The Real Big Love

Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall with Lisa Pulitzer
I remember a few ago after the FLDS raid in Texas seeing this book in the store and being intrigued. I didn't buy it then, but recently saw it on sale and figured now was the time to read it. I used to love watching Big Love, and there is something interesting a polygamous lifestyle. Its like a car crash you can't quite look away from.

The book is Elissa Wall's story and as the subtitle of the book goes "My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free from Warren Jeffs." She was born into an FLDS family, and grew up with over 20 siblings and 3 mothers. It's interesting to read about all the good times in her childhood, something you wouldn't necessarily expect out of a book like this. But while there were a lot of happy times in her early childhood, they become far less so as she got older.

As reference above, Elissa was forced to marry when she was only 14 to her first cousin. This seems so surreal, that you would thing this had to have happened quite a while ago. But no, Elissa is actually two years younger than me since she was born in 1986. Its almost unbelievable to think how much she's gone through, when I can't even imagine being in a similar situation. Reading the book she seems so much older than me based on everything that's happened to her, but in reality she isn't.

As uncomfortable as parts of the book made me feel, I did really enjoy it and honestly couldn't put it down. If you've ever been curious as to just how a polygamous marriage worked, or even how people can become so brainwashed and willing to stay in such a situation that is seemingly awful for them, then you would probably enjoy this book. I don't think I could read these types of books all the time, but everyone once in a while its definitely an interesting experience.

~Shoshanah

Where in the World Weekend

I was kind of conflicted about what I wanted to post today. Part of me wanted to participate in Classy in Philadelphia's Where in the World Wednesday. But part of me wanted to post a little more about my trip to San Diego. Then I had a flash of inspiration, why not combine the two!
So this week I'm participating in Where in the World Wednesday, and I'm in San Diego!
This is me and my grandma, and it was taken on Shelter Island in San Diego. As I mentioned yesterday the reason I was in San Diego in the first place for for a type of convention the boy was attending. But it wound up being a perfect weekend to be there, since it was my grandma's birthday, so I was able to spend it with her as well as the rest of the family. I can't say that I've been able to be with most of my family members on their birthday for the past few years. It's been hard enough to figure out all the traveling for holidays, let alone flying back for birthday. But the fact I was able to spend her birthday weekend with her was a special treat for me, and hopefully for her as well.

Here's a second picture taken just the the left of the first. (You can kind of tell since its the other half of the same sculpture.)
This isn't everybody who was there, but it does included my mom, me, my aunt, and my grandparents.

This picture of my aunt and a sailboat was also taken at Shelter Island.
I really like the way this picture turned out, I think because its far more artistic than most of the pictures I take. Although that's more of a coincidence than anything else.

I know I said I was in San Diego, but so far all of my picture were taken at Shelter Island. What can I say, like I wrote yesterday almost all of the pictures were of food. But I can at least share this picture.
Like the others this one does still show San Diego Harbor, but it wasn't taken on Shelter Island. Instead this was taken behind Point Loma Seafood, which I know is still right by Shelter Island.

I do have one final picture to share. The boy did his best to avoid being in as many pictures as possible, but I did get this one of him.
This was taken at Horton Plaza Sunday morning before we left. They have both chess and checker boards set up for people to use while they're shopping. Lucky for me, I took this picture at the start of the game, so you can't really tell how ugly it was by the end.

That really is the end of my trip to San Diego. Even though we weren't there for very long, it was a great relaxing weekend that we were able to spend with my family.

~Shoshanah

Foodcation

It shouldn't come as a surprise to my loyal readers, but most of the picture I took of my trip to San Diego were of food. So I figured the best way to write about my trip, was really to do it through the food I ate. Don't worry I didn't take a picture of everything. There was a meal or two where I forgot my camera, plus I didn't think you needed to see a picture of the handfuls of cheez-it mix I snacked on at the hotel. But here's the rest. Presenting, my Weekend Foodcation in San Diego.

The boy booked our hotel, and choose the Doubletree downtown. I was excited when I heard this, since I knew Doubletrees are the cookie hotel. Sure enough when we checked in Thursday afternoon they presented us with warm chocolate chip cookies.
After we checked in, we took a walk in search of an early dinner. We wound up at the BurgerLoungue where I had a turkey burger and we split an order of fries.
The best part of the burger was the amount of basil in the patty. I thought I was an inspired idea that turned out to be really tasty.

