Pizzeria Bianco

I went out on a date with a bunch of friends to Pizzeria Bianco's last night. It's only the number one place to get pizza in the nation. Martha Stewart had Bianco on her show on June 6 of this year making lemon focaccia bread. Bianco's also made it to Food & Wine's Go List for 2008. And last but not least Oprah's dear friend Gayle went out in search of the best places to eat pizza in America and guess what? Bianco's made it!
Gayle's reaction:
"One of the things that makes this pizza so special is owner Chris Bianco's passion for his pie. He personally hand makes every pizza—sometimes more than 250 a night! Chris says serving the freshest pie possible is key to his success—so no take out or delivery! Which means, the wait for his "slice of heaven" can be lengthy—but that doesn't stop people from getting in line! "He pours his heart and soul into every pie," says one diner. "You taste his passion for the food."

Chris's strict pie policies go towards toppings as well—you won't find any pepperoni here. Instead, Chris uses sopressata, a pork sausage that he says "cooks down better." Other toppings include caramelized onions, smoked mozzarella and fennel sausage. Gayle's rating? "[It was] unlike anything I've ever tasted. … It had me at hello."

So after getting off work around 7 last night Abby, Chris, Ryan, Rachel, Spencer, Davy, Lindsey, and I drove down to Phoenix to hit up Bianco's. The crew had all gone last year and loved it so this year they made reservations in advance (you can only make reservations with a group of 6 or more) and I got to tag along as Ryan's date. We had a wait of about a half hour (last year they waited for 2 hours!) during which we lounged on the porch of the drink house, which is right next to the actual restaurant. Ryan bought us all Bubble Ups (they are basically a sophisticated version of Sprite/7-Up in cute green bottles) while we waited and we all felt like real southerners as we watched the sun set over Heritage Square where the restaurant is located. We were finally seated and proceeded to order every single kind of pizza, except for one (not that we didn't like the sound of it). Bianco makes every single pizza pie but for that fact we didn't have to wait too long for our food to arrive. We, of course, all sampled one another's food but the one I ordered was definitely my favorite: the Rosa. My favorite part: the chopped pistachio nuts that came on top. Each pie had the most vibrant flavors and they were all so delicious! The wait was absolutely worth it and I definitely recommend Bianco's. If you go, for sure go with more than six so you can make reservations. As we left we passed by Bianco's small brick kitchen and waved goodbye and said thank you. Chris bragged that Bianco even gave him a peace sign :)

Rachel and I on the porch of the drink house

The whole crew at our table (Ryan and I had moved all of our leftovers onto one plate, but for the picture he slid my plate back to me and put a piece on it just so that it looked like we had been eating)

The crew in front of Pizzeria Bianco's

Ryan and me

Pattin' & Bouncin'

You know how when you're rocking a baby to sleep, or bouncing them in your arms? Well you know how we usually pat their backs over and over and over again and it miraculously helps them fall asleep? Well, does anyone else think that's weird?! I was thinking about it today as I was bouncing on the balls of my feet with Adeline in my arms, gently patting her back. Pattin' and bouncin', and it hit me that doing that is a bit odd. Just imagine if you were having a hard time sleeping and someone came in and started to pat your back...I would be quite annoyed with them. Why don't you scratch it or rub it?!?! Don't pat it! That's almost obnoxious. So I stopped patting her back and started to scratch it, nice and gentle. She wasn't too keen on that because after a few moments she started to fuss, so we went back to pattin' and bouncin'. Needless to say, she feel asleep.

Cruella Deville

My parents and I drove the missionaries out to Mesa Sales yesterday to find fabric for ties. Kind of random, but I think it's cool that they make their own ties. While there, my mother and I looked at fabric to put on our throw pillows in the front room. Whilst I was looking I found probably the coolest thing ever - it totally made my day:


P.S. This was a curtain... I am quite sure that this is the type of thing that Cruella Deville has hanging up in her spacious chateau.

