Every Bite Counts

A few weeks ago, I turned 30. Ah, yes, the big 3-0. I am not, nor have I ever been the type to be sad on my birthday because I'm "old". I am actually very excited for my birthdays. I like the feeling that this day is somehow about me and only me (and dammit it should be about me), I like the cake and ice cream with the tiny colorful wax candles, and the hoopla of the chorus of waiters singing to me. I like that. But, most of all I like the feeling of newness. I like the thought that I'm about to embark on a new year, a new adventure, a new season of my life. So, here I am, a wife, a mother, a teacher, a 30 year old, venturing into this season of my life. My heart is full of desires and dreams that I hope to accomplish. I'm hoping I can leave behind the insecurities and regrets that my 20 year old self held on to so tightly.

My new mantra for my 30's is to Savor Each Bite, Make Every Bite Count. I don't know if it's because I'm a planner by nature or because I'm just crazy, but I am always looking for "what's next." Nevermind what I'm eating for breakfast, what's for dinner? Nevermind that I just graduated college, when am I getting married and having babies? I shovel these bites into my mouth without savoring it which leads me to being discontent and disappointed. This snowballs into feeling so disgusted with myself.  I just stuffed my face with all that I could and was still so unhappy with what I had in my tummy all because I want more on my next plate. So, I'm vowing to change that. I want to slow down and relish as many moments as I can. I want to appreciate that bite that is on my fork, now. I want to enjoy the season that I'm in, not anticipate the season that is yet to come.

As for my blog, I want to refocus my attention on food. Cooking, recipe testing, restaurant reviewing, and studying food photography. I love this blogworld and all the friendly people in it. Thank you to all of my loyal readers for sticking with me and reading what I have to say. I appreciate it.

Here's to 30. Here's to making every bite count.

California Eats: Pie Hole

 

 

I have found the world's best pie crust. I realize that's a hefty statement to begin a post, but I'm dead serious about that. There are dessert enthusiasts who are self-proclaimed "pie people." You know the type. They forgo the cupcake treat for the slice of apple crumble, insist that you put candles on their birthday pie, and tell you everything that needs to be known about Olallieberry pie. I don't know if I'd call myself a pie person, but I'm definitely a pie crust person. Buttery flaky, graham cracker crunchy, or oreo cookie crumbly, I'm all about it 'bout it. The filling is just the icing on the...pie.

 

 

Pie Hole has it all right; the crust and the pie filling. That might not sound like something special, but pie golly it is.

 

The Place: Downtown Los Angeles has all the good eats and this place is no exception to that rule. Pie Hole is a bit tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Located in the Arts District, this pie joint is surrounded by trendy Lofts and condo developments, a mish mosh of up and coming eateries, and cute boutiques that sell things you want but don't need. (I also saw one of the winners from America's Next Top Model in one of those boutiques. I was star struck but had to play it cool because I was in LA afterall.)

 

The inside is as simple and rustic as it gets with bare walls and clean uncomplicated furniture that would make any IKEA designer happy. (I'm not sure if my decoration lingo is up to par here, but whatever.) Their storefront is lined with a few tables for you and a friend to enjoy an afternoon snack. I also need to give props to the man at the cashier as well as the young guy who served my pie. They were both super friendly and warm. It's nice to have your pie served with a witty joke or two. I dig it.

 

The Menu:

 

Their menu includes Sweet, Savory, Whoppie, and Crostata pies. You can even order a whole pie a day in advanced! Note. To. Self. On the other side, you have iced coffees, teas, and even creative sips like Thin Mint Lattes. Say WHAT?

 

I love how the menu is written on butcher paper with a sharpie pen. No fancy calligraphy here. This tells me one thing and that's Menu Change ups. I can just tell that this place uses fresh ingredients and fruits and veggies that are in season, hence the change ups. I appreciate that. They are also creative as hell and they are constantly coming up with new and inventive flavors like Thai Iced Tea pie! 

 

The Eats:

 

 

 

I ordered the Maple Custard Pie and an Iced Coffee. As I type this, my mouth is watering and my heart is aching for more. This pie was insanely good. Like, eyes roll to the back of your head, good. My slice was almost like a crème brulee with a thin sweet, dark maple layer on top. Every bite was thick and satisfying. And the crust....Oh Lord, the crust... it was flaky, buttery, and laden with the love of a real deal pastry chef. Trust me, any foodie will tell you that the love of the food IS an ingredient and Pie Hole has love written all over it. I have never tasted a crust this buttery before. You can't get this kind of flakiness from a store bought crust. It's perfection.

 

 

My husband got the Mexican Chocolate pie and it was definitely mexican chocolatey. It was creamy and rich and had that mmmmm quality that warms your tummy. Maybe it was the cinnamon or that love I was talking about earlier. Who knows. This one had a crumbly type crust that was just as good, but I can't speak much about this since I was having a full blown foodgasm over my Maple Custard Pie.

