Asian Broccoli Salad with Sesame Ginger Dressing

A few posts ago I mentioned an Asian Salad that I made. It turned out so good that I thought I would give it some more face time on the blog. At work a few girls and I started a 'lunch club' and have been switching off days bringing food for eachother to share at work. We decided to go for healthier foods, mostly soups, salads, and sandwiches. Lots of soups lately, becuase its cold and snowy right now- which I will post more of soon! I served it with Thai Chicken Noodle Soup, a easy recipe I got from Real Simple December Issue. For the Chicken Noodle Soup mix 1/2 cup of lite coconut milk wtih 2 cans of Progresso Chicken Noodle Soup and add 2 TB of lime juice. This should serve four people when you add the salad to the meal.

Asian Broccoli Salad with Sesame Ginger Dressing

INGREDIENTS
1 head of broccoli, chopped to bite size
1 head of cabbage, chopped
2-3 carrots, shredded
1/2 cup peanuts

DRESSING INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup sesame oil
2 TB soy sauce
2 TB honey
2 TB grated fresh ginger
2 TB toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Directions
Steam broccoli, mix dressing, then pour over salad mixture.

For a full list of VintageMixer recipes click here.

1 comments

Sundance 2009

This year I saw 4 Sundance movies, a record for me since moving to Utah. Our first movie was, World's Greatest Dad, directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, who you might recognize from Police Academy, and starring Robin Williams, my favorite actor of all time. It was a dark, very dark, and haphazardly funny movie. I'll spare the details but Robin William does a great job finding a dark, self serving side inside himself to present in this film. He begins as a humble, hardworking father who has lost motivation in disciplining his son then with the surprise death of his son his grief turns into self serving pride as he quickly takes advantage of the situation. At the end of the movie he returns to his original morality and confesses his dark secret, forfeiting many who were close to him yet gaining a new family like he'd never had before and unleashing a new freedom within. An theme throughout the movie was that people have lost the ability to not make everything about them. The best part I must say was seeing Robin Williams in person! Though I saw a different, deep and dark side of him, he was still the joyful and unpretentious person that I'd imagined him to be. He was quickly to compliment the director and the other young upcoming actors in the film instead of basking in his inferior role. Before the film that day we got to go into the ASCAP Music Cafe. We briefly saw John Reznick's performance then saw most of Rachael Yamagata, who was especially talented. I especially liked her songs on the piano. After the film we headed to Davanzas for a slice of pizza, only $2.50, which is a great deal for Park City, then headed home.


















First Picture: Robin Williams with Bobcat Goldthwait and the cast of World's Greatest Dad. Second Picture: Rachael Yamagata at ASCAP Music Cafe.

The second film we saw was, Prom Night in Mississippi, a documentary about the first integrated prom in a small town in Mississippi, the best part is the film took place in 2008. We conveniently saw the film on Martin Luther King Day! Earlier that day I had watched the MLK 'I have a dream' speech so the movie was even more impactful. The basic idea of the film was that Morgan Freeman offered to pay for this small town's high school prom if they would agree to integrate it. Previously, they had two separate proms. The school principal agreed although many white families still decided to pay for a separate prom for their children, not including the black students. It was funny and almost unbelievable at times- people really still live like this in parts of our country! Lots of great Southern accents and small town attitudes. I highly recommend this film!


















The last two movies were both unplanned. I got to see Good Hair, Chris Rock's documentary, with the rest of the Marketing Department at work - which basically means me and two guys learned about black women's hair for 2 hours. Oh and did I mention it was at 8:30am! The documentary was actually pretty good; Chris Rock always makes me laugh! And it was interesting to learn about this huge industry around hair products and hair importation from India. Much to our surprise Chris Rock showed up for Q & A after the showing and our second row seats made us an arm's distance from him. The last movie I went to was with my dear friend Halen, she had an extra ticket to John Krasinski's film called Interviews with Hideous Men. We hopes to see John, who plays Jim in The Office, but he didn't show. The movie was pretty good, not funny at all like John's role in The Office, but it was thought provoking and fun to see with a group of girls.