Job searchin', job job searchin'

I applied for 6 jobs on BYU campus today. SIX!!! (Anything so that I don't have to go back to food services). I have heard back from one so far, and now I have a phone interview sometime next week. No pressure, right? Job interviews are bad enough, but over the phone?!?!?! However, I have found a solution to this stressful situation: I'm going to type up all the answers to any question ever asked in a job interview and then just refer to every time they ask me something. It's almost like cheating! Each time they ask something I'll just pause, act like I'm pondering earnestly, and comment on how good a question it is; all the while I'll be flipping fervently through trying to find the answer. It's fool proof!

But I am feeling a lot less frustrated than I was this morning when going through the process of refining my resume and searching for some light at the end of the tunnel. Thankfully, not too many people asked for a cover letter, that is always the hardest thing for me to do: Describe why you are interested in this job and why you would be the best suited for the position..."I'm desperate for money and I'd rather not have to wear a uniform of an apron and hat anymore. What other motivation do you need?" Can you imagine if we asked the people we dated to do the same thing? Why would you be the best match for me? "Um, I'm rad, you're rad...what more do you need?"

Snacks

I am working part time at a dry cleaners, which means I spend a four hour shift either watching TV, reading, or doing other aimless activities. Basically I babysit a building. Well, as I sit lazily in the rocking chair behind the counter I've begun a tradition of non-stop snacking. I think I do it out of boredom almost. But for the past few weeks or so I've found myself constantly eating while I rock back and forth trying to decipher Tolstoy and praying that no customer will walk in during an especially intriguing passage. At first I just took carrots with me to work, then I added dried apricots, after a while I needed something more so I was munching on popcorn. After about a week of things turning orange that shouldn't be orange I tried to lessen my intake of orange food. That just left me eating way too much popcorn and leaving work feeling much heavier than when I got there.

So I need help, I need some really good snacks that are, of course, healthy. Plus, taking snacks to my classes during school is always a bonus and maybe it will help eliminate the amount of candy/chocolate I inhale around finals. I did discover, however, that chewing gum does help (I think I just need to be chewing on something, kind of like how I have restless, leg syndrome - I swear I do - I can't keep still for too long. I guess I also have restless teeth syndrome), but gum gives me canker sores after a while.

Colgate

I have a crush on a guy in a toothpaste commercial

Wedding Bells

For those of you who did not know, we have had a young man living with my family for a good number of years now. He's actually about the 6th "boarder" to live with my family across the years. He's become a surrogate brother to all of us younger girls, and a part of the family. He's moving out this August to move to Illinois to attend law school, but only after he gets married to Carli Tanner. We've known the Tanners for a long time and everyone's excited for it.

Tonight we stuffed envelopes with the wedding announcement while watching Father of the Bride. About part way through Aimee, who is almost 11, commented that "getting married is the worst part of life." Later after the movie was done and as we were gathering together for family prayers, laughing about the movie, Aimee said, "Mia's never gonna get married"... (I'm Mia, in case you didn't know).

Out of context, it's quite depressing, but she meant that with all the stress that parents have to go through, she believed that my dad didn't want me getting married any time soon - which is slightly true (although I think we're both in that ballpark).

However, the laughs over my singleness didn't end there. Right before Hannah began to give the family prayer, my dad turned to her and said, "Pray that Amelia will get married some time." Apparently me being married is a joke in the family.

Tolstoy swamped

I'm reading Tolstoy's Anna Karenina right now, I should say I was suffering through it for the last few days, but now it's getting interesting (I'm about 1/20th of the way through it, because of how thick the book is, it's still hard to read the words near the fold of the binding. But I swear I've read a lot!) Tanner laughed when I told him where I was and he said that all the girls begin to like the book when Vronsky comes into the story - he's the handsome, dashing gentlemen. I only like it because the love triangle is slowly starting to unfold and there is a bit less talk of everyone's relationship with the rest of society. Although it is quite interesting to read about how ridiculous things were when there was much ado about who married whom in society and all the going-ons of social standings.

