Blog Makeover

Now that I am settled out here in California, the road trip portion of my blog is no longer necessary.  I have decided to try on the "normal blogger" title for a while to see how it feels.  I asked myself what I like to read about on other people's blogs and I came up with anything involving food, movies, funny youtube clips, interesting pictures, traveling, etc.  So here is my attempt to incorporate those things into my "new blog."

Clip of the Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdylQeg5B9I&feature=player_embedded

If I wasn't in California, I would want to be:

on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina!

Recipe of the Day:

Roasted Portobellos topped with Vegetables and BACON

(Inspired by Pam Dolan) 

So this might not be the prettiest picture ever, but it sure is delicious and easy!

Ingredients: (makes enough for 2 mushroom caps)

2 portobello mushrooms

olive oil

S&P (salt & pepper)

1/2 yellow onion

1 pepper (any color that you like)

1 head of broccoli

2 strips of bacon

1 clove of garlic

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Turn oven on to broil (low).  Put mushrooms in a small oven pan, drizzle both sides with olive oil so that majority of the surface is lightly coated, S&P both sides.  Broil on each side for 5 minutes.  

While mushrooms are broiling, chop up bacon and cook in a frying pan (no oil needed because of the fat that will render from the bacon) until done.  Remove bacon and reserve on a paper towel while you cook the other ingredients.  Chop up the onion, pepper, broccoli, and garlic (you can add any other veggies that you have in the fridge) and add them to the pan with the bacon grease (it won't be much since you only cooked 2 pieces) and cook until tender and done.  Once they have finished, add the bacon back to the pan and mix together.  Taste the mixture and determine if it needs salt or pepper.  

Remove the mushrooms from the oven once they are done and place half of the mixture onto each mushroom.  Then grate a little parmesan cheese on top of each and put them back in the oven (still on broil-low) until the cheese melts; this should only take 20-30 seconds because everything is already cooked; you are just trying to melt the cheese. 

I serve this with either rice, orzo, couscous, etc.  You can add any seasonings or flavors to it such as oregano,  cayenne to make it a little spicy, etc.  And you can leave the bacon out if you want to make it vegetarian and it's still delicious!  Enjoy!

Picture of the Day:

If you have been on vacation with my family (or just over for game night),

you will appreciate this picture of the 6 dice that make the game: "Italian Dice."

Movie(s) of the Week:

While they are completely different from each other, I still love both of them for very different reasons.

Midnight in Paris

and

Horrible Bosses

Happy Friday!  

I made it to California!

On the morning of our third day in Vegas I dropped Mom off at the airport (we held it together fairly well), went back to the hotel to savor my last 3 hours in a nice hotel room, loaded up the card, and started the drive to California!  The original plan was to go out to lunch with Nelson and Hewittt, but Nelson had to get back to the poker table and win some more money, so I hit the road around 12:30 and decided to get lunch on the road.  (Best of luck Nelson- sounds like you're still doing well!  Congrats!)

I "yelped" different restaurants on my phone and noticed that one of the cities that I would pass through on my trip would be Barstow, California.  All my life I'd heard about Interstate 40 taking you "all the way to Barstow," so I decided to check it out.  

This was the biggest landmark that I saw along the way to Barstow.

The border snuck up on me so I missed my chance to snap a picture of the "Welcome to California" sign, but here is what is looks like:

(I'd have to say that out of all of the state signs that I saw, 

New Mexico was the prettiest because it was a yellow

sign with all different colors at the letters, but Texas

was the funniest since it talked about driving the "Texas Way," w

which I still find ironic.)

Barstow was about 2 hours outside of Vegas and it was essentially a glorified truck stop. Main St. had about 15 gas stations, 21 fast food restaurants, and 1 of every kind of ethnic restaurant.  I went to the place with the most trucks because I figured that must be a good sign and that led me to the Frosters Freeze.  I had a grilled cheese for $1 and an oreo milkshare, something I had been craving the whole road trip.  It was quite the change from all the good eating that we had been doing for the past 9 days, but it was just what I needed!

On my way into town I had my first experience with LA traffic.  Luckily the 

opposite side was a little more slow moving than our side, but it still 

made me nervous that this was foreshadowing my daily commute.

As if a normal day of traffic wasn't bad enough, they are shutting down the

405 for this whole weekend and it is definitely the buzz around town.

People are calling it "Carmageddon" and are planning on staying in their 

homes all weekend to avoid the traffic problems that it will cause.  Luckily

I am staying in Laguna Niguel (south of LA) with family friends until I

find a job/apartment, so I won't have to worry about the traffic.  

