Tag Archives: friends

Food For A Friend

28 May

I don’t invite people in to my place often, the main reasons are:

(1) my cat doesn’t like people

(2) I only own one living room chair so that means only one person will get to sit comfortably

(3) I don’t own a table so there is nowhere to sit and eat

(4) my place is super small, having two people in it makes it feel crowded

(5) I am a sucky host

Despite all these reasons I decided to invite a friend of mine over for dinner, a dinner that I would be making!  I was happy with making the offer, even happier when she said yes but as the day of the dinner got closer I started to get a bit stressed. I was trying out two different recipes and I was freaking out about messing up and giving both of us food poisoning, or about the food tasting horrible and having to order emergency take out or about any other possible ways to screw it up that I hadn’t thought of yet lol.

I chose two random recipes from online, spoke to a chef friend of mine for some tips and explanations of things in the recipes that confused me, bought ingredients I would never normally buy and next thing I knew I was prepping food, in my kitchen, while listening to music, and kinda enjoying myself. Go figure.

I felt so domestic! 😛

The appetizer was Crusty Parmesan Herb Zucchini Bites. I rate them a 5 out of 5 for ease of making but I didn’t like them, my friend did though so I think it was just that I’m not a huge fan of rosemary but that’s in the recipe, a little less rosemary and I might like them better. Also, I kept them in the oven a bit too long so the cheese was browner than I cared for. shrug. Personal preferences, whatcha gonna do? 😛

washed, ends chopped off, halved, coated in oil

washed, ends chopped off, halved, coated in oil

drizzled balsamic vinegar

drizzled balsamic vinegar

mixture of parmesan cheese, rosemary and thyme

mixture of parmesan cheese, rosemary and thyme

cheese and herbs sprinkled on top

cheese and herbs sprinkled on top

I put the zucchini in the oven at 350F for 15 minutes, the last 5 minutes the broiler was on which was theoretically going to make the cheese a nice golden brown buuuuuut it turned out like this…

not quite how the picture with the recipe looked, sigh.

not quite how the picture with the recipe looked, sigh.

Like I said, I didn’t much care for them but if I try them again with different herbs I might. I normally love zucchini so despite this recipe not working out all that well I might try it again with different toppings, see how my tastebuds like it then. 🙂

The main course was a One Pan Pasta dish that I kept seeing floating around facebook. You put all the ingredients in the pot at the same time, add water, get it to a rolling boil, boil with occasional stirring for the length of time it takes to cook the pasta and boom! Pasta dish! It is really pretty looking at the beginning, at least I think so…what do you think?

See? Pretty!

See? Pretty!

There is whole wheat spaghetti pasta, washed and halved baby tomatoes, one thinly sliced red onion, salt, garlic, red pepper flakes, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil. Not shown is the 4 1/2 cups of water you add. Once it is all cooked according to the recipe there will be a small amount of water at the bottom of the pot which you shouldn’t worry about because it will thicken up in to a sauce. Um…hmm…small amount of water?? I don’t think so! More like whole whack load of water! I was worried I’d somehow screwed up since there was way more water than there was supposed to be but I used tongs to serve it and it was ok, actually better than ok, it was really good. I especially liked the addition of the red pepper flakes, they made quite the difference – in a good way! I also give this dish a 5 out of 5 for ease of making, there is a bit of prep work needed which to me seemed like a lot of work but that is probably because I never cook, I think compared to most recipes the level of prep work needed wasn’t that big of a deal.

The recipe said it would make 4 servings but it made way more than that…course most people eat larger portions that I do so that probably has something to do with it lol It would be a good dish to make then portion out in to servings and freeze for future meals, well, I think it would be, do baby tomatoes freeze ok? *confused face*

The final result was this…

not as pretty looking lol topped with parmesan cheese, Mmm!

not as pretty looking lol topped with parmesan cheese, Mmm!

Since I don’t own a table I put two tv tables against each other, kinda ghetto but hey, it worked lol The final look was…

my "table"

my “table”

My friend brought some fancy bread and she put together some balsamic vinegar and oil for dipping. The little mugs were filled with strawberry daiquiri , I don’t own glasses meant for alcoholic drinks either…I feel like I should start making a list of things I don’t have but apparently should lol.

