One of the bucket list items I wanted to complete last year was to go to dim sum for brunch. Technically I *tried* to make this happen with a friend earlier in the year. Except, we went somewhere random in the International District in Seattle at 7 p.m., so all the dim sum carts were shut down, and we were handed a menu in Chinese to mark up. What were these dishes?! How many should we order? Since neither of us had done dim sum, we just put a bunch of numbers next to items and about 20 plates and round baskets came out with weird sauces and meats. We had no idea what we were eating, and we had so, so, so much food! All of it couldn’t fit on our table, and we were stacking baskets up three high. It was super funny, but not at all something I wanted to eat again.

It only took me 366 days to do dim sum the right way – for brunch at a renowned, authentic Chinese restaurant with crispy, glazed, steaming dim sum dishes to choose from displayed on passed carts and platters!

On New Year’s Day, a group of my girl friends and I went to “lucky hungover” dim sum at Ton Kiang in Outer Richmond (a neighborhood in San Francisco known for its Asian cuisine). Dim sum at Ton Kiang is #62 on  7×7′s “100 Things to Try Before You Die,” and I’m so glad we did! It was super yummy – and just plain fun to choose from all the different “small plates.” Waitresses walked by our table with plate after plate of colorful dishes and shouted out what it was as they passed. Everything was so different and interesting! Round dough balls rolled in sesame seeds and crab claws poking out of fried bread… Steamed poured out of the sides of the little round baskets as the lids were lifted and dumplings in various meats and spices were revealed.

The pork sui mai dumplings were my fav!
We were also a big fan of the pork buns and custard buns.

Ton Kiang definitely has some dang good dim sum. It was a tasty, interactive meal that was a great way to kick off my New Year. I think I’m going to make it an annual tradition!

Have you been to dim sum before?

Currently Feeling: Glad I got Pilates and my 10K steps in today!
Currently Anticipating: Two birthday parties this weekend… and a dinner out tomorrow.
Currently Wondering: What the HECK is up with that crazy Jenna blogger girl on The Bachelor. Talk about giving us bloggers a bad name! That girl is a wackadoodle.

Well, my friends – 2011 is officially gone and past. For me, it was a “Banner Year.” I made it my goal to end 2011 and my 20s with a bang, and I feel like I succeeded. I know my journalism professors are turning over in their yet-to-be-filled graves by the use of the “banner year” and “out with a bang” cliches, but sometimes cliches feel oh so right. I’m just so full of love, luck and happiness in my life these days, it makes my heart three times its size.

As I look back and say goodbye to 2011, I’m simultaneously looking back and saying goodbye on my 20s since I’ll turn 30 in two short weeks. Oh how, oh how, do you write a post summing up an entire decade?! My general conclusion is that life.is.good. Each year I’ve learned to right a few wrongs, improve just a titch, enjoy new and exciting hobbies, cross off many bucket list items, and really revel in all the joy friends, family and success can bring. I feel like I’ve slowly been growing each year into a better version of myself than the year before, and I’m so excited to jump into 2012 – my first full year living in San Francisco. I have a lot of thoughts around what I want my year to look like, which I’ll also be sharing with you this week, along with the bucket list rundown of 2011/2012. But first, I thought it’d be easier to create a video recap of my year instead of posting a 900 word diatribe with 100 photos.

So, I present to you … a video recap of what I was doing in 2011 as the days kept turning into night:

Currently Feeling: Glad to have finished that video! Has taken me all week, but I’m getting better at iMovie. It’s pretty fun!
Currently Anticipating: Jersey Shore starting this week! Is that bad to admit?
Currently Wishing: I could have just been in Maui with my family over my actual birthday – hate stressing about celebrations. :/

This is what my roommate and coworker (aka Stella) and I did all day today for National Hangover Day. Well, sort of all day. I did take a break from lazy to head to my first real dim sum experience with some friends. More on that later!

In the meantime, I’ve been thinking a lot about, and working on, my 2011 recap and goals for 2012. I know we’re all problem burnt out on reading those types of posts in the blogosphere, but I’m going to jump on a pedestal for my two minutes of fame anyway. Expect that this week.

Hope you all had a wonderful NYE and NY Day!

Currently Feeling: Epically unable to catchup on sleep from my busy holiday season in Seattle.
Currently Anticipating: Being active and productive tomorrow.
Currently Loving: The cute mustache iPhone case my sister got me for Christmas!

I’ve started a Christmas tradition of my own – making crafty, homemade gifts for my friends each year! It’s quickly becoming my favorite part of the Christmas season. I love the process of trying something new, listening to music or watching Christmas movies while relaxing and creating, and the best of all – giving my homemade gifts to my friends! It’s my way little way of letting my BFFs know how much they mean to me and that they are a special part of my year.

