After a month (I should have gone 3)

(Pantry and Potato Before)

I didn't grocery shop for a month and except for Lou missing her milk every morning after it went sour and me hording eggs, I didn't notice too much. The potato grew bigger but the piles on the shelves didn't seem to get much smaller. I ended up eating a lot of stuff from my freezer more than anything else and it was all really good frozen left overs. I think I almost ate better than normal. The fact that two days before I was done I was able to bake up one of these from scratch shows that I wasn't hurting for food. In fact, since it's ended I haven't gone to the grocery store to restock anything except eggs and butter which I needed for Alicia's birthday cakes. I even had almost all the ingredients I needed for those too. I've thought about extending it, or having a month where I only buy local stuff. The milkman has come by to deliver my milk and I did get some local strawberries, cheese, and eggs at the farmers' market on Saturday so I know it would be doable. Either way, I'm going to try and cut back on my food shopping. I think I have my year supply covered.

North of my desk

It's true my job is rarely exciting. It sounds interesting, but it's not. In fact my recent finger injury was not from rock climbing as you'd expect but from clicking my mouse button so repetitively that I have thickened my index finger tendon, making is susceptible to injury. How lame is that. However there are perks. One of them being the building's proximity to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail which I regularly take advantage of. I walk along it during my lunch break and for shorter breaks during the day as you may have noticed from a few of my pictures on my other blog. I have walked as far as Emigration Canyon while at work, but recently I discovered how to hook up with the trail going North. This morning I decided to explore some of the trails at the mouth of Red Butte Canyon before it got too hot. I got a little carried away and a few miles later I arrived back at work drenched in sweat and out of breath. It sure was gorgeous though. I think I'll leave out how far I went in case anyone from work sees this :)

It started out fine with fields of grass going to seed and wild sweet peas. It was this pleasant looking trail that did me in. When the picture is bigger you can see two dear right at the V point of the valley looking at me. I saw them later too.

It was so nice a shady. There weren't any footprints, or bike tracks, or anything. In fact the trail looked really grown over in most spots.

Eventually I came out of the trees and on top of a hill.

This was my view North:

This is looking West towards downtown and the Great Salt Lake:

And this was my view South:

This was almost at my highpoint. I should have turned around at that outcropping of rocks you see below me but I was so far I thought if I went over the top of this hill I'd find a trail along the ridge and be able to short cut back to work down the other side. I was right, there was a trail back and I could even see my building from the top! Yikes I was further away than I thought and way higher up too! I was tempted to keep going, it was so green and inviting but responsibility kicked in and I headed down.

And by down I mean down. It was a direct shortcut down the hill and I had to go down so slowly I don't think it saved me much time. I'd have scooted on my butt if I had a change of pants to go back to work in.

Seriously, who made this trail and what were they thinking. I have a new appreciation of switch backs now. I don't know that I'll attempt these trails during work hours again, but I definitely want to go explore some more of them. I'm currently attempting to recruit Megan. (Megan?)

Mysterious and just plain gross!

I have a New Year's Goal to cook one thing from each of my cook books. I was looking through my Lion House Cookbook (I have the old version with the unappetizing pictures) and came across these sauces. The names don't help much with what the sauces are and how they might taste is so mysterious to me. I might just have to try out the Autumn Sunshine Sauce or the Foamy Sauce.

I was telling my brother Nate about these mysterious sauces so he pulled out his copy of the book and started flipping through it for more weird recipes. That's when we came across this.... this... This what? What is it??? I'm at a loss for words here. I don't know what to call it. If I think about this too long I start to get that feeling in my throat that I might throw up. I dare someone to make it.

Most people know of my strong feelings against mayo. I am against it morally, politically, ethically, and aesthetically. It taste gross too. Oddly enough though, I don't think the "dollop of mayonnaise" at the end of this recipe is the worst part. Coming from me, that's saying a lot. I'm still debating what the worst part actually is, but now I've thought about it too long again, I'm feeling nauseous. I'll leave that debate open for another day. Till then, I present for you dining pleasure:

Lime Gelatin, Shrimp and Grapefruit Salad!

Me and my doppelganger

My doppelganger came to visit me in between our birthdays which are about a month apart. She left her 4 kids with her husband in California and we went back in time to pretend we were young, immature, and could eat ice cream 4 times a day. I'm not sure the immature part was pretending but here's a few of the things we did. Hiking in City Creek Canyon and Emigration Peak. (the real one, not the one by the zoo. It's a steep little hill for sure. If I was a trail runner I'd consider making this a quick spot to stop by after work...but then, I don't run so forget that idea)

Take a good look because it's not too often you see a picture of both of us smiling normal. (It would have been a better picture if it wasn't for the "chicken") It was good we went hiking that first day since it rained the rest of the time and once we even woke up to this unpleasant surprise. Snow at the end of May, that's absurd.

