Kitchen Road Trip: Arizona

This week’s Kitchen Road Trip brings us to Arizona. Ah, the Southwest. It’s home to one of my favorite things: Mexican-American food. It is also home to one of my least favorite things: heat. (Yes, I know it’s a “dry heat,” but really I have no concept of what that is, but I sure could take a little right now!) I drove through Arizona on a road trip, and we stopped at the Grand Canyon, but I haven’t spent any time exploring anything else. However, I am so inspired by all the bright colors and patterns I came across while researching this list. I also stumbled across a number of shops and restaurants to which I want to go, and I’m in luck because I owe my aunt a visit to see her in Phoenix! Plus, I’m dying to go back to the Grand Canyon, and I’d love to check out Sedona, too (pictured above). Hope this list warms  you up a little bit… //susannah

Kitchen Road Trip: Alaska

This week’s Kitchen Road Trip takes us to the Last Frontier — Alaska. When I was in college, I went on two Spring Break service-learning trips with a team of other students from my university. We spent the week exploring glaciers, hiking in the forest, going crabbing, watching for wildlife and learning about life in Alaska, but the best part was tutoring kids in a small Native American fishing village. These trips opened my eyes to a lot of issues in education and the environment, and I’ll never forget how beautiful it is there. Ever since I left, I’ve been wishing I could go back, so I was really excited to work on this week’s post. With these posts, I try to find as many items as I can that are local to the state I’m covering, but in Alaska’s case this proved more difficult (perhaps because of its location, weather or smaller population) so I opted for a few more items inspired by the state this time. Alaska is very near and dear to my heart, so I hope you enjoy these finds as much as I do! (I’m so obsessed with those plates, by the way…) // susannah

See the list after the jump…