Shaz by the Sea

Jim has his LAST class tomorrow night!!!! I can tell he is jumping out of his skin, as am I. He actually said to me this morning, "Shaz, should we have a party when I'm done with school?"  (In other words -- "Shaz, throw me a party when I'm done with school"). Whichever way he approached it, he definitely deserves a monstrous party. For his birthday last year, I rented a boat for a few hours and we went out in the marina with about 10 friends.  It was so fun. I could tell he loved it. Maybe we can do something like that again...or maybe we just have a huge party here at our place. We'll see...stay tuned for that decision to be made. Today I am still in the process of cooking up everything in my fridge. I was craving hash browns, and since I had a couple sweet potatoes in the fridge, I decided to make sweet potato hash browns with scrambled eggs...and whatever else we had. They were AMAZING. They certainly are a must-try, if you have the patience to ...

You wanna know one of the things I enjoy most about getting ready for a trip?  I love seeing what meals I can come up with when I am cleaning out my fridge... Jim and I are preparing for our trip to Boston for Thanksgiving next week and we are SO excited. I am excited to be home, excited to get away from work for a few days...but I am not excited about the actual travel since we are taking the red eye the night before Thanksgiving. Ugh, wish us luck. Over the last few weeks, I have been piling up some items so I don't forget to pack them. For example, I forgot my mom and dad's birthday cards in September, so I already threw those in my suitcase. I packed up my peacoat, a few sweatshirts, my UGG boots, etc. Today, I decided to look through the fridge to see what perishable items needed to be eaten/cooked/tossed prior to our trip.  I noticed we had typical veggies such as red peppers, onions, spinach, baby carrots...as wel...

I wanted to share this morning's breakfast with you because it really hit the spot.  I usually wake up craving something specific -- but not this morning.  Instead, I slept in, took a long warm shower and as I walked into the kitchen, I noticed Jim had started boiling a few eggs.  This rarely happens... As Jim was cooking at the stove, I asked him to throw on some turkey bacon because I have been really trying to eat more protein lately.  I am not a huge meat eater, so I am doing everything I can to eat more of it.  Last night, we walked to the local grocery store and bought a few essentials, such as some plain Greek yogurt, granola and fruit.  Therefore, I decided to make a simple little parfait for us to pair with the eggs and bacon.  I only used bananas, granola and the yogurt and made a few layers...as well as a sprinkle of cinnamon on top to add a little fall flavor. ;)  Here are the ingredients I used:   Finish...

I've been homesick this week.  I am not sure if it's because I've been having some serious fall season envy....or if it's because I secretly thought I would be living back home by now....or because we have a trip planned in a few weeks and I want it to be November 27th now.  Who knows, maybe I am just overly emotional.   But to continue with my honesty, I must say I am not a fashionista by any means -- but fall is my favorite style season.  With that, I wanted to show you some of my favorite fall looks.  People here in LA tend to wear fall clothes as if the weather is any different than summer.  In fact, sometimes it's nicer here in the fall months, so I struggle wearing boots and scarves and lots of layers.  I think I may be getting used to it, but here goes nothing. In the fall, there's nothing better than the simplicity of some stylish skinnies, paired with an oversized dressy top, a colorful scarf and tall br...

My sister, Chrissy is visiting LA this week and all she wanted was a home cooked meal from her sis. After she hopped off her plane at LAX (with her dream and her cardigan), we went to the grocery store to pick up a few essentials. We decided on chicken and veggies -- but not just any old chicken and veggies. We opted for bacon wrapped chicken, stuffed with spinach and mozzerella cheese. We also cooked some brussels sprouts with bacon pieces and sweet potatoes with rosemary for our side dishes. It was a delish din that hit the spot. Here is a pic of me preppin the chicken breasts...slicing them open to stuff with the fresh spinach and shredded mozzerella cheese. I recommend a smaller opening to actually stuff the chicken, that way it stays more compact.   Chrissy did a FAB job wrapping the chicken breasts in the bacon slices we picked up at the meat counter. I was quite impressed.     Here I am placing the brussles sprouts in the o...

Greetings!!   I am excited about this post because I am cooking one of my most favorite foods in the entire world -- eggplant.  My friend and I ventured to farmers market in Westwood on Thursday. It is located near the UCLA campus, so it's typically pretty busy. As soon as we arrived, there was a vendor with tons of bags of 3-4 pieces of eggplant for $3! I didn't think twice and immediately picked one up. I also grabbed some freshly made eggplant hummus from one of the vendors -- and also a bag of fresh basil for $1. I remembered I needed some fruit for the house, so I grabbed a couple green and purple plums and a few apples. They are all so fresh and delicious this season. I was also in search for some olive bread since I had the eggplant hummus, and although none of the vendors had any left, I found the last loaf at the bake shop on the same street. It's called Le Pain Quotidien and ironically, there is one next to my h...

Happy 29th birthday to John Lawlor Bosch!! The other night, I was craving some serious penne alla vodka, so Jim made a pit-stop at the grocery store to grab a few necessities. He picked up heavy cream and some turkey sausage. I had the penne pasta, vodka, marina sauce and some seasonings. I took a few pics of the process....here's how it went down: As I mentioned in my "Olive oil, Garlic and Wine" page tab, this is my typical start to my Italian dishes. This time, however, I used a little different order. To start, I tossed in some EVOO, garlic and some onions to the pan. I let those sit for a few minutes while I started boiling some water for the penne. I went with some mezze penne.   Instead of my usual "wine" ingredient next to get the sauce working, I remained in the booze category by choosing a Russian vodka. I always cook with whatever booze item I would actually drink. For example, don't...