sundance film festival 2014

This is a post about a trip I took to one of my favorite places, with some of my favorite people, during my favorite time of year. We walked through the cold and the crowds, trying to spot the rich & famous and getting carried away in the overall feeling that took over Park City Main Street. I had about a million favorite moments.

-When we annoyed Rainn Wilson (aka Dwight K. Schrute) by following him and trying to play paparazzi (which I'm horrible at, blurry photo of his thumbs up as evidence). He's a good sport. Sorry, Rainn.

-When some random, un-famous, shirtless dude started a riot of teenage girls for no reason.

-When we almost got some rad gold sparkly nail polish from Loreal, but were too lazy to post spam and crap all over twitter in order to earn it.

-When we got in a fight with the Loreal lady because we almost took the rad gold sparkly nail polish anyways.

-When we saw Rhett & Link taking pictures with people. I guess "youtube famous" is the same as "normal famous" now. Which is cool.

-When we ate a delicious pizza at the Red Banjo Pizza Parlour.

-When a Ben Stiller look-a-like told me I had great hair and held the door open for me. Thanks, pal, for appreciating my ginger-ness.

-When we went into a fur store and the sales guy legitimately started trying to sell us $16,000 fur coats...I feel like our ages made it pretty obvious that we weren't his target clients.

-When my friend Josh and I almost bought a giant moose head in a Native American trinket store.

-When we finished off the night by drinking hot chocolate and eating carmel apples from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory on the bus back to our car.

quinoa lemon poppy seed pancakes

I have come to an important conclusion about life. Pancakes are good for the soul. So when I find that my soul is in need of nourishing, I look for a good pancake recipe. This recipe in particular is good for that purpose. (Thank you Tartine and Apronstrings.) They're bright and fresh and slightly healthy-ish, as far as grains go. Although I stray a little from the original recipe (because where the freak would I find a yuzu fruit in Utah?), I found that the results are absolutely delicious. This has become one of my favorite breakfasts/lunches/dinners. Pancakes are appropriate at any and all times of day.

1/2 c. rice flour

1/2 c. quinoa flour

2 TBS sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 pinches salt

2 TBS poppy seeds

zest from 1 lemon

2 eggs

1 c. buttermilk

1 tsp lemon extract

1 TBS canola oil

In one bowl, add the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, zest, and poppy seeds and stir them together. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks, buttermilk, lemon extract, and oil. Add all of that to the dry mixture. In ANOTHER separate bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. (Which looks something like this. Just in case you're like me and are slightly clueless as to whether it really just means "foam" or not.) Fold (gently stir) those into your first bowl. At this point you can start cooking them over medium heat in a frying pan. They'll need to cook for about 1-2 minutes per side. Serve it up with honey, blueberries, maple syrup; whatever your taste. 

tomato, fennel, & carrot soup

Anyone who knows me well knows that my favorite meal in the entire world is tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, and it has been since I was a little kid. It's my go-to meal for when I'm feeling sick, stressed, tired, happy, reminiscent, hungry, or in a hurry. So pretty much all the time.
Today I decided to class it up a little bit and try something more than my regular can of Campbell's. It started out as a crazy experiment, trying to incorporate my current favorite vegetable (fennel), but it ended as one of the more satisfying and delicious dinners that I've had in a while. It serves two, so feel free to double or triple it if you have more than yourself to feed.

1 1/2 c. crushed tomato (canned)
1/2 c. chopped carrots
1 1/2 c. chopped fennel
2 c. vegetable broth
1 TBS chopped chives
1 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp paprika
3/4 c. cream

Start off by adding the fennel, carrots, and 1 c. of vegetable broth to a pot over high heat. Cover it, and let it cook for about 10 minutes--until the vegetables are soft. At that point, add the rest of the other ingredients (excluding the cream) with a few leftover fronds. Cover it again, lower the heat to just a simmer, and let it cook for 40-60 minutes. The longer it cooks, the more flavor it has, but technically you could even let it cook for just 20 minutes and probably be fine. When it's done simmering, put it all in a food processor and blend it up as much as you can. Put it back in the pot and whisk in the cream. Let it simmer for another 10 minutes or so, and voilà! Dinner.
To be fancy, I also included crackers topped with brie and a choice of pesto or jam. (Much classier than your average grilled cheese. Also less satisfying. Being classy doesn't pay off sometimes.) But enjoy anyways!

how to cook a soft-boiled egg

I have a strange love-hate relationships with mornings. It's by far my favorite time of the day, but I am by NO MEANS a morning person. I hate waking up, I hate it when people sing or are happy too early, and I typically refuse to leave the house until at least 11 unless it's absolutely necessary. And yet the morning is still my favorite. I love to be awake when the sun is just coming up and everything is quiet. I love eating breakfast and reading before everyone is awake. I love having a time when I can realize how very blessed I am to be alive.

