Category Archives: Dan

A Night of Deathtraps!

     Plans changed last night. Drastically. I originally planned on staying in, having a Punkin Ale (or two) and getting to bed at a decent hour. Dan and Malachi decided that just wouldn’t do.

My amazing boys drove all the way up to my neck of the woods, and the night slowly blurred into oblivion in the best ways possible.
Yep, that loving look between roommates sets the precedent for the evening…
Dan and I split a pitcher of the Ladyface Weizenbock that they had just tapped the day before. This wheat beer is not filtered which gives it the dark cloudy look, and tasted fruity and light with a little sweetness. I find that most of Ladyface’s beers have a little more sweetness than I’m used to – but I can dig it!
Malachi had some wine with his whine – “I don’t LIKE beer!”
We split the garlic and herb pommes frites with garlic aioli. Drool.
     We closed the restaurant and headed out around 12:30am. The rest of the night would be spent risking our lives and freezing our asses off. Disclaimer: we had a sober driver, thank you very much!
Visiting an old abandoned train station in the middle of the night seems like a safe idea to me!
     We went to Paramount Ranch, parked at the outer gates (the parking lot closes at sunset) and hiked the half-mile in to get to the western town. Gates were jumped, trespassing was committed, and many, many pictures were attempted, of which the only usable one is posted above.
     Post-trespassing, we trekked back to the car and decided that the next logical place to go would be the beach. We got to Zuma Beach around 2am and made a mad dash into the water, screaming in pain as each fist of icy water pummeled our bodies – doesn’t that sound like a fun time to you? One minor detail we forgot: towels. But really, who needs towels when it’s a breezy 60 degrees out after an extended amount of time in the bitterly cold ocean? We jumped back in the car, pumped up the heat and decided to end the night.
     I got back at 3am, left my flip flops (that are still coated in sand) outside, showered and crashed. Today’s lesson: going to work is even LESS fun than usual after only four hours of sleep. It was so worth it.
I suffered through the longest day of my life at work and was rewarded with this amazing dinner cooked by the roommate: Lemon-herbed tilapia, sauteed spinach with cherry tomatoes and garlic, seared asparagus and red bell pepper, and a small sweet potato (my family and I thought these were yams for years!) with a pat of butter.
My life is complete.
What was your last spontaneous adventure?

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Filed under Dan, deathtraps, garlic fries, Ladyface Ale Companie, Malachi, ocean, Paramount Ranch, pommes frites, tilapia, Weizenbock, Zuma Beach

I Almost DIED Today!

     I almost died today. It was the most painful experience of my life… or one of the top five most painful experiences, which include some of the recent reality shows that have been inflicted upon society. Before we get to that, though, let’s start from the beginning!

     Today was my first day off after working SIX days in a row. That’s illegal, right? In my lazy mind, yes, yes it is. Anyway, since it was going to be ridiculously hot today, my mom and I decided to spend the day in Ventura before we headed off to pottery class.

Indian at The Taj Cafe, of course!
This handy card made treating oh-so-much easier!
That’s right, I’m a VIP!
     We went to We Olive and picked up some cherry balsamic vinegar and a new bottle of olive oil. Here comes the point of my near-death experience: 
That, my friends, is a habanero pepper. We Olive now carries an olive oil that is infused with jalapeno and habanero pepper. I, being the adventurous soul that I am, decided that I would try out this new option. I poured a small bit into a sample cup and took a miniscule sip. Not even a sip, just got a few drops on the tip of my tongue. It was fine for a minute, until the pepper ninja-kicked the back of my throat. My throat closed up and for a good ten seconds, I could not breathe. As I clumsily weaved through the store, tears pouring from my eyes, my nose running uncontrollably, I stumbled across a chocolate merlot dip and stuck a huge spoonful in my mouth to try and stop the pain.
     There you have it, my near-death experience. It took an hour for my nose to stop running and for me to stop coughing painfully as each wave of intense heat ran over me again and again. Seriously though, it was awful and painful and not being able to inhale is not a fun thing.
     After my over-dramatized moment, we picked up some chocolate at Trufflehounds and headed back towards my parental unit’s house.
We were hindered by a huge wind storm and some really aggressive tumbleweeds.
     We got to pottery class around 6pm and it was a nice, chilly 90 degrees outside. Yesterday was 113 degrees fahrenheit in Los Angeles, so it was more than acceptable to be in the low 90’s.
Here’s the latest batch of crap that came out of the kiln!
Here’s my mom’s antithesis of crap. She made an amazing plate last week and imprinted a leaf on it before glazing. Doesn’t it look incredible??
And here’s the NEW batch of crap I made today!
Here’s my mom after a rough day at class – still freakin’ gorgeous.
And here’s me and my chicken legs, covered in clay and dust.
Here’s the glazed, yet pre-fired, version of Amanda and Andy’s pot that they won!
And speaking of winners, the official winners of my Pottery Giveaway are…
Justin, Sophia, Amanda and Andy, and Sir Malachi. (Dan is getting an extremely awful one for his birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAN!!!), and as an honorable mention).

