Category Archives: Food

Food, Phoenix, Thanksgiving

Vacation Recap

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Oh hey there.

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So, I’m back to work and all, after being gone for a lovely part of a week in Phoenix visiting my sister Leslie and her husband Peter.

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If there’s a suitcase, it must be filled with cats.

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They live next door to this big pile of dirt.IMG_8366

I went for a run and took a picture. I look like a sparkly vampire, don’t I. Note the palm tree in the background. I couldn’t find the beach though.

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The first morning I woke up and this stuffed monkey was outside my door. I’m not sure whether it was a gift or a threat.

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I need this print for my house too.

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Peter and the cats hanging on the couch.IMG_8339

Albergo and Catalunya like to help each other clean and groom. It’s adorable.IMG_8402

Leslie made the crusts. I think she was possessed.

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We did some serious baking. Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie.

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Dutch Apple Pie and Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake.IMG_8455

Martha Stewart’s Mac and Cheese. I stirred the bechamel sauce for over 20 minutes waiting for it to thicken. Tears were welling in my eyes, but it did finally thicken and tasted AMAZING.IMG_8448

We did some serious wine drinking. That giant bottle was a housewarming gift that they saved to serve at Thanksgiving. I can’t tell if the picture is blurry or if the effects of the wine have yet to wear off.

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Lots of food was made, brought, and eaten. It was a wonderful day.

A few days before Thanksgiving we had lunch with the Boring Runner. It was delightful, and I’m glad I finally got to meet him after reading his blog for years.

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Naturally we had to take photos. We all wore blue so we’d look good in the photos.

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Why yes, my head IS bigger than everybody elses. And I was looking at a different camera, apparently.IMG_8377

This is my laugh or my “I’m poopin” face.

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After our blogger lunch Leslie and I decided we had to get fro yo to really feel like bloggers. Then again she’s absolutely NOT a blogger, but I like to pretend I am. It’s weird that we sat outside to eat eggnog fro-yo in November, but that’s Phoenix for ya.

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I don’t think I got enough toppings to count as a real blogger.

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Did you know Trader Joe’s sells cats?

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Food, Thanksgiving

Vacation Time

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I have a whole week off from teaching!

My last two posts were pretty cat centric, so I thought I’d try to balance it out with a less cat post.  I’m finishing up all the stuff I need to do to go out of town (laundry, packing, calling my grandma to wish her a happy 88th birthday!) and I’m pretty excited about that.

The weekend was fun. Last night I went to a “pajama party” at my friend April’s house. I didn’t know that I was actually pretty good at the game of “flip cup” because I’d never played before. I was a natural at flipping my cup. I didn’t play too many rounds though, because I didn’t want to make the other folks feel bad. Also I got bored and really prefer to just chat with people.

(I should have taken pictures, but my pajama pants didn’t have a pocket for my phone.)

I did take some pictures of a couple sandwiches I ate over the weekend (which includes Friday.)

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I do love sandwiches. If pressed I’d say my favorite food is pizza, but sandwiches are definitely a close second.

I did play a wedding yesterday. The season has slowed down a bit, but I had one yesterday and two next weekend.

The Crystal Ballroom at the Crowne Plaza.

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I believe that’s my finger at the bottom. It’s possible I should consider trying to take better pictures.

We played for the ceremony and a bit of the cocktail hour (not the whole thing which always seems a little odd to me, but whatever.) People were dressed to the nines, as usual. I had fun looking at the hairdos and dresses!

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And I did some running. This was after a particularly cold run in the park on Friday evening. It was dark by the time I got back, which I wouldn’t do on my own but I went with a friend who had a big dog so I wasn’t worried. The dog enjoyed running but not so much running in a straight line and not inspecting various trees and things along the way. I’ll be okay for the Turkey Trot on Thursday but don’t count on seeing any PR’s or even respectable 5k times from this girl. But I’m back at it, and that’s what’s important.

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I’m back on the “take a lot of selfies” train too. I figure since it’s the Word of the Year there’s no shame. Plus my hair looks good in that picture and I like my black turtleneck. (Eyebrows are suspect but we can’t have everything now, can we?) Truth: my student was stuck in traffic so I had some time to kill. BOOM.