 

Maybe I am a pie person now.  My birthday is this month and I'm even having crazy ideas of replacing my Oreo ice cream cake with this beaut. I don't know much about Olallieberry pie but I just spoke it great detail about flaky crusts. Pie Hole has definitely converted me. Pie Hole, if you're reading this, thank you for your simple and delicious pies. My birthday is on the 18th in case you'd like to send me one.

 

 

29, 24, 6 and 5

Yesterday was my 29th birthday. It's a weird age to be. I'm on the cusp of letting go of my 20's...oh those glorious 20's and grasping on to my 30's.....Holy crap I'm going to be 30. I feel 29, which is weird. When people ask you "How does it feel to be _____?" I think many of us respond with...meh. However, I really feel 29. Maybe it's because I'm coming on to my 7th year as a teacher, 2nd year of marriage, and first child. Good Lord! I'm an adult. I also love looking at paint colors at Home Depot and spending too much time organizing my kitchen cabinets. Adult biz. I never thought I'd see the day.

Coconut Chocolate Cupcake from Sprinkles. OH MY!

Sonic also had a birthday this month. He is 5 years old. I don't want to count in dog years because that will make it a lot older. He is my puppy forever.

Puppy Cupcake from Sprinkles. Don't judge.

Yesterday also marked 24 weeks pregnant which is 6 whole months pregnant. Cra-zee.

How far along? 24 weeks, which is a whopping 6 months pregnant!

Total weight gain: 20 lbs. I am ashamed.

Maternity clothes? The stretchier the better. However, those elastic bands are starting to be a little more uncomfortable. I want to just be naked all the time but apparently there are laws against this?

Stretch marks? Nada

Sleep: Sleep is good. I wake up every morning with leg cramps but I am a ninja and I stop them before they get worse. The trick it to flex the foot and point the toes to the sky. Works like a ninja charm.

Best moment this week: Celebrating my birthday at the beach, stuffing my face with snacks. It was a great day!

Miss Anything? Sushi and being able to wear flip flops without dying of pain.

Movement: Baby is kicking, flipping, and hiccuping a lot still. 

Food cravings: Sweets. Cakes, cupcakes, pumpkin pie, ice cream....all those fat loading treats!

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nothing at the moment
Gender predictions: Still feeling like it's a girl.

Labor Signs: Not yet

Symptoms: More weight gain...booo. Water retention....hisss. Swollen feet...RAWR!! Those are angry sounds, by the way.

Belly Button in or out? It's almost out. It's kinda gross.

Wedding rings on or off? My wedding band is the only thing that barely fits. You think hubby will buy me a spare?

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy and excited!!

Looking forward to: More birthday celebrating this weekend!

Happy Birthday Hubby Hub!

To my wonderful Hubs,

Happy 30th birthday, my love!

You are everything to me hunny. You're like the frosting to my cupcake, the ketchup to my french fries, the salt to my pepper. You are my partner in crime.

Everytime you celebrate a birthday, I thank The Man upstairs for blessing my life with such a kind soul. I'm so lucky that I get to celebrate the rest of your birthdays with you. I will be making you a cake until you're 100, ok? Get used to it Hubs! But, time flies when you're having fun, no?

My wish for you is that you get to live out all of your dreams and I want nothing more than to support you on your wonderful journey. You want to go to law school? I will make you snacks when you study. You want to play guitar in a band? I will be front and center throwing my bra at you. You want to run a marathon? I will be there, running in front of you because we all know I'm the faster runner in the family. I keed. I will be in front of you like a carrot on a string, motivating you until the end.

Your friends know how amazingly sweet and helpful you are, your family knows how incredibly funny and kind you are, and yes, your puppy even knows how wonderfully delicious your goatee is. You are perfect to all of us.

But to me, you are more than perfect. You are more than kind and sweet and delicious. You always give me so much more and that's my prize for marrying you. I love you, babe. Happy 30th birthday! Enjoy your special day!

Love,  Your crazy wife.

Part II: Stuffing My Face in Solvang

Contrary to popular belief, I did not go to Europe for the weekend. Unfortunately, I do not live the life of a rich person. It's ok... I am rich in love, life, and food. ::cue the strings:: I traveled 3 1/2 hours North to Solvang, California and I STUFFED my mouth hole with sweets of all kinds, meats of all kinds, and I threw in some vegetables  for good measure. Here are just a few things we did up in this little Danish town.

