Touchdown! and no, it's not football season yet...

Good morning!! I'm in New York now!! 

i'm incredibly exhausted, there was so much turbulence the majority of the flight that it was almost impossible to sleep. I probably slept about an hour and I won't be able to take a nap until about 3:30-4pm this afternoon. yay coffee!! 

I've been trying to figure out how to get to the city and store my luggage for the greater part of the last hour, mostly because my brain is not exactly working at top speed. I finally figured it out, i think. we'll see how that goes in a bit. 

i can't believe i'm here, that this trip has started and that i didn't wuss out. maybe i'll believe it after i take a nap. i'm only in the city for 4 days, but i'm incredibly excited. I get to see one of my old track teammates who lives in New Jersey and my friend Kristin is staying with me for the weekend. So many friends in just a couple days, I don't quite know what to do with myself!

as excited as i am, i really just want to sleep... did i mention that i'm tired? haha 

Here's a glimpse of the sunrise from the sky :)

The Great Googa Mooga!!!!

Just got the confirmation that my friend Kristin and I are going to be at the Great Googa Mooga food and music festival on Saturday in Brooklyn!!!!!!!! And we get to see Matt & Kim that night! 

Boom. Day, made. So stoked about this, you have no idea. 

Wheels (almost) up!

There comes a time when we all have to venture, when we set off on our own to travel and see places and experiene things that we never could have imagined. 

My time starts in a few minutes when I board a plane for New York City. I decided to take this trip for so many reasons... many of them coming after I initially planned to go. 

I decided to go to Europe because a dear family friend, who is more my cousin than anything else, is getting married in Spain. That said, I hemmed and hawed before I decided that yes, I was going to go to Europe. After coming to terms with that, I figured it would be smart to see if my friends from college who are stationed in Italy. Okay, Italy and Spain. Sounds great, right? Right, I thought so too. Once I got the date for the wedding I started looking at my vacation time (I was still working at the time) and savings and realized that I could take an "extended" trip and have a grand adventure. When looking at prices, I figured it would be cheaper to fly out of a hub on the east coast because it was a shorter flight. Good decision for sure.. so then okay, flying to New York, no big deal, Jet Blue has flights there every day. 

I was able to book my flights from JFK to Barcelona and back, knowing that I would be able to arrange flights aroud Europe later on when I had more of an idea of what was going on. Two weeks in Europe was already the trip of a lifetime, especially beacuse I would be seeing good friends/family and going to a wedding. Another big decision then came up: New York. Should I stay there a few days and see the city, or should I just use that as a stopping point? Knowing that I had always wanted to visit the city in some capacity, I figured why not? Why not spend 3 or 4 days visiting a storied city that has forever been on my list of things to do?

That's when I realized that I had made a promise to myself a few years ago. "Go to NYC, even if for a few days, and get to Europe before you're 30." That's what I had decided after graduating for college. I didn't tell anyone, because that would 1) hold me accountable; 2) make it worse if it didn't happen; and 3) because that would have just made sense. Regardless, I made that promise to myself, and low and behold here I was at 26 making plans to cross two things off my bucket list. 

4 days in New York, the red eye out from Long Beach, everything was making so much sense. I was working a ton of overtime, pushing aside any criticism and doubts from friends and family because I knew that in order to pay for this trip without cleaning out my accounts, I would have to work a little extra. It's a damn good thing I did. In trying to calculate my vacation time, get it approved by my managers, the more I pushed to do the right thing and work with them, the more hoops I was told to jump through. No matter what happened, no matter how hard it was not to scream, or how much I really began to hate my job, I worked through it, I did a good job and made sure that no matter what I did, it was always the right thing. I jumped through their hoops as best as I could, but still there was push back because my new manager "didn't like that people were taking long vacations." Well, I had already booked the tickets and begun reserving rooms and hotels. There really was no turning back and by this time, I was determined to go. 

