Super Bowl Sunday = Super Fun!

The past few days of my life have been FILLED with sports. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way :) After my first day with the D-backs, I actually scored a pair of passes to the Phoenix Open (PGA) from my boss. I don't think I've ever really been to a professional golf tournament before. I mean, I worked a few at my old university's athletics department, but I haven't ever spectated before.

So on Sunday morning, J.D. and I drove up to Scottsdale and caught a few hours of the tournament. Um, if you've never been to one before, let me just say: THEY'RE AWESOME! Everyone there was boozing, enjoying the sun and basically hanging out. Pretty typical of the Arizona State area anyways :)

Phones and cameras weren't allowed at the course, so I snapped a quick photo on top of the course

J.D. advised me not to partake in any alcohol at the PGA stop, because we were only a few hours away from Super Bowl festivities. Since we still don't know many people in the area, we reserved a table to watch the game at a local bar and grill we've been wanting to try for quite some time.

Nevermind the crazy big game atmosphere, this place was amazing! The food wasn't really anything I'd imagine stumbling across in a bar. And since we'd reserved a spot, they gave us a whole bunch of goodies to take home including: beer glasses, a hat and a cocktail shaker. I think I've admitted before that I like to steal glasses from bars... This was like the best of both worlds because I got to stuff glasses inside of my purse, but didn't have to feel guilty about it, haha.

Watching a game at a bar with 30+ TVs is something else. Since I'm not a huge football fan I decided to continue my tradition of rooting for the team with the hottest QB. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers it was then! Agree with me, ladies?!

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Everyone in the bar clearly had a side, so it made the game that much more fun being able to choose a side and root for it! And in keeping in the spirit of Super Bowls past, I saved my bathroom breaks for AFTER the commercial breaks :) The VW Darth Vader one was for sure my favorite... followed closely by Roseanne being knocked out in a Snickers ad. The one downside to celebrating a game at a bar is the chatter inside made it difficult to hear all of the commercials. Then again, it might have been the booze...

We started off with some delicious edamame...

I was in the mood for Mexican, so I ordered carnitas tacos with queso dip and lime rice...

Savored the BEST girlie drink of my life (frozen Hurricane/margarita mix)...

And for dessert we decided to split house-made-from-scratch chocolate chip cookies. They were AMAZING -- even if I could only eat two, haha. It was a ton of fun; I'm glad I finally got to experience a Super Bowl bar party since all I've ever been to were house parties before this season.

And now that the football season is over, I may just be the happiest girl on the planet. Because that mean's BASEBALL is hereeeeeeee! Pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training on Sunday, but as an employee, I reported today :) I got a sneak preview tour of the Salt River Fields facilities in Scottsdale -- the newest Spring Training facility in all of baseball! And I set to work for about half the day. I'm so giddy I can't even contain myself.

Bring on the MLB season!!!

Fun with Pumpkin: Pumpkin crème brûlée and pumpkin martinis

I know the season for pumpkin is melting away faster than the snow in California. But if you're like me, you bought way tooo much pumpkin over the fall months. I cracked open the cans, used what I needed and stored the rest in the freezer for a rainy day.

Well, rainy days are few and far between here in the desert. In fact, it's still close to 80° here in Arizona....

Enter warm and frosty pumpkin treats!

You'll remember I raved about the pumpkin crème brûlée we had for Thanksgiving (not to toot my own horn, but this was pretty dang good). It was creamy, thick and tasted like a mini serving of pumpkin pie with a thick buttery and sugary crust on top. I recently watched the movie Amélie and was reminded of my favorite line (promise this is going somewhere):

"Amélie is a shy young woman with a pronounced taste for all life's small pleasures : immersing one's hand in a sack of grain, craking the crust of a crème brûlée with the back of a teaspoon or skipping stones on the Canal St-Martin."

Cracking the top sugary layer of a crème brûlée into a million tiny shattered pieces is one of my favorite things in life. Seriously, it's my favorite dessert, ever. It is with this in mind, I present to you my Thanksgiving dessert, and a recent apératif.