1 comments

Dos and Don'ts for showing friends around Utah

In January we enjoyed several visits from some of our closest friends. First Steph and Brian came in from Oklahoma. There hasn't been much snow in Oklahoma this year so they enjoyed every minute of snow here! While they were here we tried a new restaurant, a new recipe and we hit the slopes! We skied Deer Valley one day- always a good choice, and they skied Solitude another day. I have yet to ski Solitude but they had all good things to say about it. The only problem they ran into was the bus on the ride up the canyon- which charges non-locals way to much and took way too long to get to the slopes. They said the food was typical ski slope food, nothing like the gourmet choices you find at Deer Valley. Steph and I enjoyed the famous turkey chili when we skied Deer Valley and Brian chose the Bacon Burger, which he said was straight from heaven. I think they got chili dogs at Solitude. The new restaurant we tried was- Rio Grande, located in the old train station near Gateway Mall. It was a bit quirky. For example, there's a ghost legend of 'the lady in the purple dress' who jumped in front of a train to grab a diamond ring that her lover threw on the track, who now haunts the women's restroom. The food was alright, overly cheesy and big portions. I ordered the veggie enchilada, which I could only eat half of. Another night while they were here we tried making our own pizza. I actually cheated a bit and bought dough from Whole Foods. Whole Foods sells their whole wheat pizza dough that they use to make pizzas at their deli and their pizza tastes amazing! Ours however, turned out good at best. It especially didn't look that great. But luckily our kind guests were starving enough to consume most of it! We also took them to downtown and Temple Square on Sunday night. It was nice becasue no one was really there but also unfortunate because downtown looked like a ghost town- not great for first impressions.

Last weekend, our friends Allison and Wade came in town from Texas. They lived here in Salt Lake for a couple of years but then moved back to be with family. While they were here we went to some of our favorite places, which of course includes Desert Edge Brew Pub, in Trolley Square mall near our house. I usually get the Tuna steak sandwich when we go but I branched out this time and got the Turkey Avocado sandwich. By the way, you can't go here and not get some of their house pasta salad and local brew! One morning we walked to 9th and 9th and enjoyed coffee at the Starbucks there and later in the day we stopped by a few of the shops around the area: Hip and Humble, Charlette's, and The Blue Cockatoo. We also enjoyed chips and queso with margaritas at Chili’s, a favorite of Wade and Allison's and the Soup Kitchen; I can never have enough Split Pea soup from Soup Kitchen. We spent the rest of the weekend playing games and Wii. It just felt normal for them to be back in Utah! We hope to get down to Austin soon and have some real Tex-Mex and margaritas!


















If you have visitors come to Utah:

DO
Go to Temple Square on a Sunday (empty with less people trying to guide you around)
Eat at Soup Kitchen and walk around Sugarhouse (cheap eats and a there are still a few fun local stores)
Brunch at Ruth's Diner or Gormandie's Bakery (always solid choices for those who like breakfast foods)
Ski Deer Valley and bring enough money for lunch
Grab coffee at 9th and 9th and hit up some local stores around the area
Lunch or Dinner at Desert Edge, try the local brews and pasta salad

Don'ts
Go downtown on a Sunday
take the bus up Big Cottonwood Canyon
try and make something you've never made before (homemade pizza)

Any additions that I should know about?

1 comments

Michelle Obama's Shortbread Cookies

I heard about these on NPR the other day and plan on trying out the recipe today! Jars of these cookies were handed out to guests at the Ritz Carlton hotel who came for the Inauguration. I hope all of you were able to watch the Inauguration today.

Michelle Obama's Shortbread Cookies

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 egg yolks
3 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
1 teaspoon each orange and lemon zest
2 tablespoons amaretto (almond liqueur)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg white
Chopped nuts or dried fruit (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Mix together butter and 1 ½ cups of sugar.
Add egg yolks one at a time and beat until smooth.
Stir in flour, zest, amaretto and salt, and mix only until everything is incorporated.
Spread dough evenly onto baking pan and brush top of dough with egg white and remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Sprinkle with nuts or fruit if desired.
Bake until golden brown, approximately 25 minutes. Cool for a short time, then cut while still warm.

Here are some links to a few other recipes I've tried lately:

Spinach Quiche
I used a pie shell and cooked it for longer instead of using a puff pastry shell or a tart shell. Just cook it until it’s not jiggly.

Asian Salad Dressing
For the salad I used 1 head of cabbage, 1 head of broccoli, 2 carrots (grated), 1 cucumber (grated), and peanuts.

For a full list of VintageMixer recipes click here.

0 comments

Secret to perfect eggs, a Great Sushi Bar, and Best of State Carrot Cake

Yesterday was Josh's birthday, well actually all this week and probably all next week too. He likes to stretch the celebrating out as long as possible! I made him breakfast in bed- Egg McMuffin, minus the McDonalds. I use these great egg fry rings that were given to me as a gift and they make perfect eggs for eggs benedict or egg sandwiches. You can buy them at Williams Sonoma here.










picture from Williams Sonoma




Then after work we decided to go out for Sushi at a Sushi Express in Sandy- a great place if you want good Sushi at an affordable price and you don't care so much about atmosphere. I had a really great spicy tuna roll and Philadelphia roll. We also loved their salad with a homemade creamy Asian salad dressing.