Thanksgiving and Christmas passed, the new year came and that's when everything got a little crazy. Things at work were stressful, but still, I came in, did my job to the best of my abilities, and did my best to do it with a smile, no matter how hard some days were. That's when, on my aunt's birthday, I was let go. Fired really.. Well, as the official papers say, I was "terminated." Cue me completely freaking out. This wasn't how things were supposed to go. But here I was, walking out with bags of things acccumulated from the last two and a half years. I won't lie, I wallowed for a while, thinking of cancelling my trip, trying to figure out a way to get everything firgured out financially as quickly as possible, constantly overwhelmed by the entire thing. Once the inital wave of freak outs subsided and my ego started to recover, I realized that things were going to work out. People always say that things happen for a reason, and yeah, I believe that to, but this?! In the beginning, this was just added stress, added worry, and added fear that I didn't need if I was going to be traveling thousands of miles away. Now it was a complete and total blessing, allowing me the freedom and the ability to do as I pleased without having guilt hung over me that "I was leaving." Now, I'm going on a grand adventure and excited about all of it, even just the idea. 

So here I am, sitting in the Long Beach airport, my bag checked, comfy travel clothes on (yes, with a change of clothes in my bag - there's no way in hell I'm walking around New York looking ridiculous), books, movies, podcasts and music at the ready, waiting to board. Waiting to start my grand adventure on my mom's birthday (best kid ever!). Yeah, I was fired on my aunt's birthday (what a birthday gift, right?!) and I'm leaving on my mom's birthday. If you know my family, you know that we have this weird thing where dates line up. DIfferent important things for our family will happen on the same day, years apart, or on someone's birthday, so I shouldn't have expected this to be much different. 

I'm headed for New York for 4 and a half days, then a travel day so that I get to Italy on May 22nd. then to Spain on May 30th. I'll be back home June 7th, and as much as I am excited for this trip, I'm extra excited for what will happen when I get home, I have a lot on the horizon. 

I'll be posting updates as much as I can, probably at random times, but expect lots of stories and pictures about what I ate, where I go and pictures of random, pretty things. and some of me and my friends of course. Then, when I come home, I'm determined to do what I've always wanted to do.. some of you know, some of you don't, so for now, I'll keep that to myself.. it'll give me something to talk about when I get home, too. 

Here goes nothing, and everything, all at the same time. Wish me luck, I'm going to go have fun for a few weeks.

Emoji love!!

Found this link just now. These need to be created because they will help express half the things I talk about. 

http://firstwefeast.com/laugh/15-food-emoji-we-wish-existed/s/the-guy-fieri-emoji/

Well, here we go.

I haven't been on the computer much lately, mostly because I've been prepping for a trip I've been planning for almost a year. holy freaking crap. I leave on Thursday night to spend 4 and a half days in New York, then I'll be off to Italy to spend a week there in the Veneto region and rumor has it that we're going to Cinque Terre on the country's west coast. After that grand adventure, I'm heading to the eastern coast of Spain for a wedding and adventuring around before heading 5 hours north to Barcelona for a couple days. Then I come home.

There are many incredible reasons to be excited for this, but mostly I'm really excited to see friends that I haven't seen for a long time, a decade for the one who's getting married (that's what happens when a family moves to Spain when you're 10/12 years old.) and to experience so many different cuisines and learn even more about the culture through food. I'm a little shy when it comes to trying new things, but luckily, my friends in Italy are not. Expect tons of pictures of food, friends, and beautiful sites.

This is a most exciting time and I'll do my best to update from the road when I can, not only for myself, but for my friends and family back home and whoever else stumbles upon this silly thing.

For random quick updates and pictures, you can follow me on Twitter at @angerawrrrr, on Instagram @angerawrrr, just don't be a creep, okay?

crappy food..

Its just so freaking good.

Frito boats, chili cheese anything, onion rings, there are some things that are almost impossible for me to turn down no matter how hard i try. 

The hardest thing? A frito boat. They used to serve these at the baseball fields when I played softball. It's basically Fritos, lukewarm chili that's been in a crock pot all morning, shredded cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and occasionally sour cream or onions. All of those flavors along with the smell of the grass and the dirt is something that will remain with me forever. It's the kind of thing that you'd stand in the parking lot and eat while your parents were talking. It's the kind of thing that reminds me of my childhood and some of the best times.

