Hurricane Irene Coming

The possibly - probably impending hurricane coming towards NYC (after NC) is all over the news. Regardless, there will probably be a lot of rain this weekend. I started making mental preparations in my head yesterday. Fill things that hold water with water. Make hard-boiled eggs. Make cookies - my mom always made cookies before storms when we were growing up. And hard-boiled eggs, but the cookies were more fun.

Mr. D came home last night after a going away party for a colleague, and in his slightly inebriated state, started saying that he was going to post on facebook that he didn't know he had married my mother (as i was making crazy preparations).

Then he said, that isn't it better if the eye of the storm passes over us - it's the calmest. I had to explain that the storm is the worst around the eye.

Fast forward to this morning when the same man is telling me that I should probably go get food this weekend. Which I was going to do anyway, because we need some for this weekend, but now the whole thing is made more difficult by the fact that the stores will be crizazy.

Also thinking about other times when I've "prepared/waited out" a hurricane. When Rita came through Houston after Katrina hit New Orleans, I had just started dating Mr. D, and all of his friends were IMing me to evacuate to his place in Austin. I remember watching I-45 out my office window, and seeing it absolutely packed with cars headed to Dallas. I was headed to a friend's wedding that weekend, so I pushed my flight forward and my dad took me to the airport before it closed.

When we moved to NYC, my brother and some of his friends from medical school came to stay with us the first weekend we moved in. Ike was headed towards Galveston (where they went to med school) that weekend, and I remember watching the news with them all weekend (but especially at the BBQ restaurant) and seeing their reactions. Especially Nick worrying about his turtle.

Off to re-look up Alton Brown's cookie recipe...

Words that Should NEVER Appear in Your Resume

A sampling - it's the Friday before the holiday weekend, so I thought I would add some (my) work-related humor. I have actually seen all of these words/phrases in resumes/cover letters that were sent to my company:

- night club
- prowess
- nitty-gritty
-"I'm likeable."
- "those were dark days indeed"


La la - getting ready for a fun weekend in Ft. Worth with J&R - and Mr. D and I both got free upgrades - yippee

Home Alone - the Grown-Up Version

These past TEN days without Mr. D have been weird - I feel like my parents are out of town or something (not that I think Mr. D is my parent), even though (as I complained to AB's husband in college), "I AM a grown-up." Sasha and I just don't know what to do with ourselves. I mean, there are people to see and things to do, but it's just weird. I think it's because he is missing and he is coming back.

So the fun parts have been that I get to cook and eat whatever I want, whenever I want. So, I made a batch of lentil salad (insert sisterly comments of disgust here), and ate at 7:00 or 8:30 or 9:00 depending on what I felt like. I saw a recipe for strawberry fool in the NYT. Strawberry fool is pureed strawberries and whipped cream, mixed together. Now, I'm pretty sure I have "invented" this before, as I love whipped cream (and Cool Whip). When I was in junior high (ok, high school, ok, now) I have been known to take a spoon and eat Cool Whip plain. It's hereditary, my dad does it too (and my brother, not so much my sissies). Anyway, I may have had this 3 or 4 times while Mr. D has been gone. It's really easy with the stick blender. Put strawberries in cup, puree, scoop in bowl. Put whisk attachment on, put cream in cup, whip, scoop in bowl. Stir. Done.

Another guilty pleasure is that I get to watch all the stupid shows I like on USA. Mr. D does NOT like them (though he's the reason we still watch Survivor, so....), so I usually watch them when he has a late day at the office, but this week I watched them without having to listen to him grumble.

I FINALLY got a Skype from him last night, since my brother-in-law managed to Skype my sister multiple times, and all I got was an email. The reason: they had an amazing wi-fi connection at the bar (ps they say weefee in France/Italy, how cute is that?). He called again later, so I got to meet his roommate for the trip and talk to my cousin (and hear hilarious stories of my brother's antics).

So, Mr. D is back tomorrow, but I leave tonight for St. Louis for a family trip, so I won't get to see him until Sunday night. Sasha is going to be upset when she realizes she doesn't get a whole half of the bed (and one morning she (the 20 lb dog) had managed to push me all the way to the edge.

