Dia de los Muertos in Los Angeles

My "Dia de los Muertos" altar in Los Angeles, California

My memories of "Dia de los Muertos" (Day of the Dead) at the cemetery of Xoxo in Oaxaca, Mexico live on in my California home every November. I honor those who have been in my life and celebrate their lives. The last week of October, I begin to collect my photos, objects in one spot and buy fresh marigolds from the farmers' market. My bookshelf slowly begins to transform into a beautiful altar to remember important people in my life - this year primarily in my thoughts were my grandfather, my cousin Josh and my friend Josh Clayton-Felt, as well as the "Ayotzinapa 43" (the forty-three students who were "disappeared" in Mexico). Each item on my altar is carefully selected and holds special significance. Candles, copal (incense) and marigolds are among the gifts that welcome and guide the spirits' return.

My altar lit with candles at night 

Altar detail

Altar Detail

Altar Detail

Altar Detail

Altar Detail

Among these gifts you will also find water and food, which often was a favorite of the deceased. Potatoes and eggs are offered for the spirit of my grandfather who taught me to make fried potatoes with which he often topped with a fried egg. "Pan de muerto" is a special bread that is made for Day of the Dead. It is slightly sweet, spiced with anise, flavored with orange and topped with sugar. My loaves are made with traditional bone shapes on top, but this year I switched it up and made a full skull shape with crossbones.

Ingredients ready to make "Pan de Muerto"

Making "Pan de Muerto" at home

"Pan de Muerto" at my altar

Crew of Bones Muhroni and my friend, Anselmo, with make up and ready to party.

With our large Mexican community here in Los Angeles, "Dia de los Muertos" has long been a community tradition. The most popular of celebrations is usually sponsored by Self-Help Graphics. This year people gathered around the altars built in Grand Park and celebrated with traditional dance and song.

City Hall in DTLA behind the Grand Park celebration for "Dia de los Muertos"

Downtown LA altar detail

Giant skull on altar in Downtown Los Angeles

The candle on this altar reads "Justice for Tayvon Martin"

National Cheeseburger Day at Haché LA

Habanero Burger at Haché LA, Silver Lake

 It's amazing how much your neighborhood can change in three months. As I spent the summer in Mexico City, my barrio of Silver Lake was busy making some changes of it's own. New shops and restaurants popping up as others shutter down. One of them to close it's doors was Tarascos on Sunset Blvd. I won't lie, I won't miss it. It was replaced by a burger joint. Haché to be exact.

I was happy to hear that we have a burger place in the neighborhood. But I was also fearful it was going to be a fifteen-dollar-hipster burger. On this glorious American holiday known as National Cheeseburger Day, I found out that I was wrong.

Haché is a welcome addition to the restaurants in Silver Lake. In fact, it's just what we needed. A non-pretentious environment with affordable food (and craft beer too). Burgers come in around the $6-$7 dollar range starting with their Karma Burger. It's a burger with all the standards with a patty that's not so standard. The patties that fill the burgers at Haché are made in-house daily from ground Angus sirloin and seasoned on the outside like you would your sirloin steak.

One of the lovely workers rockin' one of my banana stickers on her hat.

They offer a few other varieties of burgers like the "Swiss Onion" with Gruyere cheese and carmelized onion. There's also the "Habanero" with a four-chile mix, garlic mayo and queso fresco. I had the Habanero and it was quite good. However it was pretty mild and I didn't really get any of that fruity habanero flavor, it was more of a jalapeño burger.

Of course there's also french fries, strawberry basil lemonade and a very friendly staff. So grab a burger and brew at Haché sit outside on the patio and enjoy friends and music.

12 Days of Chocolate!

As a designer, I'm luckily enough to work with Chase Design Group in Los Angeles. This year for Christmas they put together a beautifully printed box of chocolates, "12 Days of Chocolate". A large box contains twelve squares of milk and dark chocolates each designed by a different designer at the studio. The packaging uses every luxury print technique you could want to use as a designer; metallic inks, foil-stamping, embossing, die-cuts all masterfully printed by Clear Image Printing in Glendale.

"12 Days of Chocolate" Holiday Packaging by Chase Design Group

Sprite goes Snow Global

This holiday season, Sprite has released a limited edition "snowglobe" bottle. It's a very cute shape and concept. However, the graphics demonstrate a complete lack of imagination.

Leftouts: Leftover Turkey? Make Soup

I've been calling "leftovers", "leftouts" for over a year now. My friend from Colombia, Rapetino, had some language mix up while he was visiting and always called leftovers, leftouts. It would make me smile because it was so genuine and quite an adorable mix up. So I've officially adopted "leftouts".

My dad makes good soup (though sometime a little too salty for me). After Thanksgiving he made a Turkey Barley Vegetable Soup with the left over turkey. Mmm... Good. Just shred the left over turkey, throw in some veggies and barley. Cook on low for an hour or so.

As you can see, unfortunately, my dad is still a fan of paper plates, which I am highly against for so many reasons. Please practice sustainability and use real bowls.

Happy Halloween

I made you a Halloween Movie treat! Enjoy!

Special Thanks to Bruno for help with the project.

Music: "All Things Go" by Sufjan Stevens