Info Burung Kicauan

And no I don't mean my abdomen.  Although if donuts keep swirling 'round my gluten-free mind you just might find me under the wheel of the gluten wagon at Le Donut say around, oh, 3am right smack on the dot when Mr. Le Donut let's the glazed cinnamon twists out of the glaze.  Not that I'd know anything about that or anything.  Ahh the good old days last week.

Rather, what I am referring to in this case dear friends is the neeeeeeed for appropriate staples in the wardrobe.  Now before you run off or slip into a coma (if you're even remotely like me the words "wardrobe" and "staples" cause inevitable head nodding) just bear with me a moment as I feel your pain and share a tale that occurred yesterday.  I had a meeting that required me to leave the house (work required rarity) - and before 10am.  This is a red alert in Carrie-land.  I am not a morning person.  As a matter of fact my mind does not even function properly until 10:30 or 11am - it must be in the DNA because I've been this way since birth.  In addition to this early morning allergy - I don't own a suit (waves victory flag!).  Even the word makes me break out in a hive.  For 8 years I have consulted with one of the most fancy-shmancy retained executive search firms in all the land and successfully avoided the suit.  You don't understand dear people...this feat requires the attention of Guinness Book.  I am the last of a dying breed - a population of one.  How have I done this you ask?  With craft and skill and diversionary prowess, friends.  Last week I feared my city of "Hell No To Suits - Population 1" may have been on the verge of extinction when I (was coerced into) agreed to meet the President of a company.  For one entire day I fretted and sweated the possibility of having to purchase the suit ixnay.  But victory was mine when I dove into my closet with fierce determination and came out with a slough of basics that resulted in a brilliant outfit that in no way, shape or form said "I belong to 'the man' " (one of my biggest fears ever).  And so I say to you fine women - incorporate at least these simple staples into your wardrobe and you too will be victorious.

Just when I thought it was safe to pack up my summer wardrobe and head into fall, someone apparently pushed Mother Nature off the merry-go-round and in her confusion she's decided it's still summer.  Either that or seeing as we didn't get much of a summer here in Southern California, I can only assume she's been on that ride since last fall and is trying to warm up now that she's been let off.  Poor thing.  Speaking of poor things, this morning when I went to get ready to meet Shannan (from Merci Blah Blah) for brunch I didn't realize it was, oh, 80 degrees outside.  Niiiiiiice.

The vast majority of my summer clothes are in bins so high in the closet it would take something akin to a circus act for me to get them down.  I was already running late and in no mood to swing from the hangbars, so decided to remain in present season and make.it.work.  A few jersey/caftan things stay hanging year round, so I grabbed one and mixed it with denim (rolled a la Isabel Marant seen here and here) and a pony hair clog that has been crying for fall freedom.  Despite the warm temperatures I was able to keep relatively cool while surrounded by people in shorts and t-shirts.  This weather really is getting confusing.


After some wonderful conversation and laughs over some equally delectable pavlova, the Chef and I bid farewell to Shannan and her husband, Tom so they could go enjoy the remainder of their day in Laguna.   We're hoping this fun couple ends up in California some day - it was one of those meetings where you feel like you've known the other people forever.  The best!  Mid-way through our drive home we stopped to take in some of the late afternoon sun in a quiet neighborhood near where the Chef grew up.  It was very much a perfect summer day.  In fall.





Not exactly sure how the superheroes made an entrance into this post - a touch too much of the sun perhaps.  How was your weekend?  I won another CSN gift certificate at jammer's giveaway, but fear they won't let me pile them all together to get my much sought after bazillion dollar fondue set.  Oh no, not you again Monday!

For the first time in, like, 10 years, I won't be doing The Big Sit from my birding tower at Indigo Hill in southeastern Ohio. This officially bums me out.

I will sorely miss all my Indigo Hill Big Sit buddies this October 10. However, I will be someplace birdy on Planet Earth, and I shall endeavor to conduct a Big Sit if I possibly can.

Details to follow as I am able. Happy Big Sitting to all my fellow sitters around the world! May the birds pass by your circle in great variety, wearing their least-confusing plumage.

On the heels of yesterday's post indeed the weather has taken a turn for the warmer.  Today only moderately, but the weather girls (Dallas Raines where are you when I need you?) were going off tonight about how it's going to be in the 80's by Saturday for reals.  

I'm so confused. One minute we're wearing sweaters and boots, the next it's back to the shorts and tanks.  Yeah I still had some shorts out for wearing with tights, but it's the mindset people, the mindset I say!  To top it all off I had a bout of temporary insanity yesterday and consumed contraband.  Yeah that's right -gluten-filled. I think I thought I was in Whole Foods or Sprouts or something because I was focusing on warm-weather like dinners on the weekend, and the next thing you knew I was in some swirly whirly little shop with a lemon cream cheese cupcake stuffed in my mouth. (I always wondered what those places were all about).  What?? It had a piece of lemon on it!

