6. Felty

Corinna took me to one the coolest stores I've ever been to in Baltimore. It's called Blue House and it's a coffeeshop/home goods store. They had these wonderful felt products by Parkhaus Berlin that I feel in love with. I ended up buying myself some colorful felt coasters and Corinna was kind enough to remember my felt obsession and bought me some a small tote and bag as a maid of honor gift. That said, I recently discovered a local Boston company Etcetera Media that makes similarly luxuriously cozy felt products.

"All You Can Buy" at Sur La Table

Adam and I are out in the Bay Area for Thanksgiving and we've had many adventures already this week, but one big priority was spending some quality time at Sur La Table, an awesome kitchen/home goods store. I woke up yesterday and thought of fond childhood memories of "All You Can Buy" trips to Toys R Us on my birthday so I declared yesterday a Sur La Table shopping spree bonanza. Adam gave me some grief over the entire thing, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I bought this giant 18 inch diameter cake pan so I can bake really giant cookies, I hope it fits in my oven when I get home. I also bought a square removable tart pan to class up my lemon bars. I also got a couple of plasticmom's favorite bowls and some other treats like a cool new zester. Yipee yeah!

5. Rosie & Johnny

Trumpette socks are adorable...need I say more? Great baby gift since the socks are frivolously wonderful and unnecessary. I secretly wish they made them in my size, but I doubt it'd be as cute.

4. Fancy Schmancy Gloves

Wheezy got me these fancy dishwashing gloveables with a wide oilcloth cuff. Fortunately we have a dishwasher, but they're protect my hands and enable me to use super hot water for the pots and pans. plasticmom took a liking to my spiffy gloves and promptly purchased a half dozen as gifts for friends.

3. Affordable Letterpress

I absolutely love letterpress stationary, but it's wicked expensive so I was elated last year when I found affordable letterpress stationary from Paper Monkey Press. They use really cool old school wooden letter blocks to print and you can choose the ink color. They don't provide a lot of options, but the results are awesome and you can't beat the price at $25 for 25 cards and envelopes. I ordered an entire suite of stationary for myself and I was so pleased that I ordered it pretty much for everyone else last year.

One More Day

Little Zim is turning four tomorrow. He's very aware that it's his birthday and I hear he's been counting down to the big day. Today he held up one finger. The following is a reconstructed conversation from last week between Little Zim and his dad:

Zim: [looking at a big box from Fisher Price in the doorway] Dad, what's that box for?

Dad: I don't know, looks like it might be a present.

Zim: [pensively pausing] I think we should put it away and best not think about it.

I should remind you that Little Zim can read, but I figured he's probably not reading this blog so there's little risk of ruining is birthday surprise. So for the boy who loves words, we ironically got him a book filled with pictures which brings us back to our holiday gift list....

#2 In the Town, All Year Round

2008 plasticann holiday gift list...

Five years ago, I attempted to and succeeded at blogging about 100 gifts. It was a bit exhausting and I didn't have 100 good ideas the next year so I lost a bit of momentum. The blog has been pretty quiet these days and I've missed it so I'm attempting to bring back the gift list. This year, I can't commit to 100 gifts, but I'm aiming for at least 50 so I'm going to start the count at 1 and keep going until Dec 25.

1. Snuggly Hat

I spotted this hat at a local outdoor store, Chinook, and I became a little obsessed with it. plasticmom may or may not have realized, but she bought me this snuggly hat as a gift. I wore it tonight and it kept my head toasty and the earflaps are just wonderful. Thanks plasticmom!

Lemon Bar Grudge Resolved

Overall, Adam has been a wonderful husband/boyfriend for the last [eek] nine years so I really have nothing to complain about, but I must confess that I've been holding a lemon bar grudge against him for a good part of the last eight years where I vowed never to make him lemon bars. It all started back in 2001...the following is a reconstructed conversation on that fateful night:

plasticann: Adam, I made you some lemon bars as a treat, but I left them at the office. I'm so sorry.
Adam: That's OK? Were they from scratch?
plasticann: No, they were from a mix, but it's a really good Sunkist mix and it's my favorite.
Adam: I only like lemon bars from scratch, you should call Zara and get her recipe so you can make them from scratch.
plasticann: Harumph! I don't make lemon bars from scratch, the box is very good. I can't believe you'd refuse to eat my lemon bars because they're from a mix. I'm NEVER making you lemon bars even from a box.

Thus for many many years, I refused to make Adam lemon bars even from a mix because I deemed Adam to be a lemon bar snob. I also refused to make them from scratch...in retrospect a dumb sticking point since I do love lemon bars, but I am a little shall I say lazy. Well, the other day, I had lemons so I flipped through a cookbook looking for lemon recipes when I found a lemon bar recipe that looked easy so I decided to bury the hachet and give it a whirl. The lemon bars turned out great and they passed the Adam lemon bar test so we've now resolved our lemon bar conflict and can now move toward enjoying the buttery goodness of these treats whenever we have lemons. This is good news since we both love lemon bars.

Bury the Hachet Lemon Bars

Crust:
7 tablespoons butter (nearly 1 stick)
1 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Filling:
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
zest from 1 lemon
Juice from 1 lemon (2 Tbs)
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees
2. Place butter in an 8 inch square pan, put pan in oven until butter melts
3. Sprinkle 1 cup flour and 1/4 cup powdered sugar over melted butter, mix to form dough in the pan, press dough evenly over bottom of pan, return pan to oven and bake 15 minutes
4. Beat eggs with sugar until blended, beat in 2 tablespoons flour, lemon zest, juice, baking powder and salt until well combined
5. When crust is baked (15 min) spread lemon mixture over hot crust, return to oven and bake until pale brown 20-25 minutes
6. Let cool completely and dust with powdered sugar (optional)

SYTYCD

Adam got me tickets to the So You Think You Can Dance live show for my birthday. We went last last week and it was super fun. They did all the best dance numbers from the entire season and they did all my favorites. The crowd was a mix of young kids and older folks and everyone was really enthusiastic and clapping and hollering so we felt less geeky screaming for our favorite dancers. Can't wait for the next season to start.

Halloween

Last night was Halloween and we actually had trick-or-treaters. The neighborhood squirrels ate giant chuncks out of my little pumpkin so Adam lit some candles on our porch to make our place look more welcoming. My favorite costume was a kid dressed as a "Red Box" DVD vending machine. I wish I'd taken a picture, but it was very cool.