Category Archives: The Adventures of Little T

Restaurants and Little T

19 Thursday Jan 2012

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Have I mentioned that one of Little T’s favorite things to do is eat at a restaurant? He loves the attention he gets from family members and friends who are dining with us, and he’s amazed when waiters and waitresses arrive at the table with plates of good food for him to try.

The only issue, is that sometimes Little T gets too excited. He gets so excited that he screams and shouts in delight and we have to go outside until he calms down. I guess that’s what happens when you’re a true food enthusiast. 🙂

Here we are at My Vegan Restaurant, in Pasadena. Little T really loves lemons:

And here’s a picture from the restaurant we visited for my birthday. Music+Food=Heaven for Little T.

And here’s Little T having dinner at my friend’s house, who is an amazing chef and makes delicious Indian food for us:

Top Chef New Years Challenge

05 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in Photography, The Adventures of Little T, The Family

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Here’s how we spent our New Year’s Eve, having a tasty Top Chef style challenge, I hope you enjoy the photos from our night.

Secret ingredients and quick fire challenge revealed: Make an appetizer with two ingredients that are known around the world to bring good luck on New Year’s Day. Black eyed peas, collard greens, cabbage, raisins, grapes, and champagne.

They drew knives to see who would choose their ingredients first. Scott decided on black eyed peas and currants, and Big T decided on collard greens and champagne. Here’s Scott cooking away:

The winning dish, doesn’t look like much but it was delicious:

The winner had 30 dollars to spend at the grocery store for the next part of our challenge, the loser only had 25. For part two, they had to go to the grocery store and buy ingredients to prepare dinner. They had to incorporate brussels sprouts and grapefruit into the meal.

15 minutes to shop:

Keeping track of time:

A twist! Pick out an ingredient for your competitor to use:

Big T had to leave a grapefruit out because he’d gone over the limit:

Plating:

Cooking:

Scott made grapefruit risotto with a roasted brussel sprout topping. Big T made pasta with a brussel sprout pesto sauce and a grapefruit salad. Both dinners were sooooo good and disappeared fast, but Scott was the winner in the end. What a delicious evening it was. We definitely need a repeat with some other chef friends involved (I’m looking at you, KD, Sonal, Michelle and Andrew!)

Holiday Happenings

23 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by in Photography, The Adventures of Little T, The Family

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A great big box of stocking stuffers from Viva La Vegan Grocery:

Playing outside in a big pile of leaves:

Making silly adjustments to PJ’s because Little T is sooooo tall:

Having time for pretty hairstyles:

Watching Coach at a basketball game:

Getting tickled during half time:

Eating lots and lots of crispy kale:

Drumming in pajamas that don’t match (clearly, we’ve had some pajama issues on this trip):

And enjoying the lights around the neighborhood:

SoCo Farmers’ Market {Farm to Food Truck Challenge}

20 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by in Photography, The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels, vegan

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Yesterday we drove to Costa Mesa to see the Farm to Food Truck Challenge, hosted by the SoCo Certified Farmers’ Market. On the drive over, Big T, Grandma G and I had a serious talk with Little T. We said, “listen, Little T. Just because they’re going to have lots of amazing gourmet food trucks, that doesn’t mean we’re going to be able to try everything.” Little T just smiled, knowing that Momma J and Big T are defenseless against good food. Let me just say that being proven wrong by Little T tasted mighty delicious.

From their website:

A farmers’ market inspired cooking competition. Top gourmet food truck chefs will compete against each other to create the best dish using locally grown farm fresh ingredients.

If you’re a foodie, you have to go to this event. I’d suggest getting there a little before the challenge starts so you have time to browse the food trucks and purchase some tasty treats while you wait for the chefs to cook their meals for the competition. When we first arrived, we were happy to see that Seabirds was there. They’re a vegan gourmet food truck that made an appearance on the Food Network in season 2 of The Great Food Truck Race.

I asked what they recommended, and they said we had to try their macaroni and cheese. Um, yeah. It was the best mac and cheese I’ve ever had. In my life.

Seabirds Mac and Cheese

We also tried out their Tempeh Tacos and Beer Battered Avocado Tacos, because we couldn’t just try one! Big T said it was like his tongue was riding a flavor train, all the way to yumsville.

