Back In The Nest

I'm going to state something really obvious: Moving to a foreign country is a lot of work. Moving in itself is exhausting, but when your new home lies thousands of miles away and includes a language barrier, things get a lot more daunting. 

With our plane departing in 23 days, we are in the thick of it right now. 

We've miraculously been able to pare down our things into a small stack of relatively manageable boxes for packing and shipping. Whatever doesn't make it into our suitcases now will stay in storage or arrive on our doorstep in a couple month's time. It's remarkable how, even when trying to live a minimalist lifestyle, stuff accumulates so fast. Packing is always fun until I get to the inevitable last smattering of miscellaneous stuff that I don't want but can't throw out. 

Read more at Where You Wander!

Introducing Where You Wander!

In the meantime, I am thrilled to launch my new website, Where You Wander. Where You Wander is a mix of all the things I love, and love to share: travel, food, and good stories. Bookmark this page, and check back regularly (daily!) for news, blog posts, travel tips, featured stories, and recipes. 

For those of you who followed our blog back when Jacob and I were traveling, this site is the snazzy revamped version for our new adventure. What is that new adventure you ask?

Jacob and I are moving to Vienna, Austria!

As of August 6th, Jacob and I will be leaving California to continue our life adventure as we move to Vienna, Austria. Throughout our 6 months of travel in Europe we had "scouted" for a place we may want to settle down (for however long). Though we stayed in Vienna for the shortest time of any place we visited, the city instantly made an impression on both of us - one we haven't been able to shake in the two years since. 

Enter your email address as well to sign up for email updates whenever a new post is published. Also make sure to follow me on Twitter and Instagram at @wywander for daily Travel Tip tweets and photos from our day to day in Vienna. I am looking forward to sharing our experiences and stories with you, and hope you will join us for what promises to be an incredible journey!  

A New Adventure

Hello world!

It's been a long silence, and many of you are probably wondering what in the world Jacob and I are up to. Well - I'm happy to announce that big things are very, very close on the horizon! The big announcement is coming tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM, PST.

In the meantime, mosey on over to my new site, Where You Wander, for news, travel tips, stories, and recipes. This blog will still get it's updates, but Where You Wander will be the home of all the action.

The big announcement is coming tomorrow, so hang on tight!

Recipe: Baked Eggs with Poblano Pepper and Crab

Growing up, our refrigerator was always half empty.

It wasn't empty for lack of food, but rather for the lack of easily accessible prepared foods that could be eaten at a moment's notice. My siblings and I would help my mom unpack her latest haul from Costco, only to see it disappear into the freezer or pantry, hardly seeming to make a dent.

"I don't buy food, I buy ingredients," my mom would quip when we whined about the lack of junky snack options. Of course she was right - there was always plenty to eat, but finding it required creativity. For my mother, and subsequently, me, cooking from an "empty" refrigerator is a favorite game.

This past Saturday morning I played the game again, landing on a Poblano pepper, goat cheese, and some crab meat (left over from Jacob's birthday dinner) as the inspiration for an elegant brunch dish. If only I'd had the supplies for Mimosa's as well!

   

Baked Eggs with Poblano Pepper and Crab

2 Eggs
1 Poblano Pepper, washed, seeded, and halved lengthwise 
1/3 cup Yellow Onion, diced
1/2 cup Crab Meat
1.5 oz. Goat Cheese, crumbled
1/4 tsp. Chili Powder
1 Tbs. Mayonnaise 
Pinch of Herbs de Provence
Salt
Pepper

Set oven to Broil on "high", positioning a rack in the top third of the oven. Place the peppers on a baking sheet, cut-side down, and broil until skin is bubbly and seared, about 5 minutes. Remove peppers from oven and peel off any large spots of charred skin from peppers. 

Sauté the diced onion in a small skillet with a bit of butter, until onion is softened. In a bowl, stir together the onion, mayonnaise, chili powder, and herbs de Provence. Add the goat cheese and crab meat to the bowl, picking through the crab meat to remove any small pieces of shell that remain. Fold all ingredients together, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. 

To assemble: place one half of the roasted pepper, skin-side down, in a 4-inch ovenproof ramekin. Fill the ramekin with half of the crab mixture, using your thumb to form a slight well in the center of the crab meat. Crack an egg into the ramekin, ensuring not to break the yolk (the well in the crab will help to keep the egg centered). Sprinkle with additional goat cheese crumbles and any fresh herbs that catch your fancy (I used thyme). 

Repeat assembly process with the second ramekin. 

With the oven still set to Broil, bake the eggs for 5-7 minutes, until the top of the eggs are set and the cheese is golden-brown. Turn off the broiler and allow the eggs to set in the residual heat for another 2 minutes. (This step can be adjusted depending, on how runny you like your eggs). 

Serve warm with an english muffin, and a Mimosa! Serves 2. 



http://www.whereyouwander.com/baked-eggs-with-poblano-pepper-and-crab

Resurrection of a Blog

By the time our grand 6-month adventure ended in January 2013, I had fallen in love with writing.

I used to love writing as a little girl, spending long afternoons penning sappy poems about magical ponies. As I grew older my attention shifted away from poetry and towards fairytales. Then, as a teenager, my family moved across country to San Diego. Somehow, in a new world of hot concrete and palm trees, all the words slipped out and disappeared. I began taking pictures instead.

My last year in college I began my Senior Art Thesis in photography, and quickly found that I had been lying to myself. I didn't love photography the way that my peers did. I never "just had to photograph something". For me, photography only served a purpose as an effective way to tell a story - but if that same story could be better told in words, or theater, or sculpture, then that was just as good.

Why am I tell you all of this? Well, I want to set the stage for something new.

This blog was started with the goal sharing our travels and stories, but it morphed into a much larger endeavor. It awoke my passion for writing once more. Jacob and I may be stateside for the time being, but I want to continue telling those stories. I want to be a author. A travel and memoir writer, to be specific.

There. I said it.

I've written a book. (Which apparently you have LOVED! How incredible is that?? I've been bowled over the reviews I've received. It is truly humbling.) My first (of many, I hope) articles has been published in Converge Magazine.

I wanted to tell you, in no uncertain terms, that this blog will continue. That is my vow to you, and I hope you join me on this adventure!