What next?

I had to say a lot of good-byes this past week. Christian drove up the moving truck yesterday with Gabriel to Sacramento where we'll store our stuff until Fall of 2012. Enzo left on Sunday to play with his cousins and to not have to be here when we give so many of his toys away. I'm alone with Maria. The house is completely empty except for my computer, a futon mattress, my suitcase, and a bottle of milk in the fridge. Today we'll meet up with the rest of our clan, as long as the smaller computer we ordered in the mail, the one we can actually take to Brazil, arrives.

As I was cleaning the base boards in the kids' room I couldn't help but feel a wave of emotions. I've moved a lot in my life, as a kid we moved almost every year. It was hard but for some reason this is harder. We've been in this house for 4 years. This is the only house Enzo remembers living in. This is the house where we brought Maria from the hospital to. This is the place where I've felt more at home than any other place I've lived in. 

If you want to live somewhere great come live in Santa Cruz California.

I keep telling myself to get over myself. It's silly I'm so sad considering that we have plans to be back in a year. Besides it's not like we're moving to some awful place. We are, after all, moving to a very beautiful warm coastal town in Bahia Brazil.

Now here comes the questions. Readers have been asking me why we're moving and friends have been asking me when we'll come back and everyone keeps asking me if I'll continue my blog.

So, why are you moving?

We're moving because Christian is a PhD student in Anthropology and he's doing really exciting research about tourism and the environment, public spaces and architecture, and a whole lot of things in between. His research site is Itacare, Bahia Brazil so we're moving to Itacare for a year so he can do his research, so the kids can be fully immersed in Portuguese, and so I can finally learn how to make some good Bahiana food.

Will you really come back to Santa Cruz?

Yes! I think so. The plan is to come back. Christian doesn't necessarily have to write his dissertation from Santa  Cruz but it would be easier if he did and there is no other place I'd rather be (as far as I know).

Will you continue to blog?

I will definitely continue to blog. I am excited to share my adventures with you about Brazil. However, we don't actually leave to go to Brazil until second week in August. Between now and then we're going to do a whole lot of traveling. We have a family reunion to go to in Utah next week. We have friends and family to visit in Washington. I'm finally going to get a taste of Portland, Oregon and visit some friends in the process. Then we're driving down the coast of California, camping along the way, until we hit San Diego where I'll be going to the BlogHer conference, will you be there too? Then we leave for Brazil where we'll visit my family and friends in Sao Paulo and also do some weekend traveling to the beach and also Minas Gerais, one state north of Sao Paulo. In September we move to Itacare. Hopefully we'll be all nice and settled by the middle of September. Realistically though lets call it October. That means that in the next 3 months I'll be in all sorts of places, blogging about my travels. I'm not sure how often I'll post. I'm not that worried though. For one thing I can never stay away too long and for another I figured it's Summer [!] most people are outside more than they are inside which means you'll probably be doing less internet stuffs than usual anyway.

And for all of you who are diving into the moving season and also packing your life away, my condolences. On a scale from 1-10 packing is a definite zero. Good luck on your new adventures, I hope it's a good one.

Alexia Foods French Fry Party

On Sunday we partied it up with some of our friends and had a French fry eating extravaganza thanks to Alexia Foods and the Reinvent a Classic campaign I was invited to participate in. We sampled the waffle fries, the sweet potato julianne fries, and the olive oil, rosemary, and garlic oven fries all with a fried egg on top. Take that swimsuit season!

Today I'll be busy inventing, cooking up a storm, and using my deep fryer one last time before I have to pack it for our move. Thanks to you and your wonderful suggestions I have a lot of ideas bubbling up in my head. Some of the flavors you suggested never crossed my mind, like the vinegar and dill combination Drew threw out there or the double fried concept my friend Eva mentioned.

I'd also like to give a shout out to some fellow bloggers who are participating in the Alexia Foods Reinvent a Classic campaing. I don't know who everyone is but here are some of the folks I found while following the #AlexiaFoods conversation on twitter

//Duo Dishes
//Eat The Love
//Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice
//Eats Well With Others
//Well in LA
//Family Fresh Cooking
//Leslie Loves Veggies
//This Mama Cooks
//Food for my Family
//Tidy Mom
//Fab Find Foodie
//Tickled Red
//Peas and Thank You
//Culinary Cory
//What's Gaby Cooking

I'm stoked to be in such good company. Some of the bloggers above I know personally and totally trust their taste, I am excited to see what they come up with.