Pumpkin Crème Brûlée (adapted from Emeril Lagasse, I may or may not have said "bam" while preparing):

Ingredients:

• 2 c heavy cream
• 1/4 c light brown sugar
• 1/4 c sugar, plus 4 t
• 8 large egg yolks
• 1/2 t vanilla extract
• 1/4 t ground cinnamon
• 1/8 t grated nutmeg
• 1 c canned cooked pumpkin

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Arrange 8 (1/2-cup) ramekins or custard cups in a large metal baking pan.

In a medium saucepan, combine the cream, brown sugar, and 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Bring to a bare simmer over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks until frothy and lemon-colored. Slowly add 3/4 cup of the hot cream mixture, whisking constantly. Add the egg mixture to the remaining hot cream, and whisk. Add the vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin, and whisk until smooth. Divide among the prepared custard cups.

Add enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the cups. Bake until the custards are just set in the center but not stiff, 45 minutes to 55 minutes. Remove from the oven and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 3 hours or overnight.

Sprinkle each custard with 1/2 teaspoon of the remaining sugar (I used a special crème brûlée praline-flavored sugar, it made the taste super buttery and gave it that extra step above regular sugar). Using a kitchen torch, caramelize the sugar. Place on small dessert plates and serve.

...Heaven in a ramekin!

Now prior to dinner tonight, I continued my pumpkin spice flavoring tradition to rid my freezer of canned pumpkin. Enter my pumpkin apéritif (pre-dinner drink in the French tradition):

Pumpkin Pie Spice Martinis

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 2 t pumpkin pie spice, divided
• 2 t granulated sugar
• 2 c skim milk
• 2 t pumpkin puree
• 2 c pomegranate cranberry juice
• 4 oz. clementine vodka
• ice

Directions:

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the brown sugar, 1 t pumpkin pie spice, and 1/2 c water. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and bring it to a boil. Remove from heat and cool for 30 minutes. Syrup can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Mix together the granulated sugar and remaining 1 t pumpkin pie spice and put it onto a shallow plate. Pour 2 tablespoons of the simple syrup onto a plate. Dip the rims of 4 martini glasses into the syrup, and then in the spiced sugar. Set aside.

In a cocktail shaker, combine the milk, pumpkin puree, juice, vodka, half the simple syrup and ice and shake until well blended. Pour into the prepared glasses.

**I realized halfway through I was missing a liquid base. So that's where the pomegranate juice comes in, but it's masked behind the creamy texture of the pumpkin puree and the frothiness of the milk. Pumpkin pie spice simple syrup seriously might be my favorite flavor ever!! This all combined to make a martini that essentially tasted like pumpkin pie... but with alcohol :)

Does life get any better than that?! (Note: I couldn't consume too much, it was quite rich. This is simply meant to be for sipping as an apéritif -- before eating)

Eating Nemo was amazing

After turning down a job last week I've been a train wreck. When I was 20 and my first boyfriend broke up with me, I couldn't eat for days. Anytime I tried my stomach was just a big mess. Five years later, I had that feeling again. Not regret for having turned down a job after interviewing for 21 in this economy, but more so that disgusting sick feeling inside, like you know you've done something totally wrong you can't take back.

Clearly, I need to lighten up. But finances are a BIG deal when you don't have any. However, this week I've been lining up a few more part time gigs and interviews. I think something is bound to fall into my lap one day soon. That being said, I'm starting to eat again.

And man did I ever eat yesterday. J.D. and I went to the Arizona State Fair and then kept the day going by celebrating the 3rd of the month, which we do every month for obvious reasons, at a fancy-looking sushi place near our house. Thank God my boyfriend has a job...

We kicked the fair's festivities off with some lunch, a compromise between disturbing fried stations (for J.D.) and something healthy (for me). BBQ it was!

Then we made our way to the midway and I desperately wanted to search for the livestock area to catch a glimpse of the -- wait for it -- WIENER DOG RACES!