     Unfortunately, all of the winners’ bowls will not even be out of the kiln until next week, so you’ll have to wait an extra week. For now, all winners please e-mail me at BeckiKregoski@aol.com with your addresses for me to send the pottery to! If you live in SoCal and would prefer to meet up for a blogger get-together/pottery exchange, let me know that as well!
Have you ever had a near-death experience, exaggerated or not?

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Filed under blogger meet-up, Burp and Slurp, Dan, glazing, Happy birthday, Indian Food, Malachi, Mom, Pottery, Two Boos Who Eat, Ventura

Beer Tasting and Homemade Pizza!

     Last night, I went over to the boys’ place for beer tasting and homemade pizza! I stopped by BevMo on my way into town and was assisted by some incredibly knowledgeable, helpful workers who didn’t ignore me just because I look like I’m seventeen years old. Brownie points for that! I explained that I was trying to instill a sense of appreciation for beer in the minds of a certain gentleman who doesn’t like beer, and a certain gentleman who is satisfied drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon, and we picked out some hefeweizens, ambers, stouts and porters for the tasting.

From left to right: Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout, Napa Smith Amber Ale, Chelsea Moylan’s Porter, Boont Amber Ale and Franziskaner.
     Dan was busy chef-ing so we set the brews in the fridge to chill while I documented the cooking process.
What is that, you ask? Let’s take a closer look.
SCISSOR-BACON OF COURSE!!! Dan got all fancy on us!
     Since the boys were busy chopping, cutting and sauteing, I decided to treat them to a little serenade.
That note I’m playing right there is an L-flat.
I have no idea how to play the guitar.
     We started our tasting with the Franziskaner.
I got a little excited and poured much too fast. Whoops.
I taught the guys how to fully appreciate a good beer. Let’s go through the steps:
  1. First, hold the beer up to a light so you can see the color. (Having 1. First is kind of redundant, isn’t it? My bad.)
  2. Second (see what I’m doing here? Calling back to my first mistake?), smell the brew and see what scents you can pick up right away.
  3. Third (okay, I’ll stop now…), give the beer a good swirl in the glass, just like wine. This opens it up and the carbonation helps release some other notes you wouldn’t have noticed before.
  4. Smell the beer one last time and see if you can distinguish anything new post-swirling.
  5. Take a sip. Let it flow over your tongue and notice the carbonation, the flavors and the finish.

     Malachi, the non-beer-enjoyer, actually liked the Franziskaner! He specifically said, “I like this!”. I was quite thrilled. Dan liked it as well, but I think he was just happy to have some free beer – he’s obviously not picky since he can drink PBR. Up next was the Boont Amber Ale.

This one was delicious! It had very strong notes of caramel in both the smell and flavor, and just a hint of sweetness.
     Dan finished his masterpiece pizza while Malachi julienned some mint to put atop our salads, and we sat down for feasting.
OH EM GEE PEET ZAAA!
Freaking delicious! This was made with Trader Joe’s Garlic & Herb Pizza Dough, and topped with alfredo sauce, chicken, bacon, and copious amounts of wonderful cheese.
Utter joy!
The Napa Smith Amber came next. This one wasn’t my favorite – a little too light and watery tasting, not very memorable at all.
     We moved ahead to the Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout, one of my favorites, which was liked by Dan, but not by “I don’t like coffee OR beer. Bwaaaaaa!”-Malachi. After sampling the stout, we had some of the Chelsea Moylan’s porter – this one had the same espresso taste as the stout, but was a lot smoother to drink. That, or I’d already had the equivalent of a beer and a half and was starting to feel tipsy and not as studious as I should have been. That may have been it…
Yeah, that was definitely it…
On a random note, here’s a lamp that Malachi made!

     We played a rousing game of Pimps & Hoes (also known as Egyptian Ratscrew), then decided to head out to do some location scouting for a top-secret-insanely-awesome-epic film that Dan and Malachi are working on. DISCLAIMER: We did not drive after drinking. Every single place we went was on foot!!!

