performance
This weekend is my tiny aerial silk performance. I’m excited and nervous. It’s one thing to go to practice and another to do tricks in front of people. Yikes!
Wish me luck.
secret supper
This past Sunday Kim and I held our third A Moveable Feast secret supper. This time, we had amazingly gracious hosts who shared their home with us. We had a Spanish feast and dined al fresco. It was a lovely evening. Here is just a peek at a few pieces of our menu.
We started with some sangria.
There was an ajoblanco soup; a subtly seasoned almond soup garnished with grapes and olive oil. I thought it looked like modern art.
We served a variety of tapas including cashew rosemary stuffed dates.
These patatas bravas had the most wonderfully addictive sauce.
These artichoke rice cakes were a big hit.
The main course was an artichoke paella with homemade seitan.
Then of course, my favorite, for dessert we had flan.
It was such a rewarding night as all our guests loved the food and thoroughly enjoyed each others company. It is such a pleasure making such extravagant meals for people who truly appreciate them. There’s no denying it is a lot of hard work to put everything together but it is so worth the feeling when we’ve finished and are finally allowed to take in all we’ve accomplished.
If you’re interested in coming to one of our dinners (or hosting), you can email Kim and I at veganfeast@gmail.com or follow us on twitter at MoveableFeastLA.
Plant Based Parties
This Saturday, Shawn and I attended a launch party for Plant Based Parties, a vegan catering company here in Los Angeles. We knew it would be awesome, because Jennie Cook, the chef behind the event made an amazing feast for our wedding.
We were delighted to find a fantastic tasting menu with a variety of things to sample. I started with a little plate, trying to pace myself.
First up was a beet burger slider, zucchini walnut fritter with avocado crema and a polenta bite. So good. I am officially obsessed with beet burgers, but these had the perfect balance of beety goodness and moist, seasoned filling all wrapped up in an adorable slider package. The zucchini fritter was crunchy and paired perfectly with avocado crema. The polenta bite? Perfect. Plain and simple.
We filled our plates time and time again, as every dish was delightful. Here are a few more samples: Old school ratatouille, onion baghi, asparagus tart and quinoa cake. Each was carefully prepared with a superb balance of flavors and textures. I was a big fan of the quinoa cakes as they were simple but deeply satisfying. I could see myself eating them every day.
We also had zucchini cannelloni, double stuffed potatoes, black bean tempeh piccata and the onion baghi again. The tempeh piccata was definitely a favorite, as it was crispy and just slightly spicy. I loved the fresh taste to the zucchini cannelloni as well. Oh and did you notice that pizza up top? Did I mention there was a giant dragon pizza oven. Delicious thin crusted pesto pizzas baked while we ate. (more…)
Renegade Craft Los Angeles
This past Saturday we went to the Renegade Craft Fair for the first time. I’ve only ever heard good things about this fair and was not at all disappointed. It was held in Los Angeles State Historic Park, and despite being rather warm out, it was nice to spend a summer day outside enjoying such great craft work. It was so inspiring to see all the creative things people are making. Here is just a small fraction of the stuff we saw.
I loved these clocks from Black Forest Clockwork.
These ceramic bowls and jars from Paulova Ceramics were just beautiful. I couldn’t decide which ones I wanted though.
There were lots of lovely terrariums. These hanging ones were from Planted, but there were also some gorgeous ones from Terri Planty with fun little figures in them.
These cross stitches from Kattuna were just too cute.
We saw this screaming bunny when we came in, and later saw a girl walking around with it. Glad he found a home, since he looks pretty grumpy.
If you are ever thinking of getting me a plant, may I recommend one of these? I kill plants like it’s going out of style. These are handmade by Shannon Gerard.
Unicorn coat hook? Amazing. Made by Architecture Jones. They also had some lovely prints and knobs.
I have always admired these paintings by Mincing Mockingbird. I bough an owl print to add to the owl art wall I’m working on.
I also bought an adorable necklace from Made by L’Moore, here modelling one of her creations.
So I possibly spent more than I should have overall but it feels good to support handmade artists (and get original stuff). I’m so glad to be living in a time where there is a resurgence of handmade things and people really value crafted goods. I’m thankful for places that promote crafting with lessons and community as well as these fairs that let so many people make a living from their work.
Afterward we stopped for some beers downtown. Shawn had a full liter of beer. Oh boy.
Me? I had a ginger beer.
Perfect way to spend a Saturday.
batman birthday
This weekend we had a birthday party for Shawn’s brother Kyle. He is a regular fixture over at our place and today he turns 20. So of course we had a completely age appropriate party. A Batman party. Oh yes. And not just any Batman party, but what we deemed a “fun food” Batman party. It was pretty sweet.
There was potato salad, shells & chreez bites, and snake dogs. There were balloons, streamers and a few key Batman decorations. We also had one very hastily decorated coconut cake. It was nice to hang out, eat a bunch of yummy stuff and end the night watching Batman Begins and The Dark Knight (we already watched the Tim Burton’s Batmans last weekend).
Happy Birthday Kyle! (You folks should probably wish him happy birthday too…)