All in all it was a good meal, with great company and I’m glad the evening happened. 🙂 Turns out my stress was about nothing cause even with the cheese getting too brown on the zucchini everything worked out alright…maybe I should invite people over more often…maybe lol 😛

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Stir Fry Sunday: A Gifted Sauce

18 Feb

2014-02-17 18.02.05I was talking stir fry with a friend of mine on Sunday while I was at work and sauces came up. She vocalized the crazy assumption she had made about my weekly stir fry dinners by saying something about my home made sauces. I looked at her like she was nuts and said “What? Made the sauce? Do you not realize who you’re talking too? I’m the girl who only figured out a month ago how to cook raw chicken. And who did a happy dance at figuring out how to hard boil an egg…remember??” To which she started laughing, made a “oh yeah!” face and then wondered where I get my sauces from. I told her all my sauces come from the same place, the Asian Food Aisle at the grocery store. She started laughing again. Apparently that is funny? *confused face*

Then she walks in to the fridge (I should point out she is a chef, we were in a professional kitchen so the fridge is massive, seriously, it could fit a bed), comes out with a container and says she is giving me some of what is inside. Turns out one of the other chefs had made a ginger and orange sauce that she figured would be good with stir fry.

Sauce…not from a jar…ok, I’m game! 🙂

It was quite tasty, though a tad strong, I blame that on my using too much of it lol.

So my stir fry last Sunday (I’m writing this on Tuesday, I’m such a slacker! 😛 ) was shrimp with a mixture of traditional stir fry veggies and mediterranean veggies with the ginger & orange sauce on top of brown rice. Mmm!

Using the home made sauce made me think I should look in to learning how to make my own sauces. I’ve been reading up on it a bit and apparently a good stir fry sauce is all about the spices used, that and an apparent magic touch lol I can’t afford to go buying a whole bunch of new ingredients right now but it’s something I’ll keep in mind for a future hobby…making sauces…can’t be any weirder of a hobby than whatever other people do, maybe lol 😉

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7 Second Slate

16 Jan

Slate: a quick blurb you say about yourself on camera right before the start of an audition to make it easier for the casting directors to know who they are watching. In your slate you generally say some combination of your name, your agent info and what role you are auditioning for.

Easy peasy. 🙂

acting

Well, there is a new type of slate being used in the acting world and today I filmed one. It was 7 seconds and I had to say my name and something about me that is not about acting. I had 7 seconds to show my personality, make myself sound interesting and basically convince people I have never met to choose me to see in person.

omg! Who can do that in 7 seconds?! lol

Oddly enough I find it harder to do a slate than to do an audition scene. Either type of slate! I think because slipping in to the skin of a character is easy, and since you are no longer you but your character it doesn’t matter what you do in front of the camera cause it isn’t you, it is the character you are being. But a slate? Ugh. You have a super short window of time to show who you are, while saying a blurb of information, and for some reason I always turn in to a bit of a robot when I do a slate.

Today, after I did my second take the camera guy said, and I quote “ok, that was good, let’s do one more and try to have fun” Fun. *rolls eyes* I do have fun when acting but sooooometimes I have to be reminded of that, usually during an especially intense scene, which for anybody reading this who isn’t into acting is kinda normal so don’t go thinking I suck or something lol But to need to be reminded to have fun while doing a slate? Makes me want to kick myself a little bit lol The next take was much better, in fact, it was the one we used, so yay!

For the slate I had to dress in the same outfit I wore for my main head shot and I had to try to make myself look as close to my head shot as possible, this means I had to make myself look purdy 😉 lol So today I was that girl who had the makeup and hair done, the cute dress and high heeled boots on and wow is it funny how you get completely different looks when dressed like that vs wearing yoga pants and a hoodie lol

Dressing up like that always makes me feel a bit like an imposter lol

I’m going to pretend you are interested in why these 7 second slates are being filmed and explain where they are used lol Feel free to skip ahead if you *gasp* aren’t curious…though how could you not be? 😉 😛

There is a website that is used by agents, casting directors and actors for setting up auditions. It isn’t the only way auditions are set up but one of them. As an actor it is my responsibility to have an updated resume, head shots, demo reel and now a slate on the site. My agent can submit my page from that website to casting directors who are posting casting calls and auditions. When my page gets submitted the casting director will take a look, see my head shot, check out my resume and if they like what they see they will then click on my head shot and they will get a pop up page that will show them my 7 second slate. This gives them a chance to hear my voice, see my body language, witness my energy…basically give them more information so they can decide if they want to see me in person or not.

So far there is only one website that is using this 7 second slate, other sites you can upload your demo reel either for free or for a small amount of money and the casting director can watch that instead. This particular site wants to charge me $22 per minute for my demo reel! Ridonkulous! Which means they get my little slate and not my demo reel cause dude, I’m not made of money, eesh.

So yeah, my day was planned around filming something that lasts 7 seconds lol Oh the weird life of an actor 😛

Afterwards I grabbed some take out sushi, hung out at a friend’s house for a couple hours, came back to my place did some random tidying up, put laundry in, plopped my butt down in my living room chair and proceeded to watch really boring tv lol. I decided I was fed up with my viewing options and was starting to stand up so I could go change and go to the gym when my timer beeped reminding I had to switch over the laundry and poof! my plan of going to the gym went up in smoke cause oops, I’d kinda forgotten I had clothes in the machines and other stuff waiting to go in. I hate being that person who takes up the laundry machines by not removing my stuff within five minutes of the machines being done so no way was I gonna go out, especially when I still had a whole other load to go in the wash. My laundry didn’t finish till 10:49pm and my gym closes at 11pm so guess who completely missed out on a gym visit due to laundry? Yup. This girl. How dumb is that?!