We were too full to eat anything else after that…Okay, okay, so we found room for three of Seabird’s cupcakes.

Tempeh Tacos and Beer Battered Avocado Tacos from Seabirds

Our non veg fellow foodie friends had a freshly made waffle with ice cream from the Waffles de Liege food cart.

While we waited for the competition to start, Little T listened to the music from The Tyler Steel Co. We purchased two of their CD’s (they let us choose the price of their CD’s because they’re awesome like Radiohead) and we listened to their CD for the rest of the day. Little T was especially mesmerized by the drummer.

Little T also had a handmade strawberry lemonade pop.

For the competition, they gave the food truck chefs a list of ingredients they had to use. Once they got the list, they lined up, had to shop for the food at the Farmer’s Market, and then had 60 minutes to prepare their dish.

The Competition Begins

And they're off!

It was fun to watch the Chefs run around the market and quickly pick out the food they needed for their dishes.

While the chefs cooked, Little T said he had something he needed to do. Next thing we knew, we found him hanging out with all the cheerleaders. He kept trying to run off with their pom poms.

He also tried out some new shades:

It was awesome when the competition began. We loved seeing all of the entries as they were presented to the judges.

The Judges

Little T clapped along as they announced the winners!

First Place:

Slapfish
-Lobster doughnut with leek and apple
-Seared Scallop with lemon almond butter and brussel leaf salad
-Santa Barbara Black Cod with a beet-pomegranate slaw

Second Place: Seabirds Food Truck

Third Place:

Taco Maria

Once the competition was over, we decided we needed some more food (hah). So we drove to The Camp and ate at Native Foods.

Little T shook his head at us and said we were ridiculous, while the rest of us patted our full bellies. Mmmmm, what a tasty day it was.

A Day at the Race

05 Saturday Nov 2011

Posted by in The Adventures of Little T, The Family

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Sometimes people mistake what Little T is saying. For example, the other day we were at a race to support Big T, and Little T saw a giant horse and pointed. Everyone thought he was saying, “Look at that cool horse, I want to snuggle it!” But it turns out he was really saying, “OMGWTF THERE’S A GIANT HORSE WALKING AROUND. ARE YOU PEOPLE SEEING THIS!?”

His terror became more apparent when the horse decided to come over and say hi. Poor Little T, I’m guessing this means we won’t be having cute pictures with any Disney characters in the future?

Little T did enjoy the cheerleaders and the band. He was dancing and singing shouting along with everyone. He liked the drums the best.

At the end of the race, Little T cheered for Big T as he crossed the finish line.

Big T got third place in his age division. 🙂

Miss Piggy came to the race too, but she didn’t have the best time. She was very overwhelmed by the band and noises. She also didn’t understand why we couldn’t chase after everyone who was running in the race. She was glad when it was time to get in the car and go home.

After the race, we went to Cal Poly’s Pumpkin Patch. To tell you the truth, we had a terrible time. The walkways were too narrow and it was so crowded that we could barely move with the stroller. There’s no way we could have taken Little T out of the stroller to walk around and enjoy the booths. Once we got in the pumpkin patch we found an isolated spot and were okay, but it wasn’t worth the chaos it took to get there.

Ah well, there’s always next year.

Day at Oak Glen’s Apple Valley

01 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by in The Adventures of Little T, The Travels, vegan

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I’m not sure if I warned Big T that my house will always be full, but I think he’s figured it out by now. It’s the way I’ve always rolled. Last weekend, in addition to having four cats, a dog, and two awesome roommates, we added four more adults, my seven year old nephew, and a baby. Everyone came up for a trip to Apple Valley. MMmmmmmm, apple season…

We were going to be out all day and I never know if my family will be able to have things to eat, so on Thursday I made Apple Figgy Hand Pies for everyone to take from Isa Chandra’s new book:

Vegan Pie in the Sky


The first batch tasted delicious, but didn’t look as great as I felt they could:

They only lasted two days in our house, so I had to make a second batch and they turned out beautiful. I didn’t have time to take pictures, though. The hand pies wound up being perfect for a day trip because we could grab and eat without utensils.