The following morning, we had breakfast in the hotel, and I went with the breakfast pasta.
It was pasta with sausage, feta, spinach, tomatoes, and scrambled eggs. Another inspired idea, but it didn't quite turn out. It just felt a little oily, and wasn't as good as I had hoped. But I'm sure you could easily take this idea and turn it into something pretty amazing.

Friday night was my grandma's birthday dinner at Operacafe. I went with mushroom ravioli with bolognese sauce.
For dessert the boy and I "split" a rum soaked cake.
And by split I mean he took one bite, and I ate the rest. A perfect way to split dessert from my point of view.

Friday morning it was back to the hotel for breakfast.
This time I went with the macadamia nut French toast, which wound up being a much better choice than the breakfast pasta.

For lunch that day we stopped at Point Loma Seafood, where I decided on fish tacos.
I really love fish tacos in general, but they're a dish that really hasn't caught on in Louisiana yet. So I try to make a point to have them almost anytime I'm back in California.

For our last meal in California, I made sure we went to Panera.
Panera was my favorite in college, and I probably went once a month. Unfortunately for me, Panera has yet to make it to Louisiana, which means this was my first time eating Panera in almost four years. I went with an old favorite, french onion soup in a bread bowl with half an Asian chicken salad.

While Panera was the last meal in San Diego, it wasn't the last thing I ate. Instead that was dessert at Ben & Jerry's.
I went with another old favorite here, triple caramel chunk. I used to love this flavor, until Ben & Jerry's stopped making it. Then wound up bringing it back somewhat recently, and its just as good as ever.

I think it might be a little crazy that I can recap my trip with just the food. But I try to post some non-edible highlights as well. But until then, anyone else ever go on a trip and come back to discover almost all of the photos were taken of food?

~Shoshanah

Two Babies and an Hour Delay

How was everyone's weekend? The boy and I actually spent a long weekend out in San Diego. We flew out Thursday and flew back to Louisiana yesterday. Overall, it wound up being a fun weekend. The boy had somewhat of a conference to go to, and it worked out since I got to spend most of the time with my family. A longer post will be up tomorrow about the trip, but I don't quite have the energy right now. Why is that? Well read on.

We had to fly to San Diego, but unfortunately there isn't an easy way to make that flight from Louisiana. The flight out we had to fly from New Orleans to Houston, from Houston to LAX, and from LAX to San Diego. Kind of a pain, but it wound up being a pretty low stress day of flying.

Our flight back to Louisiana yesterday, we only had one layover. First we flew from San Diego to LAX, then LAX to New Orleans. So it should have at least a little easier.

The flight to LAX was short, but again uneventful. After picking up food at the LAX (McDonald's for him, LaBrea Bakery Chicken Salad Sandwich for me) we made our way to the gate. Our flight was delayed 20 minutes for operations. Let me rephrase that, our flight that was supposed to get in at midnight Sunday night/Monday morning was delayed 20 minutes for operations. We were a little worried when we saw that. I mean what does "operations" stand for? Do they have to operate on the plane? Luckily, after not too long someone from the airline explained it. Delay due to operations meant that there was no one to operate the plane. It seems that the pilots were flying to LAX from San Francisco, and their flight had been delayed.

They did wind up boarding us, probably around the time our flight was originally scheduled to take off. We were all boarded and ready to go, except there were still no pilots. Finally, the flight attendants told us to look out the left side of our plane where a plane there that had just landed. Our pilots were on that flight. As soon as the pilots could switch planes and went after they completed their 20 minute pre-flight checklist we would be on our way.

Finally an hour after our original departure time, we were off and in the air. It should have been smooth sailing from there. I would sleep as I had done on ALL of our flights previously, and wake up some-what well rested in New Orleans. Except there were 4 babies on the flight. One sat in the row in front of me. One sat in the row across from me. And the last two siblings sat on the other side of the aisle, two rows behind me. The two babies closer to me both fell asleep soon after take-off and were almost silent the entire flight. But the other two? Not so much. They started screaming as soon as we were in the air and continued the entire time. Seriously, they were still crying after the plane landed while we were deboarding.

