Week 30: Infused alcohol

Prior to this week, I’d never cut a pineapple. Others have done it for me and I’ve eaten pre-cut pineapple, but I never got my hands dirty while doing so. It scared me.

This week, I rolled up my sleeves and got down to business. Silly me, I didn’t even realized pineapples had seeds under their spiny skin! Fun fact for the day.

Once I had several pineapple spears, I cut them down farther and set out to infuse my own tequila. Yes, I started making pineapple tequila!

Infusing alcohol is pretty easy. Especially since luck would have me randomly purchasing small mason jars just the day before. In my quest to come up with something new, I browsed many crafty blogs and found a recipe for grapefruit vodka from Not Martha. Won over by this simple idea, I knew I could kill two birds with one stone and a.) cut my very first pineapple and b.) infuse my very first jar of alcohol!

All I did was fill the jar with pineapple spears and then topped off with lots of tequila (tequila and I aren’t really friends anyways, so why not make it taste better?). Note: When infusing alcohol, make sure to use the best quality you’ve got on hand. The fruit is only going to give it a hint of flavor, it’s not overpowering. In my case, the bf would have FLIPPED if I used all of our Patrón, so instead I went with a mélange of our remaining José Cuervo and then topped it off with Patrón ;)

As a tip for mild-flavored fruits (such as pineapple), most recipes I browsed said to leave the pineapple in the alcohol for up to two weeks. Then when ready, strain the liquid and use to your tastes.

After two days, I couldn’t wait to try it. I was so excited. So as soon as I woke up the second day, I took a spoon to my jar and tasted. What a horrendous idea that was. Even though it smelled like pineapple, it straight up tasted like tequila. I almost spat it out. Clearly it needed more time!

So four days later, I wanted to test it out in a beverage. My remaining pineapple was close to the end of its life and I honestly couldn’t wait any longer. So that pineapple tequila turned into this:

Yes, that’s a piña colada margarita! No I didn't have any mini drink umbrellas. Leave me alone for a few seconds while I pout.

Although it ended up being a lot more watery than I would have liked, the margarita tasted pretty darn delicious. And now that my curiosities have been satisfied, I still have 4/5 of the jar left to soak up more pineapple flavor. Then I can really enjoy it next week (though, who really enjoys tequila anyways?!).

Piña Colada Margarita

• 2 shots (4 oz) pineapple infused tequila
• 1/2 c fresh pineapple
• 1/2 c coconut milk
• ice to thicken up
• salt to rim the glass

Enjoy the warm weather this weekend!

30 Books You Should Read Before 30

Before I get into it, I'm going to let you in on a little secret.

I'm in a slump. My "new things" are coming to a slow crawl. I feel like most of the things I've got left involve cooking or baking. While I knew my financial resources would be limited this year, this certainly wasn't what I had in mind!

Now that's out there, does anyone have any suggestions of things I could do that sound fun and interesting for the remaining five months this year? The cheaper, the better!

What I've got on my list:

• go to a shooting range
• donate blood (so scared, I always pass out even when I get my cholesterol tested)
• buy something from a vintage shop
• read Anne Frank's diary
• make something crafty?
• vlog (I don't actually have a camera... so that may be difficult ha)
• try a hookah lounge

Like I said, it's my mid-year slump! Any non-cooking ideas would be much, much appreciated :)

Now on to the 30 before 30 list! (Maybe making some headway on this could be one of my goals?) I've got 4 years to go... think I can tackle it?

1. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
2. 1984 by George Orwell
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
5. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
6. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
7. The Rights of Man by Tom Paine
8. The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
9. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
10. The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
11. The Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton
12. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
13. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
14. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
15. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
16. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
17. Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot
18. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
19. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
20. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
21. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
22. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
23. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
24. The Republic by Plato
25. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
26. Getting Things Done by David Allen
27. How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
28. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
29. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
30. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Bolded are the books which I have read in my 26 years of life... what a short list! If you want the full, gory details about the books I've read, check out my Goodreads profile!

(Need more? How about 100 books you should have read by college: I've made a major dent in this list! Thank my English and French literature degrees for that one.)

Week 29: Home made chocolate cranberry & toasted coconut granola

Every week in 2011, for 52-straight weeks, I hope to try something new and blog about it here. This is the 29th post in the series, when I finally made my own granola at home. Here you can find a list of all my weekly adventures thus far.

I’ve always loved granola. Especially when it’s incorporated into trail mixes with nuts, fruit and chocolate. But mostly chocolate.

One of my best friends from home always makes granola, and she makes it look so easy! When I visited her at UCLA one summer I was still at UC Santa Barbara, she made honey nut granola and we ate it like there was no tomorrow.