And of course, the best foods in the world are served at breakfast time.

My most recent favorite breakfast food is the SOFT BOILED EGG with some delicious gluten free sourdough bread from New Grains Bakery. (I've found that gluten free bread is much better toasted. Just so you all know.) I love this breakfast more than I love some people. And it's so incredibly easy to make!

DIRECTIONS:

Bring a pot of water to a boil (there should be just enough water in there to cover an egg). Add some salt to the water. With a slotted spoon, gently set an egg (or two or three or however many) into the boiling water. Immediately set your timer for some time between 5 and 7 minutes, depending on how runny you like your eggs. (I personally cook mine for about 6-6.5 minutes, just because I like them that way.) As soon as the timer goes off, use the slotted spoon to get your eggs out of there and run them under cold water, so they stop cooking inside.

From here, you can either peel them (like I do) and eat them over toast, or you can take the classy British approach and keep the shells on. Using a knife, you would just decapitate the thing right at the top, and then use a spoon or toast strips to scoop out the insides. You can't lose either way, really.

green chile cornbread pancakes with roasted blueberry honey syrup

When I was a freshman, I had this roommate from New Mexico. She always used to tell us about the mesas, and the dirt, and the cowboys, and the smell of roasting green chiles. It sounded sort of wonderful, in its own sort of way. I went there with her once, and it was sort of wonderful in its own sort of way. So open and natural. So devoid of the greenery that I always thought symbolized life, and yet so extremely alive. The sky, the sage brush, the dessert animals...

And the green chiles. Ohhhh those things are good. When I found this recipe I immediately decided to swap in green chiles for the jalapeños, because I have found a small place in my heart for those delicious little things. Also partly because jalapeños are freaking spicy and I'm a wimp.

FOR THE PANCAKES

1/2 c. corn

1/4 c. cornmeal

1/4 c. flour (can be substituted with Cup4Cup gluten-free flour)

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 TBS honey

1 egg

1/2 c. buttermilk

1 TBS canola oil

1 1/2 TBS green chile

1/4 shredded cheese (cheddar or mozzarella, whatever your taste)

FOR THE SYRUP

1 1/2 c. blueberries (I used frozen because I'm poor, you can too)

1/2 c. honey

1 TBS water

1 TBS butter

Heat up your oven to high (around 350°F) and roast your blueberries on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for 10-15 minutes. While that's going, roast the green chiles and the corn in a pan until they are just a little charred. Then, mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl. Add the honey, egg, buttermilk and canola oil. Add the roasted green chiles, corn, and cheese. Before starting to cook your pancakes, get a small pot and boil the water and honey for the sauce. Add the butter. When the blueberries are done, add those in as well. Then you can cook your pancakes (about 2-3 minutes per side) and serve them with a delicious roast blueberry sauce.

It's sweet. It's savory. It's the best breakfast ever.

gluten-free chocolate coconut cake

I have an obsession with making layered cakes. When I first moved into my current apartment, my roommates would always ask, "What's the occasion?" every time they saw me baking one...at this point they've stopped caring. I just bake cakes whenever. And I have found a favorite recipe for chocolate cake based off of several recipes from around the internet. Here it is:

1 3/4 c. Cup4Cup gluten-free flour

2 c. sugar

3/4 c. cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 c. coconut milk (or regular milk. or soy milk. whatever you have, really)

2 eggs

6 TBS tahini

2 TBS vegetable oil

3/4 c. boiling water

Whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a big bowl. In a separate bowl mix the milk, eggs, tahini, and oil. Now whisk together the dry and wet ingredients. At this point, you add the boiling water and mix it in. It looks pretty watery, but it's fine. After spraying 3 6" baking pans with a crazy amount of Pam (bad experiences with cakes that stick to the pan...), you pour in the mixture equally. It should fill each pan about halfway. Cook it for 20-24 minutes on 375°F, or until you can put a toothpick in and have it come out clean.

I just coated the outside/between the layers with a cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut, and BAM. A delicious chocolate coconut cake. And I promise, it doesn't even taste gluten-free.

gluten-free challah

Last night I found myself craving bread. And not just any bread--CHALLAH. It's eggy and doughy and has the perfect hint of sweetness. Because it was the night before my first day back to school, I decided that it would be a good idea to stay up until 2 in the morning baking it. Genius idea, Ally.

But there's something so comforting about challah that it sort of was a good idea. I stayed up doing puzzles and eating bread and jam until I wasn't so nervous about my final semester of college and all of the impending changes that the next several months would bring. The future stresses me out so much that more often than not, I forget to sit and enjoy the present. Life was good early this morning.

I followed this recipe, with the only change being that I used "Cup4Cup Gluten Free Flour" instead of normal flour. Because this year, I made a New Year's resolution to not eat gluten until I felt like eating it again. 

And gosh dangit, I'm determined to stick to it.