Andrew and I arrived home safely late Monday night. Our trip to Los Angeles was full of Mom’s home cooking - we had Chinese hot pot, fried garlic chili crab, chicken noodle soup with rice noodles, homemade XO chili sauce, and Hainan steamed chicken. Oh it was heavenly and I ate like a madwoman. These trips back to Mom are essential to restoring my inner Asian balance.

Our flight to Los Angeles left super early from the Tampa airport, which is about an hour away. Since we rushed out of the house at 5am, I left dishes unwashed in the dishwasher from the night before. All my energy was focused on getting to the airport on time and making sure that I didn’t pack my normal purse contents of hand lotion, hair spray, bottled water, weed killer, self-inflating rafts, bacterial cultures, bleach and rodent poison.You know, anything that could potentially be used as a weapon.

Back off, bucko, I can hurt you with my hand lotion. It’s LAVENDER SCENTED WITH EXTRA ALOE.
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The saffron contest was so much fun, I decided to do another contest, The Great Vanilla Bean Giveaway from Saffron.com. As I mentioned previously, this is a company that provides amazing quality vanilla and saffron at some of the best prices I have ever seen. I’m not getting paid to promote their product, I approched them with the idea of a contest for you, my dear friends!

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A bouquet of vanilla beans…

My yearly supply of saffron threads…

More on the next page…..

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