Do any of you watch Veep? Thoughts?

Have you checked out the show GIRLS? Thoughts?

Any other Game of Thrones nerds out there? If so, who’s your favorite character?

But that’s life. We are human. We can’t be perfect all the time. Sometimes life pulls us in other directions. But as I’ve said before: I’m now back to blogging regularly. Hopefully I mean it this time!

Yep, the first quarter of 2012 has gone by in a blur. So much has happened. And in someways I feel so little has happened. But through it all I’ve had my trusty instagram app with me. So this is my InstaLife from mid February-mid April. I guess we can conclude from these photos that I am a crazy cat lady, a food-junkie, and a sometimes stylish person. 

So yep, I’m pretty much the Andrew Zimmern of sushi eating. What about you? Any “weird” food things you’re super into?? I promise I won’t judge!

I have a pretty easy, fool proof artichoke recipe I’d love to share! I made it just the other night! It’s heaven!

Ingredients

• 4 whole artichokes, cleaned and trimmed
• 2 lemon
• 4 cloves of garlic
• dried thyme
• mayo

Instructions:

Bring a large pot of water to boil! Once boiling add 2 garlic cloves, a teaspoon of dried thyme, a handful of kosher salt, and half a lemon to the water along with your artichokes. Let boil for 45 minutes

Meanwhile, take the other half of your lemon and zest and juice it into a bowl. Add 4 tablespoons of mayo. In a small saute pan, sweat 2 finely chopped garlic cloves with some EVOO, and 1 teaspoon of dried thyme. When the garlic is translucent, add it to the mayo/lemon mixture. Stir to combine and refrigerate.

After the 45 minutes, check your artichokes. The center should be fork tender. Take them out and drain. Drizzle with more EVOO and some fresh lemon juice. Serve with the garlic-lemon-mayo dipping sauce and enjoy!

Hope you love that recipe as much as I do!

What’s your favorite bag of the moment?

If  you know me, you know I love food. Well, let me clarify… I love GOOD food. And I am rather snobbish about what is and isn’t “good food.” Well, my friends, Olio Pizzeria here in Santa Barbara is good food. Like, really really really good! Olio Pizzeria is the more casual side of Olio + Limone and very much reminds me of LA’s Mozza/Pizzeria Mozza. The food at Olio Pizzeria is LEGIT Italian with many cheeses and cured meats imported from Italy! They have a woodfire oven that fires up the pizzas and makes them extra crisp on the bottom and chewy in the crust! LOVE! AJ and I went there with my in-laws and feasted like kings. Here is the run down of what we had:

Apps

• Trio of Olives – OMG YUM! The olives varied from mild to spicy marinated. They had their pits which meant they had tons of flavor! I loved nibbling on these and they are a great way to whet your appetite!
• Fried Artichoke Hearts – Need I say more? They came out fresh from the fryer and perfectly golden and crunchy! Oh and they were very very hot! I had fried artichokes in Rome and these were just as good! I adored the aioli that came with! I popped these in my mouth like popcorn. They were seriously that good! Sweet, crunchy, rich. Yum
• Shrimp in a Spicy Garlic Sauce – By far my favorite appetizer! The shrimp were huge and succulent! The spicy tomato sauce they were cooked in added just the right amount of garlic and acidity to the dish! It was well balanced and oh so delish!

Pizzas

• Mare Chiaro – This is the pizza I ate! It was covered in shrimp, clams and calamari! It was SO GOOD! The seafood was very delicate but not overpowered by the marinara sauce or mild mozzarella cheese! The dough was crisp but chewy, just how I like it! I added some of their chili oil to the pizza which made the whole thing pop! It was like eating a Fra Diavolo pasta…but as a pizza instead!
• Parma- AJ got the Parma which is covered with arugula, mozzarella and prosciutto. I don’t eat meat so I tasted a bite from a piece with no prosciutto on it! I really liked the taste of arugula on pizza! Very refreshing! Who knew? AJ loved this pizza!

Desserts

• Apple Tarte Tatin – Tarte Tatin (besides bananas foster) is my fave dessert of all time! This one is just as good as I expect from a Tarte Tatin! Caramely apple goodness!
• Butterscotch Pudding – This was heavenly but oh so rich! It was like eating caramel and butter and fat with a spoon! Nothing wrong with that! But glad it was shared with three other people or I probably would’ve died right there!
• Chocolate Hazelnut Pannacotta – This tasted to me more like a pudding than a true pannacotta. No matter, though, it was divine! It tasted like nutella but as a pudding! Can’t go wrong with that!

As you can tell I LOVED Olio and can’t wait to go back! Who’s with me?

I wasn’t a fan of the mirrored closet doors that came with all the bedrooms in our place. They have no charm and they have a horrible brass trim which to me looks so very 90′s. But I assumed (incorrectly) a fix or new door would be expensive. The ladies of Madison Modern Home suggested I cover the mirrored doors in my office with grasscloth and repaint the trim for a fresh look! I was smitten with the idea and kinda amazed it was doable! They sent me this link on how to do it– http://blog.californialivinhome.com/2012/02/our-little-remodel-mirrored-closet.html –which was very inspirational, though we did end up doing things a bit differently.

Here’s a hint of how the doors looked before:

Materials

• Grasscloth Wallpaper (we used THIS)
• wall paper primer
• heavy duty wall paper paste
• wallpaper squeegee
• Xacto knife
• spray paint for metal

First … We took the mirrored doors off the track and took them outside. We taped off/covered the mirror area and just spray painted the brass trim a white color. We also spray painted the top of the track for the doors in my office!

Second… We went down to our local Wallpaper store, Goleta Valley Paint, and they didn’t have any vinyl on vinyl paste like my instructions suggested. Instead they suggested using a wallpaper primer to paint over the mirror to make it more textured/rough so the paste has something to grip. They also suggested a heavy duty wall paper paste. So that’s what we ended up using!

Third… We painted the primer on the mirrors just as if it were paint. It went on easy and dried quickly!!!

Fourth… Once the primer dried, it was time to apply the wallpaper! Cut the wallpaper to be a few inches longer than the length of your door. This is the piece you will work with! We used a paint roller to roll the heavy duty wall paper paste onto the BACK of the grasscloth as well as onto the mirror directly. We then laid down the paper and pressed (with the squeegee) from the center to the edges to make sure it was smooth and flat. On grasscloth always go side to side, never top to bottom!!!

Fifth… The Wallpaper was about 4 inches wider than our door, which means the excess paper had to be trimmed! We went around the edges with a ruler and an Xacto knife to trim straight edges! The great thing about the texture of the grasscloth is it hides mess ups and imperfections quite well!

Once you’re done, give it a few minutes to dry (I found that it dried VERY quickly) and then hang them back up! Here’s my finished project!

Ta-da! The project cost me about $125 for the two doors! I plan on doing this to all the other closet doors in our condo! It’s such an easy, cheap fix and adds so much WOW factor!

Hope you found this post helpful and inspiring! xo, Ash