Eeeeeeee they were so cute!!!!!(#*&&#^@%%@!!!!!!! The wieners were dressed up in hot dog costumes, just like little Woodstock was for Halloween :) There were also tiny piggy races too. The guy running the show explained to us that pigs are the fourth smartest animals in the world, behind humans, primates and dolphins. Dogs were all the way down to No. 9 or something like that. So basically, anything you could teach a dog, he could teach his pigs in half the time. Man those suckers were fast. Just wait a couple of months before they hit the 1,000 lb. mark....

They were so fast I couldn't even get a decent picture. Oh well.

After seeing the country's largest Ferris wheel on wheels -- no way I'm getting on a ride that can be taken down and shipped off in a day -- we finally made it the livestock area.

And in the petting zoo area they had kangaroos! I really wanted to go in and pet one, but I would have felt weird being the only person over 8 without a child in there.

After the fair, we went home to feed Woodstock and cool off for a little bit since it had been close to 90 degrees outside. J.D. looked up a local sushi/martini bar and discovered it features a 50% off menu from Tuesday until Saturday during Happy Hour! By the time we made our way over, there was still over an hour left! :)

We sat down at our table at Blue Wasabi and checked out the drink menu while they actually brought us blue wasabi for the sushi.

As much as I had wanted to order the Nice Melons, it wasn't half off for Happy Hour. So I went with the Berry White instead. Good Lord that thing was dangerous and tasted like a Jolly Rancher.

Then back to the menu we went to figure out our dinner:

While I would have loved to order the Dirty Sanchez or Me Soy Horny rolls just for the sheer comedic value of saying those in public, at a classy bar no less, I wasn't too thrilled with the ingredients. So instead we split the Eating Nemo and the Wango Mango rolls. Along with a slew of appetizers.

We had two 8-piece rolls, three appetizers and three drinks for under $40 (and enough leftovers for a third lunch/dinner)! I think if we'd paid full price beyond Happy Hour it would have cost over $70 without the tax. Yikes! If ANYONE ever comes to visit me in Arizona, we're going to this place between Tuesday and Saturday, no questions asked!!! It was really amazing sushi. And it led to waaay too many inappropriate jokes.

Now I think it's time for me to get back to my writing. I'm at 2,080 words with a long road ahead of me....

I'm not crazy

...right??

J.D. enjoyed a mixed drink after dinner last night and I got pretty excited. A far cry from the usual glass of wine or bottle of beer with a meal. I think I even cried out, "I didn't realize it was cocktail time!!" before springing for the stainless steel cocktail shaker in the kitchen.

Before I knew it, the Rosemary Bellinitini was born out of my crazed head. We had half a bottle of peach purée in the fridge, an entire bag of rosemary from the last time I trimmed the hedges in the yard, and a pretty untouched bottle of Swedish clementine vodka. Money.

I mixed up what I thought would be a winning combination before spitting it out into the sink. You see, I'm pretty sensitive to the strength of alcohol. Shoot, I'm good to go after two drinks, tops. So you can see how a regular martini could be a bit much for me.

Modifications were in order. And I whipped up my first ever batch of simple syrup. Here is the final product of my 30 minute laboring:

(In my haste this was the only picture of the concoction shot -- from my iPhone)

Rosemary Bellinitini

• 2 oz. Clementine vodka
• 1/2 oz. Grand Marnier
• 1 oz. peach purée
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. simple syrup
• 2 sprigs of rosemary

Toss two sprigs of rosemary into a cocktail shaker, making sure the needles don't fall of the stems. Then add about two handfuls of ice, to ensure your drink stays nice and cold. Add in the remaining wet ingredients, cover and shake vigorously. Garnish with rosemary if you wish and enjoy.

Maybe next time I'll throw some sparkling wine into the mix...

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Oh yeah, during the next three days, voting is OPEN for Foodbuzz's Project Food Blog! Whether you're a member or not, please go here and help me move on to the next round :) Then I'll show you a celebration that puts this drink to shame.

Taco Tuesday

Last night was one of the more enjoyable nights I've had living in Stockton! Does that ever happen to anyone else -- you seem to go out, do more and make more friends right before leaving?!

