I've Moved

So after ALTSummit in Salt Lake City I confirmed my desire to move my blog to Squarespace. I have a new link: itsweetandsavory.com. I've been working on the design but like the simplicity of the space.

Please join me over there and I'd love to hear from you all on the changes, with more to come.
See you there.

Tanya

Trader Joe's

I have so much to share about AltSummit in Salt Lake City. This conference was beyond my expectations. I'm in the process of writing down the high points and action items for this space. I'll share more of that later.

Pre-Alt, well actually Wednesday morning, before our sponsored dinner that night I started planning my snacks. Everyone said you must have snacks during the day. I didn't want to pack snacks in my luggage and to take away valuable room for my wardrobe that I MUST have. So I did my research.

As many of you know who following me on Instagram (@itsweetsavory) I love Trader Joe's. The first thing I do when I get to a new city is look to see if they have a Trader Joe's. Low and behold Salt Lake City opened it's first TJ's in November. My plan was to go on Wednesday when I had all that time before the evening dinners. However, I got caught up in my explorations. Plan B was to get up early Thursday, 7:30AM walk to TJ's, it's only 7 blocks away, get my snacks, water, etc., and walk back to the hotel. Great plan right? Hmmm.

As soon as I embarked on my walk it started ice raining. I say that because as soon as the rain hit the sidewalks it was immediately turned into ice. So instead of walking to Trader Joe's, I skated to Trader Joe's. Oh and the 7 blocks, yeah not so much, those were LONGEST blocks I have ever skated.  Seriously, this was another one of my idea's that seem great and immediately went bad. By the time I made it to Trader Joe's it was 8:10, I shopped in 5 minutes and then asked if they could call for a taxi. I was not going to walk back, it was a blizzard out there. After waiting 15 minutes for the taxi, he called back and said he couldn't make it, traffic was bad because of an accident. I started to freak now, I was going to miss the opening of the conference and have to walk back in a blizzard.

What was I wearing you ask? Well I got dressed for the conference, while my sweater, jacket, hat gloves, and shoes were warm, my pants were paper thin Banana Republic. That equals frozen legs beyond anything you can imagine.

Here's where I praise the frozen city of Salt Lake. Despite the cold and gloominess, everyone in this city is extremely nice and helpful. The Trader Joe's staff were amazing. One of the employees, Irmin (I know I'm spelling his name wrong), offered to take me back to the hotel. At this point I was desperate and willing to go with any stranger, I actually pondered asking a few of the soccer mom's in the store for a ride. But this employee offered me a ride and insisted I wait in the store till he brought the car up to me so I wouldn't get wet. Seriously, who does this, nobody in L.A. would do this (yeah I know it never rains in L.A). He drove me right up to my hotel and I insisted on giving him money. I told he now you've put Trader Joe's customer service to a whole other level. 

Did I make it back for the conference? Absolutely! Ran to my room repacked my bags and ran down to meet these ladies @mylifeatplaytime, @asimplyrawlife and @btanjerine. So thank you Trader Joe's. And give this guy a raise, he works as the manager at your Salt Lake City store. 

The Farm Shop and Kei and Molly

For the past several years when I go to Albuquerque I like to take a slow drive down Rio Grande Blvd (25 miles is the max speed limit). When I was a kid we drove down this street all the time where you can get views of the old ranch houses and horses, there use to be buffalo. I remember going to the buffalo house when I was in pre-school. During the Fall the trees down this boulevard are the golden color cottonwoods I love so much.  My favorite farm is the old Simms Farm which is where the The Farm Shop is. It's in the original Creamland Dairies building and is part of the property connected to the Los Poblanos Inn, which has a rich history found here.

My mom visits here yearly for the Lavender festival, they have rows and rows of lovely lavender.  It's an organic run farm and supplies the ingredients for the amazing dishes that are served up at the Los Poblanos Inn. The Farm Shop sells lavender spa products, artisan foods, gourmet kitchen and gardening tools and locally made gifts from all over New Mexico.

