Dinner in Piazza della Signoria

Today I am remembering a dinner my family and I shared in Florence last month.

We walked to Piazza della Signoria, where a replica of Michelangelo's famous "David" statue stands, along with the larger-than-life Neptune fountain by Ammannati.

The square is surrounded on three sides by cafes and other restaurants, all serving combinations of delicious seafood, pasta, pasta salads and pizza. Although we never ate at the same restaurant twice, we did return to this particular piazza for dinner, and the photo above was taken on our second visit.

The first night, a youth orchestra had assembled itself atop the steps of the Loggia dei Lanzi and was playing wonderful classical music while we ate. Good food, good atmosphere, good mood, good people.

Unforgettable memories that I do not take for granted, and will never forget.

Santa Fe, Part One

 On Sunday I flew from Phoenix to Albuquerque, where the resort had arranged ground transportation for the one hour to Santa Fe. In other words, some big intimidating-looking dude was holding a sign with my name on it and even though I was a little "hmmm... where did I pack that pepper spray..." about the whole thing, I got into the back of the huge black town car anyway.

About one hour later we pulled up to The Lodge, as the main building was called, and a lovely German man named Hans opened my door and greeted me by name. Then I was smoothly passed from check-in to a Mercedes-Benz that drove me the 90 seconds to my "Vista Casita," which was huge. (Pictures on the resort's site here.)

For a good 20 minutes or so, all I did was wander around my room and look out the window like a zombie, not really sure of where I was or how I got there. After I had snapped out of it, I hooked my iPod up to the in-room dock, unpacked all my clothes and took a few random photos of my room using my new "big girl" Canon that my boyfriend and my family got me for my birthday. (I am obsessed.)

One of my favorite aspects of the room was this cow underneath the window:

Other cool things about the room that I liked included the raw look of the wooden desk.

 The old-fashioned alarm clock next to my bed.

The bright wall art.

The wood-burning fireplace and cute pottery on the mantle. (I'm a detail person, can you tell? Hello, copy editor, remember?)

 And the view! 

I had a few hours of down time before the welcome dinner, so I used that to check e-mail and um, People.com, of course, because let's face it, that stuff is important to know ...

Dinner was at the Terra restaurant inside The Lodge, and my goodness, I can't even remember all of the plates they put down in front of us. There were scallops and roasted pork belly I think, white wine, red wine, tuna carpaccio, things I'd never even heard of before ... And I also got to meet the rest of the media folks who were along on the press trip. Five girls, one guy. One woman from New York who writes for a bridal magazine, one woman also from NY who writes for architectural digests and also a spa publication, one woman from Atlanta who is the editor in chief there of one women's interest publication and one affiliated men's interest publication, one woman from Los Angeles who writes for a certain entertainment news show, me of course, and then a man from LA who writes for a teeny tiny publication that I'm sure no one has ever heard of. ;)

All these individuals have been at this a lot longer than I have, so dinner was equal parts fascinating and rolling of my eyes and dropping of my jaw. Many of them have dozens of these trips under their belts, and some sound like they go on at least one every month. Nevertheless, everyone was very, very nice and totally willing to give me advice and such regarding the industry.

Monday morning we embarked on tours of both the property and of Santa Fe. The trip to downtown was a little "Disney," in that I felt like what we were able to see and not see was a little too controlled, which made for bad exploring, but probably helped keep a handle on time constraints. We drove by the Santa Fe Opera, toured the Georgia O'Keeffe museum, and then made our way to the downtown's plaza area, where locals bring jewelry and other wares to sell.

We also stopped by a really cool -- okay, SUPER cool -- candy shop called Todos Santos Chocolates & Confections. I highly recommend. I bought dark chocolate there to bring home to my boyfriend and my sister, and I got a tiny piece for myself, too.