It happened when I worked for the AVP and left. It happened literally the final two weeks I lived in France. And now it's happening in Stockton! I'm someone who struggles at meeting new people and going out and enjoying new cities/places at first. But once I'm out of my shell, it comes much easier for me. My goal in Phoenix is to start loving life and meeting people right away!!

Anyways, back to last night. A couple of friends from work were planning on meeting up at Windmill Cove, an island-ish bar and grill located right of the Delta draining into the San Francisco Bay. The easiest way to get there from where we live is by boat down the river. It would have been a five minute drive. Except, none of us has a boat.

So instead we drove 20ish minutes to get there. And immediately started having the time of our lives! There were two live bands, a DJ, beach volleyball courts and all-you-can-eat tacos for $7.50! Greatest and cheapest dinner I've had in a LONG time. I went nuts and had about five mini tacos :) You had your choice of crunchy or soft shells filled with either shredded chicken or ground beef. After getting the tacos then a line formed by the condiments area, where you could add hot sauce, pico de gallo salsa, gaucamole, sour cream, cheese, lettuce and olives. I sampled a little bit of everything and was in heaven.

Then upstairs where the band was playing I tried one of their famous house mai tais. Strongest drink I've ever had. It was composed of four different rums, more alcohol, more alcohol on top of that, a little bit of orange juice and then the bartender floated white rum on top. My first sip was pretty hard to get through. Eventually I got there and enjoyed it. One was enough for me, the lightweight :)

We saw a really interesting mix of people there too. People watching in Stockton is one of my favorite activities. For example, we saw tons of women dressed super cute and fairly young, who when they turned around to our horror were in their 50s-60s and dressed like their teens! Think of that one leathery scene from There's Something About Mary... Then we saw a chick wearing a denim onesie with a bright pink... um... body thong underneath it? I saw a girl wearing a full on rainbow outfit, a woman wearing socks under her sandals, dude with beer guts flapping in the wind, and then some. Free music and flowing alcohol really brings out the city's finest :)

This is the entrance to the place, grassy area for dining downstairs, grill inside and bar on the upstairs patio.

And oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I CHOPPED MY HAIR yesterday morning. I knew I wanted a change; something easy I could manage in the 100º + heat I'll be living in down in Arizona. I walked in with these two pictures:

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And came out with this:

The mai tai in hand helped me cope a little bit. It's nothing like what I asked, and a good two inches shorter than she said she was going to cut it. Worst of all is that I can't even put it in a ponytail!!! Nor a half pony or anything. I don't know what to do with this :( It's shorter than anything I've ever had and I don't think it looks good for my face structure. Another downside is that my hair grows at a sloth's pace. It takes forever to grow out. So I'm stuck with this mess for a little bit. Oh well.

We still enjoyed our evening though! As did the rest of our crew.

I love the summer!!! It's my favorite season of the year :)

Cheers!

Last night J.D. and I had sort of impromptu celebratory tapas dinner downtown.

Why??

Oh it's no big deal really, except WE'RE MOVING HERE IN TWO WEEKS!!!

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Yep, he got and accepted the job at the NCAA radio Internet company in Arizona. Now it's on me to find a new job as well, especially since I turned in my two weeks' notice today.

So back to the food.

We started off with a crostini sampler that included a bleu cheese-apple-bacon bite, honey-fig-goat cheese and finally, avocado-tomato-shrimp. All that was paired next to a caprese salad split by two. Our third shared plate was a heaping pile of fried calamari and marinara sauce. Obviously devoured before photographed :)

While the lighting was not conducive to photography, we devoured a chocolate raspberry brandy torte. It was slathered in marshmallow cream. Oh my goodness!!!

A glass of Blue Moon (for him) and pinot grigio (for me) topped off the evening. And there may or may not have been a trip to frozen yogurt later. I'm just saying.

The party (in my mouth) continued into the morning. I'd been craving an egg breakfast sandwich, but haven't been waking up early enough to make one before work. Today was the perfect day, since I had time to kill before Woodstock's final post-neutering check-up. He's healing juuust fine by the way!

My smiley face breakfast consisted of a whole wheat bagel thin, fried egg, Canadian bacon, almond pesto and spinach. I also enjoyed a freshly-cut pineapple, Tuscan melon and cherries.

