Imitation Thai CPK

I don't know if this looks as good as it tasted but I recently had a craving for California Pizza Kitchen's Thai Chicken Pizza, and knowing it's a repeat offender on the "what not to eat" lists, I decided to recreate it at home with shrimp instead of chicken and a lot of veggies.

Here's the recipe if you ever want to attempt it. Perfectionists, take note: I don't list recipes in the standard way with ingredients, then directions. I just like having the directions and I'll highlight the ingredients to buy. I'm also very loosey goosey about interpreting recipes to one's own tastes and preferences. I improvise every time I make something.

1) Defrost a storebought frozen pizza dough. I like Sunflower Market's. If your grocery store doesn't have frozen pizza dough, just ask for a glob of sourdough or french dough at the bakery counter.

2) Defrost 15-20 frozen shrimp, and peel the shells or pinch off the tails. Rinse well and soak in the fridge a half hour in lemon juice.

3) Roll the crust out to some kind of a shape - square, triangle, circle, heart. Use a basting brush to spread a very thin layer of peanut oil (if you don't have it - substitute olive oil) across the dough especially on the edges which will become the crust.

4) For the sauce, use a bottle of Whole Foods' 365 Organic Peanut Sauce and mix about 3/4 cup of the bottled sauce with 1/4 cup sugar. Give or take a little less or more sauce and sugar depending on your personal tastes for a saucy or sugary pizza. I like the sauce thin.

5) Apply the sauce to the pizza crust using a spoon or spatula.

6) Drain the lemon juice from the shrimp. Chop and pile on the toppings: shards of carrots, fresh or frozen chives, green and red pepper, white onion, corn if you like it, and shrimp. Depending on your comfort level with hot spice, sprinkle any hot red peppers, piri piri, or thai hot peppers over the toppings. Top with a layer of mixed shredded cheese. (I like to use a mexican blend). This pizza does not need as much cheese as the average pizza since it's so flavorful already.

7) Cook at 400 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes, until brown and toasty on the edges.

8) Let cool for a few minutes. Sprinkle the cooling pizza with chopped cashews (or peanuts), sesame seeds, and cilantro (optional).

9 and 10) Dig in and say "Yum".

Cupid don't throw back your bow...

This is the first summer in a while that I have nearly no concerts on my calendar. My only plans to go to Red Rocks are for a Women's Bean Project / Bonnie Raitt show I'm volunteering for in August.

But a few days ago I noticed the Wallflowers were sold out at the unusually quaint Botanic Gardens, so I tracked down a single ticket on Craig's List and headed over there tonight.

The Wallflowers are a contradiction in many ways. They can't seem to shake off the catchy radio tunes and 40-something groupies in the crowd. They seem to want to be successful musicians without wanting the fame and junk that goes with it. When I first heard them in college, I remember my roommate and I immediately put them in the same category as Matchbox 20, as in, "Just kill me and put me out of my misery now if I have to hear that song again". Their singles were insanely overplayed and overrated. It seemed like magazines were obsessed with the band just based on Jakob's anomalous blue eyes.

But over the years I've really gotten into the Wallflowers, especially for their albums that were less played on the radio. And don't say I'm getting old...

It occurred to me tonight how ironic it is that Jakob originally came on to the music scene trying with all his might to not be compared to (or even associated with) his father. First of all, it's a pretty good relative to have. Second of all, it's not like they sound anything alike. Third of all, it's not like anyone is ever going to compare anyone's work to the reach and scope of Bob Dylan. I never even thought they looked alike, but tonight the resemblance was uncanny.

Seeing him in person made me realize, this boy is a bonafide miracle. He has inherited his father's musical talent and originality without inheriting the chip on his shoulder or the lack of a melodic (& piercingly nasal) voice. He is modest and genuine, a great singer and a great songwriter. What could be better than that.

the tide is high but i'm holding on!

No progress with the job hunt so far this month, but frankly, I can't help but to pull up a chair by the pool and enjoy the summer.

don't underestimate the value of doing nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.

-Christopher Robin

Shimmy Shimmy Go-Go Bop

I love that Tom Hanks can still recite the song from "Big"

so like

Sorry I've been MIA the last month or so.
I feel like I need to say the same thing to my gym. Eeek!

At the end of May, Chris & I were going to go to California for a week, and then we weren't because we couldn't find a place to board Derby, but then our vet called at the last minute and could take him, so we had a very thrown-together trip out to Northern CA which was great, even though, like always, any sunny weather eluded us. Everyone always swears it had just been so warm the week before we came.