After all the walking around, lunch was inhaled at The Shed, which is apparently a staple among the locals. I found it interesting that it serves all its New Mexican fare with "French garlic bread" and Zabaglione, an Italian dessert, to follow. Sorry, no photos of any of that, I was too busy devouring my enchiladas and chasing the ultra-spicy red and green sauces with iced tea.

Following lunch we walked part of Canyon Road, which is the definitive arts center in Santa Fe, not to mention the most prominent arts community in all the U.S., aside from New York. We were able to go into three galleries, which were all more like museums. There were Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt originals just hanging on the walls like it was no big deal, even though I remember seeing paintings by those artists in many of my grade school history textbooks. There were Native American blankets selling for upwards of $2,000 each, as well as antique New Mexican furniture, Inuit jackets made from whale intestine (or was it bladder? You get the picture), and even a Native American woman's beaded dress for $95,000. It was unreal the stuff these galleries had tracked down, believe me.

And then it started to rain on us, so that cut our stay on Canyon Road a bit short. We visited the Railyard District, which is the area for the more modern art and video installations, etc., despite the rain, but I didn't want to pull my camera out in the bad weather, so unfortunately I didn't bring home many photos of the art gallery adventures. Dinner was at another New Mexican food restaurant called called Gabriel's, where the view was awesome, but the food wasn't necessarily any better than the Mexican food I've found in Arizona.

Tuesday was my favorite day of the trip because it was supposed to be themed as the "health and wellness" day. We started at 8:30 a.m. and hiked a trail that begins next to the resort and leads upward and into the neighboring Santa Fe National Forest. This was our view:

 Immediately following our hour-long hike was a yoga class that felt amazing, and then lunch next to the pool. Once again, I felt like I had slipped into an alternate universe, the food was unreal.

After lunch, all the girls (the guy opted out, understandably) had our spa appointments at 2 p.m. We checked in at 1:30 as had been recommended to allow plenty of time for the hot whirlpool and steam room. And let me tell you, I am by no means an expert, but I've been in my share of saunas I suppose, and this one was the mother of all saunas, almost to a fault. I actually started to drown for a moment, that's how much moisture was in the air. My lungs took in too much water when I breathed in and I got the weird sensation that I was drowning without being submerged. It was odd. So after I went out and went back in and breathed a little more slowly, it actually felt amazing.

Closer to 2:00, we were ushered into the "warming room," where there were fireplaces and hot and cold tea and fluffy blankets and over-sized chairs and ottomans and just everything that can make a room soft and cozy. There are photos of the spa on the resort's website here. Then our massage therapists retrieved us for each of our respective treatments. The PR rep had signed me up for the "Mountain Spirit Purification" treatment, which is described in the resort's brochure as:

Native American reverence for the Earth inspires this purification ritual which begins with a smudging ceremony, followed by an adobe clay body mask. A warm restful wrap with a scalp and foot massage, connects your energies to Heaven and Earth. Awaken to a rain shower rinse and embrace your final gift: a juniper-sage massage using hot stones.
2 hours    300

It was ... ridiculous. As in, ridiculously decadent. Two of the best hours of my life. If I'm ever wealthy enough to not have to worry about bills, I am going straight back to Santa Fe and signing up for one of these because it was a-ma-zing. First the therapist scrubbed the living daylights out of me with a brush made from some kind of cactus fiber or something and then smeared me with a wonderfully scented clay. Then she wrapped me up in heated blankets and left just my feet and head uncovered so that she could first massage my feet, then cover them up too, and then massage my scalp. I definitely nodded off a few times. When it was time to un-mummy me, she disappeared for a bit and I was able to rinse myself off under an outdoor shower using a cloth woven from more of that cactus fiber. (She said it was mine to keep. lol. It's sitting next to my sink right now.) And then, back inside the treatment room, I experienced the most blissful hot stone massage ever. EVER. I was totally blissed out for the rest of the day, and my skin still feels really soft, thanks to the massage therapist's mad skills with that scrub brush ...

