little isak's daily.

Hi, my name is Isak. I’m a horrible celebrity spotter.

isak — Sun, 17 May 2009 22:47:09 +0000

I admit to watching shows like TMZ and ehollywood [or whatever that's called] when it happens. I’m still awful at it. I commend paparazzi for knowing who’s who. But not for invading people’s private lives. Unless you’re Angelina Jolie or one of those A listers, I wouldn’t know. That’s not true. I’m still oblivious. I didn’t even know Morgan Freeman was in front of my face. Jenn on the other hand is fantastic at this game. She can be headed to the loo and spot the a,b,c,d listers. She’s make a fantastic pap.

Last night was a good night for her. She also made fun of me for a few minutes. The one thing I want to do after leaving Arclight on Sunset is find the prepay machine. It was my mission. Apparently I completely walked passed Elizabeth Berkley aka Jessie Spano. I had to stare at her after I saw the curly hair. Not to be creepy, but because everyone looks like somebody to me. It was her. She also mentioned seeing Kieren Culkin, whom I’ve only seen in one movie. Seeing him made her starstruck for the first time. That will be my day when I see Michelle Rodriguez.

That’s just one example of how horrible I am. Another one is Adrian Grenier. I did feel I’ve seen him, but I didn’t want to be rude and ask . I spent 5minutes talking to him. He just seemed like some nice guy from Valencia. When he left some of the girls just said, “Do you know who that was?” I just said no.
“Entourage!!”
“Oh! He’s nice. His car is banged up though.”

Kristen Bell #3. Arclight again. She was with her gay boys for He’s Just Not That Into You.

Of all the people I was oblivious to, I was aware when stylist Cojo was walking out of Starbucks. I told Jenn she could be a paparazzo spotter. I can be the photographer. Yes, we’re slimey like that. Not really. It’s just nice to see some people in person. It’s even nicer to not bother them.

my kind of homefries

isak — Fri, 15 May 2009 03:50:38 +0000

my dream is to have a bed and breakfast. or have a little place that serves breakfast. who can say no to eating breakfast food? it brings that amazing jumpstart to the day. it’s the one meal i can eat any time of the day. i’m not the only one who thinks that way. i’ve had girlfriends who ate cereal for dinner. when i lived in providence melissa and i used to eggs all the time for dinner. well partially that was due to her being on atkins.

one of my weaknesses is potato. i don’t care if it has major carbs. i spent months in high school being obsessed with baked potatoes. an old friend of mine would always know i was having my baked potato with lemon and bacon bits. i also have a hard time sharing fries. now, it’s not so hard to share. so when i have homefries at a restaurant i tend to become a potato critic. i have no clue how places can serve homefries with no flavor or undercook. maybe it’s just the places in LA. providence had no issues with flavoring their potatoes. so i started concocting my own version of homefries. this is what i made today.

1 medium russet potato [medium diced]
salt
pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
diced sweet onion/ shallot [i combined both] maybe 1/4 cup? i don’t measure
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp ginger powder
2 cloves garlic minced

i preheat the oven to 400 while prepping the potato. put the potatoes on a baking pan. drizzle 1 tbsp of olive oil on the pan. add some pepper and salt. put it in the oven for about 20-25min.
after the potatoes are done, heat up the remaining olive oil in a pan. add the onion. saute for maybe 5min. add the garlic. saute for a few minutes add the seasonings. stir for a little bit. finally add the potatoes. you want to just coat the potatoes. let it sit in the pan for a minute or two.

i also like to add roasted peppers… maybe a 1/4tsp of cumin. some days some mango chutney from trader joe’s.

before i started putting the potatoes in the oven, i used to just put the potatoes in a skillet in high heat for a few minutes. turn the heat to low medium. add some orange juice. and cover. the potatoes soak up the juice fats so i add some water in too in between until the potatoes are at the consistency i like. any citrus type of juice works. or pineapple. tangerine has been the best though.

tonight while i watch grey’s anatomy season finale, i’ll be cookin some whole wheat blueberry muffin. YUM.

oh that’s tasty!

isak — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:31:21 +0000

10 years ago you wouldn’t find me going near any food outside of my taste circle. if i taste something and my taste bud/stomach disagrees, most likely you wouldn’t have seen me eating it again. i.e, indian food for world cultures class. but thanks to melissa’s approach to re-introducing me to indian food, i’ve grown fond of spicy food. and also a myriad of vegetables. [that's another post]

tonight i just wanted food i can taste. i ended up finding this recipe for moroccan chicken from epicurious. i tweaked it a little bit. in this recipe the other main ingredient is suppose to be olives. i am not a fan of olives. they’re okay. but i thought i could do without. i also added shallots and used sweet onion.

moroccan chicken

ingredients

In a large skillet heat up 1tbl spoon of olive oil in med high heat. Pat the chicken dry and season with salt and pepper. Cook the chicken until it’s slightly golden. Take the chicken out and put on a plate. Reduce the heat to medium.

In the same skillet, add remaining olive oil. Let it heat up a little, add the onion. Season it with some salt and pepper. Sauté the onion til it’s golden brown.

Add the seasonings and garlic. Stir for about 1min.

Add the chicken broth and bring the mixture to a boil.

Place the chicken back into the skillet. Add in the 8 lemon wedges.

Cover, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer for about 30min. Stir occasionally.

Uncover. With the remaining lemon, squeeze the juice into the skillet.

Return the heat to high to let it boil uncovered for 5-10min. This will thicken the sauce a little bit.

i served this dish with some Greek potatoes and Basmati wild rice. next time i would probably add some other veggies like bell peppers. you can also add all purpose flour or corn starch to thicken up the sauce. maybe some honey or brown sugar to slightly counteract the sourness of the lemon.

in the end this dish was pretty amazing. the cinnamon was a little overpowering. i’m sure after a few adjustments, i’ll find that balance with the spices.

it’s about 4:30am. a little late/early. i wanted to post about the potatoes, but that can wait til tomorrow.
bed is finally calling.

another 2:02 am project

isak — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:30:45 +0000

i have no idea how many times i’ve tried to blog. i’m sure there’s a lot of people who have this problem. there’s at least 3 or 4 blogs going with gaps of of blocks of your life missing. and i’m no writer. i hate punctuations and capital letters. and we won’t talk about grammar. but i am a spelling snob.

so what is this box going to be about. the jeopardy theme song comes on. quite honestly, i have no clue. everyday life? recipes? some fact, fiction, bits for a memoir. well- everyone needs one of those. music list.

lately, i’ve been revisiting my move to the sometimes great los angeles. august 2009 will make it 3 years. not because i regret it. more because i feel the last year and a half i’ve been following a not so great direction. like i’ve fallen off the path again. i keep getting these buzzing sounds in my head the way television gives off fuzzy signal sounds. frame by frame. of leaving providence. the dogs taking their last bath on the green deck. finding the photocopies of “Yankees Suck” all over the house courtesy of Gearon. reasons why i left. reasons to be strong. to be stronger. down to my last day of work. my realizing my obsessive compulsion. jen. new york. san francisco. when am i finally settling down. love. relationships. what’s for dinner tomorrow. rachel. music lists for movies in my head.

these flashes of memories and/or thoughts come to my head.

i discover a way to erase them.
think of nothing.
and my mind sees something shiny.

so we’ll see what’s written on this.