Scrabulous

is Fabulous when you win! Adam and I have been playing Scrabulous online the past two weeks. I won the first game (313 to 293) and my victory was particularly sweet because Adam had scoffed that luck was the reason I was ahead for most of the game. Afterall, I didn't even know what the shaded spots meant, how could I be playing with skill. Even though it was all true, I was still offended by his comment and my annoyance fueled an uncharacteristic competitive streak in game 1. I never did bother to figure out exactly what the shaded spots meant, but I did know that they were a good thing. I thought that was going to be good enough, but boy oh boy was I wrong. I'm now trailing miserably in game 2. Adam is currently ahead by 125 points or he has 160% more points than I do. That's a whole lot of points, he's been maxing out on these fancy things he likes to call "triple word scores" and he's built a scrabble board so cluttered and dense we're now running out of room on the board and we have to cooperate in order to break out into the other half of the board. However, I do have to admit that those pesky shaded tiles have contributed to Adam's success, probably those red ones in the corners.

Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood

Dave's Pasta in Somerville is one my favorites in Davis Square. They've been making fresh pasta for years, but in the last three years they've expanded their offerings to include a sandwich shop with wine/beer, a cheese case and some local fresh produce and products. All of their food is great and you can beat the location so I stop by at least once a week to pick up some bread or cheese or eggs, etc. Anyhow, Dave's Pasta now has a Saturday Sidewalk BBQ so Adam and I walked over today to check it out. I got the 1/4 pound Pearl dog with all the fixings including their homemade jalepeno relish and Adam enjoyed a delicious chicken sausage with peppers and onions.

After lunch, we walked over to Dunkin Donuts for some iced coffee since we were way undercaffeinated. I wanted to go to Bob Slate so we walked over to Porter where we come across the Obama for President Bake/Yard Sale. I must admit, I was intrigued even though we're [gasp] Republicans. The baked goods looked great and I wanted to compliment the organizers by telling them that their desserts looked so good that I wanted to buy them despite the Obama pitch, but I didn't know if they'd really appreciate it. I bought a decadent Obama brownie for a quarter [what a steal] and Adam bought a Whoopie Pie for two bucks. Yes, Adam did his parents proud by supporting Obama eight fold. Too bad his Whoopie Pie wasn't very chocolaty, but my Obama brownie was delicious until I found some tin foil inside my Obama brownie so I had to toss the rest which was a little sad since the Obama brownie was really good. I just love calling them Obama brownies for some reason.

Next we meandered over to the hardware store. I was at the checkout when the following reconstructed conversation happened between plasticann and the checkout lady:

checkout lady: Do you have Ace card or a student ID?
plasticann: Nope!
checkout lady: You should get one?
plasticann: A student ID?
checkout lady: No, the Ace card, you're here a lot.
plasticann: I'm here a lot?
checkout lady: Um, I'm pretty sure I see you in here a lot, you could really use the Ace card.
plasticann: You're right, I do come here a lot. How much is the card?
checkout lady: It's free!
plasticann: I'll get one then.

So, there you have it, I spend a lot of time at the hardware store. Truthfully, I probably go there at least once a week so it's a good think she hooked me up with the card. After the hardware store, we were walking home when we heard someone holler "Zakun" from a car. It was a our friend Zane in a car stopped at the light. I had to laugh, it was the perfect end to our lovely meandering stroll through our neighborhood.

Fluff Factory

Check out this clip on the Marshmallow Fluff factory just outside of Boston.

Q: What's is Marshmallow Fluff?
A: It's an artisanal batch produced marshmallow creme product.

Q: What is a Fluffernutter?
A: A delicious marshmallow fluff and peanut butter sandwich on white bread.

Q: What is plasticann's favorite way to enjoy fluff?
A: Smores - 2 graham crackers, 2 Andes mint, a smear of fluff, microwaved for 10 seconds.

Food Critic

The following is a reconstructed conversation between plasticann and someone at the dentist's office whom I will refer to as Lady. Note, Adam and I share the same dentist.

Lady: So I hear Adam is a food critic, that's really cool.
plasticann: Um, yeah, he does enjoy food.
Lady: I wish I could be a food critic.
plasticann: [pause] Um, you know, he's not actually a food critic.
Lady: He's not? What does he do?
plasticann: He likes food and he does critique food for fun, but he's an assistant pastor at our church.
Lady: Oh, I didn't know that.

I think she was somewhat disappointed.

Go Celtics!

Wow, I can't believe they won last night. We both stayed up way too late watching. Adam alerted me to this hilarious Onion article "Pau Gasol Googles 'Lakers + Celtics + Rivalry'." I love the bit about how the "eccentric local movie-theater owner who often hovers around the Lakers locker room..."

