Grilled Artichoke with Roasted Garlic Aioli

It feels like summer is finally here! Obviously this means so many meals prepped on the grill. I've teamed up with Fred Meyer to bring you my favorite grilled artichokes and a recipe for housemade roasted garlic aioli.

EQUIPMENT:
- Immersion blender
- Tall and narrow jar with an opening wide enough to fit your immersion blender, I used a pint and a half wide mouth mason jar

INGREDIENTS:
- one large/extra large egg
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp roasted garlic
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- the juice of one lemon
- a generous pinch of salt

BLEND all ingredients together in your mason jar, where you can then store the remaining aioli, so easy and delicious!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Fred Meyer. The opinions and text are all mine.

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Thailand // Day 11-15

[if you'd like to bypass straight to photos, you can view them here]

Day 11
Felt so good to sleep, woke up late at Nirvana and ate one of our better hotel breakfasts. We walked around the Southwest side of the island and all of Lonely Beach, it's very dirty here on Koh Chang and surprisingly expensive for what the island has to offer. Everyone rides scooters which made it very difficult to find a taxi. We saw monkeys running along the power lines and a lot of natives had their dogs sitting on the scooters with them. It's been a little disappointing to see/find out that almost all the beaches are rocky, we'll be heading to the other side of the island tomorrow in hopes of less crowds and garbage. Our hotel offered a car into Bang Bao village from 6-8pm where there are small shops and restaurants on a long pier off the island. 2 hours was not enough time to see it all. Finished with some strawberry and green lemon handmade gelato.








[lonely beach]




Day 12
Woke up to rain for the second day in a row, lounged and watched a movie until check out. The next resort I booked was only a few kilometers away, however there was a small path of water that you are unable to cross by car so we had to drive an hour and a half around the entire island to the other side. In order to get there we had to catch a taxi to the ferry station (at the top of the island) and wait an hour and a half to catch a second taxi back down to the bottom of the Southeast side. We also had no idea that the taxis are separated by sides here, west/east, and the taxi drivers will not drive over the ferry line...the only way to get there in one ride is by an expensive private car. When all was said and done, it took us a total of four hours to get to our next destination. The Mangrove Hideaway is owned by a hospitable gay French couple and located in Salek Phet, smack dab in the middle of a fishing village. Once settled in, we thought we'd try scooter-riding and the owner was kind enough to lend us his. Unfortunately within the first few feet out of the driveway Jen lost control on some mud/gravel and down we went. Embarrassing is an understatement and though we are all okay (including the bike!) we are a little dinged up; I've been calling the acquired bruises our "Thailand tattoos". Since this side of the island is much more desolate, we hung around the cozy lounge and treated ourselves to our largest dinner, hot pot of tom yum and two delicious fish right from the bay!









Day 13
Since the motorbike didn't work out too well, we rented bicycles and seeked out the nearest waterfall: Kiri Phet. The ride was absolutely gorgeous and only a couple miles inland. Once we got to the trail it was about a 15 minute walk up, but this island is not flat, the elevation is 743 meters (2,437 feet) at it's highest point. As soon as we got back it was time to head to our next resort, Na Tara, also on the east side of the island and right along the ocean with a beautiful view. We finally got to utilize our bathing suits and sat in the infinity pool that practically flowed into the ocean.










Day 14
Watched the sunrise over the ocean, I've never seen water shine so pink! The area we're staying is very isolated, but we chased down another waterfall, Than Mayom, about a three mile walk up the main road. We each paid 200 baht ($6) to the ranger station and as we trekked along the river the owners dog followed; I think she wanted to make sure we made it there safe. The heat and humidity during the walk back made it unbearable to be anywhere other than the pool, which happened to have four little puppies running around. We spent a lot of time here with them.







Day 15
I had booked tickets for us to fly back to Bangkok in the evening, but we were surprisingly so bored on Koh Chang that we checked out early, hopped on the ferry to Trat and took a very fast taxi in order to arrive to the smallest outdoor airport I've ever passed through. Jen was willing to pay the $62 upgrade, but I simply asked if there was any room on the flight that was ten minutes from takeoff and the lovely lady fully obliged. We got to our hotel by 3pm, squeezed in our last Thai massages (will be greatly missed) and passed out early in order to be up for our shuttle home at 3:30am.

