ELOTE SALAD

Happy Memorial Day! Staying home? Perfect time to BBQ!
Having lived in Los Angeles from birth up to about three years ago, warmer weather reminds me sitting in its urban parks with sprawling views of the DTLA skyline and the sounds of the bells from street vendors hustling their goods. And if you have ever spent the afternoon lounging along Echo Park Lake, you know I am talking about: Elote.
Elote is an amazing and simple recipe of sweet corn mixed with rich seasonings making it the perfect savory snack. But, it’s not the easiest to share with friends and can be a bit messy. So, with summer creepin in I have made it into a grilled salad which is a perfect dish to BBQ at home or to be enjoyed on its own.

What You Need:

4-6 Ears Yellow Corn - Shucked (can use canned/frozen corn, too)
Mini Bell Peppers - sliced
1 Jalapeno - seeds removed, Chopped
A few thin slices Red Onion - Chopped (to taste)
Cilantro - Chopped
Crema Mexicana
Cojita Cheese
Salt
Pepper
Granulated Garlic
Oregano
Smoked Paprika
Chili Powder
Cayenne Pepper - optional

What To Do:

Heat BBQ to high.
Once the corn is shucked and all strings removed, lather each ear with a decent amount of butter, salt, and pepper.
Place each ear on grill and rotate until grilled to taste.
*If using canned/frozen corn - heat a skillet on high with butter. Sautée and brown until desired.

Let cool until easy to hold.
Carefully cut off kernels from corn with a sharp knife.
Add in cut vegetables and season to taste and stir till combined.
Add in crumbled cojita cheese to desired amount. (I suggest going light and then adding more if needed)
Drizzle in crema mexicana right before serving and stir again.
Garnish with additional cilantro, cojita, and chili powder.
Serve immediately!

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HELLO, 34 // MCMENIMANS EDGEFIELD & MOUNT HOOD, OR

Hello, Thirty-Four! What an in-between number to turn. There isn’t much excitement around it, no turning points.. SO I made it my own this year and went kind of big and took advantage of the entire week.

MCMENAMINS EDGEFIELD

My friend, Nikole, and I started the week off with an evening at McMenamins Edgefield in Troutdale, OR. If you know McMenamins then you know it’s a portal back in time filled with many secret pockets and places to explore. This once “poor farm” is now transformed into a gorgeous and historical hotel. Each room is different and named after an individual who once stayed there. There are no TV’s, no radios.. just beautiful decor and amazing hand painted art throughout.

Once checked in we had cocktails at the Little Red Red Shed, which used to be the farm’s incinerator, followed by wine tasting at their in-house winery, dinner at Power House (the original power station for the farm), and ended the evening by floating in their lovely salt-water soaking pools at Ruby’s Spa that sits at a constant and comfortable 102°.

After an early night and a good rest, we continued on with “robe-life” and grabbed some breakfast cocktails from my favorite bar there, the Black Rabbit Bar, and headed back to the pools. It was a foggy, cool morning which made the pools even more enchanting. Going on a weekday is ideal since we were literally the only ones in there. I never wanted to leave.

And lastly before we headed home, we had a lovely brunch at the Black Rabbit Restaurant which was so good! Beet hash? Yes, please. I can’t wait to go back

MOUNT HOOD, OR

It’s always been my dream is stay in an A-Frame in the woods in the PNW. And when I came across this gorgeous one some time ago I knew I had to stay here. It’s aesthetic is right up my alley AND it was only about an hour away from our home in Portland. So what better time to splurge than this week! It was EXACTLY like the description and photos plus more! And there was even a little snow!

The designers of this home really did a fantastic job at optimizing the space and making it really unique. The first floor is a large space with the most comfortable sofa which is perfect to lounging back and enjoying the fire and the fun spiral staircase. It had a great kitchen and dining table that seats six. The additional floors are divided into split levels which house the two bedrooms and a reading nook. Though the entire space is an open floor plan but the division of levels provided enough privacy between the bedrooms and created sound barriers from the main floor.

On my actual birthday we drove up the mountain a bit to Trillium Lake. The road was closed due to snow so we found this to be the perfect hiking opportunity. The snow was pretty thick and icy in spots but thank to our yak-tracks it was relatively easy. Every now and then you would step in a spot that wasn’t as packed and would sink about a foot… always fun. Steve loves the snow so he was having a blast. We didn’t realize how far the lake was from the main highway and ended up hiking about five miles but since it was a Thursday there weren’t many people out so it was the perfect way to spend the afternoon.

Later that afternoon, Nikole and her lovely Mom, met us at the cabin for the evening. We grabbed a drink at the fun Skyway Bar & Grill before dinner. I highly recommend this place if you’re in the neighborhood. It’s funky, kitchy, and it’s been there forever. They have a ton of in-house infused vodka’s and can you sit by the fire and relax from the day.

