And we’re back!

And we’re back!

Shellevation took an unexpected hiatus after the laptop my husband and I shared died in October. We recently replaced it with a brand-new MacBook Pro, and I’m excited to get back to blogging. I’m sure I would bore you, dear readers, if I attempted to document everything Kenley and I have done since my last post in October, so I’ll skip ahead.

The big news of the fall is that Kenley and I both started new jobs. Kenley began working as a home-page editor for Yahoo! in August, the day after we returned from our trip home to South Carolina. Kenley joined Yahoo! shortly after Marissa Mayer took over as CEO in July and announced she was pregnant, sparking debate among moms about achieving that often elusive balance between careers and children. But Kenley has benefited from Mayer’s policy of offering all employees a free lunch — literally, free food for the midday meal, every day.

Depending on the shift Kenley works, he helps decide which entertainment, sports and news stories are the most interesting or “buzzy,” and he packages them for the front page.

He’s handled everything from Hurricane Sandy coverage to Sunday NFL games to “Dancing With the Stars” eliminations.

Kenley still works some nights and weekends, but he’s home well before midnight and he doesn’t have to pull 12-hour-plus shifts. I’ve put him in charge of dinner on the nights that he gets home before I do. (Not surprisingly, he usually decides we should go out or order in. )

I accepted a full-time position as an associate web producer with “The Doctors” TV show in October. It’s a medical talk show that was spun off from “Dr. Phil,” which in turn was a spinoff from “Oprah.” “The Doctors” won an Emmy in 2010 for outstanding informative talk show, and it’s in its fifth season.

Some of you might remember that E.R. physician Travis Stork came to fame in 2006 on Season 8 of “The Bachelor.” Yes, he’s just as good-looking in person. He’s no longer a bachelor after marrying a pediatrician from Nashville, Tenn., earlier this year.

My job is to watch videos of shows and write a synopsis that incorporates photos and video clips, all of which are posted on the website the morning that the show airs. I also help write the blurbs that are given to the affiliates to promote the show.

One of my biggest concerns when I started the job was that I wouldn’t be able to control my tears and would turn into a red-faced, puffy-eyed mess in front of co-workers who don’t yet understand that I’m a frequent cryer — an apparently hereditary trait that I blame on my Mom.

I don’t think of myself as the sensitive type, but as soon as I witness others breaking down (which happens often on “Dr. Phil” and thankfully less often on “The Doctors”), I’m doomed.

On my first day, I attended a taping of the the “Dr. Phil” show as an introduction to how the shows are produced, and I’m happy to report that I survived it without crying — largely because the topic was bullying, and neither family involved came across as overly sympathetic.

But I confess that I might have shed a tear or two while in the control room watching a taping of “The Doctors” on Day 4 of the new job. The good news is that this seems to be acceptable, perhaps even encouraged. I noticed there are strategically placed tissue boxes on the desk, and one of the show producers grabbed one. Plus, a cameraman focused on a woman in the audience who was wiping her eyes.

Luckily, it turns out I’m encouraged but not required to attend all the show tapings. When I do, I sit squeezed inside the control room with the many show producers, removed from the doctors on the set and any drama.

But I seem to keep missing the tapings when celebrity guests make appearances — such as “Modern Family’s” Julie Bowen and “Sex and the City’s” Kristin Davis. Eighties TV star Morgan Fairchild was on a show about aging, but I didn’t get the chance to tell her that we once had lunch next to her at Cravings restaurant on the Sunset Strip.

But the appearance I most regret missing was of a cute penguin, Sammi, who waddled all over the stage.

If you want to tune in, “The Doctors” airs at 9 a.m. on WLTX-19 in Columbia, S.C., and 2 p.m. on KCBS-2 in Los Angeles. Check here for your local listings. If you ever visit L.A., I’m happy to get you tickets to be an audience member.

When we moved to Los Angeles almost two years ago, I wasn’t sure what type of job I’d find, but among the criteria was that it had to be something I could do only in Los Angeles. This job definitely falls into that category — and I still get paid to write and hone my editing skills! (I was hoping that I’d get healthier through osmosis, but instead I seem to have developed a case of hypochondria.)

“The Doctors” is produced at Paramount Studios, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and can boast that it’s the only major working studio still in Hollywood. (I drive toward the Hollywood sign each morning to get to work. The sign is looking a little brighter these days after recently getting a facelift.)

Driving through the front gates of Paramount Pictures on my first day of work at “The Doctors.”

When I walk out of my office building (which is named for film star Mae West), I walk onto the back lot and the (fake) streets of “New York” and “Chicago.” (Some loyal readers might remember that Kenley and I visited the Paramount back lot back in April with our friends Kathy and Justin for a beer festival, where we took a sitcom-esque photo on the steps of one of the buildings.

