Random notes from the weekend:

1. FLOR is available locally at Koo De Kir: minimum order of just two tiles and 10% discount to boot.

2. Cold Stone Creamery: Banana ice cream plus peanut butter...a store at the Fenway AMC Landmark Plaza is coming soon.

3. MGDub and I stopped by the "Deborah's Kitchen Spreadable Fruit" stand at the Charles Hotel farmer's yesterday to visit MGDub's friend Lindsey, who was manning the jam stand. MGDub had predicted I would buy somehting. True to form, I bought a bag filled with jams and jellies, all of them gifts. If you're looking for an unusual regional gift that's not corny, I highly recommend checking out Deborah's stand to sample all of her quirky jams and jellies. Best of all, she sells her jams in teeny 2oz jars perfect so you can buy lots without crowding your cupboards. Since Deborah makes her own jellies, no worries about sweatshop labor or at least the sweatshop labor is local so consume away with a clear conscience. A sampling of her wicked cool flavors with abbreviated descriptions sans the zippy descriptions:

Massachusetts Rubies: Cranberries, Raspberries and Strawberries...
Peach Melba: Peaches and seeded Raspberries...
Hot, Hot Peach: Peaches and Asian Chili Peppers...
Mango Sunshine: Peaches, Mangoes and Ginger...
Fig Ginger: The frisky Fig, Orange and Ginger...

Modular Rug Tiles

Install carpet of your own design using these Interface FLOR rug tiles. You can change the design of your carpet, wish your tiles in your sink, replace individual tiles rather than entire carpets and you can take them with you when you move. I'm totally getting some for my new room.

Oh S*&t!

I ordered some flowers for plasticmom yesterday so when I received a box this afternoon from Martha's Flowers I exclaimed, "Oh S*&T, these are supposed to go to California. I can't believe they made a mistake." I debated whether I should open the box or send it back via Fed Ex since Ms. Martha and her minions had obviously made a mistake. Figuring that flowers were perishable, I should at least open the box before calling customer service to give them an earful. Lo and behold, I open the box to find they were from Adam. Woohoo...Ms. Martha didn't make a mistake afterall and I've got beautiful flowers for my office...a big bunch of lovely pink roses to be specific thanks to dear old Adam.

Ole...try number two

Made it back to Ole for Sunday brunch and this time we were rewarded with guacamole, a generous mortar filled with the tasty green stuff served with warm chips. I confirmed with the hostess before we sat down that guacamole was still being served.

Straw Poll: Blondies [or Brownies]...cookie or not cookie?

Unable to make my usual favorites because my baking supplies were low with one stick of butter left, I decited to give a blondie recipe from my Williams-Sonoma cookbook a whirl. I was surprised how few ingredients the recipe required and the blondies were quite tasty.

1 stick unsalted butter
1.5 cups light brown sugar

1 egg plus 1 yolk
1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons flour
1/4 tsp salt

0. Preheat oven at 350. Grease an 8 x 8 pan and line the bottom with parchment paper
1. Melt butter and brown sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until mixture melts and bubbles, then cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and let mixture cook for 10 min.
2. Stir in eggs and vanilla into brown sugar/butter mixture.
3. Sprinkle flour and salt (mixed together) over the mixture and stir until just combined.
4. Pour into 8 x 8 baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes, until the toothpick test comes out clean.

Unheralded & Misunderstood Creative Genius...just call me Cassandra

Fall 1999: plasticann creates a birthday card modeled after the eyechart for friends.
Summer 2004: plasticann discovers this and thinks..."Call me 'crazy,' but I think I'm ahead of the times...that was so Fall 1999." Haruumph!

Cold Stone Creamery

This just in: there's a Cold Stone Creamery open downtown near the theatre district. I've got my Baja Fresh, Krispy Kreme and now...Cold Stone Creamery.

