Monday, August 24, 2009

Picnic Time

Dragged the Nuni and the Husband to Joy the Baker's picnic this weekend. (Actually, husband thinks Joy is quite cute, and the Nuni is DOWN with anything that involves both a picnic AND cupcakes, so there wasn't actually much dragging involved). Nuni spent the entire drive over saying "Picnic! Cupcake!", interspersed with counting to twenty (her new trick, but don't be too impressed. She thinks eight comes after three and seventeen comes after eleven.) We got to the picnic and were treated to excellent fried chicken, cupcakes, kettle corn, and for the uninitiated, cheetos. The Nuni immediately sat herself on the ground with not one but TWO cupcakes and proceeded to inhale chocolate frosting (before wiping it all over my white pants), then spent a good hour running around and grabbing cheetos whenever she could (alas, my child is among the uninitiated). In other words, we had a fine time.

If you haven't checked out Joy's blog, you should: Joy the Baker
And if you have, I can assure you that Joy in person sounds EXACTLY like Joy on the blog. It's almost spooky.

ETA Picture Proof of the Nuni enjoying her cupcake. (not taken by me. My home computer has a virus and I am currently pictureless). This was kindly sent to us by Tom of Bringin the Cheese. Thanks Tom!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Baby Blues Barbecue

This is just a quickie, since Sesame Street is about to end, but we ordered last night from Baby Blues Barbecue in WeHo and man oh man was it good. We had been to the Venice location a couple of years ago and I remembered liking it, but Venice is kind of a trek. How stoked was I to discover that not only did Baby Blues open a location nearby, but they deliver as well! Now I love going out to dinner as much as (or probably more than) the next person, but having an almost 2 year old can make the experience -- how do I put this? Less than relaxing. Having a delivery option makes us much more likely to get to eat at this place often.

And, if it weren't for the perils of my waistline, that would be very often indeed. We ordered a combo Baby Back Ribs and Memphis Style long bone pork ribs, which were both fantastic (though Ken and I agreed we both preferred the baby back). Smoky, tender, flavorful, not at all dry. Throw in their signature sauce, a few stellar sides (collards that actually TASTE like something, and the best macaroni and cheese I've had, anywhere, plus fried okra just for kicks) and it was an excellent Saturday night date. Granted, we had to watch Cinderella while we were eating, but that also meant that we got to eat without a Nuni climbing on us.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

On Blogger Prom and the Blogging Community

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to go to blogger prom, an event for L.A. bloggers. It was held on the gorgeous rooftop deck of the Andaz Hotel in West Hollywood, which had what Ken promptly dubbed "the best view in L.A." Since Ken is a sucker for views and has dragged me all over creation looking for the best one, I'll have to go with him on this one. The dress was "cheesy prom", and being unable to squeeze into my high school prom dress (which was gorgeous, anyway, and I would TOTALLY wear it to a formal event if it weren't for the fact that after bearing children everything is redistributed on my body and the darn thing no longer fits) and totally pressed for time, I wore a caftan and called it a day. So the effect was more Mrs. Roper than Molly Ringwald, sue me.

It was nice to have a date (I dragged along my husband to the event), and many of the features were terrific -- highlights for us were the venue, the cheese plates provided by The Cheese Impresario, and the pistachio cupcakes provided by Polkatots (where I would totally order the Nuni's birthday cake if it were not for the fact that I am a food blogger and it would be high treason to outsource such a thing). I really appreciate the generosity of the sponsors and the herculean efforts of the blogger prom committee.

And yet ...

I didn't really meet many of my fellow bloggers. I know that a huge part of this was me not really having my "game face" on. It was a weeknight, I had hit traffic coming home from work, making my commute a miserable 1.5 hours, and I really wanted to just hide myself in a corner and drink, which I did quite well, if I do say so myself. But I just didn't find the atmosphere particularly conducive to going out there and meeting people. Part of this is because we could bring dates, so it was easy to retreat to the safety of your partner in crime, part of this was the outlandish attire (did I ever share the story of how Ken and I once went to a Halloween party in very convincing Goth attire, but nobody else was dressed up, and people we met that night subsequently thought of us as Goth forevermore?). I can wear a costume, but I don't feel like I'm really presenting myself when I do.

And part of it is that I can't help feeling a little "wah wah, everyone else already knows each other." I don't want to go all Julie Powell on you, but it seemed almost as cliquey as my actual high school prom (although my date was much cuter to this one). I'm much better at being forthright and barging in on the cliques online, but what I love about blogging is that everyone has their space and their voice, and you get the opportunity to know people (or a version of people, really).