Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day we skipped cards, flowers, chocolates, and any typical trappings. Instead of the typical date, we ate panang gai (red curry chicken) and Gaeng Kieow Waan (green curry chicken). We washed it down with Thai Iced coffee, and some mango sticky rice. I highly recommend checking out Mekong Cafe, it is on 7777 South State Street. You will not be disappointed in a single dish that this mom and pop restaurant serves. Everything they serve is delicious, well, everything I have tried that is. This picture isn't from the actual place, but it is very similar:

I love date nights. We have so much fun. I love having our usual spots. It was a great Valentine's Day!

Happy Birthday Chelsea!

I turned twenty-three on the ninth of this month, and it was the best birthday I could have imagined. Ben surprised me by putting together a party at The Pie, in South Jordan. All of my coaches, and some of my dearest friends came. We ate pizza and a delicious cake (the cake was provided by VTS.) I had no idea that he had planned the party! I was under the impression that we were going home after an arduous workout to eat tacos. Ben said we needed to stop at the store, which is in the same complex as The Pie. I asked what we were doing when he bypassed the store and he replied, "we're going to your birthday party." I almost cried in the car; no one has ever planned a surprise party for me. We walked up to the door and through the window I could see my favorite little man, Jarom running in the lobby. I almost broke down when I saw that little guy and his beautiful sister Sofia.

Ben is amazing, I seriously could not ask for a better companion. In lieu of my new age, I figured it would be fun to compile a short list of the major things that happened during my twenty-second year of life:

1. My 1st Half marathon!!! (I'm particularly proud of this one)
2. Dirty Dash 10k
3. 2nd place at the Utah Grappling games
4. Trip to Maui
5. Trip to Arvada, CO for NAGA
6. Trip to Boulder, CO for my first Aesop show
7. Trip to Reno, NV for my second Aesop show
8. I made the Dean's list at the University of Utah,
and my personal favorite...
9. Ben and I made our relationship "official"

I have some serious work to do, because each year must be better than the last! Bring it, 23!

Uno

My favorite baby in the whole world turned ONE on February 4th!
Her fabulous parents threw a party (on the 5th) at So Cupcake in Holladay. I tried the "So Hanky Panky Red Velvet" cupcake, and Cam gave me a bite of his blueberry cake; both of the cupcakes that I tried were great. My camera from my phone doesn't do this beautiful baby justice, but here she is:
She parties like a rockstar, double-fistin' some cupcake goodness!

Here is one of my favorite pictures that her mommy had done professionally:

I love you, Miss Sofia!

Purple

Things have been hectic and wonderful for the past little while. Spring semester started, and I'm working on a great advocacy project with the Gender Studies department. We're currently ironing out the details for a community blog writing project that focuses on the subject of girl-on-girl bullying; as soon as more details are available, my blog will be bursting with posts that direct everyone to the site. I'm so excited for the experience-it is the first time I have worked on a project from the very beginning.

The gym has been absolutely fantastic. Our fantastic professor, Rob Handley flies Grand Master Flavio Behring to the U.S. twice a year. While he is here, Master Flavio conducts a seminar, and each year it exceeds my expectations. I literally cannot stress the importance of this event. Master Flavio is the embodiment of Jiu-Jitsu. He is a walking, talking, ass-kicking piece of history, and contemporary genius. He looks like a Brazilian Sean Connery, and has the best wink I have ever seen. If you are interested in self-defense or sport jiu-jitsu, check out his site: http://www.flaviobehring.com/

The seminars are a great learning experience, and they are the time of year when everyone receives their due belt promotions. This year, I am so proud to share that Mister Bentley received his PURPLE BELT!! For those of you that don't know, the belt progression is as follows: white, blue, purple, brown, black. The purple belt is the "halfway" point. If a person works really hard a black belt can be achieved in ten years (give or take, depending on your skill-level, and your Professor, etc.) Ben has worked so hard, and he deserved this promotion (he has been doing jiu-jitsu for 3 1/2 years now.) Ben has won numerous competitions, and puts in so much time on the mat. I am so proud of him, I literally can't put it into words. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures for now, I'm going to ask my lovely coaches for some copies, and post them if they allow me to.
Ben wasn't the only person to receive a promotion, my best friend, Camrann Pacheco was promoted to a BROWN BELT! Such a monumental occasion! Cam is amazing, and he really deserves the new belt.
I have made myself the promise that I won't be a white belt forever, it's time for me to put in work to earn a blue belt!!

Delicious!

Apparently this blog is going to contain random recipes, just go with it...
I love chicken, and I'm trying to eat healthier, so I went to foodnetwork.com and stole this recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs
• 1 lemon, halved
• 1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
• 1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
• 4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1 bulb of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges
• Olive oil

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the onions, carrots, and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.





