Happy Halloween Eve!

Ok, so I know it's not Halloween yet, but I am hosting book club tonight, so I had to do all of my Halloween prep last night. I baked Halloween cookies, carved pumpkins and roasted the pumpkin seeds, and made homemade pizza (which pretty much has zero to do with Halloween but is fun nonetheless). My kitchen was a disaster zone, but it was so worth it! I thought I would share the recipes I used and some pictures too!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

seeds from 3 large pumpkins

2 tsps melted butter

salt (to taste)

Preheat oven to 300F. Clean most of the strings and pulp off of the pumpkin seeds. Toss cleaned seeds in a bowl with 2 tsps melted butter and salt (to taste). Spread seeds in a single layer on cookie sheet. Bake for approx. 30 mins, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. Enjoy!!

Sugar Cut-out Cookies

2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks unsalted butter (or margarine)

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Start with all ingredients at room temperature.
In a large bowl, sift together 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt. Set aside.
Mix (or beat on medium speed) butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and mix until blended.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredient mixture in 3 parts, blending to incorporate dry and wet ingredients completely before adding the next round of dry ingredients.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape into 2 balls. Wrap balls in plastic wrap and flatten into discs. Refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour or up to overnight.
Preheat oven to 350F. Generously flour cutting board and rolling pin. Roll dough out to approx. 1/4 inch thickness. Cut dough into shapes using lightly floured cookie cutters. Carefully gather dough from around cut out shapes and set aside to roll out again. Transfer cut out shapes to cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes (or until edges just start to brown and cookie centers become firm to the touch). Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute, then use a spatula to transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cookies have cooled completely, decorate with icings and frosting and enjoy!!!




Pizza
Ok, so I cheated and bought pre-made dough. If you are near a Trader Joe's, go there and buy the refrigerated pizza dough for 99 cents - it's awesome! If you are stuck in crappy Utah and there is no Trader Joe's, go to Papa Murphy's and buy dough for around $2 per medium sized pizza.
For the first pizza, I used marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, kalamata olives, baby portabella mushrooms, and basil.
For the second pizza, I used marinara sauce, mozzarella, mozzarella di buffola, chevre, and basil.
As I had forgotten, it is CRUCIAL to place your pizza stone in the oven, set as high as it goes (btwn 500 and 525F) for 45 minutes prior to baking the pizzas. Once the stone and oven are hot, place the pizzas in for btwn 6 and 8 minutes (until crust starts to brown), then cool, and enjoy!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Bodyworlds

This weekend I went to see the Body Worlds exhibit that is currently in Salt Lake: Body Worlds 3 and the Story of the Heart. I have to say that I was apprehensive about going, to say the least. Although the concept was interesting to me, the whole dead bodies without skin aspect seemed pretty morbid to me. Before I went I did a great deal of reading about the process by which they preserve the bodies, plastination, which basically involves replacing the lipids and fluids of the body with acetone, turning the body into the consistency of plastic. (The whole thing is bizarre to me.)

When I arrived I was shocked by how many people were waiting in line, especially since the exhibit requires one to select a time of arrival. The lines continued through the entire exhibit, so that looking at each speciman entailed several minutes of waiting while other people blocked the display case. There is almost nothing that annoys me more than viewing exhibits in this type of environment, so that definitely put a damper on my experience. In addition, the venue housing the exhibit here in Utah is a museum that is under construction - this meant that there was little to no air circulation within the building and that there were no walls erected (curtains separated the different parts of the exhibit to guide the flow of visitors) - definitely another bummer considering how expensive the tickets were.

But to focus on the positive aspects of the exhibit, I thought that the most interesting specimens were not the posed bodies themselves (which I still found to be creepy and morbid when I was there), but that organ samples. They had several organs with tumors, as well as organs from smokers, obese people, and persons with hypertension, that were juxtaposed with healthy organs so that one could really observe the difference. Another highlight for me was all of the models of animal and hman bodies made solely out of the circulatory system. It was remarkable to see how small some of the blood vessels in the body are and how close to the surface they are housed.

All in all I would say the exhibit was interesting, extremely overpriced, and very overcrowded. My advice for those who are interested is to try to find a discount coupon and be sure to head there on a weekday!

Hooray Beer!!!

On my recent trip to Evanston, WY I acquired some beers by Rogue which were not available to me here in good old Utah. These were limited edition XS releases from Rogue that I had never tried before: Imperial Red Ale, Imperial IPA, and Imperial Stout. These beers are definitely not for the faint of heart, with the Red being 9% ABV (NOT by weight), the IPA being 9.5% ABV, and the Stout coming in at a whopping 11% ABV! But being as my favorite beer is Arrogant Bastard, I've never been much of a light beer kind of girl.

Last night I tried the Imperial Red and I loved it! It had just the right balance of hoppiness (not too hoppy) and smoothness with that signature red ale flavor. If you find yourself outside of Utah, I say go for it!

Museum

Today I went to the Utah Museum of Natural History. When I moved here 3.5 year ago (can't believe it has been that long already!) I promised myself that I would visit the three museums on campus that are free to U of U students: the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Red Butte Gardens, and the Natural History Museum. I went to Red Butte shortly after moving here and it was beautiful - lots of great nature trails - and I have been several time since for the fun outdoor concerts in the summer (pricey but I would highly recommend them). I finally made it out to the art museum a month or so ago during their Monet to Picasso traveling exhibit, which I have to say was a bit of a let down (how can you put Picasso in your title when you only have ONE piece by him???).