Today on HGTV/DIY

Those are two of my favorite channels. And HBO, not that True Blood is coming back on.
Anyway, Sasha and I have been living it up, since Mr. D is on a fabulous vacation with my Dad and 20 of my Dad's closest friends.
Sasha loved it - to make up for her absentee father we went to the dog park twice and each time, we stopped at Home Depot twice. I don't know why, but my dog LOVES to go into Home Depot - weird.

Anyway, we went to Home Depot to get supplies to hand my new coathooks, which I purchased at the antique market in Paris (!!!). I had to order the little plaques, but I stained them yesterday and hung them today. There's another one too, but the picture got too small.

My new favorite work snack

Yumm - found them in line at Whole Foods (on line for you Yankees out there - ps - who says "I'm on line for BBQ - weirdos)

My Parisian shopping trip loot

I forgot to post about this earlier, but Mr D and I did take a morning to go shopping while we were in Paris.  I walked past the window of the store, checking these shoes out.  Finally, five minutes after I talked myself out of them, I turned to Mr D and told him I wanted to go back and get them!  I don't know if the picture foes them justice, but I love them!

Target Obsession

I had a bit of a shopping "episode" while we were in Houston for the wedding over Memorial Day weekend, partially spurred by my dear friend A.B.'s post on a certain collection at Target. The bride and groom of the wedding in question had registered at Target, and my cousin, the bride, trickster that she is, registered for Cheetos. The morning of the wedding, my baby sister, Mr. D and I made a trip to Target to purchase what would be 10 of at least 30 bags of Cheetos to be seen on the gift table.

As we're walking to the register, I see a sign hanging over the swimsuit section - the Calypso collection was still going on. As Mr. D wanted to hit up the Spec's, and we had to be back at the house for brunch (go Mom), I told them to get in line and I would meet them before they checked out. I ran over and scanned the rack and found this swimsuit.
I didn't even have time to try it on, I just grabbed what I thought was the right size and ran back to the register - total time, two minutes. :) Cute, right?

Directions - catch-up

These were our directions to St. Remy, where we wandered around aimlessly, truly, as most of the shops were closed in Monday. We did find some amazing chocolates - which makes the trip well worth it.

Later, we went to the Camargue and saw wild flamingos, horses, and bulls - famous in Provence.

Snack Saturday

We walked through Nice to the Chagall museum, then walked along the Promenade Anglais on the beach. Wandered through the market and the decided on a sandwich for lunch - pain bagnant which has tuna, hard boiled egg, radish, celery, and artichoke. We bought some Chevre banon - the picture, some delicious strawberries, olives and a baguette to snack on on the train. We're on our way to Arles by train, where we'll be until Tuesday.

France

Did I mention we were going to France - if so, only because we were scurrying around until the last minute getting ready for it. This was my be Thursday night - we upgraded our tickets with miles. Flying first class overseas is lots of fun. You get a huge meal, complete with cheese course and an ice cream sundae. We flew to Brussels and then on to Nice, where we spent yesterday and today - I'm writing this Saturday, but you may not see it - Internet is spotty.

History lesson

My dad and grandma were in town last weekend, Dad for a conference and Grandma came to visit my great-aunt, who is a retired Maryknoll sister. We were talking about the times when my grandma had come to New York to visit. Two stories I had never heard before:

1) my grandma was in Times Square when they announced V-J day, and

2) she and my great uncle visited the Empire State building shortly after a little plane hit the building, and the elevator they rode in was still broken, but since safety codes weren't what they are now, there was just a blanket over the whole.

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Did I Say Boring?

Ha ha - I hear God laughing now. Of course, as soon as i said life was boring, stuff happens. Clients go crazy, all extremely busy and each wanting to be most important (the good kind of busy), clients send us random requests for consultants, my boss leaves town, and to top it all off, I'm at work early, because I managed to in-grow myself a toenail last night. It kept me up half the night, then I woke up at 5 and tried to fix it, then took advantage of my dad being in town (poor dad - twice in the last year I've called him at 6 am with medical questions), and went over to his hotel for him to fix it. I didn't have anywhere else to go and going home would have gotten me there in time to leave again, so I'm here at work. Rambling, yes, but I'm sleepy and the iced coffee is just kicking in.

BTW - who would have thunk that a Zabar's operation would have iced coffee for 2.00? To be fair, it's not as big as the one you could get for $2 from Dunkin Donuts, but still a nice size.

I am Boring

No, Seriously, I am. Which is why seriously had a capital S. And why I haven't been posting.

