Our New Home

It's official! The papers are signed, funded and recorded. We have our house!

We agreed to let the sellers lease back the house for a month and while I'm really glad to help them out (they have a little one), I can't wait for them to get out so I can go running through every room of MY house. I fully intend to roll around on the carpet for sh*ts and giggles, turn on the fireplace for no reason, maybe stick a pizza in the oven just to eat it sitting on the living floor before our furniture arrives.

First order of business: pack. Scratch that. Drink booze. Second order of business: pack. Third thing on my list: stalk my tenants by driving past the house slowly and peaking into the house to see how far along they are with packing. It's creepy, I know. There's no sense in denying it.

I'm trying not to get overly excited because until we start moving our stuff in, it's not totally our home yet. Patience is good, I keep reminding myself. It all begins in T-Minus 32 days.

Between family crises and major unexpected life changes, 2010 was probably one of the worst years of my life. I want to leave it and never come back. I'm hoping this new home is a symbol of what's to come-- new beginnings and dreams coming true.

House-buying for the Anal-Retentive and Highly Emotional

The past six years have been a constant state of planning and fantasizing for me. From the house-buying books to the penny-pinching to the endless daydreaming of someday owning a home-- somewhere along the way I managed to convince myself that buying a house would be the most blissed-out experience ever.

It's not.

It's been a nightmare.

And I made it harder than it needed to be.

I've long believed it would take me at least 10 years to get to a point where I would be able to buy a house. That's because I never suspected I would move to Salt Lake City, where our monthly rent near downtown is less than what I paid for an even smaller apartment in unimpressive Upland, California almost ten years ago. You can imagine how ridiculously ecstatic I was when I realized I would (finally!) have a place of my own. No more throwing away money on rent, no more begging landlords to please fix the heater, no more living in borrowed homes fulfilling someone else's dreams.

Enter Ramona Avenue, a quiet tree-lined street near the heart of downtown Sugarhouse, one of my favorite, albeit expensive, neighborhoods in Salt Lake City. The first offer we put on a tiny cottage on Ramona Ave was rejected due to poor communication between the seller and his agent (later they came back asking me to "save them" because their buyer backed out). The second offer we made was on a house just one block away from the first. I made the novice home-buyers mistake of letting myself fall completely in love with that house. Before our offer was even accepted, I was browsing furniture online. That was going to be our home. I was sure of it.

When our second offer was rejected, I fell into a miniature depression. I cried, I couldn't eat, I just wanted to lay around in bed feeling sad about how somebody else was moving their crap into MY house.

But no, I had to pull myself together. Clear my mind and stay focused on the biggest decision I would be making to date. Buying a house is a financial decision, I reminded myself. I can't let myself get all crazed. So when we put an offer on a third place (a gigantic foreclosure listing on a corner lot with a basement income-generating unit), I reminded myself to stay composed.

Tired of waiting for the bank to respond, we went to look at more houses. Interest rates weren't going to stay at 4.5% forever. The fourth house, a mid-1920s bungalow on a tiny dead-end street near the university, immediately felt like home to me. It was smaller in every way and not located in Sugarhouse, but something told me to put an offer on that house. The following day, both House #3 and House #4 accepted our offer.

From a financial standpoint, the foreclosure listing would have offered quite a bit of instant equity, which was what drew me to it in the first place. So we decided to go with it.

That is, until we realized there used to be meth in the house.

Sure, it was technically "cleaned out," but no one really knows how much meth was in the house and what the potential long-term health affects might be. Was I willing to take a chance on our health, especially when we've been talking about having kids in a few years? How many buyers just like us aren't willing to take that chance? Would I be comfortable living in a home with those questions lingering in my mind?

The answer was 'no.' Yes, buying a home is an investment, but for us, it's an investment that we have to make a life in. And therein lies the two most important lessons I learned from this process: (1) If you're buying a home to have a life in, your mindset reflects that, and (2) It's important to recognize the difference between being emotional and having a gut instinct.

Being emotional is about feeling stuff, like fear, sadness, anger, etc.-- it's a reaction to something that happens to you (e.g. getting excited about making a bunch of money). Gut instinct is informed by something you know, whether or not it's clear what exactly it is you know. Being emotional is reactive. Gut instinct is proactive. And my gut instinct has always led me the right way; now was no time to question it.

