AC Milan vs. LA Galaxy

Seriously the very next day after my posh afternoon at the Peninsula hotel we took off for Carson, CA for the AC Milan vs. LA Galaxy soccer or football (for my one British Reader) match. It was one of those hot evenings and SB was none to happy about driving the "parking lot" slash 405 on the evening before we needed to study hard. But I really wanted to see this game, I really wanted to see the players from AC Milan; Inziagi, Ronaldino, Seedorf, Massimo, to name a few. Plus we all knew it was going to be Beckham's first home game since his loan to AC Milan.

The night started off great, good parking (always a plus in L.A.) but really $20 bucks, so ridiculous. When we walk in we all got free baseball caps highlighting the match (why do they always give away baseball hats at non hat wearing sports?)

After that it went south, heres why, we have general admission tickets, I never like that term general admission and now I know why. So the attendant points out the area where we are allowed to sit and since we're early I'm all over getting as close as possible. Well, unfortunately, we were one row off of the general admission area and didn't find this out till during the National Anthem and by this time there were so many people and virtually no empty seats. Meanwhile SB went to get another beer and left me a C to fend for ourselves. C won't move since the guy next to her is razing her about not standing up for the Anthem and I'm yelling at her that we need to move, so I leave her, run up the stairs and seriously start climbing over people to find a seat all the while you hear in the background, "and the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air," (fireworks are literally going off). SB comes back during this mayhem and sees me climbing over people and then running down rows to find a good seat. Once settled we're all rattled, sweating and perturb. Then 4 people come in and squeeze into a 2 space area. Finally the game starts phweeewww, right? NOT.

The 4 people in the 2 seater area start arguing with the people in front that Ronaldino has had too much pasta while playing in Italy. So they start getting mad that these people are slamming one of the worlds best players and yelling back at them , "we know him." I'm thinking, yeah right, you don't know him or why would you be sitting here with us?

Then Beckham comes out and as soon as he touches the ball everyone starts booing him. Gotta love L.A. fans. Everyone is mad about the recently published book that fellow teammate Landon Donovan aired his dirty laundry to the press. Boo him not Beckham, really people Landon went and played for Bayern Munchen during the off season too. He just came back earlier, because he doesn't need to play in Europe to get a place on his National Team. It was a tough night. Beckham got fined that night for calling out a fan who was yelling at him from the stands, Beckham had had it by that time. Now it's been over a month since that game and finally the fans have stopped booing. Such a fickle city to live in. Oh yeah poor Miss LA Galaxy herself gets stuck with the masses in general admission too. WHAT IS WITH THAT! I'm forking out more money next time and enjoying the game with an assigned seat.
Oh yeah the arguers....well they made nice and supposedly went out to the parking lot to smoke a joint. Whatever...

Score was tied 2-2. Not bad against one of the best teams in Europe.

High Tea at Peninsula Beverly Hills

So a couple of weeks ago my friends and I took our friend Ashlee to the Peninsula Hotel for High Tea. Ashlee just got married and we wanted to do something nice for her.
And hands down the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills has the best High Tea in California.
Here are the ladies who lunch, all happy to be together, and enjoying ourselves to a civilized afternoon. Champagne doesn't hurt either. Don't we look like a Benetton ad?

My only complaint for the afternoon is we didn't get to sit in the "Living Room" which is a lovely room, with big comfy shabby chic sofa's and harp playing. We did have our tea outside on the patio which was very pleasant and did allow us to talk a little louder than we would usually.

We started off with strawberries and the creamiest clotted cream, it was thick and buttery, perfect for topping off strawberries.


The sandwichs and desserts were yummy, they even let us have a few extra salmon ones and let us choose what we wanted more of the tier for the vegetarians among us.

The next picture of scones leads me to tell a story of a high tea my friend Miche and I went to at the Four Seasons in Carlsbad California many moons ago. This Four Seasons is a beautiful location and we had a whole weekend to indulge. My friend Miche and I had been to many high teas before so we knew what to expect. However, her mother had never been to a tea.
And so we sat down and ordered our tea and prepared ourselves for tasty treats. This was also great conversation day. When the tier of goodies arrived the hostess described what was in each dessert and sandwhich and ended with the scones. Here's how that went:

She said, "I would start with the scones."

Miche and I said, "oh great." As we reach for a scone with our hands....

She says, "Oooohh we're touching, we're touching" and proceeds to pull out silver tongs and gently clutch a scone and place it ever so delicately on a piece of English China.

Miche's mom is mortified. Miche and I nearly fell off the couch dieing laughing. Really who does this. Snobbery can be so hilarious sometimes.

Back to our tea. Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills is a must visit tea if your into that kind of thing. It's nice to get dressed up and take a break from the monotony. On our way out of the hotel lobby we saw a line of really nice cars, including a couple of Ferrari's. We got a kick out of a guy unsuccessfully trying to start his engine, embarrassing to say the least, but he and his trophy lady finally got it right just about the same time my keyed Ford Explorer pulled up. Even us "beer" girls can have "champagne" taste.

