Chinese New Year

My family and I celebrated Chinese New Year this past weekend and we all got together at my aunt’s house for a delicious Chinese feast. We usually go out to a nice restaurant for dinner, so this was a nice change and who doesn’t love home cooking?

The meal was pretty standard – scallops, shrimp, bok choy, chicken, duck, etc, but the end of the meal was where I learned the most.

The picture here is a warm red bean mochi ball. I love and adore mochi, but had never had it warmed. My uncle explained to us that it is traditional to eat red bean mochi at the end of a Chinese New Year’s dinner as the round ball symbolizes the completeness of one year. I love when I learn about food!

Petrale Sole with Lemon-Shallot Brussels Sprouts

Brian and I made this for dinner last night. We served it with a simple side of roasted sweet potatoes, potatoes, and sage. Simply cut potatoes into cubes, toss with olive oil, salt and sage leaves. Bake at 425* for 40 minutes. mmm delicious!

I haven’t posted in a while because frankly, I’ve been at a loss of where this blog is going. I feel like with facebook, that’s my life through pictures and it’s almost unnecessary to have this blog to talk about all of that again. Probably everybody who reads this blog sees those pictures and it just began to feel repetitive. And then we have the wedding website and the wedding blog which is all about the wedding, so I felt as though I didn’t need to double up on that here as well. So…just been thinking about it all for a few days and realized that I want to go back to why I started this blog and why I named it what I did – Taste of Life, LA.

I want this blog to be about food, eating, cooking, and everything else food related. As I venture in to the world as a “Flexitarian” – someone who limits my intake of meat and tries to only eat meat that is free of hormones and antibiotics, and is raised on pastures and have lived a humane life, I want to document that here. I want to encourage people to begin to look at what they eat, not only as beef, but as cow and not as bacon but as pig. And of course along with this, point out all the reasons why I feel so strongly about this, not only for my own health, but for the lives of the animals, and of course, for our Earth.

I totally love these cards I received in the mail!

Health Force

Health Force…doesn’t that just sound like a police team for your health?

Continuing on my quest to be healthy from the inside out, I just ordered this from them (well, not from them, but from amazon)

On the website it says:

Vitamineral Green is a unique and extremely potent combination of nature’s most deeply nourishing, cleansing, and rebuilding superfoods. Its 100% whole food ingredients are specifically grown, processed, and combined to maximize their beneficial effects. This highly concentrated powdered blend of vegetable superfoods supports healthy bones and regular bowel movements; cleanses and nourishes the blood, colon, liver, and kidneys; and provides comprehensive nutritional support to enhance all aspects of health.

Planning on starting with 1 teaspoon a few days a week in a smoothie in the morning. I doubt it will hurt…and hopefully it will keep me healthy!

2010

I really do think the start of a new year is a great time to reflect back on the last year and look forward to the future. I don’t necessarily set resolutions, but for me, it is a time to look at what I want to accomplish this year, how I want to act, and how I will grow as an individual, as a fiance, as a daughter, sister, friend and employee.

My number 1 goal this year is to spent more time with my family and friends. It is so easy not to make an effort – to just stay home during the week nights or on a Sunday afternoon and laze around. But more then ever, I realized that the times I spend with friends and family is when I am the happiest. I so often tell people that we should get together, but so many times, it never happens. So this year, instead of just saying that, I am going to set more dates, make more “lets just hang out” times and enjoy those moments. Life goes by way too fast and I want to surround myself with people I love as often as I can.

My number 2 goal is to eat as little factory farm meat as possible, eat meat only when it is humanly raised and killed and of course pasture fed without the use of hormones or antibiotics. I will do a separate post on this issue.

My number 3 goal is to remember the serenity prayer – “God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference.” I love this and it applies to every situation.

My 4th and final goal (for now) is to be a better fiance, daughter, friend, sister, and employee. I think all of us can always strive to improve ourselves. I want to love more, gossip less, listen more, and make an effort to let people know I love them and I am always there if they need me.