Here is an article about the shutdown:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/13/california.freeway.carmageddon/index.html?iref=obnetwork

This is my new room at Lincoln and Jeanette's place!  It is Nicole's room (thanks

for letting me borrow it for a little bit, Nicole!) but she lives in San

Francisco now, so they were gracious enough to let me come live with

them before I get things going in Los Angeles.  Their son Lincoln (we've 

always called him "Little Lincoln," but he's not so little anymore now 

that's he's 17 years old and about to be a senior in high school!)

It is a beautiful home and a neighborhood that I have loved exploring.  

Palm trees in their front yard.

The beach that is half a mile away from their house!  

This has been my motivation to go running everyday because

I have this to run towards!  

Their gorgeous backyard 

The view of their neighborhood.

Pool and fireplace area.  

It actually gets kind of chilly here at night which I love!

It's been great living here because I spend about 6 hours a day looking for jobs,

applying, talking with different companies, etc. and then the rest of the time

I go on runs to explore the area and then I cook dinner for the family.

Last night we had pecan encrusted chicken with a honey mustard sauce on a bed

of wild, long grain rice, and a summer salad with goat cheese, tomatoes, 

walnuts, and Dijon vinaigrette. 

Tonight we had an Asian style meal with marinated skirt steak, teriyaki soba

noodles with sauteed mushrooms and shallots, and an Asian slaw with red and

green cabbage, red peppers, carrots, green onions, and a soy-peanut sauce.  

Both meals turned out well!

The OC Fair is coming to town!!  Lincoln saw this in the paper today and I cannot wait to go!  I was already bummed out about the thought of missing the NC State Fair in October (my favorite week of the year) so this was a small consolation prize that helped soften the blow :). 

http://www.ocfair.com/2011/

Plus it's a fair where they primarily support and advertise the eating aspect!  How could I resist?!  

Deep fried butter, white chocolate covered bacon, deep fried kool aid, and baby ruth stuffed jalapenos were just a few of the culinary treats that peaked my interest.  And even better than that is that they have celebrity chefs do demonstrations there!  This year's all-start lineup includes Duff from Ace of Cakes, Carla Hall- a runner-up from Top Chef, Rick Moonen from Top Chef all-stars, and Michael Voltaggio- the winner of Top Chef, season 6!  They all come on separate days since the fair lasts for a month, but I am tempted to go  for the last 3 because I like them so much and it's only $6 to get in!  

The fair also has a contest for amateurs to enter in cupcakes, cookies, chicken, food on a stick, etc, so I figured I might as well give it a shot if I still don't have a job by then!  Baking isn't my strongest area in the kitchen, but I have been perfecting my stuffed cupcakes, so I might consider entering those into the contest.  Who knows if I'll actually do it, but it could be fun!

Can't wait to go to the fair!

Just to interject something completely random, check out this article (it seems magical to me!):

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/dining/a-pop-up-paris-picnic-is-coming-to-new-york.html?pagewanted=all

I have never heard of anything like this happening before and I can only hope that the trend will catch on in LA and that I'll get to be a part of it!  

So life is good in California; now if I could just find a job then all would be right!  Fingers crossed!

Oh and on the trip I decided to keep a record of how many stops I made, how much money was spent on gas, etc. etc.  So I thought it would be fun to add them all up and show you what got me across the country:

Along the way I:

- either stopped in or spent the night in 14  different cities

- traveled through 9 states

- got ZERO speeding tickets and ZERO flat tires (woohoo!)

- drank 6 5-hour energy drinks

- stopped at 13 gas stations (Bucees' in Texas being the coolest by far)

- visited countless friends and family members

- stayed in 4 hotels and 5 homes (thank you again to all of our wonderful hosts)

- drank 19 bottles of water, 6 large sweet teas, and 1 oreo milkshake. 

- consumed 18 incredible meals in restaurants, homes, gas stations, food trucks, etc.  

- listened to 2 Pandora stations (Otis Redding and Oldies but Goodies), 12 old school mixed CDs from high school (Kelsey- your "Rapper's Delight" mix made my laugh the hardest), and 1 book on tape (Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin) 

- took 152 iPhone pictures and 236 pictures on my real camera- totaling 388 (about 300 being of food) :)

- ate at 3 food trucks but saw at least 100

AND

- drove 3,529.72 miles in 72 hours, 14 minutes, and 36 seconds!

Definitely the trip of a lifetime!  

The road trip is coming to an end....Day 2 in Vegas

 

Mom and I had a leisurely morning, planned out our day, and then headed to lunch at Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris Hotel. 