Lemon lavender gelato, refreshing and tasty. Thankfully no too much lavender, but just enough for the essence of the taste. I've had llavender panna cota which tasted like creamed perfumed soap, not ideal, this was the opposite.

Every corner is artfully directed and begging to be bought.

Lately I'm obsessed with the tea towels from Kei and Molly, here's their story. Next time I visit I want to look them up and see if I can meet these amazing women in person, I love everything they make. Their towels are beautiful and hang in the light filled windows of the Farm Shop. Check out their Etsy store

Mom has bought me two so far, and our last purchase was a typical mom daughter conversation.

Me:  I like the turquoise one, but it has a cross in it, so maybe not

Mom:  It's pretty, but how about the ones with the coyote

Me: Nah, I like the satelite dishes

Mom: Why?

Me: It's kinda cool, and sci-fi, and New Mexico

Mom: I don't get it

Me: It's ok, I like it

Mom: But why would you want that in your kitchen?

Me: Why wouldn't I, look at the conversation we're having about it

Mom: Your funny, you like weird things

Me: Mom don't you remember when I was a kid, if you don't like it, buy it, I'll LOVE it, that hasn't changed.

Mom: I guess, ok I'll get you that one.

Me: Thanks Mom.

So now I have two the orange citrus slices next to the indigo blue satellite dishes.  

Lovely right.

Driveway up to the Inn and Farm. It's breathtaking in the winter and fall its AMAZING with the golden leaves on the trees.

I never get tired of this view when you walk to the Farm Shop, especially as you wonder around with chickens and peacocks, both white and the typically amazing blue and green.

White peacock.

 

Driveway out...just as lovely.

The Farm Shop
4803 RIO GRANDE BLVD NW
OPEN DAILY 9:00A – 5:00
505.938.2192

Alt Summit Salt Lake City

This time next week I'll be attending the AltSummit in Salt Lake City.  I am beyond excited to be attending it's really about getting back to basics (just needs salt) and building from there.  First off, I missed the initial registration day and it sold out, second I won a ticket to attend, and third I REALLY WANTED TO GO!! Oh and the bonus is I won a free counter top makeover and sink for my kitchen from Wilson Art, more about that later.

I am attending with 3 lovely ladies (Deborah, Felicia and Britney) my fellow bloggers and moms.
The classes  range from earning revenue on your blog, personal branding, being a contributor to other blogs, to finding your voice. Yes please, to all of them. Some amazing bloggers will be attending from all over the country in addition to the sponsors and special guest, Jessica Alba.  Can you tell I'm excited.  Hopefully I'll have much to share from all my learning's and who knows this site might be due for another amazing makeover.

Random Monday Thoughts

Watch Downton Abbey: All About Edith on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

Random Monday thoughts: Weren't Tina and Amy perfect on the Globes? Can't decide what I thought of Jodies speech. Why wasn't Ben nominated for an Best Director Oscar? How cute were Ben and Jen (not Lopez)? Loved Kate Hudson and Lea Michelle's dress, but she was too tan. And for after the Globes for all you Downton Abbey Fans this is a spoiler alert...but I had to share a video clip about Edith and then you too can laugh at the music choice. Only Morrisey would do for this tale. Enjoy.

Route 66 Signs

Mid October we had to take an unexpected trip home to New Mexico for a family funeral. While I was devastated by the loss I appreciated the time to be on the road for 12 hours and unwind from the crazy L.A. lifestyle. SB and I pass these signs all the time and have taken some analog film shots, but this time we just jumped out and took a few iPhone and Android shots. It's such a competition between us to get the best shot, but it pushes us to try all kinds of filters, angles and apps.

In December we took another trip home to see family.  Unfortunately we got stuck in Gallup (worst town in NM) for 2 days while everything was closed to fix the car during Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  So we took advantage of the great signs in the town and took a few digital and iPhone shots.

On the way home I talked SB into taking a historical detour down route 66.  

Enjoy all the cool signs and a trip down the past.

Mini Cheesecake Cookie Dough Bites

I have an upcoming book swap party to go to and I've been experimenting with a few desserts.  I saw this one on Pinterest and decided to take a chance at it. I followed the recipe from the My Baking Addiction blog here. 