.............................
This is the second post of a 4 post series sponsored by Alexia Foods 

We are creating a new type of French fry and we need your help.

What, a new type of French fry?

Do you think we can do it?

Friends I have some good news and some bad news. Lets start with the bad news. The bad news is that I haven't been cooking much, therefore you get no food pictures and no new recipes. Sorry. The good news is that I've been plotting new recipes in my mind, I mean we've been plotting because I got the whole family in on our new mission -- to create a new type of French fry. I've been invited by Alexia foods to join their challenge to reinvent a classic and create a new French fry variety. I feel honored. I think there are 25 of us doing this, including some of my favorite food bloggers.  During the next 4 weeks I'll be planning and cooking, testing and eating, different creations of French fries and I need your help. I need to come up with something tasty, a flavored French fry that you would want to buy. Wanna help me?

What potato type do you like best? I'm personally a huge fan of sweet potatoes and purple potatoes. Should I try a purple potato French fry or should I stick to the classic Yukon gold?

What kind of cut is your favorite? Last year's winner had waffle cut fries. Have you ever had waffle cut fries? I don't think I have. What kind of cut do you like best?

What kind of seasoning goes well with French frys? I need to come up with a flavor. As soon as I was invited to participate in this challenge I thought LEMON, I love anything lemon flavor. No wonder the winning fry from last year was lemon parmesan. Yup, lemon is already taken. So help me out, what seasoning do you think would work for French fries?

We're going to taste test some of Alexia's fries soon. We have a full house with cousins visiting from all over the place. I'm excited, I love a good tasting party specially with kids. Kids don't lie, not about food preferences anyway. Plus, when I asked for their input they suggested some wild flavors. Enzo suggested jelly-beans because jelly-beans has lots of different flavors. Baby Maria just looks at me and imitates my facial expressions, like the pictures above.

I'm hoping you'll have some better suggestions. In addition to being compensated to join the challenge I also have the possibility of show casing my creation at this year's Foodbuzz Festival if my creation is good enough to be in the top 4. So right now I need to create a recipe that's worth making it to the top 4. If you can take a minute to answer my questions above in the comments section that would be super.

Next week I'll let you know how our little creation is progressing and how many different flavors I experimented with.

Have a great weekend my friends.

Casa Velas in Puerto Vallarta Mexico

I am showing you pictures of food because after all this is a food blog.  Now I'm going to show you a picture of the actual resort where we ate our food, Casa Velas, so that you can get a better feel for the place.

Isn't it totally charming? The outside, right before you come in, has these huge sphere metal lights with stars cut out of them. At night, when the lights are on, it feels like you're enveloped by hundreds of tiny little stars, you really can't help but love it and if you're there with someone you love it's even better. During the day as you walk around you'll notice little things, like a fresh flower here or there placed on the stairs. It's discrete and intimate, and yes it's very romantic.

Casa Velas is a luxurious, all-inclusive, adult only resort with 80 rooms total. For those of you who like golf (never tried it myself) Casa Velas is right on a golf course. For those of you who like beach clubs (that would be me) Casa Velas has a beach club, just 2 minutes away that has another beautiful pool right in front of the beach with an amazing Asian cuisine.

Back from Mexico

It's amazing how much you can do when you're on vacation. We were only gone for 6 days but we saw and experienced so many wonders, it felt like a much longer getaway. I want to live in Mexico for the rest of my life. Swimming in 82 degree ocean water spoiled me. Eating good food, laying by the pool, going to a Spa, finding waterfalls surrounded by granite, that all spoiled me for sure. Maybe I just want to be on vacation forever.

The whole trip made me ever more excited about Brazil. I think that living in Bahia with equally warm ocean water, good food, and waterfalls will be a lot like being on vacation only this time the kids will come along. Last night we came in super late, the kids had already been asleep for a couple hours. I scooped Baby Maria from her crib and snuggled her in my bed all night. I would have done the same to Enzo if he didn't weigh 50 lbs.

I am now editing my pictures. Tomorrow I'll show you some of them and tell you more about Puerto Vallarta and about the magnificent (seriously, magnificent) resort we stayed at, Casa Velas. Casa Velas put us up for three nights, had it not been for their generosity we probably would not have even thought about going to Mexico.