Since then, I’ve been telling myself I’ve always wanted to make granola. But, something about it scared me. And I have no idea why, because it’s one of the easier things a person could possibly make.

Chocolate, Cranberry & Toasted Coconut Granola

Adapted from Blog Critics

• 4 c rolled oats
• 3 T cocoa powder
• 1/2 c dried cranberries
• 1/4 c coconut flakes
• 1/4 c white chocolate chips
• 1/2 c chopped nuts
• 1/3 c honey
• 3 T maple syrup
• 1/2 c almond oil
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t ginger
• 1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Stir all ingredients together in a bowl. Combine until oats are totally coated. Spread in a thin layer on a parchment covered cookie sheet. Bake for 45 minutes or until a spoonful left to cool to room temperature is crunchy. Stir every 15 minutes for evenly cooked granola or leave unstirred for chunkier granola.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Although I’ve been semi bed-ridden today, all I could think about was a bowl of this granola. For breakfast I dished out a bowl of plain Greek yogurt, sliced up strawberries and included a generous heaping of granola. I may have also grabbed a few handfuls to snack on.

So there you have it! Beautiful, chocolatey granola with a healthy serving of fruits and nuts. The cocoa powder is sort of subtle, it’s not overly chocolatey, but every now and then you get a bite of a white chocolate chip and it adds another layer of chocolate! If you’re crazy like I am, you could also throw in mini chocolate morsels prior to baking. Let’s be gourmet and call it triple chocolate granola then, instead of exposing it for the sugar overload it really is…

But come on, do you blame me?! I mean, I have been bed-ridden after all :)

Besides, I have grand ideas for this granola!

Week 28: Attend a professional All-Star Game

Every week in 2011, for 52-straight weeks, I hope to try something new and blog about it here. This is the 28th post in the series, when I attended my first All-Star Game. Here you can find a list of all my weekly adventures thus far.

As an avid sports fan – baseball especially – two of my nerdiest dreams are to visit every ballpark and attend an All-Star Game.

Thus far I’ve been to the Oakland A’s, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels… of Anaheim, Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox and New York Mets stadiums. Ten is a far cry from all 30 ;)

But last week I was finally able to catch the MLB All-Star FanFest, Futures Game, Celebrity Softball Game, Home Run Derby and of course the actual All-Star Game here in Phoenix. I put in close to a 60-hour week when all was said and done! But it was soooooo awesome. I’m so glad I was able to enjoy it while working, but I’m also glad it’s behind us. I’ve been desperately trying to catch up on sleep and decent eating habits since then, but somehow failing significantly.

Once the team hits the road next week, I’m guessing things will get back to normal for me… two weeks before grad school starts.

Since I am exhausted and starving, I’ll leave you with pictures from last week!

FanFest

Futures/Celebrity Softball Games

Home Run Derby

All-Star Game

Oh yeah… and the Cee-lo Green concert they threw :) He was awesome. So much so, I purchased his album.

(The quality wasn’t all that great, but I was close!)

Did you watch the game?! :)

Week 27: Spend money on myself

Every week in 2011, for 52-straight weeks, I hope to try something new and blog about it here. This is the 27th post in the series, when I finally bought nice makeup and learned how to use it. Here you can find a list of all my weekly adventures thus far.

I have been insanely busy over the past week and a half with work. Things will finally slow down later next week, but until then I’m only going to post once this week. I’ll give you a hint at the end of this entry with the major event that’s been taking over my life :)

So let’s get into this week’s new thing. For the longest time I’ve wanted to buy MAC makeup. Everyone I know uses and loves it! I’ve only really ever bought makeup at Target/Wal-Mart, and I haven’t really been spending much time on myself in the morning. Usually I’ll take a shower at night, straighten my hair in the morning, throw on a little bit of makeup and then I’m out the door.

Originally I had every intention of buying some MAC this year… but it’s still a bit out of my price range (I have been searching for full-time employment for when my D-backs job finishes up in October). In lieu of MAC, I made my first trip to our local Sephora earlier this week and browsed.

For the first time in my life, really, I caved and bought nice makeup! And I’ve discovered a new way to use it.

First I’ll show you the goods, then the tutorial video will follow.

I needed a new liquid eyeliner and decided to go with the glittery black. I’ve never used an eyeliner on my lower lid before, so I bought a black smudge pencil. As inspiration from the tutorial video (which I will post below), I decided to also buy my first-ever eyeshadow palette. You’ll see why in a bit. Last but not least, some glittery bronzer. Sensing a theme here?