Emma's Pizza

Vanessa, Wheezy and I enjoyed a delicious pizza from Emma's last night before we saw Saved!. Spinach, caramelized onions, goat cheese, mozzarella cheese and....sweet potato combined make a delicious vegetarian friendly pizza. MGDub, Wheezy and I enjoyed the same pizza last time we were at Emma's and it was just as delicious the second time around. MGDub was uncharacteristically famished on that excursion and she kept talking about how "famished" she was. She even asked for the last slice of pizza and munched on a chipwich ice cream sandwich when we got to the movies. Next time I go to Emma’s; I'll be lobbying for this pizza again. I just might break with the crowd and order my own pizza if the folks I'm breaking bread with are feeling "crazy" and want to try a new pizza. I'm not one for change, which is why I usually order one of two items at Pho Pasteur. Why risk not liking my food when I can order a dish I'm guaranteed to enjoy?

P.S. I did enjoy Saved! and I do genuinely love Jesus. Unlike Mandy Moore's character, I would like to be filled with Christ's love, but I do not aspire to hurling bibles at people...that's all I've got to say about that.

We love you STATA
oh yes we do
We love you STATA
and we'll be true
when you're not near us
we're blue
STATA we love you.
[adapted from Bye Bye Birdie]

There aren't many people who genuinely share my enthusiasm for STATA, the statistical program we use at work. Adam, while happy for me, may humor me when I describe the new commands I've discovered at work, but he is generally disinterested in the specifics. Wheezy is my STATA buddy since she, as my mentor and I as her Telemachus, taught me everything I know. The following is a reconstructed conversation with my dear friend Wheezy.

plasticann: Hey Nina, how's it going?
wheezy: Not bad, how about you?
plasticann: I'm good! I've been learning all these new commands in STATA. Did you know you can generate the reverse of a string variable? "Nina" becomes "aniN"
wheezy: That's pretty cool, but why would you ever need to do that? Unless you wanted to print out the reverse of some data and iron it on a t-shirt.
plasticann: Well, you couldn't even iron it on a t-shirt because it's not mirror image, it's just backwards.
wheezy: Wicked bizaaaah!

"Yeah Competition...I Love Competition"

says Steve and plasticann about their newly upgraded yahoomail accounts to 100MB...that's a 1667% increase baby!

Pre-measured

I woke up on Saturday morning thinking, "I should pre-measure my dry ingredients in Ziploc baggies for my favorite recipes." plasticmom, always an inspiration, pre-measures her rice for her rice cooker into Ziploc baggies so she's never left wondering whether she has enough rice. Following in the footsteps of my efficient mum, I pre-measured a batch of Adam's favorite cookies as well as two batches of scones. I'm really excited because not only will I wash fewer measuring cups, I no longer have to wonder, "Do I have cream of tartar?" or, "How about toffee bits?" I just have to keep track of perishables: butter, milk, eggs, etc.

Frozen Delight: Top Five

5. Laurel hit the Scooperbowl twice this week not because she loves ice cream, but because she's doing her part to fight cancer and support the Jimmy Fund. Once with CAD Cowboy and another time with her buddy from lab.
4. plasticann stocked her freezer with homemade ice cream sandwiches
3. Wheezy and plasticann enjoyed soft serve ice cream served in mini Red Sox (food safe) helmets at the game. Wheezy and plasticann stayed relatively dry despite the torrential downpour.
2. The latest issue of Improper Bostonian features an article on frozen treats.
1. Toscanini's offers a micro-sundae. A nano-sundae is in the works.

Mark Your Calendars

...for the Taste of Cambridge on Wednesday, July 21. I would recommend going earlier in the evening to sample more than your fair share of samples, but not so early that you eat what would have been my samples.

The "Closet"

I've got this "closet" in California filled with random household items. Sometimes plasticmom will purchase an extra set of her newest kitchen find for me. Other times, I'll salvage her discarded kitchen items. All these are stored in the "closet." Whenever I'm home, I peek in my closet to assess the inventory. Recent conversations surrounding the "closet" have brought to light my erroneous assumption that items stored in the "closet" were actually in my closet. Apparently, the "closet" is not actually a closet, which would explain why my closet never seems to reflect any additions and why I'm thoroughly unaware of the contents of the "closet." The following are two reconstructed conversations regarding the closet.

