The last few days have been a whirlwind of jet-setting and a true taste of la dolce vita for yours truly.  Electrolux appliances requested food blogger submissions to win a trip to NYC and help raise awareness for ovarian cancer research via Foodbuzz a while back.  I have reasons close to home for entering the contest, and I was over-the-moon when I found out I would be amongst the pool of 15 bloggers selected to go.  As details of the event unfolded, my excitement grew.  Hang with Kelly Ripa? Check.  Stay at the über-chic Hotel Gansevoort in the Meatpacking district? Check.  Get ferried from place to place by an amazing chauffer service during our entire stay? Check.  Attend a private demonstration at the Spotted Pig by their world-renowned head chef  April Bloomfield? Also check!  A couple of days before the event it was revealed that TLC’s Cake Boss himself, Buddy Valastro, would give us cake decorating tips, choose themes, and help us to decorate five cakes that YOU can vote on for free, and every time you vote Electrolux will donate a dollar to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.  What an adventure! 

The event day run of show reads just like something out of a trendy novel about a girl getting whisked into the NYC adventure of her dreams for a day.  I woke up at 6:45am (mind you after a night cavorting with meatpacking glitterati at the Spotted Pig and Gansevoort rooftop lounge) which is 2:45am Seattle time.  After sloshing on a few strokes of makeup and munching a hurried breakfast hosted by Electrolux, a fleet of SUV’s shuttled the 15 of us to the “Live with Regis and Kelly” studio to attend a taping.  By a stroke of dumb luck, I happened to get the best seat in the house, front and center, and thoroughly enjoyed watching Kelly Ripa make chocolate-dipped strawberries and Regis do his comic thing.  After the taping we had two free hours before we were required for cake decorating, and what’s a girl to do with extra time in NYC? You guessed it, I hit up the divine shops peppered about the Meatpacking district.  Sales abound since apparently someday soon winter will give way to spring, so I managed to pick up three dresses in 10 minutes flat at Scoop.  I was really on a mission for boots since winter blizzards were all anyone could talk about and I’d only packed Manolos and Louboutins, but a few new dresses couldn’t hurt, right?

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Sometimes I can be a bit daft.  When a last minute opportunity to head to Vegas complete with a built-in babysitter/Grandma and a reservation at the coveted Atelier de Robuchon jumps into your lap, the least you could do is remember the damn camera, right? Not I so consider yourself warned: the photos in this entry were all lovingly taken with the very best in iPhone technology, sorry for my forgetfulness. 

It just so happened that last week when Jonas and I were trying to cobble together a plan for New Year’s Eve that didn’t involve driving, hanging with 18 year olds or hanging with 80 year olds, but did involve Grandma’s babysitting assistance, a fair amount of imbibing, and a bit of reveling thrown in for good measure, the phone rang.  A good thing too, as we were in the middle of a heated discussion regarding the merits of an aquarium versus a bowling alley on the biggest amateur night of the year- two options I’m glad we didn’t have to explore.  It so happened that my sisters’ boyfriend of several years had hatched a plan to propose to her in Vegas on NYE (since they live there) and at the last minute he decided it might be fun to have her family around.  I think his secret motive was to ensure she would have a heart attack one way or another- if the shock of the engagement didn’t do it the fact that her sister who she hasn’t seen in a year popping up at their table five minutes later yelling “surprise” surely would. 

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Oftentimes, pairings that sound curiously strange are actually quite phenomenal if you give them a chance.  Case in point: chocolate and peanut butter, bananas and (you guessed it!) peanut butter, or my personal favorite (trust me on this one)peanut butter on a burger-mmmmm.  There are not many things I like as much as I like peanut butter enough to try them with just about anything else, but luckily for me there is one—wine.  I’ve tried wine in movie theaters with great success, wine whilst sailing also works as long as its your own boat and you own a pressure washer, and dare I say I’ve also ventured a glass in planes, trains and automobiles (the last only as a passenger and under the sneaky handle “road soda”).  Given my penchant for wine during transport, it’s a wonder I hadn’t stumbled upon wine-drinking while horseback riding before, but you can bet I signed up the second I made the discovery.

Pepper and Terry Fewel know a bit about marriage from personal experience, so when they decided to marry horses and wine, they must have had intuition that it would work well.  They operate a working farm as a Bed and Breakfast called Cherry Wood complete with luxury teepees and decked out retro trailers as lodging options, so it’s no wonder they thought up as unconventional a concept as wine riding to add to the mix.   For the more delicate among us, they can arrange for a horse-drawn carriage, but we were feeling feisty and so opted for the true cowboys and wine approach.  The ride itself winds through vineyards and orchards, comes complete with lunch, and of course makes a point to hit up tasting rooms along the way.  Read more