I returned to the land of the living just in time to find the baseball playoffs still on (don't those things only last one day??)  and the Chef bellering at the top of his lungs to, well, the television (Jesus take the wheel).  Just as I was about to bake a load of brownies and crack open a bottle of wine to ease the pain, he asked if I wanted salad for dinner.  I was almost afraid to respond thinking it could have some sort of baseball-theme to it given his mindset at the time.  (dodger dog salad? uh no thanks.  i think i'll pass)

Luckily he was thinking seasonal goodness.  And so I share with you - just in time for the weekend.  Hope you have marvelous plans.
 
Poached Pears with Butter Lettuce, Blue Cheese, and Pomegranate Vinaigrette. 
Ingredients - Serves 2

*Pears 
1ea pear peeled and cut in 1/8
1C white wine
1/2C sugar
1/2C water
1t ea. allspice (whole), nutmeg (ground), black peppercorns (whole)
  
*Vinaigrette
2T olive oil
3/4T balsamic vinegar
2T pomegranate seeds
salt &pepper to taste 

*Miscellaneous 
2T blue cheese crumbles (goat cheese will also sub in great)
1C butter lettuce leaves

Method
Pears
Combine all ingredients except the pear and bring to boil.


Peel and cut the pear into eighths while bringing liquid to boil.  Once ingredients on stove top are boiling, drop the pears into the pot one at a time, turn off heat and cover.


Allow the ingredients in the covered pot to cool on the stove until they are room temperature - the residual heat will poach the pears perfectly.  It should take approximately half an hour.  Once cooled transfer to fridge and store in liquid.
Vinaigrette

Okay so all of you know I love Tucker so much I'm ready to marry it.   

*If you just started following recently check out the ongoing love affair here, here and here  for starters, but it's scattered throughout in photos.*

After posing in the field wearing my Mrs. Roper throwback, I received a wonderful email from the people at Tucker who kinda loved that outfit on me as much as I did.  Suffice it to say extreme excitement ensued and the next thing you knew I was jumping up and down possibly letting out shouts of glee (hehe) before gathering myself momentarily only to read on and discover they wanted to send me their Holiday Lookbook aka my marital vows.  When I received the package late last week on hell day (where coincidentally I donned more Tucker to cheer myself up), the heavens opened and the Chef's credit cards ran and hid in the corner.  Ladies start your wallets....it's time to devise your Christmas/Holiday lists! 

I can't share the whole book with you (because I'd be scanning until 2011 on my useless scanner and by then it would all be gone), but was sent the following images to tide you over until the entire line is unveiled.  It will be available by 11/1 on their site:  www.tuckerbygabybasora.com - and all I'm saying is think shawls, maybe a cheetah print coat, a smattering of velvet, more gorgeous outerwear, and, of course, their signature rich prints in the most amazing colors yet.  Let your mind wander with every possible way a silk print can be made into a garment and you will find it in this collection.  The pieces are incredibly innovative and whimsical.  I have yet to recover and basically look at the book 50 times a day swooning like Felicity over Ben Covington when he signed her yearbook on the grass after graduation (can I hear it from all the Felicity fans who still remember the pilot episode?? woop woop!!).

For as long as I can remember I've been in love with pony hair items.  Shoes, rugs, upholstered furniture - you name it and I'm a goner.  Four or five years ago Natuzzi made a chair that caused my heart to flutter.  I was visiting a friend in Canada who ran an interior design business, and while waiting for her happened upon said chair in brown and white. The rest is a blur.  I came to with her standing in front of me snapping her fingers.  It was bliss.  And of course that same chair was nowhere to be found in the Western United States (believe me I was calling Natuzzi like a woman desperate for her last shot at love), and there was no way I was spending something like $500 + duty just to ship it from Canada. Uh, no.  Instead I soothed my wounds with a pair of slippers in the exact same print.  Sure I couldn't sit on them, but it softened the blow.  At least for my feet.

That being said, I have never forgotten that chair - nor have I ever seen any of its brothers or sisters - which in some small way relieves me.  Instead of pining endlessly for it, I carried on triumphantly viewing its rug cousins all around LA.  The more I saw the rugs in cow, pony and zebra print - the happier it made me.  Perhaps it was all those years growing up on the farm *insert smile here*.  I never bought one of the rugs - and then recently I heard someone say they were, like, yesterday even though the Zoe has them everywhere.  A light in my heart kinda went out, but I still kept on loving them anyway. I was never big on following the rules much. hehe

Cut to this past weekend when the Chef moved out of his apartment and temporarily "gifted" me with one or two of his choicest items.