rearranging and spicy tuna

Summer has started. I have had little to no work, not a great thing as it means little or no paycheck, but I've had loads of free time. Now for me this is a issue. I do crazy things when I'm alone with nothing to do. Because of my mother this sometimes shows itself in rearranging rooms. She had us (the kids) move furniture about once ever few months. I don't think anything ever stayed in the same spot for more for 3 months. So I decided we were going to move everything in our bedroom. Now when we moved in we somehow ended up with way more furniture then we planed. the moving people took almost all the furniture out of my fiance's mother's garage. Half of which we wanted. Due to this we ended up with 2 long cabinets and 4 dressers over what we needed. So we went out and bought 2 more dressers. I know this doesn't sound like a smart thing to do. But because of the size of the dressers we both were using 2 each to keep all our clothes in. So we went and got ones that we could each use one only. But that meant that we had all these dressers that we didn't need. So last Saturday we moved it all out. We borrowed his mother's car (it's bigger then ours) and moved out 4 dressers, 1 cabinet, and a small set of drawers. It took us about 4 trips to get everything back to her house. And let me tell you the bedroom looks so much better. But now I want to do the rest of the house.

Also when I'm left alone I clean. This may not sounds like a bad thing to most people. But trust me it can be an issue. First off I am not good at cleaning. I make a mess. You make think this is hard to do when cleaning but trust me I'm a master. For example, I may decide that it's time to organize my recipes that I have cut out. Where as now they are in neat little stacks, by the time I'm halfway though they are all over the floor and I've lost interest. The other issue i have with cleaning is that I have purging moods. I'm sure everyone has them. But it's a lot harder when you are living with someone. I either call him while he's at work to ask him if he really wants to keep thing odd thing I found in a drawer or if I can toss it. He doesn't even know what I'm talking about half the time. Or I just toss it. Without consulting him at all. He will call me sometimes when he's looking for something and it all depends on weather it was on the table while I was in a purging mood. If it was then it's gone. Due to the annoyance this causes I try not to purge his stuff. If I don't know what it is or who it belongs to I leave it. Or at least I try.

The last thing that I do while bored and alone is bake. Now this may be fine for some but not for me. Many times this means that I do not make any "real" food and eat only what I happen to be baking. And since I have been trying to cut out all grains baking isn't really what I need to be doing. So I have been trying to cook. One of my favorite recipes right now is spicy tuna. I'm not good with spice but I've been trying to gradually heighten my tolerance.

Spicy Tuna on Toast
I looked a few different recipes when I was first thinking about making it but I never really used one. So here is the recipe I use to make it. The idea for the toast came form a little japanese maid cafe in Culver City called Royal T. But you can put the spicy tuna on anything.

Ingredients
Makes one
Time about 10-15 min

1/2 cup fresh Tuna  (cubed. a few cubes smashed to a paste.)
1 Tbsp mayo (japanese if you can get it)
1/2 tsp chives
1/3 tsp Seriracha (you can add more depending on your spice threshold.)
dash of soy sauce
half avocado

slice of toast

I start my cutting up the tuna. While I'm doing this I start the toast. I then combine the first 5 ingredients in a small bowl. You want to mix it until the mayo and the Seriracha is completely combined.
Once this is done you cut the avocado into slices. I tend toward thick slices since I love avocado.
When the toast is done you put the avocado in a single layer over the toast then spoon on the tuna mix.

it's really as easy as that. I could eat this everyday. I use sushi grade tuna steaks. I have found great quality at costco of all places and for a reasonable price.

It's an easy and healthy fast meal to have when it's hot. I love it.
hope this helps on a hot summer day!
hugs+kisses
mce

New Love

Do you ever fall in love with someone based on what they own? I have. Not romantically, but still a great love. I could spend hours in this man's house. But let me tell this properly.

Saturday night Jono and I were invited to dinner. It was the man who lived downstairs of a couple we know. Now i have had issues in the past with this couple but they are close friends of Jono, so I had to suck it up and be nice. For those of you who know me you know this is not easy for me in any way. Needless to say I was nervous as hell. Not only was I having dinner with 2 people I haven't talked to in quite a few months and who I disagree with on multiple counts, but at a stranger's house.  It was a small place on the canals in Venice. As soon as I had walked in the door I knew this was a man I wanted to know better. The whole place smelled divine and there were old books everywhere. Just by looking at his bookshelves  I knew I had found a kindred spirit.

He is a book collector and an amazing cook. He was a chef at one point and a political activist. He worked with HIV research in loads of different countries. He has the kind of house that you can tell everything he owns he thought about and loves.

Dinner was amazing.

I have no idea how long it took to make this. But I want to learn how to make it.

Even his plates are beautiful.

This is my love with our friend's child. Also our host's dog gadzooks. Now how amazing is that name?

after tasting his cooking i asked if he would teach me to cook. I am kind of ghastly and I need to learn. HE said yes! Now if he meant it or was just saying that to be nice I don't know. But trust me I am going to follow it up.