But I did. After two months of disappointment and unpleasant surprises, I was emotionally and physically exhausted. And in the past two weeks since we've been under contract, I can honestly say that I've second-guessed myself to the point of ridiculousness. And it's enough. Really.

My sister Lorin said to me: "Diana, you'll know you made the right decision when you're sitting in your new home and you can't help but feel incredibly happy." My friend Kelly agrees. I think deep down inside I knew that, and that despite what my mind was telling me, my gut instinct was telling me something else.

Life has taught me that gut instinct doesn't have universal answers, just the right answer for you. It knows everything your brain knows plus it sees clearly the things in your heart that you're not always aware of. My gut instinct has always been braver than me, smarter than me. Trusting it can't possibly be a bad thing.


**Cartoon by Jim Borgman

[Slowcooker] Herb-Crusted Pork Loin with Apple Gravy

Pork and apples are best friends. Everybody knows. The more time they spend together, the more happiness there is in the world. So the other day, while I was dreaming up things that I would love to eat, I thought to myself: You know, I think there needs to be apple gravy in my life. And I think it should be ladled onto a juicy slice of pork loin. And so, ladies and gentleman, from the corners of my food-obsessed mind, I bring to you...


Herb-Crusted Pork Loin with Apple Gravy
Servings: 4

Ingredients
1.5 tsp dried sage
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp dried thyme leaves
½ tsp ground allspice
½ tsp paprika
2 Tbs flour
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs olive oil
1.5-2 lbs of pork loin
1 packet brown gravy mix
1 cup water
1 Tbs brown sugar (light or dark, doesn't matter)
1.5 cups chopped apples (I used gala, you can use any sweet apple you like)

In a large bowl, mix together first five ingredients (herbs and spices) and 1 Tbs flour, reserving remaining flour for gravy. Add 2 Tbs olive oil to large skillet and heat on medium-high. Meanwhile, press each side of the pork loin into the spice mixture until all sides are covered. Gently place pork loin into hot oil in skillet using tongs; brown each side until a nice crust forms. Set aside.

In small bowl, combine brown gravy mix with 1 cup water, 2 Tbs red wine vinegar, 1 Tbs brown sugar and 1 Tbs flour. Mix until combined. Pour into 5-qt slow-cooker. Add 1.5 cup apples into gravy mixture. Gravy should just barely cover the tops of the apples.

Place browned pork loin on top of apple gravy mixture in the slow-cooker. Cook on HIGH for 3-3.5 hours.

When done, remove pork loin from slow-cooker and set aside. In blender or with hand blender, puree apple and gravy mixture until smooth but with small chunks of apples remaining.

To serve, slice pork loin against the grain and top with apple gravy.


As per usual, I forgot to take pictures of the dish before shoveling it ravenously down my gullet, so I sadly do not have images to share. I do have to say, though, the pork loin was extremely juicy, tender and flavorful, while the sweet/tangy apple gravy gave it a nice balance. Fantastic paired with roasted brussels sprouts (or other winter vegetables). Super comforting in this cold weather and an impressive dish if you're having a couple of friends over for dinner!

Babies Slideshow

At work we do "Fun Fridays," which is when we get together on a Friday during work hours to goof off. Our next Fun Friday event involves everyone scanning baby pictures of themselves so that we can guess who it is.

Me: "I'm pretty sure people will be able to pick out the one Asian baby in the slideshow."

Co-worker: "I will throw in some random Asian babies to throw them off the scent."

All I'm saying is if everyone picks the ugliest Asian baby in the slideshow, I am going to be pissed.

Bacon Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream

Since moving to Utah, I feel like I've gained extra hours in my day. I'm no longer spending 2 hours each day riding the subway. Nor am I working 12-hour days when I'm not running around to events/dinners/drinks only to come home and pass out on my bed, surrounded by a seriously neglected cat and a giant pile of dirty laundry.

As much fun as I had, rarely did I have time to myself and my growing list of personal projects-- crafts unfinished, books unread, skills unlearned. And I didn't realize how much I missed doing those things until I came to Salt Lake City. Don't get me wrong-- plenty of people make time for themselves in NYC. I just didn't prioritize it. Salt Lake City is forcing me to calm down, be present. And I consider that a good thing.