In Apple Valley, you drive around and stop at different apple farms. You taste different types of apples and goodies at each place, and most farms have entertainment and craft booths. Here’s the kiddos taking a break to try some mini apples. Little T thought his nephew was hilarious:

For our picnic lunch I made a yummy chickpea spread.

Recipe:

  • 1 can chickpeas, drained and blended in the blender.
  • Juice from 1 lemon
  • 1 tbls Soy Mayo
  • Chopped pickles
  • Chopped celery
  • Salt and Pepper
Procedure: 
  • Blend chickpeas in a blender.
  • Mix other ingredients with Chickpea blend in a bowl and add salt and pepper to taste.
Sandwich Fixings: 
  • Whole wheat bread
  • Pickles
  • Tomatoes
  • Lettuce
  • Mustard

After buying apples and trying everything from apple bbq sauce to apple salsa, the grown ups babies needed to take a rest at the park.

When they were done resting, we drove to a playground at the Old Schoolhouse in Oak Glen. These two had a blast.

They weren’t the only ones:

Ro is such a sweetheart, I love this picture of her:

We’d had a big day, but it wasn’t over. We were on our way to see a reenactment of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I’m sure I’ve already blown up your computer with these pictures, so I’ll wait and post those later this week. I hope you all had a nice Halloween!

P.S. Since the trip to Apple Valley, Little T freaks out and cries if we pass apples in the store without giving him one. I guess I’d rather have him throw fits over apples than Snickers Bars?

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Children’s Halloween Parade

22 Saturday Oct 2011

Posted by in The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels

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We have a town nearby that reminds me of the town from The Gilmore Girls. We spend a lot of time there going to farmer’s markets, family-owned restaurants, and coffee shops. Big T and I dream of retiring there someday. We imagine ourselves rolling hand in hand in our electronic wheelchairs, making our way to their little movie theater.

Today they had their children’s Halloween Parade. Speaking of that, Big T and I had a gigantic communication mix up this morning. I’ve been working on getting my photography business running and taking care of Little T, so it’s been kind of crazy and I’ve been busier than usual. I guess I didn’t explain our schedule very well, and Big T had it in his head that we were going to Disneyland instead of 10 minutes down the street to the town next door. I kept wondering why he was putting so much thought into packing Little T’s lunch, asking if we’d be back in time to go to dinner with his friend, etc. It all made sense when I turned the other way in our car and he asked why we weren’t on our way to Disneyland. It blew our minds, we had completely different ideas in our heads as to how this day was supposed to be. Whoa.

Here was the beginning of the children’s parade. Little T knew something fun was about to happen and we couldn’t stop this kid from wandering towards all the action!

I stayed out of the parade so I could snap pictures of Big T and my little snugglebug. Little T started out walking, but he soon decided that Daddy’s shoulders were much better.

Here’s a few of the other cute costumes:

Even the animals were in the Halloween spirit:

Towards the end of the parade, we stepped out and decided to watch the band behind us. Theo loved the drummers the best. Do you think we may have a future band geek on our hands? I write that lovingly as a from a former band geek. :p

And then the Inland Pacific Ballet came by. I can’t believe it’s almost Nutcracker time.

We finished the day at the Last Drop Cafe. Our favorite coffee shop, and not just because they have Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies. They’ve watched Little T grow up over there.

You see? It really is like an episode of the Gilmore Girls. Much better than an episode of I Love Lucy, which is how my life usually feels. 😉

Cute, and not so much….

13 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by in Quick Snippets, The Adventures of Little T, The Family

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Things Little T has done this week that are super adorable:

  • Taken a tissue and attempted to blow his nose like Momma J.
  • Started blowing kisses while saying “mwahhhhhhhh”. It’s funny to hear his version of what we sound like.
  • Discovered he loves streaking, and runs down the hall giggling and laughing whenever he can get away before his bath.

Things Little T has done this week that are not-so-super-adorable:

  • Went through a biting phase, thankfully this ended when he discovered that biting is followed by time out.
  • Started screaming in imitation of Momma J, who was doing a silly opera voice. Oh, how I wish I hadn’t done that.
  • Discovered he loves streaking, and runs down the hall giggling and laughing whenever he can get away during a diaper change.
He certainly keeps things interesting around here.