Friendship | Life Tastes Like Food

The 2012 Food Blogger/Reader Holiday Auction

2012 Holiday Auction, Baking, Food, Friendship, Holiday, Life 2 Responses »

Dec 102012

I’m so excited to announce that The 2012 Food Blogger/Reader Holiday Auction is officially LIVE! Over 25 bloggers and 20 offline readers/friends have joined forces to put on a fantastic auction filled with baked goods and holiday-inspired gift items.

I loved the Holiday Project last year but this year, The Holiday Auction is even more special to me because it’s in honor of my good friend Lori Hammond. Lori (age 24) was diagnosed with APL Leukemia on October 4th, 2012 just as she was starting Veterinary School at UC Davis. She fought the cancer into remission but it was no easy feat and still has outpatient chemotherapy down in San Diego to ensure it is gone for good. You can read more about Lori’s journey on her auction item page and/or through her blog.

Since Lori is a huge fan of food and cooking, I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate her amazing strength and spirit than to bring together a group of like-minded individuals who share the same love for food.

100% of all the proceeds from this auction will be donated so I hope you will do some bidding! There are a bunch of wonderful items that would make great gifts too :)

Auction Details:

100% of the proceeds will be donated. 50% will go to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the other 50% will go to Lori. Everyone will also have the option of donating 100% to LLS (per Lori’s request).
The auction starts Monday (today!) and goes until Thursday, December 13th, 2012. All winning bidders will have to pay within 24 hours after the auction ends or else the item will go to the 2nd highest bidder.
If you win, your item will be shipped no later than Monday, December 17th so it will arrive in time for the holidays.
Bids are placed in the comments section of each item page.

Ok, Ready?

Check Out the Awesome Holiday Auction Items Here!

Below is a list of all the people who contributed to this auction. I am so appreciative of the bloggers, readers, and friends (even if we’ve never met) who volunteered their time and baking skills to put this auction together. Thanks again for the wonderful items!

Bloggers

Angie - Bakerella
Anjali - The Picky Eater
Annie - Social Potato Chips

Deb - Smitten Kitchen

Diane and Todd - White On Rice Couple

Gerry - Foodness Gracious

Gina - Skinnytaste.com

Ishita - Bites Out of Life

Jen - Savory Simple

Jenny and Teri - Spoon Fork Bacon

J.K. and Angela - Teatime Adventures

Kath - Kath Eats Real Food

Kita - Pass the Sushi

Kristin - Iowa Girl Eats

Krysten - Mrs. Schwartz’s Kitchen

Laura - Family Spice

Lindsay - Love and Olive Oil

Michelle - Brown Eyed Baker

Rachel - Bakerita

Stephanie - 52 Kitchen Adventures

Stephanie - Steph’s Bite By Bite

Susan - Girl in the Little Red Kitchen

Vanessa - cookinfood.com

Readers/Friends

Amanda
Armen
Caitlin
Camilla
Carolyn and Liz
Caty
Celia
Claudia
Dinah
Jenna
Kristin
Lauren
Lori
Meghan
Monica
Nicole
Rachel
Sheeter
Shelly
Val

The 2012 Food Blogger/Reader Holiday Project

2012 Holiday Auction, 2012 Holiday Project, Baking, Food, Friendship, Guest post, Health, Holiday, Life No Responses »

Dec 102012

This year, The Holiday Auction is even more special to me because it’s in honor of my good friend Lori Hammond. Lori (age 24) was diagnosed with APL Leukemia on October 4th, 2012 just as she was starting Veterinary School at UC Davis. She fought the cancer into remission but it was no easy feat and still has outpatient chemotherapy down in San Diego to ensure it is gone for good. You can read more about Lori’s journey on her auction item page and/or through her blog.