Easter was a bummer. The hubs and I went to church, took the dog to the park and then hung out most of the day, because he was waiting for a work email to come in. Did I mention he's been working "late" for the last week and a half? And that he had to work almost the whole way through our trip to Fort Worth? Boo.

We did manage to make a delicious pistachio-crusted rack of lamb (Mr. D's contribution) and an asparagus-leek risotto (mine). I made mini lemon-thyme pound cakes with strawberry ice cream for dessert. Yum.

Then I pulled out a vacuum bag of summer clothes from under the bed and swapped out sweaters for tank tops!

Last box on the shelf

My boss and I are indulging:

Weekend in TX

Mr. D and I made the first of what are sure to be many trips down to Ft. Worth to visit our friends R&J, who moved down at the beginning of the year. We had an amazing time, just sitting around the pool on their deck. They had amazing meals planned for us - I think it's a crime that no one realized that blue cheese was missing from potato salad until now.
The real downer was that Mr. D wound up having to work most of the weekend. That, and that after a weekend of sitting in 80-degree weather, 60-degree weather feels eve chillier.

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Random Story

So, I saw a Facebook update from a friend from high school - she's a dentist and there was an article about how she was a dentist for the entire family - which made me think of this story.

When we were kids, we went to the dentist for the first time at my mom's cousin's office - he a regular dentist, not necessarily a "family " dentist.

All is hunky dory, then the hygienist gave me some fluoride to swish when she was done brushing my teeth. Then she didn't come back for a looong time. I didn't know what to do, so I swallowed the mouthwash.

She eventually came back, and we got ready to go. We walked up to the check out desk... and I threw up. On the floor. I still gag when they give me mouthwash at the dentist. Yuck.

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Early and cloudy

But not freezing!! We're at the driving range at Chelsea Piers.

Daffodils

Some of the flowers we saw at Central Park this morning with SashA - she loves off-leash hours!

Sunday Night dinner

I'm behind on posting - I've been at work later than normal, then going home and looking for something to do that is not going to the gym, and apparently not blogging.

We're speeding through Mr. D's "Braise" cookbook, in hopes that it will soon be too hot to braise something. This weekend we made short ribs with daikon and shiitake mushrooms. We had to go to the Asian grocery store for a few things - like bean paste!
On the side is a remoulade with cucumber, radish, wasabi and mustard.

Breakfast

Yesterday afternoon, I started making cinnamon rolls (ps - I accidentally spelled breakfat in the title, and it Autocorrected to verandah). When Mr D woke up, he started the oven and I popped them in when I woke up. Tadaa. They turned out great - except the one by the vanilla bottle. That was the end one.

I also made a quick glaze with powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and a little ground coffee - yum.

Ideally, Mr. D would have also popped them in the oven and made coffee and taken the dog out, but that would mean I was a spoiled brat.

When Cooking Strikes Back

As I was thinking about this post, I thought about saying something about something homemade, and that what I made basically turned into a weapon, but I didn't think I wanted to have the CIA knocking down my door anytime soon. Then, I thought about the new shows that I've seen commercials for - "When Vacations Attack!" I'll never watch these shows, because I'm 99% sure that they would give me nightmares.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought some jalapenos to use for a fish taco marinade. When I was putting together the list, we were in the car on the way to/from the wedding in PA. Normally the default amount of jalapenos on the FreshDirect site is .25 pounds, HOWEVER on the iPhone app, the default is a pound. We wound up with a produce bag with 40 jalapenos. Not wanting to waste them, I thought I would try to pickle them. So I did. Last night, they were "done," so I took them off the pantry shelf and put the brine on the stovetop to boil before putting the peppers in the fridge.

Don't try this at home. Unless you don't live in a not-so-well ventilated apartment in NYC. Mr. D and I were coughing for at least an hour. Jalapeno tear gas. Just when you thought it must have vented out - the jalapeno would get down in the back of your throat and you'd have to cough again.

We'll be sad to see you go...

Some friends from Mr. D's work are thinking about moving later on this year. I may have stepped in it when I suggested that we take over their apartment (same size, slightly more storage, HUGE terrace). Her husband took it the way I intended, that it could save them some money and we could have a great apartment. She was a little offended, as if she didn't want us to have the apartment even if they weren't there...

Why it is so hard to get out of bed in the morning

This is what Sasha does as soon as one or both of us gets out of bed. Cute, right?

