Sponges and Chop Houses and a Fox

So tonight Malaina and I went to the Arroyo Chop House  in Pasadena tonight.  It is L.A. Dine Out weekend, and I was impressed to make a reservation at the only restaurant in all of L.A. that serves Prime USDA beef.  All participating restaurants have to have a 44 dollar menu.  Oh boy, we picked the right place to go.  We had the most incredible steak we had EVER tasted; not a single piece of gristle, fork tender, and cooked to perfection.  I have to say, the chocolate souffle' was so wonderful, and large, that it was enough to share.  So Malaina had two desserts, cheesecake and my souffle'.  We will be back Arroyo people!

It was also Pasadena Art Night Out.  There were many locations of local and regional art to peruse.  Malaina was cranky tonight, but she went along with my plan anyway.  We began at the Art Center of Graphic Design in the beautiful hillside of Pasadena.  There was a brilliant display of art in the graphic sense.  Items that could be marketed for sale, and new ways to look at everyday products.  For example, there was a great idea for reusable packaging. It was dishwasher friendly and completely "green".  Why hasn't anybody invented that before?  However there was one piece of art Malaina and I couldn't quite understand.  It was a household sponge, laser cut into the exact replication of a female vulva.  Hmm..  as we thought about this sponge all night long we wondered what the creator was thinking.  Was there some correlation between the sponge and the female genitalia, that he was trying to connect?  Did he think the sponge was a cleaning product that needed to clean up the dirty state of the human psyche?  Did the sponge and it's human shape represent that a woman's place is in the kitchen/laundry room? Or did the artist resent women and their ability to "soak up like a sponge " the life juices of creativity out of his  everyday existence ?

And thus we ended the day watching the "Fantastic Mr. Fox".  The way Malaina drove home down the hillside after the sponge incident, we were lucky we didn't kill any foxes along the way.

Fab-Friday Night Concert

I spent another wonderful evening with one of my daughters. We went to the King's Singers concert at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City. I had seen them a few years ago with Malaina. They are probably the best harmonic men's vocal group I have EVER seen or heard. They recently won a Grammy for their album Simple Gifts.

We started off by eating an Elk Burger at Fudruckers at Southtown Mall. I figure, my figure could use the low fat meat, and since my husband is an outdoor's man, and he put in for an elk tag, I would give it a try. OMHEAVENS, it was really good; it was much less gamier than I thought it would be! I have to figure (get the pun?) out a way to mimic the salt they put on their fries, and the recipe for the baked beans. I also need to make the toffee recipe from Rocky Mountain Chocolates. Umm good.

We hopped on TraxI just love the way Trax let's you off at the front door of Abravanel Hall
If there is a prettier Symphony Hall, I ain't' seen it yet.
Tomorrow I blog about the Valentine's Day Gift I bought for myself at the Gateway.

It truly was a spectacular evening; Thanks for inviting me Jordan! Oh, and I bought another cookbook at Barnes and Noble. I went to Sur la Table, but was sort of disappointed, I could not find one single item that I had to buy. I have everything! I left empty handed!!!