Unfortunately, the real world doesn't stop while you're spa-ing (although it should!), so I had to go straight back to my room and answer more e-mails and finish a blog post for one of my clients, yay, but it wasn't long before it was time for dinner in the Pinon Room (cool sidenote: Those X's on the bookshelves at the far end of the room are made of Spanish Bibles. The gold you see is the gold leaf on the edges of the pages, and they've all just been meticulously stacked.), where the view of the sunset was incredible. And then after dinner, we meandered out to the fire pit, where we got to enjoy some spiked Mexican hot chocolate and good, old-fashioned s'mores before wandering back up to our casitas to enjoy a very good night's sleep.

~ The End ~

Santa Fe: Part Two will include photos from the solo hike I made Wednesday morning before flying out of New Mexico.

In Which I Lay Out This Week's Rockin' Agenda

Today. A coworker and I went to lunch at Stax Burger Bistro. It's quickly becoming my new favorite place to grab a burger, because the sandwiches are somewhere between the size of a slider and your standard hamburger. Translation: You can eat two or three of them in one sitting, which means you get to try a few different meats and flavor combos, instead of just one. Plus, so many foods are cuter when they're smaller. Burgers included.

Tomorrow. I'm spending all day with my mother. That will likely be equal parts fun and stress. God help us all.

Wednesday. I'm going to a PR lunch at Modern Steak as work for a new writing gig I just acquired.

Thursday. For the magazine, I'm interviewing Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen regarding their line The Row, and then later that day I'll be attending their event at Barneys New York. They'll be in town for a charity event they're participating in with the Phoenix Suns.

Friday. My boyfriend and I are going to see Muse play at the US Airways Center, and I could not be more excited!

Saturday. Remember that friend of mine who got married about two weeks ago? She and her husband just got back from their Parisian honeymoon. I'm meeting her and all the other bridesmaids at Petite Maison on Saturday to catch up with one another and spare the bride from having to repeat every story about Paris five times over.

Saturday afternoon. I will collapse into a heap -- poolside, preferably -- but not for long, because a writer never really has much time she can afford to not be writing. Well, she can, but let's put it this way -- she'll pay for it.

And with that, I turn toward my word processor ...

How My Face Caught Fire

Look at them. The little suckers look so innocent, don't they? But don't you believe them, not even for a second.

The story goes like this. For weeks now, I have looked back and forth and forth and back through Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond's online cookbook, found here.

I've already tried a few of her fabulous concoctions, and believe me, sooner or later, I will get around to making nearly everything on her list. I must, because they all look delicious -- even if most of them aren't exactly dishes I could eat more than once a year, not unless I want to end up looking like a hot air balloon. (Ree, you lucky gal. If only I were a pioneer woman, too, and then it would be bye bye to workout dvds and hello to burnin' off calories chasin' around rascals and cattle and mustangs, diggin' things up in the garden and so on and so forth!)

But last Saturday evening, I finally had the time and energy to try my hand at one of Ree's recipes that had looked particularly intriguing: the "Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno thingies." Not exactly light in calories, but I did want to try one. At least one. Just once. Please? Plus, I knew my boyfriend would probably go gaga for them, seeing as he likes hot foods, cheese and dude, what man does not love bacon?

So, with great anticipation, I begin working away in the kitchen while the boyfriend was watching something on the Discovery Channel. (Any other women out there who can relate to this scenario, raise your hands. Oh good, I'm glad so many of you could make it here today.) I start cutting the jalapenos in half and then scooping out their insides, just as instructed in the recipe. The process might go faster for someone who has made these many times, but for me, it's rather tedious, and so I decide to make only six. I only want one, anyway -- maybe two, at the most -- and then I'm giving the rest of them to the nice young man sitting on the couch.

[Did you notice me switch from past tense to present tense somewhere back there? That's the signal that this is going to be a good story.]