Ceramic Knives
plasticmom: What should I get Adam for his birthday?
plasticann: Laurel's boyfriend [CAD Cowboy] got her a ceramic knife. Maybe you could get Adam a ceramic knife.
plasticmom: Well, actually...I've got an extra set of ceramic knives, a big one and a little one.
plasticann: Why do you have an extra set of knives?
plasticmom: I got them for you; they're in the "closet."

Egg Cooker
plasticann: Hey mom, I saw this cool egg cooker that makes hard-boiled eggs. Maybe you should get one.
plasticmom: Does it have a dome?
plasticann: Yeah.
plasticmom: Well actually...I got one of those for you years ago. Your egg cooker is really cute, the dome is shaped like a chicken. It's from Germany. We used to have one years ago in Taiwan.
plasticann: Where is this egg cooker shaped like a chicken?
plasticmom: It's in the "closet." You've got lots of things in the "closet."
plasticann: I always check my closet and I've never seen an egg cooker shaped like a chicken.
plasticmom: It's not actually in your closet, it's stored somewhere else. You should really check out the “closet” next time you’re home.
plasticann: What else is in the "closet?"
plasticmom: You've got a bunch of dishes in the "closet." I just found this meat grinder that also from Germany. We got in Japan, but it's made in Germany. I think we were going to make hamburgers using $17/lb cuts of steak, but we've never used it.
plasticann: Could you put that meat grinder in the "closet?"
plasticmom: Sure thing!

Elevator Snafus

Adam and I stopped by my work on Monday (Memorial Day) to see my new office. We signed in at the security desk and I used my key card to activate the elevator for the 14th floor. When we got to the 14th floor, I stepped off the elevator and turned around only to see Adam still in the elevator distracted by the "captivate" television with the doors closing fast on him. After waiting for a bit, I realized that Adam was having trouble getting back on the 14th floor. Because he didn't have the key card to activate the elevator, he could only go back down to the lobby. By the time I got down to the lobby to see “wha’ happened,” the security guard had sent him back up to the 14th floor. Apparently, the distraction was a riveting news bit about Burger King serving sirloin burgers.

Parish Cafe

Adam and I checked out Parish Cafe on Memorial Day...home of sandwiches created by local chefs. The sandwiches were pretty good, but overall the experience was disappointing. We ordered the "Steak & Blue" and the "Benny." The steak was very un-rare which wouldn't have been an issue if the menu hadn't described the sandwich as "RARE" in caps.

Fancy Pants Fruit Jello

Gleaned from the latest issue of MS Food is this fruit terrine recipe. Deviating from my usual preference to bake, I've made this fruit dessert twice this month. It's quite refreshing, passable as "healthy" and easy on the eyes as well. I've made some minor substitutions.

Fruit Terrine

1 quart STRAWberries
1 box BLUEberries or RASPberries
2 envelopes of KNOX unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup sugar
1 bottle of my beloved Nantucket Nectar's Grapeade (or 16 oz. white grape juice)

1. Wash and cut fruit to fill a loaf pan
2. Sprinkle two envelopes of gelatin over 1/4 cup of juice
3. Heat 1/4 cup juice dissolving sugar in juice
4. Dissolve softened gelatin in heated juice
5. Combine remaining juice and heated juice/sugar/gelatin liquid
6. Pour over fruit in loaf pan
7. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until gelatin is set

Sack-O-Stickers

I picked up a Sack-O-Hello-Kitty-Sushi-Stickers last weekend. They're quite cute and they come with the following warning label, "These stickers are not edible-Do not put in mouth!" Good to know!

Diamonds & Coals

In honor of my alma mater's upcoming commencement ceremonies...diamonds and coals.

Diamond: Pourable REESES Peanut Butter Sauce
Coal: Baskin Robbins Lime Daiquiri Ice (Blech!)

