Food | Kelocity.com

Yangshuo: The Cooking School May 13, 2014

Filed under: China,Cooking,Food,Travel,Yangshuo — Kelocity @ 2:57 pm
Tags: China, Cooking, Food, Travel, Yangshuo

I don’t like to cook. I like to eat. This is a fact. I hate everything about cooking… which is why I was excited to go to Cooking School! Maybe I’d learn a thing or two and make it seem more fun! And you know what, it was awesome. I loved the class and now I’m excited to be home so I can try out some of these recipes again!

The class was taught by a very talented chef who spoke in perfect English. She was very nice and even catered to my vegetarian preference.

The first part of our class was visiting a local market and seeing the ingredients we’d be cooking with. Lots of great looking produce and then everything else you’d expect to find including all kinds of fish and fresh meat. We had to the option to visit the meat side of the market, but Irving and I decided against it…. for those who are interested, yes, there were dogs and cats in there. But we chose not to see them.

After the market, we had a short walk back to the school to begin our class! (I loved this Billboard because as much as it looked like propaganda, we actually found it to be true! “The Police Community Relationship is Harmonious”. =)

And then it was time to start cooking! Each of us got our own cooking station, complete with all the ingredients we would need to create a delicious meal!

And we all got huge, awesome knives to dice those veggies with! I need to get one of those, you wouldn’t believe how easy it was to crush garlic with that thing!

Look at these dumplings I made! We learned how to fold them two different ways. I was so proud of myself! They looked almost professional!

Irving’s were looking quite dapper as well!

Everyone else made Kung Pao Chicken, but since I chose the vegetarian option I made pan fried noodles. HECK YES!

The best part was being able to eat them all when we were done! Everything smelled so good!

The final products! Here was Irving’s Dish:

And my dish! You had to roll us out of there at the the end of the meal, we were stuffed! That was a TON of food! All that on my plate PLUS seven dumplings!

The view out of the window during the class was beautiful Yangshuo… and a McDonalds. We thought it was funny in comparison. But I’ll take that delicious authentic Chinese food over fast food any day. Healthy food for the win!
If anyone is interested, I have all the recipes if you would like a copy. Send me an email (kelocity at gmail dot com).

Anyone want to come over for dinner soon? I’m dying to make this all again!

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The Anti-Vegas November 25, 2013

Filed under: Baby,Family,Las Vegas — Kelocity @ 9:48 pm
Tags: Baby, Family, Food, Las Vegas, marathon

We recently got back from a week in Las Vegas! I know, I know… Las Vegas…with a baby… for a week. But before you give me that judgy side-eye (and believe me, we got lots of that while we were there)… let me show you scenes from the week.

Without further ado, here is how we did ‘Vegas’ as the ‘Anti-Vegas‘:

WE WATCHED THE LAS VEGAS MARATHON

WE WENT TO COSTCO AND THE GROCERY STORE
We had a full kitchen, so we took advantage and bought most of our meals for the week. That worked out well for us in Hawaii, so we tried it again this time. Works great to have food handy with a toddler in tow!
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Photo taken outside of Costco!

WE WATCHED ‘AMAZING RACE’
Our hotel room had SEVEN TVs!! One of the TV’s is actually a full wall projector screen. (More on the hotel in a different post!)

WE TOOK POOL NAPS
Ok, maybe pool naps aren’t the ‘anti-vegas’, but with a baby sleeping on your chest, it did feel a little different than usual =)

WE WENT TO CHUCK-E-CHEESE
We met up with my college friend, Melissa, and her two kids!
(Fun Fact: I worked at Chuck-E-Cheese for two weeks in high school. I quit when I found out I had to DANCE in front of the kids. yea. no.)

WE WENT OUTLET SHOPPING

WE HAD TO DODGE RAIN!
Rain! In the desert! That’s SO ‘anti-vegas’!

WE WENT TO A CHRISTMAS LIGHT SHOW
We all know Vegas is full of bright lights and glitter… but this took it to a whole new level! And tune your radio to a certain station and you’ll be singing Christmas Carols and sipping Hot Cocoa in NO time!