Thailand // Day 6-10

[if you'd like to bypass straight to photos, you can view them here]

Day 6
Woke up bright and early after 9hrs of sleep. Wandered around inside Old Chiang Mai, it is laid out as a square and has a moat around the city, it's quite large, which can be complicated if you want to get out on foot. There are 12 foot bridges, but no crosswalks and A LOT of scooters/cars. If you are traveling by vehicle there are only 5 bridges you can cross. At one point I hailed my first songthaew (a multi-passenger pick-up truck used as a shared taxi, cheaper than a tuk tuk if you are going to a specific landmark. It's used for passengers traveling in roughly the same direction and may stop along the route to pick up other passengers headed the same way) and bartered from 150 baht down to 50 (less than $2!) for both Jen and I. These rides will only take you well-known places and we were headed to the train station so I wanted to have the experience at least once. We purchased tickets back to Bangkok for $21 each then walked around for miles and finally hailed a tuk tuk to the outdoor Saturday Market. The market was massive, my favorite part was obviously the food, constantly stopping in awe of all the neat and different cuisine. Blind musicians played every few feet down the middle of the market, we thought that was really wonderful.











Day 7
Had breakfast at our boutique, Sathu, dropped our laundry off for cleaning (48 baht = $1.45), walked through an indoor market and meandered around the city checking out all the Wats. There are so many here in Chiang Mai and it's been a treat to see all of the monks walking around in their orange robes, we learned the color comes from a natural vegetable dye found in the jungle from roots or trees. In NE Thailand they use heartwood from the jackfruit tree. They also never wear shoes. Soon after we got 180 baht ($6) Thai massages at Saija, the BEST massage I've ever had might I add. During which I had an overwhelming feeling that my passport was no longer in my possession. And it wasn't. We tracked it down at the train station where we had bought tickets the day before (and the annoyed woman helping us forgot to give it back after scanning it), queue the biggest sense of relief in my life. We hit two more outdoor markets, where the merchants were bartering FOR Jen without Jen even hesitating to pay what they asked for, it was hilarious to watch. I've had NO problems bartering, it's natural here and you don't go anywhere without seeing it. It's actually been quite fun, they barter back with a smile on their face. On the walk back to the hotel we tried Thai whiskey (yuck!), picked up our laundry, ate half our dinner at a place where we saw rats and curled up to Thai TV in our adorable hotel where each room is named after a Thai flower with a cute description drawn on chalkboard next to each door. Ours was Bua Tong, similar to a sunflower.




[wat chet lin]





[wat buppharam]






Day 8
Up, ready and on the road before the sun came up as we had engagements with feeding and bathing ELEPHANTS. The sanctuary we initially wanted to visit that we'd heard nothing but great things about from others was sold out, so Ritthichai (our cooking instructor) hooked us up with Baan Chang Elephant Park; everyone here is so nice and willingly helpful. The drive into the country was lush and beautiful and once we arrived we went straight to feeding. The elephants here were smaller, Asian elephants, with only one finger on the end of their trunks and mostly female. They ate sugar cane and bananas, skin on and by the bushel. There were at least 20 to be fed and one of their ankles were chained to the ground with some leeway to protect the guests, as well as each other from fighting. The feeding was incredible, we were allowed to pet, hug and take pictures with them. Cham Poo was the elephant I felt an immediate connection with so naturally I spent a lot of time with her. Afterward they taught us commands for getting on/riding the elephants, I opted to not ride as throughout my trip to Baan Chang I found their practices inhumane and quite sad. I laid out on bamboo hammocks in the perfect shade surrounded by acres of undisrupted land and once the group made it back, they bathed the animals. Jen actually got in the water and swam around with the elephants, it was really quite amazing how gentle and obedient these large wonderful creatures are. They fed us lunch and dropped us back off at our boutique. This was our last night in Northern Thailand so we wandered around the last corner of Old Chiang Mai that we hadn't explored yet. I bet you can guess where it landed us...with another Thai massage. ;)








Day 9
Last day in Chiang Mai, feels like perfect timing since we've just about figured out and explored nearly the entirety of Chiang Mai. It's been fun to recognize and know where we are sans map. I cannot stress how bad the exhaust is here, Jen and I felt a consistent high every time we stepped onto a busy street. My throat has been very sore and I've never been more excited for my lungs to get away from a busy city. It's bittersweet. A few good, bad and weird things I'll take away from this city: 1) All the black and white cats have mustaches! Not even kidding, we saw over a dozen and all except one had a little black mustache on their cute white faces 2) The power in all of our hotel rooms (including Japan) had to have the room key plugged into a socket before any of the electricity worked 3) In the last two boutiques we stayed, the shower was completely open in the bathroom and sprayed almost directly above the toilet 4) The gas prices are just under $1 per L 5) Everywhere we went we'd hear terrible remakes of adult contemporary music.




[chedi luang varavihara temple]

[chedi luang varavihara temple]

[chedi luang varavihara temple]

[chedi luang varavihara temple]


Day 10
Took the overnight train to Bangkok, where they give you a towel as a blanket and crank the a/c full blast, we arrived as icicles and on veryyy little sleep at 7am. From the train we took an underground subway to a bus to a ferry to a taxi to our resort on the island of Koh Chang. 28hr journey from start to finish. We ate dinner at the resort and promised each other to never do what we just did again.