Inspired.

I was catching up on blogs the other day and came across quite the delicious post on Burp and Slurp, not that it comes as a huge surprise.

Turns out Sophia and her friends partied with some dumplings over winter break. Lucky.

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Her post had me drooling at my desk and craving dumplings, all before 9am. So wrong, yet so right!

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It also inspired me to throw a make your own dumpling party. Date and guests are still TBD, but I'm determined to make it happen. Think about it...it's way more interactive than make your own pizza night and you can steam or boil and snack as you go! Add a little vino, good friends, good conversation...voila! Perfect Friday evening in. Yes, I will make this happen. Soon, my blog friends, soon.

In the meantime, I'm daydreaming about the biking/dumpling adventure I have planned for Saturday while Jamie's here. Plan is to bike across the city with a pit stop at Shanghai House for some much needed soup dumpling action. Cannot wait. Nothing warms you up better than some steamed soup dumplings!

What would you do for a 'make your own' party?

Trick or Treat

Usually I'm very anti-Halloween. I hate getting dressed up, I don't deal well with crowded bars and I really really hate the smell of Halloween. O yeah, the smell. You know when you walk into a crowded party and you can just smell the combination of too many bodies, makeup, packaged wigs and cheap costume material? BLECH. Pass.

This year was different. I was told I absolutely had to celebrate and then I figured eh, why not be social. Now what to do for a costume...

I'm not very creative when it comes to costumes (pretty sure I was a clown for 3 years in elementary school), so if I didn't think of something by Halloween party-eve, I planned on just tossing on some running gear and going as a marathoner. Mega lame, I know.

Then I decided to get crafty. I'm normally not a crafty kind of girl, but every so often I'll amaze myself. I picked up some fabric and essentials on the way home from work, Googled a bit, and next thing you know, I'm MAKING A COSTUME. Haha. Like from scratch.

I worked from top to bottom and a couple hours later I had this:

And this:

I finally called it quits around 11 since I had a run the following morning. Who knew I'd find sewing so soothing on a Friday night??

I picked up a few other items including a new running pullover and some netting for extra oomph. I put in a good 2 hours of work on my costume and was pretty satisfied with the final product...even if it wasn't blatantly obvious what I was:

Care to guess??

Good news is that I own a costume I can run in, should I ever do a Halloween run. It was super comfortable and even the hat stayed on for most of the night! Hurrah.

It was actually a fun evening and I spent the following day indoors with a giant pot o chili. I realized about halfway through the cooking that I didn't have all the spices I needed to make my standard turkey chili, so I made the best of what I had in the kitchen.

Turkey Chili 2

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1/2 c leeks, chopped

1 clove garlic

1 red pepper, chopped

1 lb ground turkey

5 strips turkey bacon, chopped

1 chipotle pepper, chopped

1 tbsp adobo sauce

1 bay leaf

1/2 c beer (I used Lagunitas IPA)

1/3 c chili powder

1 8 oz can tomato sauce

1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tbsp cumin

4 c vegetable broth

1 c water

1 bay leaf

3 cans white beans, drained

juice of 1/2 lime

3 tbsp cilantro, chopped

Instructions are similar to this trusty chili.

Clearly I'm out of practice since I can't seem to find any photos!

Time out.

Hey guys, it's been super busy around here so I'm going to do a quick photo post. I'm also taking a brief time out from posting since Jamie returns on Tuesday!! He's only here for a week, so I figure I should spend time hanging out w/him and not blogging :p Don't worry, we'll be doing some touristy stuff and I'll have PLENTY to write about later!

Big news first - I MOVED! I finally have my very own apartment :) After a somewhat stressful Memorial Day weekend move, I think I've finally gotten the bulk of my stuff unpacked and organized. One of these days I'll show you the final product!

From now on, I'll be creating delicious dishes in here

And blogging to you from somewhere in here

All while staring at this

Hurrah!

During all the moving/shopping/unpacking, I was able to meet up with Susan for dinner in the Mission. We met up at Limon, a pretty snazzy looking Peruvian spot on Valencia and 16th. From the website:

Limon's menu boasts entrees that offer a bounty of fresh Pacific seafood, hearty beef, succulent pork, and rich savory sauces. Tempting ceviches and masterful tiraditos tempt your palate with the freshest sashimi grade Ono, Ahi Tuna accompanied by flavorful and colorful Peruvian sauces.

