Phillips-Armstrongs Take NoCal!

Point Reyes Lighthouse

There are times in life that are simply too special for words and this past week was full of those moments. I spent two days in Sonoma County with Blake listening to the eerie hum of the Point Reyes Light House, walking on the Pacific coast picking up oyster shells, craning our necks to see the very tip-top of the Redwoods, sipping sparkling Iron Horse wine from the most beautiful spot in Sonoma, and dining on the best food of our lives (Porcini Mushroom and Ricotta Ravioli with a Gorgonzola Cream Sauce) at Mamma Tanino's. I can say without a doubt, it was one of our very best days!

Luckily, the fun was not over and my parents joined us for 4 days in San Francisco. After spending the first day sampling local fruit at the Ferry Terminal, dining on fish tacos at Don Pistos in the North End, and enjoying the game day atmosphere at 21st Amendment Brewery, Blake and I were ready to relive our wonderful day in Sonoma. We rented a car and took my parents to see all of the beautiful sights. Bodega Bay for oysters. Viking Ship Rock (my name) along the Pacific Coast Highway for beach combing. Redwoods for some soul searching. Iron Horse for their wine and amazing view. Russian River for Pleny the Elder (according to experts, this is the #2 Indian Pale Ale in the country) and delicious homemade pasta at Ca' Bianca in Santa Rosa. As we returned to San Francisco over the Golden Gate, I realized how lucky I am to have a wonderful family to share in special memories....and we still had 2 days together!

Some more highlights from our adventure:
-Sharing a loaf of Acme Company Whole Wheat Sourdough bread and local fruit on the pier gazing at the Bay Bridge
-Climbing many, many stairs to Coit Tower through the most beautiful flowers you have ever seen
-Enjoying the view from "The Crookedest Street in America"
-Cruising the Bay during a very sunny evening (after a week of 60 degrees, I was ready for some warmth)
-Drinking beer at 21st Amendment and finding Dogfish Head 90Min IPA at various places throughout the city
-Spending hours with the three most important people in my life!

I'd say we had a wonderful time and I am looking forward to another family vacation next summer...Oregon Coast to celebrate Frank's wedding? That sounds about right.

Iron Pigs, Bastille Day, and Strawberry Rhubarb Bars

Blake and I spent a glorious weekend at my Aunt Polly and Uncle Dick's house. They are artists who spend time creating beautiful shows in the Lehigh Valley, Staten Island, and Wilmington, Delaware. She is a costume designer clothing the beautiful actors/actresses and he is envisioning how the theatre set should look and move. Since they planted roots to Easton, PA in the mid-80s, they have hosted an Annual Bastille Day party for 40-60 of their closest friends. This is my 3rd Bastille Day and what a blast! The food is amazing, the wine and beer are flowing, and the conversation with their ecclectic friends (a General Manager on Broadway, a photographer for Vanity Fair, a PR Director for one of the oldest family run businesses in the country, etc) is fantastic! They spend all year thinking about the menu and fixing up the yard (you have never seen such a work of art)  to spend one night with the people they hold most dear. Now that is what I call dedication to sustaining long-lasting relationships!



FeFe and Me!

Other than Theatre, Art, and being the best tour guides of NYC (I am forever in their debt for spending days showing me around the city), they also love baseball. On Friday night, we accompanied them to Coca-Cola Park to cheer on the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs (the AAA affiliate for the Phillies). This ball park is phenomenal and the food is delicious (Aw Shucks Grilled Corn on the Cob and Veggie Gyros) with fairly reasonable beer prices, yes please! The pigs also have the cutest mascot, FeFe, who is the biggest tease and likes to soak the littlest fans with water guns!

After a wonderful weekend with family, I returned to Darden to host an office birthday party for my colleagues with July, August, and September birthdays. This was our inagural event of trying quarterly birthdays and it worked pretty well with the help of Sticks Kebab Shop (a Charlottesville staple) and these Strawberry Rhubarb Bars. This recipe would work great with any type of seasonal fruit so stop by your local Farmer's Market today!

Strawberry/Rhubarb Bars

Crust:
1 cup oats
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup raw sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold butter (cut up in small pieces)
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Pulse together oats, flour, sugar, and salt.
Add butter and pulse until crumbly.
Whisk together oil, egg, vanilla, and almond extract.
With the motor running, add egg mixture through the tube and combine until a ball begins to form.
Save 1/2 cup for topping and press crust into 9 by 13 greased glass baking dish.

Filling:
6 cups chopped fruit (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup raw sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine 4 cups of fruit, sugar, corn starch, and orange juice over medium heat, simmer and stir constantly for 10 minutes or until mixture gets very thick.
Add additional fruit and vanilla and stir until combined.
Spread filling over crust.

Topping:
1/2 cup crust mixture
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Combine additional crust and nuts.
Sprinkle topping over filling.
Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, lower temperature to 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown.
Let cool completely before serving.

