Pretty

Adam and I opened up some of our wedding gifts last night and the following is a reconstructed conversation about a frying pan.

Adam: [admiring an All Clad stainless steel eight inch frying pan] It's so blah blah blah!
plasticann: Um...did you say, "It's gorgeous?"
Adam: No!......I said, "It's so pretty!".... I guess that's the same thing

Pretty was the word of the day since Adam also used it to describe all of the following items: other stainless steel cookware, a knife and a set of flatware. Adam thinks all shiny stainless steel kitchen items are "pretty."

Two eggs do not a stick of butter make

I wanted to bake Madeleines last night so I hauled out the Julia Child's Baking Cookbook and the Madeleine pans Wheezy got me for x-mas/bridal shower. I checked out Julia's recipe and compared it to Joy of Cooking recipe I had used before. The ingredient disparity lineup:

Julia v. Joy
6 v. 4 eggs
3 Tbs v. 12 Tbs butter

Taking the butter disparity into account, I decided to give Julia's less buttery version a whirl. I wondered if the two extra eggs would compensate for the loss of a stick of butter. Sure enough, these Julia Madeleine baked up dry. The upside...you can eat loads of Julia Madeleines...four dry ones for every buttery Joy Madeleine.

This post has been made possible through the generosity of Wheezy.

Weekend Update

Adam's mom, sister and plasticmom flew in from sunny California last weekend for the plasticann bridal shower. MGDub and her team of BMs did an awesome job planning a really fun and thoughful afternoon tea shower. Here are the culinary updates from last week and weekend.

Solas - plasticmom and I tried Solas on Tuesday mostly because it was in her hotel. We shared the fried calamari appetizer and the mac & cheese. The calamari was tasty, but the cheese sauce for the mac & cheese was over processed...like cheese product cheese whiz. Grade: C

Flour Bakery - We took a cab down to the South End on Wednesday to run some wedding related errands and stopped by Flour Bakery for a tasty snack. Fruit tart and raspberry seltzer made for a refreshing mid-afternoon snack. Only downside...it's "tooooo faaaaaah." Grade: A-

Via Matta - Service was immaculate and discreet, the supply of chewy rustic bread was constant and my leftovers were tied up with a raffia bow to boot. plasticmom and I enjoyed the Crunchy Eggplant, basil, marinated tomatoes and reggiano, Pollo al Mattone--”chicken under brick” with sauteed swiss chard and Tagliatelle alla Bolognese. Unfortunately, even I didn't love my surprisingly hefty Vanilla Panna Cotta with Local Cranberries and Pistachios parfait enough to finish it. Grade for Value: B/Grade for Yumminess: A-

Wisteria House - We checked out Wisteria House on Newbury Street on Thursday night. The decor is best described as cramped, greasy and oddly unsettling. The pork chop plate was undermarinated and bland. The rice stick noodles and the scallion pancakes were tasty. The pan fried raviolis were oddly elongated and underwhelming. I could take or leave the honeydew shake, but the kiwi shake made the evening with its intense kiwi flavor. Adam, plasticmom and I unanimously agreed to stick with Taiwan Cafe. Grade: B-

Similans - Brown Sugar Cafe's new Cambridge outpost is near the Cambridgeside Galleria on First Street. I walked in knowing I wanted an order of my beloved Mango Curry and I walked out even more devoted to my beloved Mango Curry. The Drunken Noodles were way too spicy, prompting me to order a thai iced tea to cool down my taste buds. An exciting new find now that I have a conveniently located source for that lovely Mango Curry. Grade: A-

Tealuxe - MGDub and I were famished so we stopped by Tealuxe on Saturday afternoon for some pressed egg/bacon/cheese sandwiches. Even though the sandwiches bore the obvious grill marks of a "sandwich maker" contraption, MGDub and I enjoyed our crispy snacks. My red bliss potato salad was way too gloppy with mayo and therefore unappetizing. MGDub's crisp looking side salad was a better bet. A bit pricey for a high quality Egg McMuffin, but delicious nonetheless. Grade: B+

Stay tuned for thoughts on The Bristol Lounge, Penang and Orleans.

Airline Meals

Gleaned from the NYTimes, an article about a website where users can submit photos of airline meals. Here's to finding out what you're missing and rejoicing at what you're not missing.

Mrs. Banana Bread

plasticann: I love banana bread. Actually I love my banana bread.
Steve: Why don't you marry it?
plasticann: I think I might...forget Adam!

The Man Date

Detailing all the rules and nuances to ensure an unambiguous and unawkward heterosexual man date, an article from last Sunday's nytimes.com. When in doubt, hyper masculine steakhouses override all potential man date landmines.

oldEric and newEric

I had an appointment to meet with "Eric" the investment guy at the bank today so I could make my Roth IRA contribution before tax day. It'd been two years since I last met with "Eric," but last I remembered, he was tall and lanky and middle aged. When I walked in, "Eric" was younger, heftier and bearded. Turns out, oldEric was replaced by a newEric, thus the utter lack of confusion on the bank's part when I asked to meet with "Eric" and why I looked visibly confused when I walked in.

Toooooo Tired!

When Adam and I were at Crate & Barrel yesterday registering, I came upon a trio of very tired kids. Picture this, a furniture display of a bedroom set. One kid is sitting in a chair with her chin resting on the chair back, another is leaned up against a dresser propping herself up on her elbow and the last kid had plopped himself face down into the comforter on the bed. I kinda wondered whether they were real kids because none of them moved at all while I was browsing their section of the store, not even an eye flicker. My favorite has to be the kid who was laying face down on the bed. Looked like he just ran out of steam, lost all mobility and keeled over the bed. Elsewhere, kids were less dramatically curled up in armchairs and sprawled out on couches waiting for their parents to finish shopping.

Darned good chocolate cupcakes

Taking a page from the Cake Mix Doctor, I whipped up some chocolate cupcakes last night. I'm not sure if they're actually more "darned good" than regular cupcakes, but they were mighty tasty hot out of the oven and still pretty good for breakfast this morning.

1 box devil's food cake mix with pudding
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup warm water
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1.5 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together on low for 1 minute and medium for 2 minutes. Bake in cupcake pans for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar when warm/cool. Yields 24-30 cupcakes

Steve Got Into MIT: Yeah!

I'm excited because I finally made an "official" decision and put down my MIT deposit last week. If Steve goes to MIT too...I'll have at least one friend next year at school.