I am so glad we went.
I feel rejuvenated from my head to my tippy-toes.
I hope you too get to squeeze a vacation in there somewhere, we all need a getaway sometimes.

7 year anniversary, coming right up

The plan was to post a recipe for cake-in-a-jar but that will have to wait. Today [Grammy] Pammy (Christian's mom) is flying in from NY to spend time with us and help watch our kids while Christian and I leave on a little getaway. Pammy is phenomenal, I honestly couldn't have asked for a better mother-in-law and I know the kids are going to have a blast with their Grammy while Christian and I have a blast without them, as we celebrate our anniversary.

In the midst of finishing up work, packing for Brazil, organizing my cousin's visit (Gabriel's dad is coming!), plus our road trip in July, among a million (literally one million) other things, Christian and I are taking 5 days to escape. I think the trip will be great, but honestly even if it's not just having this trip in the near horizon has been worth it, it's what's kept me sane these last two weeks.

We will be in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. If you've ever been to Puerto Vallarta please send recommendations for places to eat. The first night we'll be exploring the town and finding a neat place to have dinner and staying in a hotel. The next three nights we will be in Casa Velas, an all inclusive resort. The plan is to be pampered until we have relaxation oozing out of pores. Then on Sunday, for Father's day, we leave the resorty life and head to Punta Mita, supposedly a very good surf spot. We rented a house in Punta Mita right in front of some surf breaks. There is nothing that Christian wants more than good waves, I hope he gets some.

Then we come back.

Late Monday night we come back, hopefully feeling very energized to finish packing the rest of our stuff and enjoy our family and friends in Santa Cruz before we have to say good-bye.

Through all this traveling I may or may not blog. I probably won't. But when I come back I will. I'll have to tell you all about my trip and I really do need to share the cake-in-a-jar recipe that is perfect for Summer picnics.

But before I go I want to leave you with this video. I was trying to come up with some pretty words to describe my love for Christian and why I enjoy him so dang much, and then I was introduced to this video with the perfect song. It's as if Kyle Andrews got inside my heart, hung out there for a while, and transcribed my feelings for Christian. And because the song is attached to this video and the video is so beyond great, I think you should watch it and enjoy it and think about Summer, and fun happy things, maybe even fun happy things with the person you love most.



ps. The pics are from my underwater cooking photo shoot.
pps. This video is equally great, with the same song.

Fabulous Friday

All I can say to this cake slicer is, "Yes!" Now can someone make me this lemon cake? There is much to celebrate this weekend. For one thing I will be done grading. That's huge. It means that I will be done TAing for this school year. Another wonderful occasion that deserves celebration is the fact that Christian took his last class ever. He's only been a student for 23 years, you know. He's had many classes. Well the dude is done. From now on it will be field work for a year in Brazil and then dissertation writing for two years and soon enough Christian will be Dr. Christian, professor in Anthropology. He'll even be able to hire me to be his TA, Ha! We absolutely need to celebrate. And so many people are celebrating this weekend as many students are graduating. So, I also want to give a shout out to the class of 2011. I had some fantastic Seniors this year. I'm excited for each and every single one of you to go out and change the world, in small and big ways. Thanks for letting me teach you.

I also want to give a shout out to some bloggers 
who wrote some pretty fantastic posts

// Jordan from Oh Happy Day wrote a photographer's guide to photobooth cameras. Her post makes me want to get a Holga or a Fuji Instax to give to Enzo to document our year in Brazil. Jordan is also giving away a trip for 2 to Paris. Coolest giveaway ever, no?!

// Moosh in Indy because her will power to breastfeed is inspiring.

// Irvin from Eat the Love is such an engaging writer. I loved his post about being at the Thermador Media Event, it made me laugh several times.

// Matt Armendariz's devil's food cake with dulce de leche frosting looks perfect. Of course it does, everything that Matt makes looks perfect.

// Cakies because she inspired me to make cake in a jar, and I did and it turned out great. I'll post the recipe on Monday

Now it's time to sign off and enjoy the weekend.

I'll be spending tomorrow with Angi and Nathan from Rice and Wheat, and Ben from You Fed a Baby Chili, at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. If you're in the area you should join us. The plan is to ride the Giant Dipper and eat corn dogs. I can't wait.

Tillamook Loaf Love Tour in the Bay Area

Sharp cheddar Tillamook cheese is a staple in our home, so when Tillamook invited me to a media event in San Francisco I was down, down, down.

