Tea with Jam and Bread

Some of my favorite things:

1. Raindrops on...nothing (it never rains in Los Angeles)
2. Learning to bake
3. Driving on the 110 carpool lane at dusk and seeing the tops of the palm trees
4. Farmer's Market in Hollywood & Torrance (pupusas, kettle corn, Corn Maiden tamales, mango nectarines from Ken's Produce, watermelon lemonade, Ha's Apple's smiling face, beautiful flowers and rainbow beets)
5. Hollywood Bowl's Sound of Music Sing-a-Long

Finally...after years of missing it and a most unfortunate incident last year, I went to the Sing-a-Long! (Oh, last year was quite a disappointment! It was the musical production of the original R&H edition - we heard Max (Yes, Uncle Max) sing a very unfortunate song with the Baroness (hiss!) As friend said, "There was a reason that song was cut from the movie...")

I stuck large Lipton tea bags and paper cut outs of bread and jam on my hat to become "Tea with Jam and Bread!" (Note that I used my Pam Jam as inspiration for my costume). My friends wore brown paper packages tied up with string.


The winner of the costume contest had the best costume ever. A poor kid had to hold up very long pole with a crescent shape moon. He was wearing a full body costume of a hand. He was "how to do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?" The costumes are amazing. Here is a group of "Schnitzel with Noodles." (If you want to join in next year, let me know so we can start planning some sort of costume for the group! :)

The best part was probably the poor Austrian film crew. They were interviewing people in line for the costume contest. What must be going through their minds? Yes, I'm reporting from Los Angeles...in a state where our countryman-turned bodybuilder-turned actor is now the Governor and 18,000 people get together, dress up and sing-a-long to movie that we Austrians don't watch (nor sing Edelweiss!) Gotta love it!

When you sing Edelweiss, cameras and fake flowers came out in one big, sold-out crowd group exercise (including, of course, the sway you do when singing Edelweiss with the hottie Captain Van Trapp).

After a long week, I also got in some baking retail therapy and went to Surfas in Culver City. This was my first trip to this fun restaurant supply house. I picked up lots of parchment paper, including 8" and 9" rounds for my cakes, 1/2 sheet pans, deluxe timer that displays seconds (helpful when I need to beat something for 30 seconds...), and tart tins. Now all I have to do is bake a bunch of tarts!