100% of all the proceeds from this auction will be donated so I hope you will do some bidding! There are a bunch of wonderful items that would make great gifts too :)

Auction Details:

100% of the proceeds will be donated. 50% will go to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the other 50% will go to Lori. Everyone will also have the option of donating 100% to LLS (per Lori’s request).
The auction starts Monday (today!) and goes until Thursday, December 13th, 2012. All winning bidders will have to pay within 24 hours after the auction ends or else the item will go to the 2nd highest bidder.
If you win, your item will be shipped no later than Monday, December 17th so it will arrive in time for the holidays.
Bids are placed in the comments section of each item page.

Ok, Ready?

Check Out the Awesome Holiday Auction Items Here!

Below is a list of all the people who contributed to this auction. I am so appreciative of the bloggers, readers, and friends (even if we’ve never met) who have volunteered their time and baking skills to put this auction together. Thanks again for the wonderful items!

Bloggers

Angie - Bakerella
Anjali - The Picky Eater
Annie - Social Potato Chips

Deb - Smitten Kitchen

Diane and Todd - White On Rice Couple

Gerry - Foodness Gracious

Gina - Skinnytaste.com

Ishita - Bites Out of Life

Jen - Savory Simple

Jenny and Teri - Spoon Fork Bacon

J.K. and Angela - Teatime Adventures

Kath - Kath Eats Real Food

Kita - Pass the Sushi

Kristin - Iowa Girl Eats

Krysten - Mrs. Schwartz’s Kitchen

Laura - Family Spice

Lindsay - Love and Olive Oil

Michelle - Brown Eyed Baker

Rachel - Bakerita

Stephanie - 52 Kitchen Adventures

Stephanie - Steph’s Bite By Bite

Susan - Girl in the Little Red Kitchen

Vanessa - cookinfood.com

Readers/Friends

Amanda
Armen
Caitlin
Camilla
Carolyn and Liz
Caty
Celia
Claudia
Dinah
Jenna
Kristin
Lauren
Lori
Meghan
Monica
Nicole
Rachel
Sheeter
Shelly
Val

Recap: Foodbuzz Festival 2012

Cooking, Dinner, Food, Friendship, Life, Restuarants, San Francisco 8 Responses »

Nov 062012

Hi friends :) It’s been a few weeks! This post was suppose to go out about 2 weeks ago but then the SF Giants won the World Series! Needless to say I got distracted and this post was put on hold…Go Giants!

Anyway, 3 weekends ago, Dailybuzz Food (formerly Foodbuzz) hosted the 4th Annual Foodbuzz Fest in San Francisco. Bloggers from all over the country flew out to California to meet other bloggers, explore the city, and eat! This event is really like Christmas for bloggers.

Warning: This particular post is a little long but the event was just so amazing that I had to share details!

Friday – October 19, 2012

The event started on a Friday night. We all checked in at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel and then headed up to the 21st floor around 5pm to enjoy a cocktail reception. There I got to meet a bunch of bloggers I had been in touch with the previous weeks. It was so nice to finally meet these ladies! After cocktail hour, DailyBuzz Food partnered with OpenTable to bring us Dine Around Town. We were given a stipend to use at a restaurant of our choice! So awesome.

From left to right: Gina, Lizzie, Faith, Me, Krysten, and Anjali

Saturday – October 20, 2012

The next day, I missed the early morning Scavenger Hunt at the Ferry Building but then headed to the Metreon for the Taste Pavilion.

The Taste Pavilion was on the 4th floor of the Metreon and the view was incredible! Tables filled the room and vendors were giving out samples of their products, handing us recipe cards, and hosting cooking demos. It was great to learn about the local vendors and hear more about their companies!

We even got to see a fish demo from Chef John Ash! I didn’t even know it was John Ash until after the event (rookie mistake!) but I’m glad I snapped a few pics of him during the demo. For those of you who don’t know, I’m actually from Sonoma County (home of John Ash and Co.) and have grown up knowing the name John Ash very well.

Some pics of the huge halibut are below. The halibut was served with a curry sauce and it was one of the tastiest halibut dishes I’ve ever had! It was melt in your mouth perfect, you guys. Big shout out to Alaska Seafood for participating at the Taste Pavilion!

