Fancy Food Show 2008 San Diego

The Fancy Food Show was held in San Diego this year and while I really missed my favorite stops in San Francisco (Kara's Cupcakes, shoe shopping in the basement of DSW and dinner with my cousin Shelly who know every amazing place to eat in San Francisco) I had a lot of fun in San Diego. My friend Aven joined me on this trip. She just purchased a fantastic health food store so she was so much fun to go with. She was excited by all of the great products and was always on the lookout for glutten free items. YUM??


We stayed at the beautiful W San Diego.
Our room was a bright and cheerful.

It had a fun chalk board on the wall.

There was a fantastic lounge that had heated sand and lots of beach chairs.

I was so happy to be there in the sunshine while everyone back in Utah was in the snow...Ha.

I am afraid I was a bit of a bore on this trip (poor Aven). We spent a lot of time watching movies in the room. We watched Hairspray and Gone Baby Gone which I loved. I also read the book Into thin Air...which made me realize I will not be climbing Mt Everest anytime soon.

San Diego Top Ten:
1-San Diego Airport is amazing. It is so open and airy. It is also so close to downtown. As soon as I land in a new city I start worrying about missing my flight back to SLC. It took like 15 minutes to get from the convention center to the airport so there was nothing to worry about.

2-The weather was fantastic for the last 3 days we were there.
We ate dinner at an italian restaurant in the gaslamp district. We sat outside on the patio and the weather was perfect! I had a plate of amazing risotto.

3-The Mass Transit system was so easy to navigate. We rode the train/trolley to Old Town San Diego one afternoon and had Mexican food there. While we were there we walked into this surf shop that had all of these old skateboards hanging from the ceiling.

I took these pictures for Jake I knew he would think it was as awesome as I did.

4-I got a signed copy of one of my favorite cookbooks Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey.
5-Walking to the convention center every morning in the beautiful San Diego air.
6-Walking around the harbor.
7-Watching the movie Enchanted in an old theater in the Gaslamp district. Aven and I were the only people in the theater. It was like a private screening.
8-Eating Dinner with two of my very favorite people in the world Barbara Emmerich and her husband Bill. We ate at this fantastic restaurant Kimo Sabe. It is an Asian Fusion restaurant. I love eating with Barbara Emmerich and her husband Bill. They are the true definition of Foodies.
Aven and I split an nut encrusted piece of Brie with Jalapeno Jelly, Grilled Squaw Bread, Chile Rub Tortilla, Honey Roasted Garlic and salad greens....yum. Barbara and Bill ordered bacon wrapped Mexican prawns...oh my gosh amazing. Then we ordered a couple of main dishes to share.
The dish I ordered was named Good Things Growing it was a mix of roasted vegetables with a portion of the profit from this dish going to the humane society...love that. The main dish's were ok but I must say the best part were the appetizers and the dessert
Lets just talk about the dessert......I ordered Warm Gingerbread Cake with a ginger sauce and ice cream. This was the best thing I ate during my whole trip to San Diego. Yummm.
9-Seeing all of my specialty food friends.
10- New Food Finds from the Fancy Food Show

Valerie Confections- They make an amazing Black Pepper truffle. I loved it.

David Rio Chai Tea-This chai tea is amazing. It is just the the perfect combination of spices.
Bo's Best Selling Pancakes. Ok I did not actually try these but I think the packaging is fantastic. All of the bags have a cute little pancake person on the front of the bag.

Back in Business

Oh my gosh I am the happiest person in the world right now.....my internet is back thanks to my super computer smart friend April. I was so happy when the Apple homepage showed up on my screen I can not even discribe the joy.
Sidenote: WOW This is beautiful....I must have it


I am hoping this signals an end to what has been the worst start of a new year in my whole life. Lets recap shall we........
Two days after Christmas I was pulling out of a parking spot at Cafe Rio after checking an email on my phone (yes not such a smart thing I know) and not checking again before I backed up and yes I just about hit this car. So instead of just honking at me the girl gets out of her car and totally screams at me. Wow nothing like this has ever happened to me before and it totally devastated me and the devastation lasted for days I could not stop thinking about it. I felt so bad.

Two days later Lulus sweet puppy starting crying a lot and we (when I say "we" I am talking about my dad) had to start feeding her goats milk with a bottle then we (again my Dad) made an emergency trip to the vets office on New Years Day. Stress. I called for hourly puppy updates every day and things seemed to be getting better.

Two days later, my first day back at work, my dad calls to tell me the puppy died during the night. So I spent all day crying at work. The saddest part was how sad my parents were by this whole ordeal and how much money we (again my dad/mom) spent.

One day later my internet disappears. I hate it when this happens. This is the second time this has happened and for some reason it totally freaks me out.

Happy New Year to me. I really just wanted to opt out of 2008 but I know that is really not possible so I have regrouped, taken down my Christmas decoarations and with my internet back I am finally ready face 2008.

P.S Loved this movie by the way.......