Harmons sells whole chickens, sans giblets and innards, for about ten bucks! This dinner is cheap and delicious. The best part is, once the chicken is roasting, you can read a book!

Merry Christmas, From An Atheist

In case you don't know, I'm an Atheist/Secular Humanist. I take solace in the principles of Secular Humanism just as strongly as a devout theist believes their religion to be true; because of my beliefs, I have tried to remove myself from Christmas. I don't believe Christmas should be a national holiday, but no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to remove myself from the celebration. I love light displays, decorating cookies, decorating trees, ice skating, and making gingerbread houses. I think that the Santa Claus fable is harmless, and many of my greatest memories come from the legend of Kris Kringle. In fact, I think that the story of Santa Claus is a useful tool. As a child I eventually grew out of the belief that there was a man, who knows everyone by name, can see all of my actions, listens to my desires, and punishes/rewards me for my actions (sound familiar?) That being said, the following is much less cynical.

This year Ben and I purchased decorations for our first Christmas tree, hung stockings, baked cookies, saw Christmas lights, watched Christmas movies, and danced in the living room to festive tunes (only for a moment, dancing makes me UN-FUCKING-COMFORTABLE!) This Christmas was perfection, spare the one tiny tradition I seem to be implementing, I have a horrendous cold! Poor Ben has been sleeping on the couch for four nights to gain a reprieve from my lung gurgle. Seriously, it is disgusting.


This Christmas was absolutely perfect. I am blissfully happy with my life, not including the ten, okay, fifteen pounds that I have gained. Apparently an education costs one pair of skinny jeans (3.7 GPA!!)

Paula Deen's Pumpkin Cheesecake

For those of you that don't know, I am a pumpkin fanatic; I adore all things pumpkin, including savory dishes. I wanted to try my hand at combining cheesecake and pumpkin, and I had marginal success with a little recipe on the back of a Hershey's Kisses package. The kisses were pumpkin spice flavored, and the cheesecake was decent. In an effort to turn my baking experience around I decided to venture on over to the Food Network website, because I knew that my other cake could be outdone. The beautiful, gray haired-diva, Paula Deen, came to my palate's rescue with her recipe for pumpkin cheesecake. I don't bake worth a damn, and this cake was a success! It is so good, in fact, that I gave Rob Handley (my professor at Absolute) one of the cakes for his birthday. Try it, you won't regret it!

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 stick melted salted butter

Filling:

• 3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
• 3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For crust:

In medium bowl, combine crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter. Press down flat into a 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.

For filling:

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add pumpkin puree, eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, sugar and the spices. Add flour and vanilla. Beat together until well combined.

Pour into crust. Spread out evenly and place oven for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Thankful

November isn't the only time we should express gratitude, give it a whirl throughout the rest of the year too. With that said:

I am thankful that although I may be impatient, and my temper can boil rapidly, I have people in my life that are cognizant of my imperfections, and they love me just the same. I'm working on it, I promise.

I can't wait to go back to the Gallivan Center for ice skating this year!

Maui

Basically, I have the best boyfriend ever! Ben flew me out to Maui for my fall break from school. He has been gone since September 13th, and the chance to see each other was well-deserved! The vacation was amazing, and words can not describe just how perfect everything was on the trip. We played, and laughed, and ate amazing food. It was the type of vacation I have dreamed of my whole life, and I will cherish the memories forever! It would be impossible to give a play-by-play of the whole vacation, but I'm going to attempt to highlight some of it in the form of a list. Here goes nothin':

1. We went to the Banyan tree at Lahaina on day one. They have booths that sell art under the tree, and we went around to see all of the local art. The tree covers an entire city block, it was awesome!

2. We drove the Hana Highway and went on amazing hikes through a bamboo forest, and up to gorgeous waterfalls. The bamboo forest was one of my favorite parts, it sounded like hundreds of wind chimes while we walked. The absence of snakes in Hawaii made it one of the most leisurely hikes that I have ever been on.

3. Ben bought me snorkeling gear and we went snorkeling a few different times, which included an awesome boat trip to the Molokini Crater on a boat with the Pacific Whale Foundation. I can honestly say that I have never done anything so cool in my entire life, and I can't wait to go back. Ben loves turtles, and I was so excited to see a few up close! The first turtle that we saw was huge! I'm going to unfairly assume the turtle was a male, the poor guy was missing a fin. He was as big as a coffee table, and was covered in mossy looking algae stuff (very technical terms.) We saw an eagle ray, and tons of fish. I showed Ben my boobs underwater, and he thinks those were the coolest things in the Hawaiian waters...I also managed to lovingly/playfully grope him right as we ran into another couple that was snorkeling. Seriously, we had not seen a person in over half an hour, and right as I decide to act like a pervert people appear...just my luck. On our second snorkeling adventure I was stung by a Portuguese Man O' War, which was terrible! Thankfully the sting wasn't too bad, and I was ready to go back into the water in about an hour!

