Beachy Street Signs

Sandyland Road is in Carpinteria and Beach Way is in Half Moon Bay.

The Great Outdoors: Books

I’m still new enough to California to try to wax poetic about the weather. I will say this: it's heavenly. And this: It's sunny and warm enough year-round that the climate can support an outdoor bookstore. An outdoor bookstore! Bart's Books in Ojai is an independently owned shop open since the '60s that has charm in spades, with open-air bookshelves and an honor system to pay for those bargain books stacked on the outer wall shelves during off-hours. (There is an inside as well, where you'll find a protected section for first-editions and other collectible tomes, plus cookbooks in a room that was once a kitchen.) Sunshine overhead, an orange tree dangling fruit above the shelves, and books galore (worth adding: this visit was in January).

Seafood Paella on the Grill

Last weekend, we put my shiny new paella pan to use on the grill and invited Dara and David, who had gifted me with the pan, to join us for the feast. I found a Food & Wine recipe online for Mario Batali's lobster paella on the grill and then Dara said that they had a container of lobster stock in the freezer, so it was easily decided that we'd make seafood paella on the grill (Mr. MVP insisted we use the Weber). Because Dara doesn't eat meat and I don't eat bell peppers, we knew we'd have to adapt whatever recipes we found and we ended up using Batali's as a base. We dropped the meat and bell peppers and added grape tomatoes, a chopped habanera pepper, and smoked paprika. It was delicious. Recipe below.

6 cups lobster stock
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 habanera peppers, sliced and without seeds
3 cups grape tomatoes
8 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
3 cups Spanish rice
2 lobster tails
1 pound manila clams, scrubbed
½ pound mussels, scrubbed and de-bearded
1 tsp. saffron threads
2 tsp. smoked paprika
Hot paprika
Sea salt
Ground pepper
Lemon wedges
Parsley

Light a grill with mesquite charcoal.

Heat the lobster stock on a saucepan, for use later. Chop 2 cups of tomatoes in half and set aside, separately from the remaining cup of whole tomatoes.

Place the paella pan on the heated grill and add the olive oil. Add chopped onions, garlic and the 2 cups of cut tomatoes. Stir occasionally until onions are softened, about 5 to 8 minutes.

Add the rice and stir it in with the vegetable mixture and stir for 3 or 4 minutes.

Add the warmed stock, saffron, paprika and a pinch of salt to the pan. Cover the grill and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, until the stock has reduced to 2 cups.

Drizzle olive oil and a dash of hot paprika on the lobsters and place them on the grill beside the pan, shell side down.

Add clams, mussels and remaining tomatoes to the paella pan and cover the grill. Cook for 10 minutes, checking occasionally to see if the clam and mussel shells have opened.

Remove lobster tails from grill and serve on top of a platter with the paella. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and lemon juice and garnish plate with lemon wedges.

Finish with ground pepper.

Serves 6 to 8.

Uses for Kitchen Leftovers

Here's another self-promotion for a story I wrote for Sprig.com: This one is about how you can use almost everything in your kitchen. I've been making stocks from leftover chicken bones and veggie scraps, finding inventive uses for leftovers (like the pictured Thanksgiving cranberries, which were used for a jam) and I'm zest-crazy, using lemon and orange zest for baking and vinaigrettes. I have not started composting yet, but that's next. . .

Shaking and Cleaning House

The earthquake on Friday evening was listed as minor (it measured 3.4) but because its center was so close to my proximity, it felt bigger than any I'd felt before. Despite the fact that there was no damage, I awoke on Saturday morning with a strong desire to clean house. First, to literally clean. Then, to purge. I get this purge urge every January because I invariably acquire a lot during the holiday season and I realize I have more than I need, but the earthquake made me more willing to literally shake things up. The most challenging area for me is the closet and I need to force myself to answer the tough questions: Do I love it? Need it? Does it have a good purpose? Good value? I’ve had to figure out ways to feel good about the decision to either get rid of a piece or give new life to it and wrote a piece for Sprig on cleaning out your closet the eco way by reducing (donating, selling, swapping), reusing (repairing, reworking) and recycling.

A clip about shaking things up:

Graffiti: A New Day 4 USA

Photo taken at the Venice Beach graffiti wall.

Lunch: Seagull, Starfish

Lunch for a seagull at Jalama Beach.

The Day in Song

Hoorah for Obama. Also Aretha.

No Lifeguard On Duty

Winter in Venice Beach, with unoccupied lifeguard towers grouped together on the sand.

Moon Over Venice

Street Art: A Do-Over

Photo taken in Venice, CA. The mural, from an artist named Chase who also has work on other local buildings, was damaged several months ago by some unwanted graffiti. It's heartening to see that it was repainted.

Graffiti: Yellow Brick Road

Photos taken at the graffiti wall in Venice Beach, CA.

New Year Blooms

Just in time for the new year: the jasmine is starting to bloom! If I were a person to make New Year's Resolutions, I would resolve to take more time to smell the jasmine (roses are fine, but jasmine is divine). But I do not need to make a resolution like that; our jasmine is strategically planted so it can be smelled while we're sitting on the porch and it blooms around L.A. throughout the year. When I'm away from the blooms, I wear perfumes scented with jasmine and only truly natural jasmine. (Quick green living rant: synthetic fragrances are made of nasty and toxic chemicals. Also, synthetic means fake and why on earth would you want to wear something fake?) One of my favorite splurges of recent years was the jasmine solid perfume by Aftelier, which is packaged in a silver compact and fits in my makeup bag so I never have to leave home without it and I can dab a little behind my ears for a whiff of the most beautiful scent anytime I want a little lift.