Traveling to a very different climate is always a challenge. I hate wearing a coat to the airport and then just carrying it around, so I’m going to try just wearing a hoodie instead…I’ll be warm enough for the brief time I have to be outside I hope, and then I will also be cozy on the plane. I have a couple books queued up on my Kindle AND I’m excited that we will no longer have to power down our electronics during takeoff and landing. Before there would be these awkward amounts of time where I’d have to sit and think or read the SkyMall magazine (or bring, *gasp* a regular book or magazine to fill the gap) but no longer!

Oh and to make you jealous, here’s our Thanksgiving menu:

Turkey, stuffing, gravy, carrot-ginger soup

Pies

Mac & Cheese, Brussels sprouts salad, pumpkin gooey butter cake

pumpkin orange cornbread, butternut squash pudding

Corn casserole, AmishCorn, Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Mashed potatoes, creamed leeks, cranberry

“legit” cajun red beans & rice, chocolate cake

The list is in order of what person is bringing what (names removed—we have an amazing email conversation happening)—I’m the one making Mac & Cheese, Brussels sprouts salad, and pumpkin gooey butter cake. I’m excited to do some cooking and relaxing this week. 

Food

Giveaway winner and a question about korean tacos

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I used a random number generator to pick a winner for my giveaway post the other day. The winner was comment #15, Sarah M—congrats! I’ve notified her via email. Thanks to all of you for entering, sharing your cookie ideas and cat pictures!

I didn’t take too many pictures over the weekend (bad blogger!) but I had a great weekend. I only had to play one wedding at the Jewel Box and otherwise was able to do stuff around the house, run, and hang out with friends.

I’ve been using RunKeeper to track my runs. The other day I was doing a run where I ran for 1:45 and walked for 1:15 (I’m working my way back up to longer runs, and this is where I am right now.) I generally run around the same kind of route with a few variances, so I generally know where the first mile is, and I heard it WAY too early, which confused me.

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You can see that my “fast” intervals seem, well…Olympic fast. Note to readers: I do not generally run 4 to 6 minute miles.

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Ah! Mystery solved. That red line is the supposed route I took. I was actually running in a quasi straight line, not zigzagging like a crazy person and doubling back on my route every few seconds.

If nothing else, this run really shows me how inaccurate the satellite can be. I hate when people say that a race course is short or long based on their satellite reading…it isn’t always that precise. And sometimes it can be really wrong!

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I have a question about Korean Tacos: are they are a real thing in Korea OR did the Koreans invent them for we Americans since we love tacos? I could probably google this but I’d rather ask you guys. The above tacos are from Kim Cheese, a Korean place near the school I used to teach at (which has since closed)—so yummy! Those are the spicy pork tacos. I will be back, and I’m kind of glad I didn’t discover the deliciousness of this restaurant until I no longer teach there as I’d probably want to eat there too often.  They have more than just tacos too.

Food, Weddings

Weekend and such

My usual (ha) weekend recap post is late. Yesterday was a very busy day for me, and although today is too (this is all due to Winter Opera St Louis rehearsals and practicing!) I’m going to write a quick blog post while I digest a delicious lunch.

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I had a bunch of weddings over the weekend. This was taken while I was stopped in traffic on my way to the one Friday evening. It’s the Old Courthouse in St Louis and on my right hand side was the Arch but I was way too close for a good photo of that.

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Saturday’s first wedding was at St Anthony of Padua church, which I had never played at before. I was amazed when I walked in the door—the church was SO beautiful! It’s kind of sad to me that I’ll go to an old church in what is often a pretty lousy run down (possibly crime-ridden) neighborhood and then there is just a gorgeous church, beautifully decorated and that probably cost tons of money and man hours when it was built. We just don’t make buildings the way we used to.

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My second Saturday wedding was at the Sheraton City Center in the fifth floor Atrium. I thought it was very cute, and I tried to get a picture to give you an idea of the scope, but I found that challenging to do surreptiously!

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If I were staying in the hotel in one of those rooms overlooking the Atrium during a wedding I’d be tempted to do something really weird, like watch in my pajamas or something.