Last year I made homemade soaps with funky images personalized for each friend (a great unisex gift), and this year I made sugar scrubs for my girls. With the soaps coming out less than $3 each and the sugar scrubs less than $5 each, these are inexpensive gifts that are way better than something picked up at the store for three times the price!

I found “A Year of Sugar Scrubs” recipes on a blog post from Pinterest, natch. Erin offers her e-book with 24 original sugar scrub recipes for only $3.99! I highly recommend buying it – the recipes were super easy, all-natural and smelled fabulous. I plan on trying them all out eventually.

This year, I made 12 sugar scrubs total and tried five of Erin’s 24 recipes – S’mores, Snickerdoodle, Pink Sugar Cookie, Mexican Hot Chocolate, Caramel Frappe – and made up two of my own recipes – Rainbow Chip Birthday Cake and Bali Vanilla Bean.

I was really proud of the two recipes I made up. I thought of Rainbow Chip Birthday Cake thanks to a canister of rainbow chocolate chips my mom had from William Sonoma. This ended up being the most popular flavor – who doesn’t love the rainbow chip birthday cake we all had as a little kid?!

I actually have to give credit to my sister for the Bali Vanilla Bean idea. We had a bag of fresh vanilla beans we brought back from Bali and gave to my mom. We scraped two vanilla beans from Bali into the “Vanilla Bean” scrub recipe from Erin’s e-book of sugar scrub recipes. I’ve never used real vanilla bean in a recipe before. It was crazy to peel open the bean and scrape out all the little tiny flea-looking dots inside the bean. This was probably the second most popular flavor to choose with my friends because it felt a little more “special” with the vanilla beans all the way from Bali!

My favorite recipe from Erin’s e-book on sugar scrubs was the S’mores recipe. The chocolate layer is a rich chocolatey smell (thanks to cocoa powder) and the marshmallow layer is actually made with my favorite marshmallow fluff (an excuse to buy it and lick the spoon)!

Another one of my favorite recipes from Erin was “Pink Sugar Cookie,” which takes a heart-shaped cookie cutter to create a heart in the middle of the sugar cookie scrub! A little surprise for my friend who went home and first took the lid of this scrub.

The absolute best thing about these sugar scrubs is that they are 100% natural (and even edible) – gluten free! low fat! no preservatives! no trans fat! no high fructose corn syrup! They’re largely made with olive oil and cane sugar. Some other ingredients I used are cocoa powder, brown sugar, honey, cinnamon, marshmallow fluff, caramel sauce, Starbucks VIA, and vanilla extract – all ingredients found at your local grocery store. My sister and I even licked the spoons!

I put each of the sugar scrubs in a container I bought from Cost Plus World Market for only $2.99, tied them with ribbon, and created a cute little tag for each one. These sugar scrubs took about three hours total to make, were au naturel, inexpensive and a HUGE hit with my girl friends. It was so fun to see what each of my friends chose as their flavor (no girls were injured in the choosing of the scrub flavors).

My sister and I kept a recipe for a Snickerdoodle recipe that didn’t turn out and tried it in the shower – it’s an amazing exfoliate and the olive oil makes your skin so soft (and your skin even smells like the flavor afterward)! I think I’ll whip up a canister for myself to keep in in my shower and try different flavors throughout the year.

If you try these out yourself, let me know! I’d love to see what you create – this is my most favorite crafty project I’ve tried so far.

Currently Feeling: So glad to be “home” – it’s starting to feel more so every week, day and month!
Currently Anticipating: My first ever dim sum this week with some girl friends in SF (well, I take that back – been once, but it doesn’t count cause it was late at night and not really the full carted dim sum experience).
Currently Reading: Best Kept Secret by Amy Hatvany.

A girl friend of mine in SF, Jess, asked me a bit ago if I wanted to go to “a free beer party in a garage.”

Um, duh!

Pacific Brewing Laboratory (or Pac Brew Lab) is a small craft brew company ran by two San Francisco guys and they’ve hosted “free beer” parties in their brewing garage over the past year to debut or taste new beers. They’re known for their small, 10-gallon batches of beers, using different brewing techniques and unique ingredients. Some of their beer flavors are Hibiscus Saison, Squid Ink Black IPA, Chamomile Ale, Lemongrass IPA, and Szechwan Peppercorn Red ale.

At our first “garage party,” I was able to try their Hibiscus Saison beer, and LOVED it! Just a small hint of hibiscus at the end of your sip makes it unique and fun to drink, but not too flowery or sweet. And, it’s PINK!

Turns out Jess and I found out about these intimate garage beer parties just in time for their last party because they’ve officially starting distributing and growing throughout the Bay Area. We were able to attend their official launch party last month at Le Trappe in North Beach! You can find a list of the locations carrying their beers here.