Of the many things I had on my To Do list, cooking more was one of them. I've always loved to cook, but found it easier to eat out in New York. After all, why learn how to make a falafel sandwich when you can buy one for $3 on the street?

But there's something awesome about being able to make something yourself. And that's exactly what I've been able to do. Everyday, a new recipe. Six months ago, I would have paid $5 for a bacon cupcake and not even blinked an eye. Now I'm making a dozen of them for the same price AND I get to say, "Hi there, want to try a bacon cupcake? Oh, I just whipped them up last night. No biggie."

I have to thank Vanilla Garlic for his wonderful Maple Bacon Cupcake recipe, which I adapted to the high altitude and my personal taste. It was light and fluffy, not too sweet, and with crunchy, salty bits throughout. The delicate frosting on top was a nice touch (though I reduced the sugar/syrup and doubled the recipe when it looked like there wouldn't be enough). Here's what I did. I hope you enjoy it!















BACON CUPCAKES WITH MAPLE BUTTERCREAM
Makes 12

Ingredients
4-1/2 Tbsp of butter, softened
6 strips of bacon
1 egg, room temperature
1 Tbs of brown sugar
4 Tbs of pure maple syrup
1-1/14 cup of unbleached flour
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/4 + 2 Tbs milk

Preparation
Preheat oven to 375. In large frying pan, cook bacon until crisp (make sure to drain the pan periodically to ensure bacon properly crisps). Reserve the bacon drippings and place it in the fridge. Finely chop 3-4 slices of cooked, drained bacon to make 1/4 cup of minced bacon; set aside. Slice remaining strips of bacon into 1-inch strips; set aside for topping.

Once bacon drippings solidify, scoop out 1/2 tablespoon of drippings and beat with butter until creamed. Beat in brown sugar and maple syrup. Add egg and beat until well combined.

Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Whisk in milk until smooth. Fold in bacon. You should have a thick, smooth, light brown batter, like this:















Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Like this:















Allow to cool. Frost with maple buttercream (recipe below). Top with 1-inch strips of bacon. Yums!


MAPLE BUTTERCREAM

Ingredients
8 Tbs of butter
3 Tbs of maple syrup
1-1/2 cup of powdered sugar

Beat ingredients on high until smooth and well-combined.

[Slowcooker] Bacon & Onion Brisket

My love affair with the slowcooker is official. It's been three weeks since I got mine and I'm still hopelessly in love with it. Every few days I toss some ingredients into the pot and hours later, something delicious miraculously emerges without my having to do much at all. It's my magic wand in the kitchen. I'm not even sure I can take credit for these dishes, since slowcooker did all the work!

All the things I've made in my Crockpot have been super easy to make (including pork loin with apple gravy, barbecued beef, garlic mashed potatoes and a chicken with stuffing dinner). I'll probably go through and share each of my favorite recipes, but I'll start with the brisket I made last night.

Slowcooker Bacon & Onion Brisket

3 lbs beef brisket
Salt and pepper to taste
6 slices bacon, sliced into 1/2-inch strips
2 medium onions, sliced
2 (14 oz) cans of beef broth
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 bay leaf

Rub brisket with salt and pepper (I used about 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper) and set aside. In large skillet, cook bacon slices until slightly brown (3-4 minutes). Remove bacon with slotted spoon and place into slowcooker**, reserving bacon grease in pan. In the hot skillet, place beef brisket and allow it to brown on all sides in the bacon grease. Remove and place into slowcooker on top of bacon. Cook onions in the skillet until softened (if there isn't enough bacon grease and beef fat in the pan, you can add some vegetable oil). Remove onions with slotted spoon and place over brisket in slowcooker. Mix balsamic vinegar into a can of beef broth and pour both cans of broth into the slowcooker. Add bay leaf. Make sure the bay leaf is in the broth and not perched on top of the onions. Cook on high for 6-8 hours or until meat is tender. One it's done, remove the brisket and let it sit for 10 minutes. Slice against the grain or shred with fork. Top with bacon, onions and au jus. Serve with starch of choice (we had it with Hawaiian sweet rolls).

TIP: You can reserve any extra au jus and make an easy French Dip using deli roast beef. I like mine with a little Swiss cheese.

ALSO: I promise I'll start remembering to take pictures. It's just that my camera is so crappy!