You’re probably saying, well that’s great, but what did you EAT?

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Dinner at Meskerem Ethiopian restaurant. I’d only had ethiopian food once before. It was great!

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Breakfast one day. Eggs and waffles on my favorite snowman plate. Well, only snowman plate. I needed to run the dishwasher. It did make breakfast feel more festive.

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Cookies at a good friend’s house. I did not eat all of them, nor did I eat as many as I wanted to. They were getting stale this morning so I figured two of them made a pretty good breakfast—they’ve got eggs in them, right?

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I’ve been quite sad because my good friend Melissa no longer lives here (well she lived here part time, but it was enough!) so I am thrilled that she is in town this week playing for the opera. We met for lunch at Stellina and it was great. I ordered the Il Capo sandwich, which had roast beef, prosciutto, something else, and an olive tapenade. The olive was a really unique part of the sandwich and I liked it, though it was perhaps a little heavy handed. The side of mushroom soup was really good too.

When I wasn’t playing a wedding or rehearsing over the weekend I was watching various TV shows on Netflix. A friend and I are currently obsessed with True Blood, and are well into the third season. It seems to be going downhill, but I still want to see what happens to Sookie (as annoying as she is well…most of the time.) I’ll tell you, I’m glad I don’t live in the south with all those vampires! I also spent an evening watching a mini marathon of Chuck at my friend Sarah’s house (where we ate the cookies and loads of popcorn)…I think we managed five episodes that night? Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

I tried to include a picture of me and the fatness, but it keeps being upside down and when I turn it it gets shorter and shorter. I’m still not loving Windows 8 but I’m learning to live with it, as it’s my only option.

And now I’m off to practice. I have a “big” solo in the opera so I’m a little stressed about it. If you are local, come see the performances of Faust this weekend with Winter Opera St Louis! I’m in the pit, of course, as I’m a violinist, not a singer, but you’ll know I’m there.

(Unrelated: I was going to run this morning but it was raining and my bed just seemed more appealing. Tomorrow, I promise!)

Food

Salmon Frazer

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I have a great recipe for salmon to share with you today. Please pin my picture since I went to the trouble of making it.

Oh, a quick follow up from yesterday’s post: Leslie thought that I took her quote out of context. I do that sometimes—after all, don’t all writers take liberties with that sort of thing? But I will quickly clarify the context:

Scenario: I am at Powell Hall. I am with a friend, and we run into another mutual friend. Then another person who is friends with said mutual friend comes up, and we all get introduced. That fourth person says, oh, you’re Hannah VIOLIN—I just sent you cat pictures! Later my friend says, I can’t believe you have blog readers you don’t even know—how weird is that?! (That’s a whole ‘nother story, because while I love you all, my dear anonymous and unknown blog readers, it is always weird meeting you—but don’t let that stop you from introducing yourselves!) While recounting the story to Leslie she suggested that perhaps it was because my blog is so boring, who would want to read it. ..

Hmm… I feel like clarifying the context of her quote doesn’t really help make it sound like she wasn’t accusing my blog of being boring…but I already said that was okay, and that she was right.

And no, not everything people tell me is subject to being on the blog, just stuff that is unimportant (like this story) or obviously not private. I think I do an okay job of adhering to boundaries.

But I promised you a salmon recipe. It’s barely a recipe, but it’s delicious!

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It’s called Salmon Frazer because it’s a copycat recipe from a delicious dish by that name from one of my favorite restaurants: Frazer’s. My friend Jen gave me the recipe.

Salmon Frazer:

Take a piece of salmon. Put 1/8 inch creamy horseradish on top, then 1/8 inch of finely food processed salted/roasted almonds, and a squeeze of lemon. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

I don’t measure 1/8 inch, and I like the almonds a little less finely processed. I also tried it at 400 degrees for 20 minutes and that worked well (maybe better as it’s a shorter cooking time.)

Anyway, I’ve made this dish several times now. The things that you want to be careful of are just not putting too much of the creamy horseradish on because there is a fine line between delicious and BURNING. Go make this for dinner tonight.