If I'm being honest, the two did not cry constantly, but at least one of the two was almost always crying. It was mainly the younger one who was crying, but every once in a while the older would join in and they'd cry in unison. You had to at least feel a little sorry for the parents. The mom would take one baby and walk the aisle trying to get it to stop crying. Then the other one would start and she'd trade babies with dad. I'm normally pretty good about sleeping on planes, but I didn't sleep a wink this flight. I'm sure part of it was due to how badly I knew I would need the sleep come Monday afternoon. But 3 straight hours of crying didn't quite help the situation.

We finally did land around 1am. Which meant after getting off the plane, getting our bags, and driving from New Orleans we were at the house around 2. Which means I'm currently functioning on just about 4 hours of sleep.

I'm going to try to stay up for The Bachelor tonight, hopefully I make it through. A much more positive post about the trip should be here tomorrow!

~Shoshanah

Sunday Morning Pancakes

A few weeks ago now, I posted this entry, where I wrote about making blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Its such a ridiculously easy recipe that makes delicious pancakes. I wanted to be sure to share it with you all so today, or some other Sunday you can make your own pancakes. Really, you have no excuse not to make pancakes from scratch now!
Pancakes
from Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book
Makes two dozen 4-inch pancakes (Although we'll normally half the recipe and that makes a perfect amount for the 2 of us)

Ingredients
2 eggs
5 tablespoons butter
1 cup milk
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
4 teaspoons baking power
3/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions
Put butter and milk in a small saucepan and warm over low heat until butter has melted. (I normally just do this in the microwave.) Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl until they are thoroughly blended. After the butter mixture cools slightly stir into eggs and mix well. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into the bowl and stir with fork until well mixed.

Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir only until the dry ingredients are well moistened. Don't over mix.

Heat a griddle or skillet until a few drops of water dance on it, then lightly grease. Drop 2 or 3 tablespoons of batter for each pancake onto griddle and cook until bubbles break on the surface. Turn the pancake over and cook another 30 seconds, or until the bottom is lightly browned. Serve the pancake hot.

To make Berry Pancakes: Sprinkle 2 or 3 tablespoons of berries on top of each pancake after the pancake has cooked to the point where bubbles are breaking, gently pressing the berries down into the pancake with a spatula. Then flip and cook for about another 30 seconds.

Now you have homemade pancakes! And really instead of adding fresh berry you can add almost any type or fruit, or even chocolate chips! I'm getting hungry just writing this. Hope you all enjoy your pancakes! What kind of pancakes do you want to make or enjoy eating the most?

~Shoshanah

That's Where I Want to Go to Get Away From it All

It's Wednesday, and were back with another Where in the World Wednesday hosted by Classy in Philadelphia.In case you're new to the game the where it works it to post a picture of yourself. It doesn't have to be a picture of somewhere tropical or exotic, just somewhere that you consider traveling. And today's picture comes from...
Off the Florida Keys. There's a place called Kokomo... Ok, so it isn't Kokomo. But it is in the water off a Florida Key. Marathon Key to be more specific. And I'm second from the right.

This picture was taken on Spring Break senior year of college. Just under 4 years ago if you look at the date. I'm just hoping a month from now it will be back to bathing suit weather in Louisiana. I'm a little over all the cold weather. It seems like this winter has been here forever.

Head over to Classy in Philadelphia if you're looking for more Where in the World entries. Or you can check out Where in the World I've been here!

~Shoshanah

Smoking Hot Valentine's

I already told how we celebrated the day before Valentine's Day. But even if weren't doing anything extra romantic on the actual date of Valentine's itself, we still had to eat something. So we decided to go with burgers, except we were bringing back last week's smoker.

Smoking hamburgers is not nearly as time intensive as smoking pulled pork. Which means the smoking was done over two hours, mid-afternoon, and most importantly I was able to document. Just in case you wanted a little more instruction on how to make a home made smoker.

To start with, we formed the patties, made a rub, and rubbed down the burgers.