I’m gonna set my alarm for earlier then normal tomorrow morning and see if I can drag my butt out of bed early enough to go to the gym before work but considering how much I hate mornings I’m not holding out much hope I’ll make it to the gym. lol. And no, I don’t even feel bad saying that cause I figure hey, least I know myself! 😀

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No Party For Moi, le sigh.

29 Nov

Tonight was my work Christmas Party. It was at a gorgeous hotel, gourmet food and drinks, dancing, prizes to be won, mingling with all your work friends in a social setting, getting to dress up and feel pretty…

Guess who wasn’t there?

Me.

Again.

Grr.

I didn’t get to go last year either. 😦

See, the party is always on a Friday, I always work Friday evenings don’t I? Why yes, yes I do. Which effectively means I will never get to go to the over-the-top work Christmas Party.

Last year I was promised I would get to go this year since I had to work it. I was ok with that. Someone has to work during the party and last year I was perfectly fine with it being me since it does land on my shift. Also, the promise that this year I would get to go meant I wasn’t forever missing out on the event. Turns out the only “plan” made to let me go to the party was to ask the casual worker if she would like to work this evening. She said no for the perfectly legitimate reason that it is her birthday. That was the only attempt made.

Know what makes it even worse? I wasn’t even told! I had to ask if I was going to get to go and I got informed in an oh-so-casual way that nope cause K doesn’t want to work it the shift is yours. Lovely.

If they had told me earlier I would have asked both of the other ladies that share my job duties if one of them would be willing to swap shifts since last year I had to work the party and isn’t it only fair that I would get to go this year? Hell, one of the servers at work came up with a way to make it so I could go (it involved fiddling with shift times a bit), but management said no because, well, they can? They didn’t give a reason. Blarg!

I know it is stupid to be upset about it, after all it is just one party in the grand scheme of life but it is my only Christmas Party this year (my friends don’t really “do” Christmas Parties), my one chance to get to dress up, be at a formal dinner, go dancing…all that fun Christmas Party stuff. Plus! My friends at work (most of them anyways) left for the party right after their shift ended so they got changed at work, which means I got to see them all dressed up and wave them off into the night while I stayed behind. They all looked so great! They insisted I get in a group photo with them, it’s nice they wanted to include me but I looked at that picture after and there they are all glam and I’m not. I’m just in normal boring clothes. *pout*

I keep trying to look at the bright side, I am saving calories by not going to that meal, I’m sitting in my living room comfy in pj’s with a cup of tea a cat and my laptop while they are desperately trying to find excuses to slip their shoes off cause their feet hurt (well, the ladies anyways, the guys are probably fine lol), I don’t have to suck in my tummy all night and wonder if I look ok, I don’t have to find my way home late at night in the cold rainy air…um yeah, that’s pretty much all I got…and to be honest it was a stretch to find those reasons lol

Aww man, I just got texted a group pic of my friends from work all dressed up at the party, screw my bright side at not being there, I wanna be there! *pout*

Ok, pouty child moment over…

What gets me though is one of the staff members who doesn’t do my job offered to cover my shift so I could go. That would have meant she worked a 12 hour shift! She doesn’t even know how to do my job but she was willing to chip in so I could go because she thought it wasn’t fair I couldn’t go again. Management told her no because she doesn’t know how to do my job, which ok I do agree with that decision but what struck me is that she selflessly offered but the two ladies who also work the same position as me, who both were soooooo full of sympathy that I had to work tonight, who are the only two people in the entire place who could have actually helped me be able to go to the party did not think to offer.

Makes a girl think about things…

There we have it, my first (and only) Christmas Party post for the 2013 holiday season. Fairly pathetic. One day though! One day I will be a successful actress and will be turning parties down because there will be so many offers! Until then, it’s just me and the cat and the laptop chillin in the living room cause that’s how I roll. 😛

don't mind my pj's! lol. I couldn't get the cat to look at the camera hence the almost profile shot :P

don’t mind my pj’s! lol. I couldn’t get the cat to look at the camera hence his profile shot 🙂

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Vacation!

29 Aug

I went on vacation *happy dance* I went on vacation *butt wiggle* I went on vacation! *huge grin*

…and now I’m back, sigh.