Who was going to drive all the way to San Francisco with me (an hour and a half each way with no traffic. There was traffic) just to eat grilled cheese sammies and call it fun? Oh I know, Victoria. Remember Victoria? She's such a good friend and we had such a good time. We ate so many different types of grilled cheese sandwiches it was worth the long drive. I even brought a sandwich back for Christian, the mac'n'cheese grilled cheese. That's right, mac'n'cheese inside a grilled cheese sammie is the bomb folks.

If you live in the Bay Area keep an eye out for the Loaf Love Tour. Next week is Tillamook Sandwich week where 5 Bay Area restaurants will feature their take on specialty melts using Tillamook cheese. Go grab yourself a sandwich.

The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen

1 South Park Ave., Suite 103A, San Francisco, 94107ô (415) 243-0107

www.TheAmericanSF.com

Tillamook Signature Chef, Heidi Gibson has created a Mac n’ Cheese Grilled Cheese with Tillamook Monterey Jack Cheese, Pork Belly, Smoked Tomato, Caramelized Onions, Avocado 

Ironside

680 A 2^nd Street, San Francisco, CA 94107ô (415) 896-1127

www.IronsideSF.com

American Grilled Cheese Kitchen neighbor, Ironside, will offer Tillamook Monterey Jack on their Northern Bison Burger and Pacific Pastures Grass Fed Beef Burger  

Nickies

466 Haight Street San Francisco, CA 94117ô (415) 255-0300

www.Nickies.com

Lower Haight local eatery and neighborhood bar, Nickies, will be featuring a Crispy Chicken Sandwich with a trio of melted Tillamook Cheeses - Monterey Jack, Medium Cheddar and Sharp Cheddar - served with a side of fresh cut fries or bleu slaw 

Globe

290 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94111ô (415) 391-4132

www.GlobeRestaurant.com

Chef Joseph has created his all-time favorite Bacon and Tomato Sandwich featuring melted Tillamook Medium Cheddar on grilled sourdough 

Brown Sugar Kitchen

2534 Mandela Parkway, Oakland, CA 94607ô (510) 839-7685

www.BrownSugarKitchen.com

Owner and Chef, Tanya Holland of soul food favorite, Brown Sugar Kitchen, has created a Smoked Vegetable Muffaletta topped with Tillamook Monterey Jack 

Wordless Wednesday: Tart Pans are the New Nintendo

Loaf Pan Popsicles

I know that you know that I have a favorite popsicle maker, only because I talk about it all the time and then some. I would love it if everybody owned this popsicle maker because I really do think it's that wonderful and also because I'm going to be doing an entire month of popsicles and it would be fun if we had the same gadgets to play with.

That's not to say that I don't appreciate the simple things, and the inexpensive things, the things you already own. In fact simplicity and inexpensive often go hand in hand. And truth be told most of the things I cherish the most are simple and inexpensive.

You can do marvelous things with what you have at your disposal. 

Use what you've got.

Reinvent it and give it a new life.

Favorite Finds From the Week

I spy something very useful friends, it's a cardboard high chair easy to assemble and in the end totally recyclable. The Belkiz Feedaway would come in handy for sure as we travel around the West Coast and Utah this Summer. I love the idea of a collapsable high chair that I could just recycle at the end of our trip, don't you?

• Speaking of traveling I think these fruitcases would also get a lot of use. They are definitely adorable.
• I'm still in shock that we're leaving in less than a month. I've been packing like crazy and also planning like crazy. We're having a farewell party and I'm toying with the idea of getting a food truck to cater the event. Today I'm contacting this snow cone truck. I'm simply smitted with it and love that the syrups are all made from natural ingredients. 
• If I weren't moving and getting rid of all my stuff I'd do this D.I.Y project in a second.
• I'm buying clothes and shoes for our kids for a year since buying anything in Brazil is double the prize. Do you think these new Vans are cute or too much? I saw these cheeseburger Vans on my Instagram feed and thought they were awesome.
• And to wrap it up I just wanted to leave you with some great photography to admire from this post and this post.

What fun things have you found or blogged about this week. 

Feel free to leave a link.

xoxo

New Uses for Old Things

I recently saw the New Uses for Old Things: Kids Edition on Real Simple and now our dice has a new and important role to play (no pun intended) during dinner time. All I can say is Yay [!] for minimizing tantrums and maximizing fun. It's the little things that makes all the difference during meal time.