not your average folk

We a-go-gos are not really your average folk. I suppose somewhere out there in blogland especially, we do indeed fit in but here in our wee pocket of this great city called Los Angeles we're not exactly keeping up with the Joneses. We're okay with that, really we are. I'm not complaining, he's not complaining. We like it here in our wee pocket of this big city and yet, change is a-comin'.

It is lonely here in the courtyard. Our good friends and neighbors here have all moved on. They're like, real grown-ups with mortgages and everything. Our slightly nutty landlord is hell-bent on making the empty units "nice" though his version of nice is nowhere near ours. His version of nice involves ripping out the floors of the kitchens and bathrooms to pour oodles of concrete in so he can lay nice marble tiles.

Ripping out the floors of the bathrooms and kitchens in these wee duplexes (duplex-is?) that were built ninety years ago. It is difficult to feel like tra-la-la-ing about the wee casa. There is much pounding going on. There is debris everywhere and mini dust storms brew willy-nilly. There are stray water bottles being left in our garden and the mad foraging of fruit from people who do not live here. There are five bathtubs in my courtyard. Five bathtubs floating about. There are toilets too, I know there are but a few months ago, the great and grand Nico and I pleaded with our landlord to hide them. We like looking out of our tiny windows. We like to view the birds and garden. We do not like to view stray toilets and mounds of construction debris. We do not like to view bathtubs. We do not really like ot find water bottles in our garden or footprints tramping through the garden. Yes my friends, change is a-comin' and with that, we need a plan.

There is a plan. It is a nifty and exciting and thoroughly terrifying plan. There are many parts to this plan. Too many in fact. My head spins with them all. One of them however involves cooking; cooking on our car engine to be exact. On our recent and most fabulous trip to Portland, we a-go-gos experimented with cooking on our car engine. There is an actual cookbook out there all about cooking on your car engine. Most of those recipes were all about meat. While we a-go-gos do actually eat meat, we weren't too keen on eating meat cooked on our car engine. We tried hotdogs wrapped in bacon, which sounds quite mouthwatering but when you cannot monitor your temperatures it is probably not a good idea.

 

We tried baking cakes in oranges. I already told you all about that. The oranges were too large and only the batter on the bottom, closest to the heat from the engine cooked. It was good but tricky to sample. Next time we will try smaller oranges or tangerines or something else.

 

Our favorite thing to do was heat water for tea. Heating water for tea was quite easy and took about 40 minutes of steady driving. We had an extra special nifty thermos with us to keep the tea hot afterwards. To heat water on our car engine involved a tiny camp pot, tinfoil and wire. It also involved planning and break taking to test temp. Taking breaks on a road trip is hardly difficult when you are in Northern California where the green makes you dizzy and you want to jump around and roll in all its mossiness.

After tea brewing, we discovered that potatoes steamed quite well in tinfoil packets wedged on top of the engine. Luckily, that Mr. A-go-go is a smart cookie and brought along salt & pepper. We had onions too and it was super tasty. It could have been even more tasty for the early morning, super cold air and giant statue of Paul Bunyan egging us on. Wither that or potatoes are just super tasty.

 

After we got the hang of it, we grew a teeny bit adventurous and added other vegetables. Mushrooms add more liquid and help carry around the salt & pepper to the other veggies. Broccoli makes it more purty to look at and we felt a little better about all those milkshakes from Burgerville.

Next time we head out on a trip, which will be in January on our way to Death Valley, we will add more fanciful seasonings and maybe even attempt rice, ooh or tofu! If you happen across an odd couple chopping vegetables at a rest top, one of them quite tall with a mean whistle and the other in striped socks with a camera attached to her face, that would be us a-go-gos.So that's it. Change is a-comin' and it may involve more car cooking, a little more traveling and perhaps some couch surfing if we can convince anyone we don't bite. We don't, I promise. But we sure can cook!

photobooth friday: feeling the lurve

How fabulously wonderful was it that I found myself in a photobooth with Photobooth Friday's creator and many times around most fabulous lady, Andrea of Hula Seventy? And mind you, it wasn't just any booth, it was THE booth at the Ace Hotel. And I got to be in it...with Hula!You lovely folks keep asking me about Portland and I promise you, you will read more about Portland than you can probably care to but I want to start first with this most momentous event. I have been crushing on Ms. Hula for years now, simply crushing on her big time. When the mister & I were planning the trip and he was asking me about what I wanted to do it suddenly hit me that we were going to Portland and Hula lives in Portland! I got all stammery and blushy and told him, I have to meet her. HAVE TO! I nervously sent her a message playing it all cool but really I was dorking out ridiculously. Emails were bantered back and forth and plans were made. There would be no question that a booth would be involved.Life has a way of mixing things up. Plans get juggled and jiggled and disco'ed on but eventually things work out in the end. Our original plan didn't happen. I'm happy to say I am pleased it didn't. If it had worked out we wouldn't have been able to adventure around downtown with the fabulous .Le Silly, but that is a story for another time. What did happen was a most delightful breakfast with most of the Hula family assembled. The mister & I arrived first at our breakfast get-together destination and sure enough I was feeling the jitters of a first date coming on. I needn't had worried. Hula's mister was the first one through the door and with a beam of a smile and a nonchalant wave it was like we had always been old friends. Much chatting and talking and laughing danced around us and of course the cameras made a show. SHhe is as delightful as delightful can be. A woman I adore who's smile, energy and talents swirl all around her. She's quite nice as well, just in case you were wondering.I was swoonier than swoony over the beauty that is Hula's polaroid. I soaked up as much Hula knowledge as I could and have of course been converted.

Once we realized time was getting the best of us, we mini caravaned downtown for our boothing excursion. The misters patiently (oh so patiently) waited in cars as we spilled ourselves into the magic booth. and of course, we both drew a blank. What to do? What to do? Nerves I tell ya, nerves got the best of me and I felt much like Cindy Brady in that episode where she gets to go on tv and ends up mesmerized by the red light. Dork! If only we had more time. We stretched it out as long as we could and I am admittedly jealous of Hula's frames. Mine are great but hers are delightfully great.After a bit more hamming it up for the camera and giggles and fits over our girly antics, we squeezed each other to oblivion and the visit was suddenly over. We'll be back though. We will and I'm hoping I can entice them all to a California visit sometime next year. We've got booths too, ya know! Happy Photobooth Friday!