*Adapted from an EatingWell.com recipe

Healthy Snacks

What a great day! I hosted an Ice Cream Social at Darden with Staff Council, toasted to record breaking fundraising in the Darden Annual Fund, and picked up my CSA (plums, blueberries, onions, corn, lettuce, and brown eggs). Blake is at McGrady's Irish Pub at Happy Hour with his softball team so I thought it would be a great time to make some snacks for our road trip to see Aunt Polly in Pennsylvania.

I am a huge snacker! On a typical day, I eat at least 3-4 snacks to keep my blood sugar level and energy high. They usually consist of a variety of fruits, nuts, and seeds which are loaded with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Here are a few of my very favorites.

Aunt Martha's Sherpa Bars

When I was in Colorado, Aunt Martha loaded my backpack with these gems and they tasted delicious on the trail. They pack really well so you can eat them for breakfast when traveling, as an afternoon pick-me-up at work, or during a long hike or bike ride. Plus, this recipe can be adapted to personal preference.

1 1/2 cups dried fruit (I used apricots, raisins, and dates)
1 1/2 cups nuts/seeds (I used pumpkin seeds, sunflower seed, and almonds)
1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cups oats
1/8 cups honey
1/8 cups canola oil
1/4 cups water

Pulse all ingredients in a food processor or blender until combined.
Press into a glass dish sprayed with cooking spray.
Bake for 20 minutes at 300 degrees.
Cut into bars and wrap individually in plastic wrap.
Freeze until ready to eat.

Smokey Almonds

My Mom taught me this simple trick and it changes a bland unsalted almond into a smokey treat.
Bake unsalted whole almonds on a cookie sheet for 20 minutes at 300 degrees.
Let cool and put in an air sealed container.

Chocolate Banana Smoothie

I love ice cream (especially homemade) and this concoction tastes just like this creamy treat.

Blend together:
1 frozen banana
1/2 cup skim milk
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon honey (if you have a very ripe banana, you probably do not need the honey)

I love nuts in my ice cream so I stirred in some peanuts last night and it was divine!

What are your favorite healthy snacks?

Summer Specialties

Pardon the delay in blog posts, late June/early July has been a blur of traveling and special memories. I spent a week in Keystone Resort, Colorado for an MBA Career Services Conference. I spent this time doing yoga in the fresh mountain air, reconnecting with colleagues that I met last year and striking up informative conversations with new ones, broadening my knowledge of Career Services across the world, and finding my new intellectual passion: Positive Psychology (I have two new books ready to read: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Flourish: A Visionary Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being by Martin Seligman). As silly as it sounds, I did a happy dance when they arrived from Amazon!


After the conference, my Aunt Martha, Uncle Glen, Cousin Sam, and girlfriend Caroline picked me up and took me to meet my parents and Aunt Kathy and Uncle Joe in Glenwood Springs. Not only do they have a great brewery and the gravesite of Doc Holiday, but the Hot Springs Pool is an entire city block long! My Aunt and I spent hours walking back and forth in deep discussion. We spent the next few days at Auntie M's house in the mountains outside Denver where we hiked, chatted for hours, and cooked delicious dinners (homemade ravioli with a cherry tomato sauce, tiramisu, and fresh salmon straight from the Salmon River, anyone?) Before departing for Charlottesville, we spent one night in Highlands Ranch at Aunt Kathy and Uncle Joe's. Thank you for taking us to the wonderful Mexican Restaurant (all of those years living in Tucson really paid off!)


For 4th of July weekend, Blake, Andy, and I headed to Sandbridge Beach (where Blake and I were married)for some serious beach time. We spent our days walking on the beach, reading novels, cheering on the Norfolk Tides, and finding amazing seafood restaurants. In 3 days, we dined on fresh grouper, flounder, crab, and shrimp. It was relaxing and exactly what we wanted from our beach getaway!


Since returning from the beach, there have been many happy memories. Two new fabulous ladies, Kelly and Melanie, joined our book club. Kelly is a Master's student in Biomedical Engineering (she is working on fascinating breast cancer research) and Melanie is the meteorologist for CBS19 and makes an awesome in-arena host for Women's Basketball and Baseball. We had a wonderful time at Katherine's discussing our free reads and dining on Veggie Lasagna. 


Today started off wonderfully as I attended the first yoga session of a new organization in Charlottesville, Pop Up Yoga, which was founded by one of the Darden rising Second Year students. The mission of this organization is to bring affordable yoga to public spaces around our area. This morning I practiced in the middle of the City Market (yes, there were hundreds of gawkers making comments) but I had a phenomenal time. There are other FREE yoga sessions this week at parks around the city and there will be more frequent practices available at their new studio downtown. Check them out on Facebook or www.popupyogacville.com!


This weekend, Blake and I are grilling inside-out cheeseburgers with home-grown beef from my parents stuffed with cheddar and jalepenos with homemade buns, fresh corn from the City Market, and okra from Horse & Buggy. We also have plans to visit Kate, Shane, and Baby Gracie; attend a cookout at Courtney's to celebrate her new internship in Tuscany; and look forward to another great week ahead!


Next up...Bastille Day at Aunt Polly and Uncle Dick's in Pennsylvania. This is an annual tradition that is full of family, delicious food, and at least 60 interesting and eclectic guests (they are theatre people after all!)