We drove around Half Moon Bay, Point Reyes, Santa Rosa, and then buried ourselves in Monterey during the holiday weekend, pretty much taking our time, vegging out, stopping for beer and artichokes here and there.

Since I've been back, the job searching has kicked into high gear, but not intentionally. I have to try to schedule other activities into my day because it's so easy to spend 8 hours a day sending resumes and researching positions -- there are enough jobs that it's very time consuming, and it's easy to get SuckedIn to LinkedIn (who knows who, who you used to know, who changed their last name, who works where now). I've had about one interview a week on average since I was first unemployed, so it's not bad at all... I just need to find the one where they like me, and I like them.

Meanwhile I am taking advantage of sleeping in, watching all the movies I never had time to watch, wearing flip flops perpetually, and digging up new companies I never knew were in Denver. Whether it's by reading the Business Journal at Tattered Cover, or finding a random little company on Craig's List, there's so many cool companies here and it's fun to figure out who you might know there. That part is fun all on its own.

Thanks to everyone for being so cool & well-wishing in my time of woe, but it's not too too woeful...

at last

alright already, i'm on twitter now. you can look for me under lara_sue.

taller children

It's not often that I would buy an album just for the cover but I think this one, I would: Elizabeth & The Catapult

but I dig the music also

gembows and other 'candy'

Something tells me the average age of the young entrepeneur is shifting slightly downward.  Check out these 12 year old duct-tape artists who are donating their net proceeds to Save the Earth. brilliant.  (thank you daily candy for the links)

Also you can help feed shelter dogs by just answering one little trivia question on freekibble.com (hint: the answer is probably Weimaraner)

lastly, imagine being able to carry an espresso maker in your purse?  I want one of these so badly but need to wait for the price to go down, maybe once they get an infomercial deal or start selling them on QVC.  why, oh why, can't I just work for Daily Candy and get these things as freebies?  (sigh)

Jordan on Oprah

This little girl, Jordan advising moms on how to talk to their daughters about sex totally made my day. What I know for sure: she's born to be a broadcast journalist. (sorry for the obnoxious ad at the front) She looks like a miniature Ginnifer Goodwin! So cute.

new peeps dioramas

The peeps have landed!
Here's this year's winners, and for review, here's 2007 and 2008. I feel like this year's needs a disclaimer that no peeps were harmed in the making of these scenes but (sniff!) it may not be true.

Lily

Last night I had the very cool opportunity to see Lily Allen at a little club in Denver, they made some limited edition posters for the show which were a nice bonus for 10 bucks!
Review note: Lily's opening band 'Natalie Portman's Shaved Head' was sooooooooooooooooo baaaaaaaaaaaaad. They were wannabe Dandy Warhols/Franz Ferdinands and really should just leave 80's music to the bands who invented it in the 80's. Same goes for the skinny tapered acid-washed jeans (on not skinny men!)

poetic tendencies

I love that April is Poetry Month and poets.org will send you a poem every day this month. This is my third year getting them and I'm always pleasantly surprised on April 1, I wish they would do it every day of the year. I have poetic tendencies and enjoy reading them, maybe I could even edit a book of them, but never was a natural at writing poems myself.

Here's today's.

Untitled
by Gregory Orr

An excerpt from How Beautiful the Beloved

This is what was bequeathed us:
This earth the beloved left
And, leaving,
Left to us.

No other world
But this one:
Willows and the river
And the factory
With its black smokestacks.

No other shore, only this bank
On which the living gather.

No meaning but what we find here.
No purpose but what we make.

That, and the beloved's clear instructions:
Turn me into song; sing me awake.

so like, mandatory vacation?

for those of you i haven't had a moment to call just yet, i got 'laid off' at work today but it's all good -- i sort of expected this turn was coming around the bend -- and I had been at least mentally preparing for it, certainly financially planning for it.

I'm not sure how this will affect plans to take a real vacation this year, but I do hope I will ultimately find some value in the mandatory vacation that is time off between jobs. and i don't mean goofing around on facebook.

thanks as always for your best wishes and forward those jobs along!
email: larasueg@gmail.com and my online resume:
www.linkedin.com/in/laratherrien

favorite forward of the year

this was in my inbox this morning. my favorite is the "swirl".

Ben & Jerry created "Yes Pecan!" ice cream flavor in honor of Barack Obama. They then asked visitors to their web site to fill in the blank for the following: For George W. "_________" flavor.

