englandsword

On Monday I spent three hours making fruit salad and veggie salad while listening to podcasts! Someone asked me recently what my favorite podcasts are, and I have a very hard time choosing because I love so many. Some of my favorites are WTF w/ Marc Maron, Comedy Bang Bang, KCRW's The Business and The Treatment, Nerdist, The Pod F. Tompkast, Inside Acting, Doug Loves Movies, the UCBLA and NY podcasts, and The Dork Forest. I recently discovered The Anytime Show with Dominic Dierkes (who I have seen perform improv at UCB and is incredible), Film Courage, Making It with Riki Lindhome, Sound on Sight, The Tobolowsky Files, and Talking TV with Ryan and Ryan. Podcasts keep me company, entertain me, and inform me while driving, chopping, and other detestable daily activities. My salad-making frenzy paid off handsomely. I made this big fruit salad: Blueberries, strawberries, grapes, pineapple. And salad salad: Raw corn, raw zucchini, red onion, red pepper, steamed broccoli, fresh basil. I ...

I'm back in LA. I flew back on Saturday and luckily it was pretty uneventful. I did make an 11-year-old friend on my first flight. And I packed myself two identical salads, one for lunch and one for dinner: Salad leftovers topped with torn-up Field Roast deli slices and Parm! On Sunday I went to the farmers' market and Trader Joe's and got a huge amount of fresh fruits and veggies. Then Mom and I skyped for three hours while chopping! It does take some time to make big salads but now I should have enough salad to tide me over for a while. Here's my loot -- red peppers, zucchini, grapes, an apple, cherry tomatoes, pluots (plum/apricots) broccoli, kale, a cantaloupe, almond milk, strawberries, mixed greens, fresh mint and basil, onions, corn, a pineapple, a grapefruit, TJ's chickenless strips, veggie ground beef, and wasabi peas (to spice up salads). I spent about $25 in each place. My first fruit salad of the week - strawberries, cantaloupe, grapes, and pluots. Yummm...

Thank you for the really nice response to my last post celebrating my one-year LAnniversary. I really appreciate it! Today I'd like to spotlight a taste of the islands, mon. I enjoyed the fruit salads we made while I was visiting my parents: so I made one for myself. I'm cheap, though, and berries and grapes are way too expensive. But I did see this huge papaya at Ralphs for one dollar. I made a salad with the peeled and seeded papaya, a can of pineapple, and a couple Granny Smith apples. But after a couple of days and eating all the pineapple out of the salad, I accepted that I'm not a huge fan of papaya. Though it could certainly be the one I picked out, as it seemed firm before I cut it but kind of mushy inside. So I took the rest of the salad and some other ingredients and whipped up a delicious smoothie! Tropical Dream Smoothie 2/3 fresh papaya, peeled and seeded 1 Granny Smith apple, cored and diced (not peeled!) 1 small orange or 1/3 cup frozen orange slices 1...

I had a very chill weekend - I watched a lot of movies! I watched The Purple Rose of Cairo, The Opposite of Sex, Dear John, Love Story, and Bright Star. The Purple Rose of Cairo is one of Woody Allen's biggest hits and I did like it. Jeff Daniels was adorable! I grew up thinking of him as Harry from Dumb and Dumber so it's funny to see him in a "heart-throb" role. I didn't love The Opposite of Sex, it was just OK. Dear John was enjoyable, and I was impressed with Channing Tatum. He was really natural and great with this honest, almost shy dialogue. I really liked Love Story. Ryan O'Neal was great and Ali MacGraw's wardrobe was amazing. I seriously want all those clothes!!! Bright Star was the best movie I saw all weekend, and if you haven't seen it, you should. It's a 2009 film directed by Jane Campion about John Keats' romance with Fanny Brawne. The acting was beautiful, the cinematography is beautiful, the poetry is beautiful. Th...