But today's story is about the history museum. Upon arrival, I found out that the museum is housed in a historic building which served as the first library for the university before becoming a museum. Inside, there were several exhibits, including Native American artifacts and art, minerals, Utah wildlife, and my favorite: dinosaurs! There was also a traveling exhibit on bugs, which included all kinds of creepy crawlies like black widows, tarantulas, scorpions - the whole thing made my skin crawl! But as I mentioned, I was most impressed by the dino exhibits. I have included some photos - enjoy!

Birthday

To start my birthday off, I treated myself to a day at the spa. I headed for the Kura Door, which bills itself as a "hollistic Japense spa". I started out with a hot stone massage, followed by a pumpkin spice pedicure - both awesome! It was a great way to relax and enjoy turning a year older (not always the most enjoyable thing).

As anyone who knows me knows, I love love love going out to eat. But going to fancy restaurants is not exactly a hobby that meshes well with limited budget of a graduate student, so my fine dining experiences have been very limited these days. But for my birthday, Paul and I splurged and went out for dinner. I wanted to try a new place because it seems that every time we do go out, we go to the same place and order the same entrees. So I decided on Tuscany, which I have heard many positive reviews about.

Tuscany is a very unique restaurant. The building that houses it was built to resemble a cottage in the forest. When I entered, the first thing I noticed was that there were tons of business suit types around, presumably on expense accounts. We were seated at a small table next to a large business suit wearing group who was being extremely rude to their waitress (one of my ultimate pet peeves). Luckily, they were gone by the time our entrees arrived, so they didn't ruin our entire dining experience.

For the appetizers, Paul ordered a Caprese salad (his favorite), made with local heirloom tomatoes and I had a "hearthbread" (which is basically a thin crust pizza) topped with smoked salmon, dill infused creme fresh, and two types of caviar. (The caviar was basically the type that you find on sushi, so it didn't really add much and I could have done without it, but other than that it was tasty!) For the entree course, Paul had pancetta wrapped salmon with mixed vegtable couscous and I had handmade crimini mushroom ravioli in a prcini mushroom buerre blanc. Wow, this dish was amazing on so many levels! One of the best pastas I have ever had anywhere, and I am guessing one of the bext things on the menu (if not the best). For dessert, we split a Tiramisu, which I must say seemed pretty mediocre and disappointing after how mind blowing my entree was. All in all, it was a nice meal, but definitely over priced. (Which might explain all of the expense account types . . . )

I have to say that it was one of my better birthdays - we'll see if 28 continues to be a better year from here on out!

I've Been Tagged!

I am new to this whole blogging thing, but today I found out that I got tagged by Julie! I have to admit that I am so un-hip to blogging that I did not know what that meant right away, but after some research on Julie's blog, I found the above set of rules, so here goes:

1. I am secretly addicted to Del Taco. :)

2. I have a double jointed thumb.

3. I hate sour cream, milk, and virtually all other white creamy sauces.

4. I am deathly afraid of butterflies.

5. I watch way too much trashy tv, sometimes while I am at work.

6. My favorite color is red.

7. I still do not know how to properly tie my shoelaces.

I know the next step is for me to tag 7 other bloggers, but sadly I only know 3 people who have blogs! So I will link back to Julie's but can't pass it on!

For the love of wine

I know that the title of my blog is "For the Love of Dog", but I figured that I may as well go ahead and blog about all of the other wonderful things that I love in the world, including (but by no means limited to) alcohol, food and traveling.

Today's post is about wine. Tomorrow is my birthday and my best friend Allyson sent me an amazing birthday package with delicious chocolates and two different bottles of a type of wine that intrigues me: sparkling red wine. I was first introduced to sparkling reds at a dinner party with some fellow grad students from my program. Now having always been a fan of sparkling wine and also being a lover of red wines, I figured this was the perfect combo for me! Of course, being a lover of food and wine is no easy feat in Utah, where it seems that every law is out to prevent imbibing. I have searched high and low in every liquor and wine store in the city and have never been able to locate the delicious sparkling red wine that I became so enamoured of at that dinner party (my friend at the party must have smuggled it in from out of state - living in Utah makes you an expert at bootlegging).

I had complained about this very thing to Allyson, who being the thoughtful person that she is, took note and decided to rescue me from my sorrows by sending me those birthday gifts! I have never been one to put a celebration on hold, so I didn't let the fact that the gifts arrived 2 days before my birthday stop me! I started with the smaller of the two bottles, which turned out to be an Italian sparkling red called Rosa Regale. (You can find more information about both the wine and vintner on their website: http://www.rosaregale.com/about_us.php) Now after working as a server at a 5 star restaurant, I pride myself on my ability to open sparkling wine bottles without them spewing all over the room, something I was TERRIFIED of and would not even attempt before working as a server. Of course, I neglected to think about the fact that this package had just arrived from St. Louis and that the wine would be agitated. So in opening it I did lose a bit of the wine - which was a pity because it was so delicious! The wine was light for a red and sweet, but not overly so. All in all I was very impressed and would recommend this wine to anyone who likes sparkling wines and is looking for something new. Oh, and it tasted great with the Perugina Allyson had sent me!

Snow Dog Returns

For my first post, I thought I would share some photos of Tenaya doing what she loves most: enjoying the snow!