It’s not that I don’t like my life, I like my friends, my cat, my job, my suv, my city, my weather patterns, my currency and lots of other things buuuuuuut I wish I could have stayed *bigger sigh*

I was in Los Angeles and had a greeeeeat time! I was hanging out with my friend KG for ten days and the only way it could have been better was if I could have smuggled my cat in to the country with me and stayed…well, been employed there and had my suv and stayed…not that I am demanding or anything lol

Instead of blathering on about things I did I figure I’ll just show you some pics instead sooooo prepare for the modern day vacation picture slide show…

Ready?

Here goes! 😀

German Pub = German Beer = yummm!

German Pub = German Beer = yummm!

La Brea Tar Pits

La Brea Tar Pits

omg I got to ride in that!!

omg I got to ride in that!!

Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Memorial for Tot from The Wizard of Oz (Hollywood Forever Cemetery)

Memorial for Toto from The Wizard of Oz (Hollywood Forever Cemetery)

One of the many peacocks that roam the cemetery

One of the many peacocks that roam the cemetery

One of my fave ever statues - did not expect to find it in a cemetery!

One of my fave ever statues – did not expect to find it in a cemetery!

This is where you find the stars on the ground and the hand and foot prints in cement

This is where you find the stars on the ground and the hand and foot prints in cement

omgomgomg Sylvester Stallone put his hands there! Right there! Which means so did I! lol

omgomgomg Sylvester Stallone put his hands there! Right there! Which means so did I! lol

Steel Panther concert at The House of Blues

Steel Panther concert at The House of Blues

The Queen Mary (haunted ship) in Santa Monica

The Queen Mary (haunted ship) in Santa Monica

Santa Monica Pier

Santa Monica Pier

Bubba Gump's at Santa Monica Pier - we got to keep our light up glasses!

Bubba Gump’s at Santa Monica Pier – we got to keep our light up glasses!

Hiked to get a better picture

Hiked to get a better picture

We don't have trees like this where I live hence the picture lol

We don’t have trees like this where I live hence the picture lol

Hiking back from the Hollywood sign a coyote decided to pop onto the trail and lead us back. He's hard to see but he's there!

Hiking back from the Hollywood sign a coyote decided to pop onto the trail and lead us back. He’s hard to see but he’s there!

There is sand, I will write in it, easy as that :)

There is sand, I will write in it, easy as that 🙂

Obviously I have pictures with my friends and myself in them but since I don’t put images of myself or my friends on this blog I couldn’t put them up. Which is a tad sad cause I have one of me battling (and winning!) with Darth Vader, and one of my hands in Sylvester Stallone’s hand prints and lots others but these will have to do. 🙂

I made a whole bunch of new friends when in LA and I miss getting to hang with them. Luckily it is the era of social networking so I have them on facebook and *crossing fingers* I will get to see them again before they forget who I am! lol 😛

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Thank You My Friend

29 May

I have been all kinds of lazy today, I did my volunteer work, bought take out when it was over, came home, ate way too much food, and then sat with the cat on my lap watching tv feeling gross. I felt gross in part because I ate too much, I ate take out, and I hadn’t done anything activity wise. Not shocking I didn’t feel well!

I still had to do my ab and squat work for my 30 Day Challenges but couldn’t work up the gumption for it. I needed help so I turned to facebook.

I posted a status saying “trying to work up the motivation to go to the gym instead of staying comfy curled up with the cat…could someone kindly come drag my lazy butt to the gym?”

My sister responded with a joke about cuddling burning calories, which while cute, did not help me at all! lol

However, a friend of mine, SL, posted a response encouraging me to go to the gym, reminding me there is still lots of time left in the evening so I can relax when I get home from the gym and I’ll feel so much better after I go and work out.

She was so Right!!

it's always good to have a friend that'll give you the push you need

it’s always good to have a friend that’ll give you the push you need

Thing is, I know that, you know that, we all know that. We know we’ll feel better after doing something active, we know we will still have time to relax after carving out time for a workout, we know working out is the right choice. Just because I know something though doesn’t mean I can always make the right decision on my own. Today, I needed help.

I don’t know why I had no motivation today, I just know I didn’t have any. I needed someone else to help me get to the gym, and thank goodness for SL. Thank You SL!! 🙂

I started with what I thought was going to be my lazy-day workout. I ran a 20 minute jog and while yes, I know I should have run for 30 minutes I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to make it to 20 minutes. Surprise to me when I not only ran the entire 20 minutes but felt good while running and knew I could for sure have done the 30 minutes if that was what I had programmed in to the treadmill. Next time I will run the 30 minutes. Then I went and did upper body weight work, something I always enjoy, oddly enough.

When I got home from the gym I did my squats and my ab exercises from the 30 Day Challenges then found I had enough energy that instead of going to bed or plopping down in front of the tv I did a whole bunch of stuff around the apartment. 🙂

I may have spent a good chunk of the day feeling lazy and blah but thanks to some motivation from a friend I ended the day feeling good about myself and all I had accomplished. Thank goodness for peeps who have your back!

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