The Cooking Dish

Havanese Puppy Shopping List

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These past few months have been crazy at our house. Among the trips (Florida, I love you) and general shenanigans that summer and fall bring, we also purchased a fluffy little, black and white Havanese puppy dog. And oh, how life has changed.

The good news is that raising a dog is much easier than raising a kid. If you can survive the first few days and weeks, and with proper training, you’re good to go. We were lucky enough that ours never whines in the night. Not on day one. Not ever.
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Food Bloggers from IFBC: A Short Q&A

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I’m a social bug and plan frequent gatherings. I also try to reach out and meet new people when I have the chance. At the same time, I’m a dedicated home body. Depending on my mood, traveling and experiencing new things will recharge my batteries, but so will sitting on my patooski and doing nothing at all. I’m sure there are other food bloggers out there like that. Sometimes we like to hide behind our keyboards.
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Chef John Ash and His Cooking Mentors

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Earlier this week I had the privilege to listen to Chef John Ash. If you’ve been following along on social media, you’ll know that we visited Sacramento, California—USA’s farm-to-fork capitol—at the International Food Bloggers Conference (hashtag IFBC). I’ve been writing about food since 2009, and I decided it was about time to crawl out of my Utah shell and meet some other food bloggers.
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A Peach Full of Memories

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Of all the fresh fruits I look forward to eating the most each year, peaches rank the highest (raspberries take a very close second). Peaches are better than candy–and I don’t care how much sugar content they have, I can eat six thousand and one in a single sitting and remain 100% guilt free.

This morning I blended up the last of my second bushel. When only four peaches remained in the box, I realized that if I didn’t eat one of them, I would most likely not have another fresh peach until September of next year. Without a second thought I cut it open, removed the pit and skin and sunk my teeth into its juicy flesh. My taste buds knew exactly what to expect and they weren’t disappointed. But what I didn’t expect was the flood of memories that came rushing into my head with that first bite.
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One More Summer Has Come and Gone

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Now that summer is over, I’ll be back to a more regular posting schedule. Every summer I have great plans for this blog. This summer was no different I planned on focusing on a billion—yeah, that’s right… a billion—ways to make incredible smoothies and post them on the blog, but I never got around to it. Do I regret it? No, not really, although I missed all of you. Even though I made smoothies nearly every night and often for breakfast, it felt good to take a break from the ordinary schedule.

This summer I spent some excellent time with family and friends, which was a lot of fun. It was a good summer for me, despite working long hours at my FTJ. We took lots of trips and spent a lot of time bonding–awwwww. Let me share with you some of our good times…

Pictures after the break.
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Epic Monkey Dreams

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Last night I was one spoonful away from eating monkey brain soup. Apparently me eating it was a test of courageousness and honor. If I were to pass the test, I’d be well on my way to becoming a hero or sorts, capable of defeating even my worst enemies (who, by the way, I’ve never even met). So late last night there I sat next to my brother, Daniel, both of us with big 1/2 gallon sized bowls of monkey brain soup staring us in the face, wondering what we’d gotten ourselves in to.

Let’s rewind about 4 hours. Daniel and I were hauled more-or-less against our will by a dozen people to a bizarre underground house/kitchen/restaurant place. I say ‘more-or-less’ because a part of me was rather curious as to where they were taking us in such a hurry. When we arrived, we entered what looked like a mud hut, but we immediately took a long flight of stairs downward to a large dining area. The furniture was a healthy balance between my old university’s chemistry lab, an urban Swedish home, and a Victorian ranch house. Wow. Someone call the decorator.
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2nd Annual QA Christmas Candy Party

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Excuse me for a second while I fill you in on the my latest happenings and not-so-adventurous adventures, then we’ll get to the real stuff.

It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to sit and down and work on The Cooking Dish, which is unfortunate because I have some delicious foods I’ve been wanting to post. Unexpectedly, however, I now have 4 to 5 days to work on it, if I’m up to it. For the past two weeks I’ve been fighting off a cough and intermittent fevers, and I finally thought I was getting better… BUT I woke up last night at 2:00 a.m. with a sever chest pain which kept me up for the rest of the night. Straight away this morning I contacted the family doctor and after a visit to the office left with a note saying, “stay home from work, you’ve got bronchitis and other junk” and some prescriptions to fill. Oh joy. I’m personally not a fan of involuntarily taking time off from work, but I don’t want to infect my co-workers either (you guys can thank me later–when I get back to the office).
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Trauma in the Kitchen: It Found Me

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I’m not sure if even the best of chefs are immune to traumatic kitchen moments, but as an amateur, I know I have my fair share of them. With time I’ve learned to let them roll off my back and learn all I can from them. It’s probably a good thing too, or I’d be too afraid to set foot in the kitchen… burned fingers, crappy bread, etc. etc. Yep, I’ve been there and I’m sure I’ve got my fair share still coming to me.

A few years back I wrote a short, frivolous story for a writing seminar/class all about a terrible cooking day I’d experienced in the kitchen of my wife and I’s first apartment. We lived in an 8-plex’s basement in a one bedroom apartment. It was small, but not unbearable: it had a decent kitchen. Now, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about cooking, it’s that it has a way of humbling you when you least expect it… here’s my story. Reading time is approximately 8 minutes.
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