Category Archives: grilled vegetables

Blurbin’ from Carefree!

     Good freakin’ night! It’s 11:30pm and I just got back from setting up the booth for the Carefree Fine Arts and Wine festival, so I’m going to walk you through my day with blurbs. Prepare yourself for the onslaught.

Up before the sun!
Goodbye, pumpkin. Thanks for the good times!
HUGE windmills in the desert!
Break time?
COFFEE!!! And unsweetened granola – ah-may-zing!
Hotel decor.
Mas decor. Una puerta bella!
Livin’ it up on Easy Street!
The Carefree town center – also known as the wine tasting section :-D
Dinnertime?
Decisions, decisions…
Grilled vegetable sammich + sweet potato fries = DROOL!
I am SO going back for dessert tomorrey!
Setup time!
FORD OVERDOSE!
Our booth before…
Our booth four hours into it!
(Finishing up tomorrow)
RANDOM TREE!
Giada on the left???
Battle wound from a fight with a cactus.
I lost.
ANY QUESTIONS?

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Filed under Arizona, art festival, battle scars, Carefree, dead pumpkin, Easy Street, Ford, Giada DeLaurentiis, grilled vegetables, hotel, sammich, windmills, wine festival

A Peachy Day!

     Happy National Pancake Day!!! Did you have any idea it was NPD? Lucky for me, the first thing I do in the morning is get my coffee, then read the blogs that I follow, and Heather had mentioned it and made her pancake breakfast. I looked around my kitchen and decided that I would make Peach Pie Oatmeal pancakes.

Peach Pie Oatmeal Pancakes
Ingredients:
1/2 of a cup of quick-cook rolled oats
1/2 of a cup of whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons of baking soda
A pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 1/3 cups of soymilk
1 large peach, diced
1 large peach, sliced, for garnish
  1. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
  2. Add the soymilk and blend together (It will look watery, but the oats absorb the extra moisture).
  3. Stir in the diced peaches.
  4. While waiting for the batter to thicken, put the sliced peaches in a greased pan over medium heat to caramelize. 
Caramelization!

       5.  After the pancake batter has thickened (about two minutes), set a greased frying pan over medium heat. (I grease mine with a canola oil spray)
       6.  Plop a heaping tablespoon of the batter into the pan and flip when the tops look semi-dry.

I love the caramelized edges of the peaches peeking through!

       7.  Flip the peaches that are caramelizing in the other pan, then top the finished pancakes with them.
       8.  Drizzle with honey and INHALE!

Inhalation is best done with a beautiful view.
     My morning was pretty much completely amazing. Eating stacks of fluffy, fruity pancakes can do that to mornings, I’ve found. After breakfast, I headed off for a full shift at work. I arrived and opened the cabinet where I keep my purse, and found the most amazing surprise EVER!
My friend who works at Godiva gave me FOUR chocolate covered strawberries! Those things cost six million dollars apiece!!! I’m so spoiled!
     I went out to Paciugo with my new coworker and tried out a new flavor, Vanilla Raspberry Swirl. Hi, my name is Becki, and I have an addiction. The last time I had gelato was at 12:13pm today.
     Lunch was a mini spicy tuna roll with brown rice, followed by a trip to Williams Sonoma, and some light reading.
Yes, those are all of Williams Sonoma’s spices compiled into a pamphlet, which I read cover to cover. I’m weird.
     Speaking of reading, yesterday I finally finished the latest book I’ve been going through.
“Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro. I had to read it before I see the movie. I’m not quite sure how I feel about this one… 
Have you read it yet? What are your thoughts?

     I got home after work to a home cooked meal! My roommates appreciated my pancake-mastering this morning that they made dinner!
They made peach-ginger baked chicken with grilled vegetables on the side. That black stuff on the left is onions, zucchini, eggplant and green beans that have been grilled in a mesh pan until DELICIOUS. Don’t let the lack of color freak you out!
     I’m enjoying a glass of Hard Core red wine, a mix of 29% Mourvedere, 24% Grenache, 27% Syrah, and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s a random blend, but deliciously spicy and fruity at the same time! Tomorrey I have to head to work at 9am, then I get to bail out early to head to an audition for a web series, and continue on to Dan and Malachi’s for wine tasting and risotto making!
Did you celebrate National Pancake Day? What kind did you make?

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Filed under Godiva, grilled vegetables, Hard Core, Paciugo, Pancake Sunday, Peach Pie Oatmeal Pancakes, red wine, work

Surprise Training!

     Hello all! I hope you had an amazing Sunday! I had to work, but it was actually a really good day, overall! It helped to start with this:

This baby had 3 cups of spinach, 3/4 a cup of unsweetened soymilk, 1/3 a cup of frozen cherries, 1/2 a banana and lemon juice!
     I missed my Monsta! I had a full shift at work today, so after a lovely Monsta and cup of coffee, I headed out. When I got inside, I was surprised to find that I had four hours of training today. That would’ve been good to know before I’d arrived, but I can deal! The most important change that the training brought around: TWO LUNCHES!!!
     First lunch was…
Subway! I had a 6-inch on wheat with turkey, roast beef, pepperjack cheese, spinach, cucumber, tomato, green peppers, a little mayo and mustard. And a few chapters of my newest bike book!
     Training was not as painful as I was expecting! It was very interactive and basically involved lots of girls chatting and throwing around ideas. The time didn’t drag, and at the end of it, I got to have my second lunch!
GELATO! I got a small with peanut butter cookies, mint chocolate chip and amaretto chocolate chip. I LOVE TRAINING DAYS!!!
     The rest of work was interesting – we got two counterfeit $100 bills that somehow slipped by unnoticed (if I hadn’t been in training, this wouldn’t have happened :P ) : people can be really clever/awful nowadays. Acid-washing bills is common now??? 
     I came home to an awesome dinner that the roommates had made – Indian-spiced chicken tenders and grilled vegetables.
This was delicious! The chicken was pre-marinated from Trader Joe’s and very salty, but no salt was involved in the veggies, so it balanced out.
And a Stockyard! This is a cheaper-priced, better quality beer than New Belgium’s 1554. I’ll be repeating this one, for sure!
     Well, that’s all the pictures I’ve got for you, folks! Nice and easy, eh? I’m currently watching ‘New Moon’ (which I own, as well as Twilight – I saw Twilight in theatres and hated it, and as soon as it came out on DVD, I bought it. I told you I was weird!) while sipping the remains of my beer and trying to plan out a productive day tomorrow. I’ll leave you now with the question of the day:
What do you most look forward to in your week?

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Filed under beer, green monster, grilled vegetables, Indian-spiced chicken, Paciugo, Stockyard, Subway, work