Kathy Bryja, me, Kenley Young and Justin Shady on Paramount’s backlot during the Los Angeles Beer Festival.

I eat lunch in the shadow of the lot’s famous water tower.

Also next to our building: Greendale Community College, the fictional setting for the cult TV comedy “Community,” where Jeff Winter (Joel McHale) and members of his study group spend most of their time flirting and bickering. Show characters Annie and Abed (Alison Bree and Danny Pudi) have a star wagon that’s been parked right outside our door.

I’ve seen Bree from a distance, and I’ve spotted Pudi a couple of times. Once, I walked right past him and smiled — because you forget that while you might feel a sense of recognition for characters you see on TV every week, the actors have no idea who you are. He didn’t smile back, even though I had actually spotted him and other cast members earlier this year outside of Animal restaurant. I like to think he was still in character.

“Community” recently wrapped up filming, and the new season premieres at 8 p.m. Feb. 7 on NBC.

When Kenley’s middle brother, Logan, came to Los Angeles in November to attend his USC-Annenberg Getty Arts Journalism fellowship (the “other” USC, not the Gamecocks), we went on an official Paramount Studios tour. We got to walk through the Greendale Community College cafeteria and Abed’s apartment.

William McKinley High School — where the New Directions show choir performs on the hit TV show “Glee” — is across the lot, guarded by a barricade of security and tall shrubs. I’ve seen some of the show’s “Cheerios” (cheerleaders) walking around, but none of the stars. Our tour guide told us they have to watch for “Gleeks” (she actually referred to them as “runners”), who take off in the middle of tours in hopes of finding their favorite “Glee” crooner.

The tour guide also pointed out a bench near Paramount Studios’ original gates. It’s the famous bench featured in “Forrest Gump,” and when Tom Hanks was on the lot recently he reportedly sat down on it and handed out chocolates — in character — to those who stopped by! Sure hope that’s a true story.

In other news, Kenley and I:

• Bought a new car with four doors so that Malia can stick her head out the back window.

• Celebrated Kenley’s birthday at Slater’s 50/50, where burgers are made of half-ground beef and half-bacon!

• And continued the celebration at The Stinking Rose, where garlic is the specialty, but Dracula lurks around every corner.

• Traveled to Newport Beach in Orange County and couldn’t get “The O.C.” theme song out of our heads (“California, here we come”)

• Saw Buffi Jacobs play cello with singer-songwriter Sara Lov at the Bootleg Theatre in September. We also introduced Buffi to fellow Columbia expat and musician Lorrie Rivers.

• Returned to The Hollywood Bowl, where Wilco played “California Stars” as we actually sat under California stars.
• Got an invite to the private SOHO House in West Hollywood for a D.J. set by Ernest Greene of Washed Out, where we snapped a memento in the photo booth with Matt Tyler and Anna Metcalf and rode the elevator with Olympian and “Dancing With the Stars” contestant Apolo Ohno.

• Had a drink at The Prince, where Don Draper and his “Mad Men” colleagues enjoy happy hour.
• Experienced famed dive bar Jumbo’s Clown Room for the first time. Let’s just note that it features no real clowns, but Kenley was forced to contain himself after encountering what he considers to be his best celebrity sighting so far: Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister.
• Dressed up as a walking AMC promo for Halloween. Kenley donned tighty-whities to portray “Breaking Bad’s” Walter White, and I wore my mom’s going-away dress from her wedding to play “Mad Men’s” icy Betty Draper.

• Discovered The Hart and the Hunter restaurant, which specializes in Southern cuisine including pimento cheese, boiled peanuts, fried green tomatoes and Lowcountry boil.
• Spotted talk-show host Conan O’Brien at Sotto, an Italian restaurant that comes close to making you feel as if you’re in New York City.
• Celebrated Thanksgiving by taking Malia for a stroll along the Venice Boardwalk.

• And Kenley returned to the stage, playing acoustic sets at The Good Hurt in Mar Vista, and The Talking Stick in Venice. He’s got another show coming up Dec. 30 at The Cinema Bar.

Going whole hog

Although Animal opened about four years ago, it’s still one of the most popular restaurants in town.

Kenley’s brother Logan was thoughtful enough to give us a gift certificate for our wedding anniversary in January. It was up to me to score the reservation. There are no online reservations for the 45-seat restaurant. You have to call several weeks in advance.

I was excited — and a little nervous — to see what all the fuss was about. Animal, as its name suggests, takes a rebellious, head-to-tail approach to cooking. So while there’s bacon and sausage on the menu, there’s also pig ears, sliced pig head, veal tongue and veal brains. In Animal’s case, it’s less to prove a point and more because the owners like meat.

Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo — the restaurant’s “hipster proprietors,” as Logan called them (he actually added another adjective) — are two dudes with Southern roots who have made it big in L.A.