All the Wrong Things

Lots of things have gone wrong today.

1 - I woke Mr. D up and asked if he could still take Sasha over to the kennel (yes, I have a spoiled dog), because I was going to the dentist. He thought I wanted him to pick her up. Fix confusion.

2 - realized the only tights I had clean were maroon - the rest had fuzzies all over them.

3 - went to the dentist, where the alarm was going off because the dentist didn't know how to turn it off.

4 - the hygienist called in sick.

5 - when we went to reschedule, they had deleted my appointment anyway

6 - stupid Quickbooks online has been down for most of the past two days - driving me insane!

Home Cooked Birthday Dinner

Last night, for my actual b-day we went out to Jean Georges for dinner - it was delicious and amazing.

Tonight - we made braised lamb shanks with bourbon-soaked prunes, from Daniel Boulud's "Braise." Soo good. The veggies/prunes came out of the braise sauce and I made some orzo to go along with it. The meat just fell off the bones. Mr. D wanted to make the as his birthday dinner, and we both realized that as spring is coming, there will be fewer days when we can braise something without turning the apartment into an oven.
I contributed the dessert tonight - one that my friend J made one night when she and her husband came over for dinner. It's a ginger cake upside down cake with apricots on top. They may be a bit over-caramelized. If you think the pictures look better, it's partially because I took them using my new camera and partially because I used the autofix on my laptop.

Random Pictures

Hallo - some random pictures of things that happened this weekend (and things that are just in my house that I wanted to take a picture of):

First - this is Mr. D and I at the after party, which was at our hotel. This is before we started playing Phase 10. For those of you who are not familiar, I will explain at a later date. However, it is awesome fun.

These are the favors from the wedding. Note that we have 6. We originally had 9 or 10, as Mr. D went on a rampage and filled his jacket pockets with them. They are cocoa mix. I made him give some to his cousin's girlfriend (who is a super sweet person and decided that I was a nice person) some, because she only got two (they had a lot of favors that were extras, sitting on a table in the back).
While we were in PA, we went to the grocery store looking for Mr. D's favorite potato chips (Hartleys, BBQ waffle), which can only be found in central PA. They had Easter candy out, so I went looking for Russell Stover marshmallow eggs. The eggs I sought were not to be found. These delicious looking local eggs were - and they came in dark chocolate peanut butter. Yum. AND I thought we bought a box of twelve, but there are TWO layers. Double Yum. Literally.


Also hanging out in the living room is my Valentine's present from Mr. D, which was, no doubt inspired by the puzzle-thon held at my parent's house over Christmas. This one is extra nice, because it was a painting of Arles, where we will BE in May. It was a present for me, but something tells me he may have gotten it to keep me occupied.

Also - I made some one of Mark Bittman's soups last night for dinner, so we had the leftovers today. I put some sweet potato in it to make the picture look more interesting, so if the food police are watching, that's not how I served. Not that it would be a bad idea.

Traveling Weekend

We're off to a wedding for one of Mr. D's cousins. It's in central PA, which means we're driving to get there. Which means we're driving at rush hour out of the city.

In situations like this I'm not sure if it's better for me to drive or Mr. D. On one hand, my lack of driving aggressiveness will be criticized. On the other, Mr. D will no doubt convince me that he is going to give himself a stroke while we are stuck in traffic.

It was supposed to be brunch..

But then, one of my college roommates was in town, so we had brunch with them and then made this for dinner (from one of Michael Ruhlman's posts): bacon an asparagus pizza with fried eggs on top. Mr. D popped it in, so I'm not sure how he got the crust so shiny - maybe just having the bacon on it did it. We also had a salad with it, to make ourselves feel a little healthier.

Cue my little sister commenting on food I make/eat that she thinks is gross. :)

Last Sunday

So, last Sunday was the last day of Baby Sis's trip.  We:

Went on an NBC studios tour

Ate Bo Ssam at Ssam Bar - deliciousness (and reaffirmed my love for bean paste)

Top of the Rock

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Made Beef Daube in the crock pot - really good!

