Happy Dogs

Sometimes we just need a little doggy pick-me-up. These photos were taken at the Pasadena Kennel Club Dog Show on June 5. Happy procrastination!

A Quick Note on the Last Harry Potter

I've quite enjoyed the Harry Potter franchise. The Prisoner of Azkaban was by far the best film, and a few of the other ones have been good as well. But I'm ready for it to all be over. Let these poor kids move on with their careers, if that's even possible at this point. I do believe it will be possible for Matt Lewis.

Seriously, who would have thought that out of all the HP kids, Neville would grow up to be the most dashing? He looks like a young Clive Owen. Note to studios: the ladies are definitely down with young Clive Owen.

A-Frame

A-Frame used to be an IHOP in Culver City. Its current form is much improved. No booths line the walls. Instead, it's communal eating; large tables seat multiple parties. All in all, the food was really fun and I'd love to go back and try all new items, since our stomachs were only so big.

We started out with some fun appetizers. The Kettle Corn sounded interesting.

Hubs loved it: crunchy, sweet, salty, tangy. Something in this kettle corn tasted too fishy for me. Not a fan.

But the Heirloom Pickles were amazeballs.

This was my favorite dish of the night. Pickled carrots, cucumbers, radishes, pears, and fennel. With a creamy sesame sauce. Loved the sauce, and I'm picky about condiments. I'm all inspired to pickle now.

After our neighbors raved about the Beer Can Chicken we decided to order that.

The chicken was fine, juicy meat and crispy skin. The two sauces it came with were the selling point. One was a sweet cilantro sauce, the other a spicy, smokey chili. Hubs preferred the cilantro, I liked the red chili, so that worked out.

I wanted to try A-Frame's version of Clam Chowder. If you love Thai green curry (minus the curry) and clam chowder, this might be your new favorite soup. Lots of clams. The portion was much larger than I expected, almost too big. I liked this dish, but it tasted exactly how I thought it would (which was quite delicious), but I wouldn't get it again because there was no element of suprise.

I'm over churros. I'm fairly convinced I've already had the best churro of my life at Senor Fred's, and the main reason it's the best churro is because it comes with the most amazing hot chocolate ever. But everyone around us was getting the churros, and our waiter was raving about them, and my pick of a black pepper schezchuan ice cream sandwich suddenly seemed less exciting.

Meh. Fried pound cake rolled in cinnamon and sugar. Served with a chocolatey malted milk with ice cream. It wasn't very exciting. Again, no suprise flavors to make it special. Next time I'm trying the ice cream sandwich.

Chocolatey Delight

Last night I saw a comercial for Chocolatey Delight. It goes something like this: It's after dinner. A woman sits on her couch. She's craving chocolate. Her chihauhua turns into a chocalate bunny rabbit. The woman goes into the kitchen and has a bowl of corn flakes with chocolate chips in it. Craving curbed. Chocolate bunny turns back into chihuahua. Crisis averted.

And Chocolatey Delight is healthy! Only 120 calories per serving. That doesn't include milk.

Here's a thought. If you're craving chocolate, eat a piece of chocolate, dammit. If you eat of bowl of cereal just for a few bits of chocolate, is that really satisfying? Plus, cereal is expensive. So is milk. For $2 you can buy an organic dark chocolate bar, eat two pieces of it after dinner every night and it will last you all week. It's better for you than a bowl of cereal; less calories, less sugar, and dark chocolate in small quantities is good for your heart. But the best part? It's chocolate. Real, delectable, delicious chocolate. Satisfied.

New Favorite Breakfast

I'm completely hooked on my new favorite breakfast, savory oatmeal with egg. I don't like a sweet, sugary breakfast and I wanted to enjoy oatmeal, so this is the perfect marriage. The fiber and the protein in this meal keep me feeling full for hours.

Savory Oatmeal with Egg

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup low sodium chicken stock
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 egg
1/3 oz. grated cheddar
1 chopped scallion
pepper

In a small saucepan, combine water and chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add rolled oats and stir. Reduce heat to medium-low. Let oats cook for a minute, then crack the egg into the pan. Continue occasionally stirring oatmeal and egg whites, leaving yolk intact. Cook about 4 minutes, until oatmeal is cooked and thickened and egg yolk is set. Pour oatmeal and egg into a bowl. Add cheddar. Add pepper and scallion to taste.