Here are some of their favorite responses:

Grape Depression
Cluster Fudge
Nut'n Accomplished
Iraqi Road
Chock 'n Awe
WireTapioca
Impeach Cobbler
Guantanmallow
ImPeachMint
Good Riddance You Lousy Motherf*cker... Swirl
The Reese's-cession
Cookie D'oh!
The Housing Crunch
Nougalar Proliferation
Death by Chocolate... and Torture
Credit Crunch
Country Pumpkin
Chunky Monkey in Chief
Chocolate Chimp
Bloody Sundae
Caramel Preemptive Stripe
I broke the law and am responsible for the deaths of thousands...with nuts

to hell with yellow pages

i remember recently my mom was visiting and asked for my yellow pages and i said - what? yellow pages! what's that? my yellow pages is google. and she was like, well what if the power's out? and i was like, i'd use chris' blackberry...

she has a good point but one yellow pages every 10 years is enough for me to find the emergency number to dial (which i'm pretty sure is 911).

i hate the endless free yellow and white pages that get dumped on our doorstep every other month from various competitors. i just have to haul them to the nearest recycling center in my polluting car. so i was delighted to find an overall opt-out list today! it's a green movement towards less junk mail, just like Catalog Choice. do it!

blue fish red fish grinch fish seuss fish

I love Google today!!!!!! Happy Birthday Seuss!

andy has answered our prayers

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

in TV news today:

Andy Richter is joining Conan O'Brien as NBC's The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien begins June 1. Richter will be show's announcer and also be involved in live and pre-taped comedy sketches.

coolest cards

this time of year always reminds me to not stop sending old-fashioned cards to those you love!

in case you ever see them in bookstores, i am trying to amass a grand collection of cards from KOCO these days as well as i've collected for years those surreal and unpredictable postcards by Gallerie Inkognito (dark dark humor) and if you happen to ever be in france, Gaelle Boissonard cards too but she's a tad elusive.

Hey Conan, Where's Your Sowrd?

I was watching Conan on Inside the Actor's Studio the other night and reminiscing of how my BU roommates used to always tease me for having a crush on him 'cause he was the only famous person with red hair. Well, and Alexi Lalas.

Truth be told, I've been sort of off the Conan band wagon since Andy left the show years back, but I have high hopes for this June when Conan takes over the Tonight Show (and low, low hopes for Jay Leno's new gig - an embarrassingly public settle if there ever was one).

I always thought Conan and I looked a little separated at birth as kids, although I thought I might be more of a "If they Mated" of Conan + Andy (me left) since I'm much less Irish. But as was shown on Actor's Studio (above), I think Conan himself was the best "If They Mated" of Conan & Andy!

My cheeks are still bigger though.
: P

the girl effect

love this
http://www.girleffect.org/

music is back on

I just added my Pandora stations to the top right of the blog space so you can listen at work, if you are "allowed" to!
Ever since my work blacklisted Pandora, my stations have been suffering! There's probably some oddball artists that will come up in the stations (like I just had to thumbs-down Neil Young off the acoustic mix) but otherwise they should be good to go.

p.s. For those of you with a clothing weakness like me, the Obamicon web site just added a feature to order your custom Obama-merch as t-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, etc. It's too easy. Aghhhh!

oops...

sorry i only just now noticed that my mixwit gadget was broken. looks like they went out of biz due to copyright issues. maybe if you're really good, they'll be a mixmas next year!

pictured right is one of my ALL TIME favorite gifts, a new warm & fuzzy Bula hat with iPod earbuds built into the ears. rather than sticking any plugs in your ear canals, there's little soft speakers next to your ears. i wouldn't have guessed it to be unisex based on the Greta Gunther braids but it must be 'cause it's really big and stretchy, and we all know i already have a bigger than usual head (chorus of 'yups').

Friday morning i test drove the pod-hat on my train/bus trip to work, and the mini-ear speakers were so crisp, i tended to keep glancing around to see if anyone else could hear my Bel Biv Devoe blasting and was snickering at my expense. I really didn't want to be that guy. but it seems to be a solid cover! and really fantastic sound. next question - how can i wear one of these year round without looking like Sam in Garden State?

woof for change

It takes a lot to get my attention away from American Idol but this worked. I already loved Paste, but their new Obama-your-self tool is so much cooler than the tired old Elf Yourself thing, it's not even funny. It takes a little while since it's so popular but here's a couple I did already. What else would you expect from me? : )

Yay for Mutts!

I have so much admiration for Patrick McDonnell who has put Mutts on a mission this week to encourage the Obama family to adopt! Anyone who got my Christmas card this year knows I recently discovered Mutts stamps that benefit the Humane Society and I adorrrrrrrrrre them. Not sure I can go back to normal stamps again.

this is my song

Mixmas 2008 is brewing and almost ready to send. I'm a little early this year but I nearly had this year's entire mix done last year, and I threw it out and did a different one. Now I just have to lick the stamps and write some cards. This may be my last mix for a while; I'm trying to focus on real writing (as opposed to blogging) in the new year.