With the warmer weather here in LA, its something I'm craving more and more. I might just swing by the fields to get one soon. 

my favorites

Podcasts and local food blogs are becoming my (not so) new favorite things. Here are the best ones in my book:

FoodIsTheNewRock.com / @foodisnewrock: Zach Brooks (from MidtownLunch.com/@midtownlunch) and Chuck P (from KCRW/@chuckp8) host this awesome show. They talk to musicians who love food and hunt for great places while on tour and they talk to chefs who love music. It's an initer

FirstWeFeast.com / @firstwefeast: an awesome site that posts recipes, links, and general ideas about food. Check out their post about 16 food related TED talks (and who doesn't love a good TED talk, amiright?)

TheYellowTable.com / @theyellowtable: I just so happened across this awesome blog last night when someone I follow on instagram posted about a "#GnocchiFaceOff" that the blog's author was hosting. Not only is this an AMAZING idea that I need to do, but her site is great.

Forkly.com / @forkly: I LOVE the internet sometimes. Not only have I discovered amazing sites, but I've been able to connect with a few of them as well. Forkly is one of them, and I'm anxiously awaiting the release of their app for Android. More than that, I can't freaking wait for them to have an event here in LA so that I can meet some of the people behind such a great idea. The app looks awesome, enhances but doesn't change the look of food in the pictures you take and lets you write concise "reviews" of different places.

Food52.com / @food52: I love their daily emails, the contests and the community of this site. It's so amazing! I could go on and on, but a place where homecooks and chefs come together to make good recipes great in a very accessible way is always good.

I could keep going, but I'll save it for another post somewhere down the road. If you decide to follow me on twitter, you'll see I talk about food, so you can always see what I like by doing just that!

While perusing Food Republic, I found this wine pairing chart that they linked to via Wine Folly and about died. This is fantastic! So much information!

The image is a bit crazy looking, but go to the original post for a larger image and more information about pairing!

So, a heck of a lot has happened over the past few months.. every thing from working every day for almost 2 months straight to losing my job, 4 months later. Needless to say, it's been one hell of an adventure. The good thing about all of this is that I am in a far better place emotionally, physically and mentally and I know that a difficult chapter is now behind me. Far, far, far behind me. I'll probably joke about how my migraines have magically disappeared and I laugh a lot more now, but for almost 3 years, I felt that horrible sense of dread each and every day. Now, its gone and while things might be rough here and there, I have a TON to look forward to.

Here's a little background about me, since I declare this my very first post as a "food blogger" and hopefully, a writer of the all things tasty:

My name is Angela and I'm in my late twenties. My dream life would consist of a owning and baking for a small, neighborhood bakery/coffeehouse, doing custom work on the side and living in an original Craftsman house. I will adjust my schedule for a Long Beach State basketball game and will be happy watching college basketball every day for the rest of my life. I'm born and raised in the greater Los Angeles area so, yes, I am a Lakers, Dodgers and Kings fan. I've been in and around a kitchen almost as long as I can remember. My mom, grandma and aunt have taught me to cook and to experiment with food, even if that means ending up with something rather odd and weird. In my opinion, there are few things more comforting than a warm cup of tea, a rainy day, a book and a place to curl up, yet I love the hustle and bustle of a busy city.

All in all, I guess you could say that I'm a big conundrum. I like bunches of things, don't really fit in a societal "label" and want to experience everything I possibly I can.

Funny random facts about me:
- I HATE bananas, absolutely everything about them. I'm not quite sure either, I used to eat them when I was little.
- I once told a girl after an open mic night that her voice sounded "delicious" because it "sounds the way hot chocolate tastes." I'm pretty sure she thought I was crazy.
- My friends have told me I can be a bit of an "old man" because I love cardigans, loafers and whiskey.
- I was a Resident Assistant in college and am still good friends with quite a few of my residents.
- In 4th grade, I was taller than my teacher who was 5'2", that same year, I kicked a kickball onto the roof of a classroom.
- Throwing shotput and discus in college was one of the best experiences I've ever had and miss it every spring.
- It's really hard to gross me out, although people of all ages seem to try. I guess that's what I get for working with the football team in high school.

I hope anyone who reads this enjoys it. Please let me know if there's anything you'd like to see. I'm planning on posting different recipes of things I've made, reviews of places I go and anything else food related. Hopefully my commentary is interesting enough!

HOT!!

this heat is ruining any shot of me cooking. looking at the kitchen just makes me mad. :(

soon friends, soon!