Truthfully, Adele was more excited that she didn’t have to stay in her car seat than actually looking at the lights, but the adults had fun! It was the biggest display I’ve ever seen! It’s 2.5 miles long!

WE HIKED IN A NATIONAL PARK
We all visited Red Rock Canyon for a great hike in the park! More pictures coming in a future post! It was a fun day!

WE WENT TO A CHILDREN’S MUSEUM!
Las Vegas just opened a newly renovated Children’s Museum that we were dying to check out! Adele was a little too young to fully appreciate all the incredible things they offer there, but she did LOVE the water play area and the giant life-sized Lightbrite!

So as you can see, Vegas CAN be done with a toddler in tow. During the entire week we were there, we didn’t even push one stroller wheel into a casino (ok, wait, that’s a lie, I did take Adele into the Bellagio once to see the flowers, but we went straight in bypassing the casino). The smoke is a big concern for us (yuck!) but we avoided it by mostly staying out of those hotels and off the busy sidewalks.

And let’s be honest, when you have a hotel room like this, who wants to leave?

Irving and I LOVE vegas. We’ve been more times than I can count. We’ve been visiting 2-3 times a year since we moved to the west coast. But Vegas as we know it has definitely changed since having a baby. We were never drinkers or gamblers, but we love the scene. We love the restaurants, the sports book and the Cirque shows… and all of that is tough to do with a baby.

We were SO lucky to have built in baby sitters while we were there this time though. (Irving’s grandmother and Aunt and Uncle were with us too!) So we took advantage one night and headed out for dinner and a show. (No pictures since it was POURING out and we had to literally RUN down the street!)

We ate at the Sugar Factory at the Paris Casino. Two words: Reeces Martini. The glass was rimmed with gobs of peanut butter!!!

We went to see Veronic Voices (pronounced “Vey-ron-eek”), also at the Paris Casino. It is a one-woman show where Veronic impersonates 50 different artists. Her range was unbelievable. The show was really good, and even better because we only paid $2.50 a ticket (Those prices are VERRRRY Anti-Vegas, right!) It was no ‘Cirque’ show, but it was a fun night out nonetheless. (Thank you Jake and Janie!!!!)

Lots more pictures to come! It was a great, relaxing week!

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Indy in the Summer September 7, 2013

Filed under: Indianapolis,Travel — Kelocity @ 1:46 pm
Tags: Family, Food, Indianapolis, Travel

I love Indianapolis. I had only visited once before and had a great time. I love exploring new cities and Indianapolis is very underrated in my opinion. Lots to see and do in that area. Actually, I was almost three months pregnant when we were first there, so technically, this was Adele’s second time there!

Grandma, Aunty EJ and Aunty Sarah were very excited to see us when we landed. Adele was in heaven with all of the attention. Plus she loved playing with the cats and dog too! Lots of exciting things to do.

We had fun playing around the house for a while. And I was very excited to see a couple of Thunderstorms too! One day it even hailed! (Don’t ask me how you can get hail when it’s 90* outside!)

We also enjoyed a lot of great meals while we were there too. We started with brunch at Taste.

Adele would only let us put a hairbow in her hair if she could then pull it out and put it in ours too. It’s funny how she plays games like that now. She’s getting funny.

We ordered the sweet potato fries to share and they were AMAZING. Adele loved them too.

That night, we ventured out again to Napolese for dinner.

We had some great wine and amazing Pizza. EJ and Sarah bought her this cute Panda from the National Zoo in Washington DC. Adele and Mrs. Panda have been inseparable all week.
On Sunday, we had a special visitor… Aunty Laurie came to visit from Chicago!

To celebrate, we went out for brunch on Sunday. We ended up at Lincoln Square, yum!

Adele is getting better at not eating crayons. She still doesn’t quite get how to draw with them, but she likes to make dots on the paper and say “doot doot doot doot” while she does it. haha

It was a quick visit for Aunty Laurie, but soon after brunch, her and I said goodbye to everyone (including Adele) and headed out on the open road.