Saturday w/ Baby Sis

Saturday's recap:
1. Wake up early - force Baby Sis to borrow coat, gloves, and scarf.
2. Go through security to get on boat for Statue of Liberty
3. Take boat to Liberty Island - Baby Sis and Mr. D amuse themselves by telling me the seagulls are going to poop on me.
4. More security at the Statue of Liberty, but not Ellis Island
5. Head home and nap/get ready for dinner - at which point I suggest that Baby Sis's outfit is not dressy enough (jeans and untucked button down) and loan her a skirt and some tights to wear w/ her knee-high boots
6. We wander around shopping in SoHo - which Mr. D tolerated fairly well. I found a cute dress at Bloomingdale's.
7. Dinner at Colicchio and Sons, in the back room. The food was amazing, and we had a very nice waiter, who assumed we were 20 years old and kept calling us "his lovelies"
8. After dinner, Mr. D talked us into meeting some of his friends to go bowling. Friends who I like, but, based on multiple experiences, should never plan things - generally, they just don't plan at all. For instance, there are 4 bowling alleys in manhattan. 4. They suggested meeting at 8:30 on Saturday. Since we're not super cool, our dinner reservation was at 6:00 and we made it to the bowling alley. Saturday nights are apparently club night, as our bags were searched AND there was a mandatory coat check. Mr. D went to put our name on the list, and the hostess said to come back in an hour and she MIGHT have a buzzer for us, but that it would probably be at least 2.5 hours!!
9. After getting special dispensation from the bouncer, we kept our coats and waited by the door for everyone to show up. Though it took persuading, we convinced the "planners" it was too long to wait. We wound up spending the rest of the night at a nearby bar

Random Email to My Sister

Me:Do you think these emails sound vaguely offensive:

cuch17@blahblah
titig@per@blahblah

Sister: yes

Me: why would someone leave them on their resume?

We may have to have a weekly recruiting column - people are sometimes not very good at promoting themselves.

PS - true story: when I was at Rice, they started giving out free emails when our freshman advisors were freshmen. They let people pick out their own emails then, and one girl picked gspot. She didn't realize the problem this presented until she had to tell her professor her email one time. She claimed she "saved" it by saying it was g.s.pot.

Weekend w/ Baby Sister

Baby Sis flew in for a visit this weekend, she's getting her master's, so it was her spring break. Here's the rundown:

Friday:
1. Getting ready to walk out the door and Baby Sis puts on her coat, which is a cardigan. Me: did you not bring a coat? Her: this is a coat, I'll be fine. Me: it's 40 degrees out. Her: I'll be fine
2. Great dinner at Snack Taverna (I heart Greek food), afterwards, we headed to Little Branch, a super teeny bar on the basement level nearby.
3. We put our names on the list - 45 min wait for a table, so we grab a drink while we wait. I have a Presbyterian, which has Ginger beer, lemon, some other things, and a fun metal spoon straw. Yes, I am 6 years old.
4. After an hour and a half, Mr D sees a couple tables that are ready to leave (ie don't have drinks), but haven't. He asks one of the hostesses/bartenders how much longer. Baby Sis and I are a dew feet away, but we are told they go on the defensive, saying they have a policy of not kicking people off a table - would Mr. D like them to kick someone off a table? Of course, he responds yes. And the girl who walked up behind him says - while you're at it, can you kick someone off a table for us too? This does not go over well with bartenders/hostesses/waitresses. Mr. D begins gesturing (in a both hands up, what is going on, what is wrong with you people type fashion). They say there is nothing they can do. We leave and go home.

This is all I could write on my commute today, so stay tuned for tips on how to go bowling in New York tomorrow.

PS - I really like Little Branch - they serve very good cocktails. They use fresh squeezed juices, and make classic cocktails. The atmosphere is great - very speakeasy. Most of the people who go there are not complete jerks. We got there at 8:30, and were told it would be 45 minutes - honestly, not that long to wait there. There are not many tables, and some are only for two people. We usually try to go at 7, right when they open, so we don't have to wait.

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Hunger Games Overload (not really)

This weekend's travel plans coincided with me finishing my latest book, Agaat. So I picked up the first Hunger Games book for my Kindle app on the iPhone, knowing that I would have at least some free time on the plane, after two of my friends had recommended it to me over our trip to Austin. Very good - and a quick read. Especially when your flight is inexplicably (not really) delayed because your flight crew had not even left the airport they are coming in from, which is even more aggravating when you look up the flight and they weren't supposed to land until your flight took off anyway - how are they supposed to get across the terminal and do all of their checks - who knows? Not Continental. (I did see that we wound with one of the nicest pilots, who saw that we were all waiting on the jetway for our bags - yay tiny planes - and went out to check with the ground crew for us.)

