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?!)

cabin fever

if you've been following this blog then you already know a cardinal rule of mine: 

always have the next trip planned. 

my how i've broken that one in the last couple of months.  people, i need a vacation! 

now, while the side of me that has adapted to this lazy lifestyle of the UAE would like to go to some remote island and sit by the ocean, the side that i used to know says i should do something to push me out of this rut i seem to be in lately. 

so here is what i am thinking, some camping and hiking are in order!  

where:  snake canyon, oman. 

while there are plenty of tours available for this sort of thing, i'm thinking some friends, and SUV, and a couple of tents are the way to go!

i have it on good authority that this is an amazing hike full of killer scenery and adventure... there are even some swimming portions involved!!! this will definitely be a good motivation for maintaining some gym habits in the coming weeks!

now the only question is: when?

hot strings

i played the violin from the time i was six until sometime in college so when i saw this i was captivated!

this guy is hot.  he rocks the violin like it is a guitar... check him out. David Garrett

his album cover is a little bit "fabio with a violin"  kind of reminds me of one of those trashy romance novel cover... but due to his amazing talents, i think i can forgive him!

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stylin'

anne hathaway is one of my top my style icons.  she is always dressed to the nines in a perfect feminine yet structured style.

i just love her.  check out her golden globe dress from last night! ahh Armani Prive...

pigskin

i have to take a moment of silence for my most favorite AMERICAN football team...

the indianapolis colts.  

dear colts: you played a good season and win or lose, i will always be your fan.  i'm sorry you lost to the jets on our home turf by one point. i hope this has nothing to do with the fact that my lucky colts-blue headband is sitting in a storage locker in new jersey (dangerously close to the enemy line).  better luck next year guys.  go horse.

handblown by yours truly

drumroll please...

now.  fair warning, these are no dale chihuly!  glass blowers start with three years of school and many years of apprenticeship to follow.  however, with some major assistance from some brave professionals, i was able to create these masterpieces (which now accessorize my apartment)!

blow

remember that trip i took to the czech republic? 

i spent most of my time there learning about the art of glass blowing.  i even got to give it a go myself.  check me out in action!

 our first day!

 this is seriously hard work, lots of multi-tasking to keep a mass of molten glass from falling off the end of the stick and blowing it into a piece that will look good!  the beginning part is key to how the rest of the piece will turn out... mess this up and well... you have to start over!

 once the blowing is done, then there is a series of manipulating the shape to be what you want, which is a process of using tools, reheating, and repeating until you decide its done, no exact science.

 the tools used to do this are beautiful and simple, still and always will be handcrafted. 

 glass blowing is a bit of a team sport to get the perfect piece!

 here we are at the big studio, experiencing the work of the professionals!

 these bins are full of fine glass particles that will be melted in the furnaces, they all look to be the same, but they make different colors, cool!  kind of like those white mystery dum dums lollipops when i was a kid!

 after trying this on a small scale, seeing them do what they do on a large scale is outright impressive!

 third day, no more nice time, these guys made me work it myself, and they were tough teachers, but by the end i had definitely learned something, about myself and glass!

 moment of truth! each time you put something back into the furnace it becomes more and more vulnerable, some of our pieces just didnt make it at the end of the day...

 here is the crew, we really had an amazing time!

 here is the outside of the big studio, it was pretty picturesque.

 

 glass glass everywhere!

 

really, this was one of the most amazing experiences in my life, i definitely see more glass blowing in my future!!! stay posted for some pics of the pieces i created.