0021 -- beach camping

this weekend was the birthday celebration for one of my nearest and dearest gal pals, sarah.

we went to a spot that i've driven past all my life, but never stopped, near what used to be a nuclear power plant (don't worry, i'm not growing a third eye yet). the campsites are very close to the road and up on the bluffs. but a light walk through some chest high shrubs and there is the most beautiful and secluded beach. anyhow, enough words, time for some photos:

check out those cliffs!!
we brought out the sparklers too!

happy birthday Sarah!! what a rad way to ring it in!!!

0020 -- the long and winding road

jordan and i are getting excited for the next few months, and are currently trying to save some money so we're finding some new ways to have fun, hang out, plan things without spending any scratch as we're getting married in only 64 days and there's still a lot to be paid for! post wedding we're hoping to take a week to drive up north through the California coast and Oregon coasts as a "faux-moon" since we'll be waiting to save up to take a proper honeymoon! of course trying to decide where to go is an adventure in itself! here are a few possible routes we looked at:

neither of us have ever driven all the way up the coast. although we've both been to different areas up that way. we've got a small list of cities and spots we'd like to hit, but are trying to keep a pretty open mind since we don't have any definite time that we need to be up north! as well we're trying to camp most of the cities on the way up. hopefully we'll be able to find enough camp grounds and rest stops that will serve us. here's the places we'd like to see:
santa barbara & san luis obispo
cholame (where James Dean died), cambria, san simeon (for Hearst castle)
big sur for camping and hiking
carmel & monterey (jordan has never been to the aquarium up there!)
sf, berkley, & oakland
glass beach
redwoods & humboldt
camp blanco st park, or
eugene, or
astoria, or
along with all that we've been trying to look up some good car games. my best marissa is letting us borrow these auto/driving bingo cards which will be great.

do you have any fun car games that you could share with us??

0019 -- eating greek!

summer cooking is some of my favorite. i'm not sure if it's because the days are longer so i'm cooking (and usually eating) while it's still light out, or maybe it's because the produce selections are so lovely. either way we've been eating some really simple and really delicious food lately! i'm still on my crazy health kick, actually i don't think i should call it a kick since we don't think we'll ever go back to eating all the crazy calorie filled processed foods that we were once so tempted by.

one of our favorite ethnic foods lately has been greek. we cannot get enough of it! we used to be avid garden patch falafel buyers but recently when at the store we saw a "make your own" falafel balls. jordan of course was as giddy as a school boy so we tried it and man was it ever easy and so fun!
sadly i have no pictures of our actual process making them but i do have a photo of the outcome and the recipes! so enough chatter and enjoy!!

roasted garlic hummus:
2-15 oz. cans of chickpeas, drained & rinsed
1/3 cup tahini
1 lemon, juiced
1/3 cup water
3 T olive oil
1/4 t cumin
1/8 t black pepper
3/4 t salt
10 cloves roasted garlic (or 2 cloves fresh garlic)
combine ingredients in a food processor and plus until smooth. we add in our oil and water slowly as i find it help it mix better. this saves for about a week and half in an air tight container in the fridge! the thing we love about making our own hummus is you can really put anything you want into it, roasted garlic, sun dried tomato, peppers, cilantro, avocado...you get the idea!

tzatziki dip:
7 oz plain Greek yogurt
1/2 large English cucumber grated coarsely
1 tbsp minced fresh dill or mint
1 clove minced garlic
after cucumbers have been grated squeeze out as much extra water from them as possible. in a medium bowl add the rest of the ingredients to the cucumber. combine and stir. this will save for about a week in an air tight container in the fridge.
here's a photo of my falafel lettuce wrap complete with hummus, tzatziki, cucumber, avocado, and spinach!