Anyway - between the flight delay and the general coziness of being at the in-laws, I finished the first book Saturday night. Then our flight got delayed leaving, so I read a big chunk of that. Between me reading on the subways on the way to work and in bed this week, I'm almost finished. So good!

Weekend in Buffalo

We went up to Buffalo this weekend to visit Mr. D's parents. We were supposed to go snowmobiling, and then go to the ice castle festival, but this week's weather melted almost all of the snow. While we were at the festival, Mr. D and I followed a bunch of people out onto the frozen lake, and I fell within 10 steps - right on the heel of my hand (see below).

Valentine's Day Dinner

Hello - more pictures of food for the viewing. Mr. D and I continued our tradition of making ourselves a fancy meal for Valentine's Day (we celebrated on Sunday). Below is the main course: Butter poached lobster from the French Laundry cookbook.

Everything was delicious. I found out that I am pretty good at getting lobster meat out of the claws without breaking it. Mr. D handled the buerre monte (butter sauce), the beet reduction, and cooking the lobster. I chopped the veggies into teeny tiny pieces and sliced the leeks. I was in charge of the potatoes (on top) too, but they weren't quite right, I think they were supposed to be crispier.

Yumminess

I know, I know, it's been a long time since I posted. In my defense, I had a bit of a busy week at work, dinner with the girls from my old job, and a friend from business school was unexpectedly in town, too. I did manage to make the fabulous dinner you see below:

Cooking Channel is so amazing - there are so many good shows - this recipe is from Emeril's new show: Indian-Inspired Shrimp with Coconut, Chiles, and Tomatoes. The recipe is really quick and easy. I served it with rice with turmeric and some steamed broccoli. The next night I didn't have as much broccoli, so I cut it smaller and added it and some frozen corn to the rice while it was cooking.

One Truth, One Lie

So this is on the window of the deli on the corner - thank goodness we never eat anything prepared there!

Ice

These are what the trees look like today - somehow, I will have to try not to stand under them when they break.
Stupidly, I closed the lid of my laptop at work, so it wasn't connecting to the interwebs, so I couldn't remote in - blech.

Project of the Day

This is what I did today:

Winter Fun!

I was going to say that it was the first weekend day without snow in a month, but it snowed tonight, so there's that.

Mr. D has been wanting to go ice skating, so her coordinated it with two couples from work for an outing this weekend. We met up and went skating at the Bryant Park rink. We skated for about an hour and a half - and I didn't fall once! Even weirder, Mr. D had never been ice skating!

After skating, we all went to Koreatown for Korean BBQ - yum! I realized that I could quickly become addicted to bean paste. Ok - the words sound gross, but it's the best sauce ever.

I may have a stalker

Seriously. So, as some of you may know, I am a recruiter. In my case, thy means companies pay the company I work for to find people to work for them.
A guy called in yesterday afternoon to tell us about himself, without having a specific role in mind. He was very vague about the companies he worked for and a bit goofy sounding (like a too smooth announcer voice), plus his skill set is out of date. I told him to send his resume and I would take a look.
He called back this afternoon. I told him we didn't have any open positions. That's ok - I know that we'll be working together soon. Eww that's what he said! Then - I looked up your company on the Internet and I liked what I saw - I have a real affinity for women-run businesses. Thank goodness I was laughing silently! After he hung up, I ran to my boss's office laughing so hard I was crying!
Don't worry - he promised to follow up!

Dinner Success

Hmmm. So I forgot to take pictures, but perhaps I will later this week, when we have Giada's broiled tilapia sauce on our chicken. Meaning that I only bought two fish fillets, but made all of the sauce, so I thought we would have it over some chicken later this week.
Mr. D and I have decided to start trying to be healthier, which includes eating healthier. Mr. D pulled out a few recipes from the Abs Diet cookbook, which are pretty good (but why would anyone print a fajita recipe that only marinates the meat for five minutes).
Anyway, tonight, we had tilapia with mustard yogurt sauce, quinoa, asparagus, and some pickled broccoli stems (we each just had a couple spears, not whole stems). Pickled broccoli stems are actually very tasty - and easy - recipe here.

