June 24th – July 2nd Venus and Jupiter converged to within one-third of a degree. Venus and Jupiter are the two brightest celestial bodies after the sun and moon. Venus is the brightest spot and Jupiter is the second brightest in the night sky, which makes the convergence easily visible with the naked eye. Unfortunately, […]
Baby Birds
On June 26th, a coworker brought these little baby birds to my office. She had found them in her backyard the previous weekend, and has been hand raising them ever since. The birds are about three and a half inches including the feathers. And despite their small size, they chirp loudly. They require food every […]
Urban Squirrels
Living in Los Angeles suburbs leaves a lot to be desired in terms of natural escapes. There are occasionally a few “wild animal” sitings in the Hollywood hills and eastern outskirts of LA County, but the South Bay beach city doesn’t have much in the way of wildlife other than raccoons, squirrels, cats, opossums, birds […]
Twenty-six Miles Across the Sea in Santa...
This past weekend I had the fortune of relaxing on Santa Catalina Island, which is a small 76 square mile island off the coast of Los Angeles. If you have never been to Catalina, you definitely need to check it out. This trip the one-hour boat ride from San Pedro Harbor was quite pleasant. Mild weather with only 2 foot […]
Lemon Herb Chicken with Rosemary Potatoe...
This is one of my go-to weekday meals. It does take a little planning because the chicken can take up to two hours and the potatoes take about 45 minutes. But the prep is super quick and the oven does most of the work. I recently started splurging on the chicken and buying the organic, […]
Summertime Strawberry Pie
Ingredients: Crust: 1 egg 3 T granulated sugar 1 pinch salt 1 ½ cups wheat flour ½ c butter, cut into 1/2 –in squares Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 9-inch pie pan. In one small bowl, mix together egg and sugar. In a food processor, combine salt and flour. Pulse a few times […]
Cucumber Ranch Dip
In an attempt to be healthy for the fourth of July, I prepared a veggie tray with dip along with watermelon and tajin. I wanted a light a cool, zesty cucumber ranch dip ro go along with the veggies, so searched online for a recipe, and headed to the grocery store for the ingredients. While […]
White Bean Soup
Ingredients 1 package white beans 8 cups water 8 oz. Tomatoes 8 oz. Tomatillos 1 small onion chopped 1 jalapeño chopped 1 lb. ground turkey 6 c chicken stock 1 T garlic minced 1 t paprika 1 t sage 1 t ginger 1 t oregano 1 t Salt ½ t Black pepper ½ t […]
Gazpacho with Beef & Black Bean Empanada
With a desire to use up extra tomatoes and cucumbers, I searched for ideas and came across several recipes for gazpacho. Since I have never had gazpacho, and the pictures looked good I thought I’d give it a try. To further complicate the afternoon, I decided to add empanadas as a side to complement the […]
Vegetable Minestrone Soup
(12 servings) Ingredients 9 c water 2 (14.5 oz) cans stewed tomatoes 2 red potatoes, cubed 1 onion, chopped 3 stalks celery, chopped 3 carrots chopped 1 head cabbage, chopped 1 zucchini, sliced 1 (15 oz) can kidney beans 1 (15 oz) can cannellini beans 1 (15 oz) can garbanzo beans 16 oz macaroni pasta […]