Then to top it all off we went to our friends, Julie and Toby's house and they treated us to this amazing Burgundy wine punch and carrot cake. The wine punch is a family recipe of the Hebners and the carrot cake was from Pirate O's in Draper and won the Best of State Award for Carrot Cake. We all had seconds!

To celebrate Josh some more for his Birthday visit his myspace page. Listen to Renaissance- you'll love it and you'll be helping a great cause in trying to get this song up on the radio!

2 comments

VEGETABLE SOUP and my new Twitter account

For starters, I wanted to let you know that I finally joined twitter, a social media site that allows you to follow others happenings of the day and to post your own as well. I hope you follow me and I hope to find some funny things to post! Happy tweetering!

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/SLCfoodie

And for the promised recipe... New Years Day I made a recipe that I altered from Sunset Magazine. With all of the changes that I made due to lack of the right ingredients and certain preferences from my non-tomato eating husband the recipe ended up completely different than the original. The result- colorful (with radicchio added), spicy (green peppers w/tomato and more garlic of course!), and more hearty (black eyed peas added), AND much better I think!

Rosenthal Style Vegetable Soup

INGREDIENTS
About 3 tbsp. olive oil, divided
1/2 white onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 medium carrots, chopped into 1/2-in. pieces
2 celery stalks, chopped into 1-in. pieces
1 zucchini (sliced)
1 1/2 qts. chicken broth
1 1/2 cups cooked black eyed peas
1 can of diced tomatoes with green peppers (pureed)
2 cups chopped radicchio
4 cups rough-textured day-old bread (such as ciabatta), ripped into 1 1/2-in. pieces
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Wedge of parmesan cheese for grating (optional)

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook until transparent, about 5 minutes. Add carrots, celery, and zucchini and cook, stirring often, 5 minutes. Stir in broth and beans, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer about 15 minutes. Add pureed tomatoes w/ green peppers and radicchio and simmer another 15 minutes, covered.
2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350°. Lay bread pieces on a rimmed baking sheet in a single layer. Drizzle with remaining 2 tbsp. olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toast in oven until slightly golden, about 10 minutes. Set croutons aside.
3. Just before serving, add basil and season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Divide soup among serving bowls and top each with a few warm croutons. Grate parmesan directly over soup if you like.

Nutritional Info: 212 Cal. per 1 cup serving!
Would be great served over 1/2 a baked potato or with a grilled cheese sandwich!

Here is the link to the Sunset Magazine version.

For a full list of VintageMixer recipes click here.

1 comments

A New Year and an Old Favorite

This New Years Eve I surprised Josh and took him to our favorite restaurant in Park City, Purple Sage. We ordered some of our favorites: barbeque chicken tamales for an appetizer, and butterscotch pudding for dessert. But one thing I love about Purple Sage is that they change their menu pretty often forcing me to choose a different entree. And I have never been disappointed with what I've chosen. This time I ordered the trout with jalapeño mac n' cheese and string beans, and Josh ordered the flatiron steak with horseradish mashed potatoes. Main Street in Park City was the perfect spot for New Years Eve! After dinner we perused through the shops and museums for a while and then visited some friends who were staying in the area.

Some things I'm looking forward to this year: Kristin's wedding in February, My sister having her first baby, Josh graduating college (I don't know who is more excited him or me?), celebrating after he graduates, my new role at work in Interactive Marketing, friends and family visiting from out of town, finding a dog to be in our family, enjoying our new home, cooking in cast iron, maybe cooking lessons, sipping some of Josh's home brew, and deepening my friendships.





















In church this past week the pastor asked, What one thing would you change about yourself this year? And then he said, now ask your spouse or family what one thing would they change about you. I have yet to ask Josh and am somewhat fearful of what it may be but I will ask him and that is what I want my New Years Resolution to be. There are a lot of things I would change about myself but I hope to at least change one and have it be the one thing Josh would like to see changed. I'm sure it will be humbling. Here is a verse I've been pondering on lately.
And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. (Deut 8:2)

On a lighter note, look for my next post- a New Year's Eve soup that Josh and I created this year! A one I think will be making for years to come!

3 comments

The LBK

Here is another photo of why I'm thankful we don't live in West Texas anymore. Athough, I must say the food and people are great there- I don't miss the West Texas winds. Contrast with photo below of Park City.

3 comments