** I use a round 5-qt slowcooker

Utah Fun Fact

In Utah, if a holiday falls on a Sunday, they celebrate it the day before because the LDS church observes Sunday Sabbath**. Good luck to the kids who try to trick-or-treat on the day of Halloween. Everyone's outta candy, sorry, here's a walnut.

"Trunk-or-treating" parties are also very popular in the Beehive State where parents park their decorated cars in a lot and fill their trunks with candy, which I think is a little bit "To Catch a Predator", but I guess for over-protective parents, having your kids trick-or-treat out of people's cars seems like a fun idea.

More on why Utah kids (and subsequently, the rest of us) are celebrating Halloween on October 30 this year: http://saltlakecity.about.com/b/2010/10/12/trick-or-treat-saturday-or-sunday.htm

**Although I recently learned that by scholarly accounts, Sabbath is actually Saturday. http://www.servantsnews.com/sn9712/s71203.htm

I'm a Weeenner!

It's official. Life totally rocks right now.

Not only did I have a fab lunch yesterday with my awesome new co-workers, but I hit 500 followers on Twitter AND *drum roll* I won first place in my company's Iron Chef contest!

This is particularly exciting news because: (1) I never win anything ever, (2) I didn't totally embarrass myself in front of 25 people I'd only just met, and (3) I've clearly accomplished very little in my lifetime, making prize-winning bundt cake a defining moment in my life. Witness me grinning like a fool with my gift card (left).

But it really could have been a real disaster. I had baked a brand-new recipe with ingredients I don't normally use. Not wanting to destroy my beautiful bundt cake, I brought it to work without even tasting it. It could have been burnt or dry or something weird could have fallen into the cake batter-- I had no way of knowing. That's me, always living on the edge.

I had three goals: (1) find a recipe with good reviews that didn't take too long to make because earlier that day I found myself wandering the new Target in a daze and lost track of time, (2) make something using the only cake pan I own, (3) impress my co-workers so they'll want to eat lunch with me. Oh and one of the directors threatened to fire me if I brought in something nasty. So (4) don't get fired.

As always, I turned to trusty AllRecipes.com and found this super easy recipe for a pumpkin bundt cake. I mean, it really doesn't get any easier than this. Normally I never use cake mix, but because I had gotten hypnotized by Target like I mentioned earlier, I had to make do. It turns out the pumpkin puree does a good job masking the tell-tale flavor of cake mix. Next time I'll probably make yellow cake from scratch and increase the spices in the cake. The whipped cream is key, so don't leave it out. I definitely think it balanced the flavors in the cake and tipped the judge's hand in my favor. One gentleman tried to spoon the whipped cream directly into his mouth. Here's the recipe (incl. my modifications):


PUMPKIN BUTTERSCOTCH BUNDT CAKE

Ingredients
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix

1 (3.4 ounce) package instant butterscotch pudding mix

4 eggs OR 3 eggs + 1TBS oil (for high altitude)

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 can (15 oz) pure pumpkin OR 2 cups fresh pureed pumpkin

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice OR this pumpkin pie spice recipe

Preparation:
Combine ingredients. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds; beat on medium until smooth (about 2 minutes). Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 350' degrees F for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve with citrus whipped cream.


CITRUS WHIPPED CREAM

Ingredients
1 cup heavy cream
1.5 Tbs confectioner's sugar
1 Tbs orange juice
1 tsp orange zest (1.5 tsp if you like a lot of zest)

Preparation
In a large bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks begin to form. Beat in sugar, juice and zest until peaks form. Enjoy!

Speaking of candied bacon...

I just tested my candied bacon recipe and it was a success! Will take pictures next time, as the 6 slices of bacon went straight from the pan into my mouth in about 20 seconds flat.

My recipe is inspired by the candied bacon I used to eat at Shopsin's (which I would get with their mac'n'cheese pancakes). I used a little dijon mustard in my recipe for some depth. But be careful with this one-- it's a little too easy to eat!

Candied Bacon

Ingredients
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
6-8 slices regular cut bacon

Preparation
Combine maple syrup, sugar and dijon mustard in a large bowl. Cover bacon with mixture (I used my hands to roll the bacon around in the bowl).

Assemble the bacon in a single layer on baking pan lined with parchment paper.

