Thursday, March 22, 2007

Monday, March 19, 2007

Extreme Halitosis

We made these tasty sesame noodles with veggies on Friday, but somehow I just had a bad reaction to the garlic and onions in the dish. I woke up Saturday morning feeling like garlic smells were seeping out of my pores. I'm reminded of how MGDub used to love shrimp scampi and how GJDubya would have the open her windows the next morning because MGDub's entire room would reek of garlic. Brushing my teeth seemed to help a little, but then I made the mistake of eating leftover sesame noodles for lunch which caused what Adam termed as, "Extreme Halitosis." I brushed my teeth twice, brushed my tongue and the entire inside of my mouth, gargled twice with mouthwash and my halitosis still lingered. Finally Adam, out of desperation, popped three Listerine strips into my mouth which helped though it tasted disgusting. Ughh!. Oddly enough, Adam ate the exact same food and didn't seem to have any problems with it.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Everyday FOOD

I was home on Tuesday watching Martha on TV and they were promoting the new Everyday FOOD cookbook. Being a huge fan of the magazine and a total sucker, I immediately ordered it from Amazon. One of the editors from FOOD was showing Martha a recipe for oven fried chicken and the following is a reconstructed conversation:

Allie: So you want one four pound chicken cut into pieces.
Martha: [pointing] Is that one whole chicken?
Allie: Yes, it's one whole chicken.
Martha: [slightly confused] Why are there four legs?
Allie: [sheepishly] Oh, it must be four pounds of chicken pieces not one four pound whole chicken.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Suit Up

Adam needed a suit for our upcoming trip to Israel so we headed over to the Men's Wearhouse on Tuesday night to "suit up." Our salesperson was really nice and helpful, but he was up-selling and cross-selling us like crazy. My theory is they don't mark up their suits very much so they can sell them at an attractive price and then they make all of their margin on the extras like shirts, ties, suspenders, etc. I wanted to ask the sales guy about their margins, but didn't think we were good enough friends for such a question since he spent much of the evening referring to me as the "young lady." I did learn that the suits are sold in jacket/pant sets and usually have a 5-6 inch "drop," the difference between the jacket size and the pant size. A size 40 jacket comes with size 34 or 35 pants. He also spoke of the "executive" suits which have a 2 inch or even a 0 inch drop. In his words, these "executive suits" were for guys with "big bellies." Yikes!

Disclaimer: Adam did not buy an "executive suit."

Monday, March 12, 2007

Quatro Kitties

One of my favorite babies who's really a toddler by now, Zimo, used to like saying "Yah" to everything including, "Are you a communist?" Now, he's much more verbal at about two and Adam reports the following:

Adam: How many [stuffed] cats do you have?
Zimo: Uno, Dos, Tres, Quatro Kitties
Adam: [flabbergasted]

Zimo's giant brain shouldn't be a huge surprise since both his parents are wicked smaaaht. He named his [stuffed] kitties after real cats that he's either met or knows of. Apparently, he also knows the entire alphabet in, get this, sign language. To think I was impressed when I witnessed my one year old nephew ZP sign for milk. Before we know it, Zimo will be signing "Communist."

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Parchment Salmon

Since we don't have a car, we usually only shop for necessities at the grocery store since we're limited by what we can carry home. Yesterday, we decided we were going to take a cab home from the store so we stocked up on everything we could imagine. I bought 20 pounds of flour, 7.5 pounds of sugar and two cases of seltzer water. Adam bought six boxes of chicken broth, that's 192 ounces, a gallon of OJ and a gallon of milk to boot. Talk about living the high life...exciting stuff. Alas, I digress. We also picked up a pound of salmon for dinner and we made this parchment salmon from FOOD magazine.

Parchment Salmon

.75-1 pound salmon fillet, cut in two pieces, rinsed and patted dry
2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 large carrots julienned about two cups

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees
2. Mix lemon juice, salt, pepper and carrots in a bowl. Coat carrots with juice.
3. Tear off two squares of parchment paper at least 12 x 12.
4. Mound 1/2 of carrots (without juice) in the middle of each sheet of paper
5. Dip salmon fillets into the remaining juice to coat.
6. Place salmon on top of mounded carrots.
7. Fold two edges of paper together in the center and fold down to seal, crimp and fold each end to basically form a little packet that won't open up. You can probably staple.
8. Bake on a baking sheet for 20-25 minutes depending on size of salmon.
9. Place cooked packet on plate, open packet and serve.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Black Bean Soup

Adam and his coworkers have a weekly soup potluck rotation where every Tuesday, someone makes a pot of soup to share. A few weeks ago, Adam was raving about this Black Bean Soup Alissa had made so he in turn made it for some friends who stopped by for lunch. It's delicious and you won't believe how ridiculously easy it is. I'd bet even MGDub could get motivated to make this.

1 can black beans
1 can refried black beans
1 can chicken broth (or veggie)
1 jar salsa

Dump all ingredients in a pot. Heat, simmer, stir for 20 minutes. EAT!

Sunday, March 04, 2007

The Holy Land

It's the Lenten season and Adam is fasting from cheese and desserts while I am fasting from "non-purposeful" desserts. We did make an exception for "social" desserts, namely, if someone has a dinner party or a birthday party then we want to celebrate and enjoy desserts. Let's face it, I eat a lot of dessert everyday and I don't even think about it. Just the other day, there was a plate of homemade brownies and I unconsciously ate one. It wasn't until minutes later when someone offered me a cookie and I was about to turn it down that I realized I'd already eaten a brownie. I don't feel bad because I didn't break my fast on purpose, but I am being more vigilant about it. The following is a reconstructed conversation about our fasts:

plasticann: Adam, I think I'm going to break my fast when we're in Israel over spring break even though it's still Lent because there might be some really cool Israeli dessert I want to try.
Adam: Oh yeah, we can totally breaking our fasts in Israel. We'll be in the Holy Land.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Hello Kitty Paraphernalia

It warms my hear that Zess recently spent her red envelope money (2 bucks) at the Hello Kitty store for some Hello Kitty Paraphernalia.