With maybe only two jalapenos left to go, I realize that I am feeling a slight tingle on the outside corner of my right eye. Now, knowing that you are not, under any cirumstances, EVER supposed to touch your face when you have jalepeno juice on your hands, I was very careful to use a clean washcloth to rub my eye -- because I thought that maybe my eyes were just getting dry, as they do most evenings.

SADLY, I must have gotten some jalapeno juice on my face anyway somehow. Now, I don't know whether this happened as I absentmindly brushed aside my bangs, or whether the darn thing squirted a little when I cut into it, or what. All I know is ... Gradually, but swiftly, that slight tingling I was feeling became a stinging. And then the stinging became a burning. And then the burning became a full-on BLAZE.

And while this is going on, I am setting down my kitchen tools, and I am screaming for my boyfriend to help me, and I am telling him that I think I'm going to lose my vision, because, you see, the fire was beginning to spread. It started expanding from my eye area to my cheek and my eyebrow, and then to my forehead and around my mouth and even down to my chin. MY FACE WAS ON FIRE.

So the good man, god bless him, follows me as I stumble-run to the bathroom, where I try to splash cold water into my eye and onto my face to get the evil, evil jalapeno juice as far away from me as possible. Tragically, however, there is something frustrating about jalapeno juice that I had yet to discover -- it can't really be diluted. Meaning, splashing water into my eye and onto my face only spread the stuff around to any other parts of my face that hadn't already been affected.

I look up try to look up at my boyfriend and tell him that I think we may need to go to the emergency room. He says, "OK, let's wait a minute." And I'm thinking, I don't even know what that means! My face is BURNING! What does you want to WAIT for? It to spread to all my limbs, too? And as I open my mouth to voice these thoughts, I can't even get the words to come out. I just start crying hysterically. Because it hurts so bad, and because I am afraid that I may never see again.

So there I am, wounded, frantic and about to crumble to the bathroom floor, and my always-calm-in-a-time-of-crisis-Eagle-Scout-boyfriend says again, "Wait just a minute, I'll be right back." And when he returns, he is holding a cup of milk. I am confused. Maybe because the jalapeno juice has started to saturate my brain at this point, I just don't know. He tells me to lean my head over the bathroom sink, and then he begins to slowly pour cold milk over my face.

[Are you picturing this? I hope it's making you feel better about your day, if you happened to have had a bad one. You're welcome.]

The milk did help; it set the blaze back down to burning status, and I was no longer lamenting things like the possibility that I may never see again, or never have a career again, or you know, DIE. And since I was in no condition to continue cooking, my boyfriend sat me down next to him on the couch with a cold ice pack so that we could watch an informative special about trains.

[And there's the switch back to past tense. Is it sad that the copy editor in me has to point these things out? Actually, don't answer that.]

I don't really know how long it took for the pain to subside to the point where I could go back into the kitchen. I think it must have been at least an hour or so. (And in fact, my face still tingled when I went to bed, so let it be known that the effects are long-lasting.) And like a child who has burned her hand on a stovetop, or been bitten by a dog, or fallen off the jungle gym, or been thrown off a horse ... I really, really wanted to just avoid anything and everything to do with the mishap forever and ever. And ever. Amen.

But, I am a firm believer in the ol' "If you fall off, you gotta get right back in the saddle" saying. Because, I believe, if you don't, you're left scared for a long time after, and that can be crippling in certain situations. You have to face your fears!

So, like a nutter butter brave, determined person, I went right back to the cutting board and hacked that little pepper to bits. Oh it got what it deserved, all right. And then I stuffed them all with cream cheese, wrapped them in bacon and threw them in the oven! [Insert wicked witch cackle here.]

Do you want to know how they turned out?

TOO DARN HOT. Apparently, I had not scooped out enough of the peppers' inside membrane, which is supposed to be where the majority of the hotness is contained. So after all that, I really couldn't eat the darn things. On the plus side, my boyfriend somehow loved them, even if the only way he could get them down was to stamp his feet while chewing and repeatedly exclaim, "Whew! That's hot!" over and over again, while wearing a slightly pained look on his face and guzzling water.