Arc replica in front of the Paris hotel

Inside of the Paris hotel

Outdoor seating

I have passed this restaurant countless times over the years and I have always thought of it as a cheesy, knock-off French restaurant that caters to tourists who fall for paying ridiculous prices since it is a cute restaurant right on the strip with good outdoor seating.  Luckily it turns out that I was very wrong.  Once I started reading reviews about it and people had such great things to say about it we decided to give it a shot. 

We sat indoors but it was right on the edge of the outdoor seating area so we had the air-conditioning but we still had a great view for people watching on the strip and it is also conveniently located directly across the street from the Bellagio.  It was perfect timing because during our meal we even caught one of the fountain shows outside of the Bellagio, which is always a treat. 

If you look closely you can see the fountains swaying in unison to the music.

The bread for the table was a fresh, hot baguette with a great crust and soft, chewy inside along with French style butter. 

We ordered Gazpacho to share as a starter and it was fabulous.  It was delivered in a large soup bowl with diced red peppers, avocado, and basil chiffonade in a mound at the bottom of the bowl and then the waiter poured the soup tableside.  It was a yellow gazpacho that was completely smooth and fully packed with flavors of tomatoes, garlic, cucumbers, etc.  It was the most refreshing summer soup that I have ever had.  I asked the server if it was thickened with cream and she said no, it was thickened with bread before it was passed through a strainer in order to obtain the silky, smooth texture. 

Then for my meal I had Scallops that were baked with caramelized onions, oyster cream, parmesan cheese, and fresh herbs.  This was SO good and the scallops were incredibly tender considering that they were baked. 

Mom had the Warm Chicken and Brie Sandwich with a side of frites.  On the sandwich was a chicken breast, brie cheese, thinly sliced green apples, caramelized onions, and a chive aioli on toasted ciabatta bread.  It was wonderful as well and the French fries were thin and half crispy and half soft- yum! 

After lunch we did some shopping, bought our show tickets for tonight to see the Cirque du Soleil Mystere (http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/mystere/default.aspx) show at 9:30 and now we are lounging in the room before going downstairs to start gambling, eat a small dinner, and then head to the show!  We are excited because this Cirque show because neither one of us has seen it before.    (We had plans to go to a restaurant called Firefly, recommended by Justin Tilley, but we had such a big and late lunch that we didn't think we could do another big meal.  It's a tapas restaurant and the menu looked delicious.  It's about 10 minutes off of the strip and I'll look forward to trying it next time, especially since he said it was more of a "local" place.  Thanks for the recommendation, Justin!)

We decided to try our luck at the Crap and we did well for a while, but ended up losing after about an hour at the table.  Next came Blackjack and that’s when things started looking up for us!  I went on quite a streak and turned $50 into $300!  Mom made a small profit as well and we decided to cash our while we were ahead and get some dinner before the show started. 

We grabbed a slice of pizza at a place next to the theatre and it was exactly 9:30 as we were walking into the show.  I tell you this small detail because as we show our tickets and then walk up towards an usher to show us to our seats, we are greeted by an unusual usher.  It is an older gentleman with white hair that is sticking out in all directions who is wearing an oversized black suit and large shoes.  In other words, he looked like a well dressed clown without having his face painted.  We just considered ourselves lucky that we got the most exciting usher there, handed him our tickets, and started following him.  It wasn’t until he clipped our tickets to a wire that then went racing into the rafters where ticket confetti soon rained down on us, that we realized we were part of the show. 

The spotlights were following us as he led us on a convoluted route to “our seats.”  We bobbed, weaved, and climbed over several people when we finally ended up on stage as that was where he was “looking for our seats.”  He had us wave and take a bow and then we continued the journey with him.  Next he got the third row right in the middle, had two guys stand up, and then he had us take their seats and their popcorn.  Then as a reward he stuck out his cheek for a kiss and as I went to give him a kiss he quickly turned his head and I almost kissed him right on the lips!  The audience roared with laughter.  If I wasn’t just starting to chase a new dream I would change directions and aim towards joining the Cirque team; I could get use to being on stage with them!

After a while the shtick was over and we were escorted to our new and improved seats that we got for “being such good sports,” along with free popcorn!  It was certainly a great start to the evening and the show only got better from there. 

If you have never seen a Cirque du Soleil show I would highly recommend it.  It’s an incredible mix of music, acrobatics, dance, and some of the most athletic people I have ever seen.  There are several different shows that each follow a different theme such as Beatles “Love” Show is choreographed to all Beatles songs, the same is done for Elvis, and then others are more basic themes such as water, dreams, nature, etc.  I have never seen a Cirque show that I didn’t love and the next on my list is the Elvis one because it wasn’t playing either one of the nights that we were there this time.  Darn, just another excuse to plan my next trip to Vegas! J

After Mystere 

The stage where we were!