The comes the actual set-up of the smoker. You start of putting the propane powered burner in the smoker.
The propane tank had originally come with its own stand. But after 14 hours smoking pig last week it started to get a little melty. While the two hours for the burger wouldn't have been to bad, we figured it would be safer not to use it. Instead we found a few rocks to keep it all balanced.

On top of the burner goes a plate of wood.
Last week we kept the plate uncovered. Except a good amount of fat dripped onto the wood, which reduced some of the smoke. So this time we covered most of the wood (hickory if you must know) to prevent that from happening.

Then the meat goes on top.
You can already see the smoke starting here! Cover it all up, and after two hours at around 250 degrees, you have smoked hamburgers.
Which were officially perfected by the Vanilla Coke.

It definitely made an interesting tasting hamburger to say the least, and I'd love to make burgers this way again. Although the boy says next time using mesquite chips might make a little more sense. We used the hickory chips since they were leftover from last weekend. And while I did enjoy the taste, I'm not quite ready to give up making burgers the normal way just yet. But it did make for an unexpected Valentine's Day meal for the two of us.

Anyone else celebrate Valentine's Day, somewhat different from the norm most would expect?

~Shoshanah

Percy Jackson and the Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day
I'm pretty sure everyone's heard of this movie by now. With its all-star cast its gotten a lot of attention. Based on the number of big name actors I thought this was going to be the type of movie where you keep wondering exactly how everyone is intertwined. But except for a few surprises, in general, its pretty easy to see who is connected to who. Clearly its not amazing film, but its a great overall romantic comedy.

With all the stars in the movie, there's been a lot of talk as to who is really any good in it. For example, I've heard a lot of people panning Taylor Swift's acting abilities. But I do think she played her character almost right on.

I do think the most interesting bit of casting came with the Grey's Anatomy men, Patrick Dempsey and Eric Dane. Yes, Patrick Dempsey does play a heart surgeon (of course there has to be a HEART surgeon in a Valentine's Day movie), but McDreamy he is not. And Eric Dane? Well there's a pretty big twist with his character that had the audience literally screaming.

Overall, I think its a prefect Valentine's Day movie. And I have a feeling we'll be seeing this one played every year at this time for a while. And if you go see it, make sure to stay for the outtakes during the credit. Especially, for one amusing scene with Julia Roberts.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Not quite a Valentine's Date movie, but a perfect bit of counter programing. And another film with interesting casting by a Grey's Anatomy doctor with Kevin McKidd playing the god Poseidon.

We both actually really enjoyed this movie, and were a bit surprised since we don't know a lot about it going into it. Overall, it reminds me of a mix between Harry Potter and Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, without feeling like a rip-off. I haven't read the books, but after seeing the movie I really want to since its the type of movie where you get the general story. However you can tell there's a good amount of back story that they weren't able to fit into an actual movie.

Overall, I'd say this was a weekend with two really good movie choices, it really just depends what type of movie you're looking. The boy would tell you to go see Percy Jackson, but I will tell you there were several scenes in Valentine's Day that him in awfully amused.

~Shoshanah

The Day Before Valentine's

Yesterday the boy called me from the mall, asking me what I wanted for Valentine's Day. I was able to throw out a few suggestions pretty easily, "Let's see... box of chocolates, flowers, a new bookshelf, picture frame, and lounge chair for the backyard, jewelry, etc..." With a good idea of where to start we said good-bye and he want back to his shopping. A few minutest later he called me back, "If I buy you a picture frame, does that mean you're going to want to put pictures in it and hang it on the wall?" I thought that was pretty much the funniest response ever, I mean if you owned a picture frame what else would you do with it. Despite his fear of what a picture frame might be used for, this is what he came home from the mall with.
Now I just need to decide what pictures I want to put in it, and where I want to hang it.

Thanks to all of your suggestions I wound up going with a pair of hiking socks, which turned out to be a pretty big hit.
After exchanging presents we got ready to head out. We figured it made more sense to celebrate Valentine's Day on Saturday night. That way everything would be less crowded, and we would be able to sleep in the following morning.
After a quick picture we were ready to head out! (And by quick picture, I mean this was after we went through several of his outtakes.)

