Mi Piace

The following reconstructed conversation occurred after Adam had methodically perused the menu at Mi Piace last night.

Adam: It's down to two items. Would you be able to give me a recommendation?
Server: Sure, what are you thinking about?
Adam: Vegetarian Lasa...
Server: Get the Vegetarian Lasagna!
Adam: ...sagna and the Vegetarian Calzone.
Server: [emphatically] Get the Lasagna. My lack of hesitation should tell you something.
Adam: Alright, I'll get the Lasagna.

Later that evening

Adam: Thanks for that recommendation, the Lasagna was really good.
Server: My wife still asks me to bring it home for her after 15 years.

We enjoyed a delicious platter of thin cut fries to start, I had the sesame chicken, plasticmom stuck with one of her two favorites, the fra' diavolo with calamari and shrimp and Adam, of course, had the vegetarian lasagna. The prices are very reasonable and the food is consistently delicious. No wonder the place was completely packed by 6:15pm.

Old Pasadena

Adam, plasticmom and I took the train to Old Pasadena to check things out. We spotted the grandstands and porta-potties that were set up for the Rose Parade and the souvenir stands selling Rose Bowl t-shirts, hats and bumper stickers. We admired the tea service at Chado, a new teahouse and we discovered the movie theater had been demolished and replaced by a spanking new Tiffany's. The Goldstein's Bagel Bakery across the street has also been replaced which is a shame since it would have been nice to have "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

"La La Land"

After a week with Adam's family celebrating Christmas and all the surrounding holidays, we're heading down to see plasticmom for a few days. We hung out with Zess and Baby Zames daily and I think we're now buddies. Baby Zames is into crying, eating, burping and sleeping. Zess is a super verbal two year old. Here are some highlights:

1. "Angel says, 'don't eat baby Jesus."
2. "Boots [Dora the Explorer's Monkey Friend] gets a time out."
3. "Thumbs up."

One more to go!

One more exam tomorrow and we'll be off to California...dreamin' I am of the tasty foods already. Things I'm looking forward to:

1. Bloomin' Onion: Since we live in Cambridge without a car, we've never had access to an Outback Steakhouse. I've always wanted to try the Bloomin' Onion, it always looks so tasty on TV. We're staying right near an Outback in LA while we're visiting plasticmom so we're gonna just walk over to Outback one day for a Bloomin' Onion. Gosh, I love the strip malls and chains restaurants.

2. In & Out: "That's what a hamburger's all about."

3. Massage Lazy Boy Recliner: I'll be parking myself in front of the TV for hours in plasticmom's chair...it's the best seat in the house.

4. Family: I've gotta throw that in there so no one's offended and thinks I love hamburgers more than I love them.

Some Thoughts on...Sugar Cookies

I'm not really a fan of the sugar cookie, especially the drop cookie variety. In fact, I have strong opinions. The pale sugar cookie is like the sugar donut, it's just not sweet enough and not very tasty. As Adam might put it, "not my favorite," Give me that concentrated sugary goodness that gets into every nook and cranny of a lovely glazed donut. (I digress.) That said, I do like these rolled sugar cookies from Martha Stewart. For me, what elevates this cookie dough from blah to golden buttery deliciousness is the baking time. Martha suggests 8-10 minutes which yields an icky pale cookie, but I like to kick that baking time up to 18 minutes for lightly browned crisp cookie. The sugar caramelizes a bit and the cookies taste WAY better. I just made a batch for Adam's work party. Alton's got a pretty good method, but he's got nothing on me when it comes to efficiently rolling out cookie dough.

Kids these days...

Adam's dad reported on Little Zess' latest trip to the local library. They were wandering through the library after story hour when Zess climbed up in front of a computer. Zara says, "come on Zess, it's time to go." To which Zess replied, "I have to check my e-mail." I wonder if she checks out my blog and whether she's figured out that I call her "Zess."

Kielbasa Polenta

I had a light lunch today so I started pestering Adam about dinner at 4pm. We debated whether to order chicken fingers or wings or a pasta dinner from our neighborhood pizza join across the street, but we ended up scrounging up some kielbasa so we made polenta topped with Kiebasa simmered in a tomato sauce. We've made the soft Polenta from FOOD magazine at least five times in the last few months and it's always tasty. Last week, we made if for Laurel who was in town, very briefly, for a conference. We ate the polenta with Bulgogi and that was good. Laurel reports that her polenta is not quite as good. I'm not sure if she's being overly modest or if she just didn't measure. It's possible she went light on the butter or cheese. She's a renowned baker, but she's not known for her measuring of ingredients.

Blizzard

I took the bus home to avoid the blizzarding conditions, which was nice. Unfortunately, I had to wait at least half an hour for the bus to come and then the trip from Harvard Square to my apartment took another hour with traffic creeping along unplowed roads at around 1 mile an hour, it usually takes about 10-15 minutes. It would have been faster to just walk, but then again it was really miserable out.

7. All about "YOU"

Send a signal to the entire family that you expect a bounty of gifts this year by hanging a half dozen of these babies on your fireplace. Remember to personalize all of these with your name: plasticann 1, plasticann 2...etc.