After the show we gambled for a little longer and then went to bed around 1 since Mom was catching an early flight home the next morning.  Once again we packed a lot of activities and meals into one city and as always, Vegas never disappoints! 

Hot and windy for our last day in Vegas.

Thanks to everyone who housed us, fed us, clothed us, etc. along the way.  It was great to see you all and we are lucky to have so many generous friends across the country.  

And a very special thanks to Mom and Dad for making this trip and this move a reality.  I might have been able to do it on my own, but it sure wouldn't have been half as much fun without you guys!  Love you!!

Las Cruces, NM---Arizona---Las Vegas!

Las Cruces, New Mexico--- Scottsdale, Arizona--- Las Vegas, Nevada

We left Las Cruces around 10am and found a cute diner on the outskirts of town where we had a great breakfast.  I also had my first experience with Menudo (and not the 80s boy band variety).  It is a spicy Mexican stew with tripe and other animal organs, but everyone raved about it on the blogs and yelp.com, so I decided to give it a shot.  I guess I looked a little skeptical when I asked our waitress about it so she was kind enough to offer me a sample.  It looked like a red, spicy broth with bits of things floating in it that couldn’t quite pass for chicken.  I had a few bites but couldn’t get past the texture so I decided against a whole bowl of my own.  I instead went with the All-American breakfast of 2 eggs over easy, bacon, white toast, and well done hashbrowns; doesn’t get much more American than that. 

We drove for about 4 hours through some really cool desert areas

and arrived in Tucson, AZ around 2:30, in time to have a late lunch.  While driving into town we checked the external thermometer and we couldn’t believe it when it read:

We rolled down the window and we were no longer surprised by the number.  It was so hot I felt like I was suffocating upon my first breath of hot air.  We pulled into the shopping center where the restaurant, Blue Fin, was and in the short walk to the front door I thought my eyeballs had dried out.  I was tempted to walk directly through the misters lining the majority of restaurants and stores of every street in Tucson in order to obtain brief relief from the brutal heat, but then quickly made a beeline for the AC filled restaurant instead.    

Blue Fin was a trendy, dark wood kind of bar with a great outdoor seating area (which was shockingly occupied by several people… clearly all superhuman to voluntarily subject themselves to that amount of heat) and an interesting menu.  Mom had the mussels and they came in a typical mussel pot but it comes with the top wrapped in plastic wrap which they ceremoniously burst tableside so that you can instantly smell the deliciously, garlic and lemon broth drowning the mussels.  The mussels were well cooked and the broth was so tasty that not only did we ask for more bread to sop it up with but we were even tempted to ask for a straw so we wouldn’t leave any behind. 

I ordered the seared ahi tuna salad because I felt like I had been gorging for days and I figured I might as well give myself a break from all the big eating. The salad was actually quite impressive and a great combination of flavors.  It was a cabbage style salad with carrots, celery, etc. tossed with an Asian sesame dressing (which was finger licking good) and topped with the tuna. 

After lunch we drove around a few neighborhoods and then got back on the road to head to Scottsdale.  Along the way we encountered some of the coolest looking dust storms, dust twisters, and rainstorms.    

The dust twisters didn’t show up that well when photographed, but you can definitely see the dust storms because they look almost like atom bomb smoke clouds in the distance. 

We arrived in Phoenix, AZ around 5:30pm and decided to drive around downtown to see the area.  It was the weekend of the MLB All-Star game so there were lots of events going on downtown with people everywhere.  The downtown area has a cool feel to it with a public tram system

interesting buildings, lots of misters here as well, and one of the most unique things was a park area with a piece of artwork suspended above it that was made to look like a dust storm.

Then we started to look for places to have dinner and lots of locals recommended that we try something called Fry Bread.  It was created by Native Americans and it has become quite popular in Arizona.  I had never heard of it before but the pictures online looked really good so we decided to try it.  The place that got the best reviews was called “The Fry Bread House” so we headed in that direction.  It is a small house looking building set back from a main road

and we ordered a ground beef fry bread with cheese, sour cream, and tomatoes to share because they looked huge. 

It was $9 because each topping is 85 cents regardless of what it is, but it was well worth it because it was delicious.  It is similar to a chalupa at Taco Bell but it is a softer version of it.  The beef has a great flavor to it and the toppings went very well with it.  It was a shame that that filled us up so much because the dessert fry breads looked amazing.  They are the most famous for their chocolate (special recipe- as it says on the menu) and butter one, but they also have powdered sugar, cinnamon and sugar, etc. 