The friendly, local vibe of the beer-crafting duo that makes up Pac Brew Labs, and the one-of-a-kind beers makes this a sure winner of my Je’s Best of SF Crown.

Currently Feeling: So sad for my little princess fur wagon – she won’t leave my side or stop purring and must have been terribly lonely over the last two weeks!
Currently Anticipating: Getting back to my extreme work out routine and shedding the salty holiday water weight I’ve been carrying around the past three days.
Currently Wishing: I could have enjoyed my Christmas tree in my apartment a little longer this year!

Another Christmas season has come and gone – and I’m wrapping up a December spent holidaying in San Francisco (SantaCon, a holiday lights tour via double decker bus, ice skating in Union Square and a Favorite Things party) and Seattle (12 days of Seattle Christmas, which included a fancy girls dinner and Snowflake Lane viewing, catch-up dinner with my Bali girls, 50s holiday party at a winery, two Taco Tuesdays, and the annual high school girls Christmas party gift exchange).

Ice skating in Union Square - a new annual
 tradition for me - so fun!

Posing with a rare, endangered
polar bear at Snowflake Lane in Bellevue

A 50s holiday gala at Matthew's Estate Winery

Phew! It’s been a busy, fun Christmas for me this year. And the first one I’ve been totally healthy for in three years, so that felt amazing.

Santa skipped our house this year because in less than one month, my sister, mom, dad and I will be flying to Maui to celebrate my 30th birthday (which is just two weeks away)!!! I was happy to spend Christmas with my friends and family, and I feel lucky to have pretty much everything I want, so skipping presents was all right by me.

Each year, my mom plays gracious host of a large family holiday extravaganza at our house on Christmas Eve. The party is full of traditions – “Cosmo Chi Chis” that my dad mixes for the drinkers, a Honey Baked Ham for our sit-down dinner, zero presents allowing for zero stress, and lots of laughs.

This year's holiday outfit = festive burgundy tights,
gold flats and feathers on my dress!

This year my mom threw together a new “Holiday Wreath Salad” from Icon Grill in Seattle. How gorgeous is this salad?! It includes dried cranberries, pomegranate seeds, toasted hazelnuts, apples, red pepper, and a pomegranate vinaigrette. I love the festive presentation of it!

I’m utterly exhausted after two awesome weeks spent catching up with my Seattle loved ones and am so ready to go home and see my beauty queen kitty and lie on my couch for 48 hours. I’m planning a few posts over the next two weeks, including:

• The homemade sugar scrubs I made for some of my friends this year (that were AMAZING)
• All about my latest obsession – my FitBit!
• The epic 2011 recap (by far the biggest and brightest year I’ve had yet)
• A night spent delivering newspapers the old fashioned way!
• And a few more Best of SFs and fun recipes I’ve tried off Pinterest

Hope everyone is enjoying their quiet week before we head into 2012… I’m full on ready to start my first full year in San Francisco!

Currently Feeling: Annoyed my flight is delayed for two hours! Happens to me every time I fly from Seattle to SFO.
Currently Anticipating: Seeing my friends and finishing out this week with some fun plans in SF.
Currently Loving: Marzipan! Each year I get a ton in my Christmas stocking, and it’s just too dang yummy for words.

Thanks to the all-knowing, addictive, most amazing website to come out of 2011 – Pinterest – I came across a few blogs that shared the idea of throwing a Favorite Things Party. So, I decided to host one for my San Francisco girls. Here’s the gist of throwing a Favorite Things Party: everyone brings five (or whichever number you choose) of their “favorite things” under a price limit. We did five things for $30. Favorite things can be your favorite condiment, nail polish color, book, amazing product you can’t live without, etc., but it should be five different things, not five of the same thing. Each person “presents” their favorite things one by one, and after each, pulls a name (from a box/hat) for the person who will receive the favorite thing. At the end, everyone goes home with five different “favorite things” from everyone at the party, learns a little bit about each attendee, and learns a lot about great products! It’s super fun, and a great change-up to the usual white elephant party.

Here are a few details I added to my party to give you some ideas if you want to throw your own Favorite Things Party! (P.S. I did it as a holiday party, but it can be thrown year-round without a Christmas theme!)

I bought brown bags, printed out labels that said, “A Few of Our Favorite Things” (you can download the labels here) and tied the bags with string. This was to play off “brown paper packages tied up with strings” from the song, and each person had a bag to put their “favorite things” they received at the party.

I made this fabulous Cranberry Mojito cocktail, also found on a blog courtesy of Pinterest. This might have been one of the biggest hits of the party. Because of it’s festive red and green appearance, everyone took pics and shared it on the social interwebs.

In keeping with the theme, I asked guests to bring their favorite appetizer. One of my girls brought pigs in blanket (or as she said, “Pigs in Down Comforters”) – everyone’s childhood fav!