Five Guys Burgers

I was in DC this week for work and waiting for my flight out of Reagan when I noticed a Five Guys Burger stand in the terminal. The signage looked super basic and reminded me of In and Out so I had to try it. Delicious, reminds me of In and Out, it may be better than In and Out in some ways. The fries I had were very tasty and you can get a lot of great toppings for free on your burger.

Go Celtics

If you haven't heard, the Boston Celtics are playing the LA Lakers in the NBA finals. My two hometowns. We were at the Red Sox game on Thursday, the night of the first finals game, where the crowds were chanting "Beat LA Beat LA" during the Red Sox / Rays game. Adam even got our section going with a "Beat LA" chant at some point during the game. It reminds me of how some Red Sox fans start chanting "Yankees Suck" even when we're not playing them. Alas, I digress! As much as I want the Celtics to win and essentially "Beat LA," I have to draw the line at verbally wishing LA ill will. Adam was strongly advised to lay off smack talking about LA during last night's game 2, even in jest.

Heath Bar Chocolate Cake

We took the opportunity to break in Adam's brand new charcoal grill tonight for our friend Zayne's b-day. Our friends Zristen and Zave made a wonderfully refreshing watermelon gazpacho and greek salad. Adam grilled up some burgers, veggies and corn and I baked up a tasty Heath Bar inspired cake. Even I was surprised how yummy the cake was since I didn't really do anything special. It was once box of devil's food cake mix baked according to basic box directions, one tub of chocolate frosting from the store and half a bag of Heath Bar bits from the baking section. I baked the cake in 2 rounds, frosted it and generously sprinkled the Heath Bar bits over the cake and on the sides. I tried to use the entire bag, but the cake wouldn't take any more bits. Rave reviews from all and super easy to boot.

Hungry Hungry

Today is Adam’s birthday so we went out for a wonderful dinner last night with our friends Zayiri and Zames at Hungry Mother in Kendall Square. Adam and I discovered the tiny restaurant when we walked by Hungry Mother a few months ago when it had just opened. We were on one of our long meandering walks through Cambridge where we hit practically every square of note (Harvard, Central, Kendall, Inman, Porter, Davis).

The menu looked awesome so I made a reservation for Adam’s birthday. I was really looking forward to trying it out since we’ve been reading glowing review after glowing review of the place, the Globe being the most recent this week. The food is southern prepared using French techniques, the décor is hip, southern, country and refined all at the same time if that’s possible. The menu is very well edited and everything we ordered was delicious.

I loved that every other dish featured some sort of gourmet house cured pork product like homemade bacon. Since his great grand folks are from the south possibly from the hills, Zames kept making references to his “hillbilly” roots throughout the evening, how the “hillbilly” in him really liked this or that about the place. Eventually, his wife Zayiri said, “Let’s not forget he grew up in San Diego.”

Here’s the rundown of our meal:

Drinks:
Sweet Tea – Adam and I both ordered it, just sweet enough to be delicious, not too cloying sweet like Mickey Ds.

Dr. Pepper, Rye & Bitters – Zames insisted on ordering this drink because all three ingredients individually reminded him of the south so he figured all three together would be like a southern trifecta. Zayiri said it tasted like cough syrup, but Zames seemed to enjoy it greatly.

Pre Dinner Nibbles:
Deviled Eggs – Wonderfully creamy and yummy

Boiled Peanuts with grey sea salt – Reminded me of edamame

Appetizers:
Ribs – Adam’s favorite dish of the day, they were really tender, fell off the bone and flavorful

Fried Green Tomato BLT –

Fried Oysters – Looked good and Zames and Zayiri polished them off

Main:
Flank Steak with Yukon gold potatoes, caramelized onions and fried onions – Adam and I both ordered this and the meat was super tender and flavorful. The onions were nice too.

Cornmeal crusted Catfish – The crust was super crispy, the fish was perfectly cooked and it tasted pretty light.

French Style Gnocchi – Made from a pate choux dough that didn’t have potatoes. Light, buttery and delicious.

Sides:

Baked grits with cheese and bacon – One of my favorites of the evening. I didn’t even think I liked grits, but the corn flavor was delightful.

Cornbread – Always good

Collard Greens – I’m not into the bitter greens, but they were good.

Dessert:
Chocolate Cake – rich 4 layer slice

Buttermilk Pie – lemon zest flavor

P.S. The bathrooms were also Southern/French themed. They had wallpapered one with pages from Julia Child’s cookbook and the other with pages from a Southern cookbook…brilliant and super cool to boot. I’m considering something similar for our downstairs bathroom off our kitchen.