We also sampled a variety of other foods and beverages! So delicious.

I spent some time catching up with other bloggers to the point where all the vendors had already packed up and security was about to kick us out. I think we could have talked about social media, camera settings, and SEO for days.

Left to right: Kristy, Greg, Me, and Krista

Krista from Budget Gourmet Mom and I met at the Foodbuzz event last year so it was so great to see her again!! I’ve missed that girl :)

For the Taste Pavilion event, I was able to bring a guest so I invited my friend Josh! And guys, he fit right into the food scene (maybe he should start a blog?!). Phone camera out, hashtag ready, and no complaints about how much we ate — he was the perfect guest (thanks for coming, Josh!).

We tasted wines, beers, and sampled copious amounts of food for about 3 hours straight. <– That’s a lot of food! And wine. And beer (go Bison Brewery!). We also had a great time learning about teas at the Numi Tea table. Did you guys know that tea can come in bricks? I didn’t. Below is an example of Numi’s bricks (it looks like chocolate, doesn’t it?). Apparently, you break off a piece and add it to water to make your tea.

The table next to Numi Tea was probably our favorite table. We were really impressed by the dishes that Pollen Ranch created with their products. We sampled pork chops, potato salad, and applesauce made with Pollen Ranch’s delicious spices (fennel pollen anyone?).

Saturday Night – October 20, 2012 – Dinner Gala at the California Academy of Science

After the Taste Pavilion, we had a few hours to rest and then everyone attending the festival got shuttled to the California Acamdemy of Sciences later that night to check out the exhibits. Did I mention that there were hors d’oeuvres, tons of cheese, and bottomless drinks as well? Yes, it was awesome.

Oh yeah, and then we all got to eat a 4 course meal. All of the courses had 2-8 components so we were in heaven. Our table’s goal was to get a taste of everything on the menu but when dessert rolled around, some of us couldn’t eat anymore. Some of us = me.

It was the perfect dinner to end the event. We got to say our goodbyes, exchange information, and shuttle back to Union Square.

Left to right: Me, Melissa, Gabby, and Krysten

It was a fantastic event, and I’m so glad I got to meet so many wonderful bloggers that weekend.

Can’t wait until next year!

Backpacking in Big Sur

Friendship, Health, Life, Travel 8 Responses »

Oct 052012

Living in California is truly amazing. Last Saturday, my friends and I hopped in the car at 6am and drove a few hours down the coast to Big Sur for the weekend.

We dropped in at Bottchers Gap and hiked down a road to Boy Scout camp. The camp area wasn’t being used but we got to see where all the boy scouts stay when they visit Big Sur! Very cool. Then we followed the Little Sur trail to make our way to our campsite.

The surrounding was unreal. So green and lush!

The trail was a little challenging due to fallen trees from a big fire that happened a while ago but it was actually a lot of fun hopping over tree trunks and pushing branches aside.

Sometimes the redwood trunks were so big we had to help each other get over them or even throw our packs to the other side before climbing over ourselves.

We crossed the river at least 20 times to stay on the trail because it kept stopping and starting up again on the opposite side of the bank. Luckily, the water level was pretty low so we could rock hop our way across. We got pretty good at rock hopping by the end of the trip :)

The weather was perfect last weekend! We actually didn’t even use a tent and just slept on tarps!

After about 8 miles of walking, we got to camp (located in a grove of giant redwood trees…amazing, right?). We dropped our packs off and headed up the river to find the circular pools. It took a lot of convincing from the boys but eventually we all jumped in the water and swam to the waterfall!

As hot as we were from hiking all day, the water was still pretty cold!!! We lasted about 10 minutes. But it was totally WORTH IT! Then we tried to get to the next circular pool but the trail was impassable so we turned around and headed back to camp.

Can we talk about dehydrated camping food for a sec here? The kind where you just add hot water, zip up the pouch, and then let it cook in the bag for 10 minutes? Um, it’s delicious!!! We had chicken and rice, and then for dessert we ate a raspberry crumble.

