Category Archives: weekend

Bits of my weekend: Vol 19

26 Sunday Sep 2010

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My weekend can be summed up by a little act (okay two) that happened Friday night.

  • Act 1 – our friend Bill brought over a piece of white truffle wrapped in a paper towel as a gift.  It would have looked more like a drug deal if it hadn’t happened in our kitchen. The cost of the white truffle: $1,600/pound
  • Act 2 - I threw the piece of paper towel away, thinking it was trash.  We had company for dinner and I was trying to be efficient.

Good news – I retrieved it after being asked where it was and realizing what I had done. But this became the neverending story of the weekend.  Kicked off by a post to Facebook by my dear husband, Al.

This little bit of a thing is probably worth a few hundred bucks

I got even luckier, because we got the entire Quattrocchi family together for a day in Dana Point.  And this story was shared multiple times.

The weather was great and in true Quattrocchi fashion we could have feed a third world nation with the amount of food we had.  Here are some of the highlights.

Al gets a birthday poster from the Sperrazzo kids

Noi, Kaydee, Kaylee & John

Kite flying skills were developed.

heads of the Q Clan

Bocce anyone?

Ally and me (two of the Q wives)


Bits of my weekend: vol. 18

19 Sunday Sep 2010

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We wanted to visit some new galleries in Chinatown on Saturday.  Apparently a lot of galleries have taken up residence in old shops and have keep the original facades.  Half way there, I suggested we have breakfast at Homegirl Cafe.

Homeboy Industries

We’ve developed a great affinity to this place since our friends the Moresco’s put together a fundraiser at their house helping Homeboy Industries.  It’s an organization that helps gang members get off the streets and gives them live skills. One of them is food service work.  They have a cafe and bakery.

Torta with jalepeno pesto and red sauce. Yummy.

Three tacos: pork, chicken and turkey chorizo

We really enjoyed ourselves there.  We talked to several of the homies (yes, that’s what they call themselves) and we bought some goodies from the bakery along with some mugs from the gift shop.  We were really sadden by the news that one of the kids who spoke at the fundraiser was shot three times and killed earlier this week.  The funeral was the same day we had breakfast – so several folks were going.  As his last act, Smiley, was kept a live for 2 days so that his organs could be donated.

Bits of my weekend: Vol 17

13 Monday Sep 2010

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I had to work most of Saturday, so my weekend was cut short.  We started to celebrate Al’s birthday early with a dinner at Il Forno with all the parents.  And then we drove to Chinatown to see Joey Chou‘s first art show.

Joey and Al

Joey is a fellow Art Center grad.  Al and I love his art.  So as a surprise, I commissioned a painting from Joey for Al’s birthday.  Well, it was going to be a surprise, but Al really wanted to purchase something at the show and I finally had to let the cat out of the bag.  He was thrilled.  Funny thing is that the show was at a cool, hip shop called Flock Shop which is owned by Michelle.  Someone that Al has known for years, but hasn’t seen in 7 years.  They reconnected at the show.

On Sunday, we took a trip to the historic Farmers Market.

New Orlean's food y'all

Okay so we gobbled the food and there aren’t good photos to show.  Except one.

collard greens. tasty!

Then we started to search for the perfect dessert.

You can't go wrong with an apple fritter and hot coffee.

We closed out the weekend celebrating our friend James’ birthday.  He did an amazing job catching a tuna and then serving it for four courses.  Each one yummy and unique.  Happy birthday James!

Bits of My Weekend: Vol. 15

29 Sunday Aug 2010

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Summer is coming to an end, but the tomato crop seems endless…

Tomatoes from the garden

So I roasted four pans of tomatoes

These were turned into sauce, soup and some were kept to top pizza and open-faced sandwiches

toss these cherry tomatoes with balsamic and it's a simple side or pasta dish

I also got to help my friend Paulo celebrate his second birthday.  There is nothing like it.  Suddenly without cause, a day filled with presents, chocolate cake and Curious George.

Paulo is also a budding artist. He has the smeared paint look down.

Paulo's mom made a four layer cake with George perched happily on the top. Looking curious.

The anticipation was killing Paulo

He got the first and largest slice of cake.

chocolate-bearded Paulo

Next year, he’ll be old enough to understand how special this day is. Happy Birthday Paulo!

I got this idea from Michelle, author of Six in the City Blog. Unfortunately due to a family tragedy, she’s on hiatus from her regular weekend updates. Prayers going out to her family.

