12 of 12 - December 2009

Yesterday was the 12th. You know the drill. If you don't, check Chad Darnell's blog for details.

Yesterday was also the Casa Descanso holiday party, so the vast majority of these pictures are party or party preparation related. Enjoy!

10:34 a.m. - LJ in Bed.

Checking in on all of my buddies from the comfort and warmth of my covers.


12:11 p.m. - Time to get up and make the cookies.
Rolling out homemade sugar cookies on my Texas towel. If you look closely, you might be able to see my hometown underneath all the flour snow.


1:11 p.m. - Migas!

Since we weren't going to be eating anything substantial until the party, I decided to make some brunch. I went with migas, but this time actually followed a recipe. I'm so glad I did. I mean, my haphazard version is pretty darn good, but holy moly... Thanks to The Pioneer Woman, I had some of the best breakfast I've ever made. (I modified mine to include bacon because, I mean, come on...)


3:14 p.m. - Cookies are not a sometimes food.

It's on to chocolate chip cookies with little red and green M&Ms.


4:59 p.m. - Red Matter.

The red food coloring blends into the cake batter. This is about the time panic started to set in. Then I realized that it wasn't as late as I thought it was and calmed down for 45 minutes. This getting-dark-early thing is still messing with my brain.


8:31 p.m. - Queso Fundido.

Allison finishes up the delicious cheese dish.


9:46 p.m. - Feuerzangenbowle!!

Or auf Englisch... A sugar-spice wine drink in which a giant cone of sugar (called a Zuckerhut) is lit on fire over said drink. That releases more sugar into the punch. It's delicious and very festive. Also, kind of badass... I love that you can see the lights of Silver Lake through the window. I freaking love this neighborhood.


9:51 p.m. - The Spread.

We made a lot of food yesterday. A lot. Spinach dip. My brother's guacamole recipe. Tortilla roll-ups. Frosted sugar cookies. Chocolate chip cookies. Mini red velvet cupcakes. Queso fundido (not pictured). And that's not including the brie, camembert, pretzels, and chips and salsa.


10:16 p.m. - Party People!

I love this picture. My friend Jan looks so happy. This is actually one of two different pictures I took of people at the party. I like the other one, too, so I posted it here. Look! It's Chad!


11:44 p.m. - Christmas Trivia.

Yeah, so this is where I started to realize that I was three pictures short of a dozen with only fifteen minutes left in the day.


11:45 p.m. - Who burned the cheese?

Queso Fundido carnage. This is not going to be fundido to clean up.


11:50 p.m. - "Christmas in Connecticut"

The very poorly-Photoshopped poster for this movie was featured prominently in our party invitation. It played in the background while we played games. (This was after Holiday Switch had wrapped up.)

I'm going to Kyle it.

My friend Kyle has a way with verbs. Well, he has a way with all words, but verbs in particular. There was a stretch of three days this week where I heard him verbify a different noun each day. Only Kyle can find new and exciting uses for the words or phrases "puberty," "Banff," and "Iran hostage crisis."

(Side note -- every time I type "Iran hostage crisis," I catch myself typing "Iraan hostage crisis." You can take the girl out of West Texas...)

Can you use the word in a sentence? Why yes, yes I can...

"He pubertied into a strapping young man." This is actually a variation on the actual sentence used when we saw -- or thought we saw -- another member of the Boy Meets World cast at The Stand in Century City.

"I just want to Banff that person like there's no tomorrow." Anyone whose boss has ever attended Banff Television Conference knows that just the mention of that quaint little Canadian resort during one month in the summer can drive a person to the Thirdway House. It's a scheduling nightmare. Lovely place that I would love to visit, but it's still a freaking nightmare.

"I'm going to 'Iran hostage crisis' them into giving me Lifetime Movie Network and Game Show Network for free." Word for word. Kyle was calling his cable or satellite provider. Note to self: ask him how that went.

On a side note, I can't recommend Mo's in Burbank enough. Eat there. OFTEN.

Fancy-pants Chinese Food

(This is totally a post with "Nay Nay Contraire" written all over it.)

At the moment, I am in Vegas completely living it up. It's 11:09 p.m. and I, 29, am sitting on my bed with the remains of my fancy-pants Chinese food on a plate near my feet. To my credit, I'm writing. BUT STILL. My mom and her (completely awesome) BFF went to see Donny and Marie Osmond at 7:30 p.m. It's a 90-minute show and I know they had backstage passes, but really. I hope my mom's not making out with Donny Osmond right now, even though it would fulfill a teenage fantasy of hers, I'm sure. And I'm going to stop right there before I (a) squick myself out or (b) incur the wrath of my mother.

We were going to grab some dinner when she returned, but when it got to be 10:19 and my mother's phone was still off, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Every time I've stayed at New York New York prior to this, I've been intrigued by Chin Chin. I've eaten at the Chin Chin in Los Angeles, but never the one in the hotel. This afternoon, the mom and I split a Chinese chicken salad... And I just went back for some orange chicken. Now, the salad was perfectly lovely. It was the size of a toddler's head and easily split between two people. And when you take into consideration the extra amount of time it takes to eat shredded lettuce with chopsticks, it worked perfectly. The orange chicken? Ehhhh.

Perhaps I'm spoiled by the abundance of cheap Chinese food outlets in my neck of the woods (Yang Chow, I am looking at YOU, even if you're not really cheap), but this kind of...sucks. If I'm gonna pay $14.50 plus $1.50 for steamed rice plus tax and gratuity, don't make it mostly undercooked onions and bell peppers. For $14.50, I best be getting a container full of non-Weight-Watchers-approved morsels of battered goodness. Really lame, Chin Chin. REALLY LAME.

ALSO? Your to-go chopsticks are sucky and puny!

At least my fortune cookie had a good fortune. Apparently my fondest dream is going to come true this year. This is a higher-priced fortune cookie, so I'm presuming a higher-priced soothsayer. And you get what you pay for, right?

Orange chicken excluded.