We went to Kona Grill, an Asian-fusion type restaurant that we've enjoyed a lot in the past. This was the first time we ate there where I didn't get their Maui Onion Soup. But only because it's no longer on the menu. So instead we decided to split a plate of fried calamari to start with.
It was good calamari, but I wouldn't say its the best I've ever tried.

For actual dinner to boy went with one of his standard fallback, a peperoni pizza.
There were a lot of high points to the pizza. The crust had the perfect amount of crispiness, and there was a lot of peperoni (something he really liked). But there was just a little too much sauce, which made it a little difficult to eat.

I decided to go with their meatloaf, which was really interesting.
The meatloaf has large chunks of andouille sausages inside, which was really tasty and I think a pretty awesome idea. They came with white cheddar mashed potatoes, which were pretty much the star of the entire meal.

Then of course we I had to have dessert. I went with their passion fruit creme brulee.
The passion fruit flavor was fruity and nice, but I'm not sure this would be the dish I'd choose to serve creme brulee in. With such a narrow top, there wasn't a lot of crispy sugar brulee (my favorite part) and the creme at the bottom was noticeably colder than the rest. But even so, I would probably be ok if this was the only dessert I ate for the rest of my life.

After dinner, we had to go to movie. And it really shouldn't be a surprise as to what movie we saw to celebrate Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day of course! (A review should be up tomorrow.) Overall, it was a nice, slightly low key, but perfect for us, Valentine's Day.

Anyone else decide to celebrate Valentine's Day a day early? Or instead what did you do to celebrate today?

I hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day!

~Shoshanah

Louisiana Sneauxpocalypse

I know the East Coast has been experiencing a bit of a snowpocalypse lately, and today Louisiana decided to get in on the action!
The weathermen had been saying all week long it was going to snow, but everyone knows you can't trust the weather forecast. But just in case, all Baton Rouge area schools decided yesterday, they would be closed today.

In anticipating as soon as my alarm went of this morning I jumped out of bed to look outside. But there was no snow, so I got back in bed to snooze for a while.
When it was time to leave the house, from under the carport it looked like it was raining. It was only once I got into the car and started driving that I realized there was actually snow coming down. The roads were pretty empty since school was canceled, and it had just started snowing when I got was on the road so driving wasn't too bad. But once I got into work it really started coming down. I'm not too sure there was a lot of work being done those first few hours.

The snow did stick for a while, but there was a lot of talk about how long it would stay. I'm sad to say by noon, there wasn't a trace of snow left anywhere. Almost as if it was all fairytale.
Louisiana really isn't known for snow, and honestly it rarely snows here. But for some reason we'd had a few crazy years.

I mean we had snow in December 2008.

Snow in December 2009.

Now in February 2010.
Yes, my car is in each picture. Amusingly, the amount of snow in my car on each picture, is a pretty good gage for how much snow there was overall. But who would have ever thought Louisiana would have so much snow these past few years!

~Shoshanah

Party All Night Long at Club Dead

Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
I've finished yet another Sookie Stackhouse book, and love this one as well. In this book the plot line changes a little in the sense that Sookie has to become the rescuer instead of the rescue. The majority of the book takes place in Jackson, Mississippi where the vampire in question is being held captive. It seems each book so far has taken place in a different state. First Louisiana, then Texas, now Mississippi. It makes me curious as to whether this streak will be keep alive in the next in the series.

The book introduces the character Alcide, a werewolf who accompanies Sookie to Mississippi. I have to admit I really like Alcide, and thing maybe Sookie would be better off with him instead of any of the vampire. Since I pay attention to the media I know there's a Team Eric and Team Bill, but where's the Team Alcide. I'm guess his character just hasn't been introduced on True Blood yet? But I'm sure once they do eventually introducing TV viewers will love him as well.

I do think this one is my favorite so far. It looks like each book has been better for me, and I'd love to have that continue throughout the series, but I have a feeling at some point it will top out. After reading this, I can't wait to read the 4th in the series. But I'm thinking it might be nice to read a different type of book next, just to change things up for a bit.

~Shoshanah

Do Not Pass Go. Do No Collect $200.