I know I've been a little quiet lately, but it's United Way Month in Denver so my marketing team and I are at maximum capacity until Thanksgiving's over. Our CEO has been on the local news channels nearly every other day for the past couple weeks. Matter of fact the photo I took at right (Speer Blvd) is our Christmas card this year.

If you or your families have decided not to make donations to charities this Christmas while cutting back on spending, just keep in mind the people living in poverty or who just lost their jobs need help more now than EVER. The shelters, churches and motels are going to be packed not just with the homeless, but with the new homeless -- middle class folks whose homes were foreclosed this year. If you can't give anything this season, at least consider giving a portion of your stimulus check when it comes next year. Or just buy 100 cans for 10 cents a piece to give to the Food Bank collections. One farmer in Colorado made an inspiring choice that I hope will be contagious.

Thanks for thinking about it.
Merry November!

talkin 'bout a revolution

talk about hallelujah. not only hallelujah that Obama won, but that it was all decided before 10pm my time. now i just have to wait up to hear about Al Franken. but what a relief that the senate is looking very blueish.

we had two really scary republicans in Colorado, Bob Schaeffer and Marilyn Musgrave (who was featured in Rolling Stone article "death of a red state" just last week!) who should be conceeding any second now. p.s. hallelujah if Rolling Stone stops putting Obama on their cover now and starts featuring relevant musicians again, not the washed up "classic rock" like AC/Dshit.

and hallelujah, normal commercials are back. never thought i'd miss them so much, especially when i usually zip through them with my tivo, but now i find myself watching them with glee. there's a new Scene It! Seinfeld edition?? sweet!

tricks or treats

Today for Halloween I was Mary Poppins which was a huge hit at work. Oddly, but not surprisingly, I was debating between being Courtney Love and Mary Poppins this year. I went with the first wig I found which happened to be a black mullet which works well as a granny hairdo in a bun, then just had to find a parrot - saw its head off (what) - saw off the end of an umbrella - and throw on some normal black and white work clothes. It wasn't much of a stretch for me, actually. I already have her shoes, scarf, jacket, hat and purse as a matter of course.

I was also initially drawn to a costume of "The Love Guru" just for its craziness but that was like $100.

A bilingual elementary school near our work always brings their kids in for trick or treating during the day which is really a brilliant idea, and is great for me since we don't EVER have trick or treaters at our apartment.

My favorite costume this year hands down was a seven year old Axl Rose. I immediately recognized him but had to ask just to confirm "Who are you?" and he said "Axl Rose" in an obvious tone like I should know better. BAD ASS.

seriously?

I just finished reading the amendments and referendum guide to voting in Colorado this year, and all I can say is, you know you live in Colorado when there's a referendum to legalize saloons (which have been banned since 1933 apparently)... a saloon being a bar which serves exclusively alcohol, does not serve food.

and by the way, for all of you who have suffered for 3 years from my bad reception and lack of returning your calls, I am finally getting a better phone this week - just bought it on ebay. I had a cool purple one for a while from T-Mobile this summer but the connection was not much better and I hated the delay time on the keypad, so I sold that on ebay and went back to a red Samsung after tons of research on CNET. I'm getting a new sim card too, so...wish me luck. seems like getting a new phone these days is equivalent in time and effort to moving apartments.

...

today i randomly came across an amazing sunset shot of the parking lot outside our apartment on flickr. I love punkdolphin's photography, especially the abstract city shots.

for some other fun, check out the new bunny short of No Country for Old Men (don't watch it if you haven't seen the movie).
my favorite is still A Christmas Story.

...
shit.
I just heard that Paul Newman died. He is one of my favorite people in the world. My kitchen pantry is full of Newman's Own everything - pasta sauce, lemonade, salad dressing, coffee. If you're looking for something to lift your spirits, his autobiographical book "shameless exploitation in pursuit of the common good" is a fantastic and funny story of the Newman's Own brand and about their worldwide camps for kids.

history in the macon (get it?)

This weekend I took my seemingly random pilgrimage to Macon, Georgia with my platypus Lloyd for company. Even the locals kept asking me what I was doing visiting Macon! but I don't understand why.
Macon is really rich in history and scenery. There are more churches per capita than any other city in the U.S. and many of them date to the 1800's. There are 8 museums and more places on the state historical registry than any other city in Georgia! In fact there is a Native American national monument with evidence of civilizations living there 12,000 years ago.

