Cafe Galleria

I promise a New Year's Eve post is coming, but for now you can enjoy a couple of pics from New Year's Eve Eve! My parents came into town on Friday afternoon, so we headed to one of our favorite local restaurants. Cafe Galleria is the cutest pizza place in Midway. They have amazing thin crust pizza and the yummiest salads. I recommend the margarita pizza and the pear gorgonzola salad. Delish! 

I meant to take a picture before I started eating, but it was just so good I couldn't wait. So now you get to see my half-eaten pizza :)

After dinner we went and saw the new Sherlock Holmes. I LOVED it! I was a tiny bit skeptical because I didn't really love the first one but this one was great. If you like fast past action movies, this one is for you!

Have you seen any good movies lately? 

Cafe Rio + Friends

Two of our very best friends, Anne and Michael, were in town last week. So we met up at Cafe Rio in American Fork for good food and even better conversation. 

I just love these two. Anne and I have been best buds since our freshman year of college. And Michael and I actually grew up together. I could not have been happier when I found out they had a little romance brewing and eventually got married! Actually, I take that back, I could have been happier. I happened to be on my mission at the time and had to miss their wedding :(

But then they had to go and move away. First to Texas and now to Iowa where Michael is in grad school. So we hardly ever get to see them anymore. But I guess that makes the times that we do get to see each other that much better. We ended up sitting at a tiny table in that very crowded restaurant for over an hour catching up. 

We'll sure miss you guys! And whenever you happen to make it to Utah we've got a pork salad with your name on it! 

Chick-fil-A

I'm kind of a Chick-Fil-A addict.  When I was a missionary in South Carolina I ate there constantly. My addiction started because they were one of the only fast food restaurants with Caffeine Free Diet Coke on tap (caffeine was banned in my mission...it was basically torture for 18 months...because y'all know how much I love me some fountain diet coke...so I improvised...Five Guys also has the caffeine free variety...I wonder how many times I can use ellipses in one sentence...oop...two more times).  But then Sister Temple introduced me to Chick-Fil-A sauce.  I could practically drink that stuff!  It's like heaven in a little sauce packet.  In fact I'm pretty sure they're going to have Chik-Fil-A sauce, waffle fries, and Diet Coke in the Celestial Kingdom (is that sacrilegious?).  Anyway...after I discovered that sauce I was totally hooked and P-Day Chik-Fil-A runs become something I looked forward to every week in Florence, SC.  While I was blog stalking this morning I found this little gem and I just had to share it with y'all.  Enjoy!!

   

I do not feel good about this...

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My Favorite Gas Station

On Saturday I had one of those awesome all to myself days where nobody could tell me what I should or should not be doing. I didn't have to wake up for anything or be anywhere at a certain time. So I slept in and then did a buttload of errands. I love doing errands, especially by myself. It's just me time and I crank up my music in the car and I can take as long grocery shopping as I want and I can drive to three different craft stores looking for the right color felt to make a fab necklace (more on that next time) without anybody tell me I can't or that I'm wasting time and gas. And then I can get whatever I want for lunch! (can y'all tell that I grew up an only child and that I really cherish alone time, or what?!)

Anywho...so I decided I had to have Jason's Deli. I'm obsessed with their chicken panini and you should be too! Please go eat one, I promise you'll thank me for it. Plus...if you dine in you get free soft serve! What's better than free soft serve? Nothing, I tell you...except maybe free diet coke. Ok, I promise I'm getting to the point of this post. While I'm getting my sandwich I'm on the phone with my best friend, Karen, who lives in California and is not Mormon (that piece of info will be relevant in a second). So I get my panini and then I head over to Maverick...

no, not this Maverick:

this Maverick:

...next door for 48 ounces of goodness (diet coke with 2 quirts of cherry flavoring and 1 squirt of vanilla flavoring...oooo baby.). While I'm checking out I tell Karen to hold on a second...I've got to pay for my drink. And she says, "Why didn't you just get a drink at the same place you got your sandwich?" And I say, "Because my favorite gas station is right next door!" She then proceeded to laugh and tell me how weird it is that I have a favorite gas station to get a soda at.

So what I'm wondering, is this whole gas station soda obsession just a Utah Mormon thing? I started to realize that not once while growing up in California did I go to a gas station to get a soda. Our fridge was always stocked with diet coke so I never needed to. But my fridge is currently stocked with diet coke and yet I still go to Maverick a few times a week. It just tastes so dang good!! I know I'm not the only one in Utah with this obsession, because there are always people in and out of Maverick with massive sodas and I just read this post by Allison at SheBlogsSheBlogs. What are y'alls thought on the topic? Where do you like to get your soda? And have I officially turned into a Utah Mormon?

Savory Chicken Bites

This is my cousin Lori's recipe and it is so delicious and so easy to make! I've made two batches in the last week. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. dried basil

1/4 tsp onion salt

1/8 tsp dried oregano

1/8 tsp dried thyme

1 cup fined chopped chicken

2 cans refrigerated crescent roll dough

*To cut down on the calories I used light cream cheese and reduced fat crescent rolls. I also added quite a bit more chicken so I could add more filling to each roll.

Preparation:

Mix first 6 ingredients then add in the cooked chicken. Separate 2 cans of crescent roll dough into 8 rectangles and press perforations to seal. Spread about 1/2 cup cream cheese mixture over each dough rectangle. Roll dough, jellyroll fashion, pinch seams to seal. Cut each roll into 5 pieces; place seam side down on lightly greased baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.