I’m telling you, I’d like to get some of those packets for my pantry so I can eat them at home from time to time. Is that weird????

The next day, we got up, packed up camp, and headed out. We stopped at a dam on the way back and ate lunch. Packets of tuna and crackers…SO tasty and the perfect energy boost for the last leg of the hike!

The last part of the hike was probably the most intense. We walked uphill for over an hour straight in the hot, hot heat. Oh, we felt the burn!

But it was so much fun. Overall, we hiked about 17 miles last weekend. I can’t express how beautiful Big Sur was. We all had such a great time!

And below was our view on the drive back last Sunday. Not too shabby right?

We also made a pit stop in Monterey for dinner and ended up ordering, um, about half the menu…whoops!!! :) So delicious and a perfect end to the weekend.

Happy Friday! I hope you guys have a great weekend!! :)

[Note: All of the awesome group photos were taken by Sheeter!]

Dark Chocolate Chip and Hazelnut Cookies with Sea Salt

Baking, Dessert, Friendship, Life, Recipe 8 Responses »

Sep 122012

Most of you know that my work out regimen has been pretttyyy bad lately but despite that fact, I’m participating in a mud run with a group of friends THIS weekend! I must have blacked out or something when I signed up because as much fun as hauling myself over barriers and running through mud sounds let’s face it, I’m weak and feeble.

My days of being actively involved in track and field and soccer are long gone and getting myself to the gym is more like going to the dentist. I actually love running but after I moved to SF, it’s been really hard to get motivated. All the streets have stoplights so you have to run. stop. run. stop. jog across the intersection. stop. Yeah, yeah…I know…all excuses! Someone slap me.

I think I’ll get over this self loathing though and just freaking work out!!! RIGHT? Right. And then I’m going to reward myself with some more of these cookies. And maybe some wine too. Yes.

If you like hazelnuts then these cookies are definitely a winner! Abby and I taste tested them (almost eating the entire batch) and we have come to the conclusion that this might be our favorite cookie recipe so far! Yep. We’re just going to put that out there.

Half of the hazelnuts get finely chopped which help hold the cookie together and the other half are just barely chopped so you’ll find big chunks of hazelnut in every bite. When combined with dark chocolate chips and a sprinkle of sea salt, it’s like your mouth has won the lottery.

Make these and try not to lick the spoon. Now, time to do some mudder training. Does anyone have any last minute advice? I’ll update you on how it goes! :)

This recipe was adapted from Joy the Baker. She uses pistachios instead of hazelnuts which I’m sure taste fantastic! I’m just a sucker for hazelnuts but I want to try the recipe with pistachios next!

Dark Chocolate Chip and Hazelnut Cookies with Sea Salt

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 18-20 cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup roasted hazelnuts, half coarsely chopped and half finely chopped
sea salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a bowl, beat the softened butter and sugars together with an electric handheld mixer or KitchenAid until the mixture is light and fluffy (about a few minutes).
Add the egg and vanilla and beat to incorporate for about 1 minute.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Dump the mixture all at once into the butter/sugar mixture and mix until everything is thoroughly combined. (I started with the handheld mixer and then moved to mixing with a rubber spatula at this point.)
Add the chocolate chips and nuts. Mix well.
Scoop a heaping tablespoon full of dough onto the baking sheet. Repeat until the sheet is full (about 5-6 cookies). Make sure the dough is rounded so it bakes nicely and leave about 2 inches between each ball of dough. Then sprinkle each ball of dough with a little bit of sea salt.
Bake for 18-22 minutes. The cookies are ready when they start to get golden brown on the edges.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 3-5 minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack.

Notes

– To easily make the hazelnuts the right size, put half in a ziplock bag and use a wooden spoon or hard object to hit the bag until the pieces are nice and small. Repeat with the second half of the hazelnuts but only hit them enough to crack the nuts in half or quarters. This method sounds brutal but it works! – Check the cookies after 15 minutes. Depending on the size you make them and your oven, they may cook a little quicker. Mine took 19 minutes every time.