In summation, it was the worst physical pain I have ever experienced. Excruciating. Childbirth should not be a problem. If you are such a whizbang that you can cook with these things and not end up incapacitated on the floor, then congratulations, you should probably head for Hollywood, because you are a superstar with skillz, baby.

But, if you are like me -- ambitious, always meaning well, but a little bit of a klutz -- and have never cooked with jalapenos before and were planning to do so one day in the future, please, I beg you, in the words of Heather B. Armstrong, "BE YE NOT SO STUPID."

The Tortilla Conundrum

Cooking wouldn't be nearly as much fun to me if it weren't for all the delicious recipes Emily of Joyful Abode graciously posts online.

A phenomenon occurs in my household in which we will frequently find ourselves with a surplus of tortillas and yet no tortilla chips. Thanks to Joyful Abode, however, I now know how to remedy this situation.

If you have extra tortillas lying around, and would like to magically (well, almost magically) turn them into chips, try her very simple tortilla chips recipe for baking some in your oven! All you need are tortillas, some olive oil, maybe some lime juice and a few seasonings.

And Then I Needed a Beer

Last week's print was the perfect storm.

Not only did our production server keep dropping offline (which makes it nearly impossible to actually produce any magazines, go figure), but our lead graphic designer's wife, who was approximately nine months pregnant last week, started going into labor on Friday morning -- the most important day of print ... the day with all the hard and fast deadlines ... the last day to fix mistakes in the magazines ... the day that absolutely everything is wrapped up, locked up and sent off to the printer. Our designer had to leave immediately, meaning we were short our Print M.V.P.

And so, it was a very long night for the whole production team. I think that I left somewhere close to 1 a.m., at which time I had been at my computer for almost 16 hours. Yeah. It was awesome.

Maybe my gnarly print story explains why, after I had fully regained consciousness after a night spent sleeping like a log, my boyfriend and I decided Saturday afternoon that we needed to meander south, straight toward the Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe and enjoy a few tasty, locally brewed beverages.


Four Peaks beer is sold throughout the state, but neither of us had ever previously been to the brewery, and I have to say that it was a very, very cool experience.

The locale is now both a brewery and a restaurant, although I think it used to be a dairy creamer once upon a time. The building is old and was designed in the old mission-style of architecture. The interior is just one great big, wide open space with an extremely high ceiling and filled with beautiful wood floors, wooden tables and chairs, stools, a long wooden bar, and of course, the enormous metal tanks that hold the different brews.

If you like beer at all, even a little, you will get a kick out of the Four Peaks Brewery. And even if you don't like beer, the place has a fun atmosphere and the food is pretty good, too.

I'm Like Some Kind of Magician Now

I suppose I should confess that I did not, in fact, have time to make my double fudge chocolate cake in the slow cooker last weekend, hence I am photo-less. I know, believe me, I'm disappointed, too. Would it help, though, if I said that I did manage to make lasagna? No, of course not, because lasagna never photographs well, does it? I'll spare you.

But it certainly was delicious. (The lasagna.) The recipe was from Natalie Haughton's cookbook Slow & Easy: Fast-Fix Recipes for Your Electric Slow Cooker.

If you're new to slow cooking, I highly recommend this cookbook. The instructions are well written, Haughton also provides helpful side notes and tips for most recipes, and the ingredients are nothing too exotic or bizarre -- I usually already have everything on hand, or if I don't, I know I can find it without going to a specialty grocer.

God I love my slow cooker. It makes free time magically appear out of nowhere.

I Would Have Been Making Gourmet Meals in My Dorm Room

Oh thank goodness the weekend is nearly here. Work has been slow every single day; there's always a calm before the storm each month, and this was it. But I expect things to change come Monday.

Admittedly, at the office I have spent most of my free time (and again, there has been a lot of it) reading through cookbooks, culling recipes for the slow cooker my mom gave me for Christmas.

