What's For Dinner? Gourmet Hog Meat.

On tonight's menu at our house will be the Pork Tenderloin with Arugula, Endive and Walnut Vinaigrette, from the March copy of Gourmet. It's one of the Quick recipes and the ingredient list is simple. The herbs - chive and thyme - we have in our herb garden, and we managed to get all the other ingredients on the cheap at Trader Joe's (and we had a pork tenderloin in the freezer just waiting for this recipe). The dressing is a puree of toasted walnuts, rather than having to track down more expensive walnut oil.

Carrrrrrrrr!

Hacky Sack in my street, February on a sunny L.A. afternoon. Sometimes I think my street feels a little crappy. I have to clean up bags of Del Taco thrown out of car windows sometimes and stray dog shit out of my yard, but my friend Wendy said recently that my street felt like a neighborhood. There are usually people grilling, walking their kids on bikes, walking to temple or their dogs. There are Sikhs (there's an ashram at the end of my street) jogging by my house, and the Mayor of Preuss Road, as Caro and I call him, standing at the end of the street and keeping an eye out for his little corner of L.A. These dudes playing hacky in front of our house in the warm winter sunshine, while I was out digging around in the garden, just reminded me how much I love this place sometimes.