So many delicious options on the menu! I settled on the Ceviche Limon (mixed seafood ceviche - fish, calamari, shrimp)

and the Costillas Nikkei (crispy spare ribs with Peruvian style slaw and rocotto-soy sauce)

The ceviche was good, but not as exciting as I wanted it to be. The ribs were deliciously crisp and sweet, but the slaw was way too bitter. Have you ever had cabbage that was incredibly bitter? bleh. Overall, I thought the food was ok, but not worth the price.

The weekend ended with some serious outlet shopping in Napa, where I loaded up on fun accessories. No fun weekday eats since my cabinets and fridge are pretty bare. By the time Friday rolled around, it was time for me to head back east for a wedding in Vermont!

I've never been to Vermont and I was really bummed I'd only be spending a whopping 14 hours in the state that has such awesome stuff, like Ben & Jerry's, maple syrup and Magic Hat!

I wandered around Burlington and loved all the cute shops along Church Street...such a great pedestrian street to stroll!

The wedding was in nearby Charlotte, Vermont (note: it's pronounced shar-loht) and was absolutely gorgeous. Of course I forgot my camera in the hotel room, but I managed to get a few little shots w/the camera phone

The breathtaking view from the reception (held outdoors in the bride's backyard)

no one could resist busting out the phone cameras for this one!

Speaking of Magic Hat...

I was told that the Wacko was a legit summer brew and had to sample one. Two giant thumbs up. It was crisp, refreshing and much lighter tasting than my favorite #9. Big sadface moment of the evening - THEY DON'T SELL THIS IN SAN FRANCISCO! AAAAGGGHH!! At least that's what the location map says :( :(

After a few Wackos and appetizers, we sat down to dinner at this simple and pretty table

Salad was exactly what this girl needed and it was promptly followed by a dinner of salmon and chicken

Not sure how the salmon was cooked, but it tasted sort of teriyaki-ish to me. There was definitely a sweet factor in there.

Then it was time for dancing!

How cute is this setup?? I've never seen the pointy tents before and I like them!

A few hours later, I was up and at the airport for my 6:45am adventure home. Apparently I was so tired that I took a brief nap pre-boarding and a very kind person woke me up as the tail end of boarding took place. PHEW. I eventually made it home with a pitstop in Chicago and Orange County (o hey, John Wayne Airport...I didn't know you existed).

It was a very fun filled weekend, but now I'm so exhausted I can barely move! How was your week/weekend??

Now that was interesting...

So guys...I had my very first Bay to Breakers experience this weekend. Apparently it's a must see/do in the city. Originally I planned to run the 12k tour of the city, but changed my mind after I saw the registration fees and learned a little more about the race.

For those of you not familiar with the famous footrace, I think my coworker put it best - "it's sort of like our Christmas and Halloween rolled into one day."

The race attracts serious runners as well as serious partiers and apparently it's THE place to be on a Sunday morning in May.

A group of us planned to set up shop in Alamo Square Park (you may know it as the Full House park haha) at 8am with some yummy adult beverages and snacks. It was a little chilly and cloudy, but ended up being a pretty decent day! We claimed some space right at the top of the super steep Hayes hill so we had a view of all the runners/walkers/drinkers as they began their descent.

It was pretty tame at first as we saw the serious runners pass by and they were followed by the quasi-serious runners that had a few nudies scattered about. O yes, did I forget to mention this race is known for the naked runners? Can't be comfortable. We watched with some calimochos in hand...ah college memories:

Eventually the partiers made their way up the hill and there were tons of costumes and ridiculous antics, like this dude over here:

Yep, he's dancing on a bus hut. It got a little more scandalous as the day went on and instead of taking pictures, I really just stared with my mouth open.

Then the random floats came by (lots of pics here), including this one:

Conveniently rolled by in the late morning, triggering the belly to scream 'I'm haawwnngry!' Oh, did I mention there was beer pong on the sidewalk and no one batted an eye? What is my new city?! I love it!

Eventually we made our way through this crowd

and snacked on some hot dogs and hung out with friends before making the trek home...where we promptly vegged out with some Pineapple Express and King of Thai Noodle. Ridiculously unproductive and irresponsible Sunday, but you know what? Sometimes you just need one of those days.