FAQ with Giada de Laurentiis


The other day I sent out the following question into the google universe: "Does anyone know where Giada's wood pepper mill is from" - I absolutely love her solid dark wood mill, that she uses on Everyday Italian.. apparently I am not alone (although I already knew others would have posed this question into cyberspace too). It is beginning to look like there are tons of disappointed pepper mill fans, because the mill was made by Le Sancuaire, who has discontinued making it... however in my searches I found an amazing FAQ on her website that answered just about every question that I have had about her at one point or another (i.e.: where did you go to culinary school, where is the necklace you always wear with the 4 strands from, what type of nail polish do you wear, I see what you make on the show, so then why are you so damn skinny).
Here's the link to her answers. PS Bubble Bath nail polish from OPI has been life changing, highly recommend it ladies.

Sushi at home

Tim made some yummy vegetarian sushi and veggie tempura on friday night. $100 at Bristol Farms, left over vegetable oil in the wok, rice everywhere and about 10 dirty dishes later, it leaves me wondering if sushi is best left to the experts to do in their kitchen..

San Franciso treat.. or trick

I think that I have lucked out having one of my best friends have their birthdays on Halloween.. it has led to many memorable birthday parties celebrating in SF, and of course... in full blown costume inspired by ipod ads. Its even more of a reason to go big with the costume.. and this year was no exception. Since Halloween was on a Saturday this year, Tim and I took off the Friday before to make the trek to the Bay to celebrate Shanna's birthday. A few minutes into the road trip, we had to make a U-turn back home because Tim was feeling pretty sick.

The show had to go on, so I kissed Tim and Elle goodbye and hit the road again, with two amazing homemade costumes in tow. (Luckily Carly didn't have a costume - and actually admitted this news to me - so she had to choice but to take Tim's place). I have to say that although I was really nervous about wearing black face paint (and Carly was not even committing to the costume until 30 minutes before go time), the costumes turned out really fun and we were super excited about them in the end. We even ended up winning a few of the costume contest categories!

The funniest part of the night was trying to hail a cab in the city in ALL black, no one could see us, and trying to find a black wig last* minute. (*5 minutes before the last open Halloween shop in the city [we had to go to a couple] was closing).

Best tastes of the night - This was my first taste of Golden Boy Pizza - basically fresh pizza made on top of the most amazing foccacia bread. ( Joel's 3am vegetarian nachos with homemade guacamole was also a huge winner... and I know I should mention the cupcakes (I won't mention their special name on the G-rated blog) however I can't bring myself to even talk about those things yet). PS recipe needed.

Most athletic part of the weekend: walking to touch Hoppers hands under the GG Bridge and getting a mini hula hopping lesson in a park Sunday morning with Shey.


black face paint = fully committed
Jeremy (Big), Jill (Carrie), me, Carly, Shanna, Joel (Noting Jeremy and Jill's costume because you can't see Carries shoes and facial mole)