pizza.

I have a confession to make. 

I'm obsessed with pizza. 

It's my favorite food by far, and if I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, I'm pretty sure pizza would be the thing I would pick. Cherries would be a close second. Followed by crab legs. But pizza would definitely be my first choice.


I've realized over the past few months that I could be am a pizza connoisseur. Seriously. Whenever we go to a new restaurant and I don't know what to get, I always go for the pizza. I'm not sure if I'm just waiting to find my new favorite, or if I'm just terrible at venturing outside of my comfort zone. I love pizza. 


This isn't going to be a very exciting post, rather, it will probably just point out how crazy and obsessed I am, and what a dull and boring life I lead. I can't believe I'm devoting an entire post to pizza. Anyway--- here goes...


What I like:

• Thin crust (but not too thin where it tastes like a cracker)
• A blend of cheeses (plain old mozzarella is too boring, unless it's fresh mozzarella on a margherita pizza)
• Pineapple
• A good sauce makes a perfect pizza
• Cooked in a brick or wood fired oven

What I don't like:

• Thick crust (I don't want to wait an hour for my pizza to cook)
• Weird toppings (and no, pineapple is not weird)
• Too much grease on the top (probably why I don't usually opt for meat toppings)
• Crust (yes, I leave the crust on the plate like a little kid)

My favorite restaurant pizzas (in no particular order, because I realize that I don't have just one favorite):

• Grimaldis (cheese only)
• Oreganos (pineapple + cheese)
• Howards (a family favorite in Montana-- my family would probably disown me if I didn't include this one)
• NYPD 

When Stefan and I went to New York a couple years ago, we went to the original Grimaldi's under the Brooklyn Bridge. We waited for about 45 minutes outside (in December), and it was DEFINITELY worth the wait. New York definitely has the best pizza. 

I actually waited for 3 hours once for a pizza. Pizzeria Bianco in downtown Phoenix is apparently pretty famous. Not famous enough to wait 3 hours though. It was good, but not that good. 

The frequency of my pizza consumption will probably catch up to me my belly some day because I eat it several times a month. I had a quattro formaggio pizza from Piatti in the U-Village on Sunday with Jordan, and then tonight we had a Naked Pizza, which is a new franchise concept that just opened in Arizona. It was good for being a "healthy" pizza. 

At least once a week Stefan and I have a conversation that goes something like this:

Julie: What do you wanna do for dinner?

Stefan: I don't know, what do you feel like?

Julie: You probably don't want what I want.

Stefan: No, we're not having pizza again.

What's YOUR favorite pizza or food obsession??

A little catching up!

I can't believe it's already JUNE!!!!!!! Here's a little bit of what we've been up to:

We finished the office. FINALLY. After issues with the furniture, Stefan's dislike at first for the color on the walls, and finally getting the chairs. It's pretty much done. Now we just have to put a few more things on the walls to try and distract Stefan from the color.

I've been VERY busy with Stella & Dot (which I LOVE!) I've been doing so many little events here and there, combined with trunk shows galore! I'm having SO much fun and couldn't have asked for a better gig! I promoted to Senior Stylist in April and am hoping to promote to Star Stylist in the next couple months!

Lindsey and Bryce visited us in March... we watched the Huskies win two games in the Pac-10 tournament (WSU and U of A), went to a spring training game and enjoyed spending time with our good friends from WA!

Stefan's mom spent her 65th birthday with us the following weekend in March and we had so much fun shopping, wine tasting and exploring new places. We ate at this FABULOUS place called Cafe Monarch. It's one of those places where the owner is the chef, who is also the waiter, and also the dishwasher. It's a tiny little place in Old Town Scottsdale, no set menu, just whatever he feels like serving that day. I told him to surprise me, and just not to include any melons in my lunch because I'm allergic. The food was AMAZING!!!! And the restaurant is BYOB... so fun! We will definitely be going back again!!

Stefan got a new grill. Ever since we've been co-habitating, I think this is his 6th grill? I don't keep track any more, but I can't complain when the food is so delicious. :)

I went to Seattle the first weekend in April for some trunk shows and to visit family. I had so much fun seeing old friends and eating fabulous food. Lots and lots of seafood. Nothing like it. As my dad was going through some old boxes in their house, we found a giant box full of old notes from when I was in junior high and high school. Talk about hilarious! I found so many funny notes from my friends, I was able to share some of them at one of the trunk shows that weekend and we couldn't stop laughing. The things that were important to us back then: boys, who liked who, when we were going to get our FILM developed from the prior weekend, who was going with who to upcoming dances, and who was mad at who. SO funny.

We've got a busy summer ahead of us... hopefully this will make the hot months go by quickly and we won't even notice the 115 degree weather! Here's what the rest of the summer entails:

• Seattle next weekend for a wedding and graduation
• North Carolina for the Thorne family reunion towards the end of June
• San Francisco the first part of July for the annual Stella & Dot convention
• Montana in July to see my nieces's baby and a Stella & Dot trunk show at my cousin's boutique
• Colorado the last weekend in July for my nephew's wedding!
• Possible trip to Vegas in August
• Vegas the last weekend in September for a mini-family reunion and a wedding

Bring on the frequent flyer miles!!!

Weekend with the Horners

What a fun time we had with my sister and brother-in-law this past weekend!! It was such a short weekend and went by WAY too fast. In just a few words, here's what our weekend consisted of.....

Bottle of Crown.

Bottle of Vodka.

BBQ.

Breakfast casserole.

27 holes of golf for the boys.

5 hours at the spa for the girls.

Shopping.

Pool time.

Sunshine.

Relaxation.

The Keg.

Good food, good times, good company.