street food in vietnam

Posted on 04/16/2013 by Brittany Sage

The street food in Vietnam was amazing. If I had skipped it, I would of missed out on a huge part of the culture. My favorite things were the fried hard boiled quail eggs on a skewer.

This was my favorite street vendor in Da Nang. He had the quail eggs and this delicious, sautéed corn. The kernels are larger and chewier then what we have in the US. It is served with a chili type sauce and it is delicious!

This vendor is selling a traditional Vietnamese sandwich called Bun Mi.

This vendor is making a traditional Vietnamese sandwich called Bun Mi.

This adorable little lady is making and selling a flat bread of sorts along with flattened banana snack. I never got hungry walking the streets. There was something new to sample around every corner!

This adorable little lady was making a flat bread of sorts along with flattened banana snack. I never got hungry walking the streets. There was something new to sample around every corner!

Shellfish anyone?

Bun Mi in Ha Long Bay. I love Van's t-shirt and his big smile!

Bun Mi in Ha Long Bay. I love Van’s t-shirt and smile!

More delicious corn!

Just about anything could be found skewered and ready to be fried up in a pan along the streets.

Anything your heart desired could be found on a stick at a street vendor!

This was a typical “street restaurant”.

Every city had it’s own signature noodle dish. This was in Hue. It was like a spring roll but it was wrapped in a thicker noodle. It was pretty yummy.

Hey, do you think I liked the corn???

We drank a lot of fresh coconut water. Half the fun was watching someone it hacked open.

We drank a lot of fresh coconut water. Half the fun was watching someone hack it open.

A typical night scene along the streets of Saigon. I love the woman’s face in the polka dots on the right. Two piece, same patterned outfits were very popular with the women.

Stay tuned, there are still more adventures from Vietnam to come!

love is in the air

Posted on 02/07/2013 by Brittany Sage

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My favorite holiday, Valentine’s Day, is just a week away and I couldn’t be more excited! I love all of the pink and red heart stuff out in all of the stores, like these fun glasses. They totally remind me of Alison of The Alison Show! When I was a little girl, my mom and I made a big, gingerbread style “Valentine house” that I took to pre-school and all the kids deposited their Valentine’s into it. Then, at the end of the day, I got to play “mailman” and deliver all the Valentine’s to my classmates. It was a super fun and special tradition that my mom created with me. My husband and I have our own special Valentine’s Day tradition of making homemade pasta together and sharing a bottle of champagne. Do you remember last years VDay “booty” post? I got comments on that all year!

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This year we decided to change things up and make heart shaped pizzas. We kept it simple with ready made pizza dough, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and one special ingredient. For the sauce, we used a jar of tomatoes that my friend Amy canned with her bare hands! It doesn’t get better then that!

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To turn Amy’s tomatoes into a thick and robust pizza sauce we turned to the master of pizza in LA, Nancy Silverton!

Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat until the oil is almost smoking and slides easily in the pan, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the tomato purée slowly as it will splatter when it hits the oil. Stir in 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 scant tablespoon of kosher salt, 1 heaping teaspoon of ground , black pepper, reduce to a simmer and cook until the sauce thickens, about 30 minutes. Not putting herbs in the sauce allows you to really taste the flavors of the herbs you top the pizza with!

Making the pizzas together was quick, fun, and delicious! What are some of your Valentine’s Day memories and traditions?

alt. design summit 2013 {day 2}

Posted on 02/05/2013 by Brittany Sage

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On day 2, I spent most of the morning sitting in on a round table discussion involving a new project hosting web videos! I made a submission video yesterday and am keeping my fingers crossed! I will keep you posted! In the afternoon, The Land of Nod took over one of the lounges and threw a tea party with a swan theme. How fun is this photo op?

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These black swan floral arrangements rocked my world, and the black and white napkins…just stop it! Too cute!

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At Alt., it is all about the business cards. The card wall is filling up! There were 650 attendees this year.