After dinner we decided to go see a movie because it was still only 6:45 and it was too hot to really do anything else.  We went to see Horrible Bosses and it was hilarious!  We were laughing out loud for the majority of the movie; the characters all worked so well together. We would definitely recommend it!

Then we headed towards Scottsdale where we were offered a place to stay for the night through a mutual friend of my mom’s.  Kathy and Chuck were so nice to take us in for the night and their house was INCREDIBLE.  Mom and I both agreed that it was one of the coolest homes we had ever stayed in.  When you first pulled into the circle driveway you look to your right and there is a gate and then a long outdoor hallway.  Once inside the gate we realize that they are all doors to guest bedrooms which are on the left side of the hallway and the right side opens onto the pool and hot tub.  Once inside the main part of the house they had a beautiful family room, master bedroom, breakfast area, and an awesome kitchen that opened up onto the porch overlooking the pool area.  The house was gorgeous and they were so welcoming the entire time we were there. Thank you Kathy and Chuck!!

Our wonderful hosts

Their kitchen!

The next two pictures are the views from the bedroom I stayed in.  

They had great blinds that you could see through

and it looked like you could walk right out of the

window and into the desert!

The next morning we had breakfast and Kathy had a fun art project for us to do.  For every guest that comes to stay with them they get to paint a small picture to leave behind.  Here is what we came up with:

Mine was supposed to be a move reel, but it looks more

like a wagon wheel on a winding train track.

Needless to say mom and I were not ready to leave but Vegas was calling so we hit the road around noon.  We decided to stop for lunch in a little town called Wickenburg, 

which was the quintessential old timey Western town with replicas of outlaws chained to trees

and cowboys propositioning dancers at the saloon,

and cute restaurants and soda shops along the street.  We chose a place called Chaparral for lunch

which looked like an old ice cream parlor.  Mom got the sausage and boysenberry onions on a roll:

And I got the “Jail Tree Sandwich” which was thinly sliced meat, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, sautéed mushrooms, and a homemade white cheddar cheese sauce.  It was delicious and also came with their famous white cheddar cheese spread and wheat thins that was very good as well. 

After Wickenburg the only big attraction we saw was the Hoover Dam where they had finished the new bridge and then that was our last stop before we took our exit for the Las Vegas strip!

We checked into Treasure Island, threw our bags in the room

, and headed back out!  It was 7pm by this point so we headed straight to dinner at the Burger Bar in the Mandalay Bay hotel.

We have been once before and it was the best burger we had ever had, so we knew we wanted to go again.  They have 4 options for kinds of meat for the burger, regular, choice sirloin, kobe beef, and bison, but we stuck with regular because we already knew they were good and it is more about the toppings anyway.  They have a list of over 30 toppings to choose from and it’s everything from the standard onions, tomatoes, pickles, to pickled beet roots and seared foie gras.  We decided to build one huge burger and split it, along with an order of sweet potato fries.  We ordered our burger with caramelized onions, guacamole, coleslaw, pickled beet root, garlic aioli, bacon, and a fried egg on top.  IT WAS AMAZING! 

We could have done without the pickled beet root because they were a little sour, but other than that it was delicious.  The sweet potato fries were good as well. 

After dinner we gambled a little bit at Mandalay Bay but lost a quick $20 because we thought we were playing regular Blackjack but it ended up being Switch Blackjack, which we were not familiar with.  This was a turn off so we cashed in our chips and decided where to go next.  We made a quick stop at The Cosmopolitan hotel to check it out since I had never seen it before.  It was super swanky:

We stayed there for a little while but then headed to the Rio hotel to find Nelson at the World Series of Poker. 

There's Nelson with the sunglasses on!

Main event table

Trying out my luck! :)

Luckily they are allowed to have their cell phones at the table because he was able to tell us his room and table number.  I couldn’t believe how many people were there; they said over 7,000 people started out in the tournament.  This was the fourth “Day 1” and Nelson was doing well.  We asked him if he had seen any of the poker celebrities (Mom is surprisingly very in to poker and watches it on TV all the time) and he said not yet but that Nelly just busted out at the table next to him.  The camera crew got it on tape so I’m sure they will air that at some point.  We wandered around for a little while and then found Hewitt!  He had just flown in and he still had his suitcase with him.  Luckily he was “up” on poker enough so he could answer mom’s hundred questions.  There were a few poker celebrities around mom insisted that I take their pictures, so here they are!

We went back to watch Nelson for a little bit and then mom and I headed back to Treasure Island.  We lost a little more money on blackjack and then we decided to call it a night around 1:30!