Chicken bacon ranch pizza

My first homemade pizza had to be something with bacon. I chose chicken bacon ranch because it is my favorite to get from The Pie pizza, a famous pizzeria in Utah. It's quite expensive there so when I thought of this I was quite excited to make it and not have to spend too much for their pizza :) It cost about 5 dollars to make the whole pizza myself and it's very similar to the Pie. I just need to perfect my dough making because this time I made it a little too dense with a little too much flour.

My main ingredients: boiled chicken, bacon, tomato, cheese, ranch, garlic powder, and salt&pepper to taste. One great thing to make your own pizza is that you can choose whatever you like!

First I boiled the chicken in water and some salt until it's done (about 15-20 mins). Then, I cut them in small pieces and mixed in about 1 tbsp of my buttermilk ranch dressing and some salt and pepper. Before I arranged all of other ingredients evenly, I smeared about 2-3 tbsp of ranch dressing on the dough.

Add cheese and some bacon on top

Then some Parmesan and Asiago cheese for more flavor

 Then baked for 45 mins at 375 or until brown

Chocolate bread

I love the taste of chocolate bread :) I used the recipe to make French bread then just added 2-3 tbsp of cocoa powder.

Plain White T's Concert

On October 1st, Overstock.com celebrated their 11th birthday. Every year, they throw a concert party for this special occasion. These are the concerts that I've been to since the day I started working for them.

2008: Jason Mraz
2009: The Wallflowers
2010: Plain White T's

They were all so much fun. Specially, they were private concerts and free to Overstock employees. I can't wait for next year concert to come :)

Here are some of the pictures of the event:

Molly, Megan, and I with the main singer of Rhymth of love. His hair looked like Edward's, haha :) He might be a better looking vampire than Robert Pattinson, I thought.

Their new single Rhythm of love, it is such a cute song....

 

Most people know the Hey there Delilah song, but I also love the song Radios in Heaven. The lyrics are so sweet.



These videos were recorded from the concert





The dancing in the background by Overstock.com employees was very intertaining, lol.

Fall in Utah

On Friday, I had a chance to go up to Millcreek canyon for some S'mores potluck with my Overstock co-workers. I seriously can't believe how could I not know of this place earlier as I used to live only 10 mins away.

I just enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the fall colors so much I wanted to come back soon for some great pictures. But for now, please enjoy my iPhone pictures that did a decent job of capturing the gorgeous colors of fall.

 The drive up to the picnic spot was very pleasant as you can see here

Huntington Beach {California}

What a lovely Saturday today! It's been raining the whole morning and finally it stopped. The weather is supposed to cool down next week and snow in the Salt Lake valley. I'm not totally excited for that since the last time it snowed here was at the end of May. Oh well, I'm sure excited for the holiday season though as Christmas is my favorite time of the year.

Yes, I should have posted these pictures a while ago. I just haven't had time to process all of them yet. I finally finished that today although I'm still behind on a lot of food posts. I still have pictures from a year ago that I haven't done anything to. Also, I've been baking like crazy so stay tuned for some yummy delish bread, muffins, and cupcakes :) Just figure, I need to take care of this first...

After checking in to our hotel by the PCH, we went out for dinner at The Crab Cooker. One of the best seafood places in the area. Everything was so tasty and fresh. If I lived here I'd have to come here probably once a month or so. It's so good but could drain out your wallet in no time. We spent over 100 dollars just for 2 plates of seafood and a small bowl of clam chowder.

Snapshot of the chef making delish grilled lobsters  

Brett's plate: lobsters on a skewer, rice pilaf, and cold slaw. Seriously, the best lobters ever.

 My king crab legs were also very yummy

The mashed potatoes were also my favorite. It was so cheesy and delicious...

 
And a very interesting and good clam chowder...

They also sell fresh seafood for home cooking. I wish I could take some home with me.

 The store across the street

 After dinner, we rushed over to the Huntington Beach pier to watch the sunset.

One intersting thing I learned was the palm tree is not one of California's native plants, but it's everywhere and makes us feel like it is.

The pier

As we walked on the pier, we saw a man catch a small leopard shark and processed it right there :)

The paranomic picture of the pier: I took 5 different pictures to make this one

Stir fried ramen noodle

We had this dish a while ago; I never had time to post it until now. I used to eat ramen noodles everyday when I was in college. Then, I became so sick of it, the last time I had it probably was over a year ago. I still have a few packages left, instead of throwing them away I decided to do something interesting with it. I finally decided to do a stir fry with shrimp, ground pork, and baby bok choy since it's something different than how I used to have them. It turned out pretty decent, well worth keeping the noodles around :)



I boiled the ramen (about 6 small packages) for about 2 mins then rinsed them through cold water to stop the noodles from cooking themselves; that way the noodles don't get too soggy later on.




 
I stir fried the bok choy in some soy sauce, added the already cooked ground pork with vietnamese black mushrooms, then added the shrimp last because they get cooked really fast and I don't want to over-cook them.


Finally, I just mixed the stir fry and the noodles together in a big frying pan, added sesame oil, salt & pepper, and soy sauce.
 
Easy dinner that saves money and time for us :)

  

Seafood Tacos

Talking about the Mexican food we like, I oughta mention my inspiration: Lone Star Taqueria (2265 Fort Union Boulevard, Salt Lake City, Utah ). They have the best fish burritos and tacos in Salt Lake City area. If you haven't tried them, you definitely need to go there :) I'm not kidding. Their food is amazing. It's my favorite Mexican food restaurant.

My way of making this is super cheap, quick, and easy.


Avocado sauce: chopped avocado mixed with paprika, ranch, and a little bit of Italian dressing



Cook the shrimp or fish in butter and chopped green onions seasoned with taco seasoning and salt & pepper





It took me less than 20 mins to put everything together. It's so simple but absolutely delicious. It's my way of eating seafood tacos :)




Fish tacos



Shrimp tacos