A Year in Review

Wow 2009…what a year. I dont know why but I feel like for a lot of people, this was a really intense year. And not in a good way. I feel like my year definitely had it’s fair share of it’s ups and down for me. Brian and I began the year in Toronto with Jenna and Patrick, then we went to Big Bear to celebrate my 24th birthday with my brother, Jodi and my two best friends. I did more traveling this year then I have ever done – Colorado for snowboarding, shooting in San Francisco, Chicago, St Louis, Miami, Palm Beach, Jackson Hole, Phoenix, Washington DC, Aspen, and Atlanta (whew!). Brian and I had one of the most amazing nights of our lives when we got engaged (!!!). It has been a tough end of the year with Brian’s dad so sick, but we’re trying to think positively, and though we know he’s never going to get better, we are nothing but thankful for all this time with him – to know none of us will be around forever and all we can do is appreciate each other while we are on this earth. This all rang true once again when Brian’s uncle went in to the hospital with heart problems and then the worst news, my grandfather passed away in England. It was terrible news and I couldn’t stop crying when I found out, but we were lucky enough to go to England for a week, to spend time with my family and though it was under sad circumstances that we were there, it was such a great time. I really appreciated every moment more then ever and felt so blessed to be with my beautiful family. After such an intense year, I’m so ready for 2010….bring it!

Invitation Design Inspiration

This invitation designer is out of this world. Hands down the most beautiful work I have ever seen.

Stunning, right?

Hellooo inspiration.

The Process

I knew that when I met Brian at the tender age of 19, I knew I would be one of the first of my close friends to get married. However, we were so certain we wanted to be together, there was never a rush for us to be married. We just felt like we wanted to do it when the time felt right, so I was absolutely hoping that one of those friends would be getting married before me. I mean, Brian and I go to several weddings every year, but they are either family or his friends, so I didn’t really have too many people to go to and say, umm, how does this whole thing happen? I truly had no idea how to plan a wedding. It just seemed like this giant day that took over a year to plan, but jeez…what could possibly take a year?! And you see weddings on tv or online and you think, wow, where did that amazing idea come from? Wow, how did that design happen? It’s like, somehow, when you get engaged and that ring goes on your finger, you automatically become an expert on party planning and design. Well, I’m here to tell you, that does not happen. Not one bit.

I got a comment from a good friend this past weekend who had seen our wedding website and commented on how she loved the wedding blog. She had never seen this before on a wedding website and it really made her feel like a part of the whole process, not just the day. I loved that. The reason I started the blog was to document this whole process. Many of my posts on this blog are wedding related and I apologize to people who read this and don’t care about that process, but to me, it’s fascinating. And I can almost guarantee all my girlfriends that when they begin planning, the process will be fascinating to them as well. Love it or dread it, it’s pretty awesome how the whole thing comes together.

I’m excited to know where we’ve come from, to see where to go, and of course, to see it all comes together.

December 7, 2009

4 things I did today
1. Volunteered at the spay and neuter clinic before I went to work
2. met the assistant to the guy who i am a dog walker for – and she strangely kept calling me “pretty girl” instead of my name
3. watched the packers beat the ravens
4. ate a smore

4 things on my To Do List
1. Start taking dance classes again
2. Find cute little gifts for christmas for friends
3. Book a cabin in Park City for my birthday
4. Put a deposit on the awesome DJ we want to hire

4 of my guiltiest pleasures
1. shows about babies – Adoption Day is my current fave and I cry almost every time
2. taking up the entire bed
3. wedding blogs. I read them nonstop at work.
4. cadbury cream eggs. amazing.

4 random facts about me
1. i drink about 8 – 10 bottles of water a day and seriously pee like 30 times a day.
2. the only lie i have ever told to brian was before our first date – i told him i loved sushi, so he took me to a japanese restaurant where you cook your own meats in a broth and have sushi on the side. i actually hated sushi and didn’t eat red meat, so I ordered nothing but vegetables. I had the best night ever but I think he still feels bad about this.
3. my favorite city in the world is Rome.
4. one of my life’s goals is to run a marathon.