I do have a few recipes that I will post later.

hugs+kisses
mce

finals and some new recipies

Hello!
 I can't even begin to tell you all how happy I am to have summer now. It may not seem like much since I still have work and all the other stresses that come from living on your own, but let me tell you, not having school is really nice. This is my first day of wonderful summer. I plan on keeping busy. For starters I am taking my health seriously. Now i know some of you may be laughing at that. I completely agree. If I was not with such an amazing man I wouldn't be. But since we are going to be spending the rest of our lives together and he is big on health I have nowhere to hide. So healthy it is. For starters I am not good with vegetables. Like maybe once over few days, and even then covered in something. But I started off right. yesterday i made an amazing salad. i had a veggie patty to go with it. And I didn't have any chocolate after! Not that I'm out of chocolate. I have truffles in the freezer as well as a few chocolate bars, a rainbow cake in the fridge, and some chocolate chip cookies in the cupboard. So definitely not out of chocolate.
Before I finished my finals I had a great tuesday night out. On tuesdays I go to yoga with my dear friend Jane. We have it worked out that we can go to dinner after yoga. The class we take is at YAS . The 6 pm class. After that we go to the food trucks. If you are ever in Santa Monica near Main st. tuesday nights this is something you should try. On the corner of Main and Ocean Park they have a food truck gathering. Different trucks come each time and there are always at least 7 of them. Last tuesday I went with my amazing little brother. We had grilled cheese with mac and cheese and ribs from the the grilled cheese truck. Amazing. I know it sounds odd but it was really good. I've had great food at these gatherings every time.

Over all this week has been really great. I'm looking forward to a weekend at home so I can really get everything going. I have a ton of recipies I want to try and hopefully I can get to most of them. The sun is shining and the skies are blue!
hugs+kisses
mce

weeks and stress

hello!
so last week. One of the most stressful weeks I've had in a while. By Friday of last week I had been told I can no longer have an account at bank of america for the rest of my life and had to open an account at chase. Jono's check had been sent back to us and we were living off my credit card. I also had no idea what I was going to get Jono for his birthday on Sunday. I had also spent around 4-5 hours, 2 of those with 3 kids,  in different banks trying to figure everything out. I had been late to rehearsal for my final project. Needless to say by the time Saturday came I was worn out. Then I had to help my mother with a party she was having to raise money to send my little brother to music camp. So even though it's money it's pretty stress free for me. I feel odd saying that since I have finals this week and have had very little time to study for them. But after the week I had finals seem like a breeze.

The party went great. I love my mother, though we fought like no other till I moved out and she still isn't too happy about my engagement to Jono or even that I am with him at all. I also love my mother's house. What started as a 2 bedroom 1 bath tiny house (think 1940's-ish) with slightly vaulted ceilings and great molding scrolls in the bedrooms, it even had a little door and cubbyhole for the milk man to leave the milk in. There were 6 of us living there. So in 2000 we knocked it all down and rebuilt it. On my mother's design. Even though its still not finished, it is one of the best houses. It is now a 5 bed 3 1/2 bath with 2 people living there. It is full of light and air. Every bedroom has a door to a balcony so you can get outside from anywhere. I even had a fireplace in my bedroom and a sleeping porch outside. It was great. I miss it a lot. It's hard to go from that to a tiny little apartment with dingy carpets and not a lot of light. It is the house I base all others off of. I love that house.

I've been thinking a lot about houses and apartments. Jono and I plan on moving once our lease is up. that happens in November. Jono has already started looking. we are hoping to find a place that his closer to the westside, Culver City west LA area. It's where we want to live after I graduate (who knows how long that will take) and Jono is working in Santa Monica so right now he has a kinda long drive.  Jono has already started the search. We would love to have a little house or duplex. something where we don't have anyone above or bellow us and we only share 1-2 walls. we also are looking for a 2 bedroom. I'm hoping we can find a place where we can stay for a few years. I'm not a fan of moving and I want to really make a place our home. I would love to be able to paint the walls and really put our mark on a place. color is so important to me and where we are now it's all washed out and grimy. I know it's a lot to hope for right now. But we can dream.

hugs+kisses
mce

New Orleans

Good morning!
It is a beautiful day in LA. I'm sitting outside watching the kids play. It feels like summer. speaking of summer...
As some of you know the family I work for works in the movie biz. They are costumers for both film and tv. This means that their schedule and therefore my schedule are subject to change week to week or even day to day.   Right now that means that I have an easy week since the mother is not working. But she starts work next week. And this also means that they go on location at times. This new job takes them on location. to New Orleans. This means that if I want to work I go to New Orleans. Now this may sound like a great windfall. Those who are paying attention will also realize that this means I will be living with Kat, Joe, and all 4 kids for 3 weeks. Needless to say I'm a tad leery of this whole idea. But I need the work. I have no idea how this is going to turn out or even when this is happening. It should be interesting. Bot right now I just need to get through finals. That's all.
hugs+kisses
mce

Stress

I get stressed so easily. This is something I will readily admit to needing to work on. As of late I have had real trouble with it. I'm hoping that once summer comes I will be able to figure out a productive way of dealing with this. I have a few ideas. My plans for summer, besides working, are what is keeping my hopes up. I plan to start viola again. Those of you who know me well know I hated it when I played before. all of 13-14 years. I see now that it really can help me stay calm. I miss it in a way too. It was something that I had to concentrate on completely which helped me clear my mind of everything else going on. I also am going to learn a language. Not sure which though. I started Italian a few years ago. I haven't done anything with it in a long time though. I learned it because I used to go to Italy every summer. It's been 2 summers now since I last went and there seems to be no hope of going as I used to in the near future. So now I am deciding between Italian (which I love dearly and am Italian at heart) and French. I'm hoping that both Jono and I can learn the same one so I would have someone to practice with. I'll have to see though. I'm also going to start working out. I have been meaning and trying to get into the habit of doing this but it's hard. I'm hoping once I have more time this summer I can work harder on this. I also am going to try to cook more. I've become really interested in cooking as it seems to be something I must learn now. I'm hoping that these things all together will keep me busy and focused on things I love. Only 2 more weeks till I can start all these ideas. wish me luck!

hugs+kisses
mce