Door switchin'

We switched the door on the fridge in the garage. Now you can open it right as you walk outside, no more having to walk two extra feet around it to get to the handle. We're such a lazy species.

Blogs are weird

I'm a little vexed at the moment, I just published a new post and it managed to end up a couple posts underneath. So look down further to see my post on Doris Day. Or just click on the link :)

(How many times can you say "post?")

Death of Refrigerator

We got a new fridge today. Now we have so much space that we don't know what to do with all of our frozen fruit, pecans, and the 1/4 of a cow we brought home from Utah. We've had two refrigerators since before I can remember. The one that we kept out in the garage was my parents first fridge, and it's gone through quite a lot: summers full of ice cream and popsicles from Schwans, frozen water balloons used to throw in the pool, and of course the one time when Christopher ran into it with the van. But when we got back from Utah this week The Source realized that the fridge wasn't keeping anything cold anymore, and we finally said goodbye to our refrigerator of 22 years. Yeah, that wasn't as hard to part with as I thought. Although now when I am in the kitchen I continue to reach for the handle on the left side of the new refrigerator, it's always a shock when my hand slips. Plus instead of just walking out into the garage and immediately grabbing the ancient handle on the old fridge, I've got to walk all the way around to the left hand side in order to get what I need. Almost frustrating, but now we can store more ice cream and sweets than before, so who's complaining?

Battle Wounds

I broke a blood vessel...in my finger. Once again, like my nosebleed, I did not achieve this battle wound in some heroic way like playing soccer. And it wasn't in a cool place like my foot, no it is in my right hand's middle finger - inside - which makes the backside of my knuckle all swollen. That and it is a yummy plum cover and it hurts like crazy. At least it did when I got it. So, going back to the non-heroic story, I was at institute last night and all the sudden it magically appeared. Really! I'm not quite sure when I actually broke it, it was either when I fell off one of the desks or when I just reached into my purse to get the car keys. It was a gruesome feat, I must say. All I remember is reaching in for my car keys and suddenly my finger started to itch, so I scratched it like any other sane person would do. But as I was scratching, it started to sting like crazy and I looked down and the vein in my finger was huge and almost black. It hurt pretty bad for probably five minutes and then I had to drive home. That was fun, I was giving everyone the birdie because the blood was still pulsing through it and my finger was throbbing terribly. I admit whole-heartedly that I almost panicked. I had no idea what was wrong with my finger and it was killing me, I started to tear up at one point too, quite the dramatic moment I tell you. But according to The Source, you can't do anything about broken blood vessels, so I'm just waiting this one out. So far it only starts to throb again when my hand is down at my side for too long or if I press too hard on the area (not saying that I randomly push on the bruised area, it's just at work I have to use a stapler a whole bunch and man! it's hard to push a stapler without using your middle finger. Try it, it's quite sad how the most offensive finger is our strongest).

I know that I am a klutz and that I am prone to odd injuries, but I hadn't completely realized this until this last one. For instance, my nose bleed: I just got out of bed and poof! Broken blood vessel: falling off a desk, or getting car keys out of my purse. I think that the injury that tops all of this was when I was dusting the family room not too long ago. I had gotten up on a chair to reach the top of some pictures and as I was stepping off of it I caught my leg on the corner of the head rest and next thing I knew I had a nice size bruise on my hamstring. That one made it hard to use the restroom for a couple of days. HA! another good story: when I was three I broke my elbow. But get this, I fell off the arm of the couch. I actually broke it twice in one day because after I fell my parents didn't think I had really broken it, and then later that day I fell down the stairs and broke it in another spot. After that they finally took me to the doctor.

In conclusion, I'm prone to disaster on my own two feet, or on my butt. One of these days I am going to be playing rugby, or snowboarding, or doing something crazy and get a real battle wound. No more of this sissy klutz stuff.