The thing about having visitors from out of town for a long time is this: suddenly, you end up being incredibly busy on the weekends doing touristy things that you would never think to do in your own hometown.

O was visiting for all of August. I decided to take him to the Getty Villa, the less-lauded branch of the Getty Museum, for the simple fact that it’s way prettier (in my opinion) than the main museum over the Sepulveda Pass.

The Getty Villa is modeled after a Roman villa, the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum, and houses the Getty’s antiquities collection. Built into the side of a hill in Malibu (or technically, Pacific Palisades) that directly faces the ocean, there are constant cool, salty breezes that cool the outdoor areas of the museum.

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Posted in: los angeles | Tags: california, getty, getty museum, getty villa, getty villa museum, la, los angeles, malibu, museum, photography, summer, tourism, tourist, travel photography | 2 COMMENTS

I like a farmer’s market that feels more like a food-centered street festival.

After reading about the Poem Store n the LA Times, O and I make the trek to Hollywood for some fruits and vegetables and a bit of verse.

And then we ran into these guys totally killing it near Spice Alley.

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Posted in: los angeles, Uncategorized | Tags: farmer's market, food, hollywood, hollywood farmers' market, los angeles, mother falcon, motherfalcon, photography, poem store, southern california, sunday, travel, yoursubjectyourprice | 6 COMMENTS

Tomato season! Tomato season! Hurrahhhhhhh!

One of my colleagues grew these adorable and flavorful cherry tomatoes in his backyard. One day when he brought a tupperware full of them to work, I couldn’t resist eating a few every time I stopped by the kitchen, and he mentioned that soon he would have more tomatoes than he and his family could possibly eat.

So, I made him a deal: bring me tomatoes, and I will make something with them for the office.

Flaky pie dough is rolled out into a big circle and filled simply with sweet, fresh tomatoes and just enough goat cheese and basil to make it interesting. The edges are folded up rustically, brushed with cream, and the whole thing bubbles in the oven, just until the tomatoes soften and pop and the crust gets all golden at the edges.

Is it weird that I accidentally woke up at 6am and decided to make a tomato tart? Maybe. Was I still pretty jetlagged? Certainly. Did bringing this in to work make me way more popular that day? You betcha.

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Posted in: appetizers | Tags: basil, cherry tomato galette, cherry tomato recipe, cherry tomato tart, galette, pâte brisée, pie dough, savory tart, tart, tomato recipe, tomato tart, tomatoes | 11 COMMENTS