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OK, Fridays lunch and keynote speaker Stephan Sagmeister blew me away. You can imagine the rooms surprise when his naked photo appeared on the large screens next to him a few minutes into his talk. He is a world-famous graphic designer, has given TED talks and wrote a film called…The Happy Film. He was hilarious, captivating and super inspiring!

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How adorable is this candy table by Kara? Just incase you needed an afternoon pick me up! The style and attention to detail at Alt. is spot on. It’s like a fantasy land.

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Jessica Alba was there talking about her brand The Honest Co. It was cool to be in the same room with her again! I just adore her and she is so sweet. I met her last year at The Lucky FABB event.

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This was a giant cork board map of the US and everyone tacked their cards to the area they were from! Look, there I am!

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Ahh…the beautiful Grand America Hotel at night, and no, that deer family isn’t real!

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Myself and the lovely Tamera Beardsley at the Friday night mini suite parties. The entire 3rd floor of the hotel gets taken over by sponsors who create themed mini parties in the suites. It is so much fun! This year Better Homes & Garden hosted the Color Pop Dessert Bash, Blurb hosted a Reunion Class of 2013 party, Flipboard’s theme was Rolling Out the Red Carpet, Go Mighty + Red Envelope had a Crush on You Party, Hayneedle hosted a Great Gatsby Lawn Party, Method + The Girls with Glasses hosted an It’s a Mod Mod World dance party, Vecco + Brita Olsen had a Tinsel & Timber party and Weathermob had a Weather With Style party. It was an amazing evening of food, fun and lots of giveaways!

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This was the photo booth at The Hayneedle party where we ran into Lia Griffith of ellinée.

So, who wants to come with me to Alt. 2014??!

alt. design summit 2013 {day 1}

Posted on 01/31/2013 by Brittany Sage

book

I just spent time in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Alt. Design Conference, which is a magical couple of days full of bloggers, networking, classes, parties, dinners and a lot of business cards, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it. Heck, even if I didn’t have a blog I would want to be there! It all started last Wednesday night with a kick off dinner. There were several restaurants around town hosting small groups of bloggers. This year I chose a cozy little old school spot, Lamb’s Grill. They are known for their rice pudding (which I loved) and a friend commented that her grandparents had dinner there on their wedding night, too cute. The evening was sponsored by Blurb, an awesome company that prints books, magazines, ebooks and much, much more. They gave me the opportunity to create a book from my blog (above) and it was incredible to see my photos come to life in print. I was so impressed with the quality compared to other photo books I have made. I can’t wait to get creative and maybe make a cookbook or Lipstick & Leopard Print the magazine? The possibilities are endless!

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Every year Alt. SLC is held at The beautiful Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. I was thrilled to be able to stay there this year. The rooms were gorgeous and this was our view! Wade makes this a ski vacation during the day and then comes out to party with me at night. It’s perfect!

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Alt. began on Thursday morning and I just couldn’t help myself…first stop, the HP booth. You know how I love a silly photo op!

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For my first class of the day, I chose The Reality of an Everyday Video Series with Sarah Carey from Martha Stewert. I thought this would be interesting because I have a lot of recipes on my blog but have never thought about doing a cooking video…until now. Sarah Carey was hilarious and I left the class feeling totally inspired. Later in the day, I was approached by a woman who was interested in having me host a web show. Crazy! More to come on that soon!

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On Thursday and Friday, Alt. hosts a formal lunch in the Grand Ballroom and the food is delicious considering they are feeding 650 people at the same time. The keynote speaker on Thursday was best-selling author Chris Anderson, who spoke about the power of invention. I really enjoyed his presentation, especially when he showed us what a 3-D printer can do! You can make just about anything with one of those. Now I want one!

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Thursday evening was the Clue themed party complete with taxidermy animals as you entered the event. I searched high and low for the right outfit and ended up as Professor Plum and felt fabulous! Wade looked pretty darn handsome in his suit and Professor Plum tie too!

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Wow! Look at those teeth!

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I found another Professor Plum with the same fluffy jacket!!! The lovely Lia Griffith of ellinée. It was fantastic and everyone at the party thought we had planned it!