Well, hello Dan, with your fancy-schmancy camera standing in a dark creeper parking lot at 10:30pm beneath a ghetto street lamp.
We crossed back over the highway (my first time walking over a highway! I’m from Colorado, what do you expect?), and headed over to The Fox and Hound’s for some live music.
There was a Beatles cover band playing. It was pretty awful – after every song, they would drunkenly thank each other in character, “Thank you, Ringo. Paul, did you write that one? Cheers, mate!” until they realized that they should probably start playing another song.
We ignored them the best we could and started taking some more random pictures.
Malachi was not pleased with the bands’ creepy wigs and ramblings.
I also put my wristband to use! ID and credit card secure and no purse concerns!
Thanks, Banjees!
     We waltzed back over to the boys’ place and made an impromptu movie about magic card tricks.
You’ll have to wait for Dan or Malachi to edit this and blackmail me on YouTube. 
It was quite epic.
     We dug up some dirty laundry and watched a few films that Dan and Malachi had made in school, an old Lonelygirl15 video in which I carry a riding crop (!!!), and then Malachi took ownership over Dan’s Facebook and Google account and left comments for everyone in the entire world– one is viewable on my blog under yesterday’s post! We finally passed out around 3:30am.
It was a good night.
     I woke up this morning with only a slight headache, drank massive amounts of water and sat in on a pre-production meeting for the upcoming top-secret-insanely-awesome-epic film, then headed off to meet my friend Tanya for lunch.
Tanya recently became a vegan, so we went to Vegan World, a cute little hole-in-the-wall restaurant in the middle of a shopping center in Studio City.
I got the pad thai with mixed vegetables and a thai tea. The food was wonderful, but there was just too much on the plate! The waitress looked worried when she came to our table and asked us if there was anything wrong with the meal – we reassured her that it was wonderful and got doggie bags.
     I found a friend on my car after lunch! Everyone, meet Harris:
A PRAYING MANTUS!!! I think he read my recent blog post about putting him in hot dogs and came to threaten me. We talked it over and it’s all good now.
Don’t forget to enter the pottery giveaway! Just leave a comment saying why you need a piece of my deformed pottery, then link to my blog on your Twitter or Facebook 🙂

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Filed under beer, beer tasting, Dan, filming, lonelygirl15, Malachi, pizza, praying mantus, Studio City, The Fox and Hound's, Trader Joe's

Eating Rats on a Hobo-Train!

     Yesterday’s recap: Hike…

Pretty!
Even more pretty!
     …Kitchen Sink Salad:
Healthy!
     …and work.
My thought exactly, young grasshopper.
     Today, I had an audition in LA, so I drove out a little earlier and met up with some handsome dudes for fooding.
Malachi and Dan! I’m so lucky! Le sigh 🙂
We went to an old abandoned train, prepared to eat whatever creatures we may find: rats, mice, praying mantuses (mantii?), all roasted over a hobo-fire.
Alas, our abandoned train had been taken over by chefs and customers! AAAAAAAH!
Turns out, this train that was abandoned on Ventura Blvd. was transformed into some ridiculously famous restaurant called Carney’s. Don’t worry though, they still serve hot dogs, which I’m pretty sure contain rats, mice and praying mantuses/mantii. 
DELICIOUS rats, mice and praying mantuses/mantii!
I was a little too frightened to have a hot dog, so I stuck with the safe choice – cheeseburger with everything on it and a small side of fries. Yesssss!
These fries are healthily fried! Is there such a thing? I think so!
Carney’s has EIGHT trained food handlers to make sure that your rat meat is fully cooked!
Malachi didn’t believe that they served rat meat. He was quite certain that the hot dogs contained “sweet crumb cakes and peppered snake’s wang!” He reenacts that here.
     After a delicious meal of grilled something-or-other, we headed over to BevMo! so I could show the guys some examples of good craft brews, since Dan is partial to PBR and Corona, and Malachi has learned about beer from Dan’s choices (c’mon, Dan!). We’ve decided that on Saturday I’ll be bringing a pack of the best craft brews I know over to their place where we’ll have a tasting and make some homemade pizza. Any of my beer-genius readers have any beer suggestions for me to share with them? 
Malachi…
Dan doing a “Shake your Face”. Sorry Dan, I had to post it 🙂
William Shatner. No words needed.
Billy, I’m not looking forward to your show. Sorry.
     I went to my audition over in Los Feliz. It took me thirty minutes to find the building and room, and two minutes to get through the audition. I got to smash lots of things and get angry. It was awesome. It’s also fun to scan down the sign-in sheet and see who’s already been in to audition that I know – apparently one of the guys who was also in the pilot of “Left at the Altar” (same pilot, not the same segment as me) had been in a few hours earlier. HI, GIB!
     I fought some crazy traffic to get over to my parental unit’s home, just in time to head to pottery class! Of course my mom and I had to get a little snack first to get our blood sugars up!
I got 5 ounces of red velvet, cupcake and cookies and cream topped with cookie dough, peanut butter cups and a piece of brownie. Oof.
Yes, this is pottery class. It’s a good way to get the creative juices flowing! I had a small mug of prosecco. Yum!
Today, I was kind of off. I blame my exhaustion from driving and eating rats/mice/praying mantii.
I think my rats/mice/praying mantii may have been undercooked… That is the only explanation for this monstrosity.
     Now I’m relaxing while sipping a pumpkin ale and watching reruns of “The Office”. I needed it to help cure my sorrows from the bowl above. 
OH HEY! Who wants this bowl when I’m done???   
😀  

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Filed under Carney's, cheeseburger, Dan, frozen yogurt, hot dogs, Malachi, Pottery class, prosecco