Now there is a lot to do in the next few weeks. So just to prepare you in advance, I'm going to be stressed/all over the place/MIA. Now you're ready :) I can't believe I'm going to be a resident of a state other than California for the first time in 25 years!!!

Anyone in Arizona want to be my friend?? How about get me a job in sports??? :) Kthanksbye.

Peanut Butter Jelly Time!!

Yeah, it's weird and random (I ♥ Family Guy for just that reason!!), but this actually inspired a twist on my breakfast this morning!

Almond butter berry toast, almond butter berry toast!!!

Ok, not quite the same thing but it did kind of remind me of eating a PB&J sandwich. Things started off with the egg coating that included: a splash of skim milk, vanilla extract and lots and lots of cinnamon. Then I grilled up two pieces of whole wheat toast and topped them with nature's three berries (blackberries, blueberries and raspberries). I actually have little frozen packets of these berries that I like to thaw out and use the juice in lieu of syrup. It's naturally sweet! Finally on top went drizzles of the AB, some crushed up walnuts and more cinnamon.

A great start to a day. Especially since yesterday ended so horribly. I was up all night coughing again. This time, I felt like I ripped my abs from it. Seriously, I woke up this morning and had a six-pack. I've never had a sick-pack hahaha.

So let's catch up with where I left you all yesterday then. After lunch I dicked around online for a bit and then actually did roll up my sleeves and set to work. Remember this before shot?

Come on out, after!!! (I feel like a trashy talk show host, this is so fun!)

I went nuts!! I swept all the floors in my house (no mopping yet, that's for another day) and did three weeks of laundry. I even washed the bed sheets on our bed (not pictured). The one above is the guest room, so I guess we can finally have people over again haha. I also cleaned out and replaced my Brita filter. That's a gross chore. And did I mention I did laundry?! I felt like that went on forever. If you can't tell, laundry's my least fav chore.

When J.D. came back from work, we were not in game hen mode for dinner -- again. I swear we're going to eat that thing someday! So instead we finally gave into my week-long craving for Mexican!!!! All inspired by this new purchase:

They were really interesting as a nacho base! Inside my nachos went lean ground turkey, reduced fat refried beans, spinach, carrots, broccoli slaw, tomatoes, avocado and salsa.

And on the side I had a very pink strawberry-pomegranate margarita (or two)!

I may have been a little buzzed after 1.5 shots worth of Patrón in my drinks. Such a light weight!!! In fact, I think I do BETTER at Jeopardy! when I'm "drunk"! If I ever make it on the show, I hope to be about three drinks in during my debut. (Only half kidding).

Nerd alert!!

Since I'm still bronchi girl (as J.D. likes to call me, he's a sweet bf isn't he??), I can't really run yet. I think my lungs would explode. So after dinner/two episodes of the greatest show on the Earth -- no, not Barnum & Bailey -- we went for nearly an hour walk. That's the same distance it takes me to run 22 minutes, haha. It was a nice end to the evening.

After coughing and turning all night, I woke up at 9:30 and took the dog out to do his business and eat his breakfast. Before I set out to make my own food, I had a little more cleaning to do.

Yep, another before and after:

And like magic, the after:

I'm thinking about lounging by the pool for a bit to manage my pastiness. Maybe some day I'll have a summer tan ;) Then after the three of us are packing up and heading to the Bay Area to hang out with my fam for our three-day weekend! Woohoo!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY WEEKEND, everyone!!! I loooooooove summer. Please don't rub in the fact that I'm unable to participate in my 5K tomorrow :( I'm still super bummed about that.

Since you've been good and made it through this entire post, I'll leave you with a special treat. Cone and all.

Woodstock wanted to show you his new tricks he's been learning in puppy class! Please excuse his cone :) He's sad he can't run in the Weenie Nationals this year because of his cone. Just like his momma, he can't quite run this weekend. But next year, he'll be trying out!!!!

What's your least favorite chore??? Besides cleaning toilets, mine has to be doing the laundry. It's never-ending.