True Grit

This weekend is proving to be cold, so earlier today we did one of our favorite weekend pastimes and went to the matinee. Matinees are great in New York, because 1) it's only $6 and 2) half of the city isn't awake yet, so they are usually not crowded (unless you're seeing something the first weekend, but you definitely don't have to get there as early). We went to see True Grit. Me likey. Mr. D. likey.

About 20 minutes into the movie, I heard someone snoring. At first, I thought it was part of the soundtrack. No, it was a guy all the way in the front - everyone in the theater could hear him (only about 15 of us). Eventually, it just became background noise, but Mr. D kept glaring at the guy every once in a while - not that he knew.

The Absent-Minded Professor

My husband is an idiot. Not really. He occasionally does very absent-minded things. He broke his iPhone a week after he got it (which he got replaced for free). A few weeks ago he decimated his Kindle at the gym (it fell off the book stand and got caught between the skis on the elliptical machine).
Today, he unhooked the dog in the elevator on the way back up from taking her out. There was a big pile of things from the trash room waiting to go down in the service elevator. Sasha got scared. She didn't come out. The doors started to close, so Mr. D hit the button to keep them open. Now she is stuck. Luckily, they're calling the repairman, I mean, they have too.

Um, weird

I have a Facebook stalker...my mother. Seriously. It all started when she unfriended me, and the rest of her children, because she couldn't figure out how to block Farmville notifications (which I admit, it was embarrassing, but I hardly ever play now). After Christmas, she refriended us, at least I assume it was all of us. Now, EVERY time I post an update, she has a comment. EVERY time. It is very weird.

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Repost: Dinner Fail

Sunday night I made a pretty unsuccessful dinner. It started out innocently enough, I saw that Fresh Direct had turkey legs on special. Hmm, roasted turkey legs would be tasty. I started out brining the legs. They're funny-shaped little (big) guys, so I put them in a pitcher to sit in the fridge.

PS - Apparently Blogger is a bit like me when reading emails - if there's a picture, I tend to go straight there without reading the rest. Here is the rest of the post:

The brine had salt, some allspice berries, peppercorns, and a bay leaf. They went into the oven for a while, and while they were cooking, I steamed some cauliflower for cauliflower purée - the saving grace of the meal. (Steam the cauliflower, add a few tbsp's of cream/milk/chicken stock a pat of butter, salt and pepper - just like potatoes, but with more vitamins)
The other veggie was going to be some bok choy I had steamed, then frozen. I opened it, we think it was celery greens. I tried steaming and adding some spice to it. They were terrible, smelled so bad I had to take them off the plates because we couldn't eat with them there.
The turkey legs were a disaster too, the skin didn't get crispy, and they were kind of greasy. We struggled through the meal, luckily there weren't any leftovers.

Dinner: Fail

Sunday night I made a pretty unsuccessful dinner. It started out innocently enough, I saw that Fresh Direct had turkey legs on special. Hmm, roasted turkey legs would be tasty. I started out brining the legs. They're funny-shaped little (big) guys, so I put them in a pitcher to sit in the fridge.

PS - Apparently Blogger is a bit like me when reading emails - if there's a picture, I tend to go straight there without reading the rest. Here is the rest of the post:

The brine had salt, some allspice berries, peppercorns, and a bay leaf. They went into the oven for a while, and while they were cooking, I steamed some cauliflower for cauliflower purée - the saving grace of the meal. (Steam the cauliflower, add a few tbsp's of cream/milk/chicken stock a pat of butter, salt and pepper - just like potatoes, but with more vitamins)
The other veggie was going to be some bok choy I had steamed, then frozen. I opened it, we think it was celery greens. I tried steaming and adding some spice to it. They were terrible, smelled so bad I had to take them off the plates because we couldn't eat with them there.
The turkey legs were a disaster too, the skin didn't get crispy, and they were kind of greasy. We struggled through the meal, luckily there weren't any leftovers.

Happy New Year

This post is already a day late, so there goes any sort of resolution to stop procrastinating :)

Mr. D and I had a big organization day earlier today - we got back from visiting Houston on Friday, but have managed to get the luggage unpacked (uck) and put away. And Mr. D has started laundry. This never happens - he usually only does his socks, but he has put clothes in the washer, then in the dryer, and folded the clothes that were in the dryer. And now he's folding them and putting them away. I'm in shock :)

Now I had better go do my part by finishing cleaning up the dishes from dinner :)