Annual Bonfire at Huntington Beach

Last night, my closest friends and I headed down to Huntington Beach and got a bonfire going. We grilled some hot dogs, roasted some marshmallows, played a game of football and threw around a glow-in-the-dark frisbee. We ended the night by sitting around the bonfire, drinking and catching up. It was a great day.

Wesley and me in the backseat, stuck in traffic, driving towards Huntington Beach.

Mark and me!

Our driver, CJ. Survival rate at this point was about 20%.

Twinnie!

My hair in this picture. Me gusta.

Having fun with Lightroom hehe.

Wesley, Mark and Raisa.

Aww, Diego and Jen! <3

Bacon-wrapped hot dogs.

The grill-man, Jerusalem.

TO3!

Cutie Char.

Jerusalem's roommate, Chad, trying to block the wind from blowing out our fire!

The Lacambra sisters.

She was really excited about those marshmallows.

Sunset.

Tossing around the football.

My bestest friends everrrr.

Messy hair!

CJ's dimples are so cute!

Huntington Beach.

I love these guys.

One more of Wesh and me.

I needed at least one picture of the guys that didn't want to be in a picture, hah.

Hangtown Fry

I know I haven't updated since last winter (!!) but I'm gonna try to fix that.

And what better way than to put up a post about what I cooked for breakfast today! About two weeks ago, I hung out with a friend and we grabbed brunch at Millie's Cafe in Silverlake and I ordered what was called the Hangtown Fry which was scrambled eggs with smoked oysters, bacon, green bell peppers, and onions cooked in Marsala. The result came out pretty good!

This is the bacon as I just put it in the pan. I used Applegate Farms Organic Sunday Bacon.

A sweet onion and green bell pepper. Both organic of course ;)

Chopped up half the onion and half the bell pepper and sauteed them in the bacon grease.

These are the oysters I used from Ekone Oyster Co. They aren't smoked, so it came out much more seafood-y tasting than the one I had at the cafe. I used about 4 oz. 

And of course, a splash of Marsala cooking wine from Napa Valley Naturals.

The crumbled bacon is ready to join the oysters and veggies!

I used 4 soy-free organic eggs from Chino Valley Ranchers and cooked them in 1 teaspoon of Purity Farms organic ghee.

So I used 2 eggs and dumped half of the oysters/bacon/veggies onto the eggs. Of course, add some salt and pepper.

Next time, I probably won't fold them in half. But here's the finished product! And it came out delicious :)

P.S. I feel like this blog is gonna turn into a cooking blog. 

Happy 4th of July!

My best friend Raisa and I :) I was feeling very patriotic and decided to wear my Statue of Liberty hat that I bought at Target for $1.00. And I was the grillmaster for the day and all the meat came out perfectly if I do say so myself.

Aubrey

Meet Aubrey, the newest addition to the Santos family :)
Of course, I wouldn't have her if Sherry and her boyfriend Paul hadn't given her to me, so BIG THANKS to them for such an amazing dog!
And she really is amazing: housetrained, knows commands (sit, stay, jump, roll over, high five, etc.), doesn't bark much (except when someone's at the door... we're still working on that), loves to just lie around with us, and is just so well-behaved.
She's taken a liking to everyone in the house, *ahem* except for my mom who obviously shows she doesn't like her or is scared of her. And Aubrey can sense that; the way she barks/growls at my mom when she enters the room, or when she backs away from her when my mom tries to pet her. But I think for that situation, it's my mom that needs training--not Aubrey ;)
But anyway, she's been really great. I take her out 2-3 times a day and it's such great exercise especially since the weather has been nothing less than perfect (gotta love LA). I've been trying to feed her a lot since Sherry told she me has gotten skinnier. I can't wait to take her hiking (and I can't wait till my Vibram FiveFingers come but I digress).
Oh and thanks to her, I met a couple of hot skater guys from Laguna Beach at Carr Park today. Score.
So here she is... my dog, Aubrey. These pics were taken with my brand new (old) Helios 58mm f/2.0 lens that just came in the mail today all the way from Israel.

This is pretty much the look she gives me when she wants more treats. Oh and the nasty scar on her face is when she tried to crawl through a fence. Poor pup. The hair is slowly growing back though.

festival of lights

The family and I spent Christmas night in Riverside to check out the Festival of Lights. It was a long overdue family activity. And the biggest frustration of the night was when I dropped my Canon EF 35-70mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM Lens and the Auto/Manual switch broke off. It still works but I feel like it's affected the picture quality so I probably will be laying off this lens for a while. Ugh.

Beautiful statue. Probably my favorite pic of the night.

REINDEER!!!!!

Mission Inn Ave.

My heart will forever belong here.

I really wanted to ride in the carriage but the line was way too freakin' long.