4. We also went to the Paia Fish Market Restaurant and ate some of the best food in the whole world; we saw "The Town" and "Secretariat;" We bought "Connect Four" and played that a bunch; we went to "Kite Beach" and watched the kite surfers; we watched amazing sunsets, and we even trained at Ermin's gym (Ermin is his boss in Hawaii.) Ermin's girlfriend Lisa was our instructor. Lisa is awesome, and I'm very happy that I was able to meet her. We ate Indian Food, and slept in. We cuddled, and kissed, and humped, it was great.

Out of all of the adventures that we had I can honestly say that my two favorite parts were probably some of the simplest. The first was when Ben picked me up from the airport. I had missed him so much, seeing him pull up to the curb was like a bag of concrete had been lifted from my chest. It sounds rather melodramatic, but when you genuinely like someone as much as I like him, it is truly awful going this long without him by my side. I love waking up and drinking coffee with Ben, even though I hate waking up early! Getting to eat eggs with him before work is one of the best parts of my day. When Ben has a long day at work, getting to rub his hands after dinner is one of the best feelings in the world. I miss training with him at the gym, and wrestling with him at home. Just getting to hold his hand during the initial drive from the airport to the condo in Maui was divine.

My second favorite part of the trip was the time we spent inside of the condo. Ben rented the most amazing condo, and we both grew so attached to it that by the end of the trip we called it our "pretend house." We watched an entire season of "The Office." That's right, I was in paradise with my handsome boyfriend, and one of the highlights consisted of eating ice cream and watching Netflix. I love just sitting at home with Ben and watching t.v. When he gets home, there is going to be an imprint of our bodies on his couch, because we are watching every season of "The Office," and it is going to be GREAT!

The day that I left consisted of a lot of crying. I tried so hard to keep it in, but knowing that I had to go another month and a half without doing the simple things with Ben was torture. I tried to change my flight, but it was $300ish dollars to make the change, and we decided that was unreasonable. I think everyone feels the post-vacation blues, but that feeling was definitely compounded by leaving Hawaii alone. I cried all the way through security, and I cried until the plane boarded. I'm surprised they didn't flag me for enhanced searches, I was a mess.

Anyway, all of that uber-personal, and cheesy stuff aside, the vacation was AMAZING! I can't wait to go back! Hawaii does have a law school, I'm just sayin'...

"Room"

School and work have been so hectic lately! I have barely had time to study and write quality papers for my four classes with all of the drama I have had at work, but after much frustration, midterms ended, and I flew to Hawaii. However, the night before I flew to Hawaii I read the most amazing book that I have come across in years (it is that good.)

Please read Emma Donoghue’s, "Room."

Synopsis: Ma and Jack live in Room. Room is an eleven foot by eleven foot shed in the backyard of their captor's house. The shed that is "Room" to Jack is soundproofed, and hidden by hedges; the door to Room is steel and has a digital code that is only known to "Old Nick," the nasty rapist that captured Ma when she was nineteen.

The book is narrated by Jack, the lovable and intelligent five year old that has been raised by his doting mother under the false pretense that they are the only people on Earth that are real, and everything Outside is outer space. The narration from start to finish is in the words of Jack, everything that he experiences is filtered through the mind of a five year old, and he expresses the events as such. Everything he has ever known becomes important, a rug is Rug, proper nouns throughout the book convey the importance attached to the things in our lives that we know and love, though they may be inanimate. Some of us name our cars (mine is Warren Sapp,) Jack names and loves everything surrounding him. They have T.V., Rug, Plant, Egg Snake, and Wardrobe. They brush their teeth, play games, and exercise. One day, Ma tells Jack that Outside is real, and that Old Nick is a bad man who stole her, and they must escape.

After their harrowing escape (which had me breathlessly turning the pages) Jack is faced with a whole new world. He is faced with vast choices, new sounds, and an overwhelming fear that his mother will leave him. Was Jack better off in Room? Is ignorance bliss? After all, he was safe in room, bees didn't sting him, people didn't yell, and the sun didn't burn, maybe Room wasn't so bad- maybe Jack wants to go back?

This book left me wondering where Jack and Ma were after I closed the cover, and I still find myself thinking about them as if they are real people. The book calls into question many great subjects, such as, how much choice is a good thing?

For me, "Room" made me question my own materialism, and contemplate how important the things around me actually are. I have realized that what makes my car, "Warren" is the memories that I have had in "him." My car isn't a person, it is a car, and I need to pay more attention to the people inside of it, and the places it takes me, because if they were gone, Warren would just be another Toyota Yaris. I highly recommend this book, and if any of my friends want to borrow it, just let me know!

On another note, later I will be posting quite the lengthy account of my trip to Maui, and posting tons of pictures!