Yes, it's another edition of Classy in Philadelphia's Where in the World Wednesday. I could see how my title of this post could be slightly misleading, but have no fear. I did not go to jail. Instead I went to Atlantic city. But what does that have to do with the title of this post? Well take a look!
It's Park Place! In case you hadn't heard, all of the Monopoly properties are real streets in Atlantic city. All down the Atlantic City Boardwalk (as in Boardwalk, the other dark blue property), all signs labeling each street sign with a Monopoly sign and some random historical fact. There are actually more streets than Monopoly properties, so even those that didn't get a spot in the game still have a commemorative sign.
Which means I was also able to take a picture with California Avenue. Which I think should have made the original game. I mean it's California!

These pictures were taken almost 4 years ago now, during our college senior week. (Can we pause to talk about how crazy it is that I've almost been out of college for 4 years? How did that happen?) We had a bus drive us senior from Maryland to Atlantic City, and were hoping to have warm weather so we could lay out on the beach. But as you can kind of tell from the pictures the weather didn't quite cooperate.

If you're looking for more Where in the World Wednesday posts you can had over to Classy in Philadelphia or you can check out all of my contributions here!

~Shoshanah

The Tale of the Pulled Pork

Yesterday, I posted this picture of the pulled pork from Sunday without really explaining where it came from.
The easy answer would be to say we bought it that way. But the truth is we made it in our smoker. (And I'm using "we" in the most general sense. Moral support counts right?)

See a few months ago, we were watching an episode of Good Eats on the Food Network, where Alton Brown makes a smoker out of a trash can. Once we bought the house, the boy knew one thing he wanted to do was make one himself. The fact that the Saints were going to be in the Superbowl, produced a perfect moment for it to happen.

Alton Brown's homemade smoker was pretty simple. In the bottom of the trash can (or terra cotta pots, which we used) you place a hot plate. On top of the hot place goes a pan filled with wood chips. You put a grate over that and smoke the meat for about 10 hours at 200 degrees. Not to hard right, and all the pieces you needed were readily accessible. Except not so much...

On Wednesday night we decided to test the set-up. (Again we is used in the general sense.) And while it was working in theory, we couldn't get the smoker anywhere near to 200 degrees. After listening to the hot plate automatically click off inside the smoker and doing some research we discover the problem.

It seems all readily available hot plates are made to be "safe." Meaning that as soon as they hit the temperature where water boils (around the 200 degrees we were going for), it would turn off to cool down and then turn back on. Yes, this would help to prevent a fire, but makes it almost impossible to use in a smoker. At the rate we were going we'd need 12 hours just to get the smoker up to 200 degrees, and then top that off with 12 hours of cooking time.

The solution we found was to return the "safe" hot plate, and buy a Coleman burner powered by propane. That could fit in the smoker, and get the temperature up and keep it up. Which means we now own a working smoker. Since I know you want to see it, here is the official smoker in action.
I would have loved to have showed you all a picture of the inside of the smoker as it was assembled. Except in order to have the meat ready for the game, we had to be up at 5 to get the meat to start cooking. And this half of the we? Well, I guess you could say in this case, my sleep was a little more important than pictures. I'm sure "we" will love hearing there's something more important to me than taking pictures!

~Shoshanah

Superbowl Mambo down in New Orleans

In case you missed it yesterday, the Saints won the Superbowl. Louisiana has been going a little crazy ever since. And on top of that its Mardi Gras season, which means this year in New Orleans is really the biggest party you've ever seen.

We weren't crazy enough to spend last night in New Orleans, nor were we lucky enough to be in Miami. So instead we had a few people over for some Superbowl Sunday festivities, and treated them not only to a good football game but good food as well.

First there were pulled pork sandwiches.
This is clearly the pork pre-sandwiches and pre-pulled as well.

I made a pasta salad, for anyone who didn't want to eat a pulled pork sandwich,
as well as my first ever try at deviled eggs.
Since this was the Superbowl, we had to have chips and dips as well.
There were several desserts, including most importantly a Saints King Cake.
And since we still need a little more black and gold in this post, here's a picture of me wearing my Superbowl MVP Drew Brees jersey.
Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? Doesn't look like anybody now!

How do you celebrate the Superbowl? Were you as excited, that the Saints won their first ever Superbowl?

~Shoshanah