Bake on top rack at 375", flipping once, to desired crispness. I typically drain the fat halfway through.


NOTE: The recipe might also work with granulated sugar, if that's all you have. But I do think the hint of molasses is a great addition.

My Favorite Things: NYC Edition

I was looking through my scribble book and found this list I forgot I was making: my favorite places in NYC, Brooklyn and Queens.

Here's some super yummy stuff that tops my list...

Coffee: Abraco (they're very serious about their espresso; try their saffron cake) and Blue Bottle (a west coast transplant)
Tea: Cha-Am (perfect Japanese tea house; their green tea float with sake ice cream is fab)
Brunch: Clinton St. Baking Co and Five Points
All-you-can-drink Brunch: Kittichai (i like their lychee martini, but my friends favor their bloody maries) and Calle Ocho (six kinds of sangria!)
Pizza: Bleecker St. Pizza, PizzaMoto and Grimaldi's (you can get it to go to avoid the lines)
Deli: Sorriso Italian Pork Store
Diner: Shopsin's and B&H (get their grilled cheese on challah; fyi, they're vegetarian)
Kosher: 2nd Avenue Deli (yum pastrami sandwich and fried chicken livers)
Middle-eastern: ilili (some of the best brussels sprouts and lamb dishes)
Italian: Morandi and Cafe Condessa
Senegalese: Joloff (try their signature dishes)
Korean: Hahn Mi Oak and Bonchon Chicken
Venezuelan: Caracas Arepas Bar
Chinese: food court in the Flushing Mall
Gastropub: The Spotted Pig (famous for their burger, but apps are great, too)
Vegetarian: Red Bamboo (awesome lunch specials)
Raw Food: Quintessence and Rockin' Raw
Fine-Dining (raw food): Pure Food & Wine
Fine-Dining: Gramercy Tavern, Jean Georges and Saul Restaurant
Bar: Little Branch (a throwback to the speakeasy era), Manhattan Inn (great decor, interesting cocktails) and Crocodile Lounge (mainly for the free pizza and skeeball)
Wine bar: Ten Degrees
Happy hour: Sushi Samba and Haru (both b/c I love cocktails and sushi)
Chocolate shop: L.A. Burdick
Supermarket: Garden of Eden and Fairway

If you're looking for something specific...

Chai: Chocolate Bar (they make theirs from chai leaves)
Donut: The Dougnut Plant
Bagel: Ess-A-Bagel (if you're on the westside, for the love of God do not go to Murray's and just go to Brooklyn Bagels instead) and Tasty Bagel
Candied bacon: The General Greene
Falafel: Oasys (open late, if you're bar-hopping in Williamsburg) and Mamoun's (it's $2.50 and on St. Marks)
Sandwich: Choice Market (their roasted salmon sammie is incredible) and Bite (i always get their Sabih Sandwich)
Gyro: food stand at the southwest corner of Penn Station
Cheese: Murray's Cheese, Bedford Cheese and Tedone Latticini Dairy Products
Cupcakes: Butterlane (love their french buttercream) and Magnolia (plain with chocolate buttercream)
BBQ wings: Samantha's Southern
Burger: Corner Bistro and BLT Bistro
Roti: Ali's Trinidad (the oxtail one is my fave)
Mussels: Chez Oskar
French fries: Five Leaves (truffle fries)
Steak: BLT Prime
Brownies: Fat Witch (peanut butter)
Shake: Stand4 (the toasted marshmallow shake is my fave)
Frozen custard: Shake Shack
Cookies: Milk & Cookies and Jacques Torres
Croissant: City Bakery (pretzel croissant)
Cheesecake: Artisanal (the crust tastes like almond roca!)
Lobster roll: Pearl Oyster Bar and Luke's Lobster
Chocolate Milk: Ronnybrook Dairy
Bread pudding: DessertTruck (only when the weather permits)
Cake: Momofuku Dessert Bar (banana cake truffles) and Baked (chocolate cake with salted caramel buttercream)
Ice cream: Go! (for fried green tea ice cream), Sundaes & Cones (they have cool flavors like corn and wasabi) and Blue Marble (organic, hormone-free and delish)

Making this list got me feeling nostalgic. So excited to be going back in a couple months. Will be packing pants with elastic waist bands 'cause I will be eating the heck out of NYC when I'm back.