Bits of my weekend: Vol 14

22 Sunday Aug 2010

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On Saturday we attended a fundraiser for Father Greg Boyle’s Homeboy Industries.  It was hosted by our friends the Morescos and it was such a worthy cause.  I’ve known about Father Boyle for quite sometime as he’s an alumnus of Loyola Marymount University where I work.  But nothing can really explain what he’s done for gang members and people who have been incarcerated most of their lives.  Only the words of those people can truly provide you with a sense of what this Jesuit priest has done for so many.  Their stories and words were so powerful. I really respect them for all their work to turn their lives around.  Because for most of them, it would have been easier to stay in a gang and on drugs. To hear a recent story on NPR about Fr. G as he’s referred to by the Homeboys, click here.

Sunday was spent gathering the fruits of our garden.

San Marazano tomatoes. The pinnacle of tomatoes for many Italians. Tomatoes are fruit.

We had some friends over for pizza night.  So of course I had to make a dessert.  For the recipe, visit my qt-cakes blog.

Lemon blueberry cupcakes

We had some great starters.  I suppose anything with cheese that costs $32.99 a pound would be good.  I obviously didn’t ask the price when I was convinced to buy some after sampling it at Whole Foods.

black figs with sharp cheese, drizzled with honey

We bought some fresh anchovies from the Mar Vista farmer’s market that we love.  Al mixed ricotta cheese with lemon zest and parsley for a yummy appetizer.  I had a tough time getting the camera to focus on the fish -  so a slightly out of focused photo.

white anchovies with ricotta cheese mixture on crostini

It’s always good to end the weekend with some friends, food and wine.

I got this idea of blogging about my weekend from Michelle and typically she posts links to many others who have followed suit.  Unfortunately her family suffered a tragic loss and she is on hiatus.  I pray for her family and in particular for her brother-in-law’s young children and wife.  Learn more here.

Bits of my weekend: Vol 13

15 Sunday Aug 2010

Posted by in cupcakes, food, friends, weekend

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fresh yellow roses are my mom's favorite

We’ve been going to the farmer’s market a lot lately.  And each time, we make an effort to buy some fresh flowers.  It makes the week seem more pleasant.

We got together with our friends, Alex and Jen (Aka Avery and Jake’s parents) for a nice birthday lunch.  Yes, I’m still celebrating.
We’re known as Auntie Cupcake and Uncle Owl (Al).

Pensive Avery

I tried to get lots of shots of Avery, but she spend a lot of time giggling and kicking me.  So most of my photos were blurry.

Happy Avery

Her brother, Jake, spent most of the meal asking when the cake would be arriving.

The anticipation is killing Jake.

A delicious and light cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Thank you to all the Steins for a great celebration

Jake focused at the task at hand

Last weekend, I made banana muffins and forgot to photograph them for my cooking blog.  This week I was determine to post a photo of my vegan carrot cake cupcakes.  Then I found out that my husband gave all of them away.  There is a lucky fellow with 5 cupcakes at home.  So I decided to make more.  Just so I could photograph it – yeah, I’m CRAZY.  Luckily Al was going to meet some of his fishing buddies, so I had someone to give them to.  For the recipe, click to my qt-cakes blog.

1/2 vegan carrot cake cupakes. The cake if vegan and the frosting is not.

My weekend posts have been inspired by Michelle.  Unfortunately her family suffered a tragic loss and she’s been on a hiatus.  If you are interested in helping her brother-in-law, Ryan’s, family please click here.

Bits of my weekend: Vol. 12

08 Sunday Aug 2010

Posted by in food, friends, Husband, weekend

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This weekend was divided into fun and chores.

Saturday we took an adventure and tried a new restaurant that had gotten some good reviews.  It’s a pizza place called Eatalian located in a warehouse in an industrial district.  When we looked past the bright warehouse feel, we somehow felt we were in Italy.

It might have been the strange “lounge area” that we met when we walked in.

Coffee table made of giantic cans of tomatoes?

It is a food processing facility (soon to be making cheese), bakery, pizzeria and gelatoria

Love the flower shaped bread.

The pizza was so thin, it was like a cracker

I haven't seen an espresso machine like this since I was in Italy

Rather than choose one or two flavors, I went with four flavors of gelato.

The chore part of my weekend consisted of going through boxes of stuff in our garage.  It’s been a few months since I’ve had the courage to go in there without closing my eyes and heading straight for the refrigerator to pull something out.  I don’t think my parents were really pack rats.  I just think that as years pass, you accumulate stuff and forget why you have it and you keep it.  So Al and I spent a couple of hours looking through things.  I’ll tell you I did find some gems of my own history.  Including my fan club kit for Howard Jones.  Only people who remember the 80s – might remember him (No one is to blame).  For now it still stays in the “keep” pile as I pick my husband off the floor from laughter.

