, though, the red onion had a nice flavor and added some fun color.)

2 garlic cloves

1/4 cup basil

1-2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

Salt 

Pepper

That's all folks. It's the simplest thing to make. Basically all you do is cut up the tomatoes into small-ish pieces, chop up the onion, dice the garlic, chop the basil, throw it in a bowl with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Let it percolate for 10-15 minutes just to get the juices all nice and melded, and you're good to go!

This is a really basic, good-for-everything recipe. You can use this mixture over pasta with sausage added (stay tuned for that post), you can put this over bread like I'll show you below, or you can use it as a base for more complicated Italian sauces, pasta salad, etc etc, the list goes on.

Continuing on!

Next for this recipe (read: experience), you add mozzarella into the program. I like this kind from Trader Joe's:

It comes in full mozzarella ball form, and you cut it into slices about a 1/4 in thick (or however thick your heart fancies. We are not nit-picky here.) 

Now, slice the baguette. 

I'd do it the same size or so as the mozzarella, just to keep things comfortable. Brush a little bit of olive oil on both sides of each piece and toast slightly til golden brown or less. You really just want to warm it and give it a little crunch. No more than a few minutes in the toaster is necessary. 

Finally, add the mozzarella on top of the bread, sprinkle the bruschetta on top of that, and you've got yourself a party, my friend! Enjoy with some nice wine!

We're all winners here

A few weeks ago (oh gosh, how time flies!), I was lucky enough to get an invite to the Music Video Production Association Awards. It's basically the Grammy's for the music videos themselves, instead of just the songs. If you want to learn more about the Music Video Production Association, click here.

 It was a pretty spectacular turnout. It was held at the Taglyan Grand Ballroom on Vine in Hollywood

 

-- side note: This place is BEAUTIFUL!! If any of you are looking to get married in the Los Angeles area any time soon, check this place out. It has a striking ballroom and a beautiful garden area.--

and had an amazing dinner before the awards began. I think this was the first time I've had steak, chicken, and fish on one plate at the same time. I took a picture of my plate, but I remembered to do that only after I'd half-eaten everything, so I don't think you guys would want to see it. You'll have to take my word for it; it was quite a spread. 

Then came the awards, where they honored the production side of the videos from artists like Rihanna to The Black Keys to Skrillex to Sara Bareilles. 

Here's some pictures from the night and a few of the winning videos that I particularly liked:

 

 some of the winners were voyeuristic:

 

some of the winners were retro:

 

 some of the winners were patriotic:

 

some of the winners were simple:

 

 some of the winners were cult-y:

 

some of the winners were futile:

maroon 5 - Never Gonna Leave This Bed, sara bareilles - Gonna Get Over You, kanye west and jay z - Otis, the black keys - Lonely Boy, cults - Go Outside, lana del rey - Blue Jeans

I See You

Summer is here! (At least for us L.A.ers). And as such, it is walking season! I was feeling a little ill the other day--I don't know if it was allergies or what--but a little fresh air sounded like it would be the perfect pick-me-up. And it was. I wasn't even planning on taking pictures, but I had my iPhone and the greenery was just to pretty to leave undocumented. 

Hopefully your town is getting on the right side of this summer weather and you can take a spontaneous walk as well!

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