July is family visit month, Part 1: Adam

When my visiting teacher Chalee (cute girl in picture below) found out that my brother works for the show "So You Think You Can Dance," her first question was, "Can he get us tickets??" Because she can fly free and get me a buddy pass. So I asked, and sure enough, he could. So Chalee and I hopped on a plane and spent the day in LA with my bro. (If you look close in the picture above, you can see the Hollywood sign on the hill behind us.) Oh, and the shirt Adam's wearing is left over from Adam Lambert's wardrobe on American Idol. The boy has connections. :)

We didn't need to be at the show until 5:30, so we did checked out the Chinese theater and walk of fame (avoiding the crowd at Michael Jackson's star). Adam needed to pick up his credentials for the ESPN awards at the Nokia theater, where he was going to work coordinating the seat-fillers the next day, so we got a backstage tour and got to check out the stage and dress rehearsals. Not that any of us cares about sports or ESPN, but it was still pretty cool.

When we got to the CBS studios, we met up with Adam's partner, Thaddeus, who was working (they both work for SYTYCD, but Adam had the day off). We got to meet their friends and bypass the line and metal detectors, and they took us to our seats. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but Chalee got a shot of the stage before they told us to turn off our cell phones. (The people around us wondered why they hadn't been confiscated like everyone else's.)

The stage and studio look a lot bigger on TV, which shouldn't be surprising but still is somehow. But that means we had great seats, even though we were toward the back of the bleachers. The bleachers don't get on camera very often, but it was a heckuva lot more comfortable than being in the "mosh pit," where you have to stand the whole time. Backstage info: the cute girls in front of the judges' table and along the edges of the stage and up on the platforms above the stage come from an agency. They probably don't get paid, but they get to be on camera. And they have to be sure they're really into the show and cheering a lot, or they get talked to about it.

Speaking of cheering, we did a lot of it. The show isn't live, and it took about three hours to tape. So before any of the "talent" came out, they took all the audience shots: clapping and cheering, clapping without cheering, cheering while people held up signs, etc. I was almost tired of cheering before the show even started. But the show didn't disappoint, and I was thrilled to be watching it in person. (I won't bore you with details of the show; if you're a fan, you watched it, and you know it was great.)

After the show Thaddeus joined us and we went out to dinner at their favorite Thai place. We were also celebrating Adam's birthday a day early. The food was great, and Thaddeus filled us in on all the backstage gossip: Mary's high-maintenance but loves Thaddeus; Nigel is friendly and low-key and gets his own food; Kupono's a diva with special food requests (Thaddeus does all the grocery shopping for the contestants); Jason and Janean are dating (no surprise after their steamy dance together). The stress level among the contestants dropped when it came down to the top 10, because if you're in the top 10, you're in the tour, which means you'll get $100K and have a steady gig for a year. So even if you get eliminated, you're set. So don't feel too bad for anyone who gets eliminated anymore.

After dinner we hung out at their apartment for a bit, but then Chalee and I had to get back to our hotel and sleep, because we had to be up at 4:30 to try to catch the 7:15 flight home. Here's a family picture of Adam, Thaddeus, and the kitties (Simon didn't want to cooperate).

So while I wouldn't call this trip relaxing, we had a great time. It was fun to see the show, but even more fun to hang out with my brother and Thaddeus again. They plan to work for the show for season 6, so maybe we'll get to do it again. :)

Nana!

We were happy to have James's mom and her husband come visit us the first week of June. (So sorry it's taken me this long to post! I plan to make up for my absence with a few posts this week.)

Atty wasn't sure what to think of our visitors at first. When they first walked in, he looked at them, then at us, and burst out crying. He must have thought we were leaving without him. Once he realized we were staying, though, he started to warm up.

By the end of their visit, Atty and Nana were good buddies. She'd chase him around the chair, and he'd squeal and run away but then run back so she could catch him and give him loves. Nana got some pretty juicy kisses from that boy.

He was sad to see them go, and so were we.

Can he get any cuter?

You'll want to turn up the volume.

Bean update

Ok, I've eaten a few servings of the bean recipe from my previous post, and I'm leaning toward leaving out the sherry next time. Or at least using half as much.

But dang, those toppings make this dish irresistable. I crave those roasted sweet potatoes fortnightly....

So this is definitely a keeper.

My mind is officially blown

Cooking with dried beans is for me a little like cooking a souffle: it's fussy and easy to mess up. And when you mess up, it's not likely you'll be able to salvage it. I've had enough experiences with crunchy beans and bland beans to be a little wary.

So when I decided to try this recipe, I got more than a little nervous. Did it really say NOT to soak the beans? I read the recipe three times and even had James look it over to make sure I wasn't missing something. Doesn't the author know that soaking beans before cooking is a cardinal rule of bean cookery? How can he just disregard rule #1? But I have learned to follow recipes carefully the first time through, so I took the leap of faith (I did buy a second bag of beans just in case the first batch failed miserably--I'm trusting but not stupid).

I tried the recipe this morning, and it actually worked just like it said it would. The beans were soft after 1 1/2 hours, but I let them cook another half hour just to get a little creamier. I'm not sure I'm going to like the addition of sherry, but it does say the flavor is better after 8 hours, so we'll try them tomorrow before making a final judgment.

If cooking beans turns out to be this easy all the time, I may just have to make this a weekly habit. I'm not holding my breath, though. :)

A new favorite

I made this for dinner yesterday, and it was fantastic. I'm getting hungry again just looking at the picture. (I didn't take that picture, I borrowed it from gourmet.com). It's curried red-lentil stew with vegetables, served over basmati rice and with roasted cauliflower on the side. You can get the recipes here.

I didn't make the cumin/red pepper oil to drizzle on top, but I didn't miss it. The best part is it freezes really well before you add the green veggies, so it's two meals in one. Or more than two: even with just half the recipe, James and I both had seconds and still had some left over. Oh, and it really is better the next day. I purposely made the base a day early to let it mellow, and I could totally tell a difference.

I thought the curry was a little strong in just the stew, but once you put it over the rice it balances out nicely. And the roasted cauliflower was really good. I think roasting is my new way to cook veggies. I made roasted asparagus for Easter, and it was divine. I don't think I'll ever eat steamed cauliflower again.

If I ever have a daughter, I'm totally making this dress for her

You can buy it here.