We closed out the weekend with a dinner with our friend Mona.  We will always have a special relationship with Mona since she’s responsible for introducing the two of us.  We tried a place called Lemonade.  20 different salads, mac ‘n cheese, soups, lots of baked goods.  WOW.  Yummy.  And as we were sitting in the restaurant we caught a glimpse of this handsome dog. It was a great end to the weekend.

What a face!

I can’t believe I’ve been posting about my weekends for three months now.  I have Michelle at Six in the City blog to thank for that.  She’s on a hiatus from her “bits of my weekend” blogging as she’s suffered a terrible family tragedy.  Although I haven’t met her and she doesn’t know me except by my posts, I feel I do know her in some way.  So she and her family are in my prayers.

Bits of my weekend: Vol. 10

25 Sunday Jul 2010

Posted by in Concerts, food, friends, weekend

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Vegan chocolate, chocolate chip cookie a.k.a brownie cookie

I was originally inspired to make the puffy chocolate chip cookies that Michelle from Six in the City blog has been talking about.  Until I got distracted by the description of this cookie: brownie-like, gooey chocolate cookie.  Uh, the only response to that is to make ‘em.  Would have never guessed and probably won’t tell most people these are vegan.  Click here for the recipe. But boy did the recipe make a lot.  5 dozen.  There are only three people in our household.  I took some to our Hollywood Bowl outing which was great with some hot coffee!  I guess I’ll have to wait until next week for the puffy chocolate chip cookies.

We love Planet Earth.  And to watch select scenes in High Def, outside at the Hollywood Bowl accompanied by the Los Angeles Philharmonic was amazing.  Especially cool was that the composer to the soundtrack, George Fenton, conducted.

Icebergs from Planet Earth Live at the Hollywood Bowl

We went to breakfast on Sunday and stumbled upon a lovely surprise, a farmer’s market in Mar Vista that we didn’t know about.  We didn’t stop at any of the food stands, but we might have to next time.

Always a colorful selection of flowers at Farmer's Markets

Chinese Broccoli - food of my peeps!

Zebra heirloom tomato

we had to buy some of these

All in all, another packed weekend of fun stuff.  For other fun weekends, check out Michelle’s blog, Six in the City.  Michelle didn’t post this weekend.  But you can always look at previous weekends.

weekend plan

23 Friday Jul 2010

Posted by in Musings, weekend

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weekend goal: read this library book

So this week – two things occurred that reinforced the need for me to unclutter my life:

  1. I “lost” four tickets to the Hollywood Bowl.  Wasted time: 30 minutes looking for them & 3 hours battling with Ticketmaster to get them reissued
  2. I “lost” a black cardigan. I swear I wore it last week.  My closet is organized by color and the sweater was not there.  Wasted time: 15 minutes looking for it and still no sweater.

So I hope to devote some time this weekend to reading this book.  Doesn’t mean I’ll actually unclutter my life – but it’s a start.  PS – so I don’t clutter my house with another book – I am borrowing it from the public library.

Bits of My Weekend: Vol 9

18 Sunday Jul 2010

Posted by in Art, food, weekend

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Weekend= Art + Food

This weekend we went to two art events, hung out with artist friends and ate great food.

We started at the opening of Hugh Brown’s Allegedly exhibit.  It’s at the Robert Berman Gallery in Santa Monica.

Art featuring chainsaws

Hugh creates art in the style of the original artist, but inserts a chainsaw into the art.  It’s really clever.

Hugh Brown, "Henri Matisse"

Hugh Brown, "Keith Haring"

My favorite was a wire sculpture à la Alexander Calder.  It was hard to get a good photo.

Hugh Brown, "Alexander Calder"

Outside in the parking lot, there was a catering truck:  World Fare.  It’s the first I’ve seen where you can eat on top of the truck.  These trucks are all the rage.

"Eat-on" catering truck

Al wasn’t paying attention to what I ordered.  But boy did I catch his attention after he bit into this little morsel of flavor!

Truffle mac'n cheese ball

The only thing disappointing about this was that they only gave you three in an order.  Yummy!

The next stop was a slide show and lecture by artist, David Ligare. Not only was David’s art amazing,  he provided some great art history that gave so much more depth to his art.  I wish I had a good photo of the night – as the lecture was in the backyard, lit only with paper lanterns and Christmas lights.

David Ligare, Naxos (Thrown Drapery). 60"x 78"

We rounded out the weekend with dinner in Eagle Rock with our friends Masaki & Kristina.  On our way to a great vegetarian restaurant called Fatty’s (oxymoron) – we spotted something on top of the roof of a neighboring business.

Spidercow. Yes, his body was blue.

We continued the truffle theme with some bread and truffle oil.

A trio of tasty food.

It was a packed weekend, filled with art and food.  Check out Michelle’s and other fun weekends at her blog, Six in the City.

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