Next stop: St. Louis! Roadtripppppp! Stay tuned for more!

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Friends, Farms and Fun July 2, 2013

Filed under: Food,Friends — Kelocity @ 12:49 pm
Tags: Farm, Food, Friends, Kids

When I was back home, I reserved a full day to hang out with my friend Shelby and her adorable kids, Harper and Sullivan. I turn to Shelby weekly for advice on everything from sippy cups to bedtime routines. When we talk on the phone, we could go on and on for hours. The kind of friend anyone would be lucky to have. I miss her SO much! I got up at 6am to make the two-hour drive to her house so we could maximize the day together. Adele woke up just after we arrived and we all had a blast together!

We started our adventures at a local farm. Since it was a weekday, we had it all to ourselves too!

I think Adele was a little sleepy at first, so she enjoyed the animals from the luxury of her stroller.

But these two were so cute exploring together! They loved the bunnies!

Later, Adele decided to wake up enough to see the beautiful peacock!

So pretty!

The farm makes its own ice cream on the property and the kids were excited to introduce me to the best ice cream in the whole world!

It was SO hard to choose! But ultimate, this “Ice Cream Pizza Slice” won me over.

I’ll pause while you look at this picture. The ‘crust’ was cookie dough. Not a cookie…. cookie DOUGH. Then a layer of ice cream, then whipped cream… then Oreos and sprinkles. Yep. Just as amazing as it looks.

Is now a good time to tell you we had these ice cream treats at 10am? Ice cream for breakfast? That’s how we roll on warm summer mornings with friends we don’t see very often. We create memories (and sugar highs) one bite full of delicious ice cream at a time.

I hope these guys stay friends forever. I look forward to it as the years go on!

Harper got excited to see my cell phone so we had a little fun with the camera! Hi!

Group shot (minus Sully!)

We spent the next few hours playing dominos, chatting and chasing kids around the house. It was awesome. Wish we could do it every week. Love you guys so much! xo

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Cleaning Up Adele’s Uh-Oh’s May 22, 2013

Filed under: Baby,Review — Kelocity @ 3:42 pm
Tags: Baby, Food, Review

I’m going on the record to say that Adele’s official first word was “Uh Oh”. Even beyond “mama” and “dada”, she uses Uh-Oh both intentionally and deliberately.

In fact, she not only says the word (over and over), but she is continually demonstrating her understanding of it by tossing socks, shoes, toys and food overboard and then proclaiming loudly “Uh-oh!” And then she waits for you to retrieve the unfortunate item for her so she can start her trick all over again.

Here’s an example. Video proof, if you will:

So as you can imagine, meal time has been a bit… messy. I’d say Baby-Led Weaning has been a success, but the side effect is food on the floor. It’s inevitable. But I don’t stress about it.

I usually have a cute plastic dropcloth under her chair to save my poor floors, but lately, I’m finding it’s just easier to scoop up the crumbs and spot clean the floor when she’s done. Though she definitely enjoys throwing food on the floor, I’m actually noticing that a lot more thought goes into than I though. She is developing clear preferences for the kinds of foods she wants to eat (i.e., if I put cauliflower and broccoli on her tray, only the broccoli ends up on the floor… she’s smart enough to know not to throw out her beloved cauliflower!) She also seems to throw more when she’s full, so I try to pay attention to her cues.

When she’s done, I brush off her crumbs and let her play with her toys, and it takes me 5 minutes to clean up her chair. I gather all the crumbs from the seat and floor onto the tray, and then I rinse and wash that in the sink. Done and done. Sometimes I use a dishcloth, but lately, I’ve also been using paper towels. Bounty sent me their new Duratowel (which has the strength of a dishcloth, without the germs they can harbor). I have to say, it passed the ‘Adele Mealtime Test’. One sheet cleaned her chair, tray and the floor successfully. It really does feel stronger than other paper towels I’ve used.

In the spirit of ‘going green’, I know reusable is best. But when my dishtowels are all in the laundry, DuraTowel to the rescue. This mom gives it two thumbs up.

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A runner with an appetite for adventure!