found it!

have you ever met someone that doesn't love pizza?  right.  that is what i thought. 

abu dhabi has all your standard fast food pizzas... pizza hut, papa john's, il forno (which is pretty legit for take away)... it has some hotel restaurants who's pies are worth a shout out... prego at beach rotana, frankie's at fairmont... and even one "street" restaurant with delicious egyptian pizzas...

BUT by far the best pizza i've found in abu dhabi comes by the meter at a place called Spaccanapoli in the Crown Plaza. 

i made this

 

looking for something to do around abu dhabi? try the sushi making class at Soba in Le Royal Meridien!

sugar 'n spice

i have a secret:  i like to tell people i hate valentine's day, but the truth is... i don't hate it entirely (shhh... don't tell).

just to get it out of the way, here is what i do hate about valentine's day:

a. hideous floral displays made of the most cliche flowers (e.g. red roses with baby's breath) in the ugliest vases possible.
b.  ridiculous expectations that cause people to get nervous, overplan, and do something cliche, like buy a person the above mentioned item.
c.  prix fixe meals at restaurants that never live up to the food at that same restaurant on any other given day.
d. chocolate in heart shaped boxes.
e. giant stuffed animals holding heart-shaped pillows, cheesetastic!

all of that aside, here is what i do love about valentine's day:  

a.  chocolate (sans heart shaped box. however, i love it as much on february 14th as i do any other day of the year...)
b.  sappy romantic comedies (yes, the ones that ususally cause all of the problems mentioned above).
c.  the hope that one day someone will understand me well enough to know that i dislike all of the above items and would prefer a simple modern flower arrangement without fillers, a meal somewhere far away from a restaurant full of strangers, and even on days that aren't valentine's day... and for no reason at all. 
d.  but most of all, i do love any opportunity to do something nice for my friends and family to let them know that i love them, because the bottom line is that you can't say it enough. 

and since my grandma always told me the way to a person's heart is through their stomach... i decided to bake cookies this year!

depending on who you are, you might think that baking cookies is a pretty easy task, but it turns out that part of the fun of being an expat, is that something that seems easy is always bound to be a challenge...

snickerdoodles, for those of you that don't know... are not only the most delicious cookie ever, but are made of about 7 of the most basic ingredients.  which is why i was surprised when i found myself trekking around abu dhabi to three different grocery stores to find them all! 

here is a little fun fact:  the ingredient commonly known as "baking soda" in the US is actually called "bicarbonate of soda" here... who would have known, i bought it hoping for the best but definitely had to Google when i got home to be sure. 

also, used to having a fully stocked kitchen, i temporarily forgot that i moved here with only three suitcases and all my kitchen gadgets are packed safely away in a storage unit in new jersey (or as my mom likes to joke, sitting in the bottom of the Hudson).  so it was off to the store to buy a mixer,some baking sheets, and a cookie bin.

and lastly, because i can't help but to add a little "valentine's day something" i wanted to find those small jars of colored sugar to sprinkle on top of the cookies (pretty basic in the baking section of any US grocery, oh the things I took for granted!) ... at the third store, after two stores of total strikes, i finally found some pink sugar!

at last i am home and prepared to bake, and i hear my phone chirping from the other room... it is a friend of mine (also an Abu Dhabi expat from the US). i tell her my baking plans, and she says, in a vote of confidence "every time i try to make a US recipe out here it just never goes as planned, but i'm sure your cookies will be great!" 

ha ha.  on that note, i continued on, with caution, but i have to say, the cookies turned out to be fantastic!  my roomie has already had two tonight. 

you can't have just one snickerdoodle...

 

(yes this is a photo of my snickerdoodles... you want one now, don't you?!)

city walk: milano

there are few things i love more than a truly walkable city.  there is something magical about getting up in the morning, getting a coffee and a map, and walking a city you've never been to before. 

i like to peruse the map while sitting in a cafe with my coffee, get a general lay of the land, the points i think i'd like to see, and the general direction i need to go from there.  then, i put the map away.  don't be afraid of getting lost.  trying to talk to locals for directions is half of the experience, and looking back this is usually when i stumble upon some of my favorite parts of the city. 


here was the start of this walk: 

leave the hotel at a decent hour: 

i love sleep so this is always difficult for me, but the unique 

experience of the morning light and the emptiness of the city

are worth a an hour or so less sleep!

 

scout out coffee.

perfection

there are some places in the world of which dreams are made. places that are so real they are impossible to recreate.  they have a certain magic.  they are perfection.

i discovered one of these nestled into the countryside of italy in a town called Carate Brianza. 

Ristorante Camp di Cent Pertigh

the saffron risotto with sauage in a parmesan bowl and the veal milanese are simply to die for!

 

re:work

last week my job took me to italy.  yes, that's right, italy.  i have a special love for this country; maybe it is because they understand and share my love for cheese, coffee, cured meats, pizza, wine, fashion, history, and design! 

a few facts: life is short. we spend a lot of time working. 

if your job takes you to italy, by all means do your work, but when all is said and done, please stop and taste the vino! the best way to get the most out of a business trip is to simply plan the trip adjacent to a weekend and book your flight back at the end of that weekend.  this way, you have time "off the clock" to see and appreciate the world around you. what is worse than telling people your job took you somewhere amazing and you didn't have the time to leave the conference room?!  best of both worlds:  you'll be more focused on the job at hand when you know you have the weekend to explore the city. both you and the boss will be happier. win win. 

snapped this while sipping a cappuccino between factory visits!

happy birthday to me.

happy birthday to me.  happy birthday dear... me.  happy birthday to me!

this lovely cupcake is from crumbs bake shops in nyc.  go get one!

yes.  that's right,  today i am another year older, and hopefully that much more the wiser. 

i had an amazing time in nyc... i packed a lot into 24 hours!

i had dinner with friends at wildwood barbecue, i highly recommend the pulled pork sandwich!  and rounded out the night at corner bistro, one of my favorite little joints in the all of manhattan (if i hadn't already downed a pound of pulled pork... i would have enjoyed on of the famous corner bistro burgers, they are delish!)

i got up relatively early after my night out, jet lag aside, and headed out to find a legitimate ny bagel (something you absolutely cannot get in abu dhabi) and some iced coffee.  murray's bagels was my spot of choice!

next i was off for a couple hours of shopping, the only rule was that i had to stick to stores i don't have access to in abu dhabi or phoenix!  so i stopped in tibi, where i usually want one of everything!  and after lunch at macaron cafe with one of my lovely friends from work, i hit up a very new and very stylish boutique in williamsburg that one of my lifelong friends just opened called life:curated.  girl is talented, you must go see!

with not enough time on the clock i headed to the airport, scottsdale bound.  i'm so happy to be here with my family and am looking forward to a day of birthday fun, bachelorette craziness, and a weekend of wedding!

so here is to a great start to a new year of my life!