As you can see, the sunset over the city was beautiful when I arrived. Lloyd and I immediately stopped by Otis' statue and a handful of marble-mouthed men walking along the train tracks started up a conversation with me, and tried to suggest where I should go for dinner in Macon, though it took some translation (what sounded like RHINES to me was actually two syllables - Ryan's). Never thought I'd need a translator in my own country but it truly is a different dialect in south central Georgia.

I couldn't find a single damn local restaurant open on Saturday evening when I arrived or all day Sunday so I was trapped between Chick Fil-A and McDonalds both days. I wish I had realized on Sunday the local theater (which I assumed was closed like everything else) had a "dinner and a movie" of Mary Poppins. How adorable.

The most famous local eating spot, Nu-Way Weiners, is a hot dog stand that's been there since 1912 and the kitchen really does look like it! Phew. It felt compulsory to have one, but I wondered as I took a bite whether I should have gotten updates on any vaccinations before I left on this trip. The dog was distinctly hot pink.

Sunday morning I went to a church service at Macon's First Baptist Church which amazingly was an integrated congregation years ahead of the Civil War, and founded in 1835.  Sadly, folks in the congregation told me that these days there's a "white First Baptist" just 2 blocks away and the "black First Baptist" which is the one I went to. It's not any kind of a requirement, it's more like voluntary preference for the church.  Nonetheless I was welcomed by everyone in the church and treated like a friend and neighbor.


What I really went to Macon for was the Georgia Music Hall of Fame's new exhibit on Otis Redding with tons of concert posters, rare vinyl singles, and photographs of his short career, on loan from his wife Zelma's personal collection. It was fascinating and I spent nearly four hours there.

I've always felt a close connection with Otis and can't explain why. I generally can tell when someone is one of my favorite people within a few seconds and he's one who I loved from the first time I heard These Arms of Mine. I've always felt Otis' talent was under-recognized by the American public, although certainly not by his musical peers - Wilson Pickett, Little Richard, James Brown, Booker T, and Percy Sledge all were present at his funeral and several tribute records were produced in mourning of Otis' death in 1967. He was only 26 when he died. He had had a monumental moment in his career just six months prior at the Monterey Pop Festival.

The right poster below is very rare - Otis was booked to play the Fillmore West on December 20-22 with the Grateful Dead opening for him the first night. His plane went down in a lake in Wisconsin on December 10th.
Here's one cool thing I just realized about the timing of my trip. Otis died in 1967, and he would have turned 67 years old the day that I flew back to Denver, September 9th, 2008.

I also took a verrrrrry long drive to try and see where my favorite writer, Alice Walker grew up in Eatonton, Georgia.

I couldn't find any info on her neighborhood ahead of time so I just had to go and find it for myself.
Turns out her road was super hard to find even with a map.

Many homes in Eatonton were impoverished and rotting as I would have imagined from the descriptions in The Color Purple, but the wide, emerald green farmland was really breathtaking. About an hour west from Eatonton, I also passed by Otis' estate where his family still lives and I'm sure he does too, known as the "Big O Ranch". Respectfully I didn't take pictures of it.

Driving through farm country in Georgia you see some amazing wild ivy growing on the trees (above) which I'm told is not natural to the landscape and quite a nuisance. And I noticed immediately that the bugs in Georgia are unlike anything I've ever seen or heard ~ the grasshoppers are huge, and at one point I saw a big, black thing that was like a scorpion without a tail, 6 inches long, sitting on a brick - still makes me shudder!!! *later note: turns out this is a flying cockroach - more shudder!!!*

On Monday, I took a drive to Athens, the famously funky college town that gave birth to the B-52's and R.E.M. It was extremely humid that day so I mostly enjoyed staying in my car, stopping for a bucket of peaches on the side of the road, shopping in an air conditioned used bookstore, and stopped into the famous Walker's Pub & Coffee for a cold beer. I walked the main streets and UGA campus for about an hour, but it was brutal. Georgians are crazy about their Greek-inspired architecture and crazy about their bulldogs.

My last night for dinner I headed to Decatur where another one of my favorite artists, the Indigo Girls, live and Emily has a farm to table new-ish restaurant, The Watershed.  It was delicious, kind of gourmet home-cooked soul food. And the most adorable buildings and shops surrounded the restaurant (below).

It turns out that REM's Out of Time truly is the perfect music to road trip through Georgia listening to. It almost sounds even better in the right atmosphere.

*P.S.* Lots of friends have commented to me personally about their own experiences in GA after reading this blog, and I have to say, it is consistently a one-of-a-kind place. I would love to visit more of the South, and if any of you go there, take a tip from my friend Doug - don't even think about ordering Pepsi in Georgia. There's no Pepsi, only Coke!!