OK, they’re from Florida — not the real South — but their rustic cooking style seems influenced by it.

They have a bad-boy reputation earned from the “Two Dudes Catering” reality show on the Food Network, which followed the outsiders’ catering company around L.A. Their cookbook is called “Two Dudes and a Pan.” Some of you will get the reference.

And last fall, the two men opened Son of a Gun, a restaurant that focuses more on seafood. It’s on our list.

In his 2008 review of Animal in the LA Weekly, Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer Jonathan Gold called Shook and Dotolo the “Jay and Silent Bob” of the food world — a reference to iconic characters in director Kevin Smith’s movies. And the restaurant continues to make Gold’s list of the 99 essential restaurants in L.A.

Animal also was featured in Charleston, S.C.-based Garden and Gun magazine, part of an article on “Southern-ish restaurants” outside of the South.

The restaurant, which is on Fairfax, doesn’t have a sign out front. But you know you’ve found the right place when you see the crowds of hipsters waiting out front.

On our first visit, unsure of what to expect, Kenley and I played it a little safe. As is the case at many L.A. restaurants, Animal serves small plates designed to share. We started with polenta in a six-hour bolognese sauce, topped with Parmesan cheese. I call it the gourmet version of grits and liver pudding. (Note that this is a compliment from this Southerner.)

The polenta — which I think comes from Anson Mills in my hometown of Columbia, S.C. — was just the right consistency. And the bolognese sauce was rich and meaty. Very satisfying. It’s a dish I would love to learn how to make at home.

We also ordered the melted petit basque with chorizo and grilled bread. Petit basque is a mild cheese made from sheep’s milk, and it balanced the spicy sausage. This dish was the equivalent of dipping your bread into a hearty meat sauce.

Next up: barbecue pork belly sandwiches with slaw. And these, Kenley says, were truly the coup de grace. The sandwiches melted in your mouth and were divine. The dish was the closest I’ve come to Southern pulled-pork barbecue out here.

(Most barbecue joints out West seem to serve Texas beef rather than pork — and most of it seems really dry.)

Our last course was pig ears seasoned with chili and lime, and served with a fried egg on top. I must admit this looked a little scary when you dug under the fried egg. I was expecting something similar to pork rinds, I think. But this looked a little too much like the sliced pig ear that it was.

Still, once you got past that, it was spicy, crispy and yet unexpectedly light. The lime gave it a refreshing quality. It almost reminded me of having lime-flavored chips and a light salsa. I think it probably should have been served as our first course instead of our last.

I’m not sure that anyone can go to Animal and not order the bacon-chocolate crunch bar with ice cream. It’s got layers of chocolate and hazelnut with peanuts in it and bacon crumbled on top.

Yeah, it’s good. It’s the best dessert I’ve had so far in Los Angeles. Kenley concurs.

Animal also has a good craft beer list. (We had a Japanese Ginga Kogen and a Session Lager.) And trust us, you’ll want a beer to wash down the salty food, especially the pig ears.

Everything we tried at Animal was pretty delicious. Whenever we go back, we will be more adventurous in ordering — just probably not “pig brains” adventurous.

While dining near the window, I noticed a group of people talking outside, and they somehow looked familiar. Luckily, I mentioned it to Kenley, who recognized the group as most of the cast of the hit NBC television comedy “Community” — Joel McHale, Alison Brie, Danny Pudi and Jim Rash. (Chevy Chase wasn’t with them.)

The cast had just finished an appearance at Paleyfest at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. The Paley Center celebrates the cultural and social importance of television and radio, and during Paleyfest, the creators and casts of top television shows are invited to discuss their work in front of a live audience. You can watch the video of the “Community” conversation from PaleyFest here.

After dinner, Kenley and I walked through the nearby Known art gallery, which was hosting an opening-night exhibit. One of the works hanging in the window was disturbing, but in the kind of way that you can’t stop looking at it. It depicted a man in a suit hanging by a noose against a stark white background, with a young child looking up at him.

The collection — by skateboarder, punk rocker and artist Steve Olson — was called “Hangin.'” Most of the artwork depicted the same man (a self-portrait of the artist, I think) hanging from a noose with different groups of people looking at him. It was a little odd to experience the exhibit with no reference point, but the description on the website explains that “the artwork explores power and the way economic and social forces exert that power by shaping the identities of individuals and culture.” You can see one of the pieces of art and read more about the exhibit at the Known Gallery website here. Equally provocative are the photos taken at opening night featuring people reacting to the art. You can see them here.

Kenley and I are looking forward to hosting Logan in Los Angeles when he comes to town for a music conference later this week. I can’t wait to see Logan’s reaction to L.A. I’ll write about his visit here soon.