I'm back!!!

I noticed that my last post was from several months ago and decided to stop being such a slacker and start blogging again! My next series of blog posts will be focused on traveling, one of my number one passions in life. I have 7 trips lined up in a 2 month time frame, so I figured there is no better time than now to blog about traveling!

My latest travel adventures were trips to Baltimore, Mt. Vernon, and Philadelphia. I went out to Baltimore for the 48th annual Society of Toxicology national meeting. I had to give a talk the day after St. Patty's day (BOOOOO), but I survived and managed not to have a heart attack prior to giving my talk, which is always my fear.

In between attending the meeting I did manage to do some sightseeing as well. The first day in town I hit the National Aquarium. The highlight of this visit was the dolphin show, since dolphins have always been my favorite animal - I am completely fascinated by them. The show was very kid focused, but it was fun to watch the dolphins do their tricks nevertheless.

I was also able to confront my arch nemesis, the sting ray. I am so glad these were not the rays I encountered during my infamous stinging in La Jolla - although the picture may not do them justice, they were huge and the one that my friend Margaret nicknamed the Dark Lord had a stinger that was about 4 feet long!

The other major stop on my Baltimore sightseeing tour was the Star Spangled Banner Flag House (not to be confused with the Betsy Ross Flag House in Philadelphia where the nation's first flag was sewn - more on that later). It was kind of a bust when I learned that the Star Spangled Banner flag was cut up and distributed to the soldiers who had defended Fort McHenry during it's bombing in the War if 1812 (who thought that was a good idea????), although they did have one old flag on display, though it is not clear whether it is the uncut remains of the Star Spangled Banner flag or not.

After my Baltimore excursions, I headed out to Mt. Vernon, the home of our nation's first president George Washington. It is just outside of Alexandria, Virginia and about 15 minutes away from D.C. The foundation has preserved the home, as well as the thousands of acres of land that Washington owned, and the results are spectacular. Visiting is like stepping back into the 1700's. The land overlooking the Potomac is absolutely gorgeous. The whole visit really got me thinking about life back in the early days of the U.S. and feeling very sad for all of the slaves. They said George Washington had something like 377 slaves working for him, which absolutely baffled me. There was a very nice monument to the slaves efforts which cheered me up a little bit, but not much.

After my day trip to Mt Vernon, Margaret and I headed up to Philadelphia for the weekend, which allowed me to visit two states I had not previously been to (Delaware and Pennsylvania). I can't say much about Delaware (I had a Wayne's World flash back), but Philadelphia was great! We spent our first day doing a walking tour of all of the historical sites, including Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, the U.S. Mint, the Betsy Ross Flag House, and Elfreth's Alley, a street containing the oldest homes in the U.S., some dating back to 1703.

That evening we did a pub crawl, hitting a pub called McGillin's Olde Ale House, which claims to be the oldest continously operating tavern in Philadelphia (since 1860), a pub called Sassafras, a pub called the Plough and the Stars, and finishing off the night at the City Tavern, which brews 18th century ales from the recipes of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton.

The next day we visited the 9th Street Market, which is a sort of Italian flea market. We bought handmade pastas and bread which we took back to Maryland and had for dinner. We capped the market off by heading to the famous dueling cheesesteak shops Pat's and Geno's. According to our non-scientific taste test, Geno's won by unanimous vote. We finished off our visit with a delicious brunch at Farmicia. All in all it was a great trip and I really loved the charm and history of Philadelphia.

For the love of dogs

Well, it is time to update my blog from for the love of dog to for the love of dogs because 2 days ago I got a new dog! I rescued Charlie from the Utah Humane Society. He is an 11 month old husky. He was living with a family that had 4 kids, but they had to move to Japan and could not take Charlie with them. The upside of this is that he is housetrained, knows basic commands (sit, down, etc.) and knows how to walk on a leash. Him and Tenaya have been sparring to decide who is the dominant one but hopefully they will sort it out soon. In the meantime, I have included some pictures:

Tenaya the Super Dog

I realized that even though my blog is called For the Love of Dog, the dog-centric posts have been few and far between these days, so I have decided to change that. One of the things that I have always loved and admired about Tenaya is that even though she is a relatively small girl (she weighs in at about 60 pounds), she never lets her small size limit her dreams. This dog is so ambitious, she constantly thinks that she can carry whole tree trunks around in her mouth (she has never met a stick she didn't fall in love with). Here are some pictures from a recent hike that might give you a better sense of what I mean - enjoy!

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!