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These ladies looked perfectly themed together. I especially loved Miss Scarlett and her matching hair! We have Lindsey of lindsey bee as Colonel Mustard, Patti of Patti Murphy Designs as Miss Peacock, Allessia of Little Lessy as Professor Plum and Laura of the lbeau room as Miss Scarlett.

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Look! It’s me and with one of my favorite LA food bloggers Kristin of The Cuisinerd.

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I just loved meeting Amber of damask love, she was so adorable and full of energy. I was also thrilled to see Rachel from Handmade Charlotte again. We met last year at Alt. Summit 2012 and she was one of my faves!

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Meet Tamera Beardsley. We bumped into each other on the elevator the first night and it was a girl crush at first sight! I am a sucker for bold jewelry and tulle and she had it all. We couldn’t get enough of each other and had Wade take our pic almost immediately! Wait until you see us the next night!

More of Alt. Summit to come this week…stay tuned!

roasted chicken soup with pearled barley

Posted on 01/09/2013 by Brittany Sage

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One of my favorite things to eat when it’s cold outside is homemade chicken soup! It’s definitely more labor intensive to make from scratch but it’s well worth it for the robust flavor and the fact that you can eat it all week. I enjoy eating it with a fresh, buttered baguette…heaven! I’m especially fond of this recipe because of the addition of the pearled barley. I love the texture with the tenderness of the chicken. Enjoy!

Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

1 (4- to 5-pound) whole chicken (extra fat trimmed)
2 tablespoons butter (can use olive oil)
5 cloves of garlic smashed
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 medium lemon or orange quartered
Fresh rosemary or thyme

Instructions:

Heat the oven to 425°F and arrange a rack in the middle.
Rinse chicken and pat it dry with paper towels. Cut off and discard any extra fat hanging around the body cavity.
Brush chicken with melted butter coating all of the skin. Season generously inside and out with salt and pepper. Place the citrus, garlic and whole herbs inside the cavity. Also rub a tablespoon of chopped herbs onto outside of the bird. Place the chicken breast-side up on a baking pan or cast iron skillet.
Roast the chicken in the oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 375°F and continue roasting until the juices run clear and a thermometer inserted into the inner thigh (but not touching the bone) registers 165°F, about 50 minutes to 1 hour more. Remove the chicken from the oven and put on a cutting board. Let it rest about 15 to 20 minutes before carving.
*Note: If you are planning to make a stock out of the chicken carcass, you can add whole garlic with chopped carrot, onion and celery placed directly on the sheet pan directly beneath the bird. Just add the roasted mirepoix to my stock recipe for extra richness!

Chicken Stock

Ingredients:

- Chicken Carcass
- 3 large carrots cut into 1 inch pieces
- 3 large celery stalks cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 large onion cut into 1 inch pieces
- 3 cloves of garlic smashed
- 5 sprigs of thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 5 whole all spice
- tablespoon of pepper corns
- tablespoon of salt
- tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup un-oaked white wine

Instructions:

In an extra large stockpot, sauté garlic, onion, carrot, thyme and celery for 6-8 minutes. Deglaze pan with white wine and add the rest of the ingredients ending with the chicken carcass. Cover chicken carcass with 4 inches of water. Bring to a boil and simmer lightly for 3-4 hours or until stock has reduced enough to produce a rich concentrated flavor. Pour broth through a fine mesh strainer to remove all large particles. Cool in fridge and skim fat.

Chicken Soup With Pearled Barley

Ingredients:
- Chicken meat chopped into bite sized pieces from whole roasted chicken.(skin removed)
- 3 carrots sliced into 1/8 inch discs
- 3 celery stalks cut into 1/8 inch slices
- 1 large spanish onion cut into 1/2 inch dice
- 2 cups of grape or other small tomatoes halved
- 3/4 cup of pearled barley

Instructions:

In a large stock pot bring homemade stock to a boil then reduce to a simmer.

Simmer pearled barley, tomato and onion for 25 minutes with stock in large stock pot. Add carrots and celery and continue simmering for 20 minutes. Add chicken and simmer for 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Remove from heat, serve, and enjoy all week long!

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