Diamond: Odd Todd's new book.
Coal: Odd Todd still claiming he's "unemployed" when he's published a book and now had a comedy central show in the works

Diamond: Memorial Day
Coal: Crappy weather

Diamond: Steve not being there when I accidentally walk into his office thinking it's mine
Coal: Steve being there when I accidentally walk into his office thinking it's mine

Diamond: Fried foods
Coal: Heart Disease

Field Trip

Taking advantage of a rare lull in our afternoon, we went on a brief "field trip.” Given that we work in Kendall, we really can't get into much trouble and there aren't that many places to go, but we made the best of it. One of the highlights was discovering a mailbox right outside our building on the side we never walk by so now we don't have to trek to the post office during lunch. We also discovered REESES pourable peanut butter sauce at Damons and each member of our merry quartet had to get a frozen yogurt sundae despite this unseasonable cold day. My good friend Kellie loves the candy shop sundaes at Friendly's and she used to melt peanut butter in the microwave for her ice cream at the Ratty. Since the peanut butter is pourable at room temperature, she could keep a tub on her kitchen counter and pump it over everything: waffles, ice cream, milk, steak...you name it.

Ole Mexican Grill

A group of us gave Ole Mexican Grill's Sunday brunch a whirl after church last weekend. We were looking forward to the fresh guacamole made tableside, but we were thwarted because they ran out of guacamole. I didn't understand how a Mexican restaurant could run out of guacamole, but I checked their guacamole carts and didn't find any avocadoes lurking around. I kept eyeing the huge things of guacamole other tables were enjoying and I was debating whether I had the gumption to politely guilt other customers into sharing a taste of guacamole. Finally, I was told [by Adam] to "stop pouting or go ask for some guacamole." I scoped out the other tables and finally approached a jovial party of folks enjoying margaritas and TWO things of guacamole. Very tasty and at 4.95 for a huge thing of fresh guacamole...I'll be at Ole some Sunday before church so I can ensure the guacamole doesn't run out. I would highly recommend going for brunch since it's significantly cheaper than the dinner menu: Brunch is around $6-8 and dinner is $15-20. Guacamole at dinner is a whopping $9.00 versus $4.95 at lunch.

Sculpey

I picked up some modeling clay over the weekend so I could make cool push pins and I discovered this amazing eraser clay. I haven't baked my everlasting gobstopper-esque eraser creation, but I sure am excited. The following is a reconstructed conversation from the weekend.

Adam: Clean up your play doh...it's time to go home.
plasticann: [indignantly] It's not play doh!
Adam: What is it then?
plasticann: It's called...Sculpey.
Adam: Maybe I wouldn't have laughed had you called it modeling clay.

Capri Pants

When capri pants were first prevalent a few years back, I thought to myself, "I kinda like capri pants, but I'll bet it's going to be a one hit wonder and then I'll be stuck with too short pants," so I figured I would ride out the trend. The pants have stayed for several summers and don't seem to be going anywhere. Last weekend, I went "walking" with MGDub down Mass Ave and I finally purchased my first pair of capris: kicky chocolate brown with a bit of stretch. I'm enjoying my pants a lot, but now that I've bowed to the allure of capris...they will probably go away next year. Curses! My coworker Amy commented that she got rid of all her capri pants during her transition into adulthood. Here I was thinking capri pants were going to help me transition into adulthood since they're longer than shorts, but our definitions of "adulthood" are relative.

Lisa Lisa and more Lisa with some Dweezil in the mix

I just read MGDub's review of the Dweezil & Lisa show in our alumni magazine...now the show's been cancelled and they broke up. Geez Louise! I really liked them, though I could do without the Dweezil twirling Lisa bit. Perhaps Heather was right afterall when she recently commented, "I'm not sure it would be wise for a meat-eater to marry a vegetarian. Wouldn't that be kind of like adherents of different faiths marrying one another? I just can't see it working out."

Hot Dog Safari Recap of plasticann's favorites

Hot Dog: Pearl Brand with it's Kielbasa type flavor

Bun: Kelly's Roast Beef went the extra mile offering a buttered and toasted bun

How many hot dogs did I consume? My guess was three. Adam guessed five to six. Let's just say I ate about four or five especially since I nabbed a second Pearl hot dog after dessert (Cool Dog and Cotton Candy)

Overall...I feel more in touch with my fellow Bostonians. It's a great place to people watch and there are tons of kids running afoot.