Serves 1. About 270 calories.

Paris-Belgium-Amsterdam Misc. Expenses

Here's a list of some of our transportation and attraction expenses, along with other tidbits of information that might be helpful. All information is as of April 2011.

Paris

* The train from Charles de Gaulle Airport to downtown Paris is 8.70 Euros/ticket.

* The Metro is 1.60 Euros/ride. You can buy packs of 10 tickets for 12 Euros at any Metro station if you plan on using the subway a lot like we did. We went through 20 tickets during our five days.

* Saint Chapelle admission costs 8 Euros/person.

* Versailles plus Hamlet admission costs 18 Euros/person.

* Arc de Triomphe costs 9.50 Euros/person to climb.

* Notre Dame costs 8 Euros/person to climb.

* Musee D'Orsay admission costs 5.50 Euros/person. Our tickets were purchased at 8:30 pm. I think they're normally more expensive, but you can save money by going late on Thurs., the day the museum is open late.

* Louve admission costs 10 Euros/person.

Ghent

* Castle admission costs 8 Euros/person.

Amsterdam

* Admission to the Anne Frank Museum costs 8.50 Euros/person

* Admission to the Van Gogh Museum costs 14 Euros/person.

Day Fourteen - Last Day in Amsterdam

Aw, it's our last day in Amsterdam and of vacation (sniffle). For breakfast we had pancakes somewhere not worth mentioning. They weren't good. Should have gone back to The Pancake Bakery.

We went to the Van Gogh Museum, which was fantastic. Besides all the amazing Van Gogh's, there was an exhibit going on called "Picasso in Paris 1900-1907," which helped to make up for the Picasso Museum in Paris being closed for renovations. The exhibit was all about Picasso's works when he was living in Monmartre and some of his blue paintings were there, which I love. My favorite was Poor Couple. Sad but beautiful. Not a drop of cubism in this exhibit.

Two floors were dedicated to Van Gogh. It is his museum after all. My favorite paintings were a very detailed self-portrait that was signed, the Sunflowers, and the Cherry Blossoms. The darkest personality paints the prettiest flowers.

The rest of the museum is filled with Van Gogh's mentors, contemporaries, and other artists working in Monmartre when he lived there. Very cool to see the original posters by Henri Toulouse-Latrec and Steinlen's Chat Noir.

After the museum, we walked to The Pantry for lunch. It's a cozy little restaurant and the traditional Dutch food is great. We started out with goat cheese croquettes that were ooey-gooey on the inside.

Hubs had a meatball with mashed potatoes 3 ways: with sauerkraut, beef and carrot stew, and kale. The sauerkraut ones were the best. One of these days I'm going to try and recreate those.

I had a dish that was like shepherd's pie, but the meat was curried and the potatoes had cauliflower mixed in. So good. My kind of comfort food.

For dessert we shared little pancakes, not like the pancakes at The Pancake Bakery, more like little abelskivers. Little bites of puffy sweetness.

1 set menu with croquettes, shepherd's pie dish, and pancakes + meatball and potatoes + 2 beers = 43 Euros

After lunch we walked over to Vondel Park, a huge park near the museums.


The park was packed on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon and made for great people watching. People sprawled out on the pond lawns, dogs swimming, bicycles coasting by. It was beautiful. Great place to relax, read a book, maybe get some of those pages written.

We strolled over to the quiet Jordaan and walked around the neighborhood. Not a tourist in sight, it feels like a real city. We passed a woman feeding some waterbird standing on the roof of a car. The bird did not belong here. It was bizarre.

Though we weren't starving, we wanted to eat something that could loosely be considered dinner. I don't know where we ate, but it was a little bar on the border of the Jordaan and we sat at a table outside. After a few days in Amsterdam, Amstel starts to grow on you, so we had a couple and split a cheese, sausage, and liverwurst plate and some meatballs (which were actually more like croquettes). The food wasn't spectacular, but it was a fine last meal. Sitting outside, enjoying the beautiful weather, having a cold beer. Ah, vacation.

Back at the hotel, we packed, finished watching Shakespeare in Love, and ate the rest of our Dumon chocolates in bed.

Goodbye, Europe. Until next time.