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(this is pre-cooking, I believe)

Another thing I thought might be helpful to do while telling you folks about my life is to follow up on things and admit weaknesses. I was supposed to go to a yoga blogger thing this morning. I did not make it. One of my weaknesses is getting up in the morning, and that just didn’t happen. Related: how do I get the cat to stop knocking everything off the bedside table in the night? Everything meaning: glasses, alarm clock, and phone.

I also considered running this morning, but my foot is FINALLY feeling good today and I thought, you know what, let’s a) be lazy and b) be smart and let it heal another day or so.

It’s easy to read what people post online and assume they are doing hunky-dory, or that they don’t have the same problems (or worse) that you do, isn’t it? Or maybe you read my blog and say WHEW at least I’m not as lazy and unmotivated as Hannah is. But obviously we try to blog about our happy and fun moments rather than dwelling on the negative aspects of life.

I’m not sure what point I’m trying to make here, honestly. Just that you can’t believe everything you read on the internet I guess. But you CAN believe that the salmon dish is delicious and tasty, so go make it.

Food, Product Reviews

Fast Food is probably worse than Yogurt but more delicious

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Important facts about Hannah: I have a great love of Taco Bell. I have loved eating at Taco Bell ever since Taco Bell was invented, or at least until the early 90’s. That being said, I do occasionally (very occasionally, since it’s generally not healthy and I also prefer to spend my dollars at local restaurants) partake in other fast foods.

That brings us to my latest sponsored post—I know I just had one for yogurt (and seriously, go click on that coupon, go get some discount yogurt!) but I was asked to try the new Wendy’s Flatbread Chicken Sandwich, make a video, and tell you how YOU can make a video to have a chance to win Wendy’s #6secondsflat sweepstakes aka become famous and win $6,000.

I hate making videos, so mine isn’t very good, but here it is anyway. Enjoy the heavy breathing in the background. Also it is 11 seconds long. Don’t hate me. I tried the Asiago Ranch flatbread (it has bacon!) and it was pretty tasty.

(Wendy’s probably hates me for mentioning Taco Bell so much in the first paragraph of this post, but honestly, I have to be true to myself and my readers, right? I’ve never been one to worry much about SEO and I’m not going to start when I don’t think it fits the needs of my blog.)

I was also asked to share a story about my life that relates to this post. (I’m telling you all the secrets…)

On family trips when I was a child, we would have the primary choices of Wendy’s or McDonald’s for food. My sister Leslie was a picky eater and hated hamburgers, so after many years of throwing fits, occasionally being made to wait in the car while we ate, and many, many tears, my parents finally decided she would be allowed to order the more expensive McNuggets. This was long before Wendy’s offered a variety of foods on the 99 cent value menu, including some chicken options. I was a little bitter about this, because while I would eat my cheeseburger and be fine with that, I would have much preferred chicken nuggets. Lesson learned: throw more fits, or be born later in the birth order. Next time!

When we went to Wendy’s, we would often get Frostys and then we would either dip french fries into them, or get a bunch of (free) packages of saltine crackers and dip THOSE into the chocolate Frostys. (Back then there was only one flavor.) I don’t recall if Leslie would partake in this but my brother Jesse and I definitely did. (This was during the pre-Carrie years, so that’s why I’m not mentioning her…not because I don’t like her.)

Anyway, once we discovered Taco Bell we would generally just eat there as it was somewhere Leslie would happily eat, but before that I have many happy memories of having meals of cheeseburgers, frostys with crackers, and a sobbing younger sister, without me even having to do anything to torture her.

After Carrie was born, it turned out that she didn’t like Taco Bell (I know, what??), so the family was torn apart again, and would often try to find two fast food restaurants side by side so that we could all be somewhat happy. This once turned into Leslie having to eat her Taco Bell outside because a hamburger place wouldn’t allow her to bring it in to join the rest of her family enjoying burgers and fries.

I’d recommend the Flatbread sandwich overall: it was tasty, it had crunchy bacon, and the flavor was good. The other flavor, smoked honey mustard, is lower in calories (370) and is probably pretty tasty too, so if you are on the road and need a quick fix, give one a try: for a limited time only!

Thanks to Wendy’s for sponsoring this post and allowing me to continue to mainly blog about my cat and how I’m not running.