Mocha Rum Cake In The Sky

Today was my first entree into baking a cake at high altitude. 4,350 feet, to be exact. I don't think I've ever lived this far up. I feel like I'm living in a desert in the sky.

The first week we got here, I tried baking cookies to disastrous effects. I had no idea why my tried-and-true chocolate chip cookie recipe was so flat and hard and dry. It was the fine print on my bag of Nestle Tollhouse semi-sweet chocolate morsels that clued me in:

"FOR HIGH ALTITUDE BAKING: Increase flour to 2.5 cups. Add 2 tsp. water..."

I thought, wait a second... there are mountains everywhere here, and it's awfully dry and the air is kind of thin... holy mother, I'm living at high-altitude and by some law of physics it's affecting my baking! So I tried it Nestle's way. And my cookies still turned out crappy. I had my heart set on baking cookies for the leasing office and maintenance staff at our apartment complex (to thank them for helping us get settled in) and I wasn't about to give them rock-hard cookies.

Three batches of cookies later, I finally got it right. Thanks to this high-altitude chocolate chip cookie recipe I found online. The gals at the leasing office were very pleased.

Still, after all the difficulty I had baking cookies, I wasn't sure if I had the energy to wrestle around with a cake recipe for two days like I did with the cookies. Knowing me, of course, I decided that today would be a good time to bake a Mocha Rum Bundt Cake-- while sleep-deprived and fighting off a cold. Thanks, masochistic inner voice!

I chose rum cake because a Swedish friend of mine from elementary school baked it almost 20 years ago for me and to this day, I still remember it. We lost touch and I never got the recipe, but if my version tastes anything like the one she made, it's going to be rum cakes for the holidays forever.

The original recipe is from a 1994 issue of Gourmet magazine. I altered it according to comments from others and then adapted it based on these high-altitude baking guidelines. That means I increased the rum and oven temperature and decreased the baking soda, coffee and sugar.

How did it turn out? Amazing. Super, super moist. Definitely making it for the holidays. Baked it with 1-1/4 cup dark rum, but that might be too much for most, so took it down to 1 cup in the recipe below. Make sure to grease your bundt pan heavily so it doesn't stick! Mine just slipped out. Easy peasy.















High-Altitude Mocha Rum Cake

Ingredients
cocoa powder for dusting
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup dark rum
1-1/3 cups strong brewed coffee
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs, beaten lightly
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
confectioners' sugar for dusting
lightly sweetened whipped cream

Preparation
Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter a 4 1/2-inch-deep (12-cup) bundt pan and dust with cocoa powder, knocking out excess.

In a bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water melt chocolate and butter, stirring until smooth. Remove chocolate from heat and stir in rum, coffee, and granulated sugar. With an electric mixer beat in flour, 1/2 cup at a time, scraping down side, and beat in eggs and vanilla until batter is combined well. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake cake in middle of oven until a tester comes out clean, about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Let cake cool completely in pan on a rack and turn it out onto rack. Cake may be made 3 days in advance and kept wrapped well and chilled.

Dust cake with confectioners' sugar.

Is this for your son?

An actual conversation I had with two clerks at a local game store today:

Me: "Hi, do you guys have external hard drives for Xbox 360?"
Guy 1: "Oh, it's over here [tells me about their selection]."
Guy 2: "Who are you getting this for? Your son?"
Me: "No, oh my god, how old do you think I am?!"
Guy 1: "24."
Me: [puzzled look]
Guy 2: "Where are you from exactly?"
Me: "California."
Guy 1: "Oh, over here people have kids young, that's why."
Guy 2: "They have a school up in Davis that's just for pregnant teens! It's like, everyone's pregnant there."
Me: "That's crazy."
Guy 1: "Yeah, people usually have kids by your age. How old are you anyway?"
Me: "28."
Guy 1: "Oh yeah, see if you were LDS and you didn't have kids, people would think you were weird."
Guy 2: "Yeah [nodding]. Really weird."
Me: "Well, then do you guys have kids?"
Guy 1 & 2: "Noooo, no, nooooo... We're not LDS."
Me: "So then are you guys like an abomination?"
Guy 1: "That's right! We're like an abomination."
Guy 2: "Yeeeah, totally."
Then they smiled and nodded at each other with proud looks on their faces.