We arrived at our Hotel on Friday night. It was very simple and IKEA-ish, with a dash of a Hostel sort of feel. Sure, I wanted to slap myself for not booking a hotel, say, with amenities and a room a bit bigger so that doo-doo smells wouldn't attack the WHOLE hotel room when someone is in the toilet room, or a place that offers more than two pillows. But hey, it was decent enough for showering, sleeping, and other bed activities.

The best part of the hotel was that it came with complementary bikes...

We rode them with pride around the town, showing off our Danish filled guts.

And the other great thing about our Hotel was that it was a matter of steps to the best eatery in Solvang. That's not just my opinion, that's a FACT! Look it up on Wikipedia in about an hour.

Their Danish pancakes were LEGENDARY!! The service was impeccable, the line was out the door, the place was clean, and the bacon was thick as fruit leather. If those aren't true stamps to a good place, I don't know what to tell you.

After we ate the best meals of our lives, we moseyed on over to spend about a good hour in this odd spot.

This store reminded me of my childhood in Germany. I had a wonderful nostalgic feeling and I didn't want to leave. Good thing Hubby kept himself busy by finding the only pair of Boobie Stein glasses in the store.

And, the lady at the counter thought we were billionaires and kept trying to sell us one of these $500 clocks. She should've looked at our Hamlet Inn bikes.

The rest of the trip consisted of food... because that was my main goal after all...to gain a ridiculous amount of weight in my buttocks area.

    

 

I ate real food, too.

 Day two, we rode our bikes again. Do you think a few hours pedaling cancels out all this food?

Don't worry, I was in fact wearing shorts under my dress. I don't know how the Danes feel about Hello Kitty Chonies and I wasn't about to find out.

Back to the eats...

Chipmunk Cheeks courtesy of all the sweets....glorious glorious sweets. 

And lastly, I searched for my childhood fav, Weinershnizel. It was sadly a disappointment. Not as good as I remembered it. The little fat girl inside me wept. 

While in my food depression, Hubby enjoyed his AMAZING Chicken Fried Steak.

I gave him puppy dog eyes the WHOLE meal and all he gave me was a measly 4 bites! Can you believe that? And he vowed to be with me through good times and bad.... pshhh.... lies. (Love you, Hubs!)

It was the best birthday I've had all year. wait... yeah... best one.

• How was your weekend?

Part I: Birthday Spa and Spaghetti

I'm so rude. I forgot to mention a certain some one's birthday. Can't believe I forgot! Sonic celebrated his 4th birthday this month. Call us crazy, but we took him out for his birthday. We took him to Molly's Souper, which I've been meaning to do a California Eats on because it's sooo delicious and cheap!



It's nice because they have a little patio area specifically for pets! The waiters even serve the pups ice cold water! And best believe that have a menu full of yummy treats! Sonic was in heaven! He is a spoiled Mamma-Jamma! If you're wondering what he ordered, you're strange, but he had the Chloe's Chicken Catch-a-Catori. He gobbled it up in seconds. He would've eaten anything, seeing he eats weird things on his spare time...but who are we to judge other cultures.

Ok, so back to my birthday! I'm also a spoiled Mamma-Jamma! My actual birthday (Monday) was filled with texts and calls ( I love how Hubby's side of the family all sang happy birthday on our machine!) and literally over a hundred FB posts and Twitter wishes. Blessed is an understatement! Felt like the luckiest girl in the world! My friend Christine also went out of her way to make a fantabulous funfetti cake just for ME!!

 No no, you don't understand...this is a HOMEMADE Funfetti cake from scratch. If that's not friendship, I don't know what is. It was insanely good! No lie!

I also followed my tradition, which was started 4 years ago and went to Glen Ivy Hot Springs Spa. Sounds indulgent but I only go because You get in FREE for your birthday! How the heck can I NOT take advantage of that? That's what I'd like to know!

This is the Disneyland of Spas!

..Via..

My favorite person to go with is my mommy, but she couldn't get the day off. Boo for having a birthday on a Monday! So, my lovely friend Irish came with. We had a blast talking for hours, reading for hours, sitting in the pool for hours, and of course eating!

We shared a Salmon Salad and Chicken Nachos! I realize that Nachos aren't a Spa food but it's a birthday food so leave me alone!

After a whole day at the spa, my hubby took me out to dinner to one of my favorite places. Old Spaghetti Factory! I was craving Mizithra! (I hope this is what I crave when I'm preggos. That would be cool) We are going to leave our fancy dinner for this weekend on my birthday trip!

My Kuya, Katrina, and Sebby came along, too!

It was a perfect way to spend my birthday! I didn't even know what to wish for because I feel like I have all I can possibly want in life. Good family, good friends, and good food.

So, I just wished for more Mizithra.... DARNIT, I told you, that means it wont come true. Oh welps!

Birthday Celebration Part II coming soon... My friend/co-works will be taking me to a special lunch!

• How did you spend your last birthday?