Peninsula Beverly Hills
9882 S. Little Santa Monica Blvd
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Studying for 2 weeks

I'm in a school studying for 2 weeks. I have images from the Peninsula Hotel and a rowdy night at the Home Depot Center. Yes I can be sophisticated and sporty. Hey I'm two of the spice girls "Posh" and "Sporty" spice. Which brings me to David Beckham, yes he got booed Sunday night and no I will never buy a General Admission ticket ever again. I know you can't wait to hear it all. Hopefully I can get something up over the weekend when I have a little break.

Fourteen Years and Osteria Mozza

So it's another Anniversary celebration. Only this time my wedding anniversary. Yes it's been 14 years, yes we were pups when we got married. This past year has been particularly tough for us. The times we live in, the economic issues, just life in general have made it hard. But we are best friends and we make it work with lots of hard WORK and some serious praying.

So here's how our week started off. Apparently I was a little bit grouchy the other day about SB's non-enthusiasm regarding dinner at Osteria Mozza. Seriously, he's a foody, you'd think he'd love this. But he's also practical and not the romantic, planning type. But FOURTEEN years deserves a nice dinner at the very least. So when I got home Wednesday afternoon, the above flowers were waiting for me. With this note:
I asked him "why the Tinman sign off?"
He said: "I wanted you to know that I have a heart."

And he does, the best man ever. He makes me laugh just about everyday, cooks just about every night and cleans (does the dish's, our laundry and scrubs the shower) all while working hard in several jobs with multiple responsibilites. (And yes I do work a 40 hour work week and put in 70 hours of monthly volunteer time, not a lazy wife, we're just a busy couple). He is my best friend and I appreciate him more than words can say. Now enough of the mush...let's get to the eating part.

We did make it to Osteria Mozza. And it was well worth the wait. As it was a last minute reservation it was either 5:30 or 9:30 on a Wednesday night. We choose the old folks hour of 5:30 which was perfect, except the L.A. traffic, which is never ideal.

It took us a long time to figure out what we wanted to order, the menu is daunting. I asked what are Osteria's specialities. We pretty much ordered them all.

The staff recommended the Grilled Octopus with potatoes, celery & lemon. I'm not a big tentacle person, but SB wanted this. And it was perfectly grilled with a lemony flavor. Unexpectedly delightful to the my untrained palate.

Burrata with grilled asparagus, brown butter, guanciale & Sicilian almonds. Who doesn't like bacon and brown butter. YUmmmmm.

I ordered Orecchiette with sausage & swiss chard. This was rich and the bread crumbs added a perfect crunchy texture. I took my time eating this and drinking the red wine which I order by the glass and you get a 1/2 carafe which really amounts to a glass and 1/2.

SB orderd Pan Roasted Halibut con pepe verde, which tasted like it was basted with wine and lots of capers.

The finale was the Bombolini which was fresh made donuts rolled in sugar served with mountain huckleberry compote and vanilla gelato. The little candle was for our anniverary. Props to "Open Table" for actually sending the note to the Maitre'd that we were celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary.

Osteria Mozza
6602 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
1.323.297.0100

Chocolate Kiss Cookies

For our outing at the Hollywood Bowl I knew I had to bake something. So of course I pick one of the hottest days of the summer to bake in a downstairs apartment with no air condition. Smart, right, not so much. Worth it, definitely.

I pulled a recipe from a much coveted down home cookbook given by a long-time friend who I haven't seen in over a decade. It's the much used Dow City - Arion Quasquicentennial Cookbook 1869-1994. Yes that's correct I said "Quasquicentennial" which means the 125th anniversary of this small town in Iowa. All the towns people contributed recipe's for this book. My friend walked me through whose to follow and whose to avoid. I watched her make many of the recipe's myself so I knew this one was a winner.

Chocolate Star Cookies (I use Chocolate Kisses)
1 c. Butter
1 c. Peanut Butter (for this recipe I used creamy Skippy's)
1 c. Sugar
1 c. Brown Sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs, beaten
4 T. milk
2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Additional granulated sugar
1 pkg of chocolate star or kisses)

Cream butter, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar; add eggs, milk and vniall. Sift together dry ingredients, except additional sugar and candies; add to butter mixture. Shape into balls; roll in sugar and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and press and chocolate star or kiss on each cookie until the cookie cracks around the edge. Return to oven for 5 minutes. (Recipe contributed by Annie and Jana Sitzmann)
I did have a special request to bake cookies with chocolate and oatmeal. So I pulled out the big ole Quaker Oats round canister and looked around for a recipe. There it is right under the lid only its for oatmeal raisin cookies. I substituted the raisins for for semi-sweet chocolate and voila, these were a hit. Deb traded her peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies for oatmeal chocolate chip. Jessica wouldn't trade. I still have some girls, I'll bring them by.