I’ve only had this palette for two days, but I’m already in love! It’s weird how since buying it, I’m totally motivated to spend a few extra minutes on myself each morning. It’s even inspired me to open up my lipgloss box for the first time in months, if not a year.

So what could possibly have sparked this desire to finally spend money on some nice makeup?!

…Would you be surprised if I said Katy Perry?! haha, didn’t think so.

One of my favorite things about Katy Perry is her sense of style. She totally reminds me of a pin-up model from the 40s/50s. And this is one of my favorite music videos of her. Is it just me, or does it remind anyone else of The Notebook? I’m pretty sure that was the goal here.

Here is the tutorial I found on how to achieve Katy Perry’s look from the music video Thinking of You:

And now I leave you with a hint as to why I’ve been so busy this week…

See you all next week!

I’m on a Boat Part 2 & Week 26

I think I’m beginning to create an annual tradition of going boating the July 4th weekend! Check out my post last year if you have a hankering to see the SNL video – you’re welcome in advance for getting that song stuck in your head again. It’s been stuck in mine for the past two days!

On Friday I flew back to California for the weekend and caught up with a bunch of old friends. I feel like a whirlwind tour every time I go home. It always passes so quickly.

The weekend was jam-packed with a ton of fun activities and ended on a high note. A couple of my friends from my last job rented a boat for the entire day on Sunday and invited me to tag along. We took it back and forth on the Delta, went swimming, dove off the side and brought sandwiches, snacks, drinks and cookies and enjoyed the sun. I also dabbled in some knee boarding, something I’ve never done before!

My friends brought their dog and he loved it. He kept jumping in the water, swimming and just chilled out on the boat. I had an absolute blast… until my friend split her lip knee boarding. That was a scary moment, but after a quick trip to the ER, everything seems to be in order. I’m so glad she’s ok!

 

Now I’m going to go back in time. The day prior (Saturday), I lounged by the pool with my parents. I tried to convince my dad to wake up at 5 a.m. and make mimosas with me, because it was the first day of the Tour de France! One small problem, however, is that I didn’t wake up until close to 10 a.m. Oops.

At least the champagne cocktails still went down.

Ever since living in France, I’m basically addicted to champagne cocktails, or kir as they are called over the pond. Addicted isn’t quite the right word because I’ve never made them myself, I’ve only ever had them at restaurants or bars.

A kir is basically champagne and some sort of flavored liqueur. I’ve had kir royale (champagne and crème de cassis, or black currant syrup), kir framboise (raspberry), kir lavande (lavender) and kir rose to name a few.

When my dad moved back to California after working in France, he brought home a bottle of cassis coulis. It’s still in the fridge and inspired my first ever kir-making session!

 

I made three different versions of my kirs: kir royale with Korbel champagne, kir royale and brut rosé sparking wine and I had the Korbel with lavender syrup.

Kir Ingredients & Directions:

• 1-2 T flavored syrup/liqueur
• brut/dry sparkling wine

This couldn’t be any easier! Simply pour your favorite flavor syrup/liqueur into the bottom of a champagne flute, tilt at an angle and fill with champagne or sparkling wine. Simple, elegant and delicious!

I really enjoyed it! It was a pretty fun cocktail to lounge around with all morning/afternoon. I may have also tried the brut rosé with lavender syrup. I really love brut rosé, definitely try it if you haven’t before.

Later that night, my friend and I went out to a birthday party in San Jose. We may or may not have been out until 3:30 a.m. the night before going boating at 8 a.m. Yeah, I did all of that on less than three hours of sleep…. Kind of a champ. I impressed myself since I figured I’d be passing out mid-day.

So now I’ll take you back to Friday. I got my family tickets and field passes to see my two baseball teams play each other! My team of employment traveled to Oakland for the weekend to play my favorite team since childhood. Also, my favorite player of all time started for the A’s (Rich Harden, drool). I remember seeing his Major League home debut just before I moved away to Santa Barbara for college in 2003…

 

While I’ve been going to A’s games my whole life, I’ve never actually made it on to the field before! I’ve seen batting practice a bunch of times, but this was a first! And I see D-backs batting practice (on and off the field) often, so that was fun to finally see my team on the road.

Oh and two of my friends from HS work for the A’s, so it was great to catch up for a bit before the stadium got too crazy!

While the D-backs lost, I’m secretly glad I got to see an A’s win! It felt weird though, I wasn’t sure who to cheer for. The A’s have traded so many players, I barely recognize anyone on the team (except for my bf Rich Harden of course). And I’m with the D-backs every day, so I know all those guys. I kind of wish Arizona won because we actually had tickets to sit in the visiting team section – right behind the dugout!