Only thing I got wrong is that she uses normal cupcake sizes and I went for the mini cupcake version. The portions for the mini-mini cheesecakes are 1 TBSP of graham cracker crust and 1 TBSP of cheesecake filling, 1 TSP of cookie dough. I have to say these were delicious and I'll definitely be perfecting this along the way. I did make the full size see above, but for me it's too rich so I think I'll stick to the mini cupcake size, was perfect for a party especially when there will be ton more desserts.

Fall in Los Angeles

Fall in Los Angeles can be beautiful.  These images were taken in early October, but I just found them on my camera.  Great sunsets and a slight chill in the air.  Also sometimes you find Tori Burch shoes on the sand, that is until the model twirling in the water comes back and claims them.

What do you do on your counters?

 

Let me tell you my story before anyone jumps to conclusions. Last weekend I played host to my niece (a dear friends daughter). We have no kids of our own so occasionally I borrow other peoples kids. Well frankly I love my friends children....especially when we get to give them back. [sly smile]

So I had a house full of teenage girls. I proceeded to walk them down to the mall, who wouldn't like the mall, I did, even if my feet didn't.  Upon returning home we chose a movie to watch. I so thought this would be the easy part, teenager girls like chick flicks right....answer here would be NOooooooo!  Though we did settle on a chick flick, iRobot was a serious contender, sorry Spongy, next time.

Ok, so why the pictures? Well I have added additional counter space for my kitchen, thanks to Ikea, It's a better place them my counter tops covered in 1960's old ceramic tiles (not the cool type, see below), that are broken and uneven. I sacrificed a kitchen table for more flat workspace. So I thought I would share it's multi-purpose use.

During pauses in the movies I had the girls roll out pizza dough, two girls to each pile of dough.  Then we put them on pizza stones, they chose their toppings, I bake.

 

After pizza's were in the oven we cleared the path for our art project that would start after the movie.  I got this idea from Pinterest and was posted from the 700 Experience blog here.  Those who follow me on Instagram (itsweetsavory) know I experimented with this by myself during the week before. By myself was the key problem, you need to have a buddy.  So each girl picked her color palate with the box of crayons I scored from the 99 cents store. Then we took some cardboard and a glue gun and glued the crayons onto the board, leave one inch of the crayon hanging off the cardboard.  Now it was ready for some melting.

 

Speaking of melting, here's our last melted cheese and veggie pizza....Nice right. This was delicious.  I made crust part easy and bought my dough from Trader Joes. Usually I make it myself, but I had too much to do. Toppings included cheese, obviously, tomato's, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, mushrooms and pepperoni. I don't really like sauce on my pizza and though others do, I didn't remember this part, so no sauce.

Back to the melting crayons.  The girls perfected this part, they got tired of holding each other's crayons and figured out how to tape the cardboard with glued crayons on the wall behind.  And yes I have splattered wax on my wall before I realized it and then we pulled up the craft paper and fixed that. Thankfully this is my patio.

One request I had made to a few mom's, was "have the girls bring a blow dryer", weird right, well that didn't happen so we had one blow dryer, mine.  Yes I had to scrap off hard wax the next day.  So, not complaining, because this was easy and the girls got creative.  Some chose to cover the whole canvas and others just did one side and left white space below.

Here's one up close, great texture and color.  

Have fun and enjoy your counter as much as I do.  Enjoy!

This post is my entry into the Alt Summit Blog Carnival Contest sponsored by Wilsonart International, Inc.

Vegan Chocolate Sorbet

Quite a few weeks ago I was going to a friends house for dinner who happens to be Vegan.  So I challenged myself to make some dessert that she could eat.  I comb through a few websites and settled on David Lebovitz's amazing recipe for ice cream, he's genius and this was so rich and scrumptious you can't believe it has no eggs or milk in it.  Thank you DAVID...LOVE this.  Found his recipe on Food52 here.

Best part was I finally got my ice cream maker out again and forgot how easy it was to use.  Enjoy!

So creamy and amazing.