Happy 4 Year Blog Anniversary

On June 27th I've been a blogger for 4 years.  Time got away from me to post that day, but I still love using this place as a creative outlet and sharing my travels and food adventures.  I really thought this blog would be more about food, but when I took an edit of the site I realized I post more travel adventures then food.  Which makes sense as travel logs are my favorite types of books to read.

Here's a few I keep going back too and recommend. And yes E I do read my books more then once and thus I do need a bookshelf (more to come on that later).

I follow David's blog and now on twitter....he is hilarious.  

A great view on what it's really like to live in Paris.

 

Another book I re-read just about every summer.  I want to buy a house is Tuscany in another life.

I've read most of Frances Mayes books all are very good: Bella Tuscany,  A Year in the World: Journeys of A Passionate Traveller and recently read Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life.

Recently I discovered Bill Bryson.  I read A Walk in the Woods and laughed out loud so I just picked up the book above, Notes from a Small Island. And again, I lay in bed laughing out loud.

 

And finally Peter Mayle.  I tried to read this book in my early twenties when I was just started my advertising career.  I wasn't into it.  Give myself a number of years later and I reread this book and loved it.  Peter is an old ad guy moved to Provence and writes a witty tale.  I've read just about everything he's wrote Encore Provence: New Adverntures in the South of France, Toujours Provence, French Lessons: Adventures iwth Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew and one of my favorites A Good Year, also love this movie with Russell Crow and Marion Clotilde.

I personally hope to find new fun reads and enjoy yet another year posting away and snapping pictures of interesting things I see and hear.  Thanks to the very few followers for coming by to check up on the adventures.

Fourteen Years and Osteria Mozza

So it's another Anniversary celebration. Only this time my wedding anniversary. Yes it's been 14 years, yes we were pups when we got married. This past year has been particularly tough for us. The times we live in, the economic issues, just life in general have made it hard. But we are best friends and we make it work with lots of hard WORK and some serious praying.

So here's how our week started off. Apparently I was a little bit grouchy the other day about SB's non-enthusiasm regarding dinner at Osteria Mozza. Seriously, he's a foody, you'd think he'd love this. But he's also practical and not the romantic, planning type. But FOURTEEN years deserves a nice dinner at the very least. So when I got home Wednesday afternoon, the above flowers were waiting for me. With this note:
I asked him "why the Tinman sign off?"
He said: "I wanted you to know that I have a heart."

And he does, the best man ever. He makes me laugh just about everyday, cooks just about every night and cleans (does the dish's, our laundry and scrubs the shower) all while working hard in several jobs with multiple responsibilites. (And yes I do work a 40 hour work week and put in 70 hours of monthly volunteer time, not a lazy wife, we're just a busy couple). He is my best friend and I appreciate him more than words can say. Now enough of the mush...let's get to the eating part.

We did make it to Osteria Mozza. And it was well worth the wait. As it was a last minute reservation it was either 5:30 or 9:30 on a Wednesday night. We choose the old folks hour of 5:30 which was perfect, except the L.A. traffic, which is never ideal.

It took us a long time to figure out what we wanted to order, the menu is daunting. I asked what are Osteria's specialities. We pretty much ordered them all.

The staff recommended the Grilled Octopus with potatoes, celery & lemon. I'm not a big tentacle person, but SB wanted this. And it was perfectly grilled with a lemony flavor. Unexpectedly delightful to the my untrained palate.

Burrata with grilled asparagus, brown butter, guanciale & Sicilian almonds. Who doesn't like bacon and brown butter. YUmmmmm.

I ordered Orecchiette with sausage & swiss chard. This was rich and the bread crumbs added a perfect crunchy texture. I took my time eating this and drinking the red wine which I order by the glass and you get a 1/2 carafe which really amounts to a glass and 1/2.

SB orderd Pan Roasted Halibut con pepe verde, which tasted like it was basted with wine and lots of capers.

The finale was the Bombolini which was fresh made donuts rolled in sugar served with mountain huckleberry compote and vanilla gelato. The little candle was for our anniverary. Props to "Open Table" for actually sending the note to the Maitre'd that we were celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary.

Osteria Mozza
6602 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
1.323.297.0100