0018 -- holiday weekends

jordan and i returned to LA last night and today. we've spent the last four days in san diego visiting our families and friends. we haven't had this much time off together since xmas when we got engaged! we really needed a little time off to enjoy each other, relax, and catch up on our sleep. we brought our others, marissa and stephen and their two puppy babies penny and walter.
on thursday we went over see jordan's mom & dad for a little visit before heading over to my best friend joy's family's house where we swam, bbqed amazing carne asada. after we left there we went over to a friend's ranch where we were able to bon fire and watch the fireworks!

on friday we woke up much later and much lazier making it the perfect day to head over to the pool and the community center for some serious ping ponging. this month also marks the 10 year anniversary of having my little toy poodle, sukie!!

saturday marissa and i had some homework (ie: getting me registered for my upcoming bridal shower). of course i have no how these things go, so i just assumed registering at one place would be fine...needless to say, i was wrong. we went with jordan's mum and got us registered for some new fun things for our next step! we then made a chocolate mousse pie (which i've been dying to learn to make for years! after we left jordan's parents we were off to go see my parents who were playing a little block party show with some of their friends. it was really neat getting to see my parents rock out and play all this music that reminded me of my youth!

phew! you getting sick of me yet? just a few more!!! sunday we were up early and went for a walk around one of the old parks that jordan and i both grew up going to. jordan and i were due at a wedding that evening for my best friend's eldest brother. he and his fiance designed the whole wedding in an adorable carnival theme complete with games and all! unfortunately i didn't get too many good photos of the actual wedding, but did snap a few with my bffy and her sister!!

it was kind of lovely to end the weekend on such a romantic note, especially with our big day only 64 days away now!! hope that you had a lovely holiday weekend and getting back to the grind isn't too rough!!

0017 -- a little bad day blues

lately i've been listening to lots of documentaries* as well as keeping my eye on the current political climate here in the states. i've been feeling a little out of the loop as well i feel it's important for me to know what's going on in my own country. unfortunately it feels a little difficult to hear about what is really going on, especially since jordan and i don't have cable of any sort and we're skeptical of where most news come from. but, some really amazing things have happened in the last few weeks, like the over turning of DOMA (woohoo!!!!) as well as the over turning of Prop 8 here in california. i am so happy that these awful laws have been removed despite what christians and republicans have done to try and prevent!! i truly believe that we are ALL meant to be happy and love who ever we want. it's unfair to expect that everyone is going to love the same, i mean isn't that what's so great about people? we're all so different!

along with the good there has been some really bummer stuff coming up. like the law in bill in texas that although was beaten thanks to Wendy Davis' filibustering, will be coming back as soon as they get the chance. as well, did you know that almost the EXACT same bill has already passed in Georgia? it's pretty scary. now i've thankfully never had to make the difficult to have an abortion, but i stand very very strongly behind my view that it is a woman's right to choose and that's all there is to it. if you aren't a woman, you should have no say in it, it's not your body. it's pretty amazing that it's already so difficult to get one, and so many of the hoops they make women jump through are pretty gross. like the mandatory waiting time between seeing a psychologist about your decision and the actual procedure. anyhow, it's something that as a woman i find has been weighing very heavily on me and makes me very concerned for the future of women's rights.

 beyond that i've been reading into our food and health situation here in this country. between pushing the fast foods, the corn, the gluten, all the prepackaged overly processed foods it's really no wonder that we're all so fat and sick. of course i understand the difficulties of eating correctly, but our government is doing nothing to help us! allowing companies like monsanto keep pushing their gmo mislabeled "goods" on us all. even whole foods isn't safe! we all know that mcdonals is one of the worst, but check out their recent "transparency" campaign which gave readers the list of all 17 ingredients in their french fries, if you can pronounce more than just vegetable and oil i'm impressed! it's just frightening that people aren't more angry, or demanding to know what they are consuming. i mean most of the packaged foods we eat are actually illegal in other countries...what does that say about the USDA and the FDA?

sorry to make this post so heavy. but i just feel SO darn strongly lately that i'm doing everything in my life to make sure that i'm aware and accountable for my actions and opinions. and while i'm talking about opinions i'll leave you with a great quote by Bill Bullard “Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding. The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world. It requires profound purpose larger than the self kind of understanding.”
*list of documentaries that i've watched that have conjured up so many of these feelings:
ingredients
food inc.
if a tree falls
hot coffee
fat, sick, & nearly dead
forks over knives
no impact man
park avenue: money, power & the american dream