My favorite Diamondback player even threw us a game ball in between innings! We were the only D-backs apparel-sporting fans in the section really. So that was cool.

After the game the whole family went to my dad’s favorite bar. I even tried a cocktail made with crème de violette. It was tasty, and basically planted the seed of champagne cocktails for the following afternoon.

Check out Adesso’s menu though, that place is amazing! We’ve pretty much gone there after any A’s game I’ve been to this year.

It’s a really trendy bistro type of atmosphere in the nicer part of Oakland ;) It’s always super packed too. My sister and her boyfriend are friends with the bartender, so they generally ask him to make a fun cocktail for us. I wanted to try the crème de violette and it came with a brandy-soaked cherry and a little bit of brandy. My sister had a strawberry balsamic whiskey concoction. My parents ordered wine and once the clock hit 10:30, we all dove right into the happy hour offerings. They served up free food for patrons. It consisted of home made foccia, limoncello rice pudding, calamari salad, Mediterranean olives, mini sandwiches and house-cured salami.

It’s never quite the same there because the menu changes so often. But everyone always agrees on going there. It’s a fantastic choice post-baseball games. I’ve never been let down with anything I’ve ordered from them and it also is the place where I discovered my love for brut rosé.

So in summary, my new things for the half-way point of 2011, week 26 were:

• boating the Delta
• knee boarding
• making kir at home
• getting field passes for BP at an A’s game
• trying crème de violette

I’d say my New Year’s resolution to try something new every week in 2011 is going quite strong! I miss California and all my new adventures already :)

Hope everyone had a fabulous Fourth of July… I flew over at least eight different Phoenix-area fireworks shows and a lightning storm. That was kind of scary, but thankfully I’m still in one piece!

Week 25: Visit Sedona

While I’ve never in my life been to the Grand Canyon, living in Arizona is a step closer in that direction. However, it’s still a 3-to-4 hour drive from our house in the Phoenix area. So on Tuesday, we entertained the idea of waking up at the crack of dawn and driving up to the Canyon.

…Instead we got up around 7ish and were able to drive north and make it to Sedona around 10 a.m. (another place I’ve never been).

It turned out to be quite cooler up in Sedona, with temperatures hitting 112 in Phoenix, but only 91 in Sedona. After doing a lot of research on the area, I wanted to start out the day with a hike at Red Rock National Park.

With little to no cell phone service, the step-by-step GPS directions I pulled from websites turned out to be a life saver! The views were beautiful, and there was tons of red sand all around, painting the canyons and mountains.

After 1.81 miles (which turned out to be a 45-minute hike in the beating sun), we decided to call it quits with the hiking and headed back to the car for lunch. We brought an ice chest and it hung out in the trunk during our hike.

Hungry and hot, we found a picnic table in the shade and ate quinoa & black bean salad, coconut water/Powerade, chocolate chip cookie Larabars, apples and carrots. Oh yeah and we had amazing views still!

After lunch, we drove a few miles down a dusty trail to the Palatki Heritage Site – a national preserve with Native American ruins and cave paintings! I don’t think I’ve ever seen preserved cave paintings, or any cave paintings really, before. It was a really neat experience and we learned a great deal about the history of Arizona and its indigenous people.

If you look closely, you can see the ruins up in the cliff above. They have carbon dated it back to the 11th or 12th century, and it was abandoned in the 13th century due to a massive drought in the valley. Apparently that was the transition from nomadic tribes hunting and wandering through the area, to staying permanently as farming developed here.

So it was quite a contrast to see the cave paintings, which have been left by many different nomadic tribes, dating back to the last 100 years. The different colored paints denote the different tribes that have left their mark. The government has declared this an official historical site and will not remove any paintings 50 years or older -- all carbon dated for authenticity.

Apparently these are some of the best preserved ruins and cave paintings in the state! It was really amazing, we spent over two hours at these two sites. If you have something similar near you, I highly recommend that you go and check it out. It was totally mind blowing!

Me in the caves!

And that was only the first half of our day trip. So, while it wasn’t my original intention, this is going to be a two-part post :) I literally took hundreds of pictures and can’t wait to show you the rest.

Stay tuned for Part 2, but until then, I’m going to share with you the song that was stuck in my head during the entire first half of the morning, haha. I love this album and this song, so enjoy!

(Side note: This song is apparently about Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which I recently read about in the book Sophie’s World. I read excerpts from that book in high school and have been looking for it ever since. I recently stumbled across it at a used book store and if you’re interested in learning about a general survey of world philosophy, you should certainly look into it! However, it does get quite heavy towards the end and I semi found myself at some form of existential crossroads after reading. It’s stuck with me almost a month after finishing it.)