I was really grateful to my friends who put a lot of thought and energy into their appetizers and presents – it was so fun to just chat, nibble on good homemade food and sip festive cocktails. The holidays are for celebrating with those you love most!

One of the best parts about the party is how fun it is to learn about each other through your favorite things. Like your friends love to travel… or love Owls… or appreciate fine wine… sometimes if they’re new friends, like most of girls in San Francisco, it’s a great way to get to know each other even more.

Some of the “favorites” that made their way to my party were: popcorn box for watching movies filled with candy, chalkboard wine glasses, Mac lipstick in Ruby Woo (I scored this one!), funny suitcase tag, non-slip headbands, Trident layers, Great Lash mascara, e.l.f. lipgloss, Almond Champagne (!!!), Bath & Bodyworks True Plue Paraffin lotion (supposed to be the best for dry hands), Gap thong (supposed to be super comfy), plastic flask for outdoor concerts, massage oil, eos lip balm and a Christmas amerilious plant.

My five favorites were: Forever 31 earrings, The Carrie Diaries(to represent my love for SATC, Carrie and blogging), Space Noodles (to represent my love for Seattle), a lululemon headband (to represent my love for yoga) and Tapatio! I put that stuff on everything.

What “favorite things” would you bring?!

One of my girl friends went home with Mac lip liner in “Cherry” and a lesson from a make-up artist friend on how to apply it – doesn’t she look fab?!

Again keeping with the theme (*cough* theme party whore *cough*), I made “warm apple strudel” (part of the Favorite Things song lyrics) for my dish and topped it with homemade eggnog ice cream! It was my first time making either, and they were quite the hit. Apple strudel is a crowd pleaser with all that butter and brown sugar, and eggnog is pretty much ready made ice cream mix in a carton! And of course, I had my “whiskers on kittens“ tied up in a pretty red party bow.

It was truly a night filled with our favorite things – each other, great food, drinks, conversation and the little things in life that make us smile. All recipes for an awesome holiday party with close girl friends!

Happy holidays, blog lovelies!

Currently Feeling: Like the holidays are even MORE crazy when you have to squeeze in meeting up with everyone you don’t see all the time. Whew – I’m tired! But it’s so much fun too.
Currently Anticipating: A girls night tomorrow night – dinner at Pearl and a tour of Snowflake Lane.
Currently Loving: Spending so much one-on-one time with my high school girl friends – it’s been awhile since so many of them have lived back at home, and it feels so special to catch up and stay good friends after all these years.

This year I sent Christmas cards for the first time (another Bucket List item I crossed off!). It was super fun to mail something to all my friends and family, and receive their texts and phone calls after receiving my card. Snail mail is such a rare things these days with all the digital communication, that it seems extra special, and even more important when you’re living hundreds to thousands of miles away.

I went down to a park on the North side of the Golden Gate and enlisted some strangers to help me take my Christmas card picture. (Can you believe this sunny, gorgeous blue water picture was taken in November?!) With a little help from PhotoShop and VistaPrints - voila! My 2011 Christmas card:

<disclaimer> If you’re reading this and consider yourself in-person friends with me – know that I only printed 30 and had to send the majority to my family (and only sent to those outside of San Francisco), so please don’t get your feelings hurt! I love you too! </end disclaimer>

Currently Feeling: So happy to be home for the holidays and have so much good time with my family. I miss them so much!
Currently Anticipating: Decorating cookies tonight with some of my high school girl friends.
Currently Loving: My mom’s homemade pie! Can’t stay away.

Stella seems to be loving the new Kindle Touch almost as much as her mom. Easier to hold in one hand and lightly touch to turn pages with the addition of 3G?! It’s an upgrade to the Kindle keyboard that makes the $139 price oh-so-worth-it. Perfect for snuggling with and napping on too, says Stell.

I’m not a big “sweet tooth” person. However, one of my favorite things to do while at a nice restaurant is split dessert with my dining partners. Fancy restaurants usually have fancy schmancy pastry chefs or unbelievable sweets you’d never think of or try anywhere else, so to me are worth every extra calorie.

Hands down, the Gooey Brown Butter Cake at Tyler Florence’s new San Francisco restaurant, Wayfare Tavern, is easily one of the top three best desserts I’ve ever, ever had. He brought the schmancy.

We ate every drop on that dessert plate, then when it was all done, we ordered another one for the table. It was so good, it might be one of the best things I’ve ate, period. (Not just the best dessert). That’s why it gets my SF Best crown!

Currently Feeling: Relaxed after a busy, active day. I walked 13K steps and went ice skating – feels great!
Currently Anticipating: Filming a silly satire video tomorrow at work for a pitch contest were having. Fingers crossed we win!
Currently Watching: The new season of Top Chef. I wish this show was on every day, all year long!