License Plate of the Day: Clearly-Drawn Instructions

Yeah, yeah, "hands off toy." We get it.

Maria's Thursday Three

1. Plate Envy: We finally scored these divided plates for Evan at Target for under $2. I've been wondering where Just Jenn got hers from, but how on earth can I make such beautiful, well-balanced meals for Evan?

2. Simply Good Tomato Sauce: I vowed to make Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce after reading about it on The Amateur Gourmet and Masak Masak blogs. It uses four ingredients, requires little knife skills, takes 45 minutes and voila, out comes some pretty damn good sauce. Check out the recipe here.

3. Reform School: This little shop in Silver Lake is such a treat to visit, filled with items made by crafters/artists I admire. It's a must place to go for some gift shopping.

Halloween with Franklin Avenue

Anyone else get thrown off by the later start to trick-or-treating this year? Normally, it's dark by 5 p.m. on Halloween, and the kids are immediately out. But this year, with Daylight Savings Time pushed back, it was still a tad light at 6. I know that's supposed to be a good thing -- and people always recommend that kids go trick-or-treating while it's stil light out -- but nonetheless, no one was out until at least after 6 in our neighborhood.

We finally hit the streets around 6:30, with BT decked out in his cowboy-riding-a-pony costume. At least one couple handing out candy told us Evan "won the prize" for cutest costume of the night. (Of course, when a tired Evan wanted to be carried home, it wasn't the easiest costume to hold him in.)

Blogger Toddler was less pleased with some of the elaborately decorated homes -- a bit too scary for a 2 1/2-year-old. Above, by far our Adams Hill neighborhood's best in show. This house -- coincidentally, owned by an old work colleague of Maria's -- outdoes itself every year for Halloween, and this year was the most elaborate yet. The iron fence and foam pedastals were brought in for the occasion; add some smoke, those cobwebs, flashing lights and more, and it was indeed a scary sight to see last night. (Blogger Toddler was none too pleased.)

After a round of trick-or-treating, Evan actually got a bigger kick out of handing out candy. We sat on the porch, which oddly seemed to intimidate a lot of people, who passed us right by. It did serve as a bit of a deterrant to the usual round of big kids looking to score candy -- they're apparently more embarrassed to come up to the house when we're sitting right there.

And how was your Halloween?

License Plate of the Day: Superstation Love, Or Station Wagon Fan?

Hmm, this could be read in several different ways. "Woo, WGN!," as in, "I love Tribune's Chicago TV station/national cable outlet/radio station WGN!"

Or, it could be someone excited about wagons. Or station wagons.

Then there's the possibility that a family with the last name Woo own this vehicle. Hence the "Woo Wagon."

Tacos De La York Blvd.

Brand-new neighborhood blog York Blvd. is off and running, covering the whole Northeast Los Angeles world of Highland Park, Glassell Park, Mt. Washington, Eagle Rock, etc. They're already compiling at least one ambitious list, the area's Top 10 Street Food Vendors.

At No. 1 is Tacos La Estrella a taco truck found at Ave, 54 and York, as well as a taco shop a 6103 N. Figueroa. They write:

I know the complaints: (spoken in a whiny voice) “La Estrella is the Starbucks of Highland Park with 3 trucks and an actual storefront”, “they use too much rice in their burritos”, and “they don’t have wifi or Nachos Bell Grande”. Still, they serve excellent carne asada and carnitas that require you to have a drink on hand. I’ve eaten with friends at the stand on Fig while other patrons threw up gang signs to passing automobiles, and I’ve stood pigging out at the truck on York while another customer wrote “A’s” on the truck with a finger, accusing them of being “bitches” for closing just before he arrived. My theory is this: Anyone who has been jumped into a gang must have lived in the neighborhood a while. Thus, it stands to reason that they would know where the best tacos are.

Several readers also chime in. Any other spots you'd add to the list?