We ate out a lot including the usual bakeries and some good barbecue with Nate and Carrie, but once in awhile we had a nice meal at home. Few things are better for breakfast than a pile of fresh crepes. Anthorpologie sent me a birthday discount card and tempted me into their store to buy a new apron. Now I won't be so jealous of Alicia's when we cook together although I do think her's is still a bit cuter than mine. Once we ate out fancy, and yes, I went to the Tin Angel again. This time I didn't get the most expensive piece of meat on the menu, but instead ordered an appetizer and a tapas item. Both were amazing. Is anyone interested in going with me a third time? Wild Mushroom Risotto Cake with Romesco Sauce...

Somewhere in there we went to see Candi's new baby Roxanne. She is cute!

The last day we cruised around downtown visiting random places like the Church History Museum, and the City Library where we rode the glass elevator to the top...but there wasn't any chocolate. We had just a little more time to kill so I took her to see Gilgal, the super weird garden that makes no sense. I didn't take the usual pictures of stuff so if you want to see how odd it is, go check it out for yourself. (my favorite is the guy with brick pants) Sounds like a pretty normal visit wouldn't you say? Till you realise that a good majority of the time everyday was spent taking picture of ourselves making funny faces. Seriously, how old are we? Anyways, here are some of my favorites (as in here are some that aren't totally embarrassing)

This is one of my favorite faces to make, but the only people to really appreciate it are Steysi and Duc. Steysi kind of looks like a bulldog when she does it. It also doubles a a zombie face. This is a strange phenomenon that began somewhere in high school. We'd take a picture and afterwards we'd realize we didn't know how we just made the face in the picture. For example, how did I do that to my chin? I'm still not quite sure. Those pictures were all daytime pictures. As it got later everyday they got weirder. Most of them should not be seen in public because they look something like this...

Ok all done. Time to be normal again.

The Day I Turned 31

I turned 31. Part of me wishes I was still little and yellow and fuzzy like this little goose at the zoo, but then I like my life, so I think I'm ok with being 31 for now. 31 isn't terribly exciting as far as ages go, but the day was good at least. I always like to do, or see, or eat something that is classified as a "favorite" on my birthday and this year wasn't too shabby. After waking up in Idaho and saying goodbye to my sister's kids as they went to school and eating a breakfast of huckleberry cream of wheat I had a nice long drive home to Utah by myself. I like road trips so maybe this counts as a favorite. Though road trips alone aren't my favorite. I went to Alicia's and her family took me to the zoo where they treated me to Dippin Dots!! If you know me, you know this is a favorite. One of the funnest things to do with dippin dots is to see other people have them for the first time. I'd had them with Quinn before (that was fun too. He didn't believe me that it was food and wouldn't try it till I told him is was ice cream cereal) but it was Xavier's first time. They were so nice and let me eat out of their bowls. Then we saw the giraffes!!! They rank high up there on the favorite list.We also saw some bats...not favorites, but on the way out of the building I noticed there was a big bat in this house plant sitting just outside the main doors... I repeat, outside the doors. We told the zoo people and they kinda freaked out a little. I got this close up before they shooed us away and told us not to touch it.Then we saw the tiger cubs. They're not very small anymore but they were still being really playful in the water. One of them was looking at all the kids lined up against the glass. I swear he had this one little girl hypnotized forever. He got even closer to her face than in this picture. Then he tried to make friends with Quinn. I love how in the picture it looks like their hands are touching. I don't know if he wanted to eat him or play with him. Before we left we rode the train. The animals were standing way closer to the train than they usually do. You can't see it but in this picture Xavier was grabbing my arm and leaning toward me away from the Buffalo.Alicia also made me a cake! A chocolate rum cake. mmmm definitely one of my favorite flavors ever. She even left out the raisins the recipe called for because they are not favorites!After I left Alicia's I went to dinner with Rob. One of my favorite friends. He took me to The Tin Angel Cafe. I'd been wanting to try this place forever and I finally got to go. It was really good too! I knew they used local ingredients and organic free trade kind of stuff but I didn't know they were going to have buffalo tenderloin on the menu!!! This is one of my most favorite things to eat that isn't a dessert and doesn't involve cheese. It is so amazing. If you've never had it and you like meat, I highly recommend it. I only know 2 other restaurants in Utah that serve it. Sure it was the most expensive thing on the menu but I ordered it anyway and I got it rare. It was so delicious!!!!! That was one of my favorites that I wasn't expecting to have. It was a little odd to eat buffalo after just seeing a buffalo a few hours before. (oh and there was some cheese on the side...cheese...favorite!)Rob ordered a steak but it was a little smaller than he expected... Actually he didn't. That was a tapas "two bite" item we got on the side. After dinner I went home and called a couple of my favorite friends and also talked to my parents. I opened the present they sent me...a little lap top!!!! I'm so excited! Then I ate some left over rum cake before going to bed. I wasn't expecting a whole lot but it turned out to be a pretty good birthday.