Later I went home and looked up Utah high schools for pregnant teens and found this placed called "New Beginnings Maternity Home."

Apparently, they're all booked up.

Utah Fun Fact

In Salt Lake City, 40% of residents are Mormon, compared to 68% of the population statewide. And only 12% of Mormons worldwide actually live in Utah.

Source: Deseret News and AllAboutMormons.com

Hot dog buns and "maple" syrup

I've been worried about hot dog buns recently.

For some reason, we thought it would be a good idea to buy a giant bag of hot dog buns from Costco. Oh, all the sausages and lobster rolls we'll eat! Two weeks later, I'm staring at 7 leftover buns in the fridge.

One thing I did know was that by the power vested in me I was not going to let these buns go to waste! I had barely started planning my triumphant victory when I stumbled across Amateur Gourmet's Hot Dog Bun French Toast recipe. This was my lucky day!

I suspected we wouldn't be able to eat 12 pieces of french toast (6 buns), so I halved the original recipe, added cinnamon to the batter and substituted half the milk for heavy cream. That means I used:

3 hot dog buns
1/4 cup milk + 1/4 cup cream
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 Tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
A pinch of salt
3 Tbs butter (for the pan)

We didn't have any almond slivers at the house, so I omitted them but made one of the hot dog buns into stuffed french toast. I figured they already had little pockets in them.
















































































For the stuffed french toast, all I did was stuff one of the hot dog buns with organic cream cheese and homemade blueberry jam and pan-fry it on medium heat for 3 minutes on each side, pressing down a bit to get a better seal around the opening. Next time I'll lower the heat a bit and cook for 4 minutes on each side to get a gooier filling. But it still turned out great and was gobbled up immediately.

Yay for discounts

With the help of Yelp and Restaurant.com, I am now the happy owner of 5 new gift certificates to some promising restos in Salt Lake City! I’ll be checking out…

1) Aristo's, a Greek restaurant with some great reviews
2) Himalayan Kitchen, for Nepalese foods
3) El Paisa, a Southwestern restaurant that I’m excited about (yay guac!)
4) Five Alls—a prix-fixe restaurant with an “Old English”-inspired menu
5) CJ’s Bakery, which seems like a regular diner, but gives us a reason to check out Ogden

I used the “FUN” coupon code on Restaurant.com (good until 7/13/10) and got 80% off my order.

Value of my gift certs: $95
Amount paid: $7.60
Eating my way through Salt Lake City: priceless

So I'm moving to Utah

Born in Taipei and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, I spent much of my childhood curled up against airplane windows watching movies in giant headsets and eating tiny food from plastic trays. There were summers in Cambodia, winters in France and impromptu trips to China. With my parents living in Thailand and family members scattered across the globe, I felt, in a way, that everywhere was home.

However, I never imagined a life for myself too far from the pleasures of modern metropolis. When college rolled around I went to school in L.A., then grad school in Boston and then later I moved to New York City to work at a PR agency specializing in food, one of my chief obsessions.

Work sent me traveling around the country to cities like Chicago and Atlanta and as far as the avocado fields of Michoacan, Mexico. There were editor lunches, brand launches and early morning shoots at NBC. So much did I love my job that at times it hardly felt like work.

On weekends I rode my Vespa around Brooklyn or explored Manhattan by foot and train, tweeting along the way. If there was a free concert in the park, I'd pack a picnic. If there was a new exhibit at the Met, I'd grab a friend. If a new bar opened up in my neighborhood, I'd be there opening week (poking my head in during renovation, too). Life was as it was meant to be.

Many friends and family members were horrified to hear I was moving to Utah.

"Chica, they have 1% beer there. ONE percent."
"Omg, someone's going to kidnap you and make you a sister wife."
"Utah? Are you f*%&ing crazy?"

I was going to be landlocked for the first time in my life. In a city I'd never been to and knew hardly anything about. In a red state that just passed a law condemning... miscarriages? Where teenagers can get into trouble with the law for rapping their order at a McDonald's drive-thru.

I thought, what am I getting myself into?  
But I believe that things happen for a reason.

So here we are. In four short weeks I officially start my life in Salt Lake City. All I can say is: I sure hope the universe has a plan. Because I sure don't.