We wrapped up the day by sipping champagne, cooking dinner, playing cards, and Nikole even brought a home made cake which was the cutest. But all good things had to come to end and we had to head home. We had an awesome stay and would definitely come back.

Thank you to everyone who joined me during my birthday week! I love you all and couldn’t imagine going into another year without you! Xo.

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OUR LIVING ROOM : UPDATES

So it’s been about six months since I have posted any updates on our house. And mostly because it has been that long since we have gotten around to making any changes. Here we go!

WINDOWS

OMFG THE WINDOWS. The most anticipated thing of 2019! For the past year I have felt like a broken record about these! After what seemed like it was never going to happen when with our devastating breakup with our previous contractor: They are in! And they are beautiful!

Why was this such a big deal? The windows that came with the house were from the 70’s with aluminum framing that let cold air in and were so fogged in places from moisture getting between the panes that they were worthless. I got some mixed opinions about removing the garden windows but I honestly hated them (believe it or not) and am so happy they are gone!

The third window on our main living room wall was the biggest change. It was different size than the other two so we decided to shorten it a bit so they are aligned. I struggled with this idea at first because being in Portland, you want as much a light as you could get. But turned out to be just fine - just as Danny reassured me. The fun part about this was that since we were going to re-frame this window we got to demo the wall for new dry wall. And it’s a good thing we did, too because once we got in there we discovered that there wasn’t an insulation! Again, and another reason why our house always seemed cold and drafty. AND we found the ORIGINAL deed for the house in the wall! It was pretty damaged but were able to make out the original sale price of $4900 in 1924. So cool! I hope we find more hidden things in the walls later and I don’t mean bones. Where’s my can of cash???

We matched the new windows with little stair window from Marvin through Parr Lumber and they are a dream! Since we are working on having the house match its 1920’s origin while modernizing, we picked the divided lights to be real wood on the inside and the fiber glass on the outside for weathering. And in the original style, we have the two front to just be non-functional picture windows, then the two flanking the fireplace to be opposing casements and lastly the one near the kitchen to be an awning which I think is so fun. Now, I can’t wait till warmer weather and to have all the windows open! Plus the plants are going love it!

CEILING

Say what you want about older homes but I cannot stand textured ceilings. Since we are not in Los Angeles anymore, I am not talking about the awful popcorn ceilings either but this kind of rough texture like cream cheese spread on a bagel. I get it: it hides imperfections. But it also absorbs depth and I find them to be dingy looking. So: we smoothed the ceilings! Which in the process discovered the the ceiling were not level (you seen see the blue chalk line across showing the difference) so we fixed that too.

Earlier this year when we removed the divider we discovered the ceiling was two different heights from the “two rooms.” So instead of demoing and starting over we were able to add a carefully cut piece of dry wall and then skim coated the rest. I can’t put into words how much I love it. It’s so nice to stand in the dining room and see that now these two rooms are finally consistent with each other!

Here is the living room from the listing on the house when we bought it:

And NOW!

More of the process…

TRIM, BASEBOARDS, MOLDING, AND ALL THE PAINTING

Ahhh and of course a room is not complete without proper trim! Each window now has the beautiful but simple craftsman style trim, 9” baseboards across the room and classic crown molding from McCoy Millwork. Besides all the dust from the new drywall, the painting was the most painstaking part of it all. It takes so long and there were so many steps with all the trim and different paints. We painted the room to match the dining room in Benjamin Moore Cloud Cover in Eggshell, the trim is pure white in satin, and the ceiling in a flat white. The room looks so classic, light, & airy considering it’s such a small space (25’ x 11’). We cannot thank our beautiful friend, Nikole, for taking so much time out of her life so constantly help us with painting and am forever grateful for her and her steady hand.

We finally moved all our furniture back in just in time for the long MLK weekend and my birthday. We haven’t hung our window coverings back up yet but I am okay with that. I love being able to sit back on the sofa with some coffee (or wine) and admire all the natural light. P.F. Candle Co. was also so kind to send us some goods including their new scent, Sunbloom, which smell like a dream and brings back memories our hometown in California! It makes our space feel even more welcoming and warm - eps on these dreary winter days (Thank you!).

I was hoping with this renovation I would be able to find new sconces but I had no luck finding ones I loved with a rotary switch without costing a ton. We don’t use them that often so I didn’t want us to go through the hassle of re-wiring them to the switch either. So I spray painted them using the same color I used for the hoop log holder a few years ago and I think they turned out awesome. And it literally costed us nothing.

We will likely be taking 2020 off from any major renovations to save for the main bathroom remodel as well as fresh the hallway and guest-room/office with matching ceilings and windows and maybe actually take an actual vacation! And maybe this year we will get a new sectional sofa, coffee table, and lights but for now this is great. I am finally feeling like this little house of ours is becoming exactly what we envisioned. This house has definitely taught us (and mostly me) patience and how to manage realistic expectations.

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