I had asked for one, because I felt like, with my schedule, it would make life easier. And I could have had no idea how right that feeling was. As it turns out, this little magical cooking pot has revolutionized my life.

Cooking in this thing is so ridiculously easy that I'm almost embarrassed to use the term 'cooking'. So far it's meant the least amount of work I've ever done in the kitchen for the best meals I've ever made: slow-cooked chili, corned beef and cabbage, thai-style beef with peanut sauce, barbecue chicken, pot roast and so on.

And so, this week I've been perusing the internet and my newly purchased cookbook for more recipes in which all I have to do is chop, pot and run. Why, oh why, did I not catch on to this while I was in college?

Today I'm making beef stew with yams and a base of barbecue sauce and apricot preserves, and this weekend I want to try spareribs, another soup and particularly, a chocolate fudge cake. Can you believe you can make cakes in a crockpot?! If you're more cooking-savvy than I, you probably did, but let's just let me enjoy my little discovery. I'll post about how my fudge-a-rific "experiment" turns out this weekend.

Beautiful, Glowing ... Fruit?

Here's an interesting post on how to make a candle from a clementine orange. Perhaps someday I shall try this as a neat party trick. Or you know, just when I'm home alone and bored. Whichever opportunity comes first. In that case, it will probably be the latter.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving 2008

I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

I was in charge of the meal this year -- mostly due to the fact that I hate cleaning dishes -- so I made a deal with the rest of my family that if I cooked everything, they would clean up afterward. In addition to the turkey, I made sweet potatoes glazed in maple syrup, cloves and orange zest; green beans with crumbled turkey bacon and slivered almonds; stuffing from scratch; and cranberry chutney from fresh cranberries and boiled sugar and water. Miraculously, everything turned out wonderfully, so I'll definitely be putting these dishes on my list for next year.

I had a great time being around my mom and dad and my sister and my boyfriend. It was certainly a day to celebrate all the love in my life.

Food to the Rescue

AOL has posted an article containing "Weird Uses for Food Around the House." Below are a few that relate to housekeeping, but the full article covers a range of categories, including personal health.

If you add a teaspoon of pepper to your wash after you add the detergent and before you put in the clothes, it will prevent colors from fading.

If you use dried orange peels to start the next fire in your fireplace, the fire will burn for longer and (bonus) smell sweeter.

If you have a garment with an ink stain on it and soak the area in milk for up to 24 hours, the dyes will loosen and you can then launder the now stain-free article of clothing.

If you notice ants in your kitchen, sprinkle some flour in any places you've seen them and they will vacate the premises.

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Oh Where Have All the Tomatoes Gone?

I really hope restaurants and grocery stores are able to start phasing them back in soon, because I miss them. And pizza just isn't the same.

Food Or Drink? Or Food? Or Drink?

They cannot be serious.

Image: www.dinnerinabottle.com

Sprinkles Cupcakes

My latest obsession: Sprinkles Cupcakes.

Lucky for me Unfortunately for the future of my figure, a shop has gone in within walking distance from where I work. How incredible, considering there are only four other locations in the entire U.S.

These babies go down soooooo smooth, and really, aren't they just so cute? Yum.




Photos: Victoria Pearson, Sprinkles Cupcakes

Scottsdale Culinary Festival

Yesterday I attended the Great Arizona Picnic, which is part of the Scottsdale Culinary Festival. It was delicious! I had sushi from the Tanked Fish sushi bar, an Italian chicken sandwich from Maggiano's, an Ahi slider from some chef association's booth, dessert from the Gelato Spot! I know, I know, that list makes me sound like a little bit of an oinker, but in my defense, they were all very small portions, promise.

There was also live music, a beer garden, grilling demonstrations, chef challenges, as well as the downtown area's fountains for the little kids to play in. The gardens were also gorgeous, as always.

Photos: Sway Sovay