Salty Snacks

I came downstairs yesterday to find Adam watching football and munching on a bag of Pepperidge farm dried stuffing mix. He claimed that it was tasty and low fat. I pointed out that it was probably high in sodium and that he shouldn't drink too many liquids in case the stuffing expanded in his stomach. I did promptly go out and buy five different kinds of crackers at the store: water crackers, sesame water crackers, low fat triscuits, stoned wheat crackers and some low sodium goldfish.

Double Time

I woke up, got ready for work, put on my nice watch, went to work, went to the restroom, pushed up my sleeves, washed my hands, looked down and noticed I was wearing two watches. I was already wearing one when I woke up and then I added a second one.

Twitter

I now have a twitter update section on the upper right section of my blog which I use to write updates of mundane and random things I'm doing. I've only been using it for a week and I've decided that my life is pretty mundane and many of my twitter updates are about what I ate, what I'm eating, what I'm about to eat with a few weather updates thrown in there. Nonetheless, I'll be twittering away here and there about things that do not warrent an actual blog post.

Brownie Baking Contest

Last week, we had a brownie baking contest at work. I was originally going to bake some box brownies and enter them, but having won the chocolate chip cookie contest, I thought I should put some more effort into it and bake a batch from scratch. I consulted my friend Laurel, who's a master baker, for a good brownie recipe. She too finds scratch brownies too much of a bother and usually uses a mix, but she recommended the Alton Brown recipe if I was going to the trouble. I came home from bowling Monday night pretty tired and the kitchen was messy, but I decided to use the one square foot of counter space available and bake these brownies. Unfortunately, it wasn't until after I'd mixed in all the ingredients that I realized that I'd used a 1/3 measure thinking it was 1/4 and had also used a 1/2 measure mistakenly as well. I felt pretty darned frustrated at this point since all the cocoa powder sifting had left my kitchen even more messy, but I stuck them in the oven and baked them anyways. They turned out pretty good, I added a dash of mint to the recipe and entered them at work. I didn't win, but I came in 2nd which is good because I was dreading having to confess to my inability to measure dry ingredients. As you faithful blog readers may remember, this is a problem I've encountered before when I've used inaccurate amounts of butter in my baking. That said, brownies are very forgiving and taste good even when you aren't quite so accurate.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Contest

We had a chocolate chip cookie contest complete with a blind tasting at work on Tuesday and I WON with the aforementioned chocolate chip cookie recipe from a few weeks back. They were even baked the night before and no longer ooey and gooey so just imagine how good they are fresh out of the oven. I'm hungry just thinking about it. Next week is the brownie contest for which I don't have a good recipe so I have to do some research.

Magical Convection Oven

Adam roasted a whole chicken for dinner using the convection roast function on our new oven. expecting it to cook in 30 minutes according to the oven manual. Unfortunately, he didn't read the manual carefully enough to see that the timing was 30 minutes per pound. Apparently, convection doesn't cook at warped speeds, but it does promote nice airflow to aid even browning. I was very hungry. That's all I have to say about that.

Homecoming

Today, we rented a zipcar to drive out to CT for homecoming at Adam's alma mater. The weather was crappy out and we debated whether or not to make the 2 hour drive. We already had the zipcar reserved so we had to pay for it so I voted to check out the Nordstroms at the new Natick Collections if we weren't going to homecoming. We decided to make the drive after all and I'm glad we skipped the mall. It was cold, rainy and windy for most of the day, but we did get to wander around campus for a little bit before we headed over to a reception for the IVCF chapter there. We tried going to the local Polish place for dinner, but we couldn't find it. The following is a reconstructed conversation at a convenience store where I asked about the Polish place:

plasticann: Hi, I'm looking for a Polish restaurant called blah blah blah.
Young Convenience Store Guy: What? J and M?
plasticann: It's a Polish restaurant, the pierogi place?
YCSG: [pointing at an older woman behind the deli counter] Maybe you should ask my aunt.
plasticann: I'm looking for a Polish restaurant that is on this street?
Older Woman: Oh, that place has been gone for years. The building it was in no longer exists. They're building condos there now.
plasticann: Oh, I guess it has been eight years. I'm getting old.

We're guessing the driving range that was next to the Polish place is also now condos which would explain why we "missed" the place. The young guy probably never knew about the Polish place.

Chocolate Chip Cookies...the ultimate

As you might know, I really enjoy baking, but the ultimate chocolate chip cookie has always alluded me. The gold standard to which I compare all other chocolate chip cookies is the Meeting Street Chocolate Chunk cookie in Providence. It's a huge cookie larger than my head filled with giant chunks of chocolate and the dough is just divine. I had a major breakthrough this past Tuesday when I baked up a recipe from Williams Sonoma. I'm pretty sure I've tried this recipe in the past, but I don't remember the results being remarkable because I probably made them small like the recipe suggested. This time, I decided to bake essentially one giant cookie on a rimmed baking sheet rather than separated small cookies because I didn't have the time to deal with baking individual round cookies. The results were delicious and as close to a Meeting Street cookie as I've ever come. I'm not sure if it was the superb heating powers of my new oven, but I even daydreamed about the cookies while at work the next day. Yesterday, our friends were over watching game 6 of the ACLS (go Sox) and requested the cookies so I baked a second batch. This time, I added a dash a cinnamon and I think it was even better so today I baked a third batch to bring to a church potluck and I must say, there were no leftover cookies. Here's the recipe:

plasticann's Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Note: yields 20 delicious giant cookies or 96 unremarkable small cookies
1 delicious giant cookie=4.8 unremarkable small cookies

2 sticks butter (1 cup) softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 and 2/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2-3 shakes of cinnamon
2 cups chocolate chips (one 12 oz bag)


1. preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. line half sheet baking pan with parchment paper
3. cream butter until fluffy
4. add sugar and brown sugar, cream until time fluffy and the sugar is no longer gritty
5. add eggs and vanilla, mix well
6. add dry ingredients, mix until combined
7. add chocolate chips, mix
8. Spread entire batch of cookie dough onto rimmed sheet or use large cookie scoop to scoop cookies and place them on the sheet just an inch or so apart. The cookies will bake into each other in the oven.
9. Bake 15-20 minutes, check to see they're nice is delicious looking and brown

Baby #3: Zhoreson Zndrew Zakun Zakin born Thursday, Oct 18

More on Cupcakes

Zames and Zess recently had their birthdays and their mommy Zara is probably giving birth to #3 as we speak. Earlier this week, Zara sent some very cute photos from Zess' 4th b-day party...a Tinkerbell themed fairy dress up party. I scrolled through cute photo after cute photo on Shutterfly until I came upon the one with the cupcakes. Being the engaged and attentive aunt that I am, I became utterly fixated on these cupcakes because they were HUGE. Sure Zess looked cute as usual in the foreground, but the cupcakes looked like they were half the size of a Zess' head. They were frosted luxuriously with copious amounts of pretty frosting topped with little Tinkerbell figurines. I zoomed into the photo trying to size up the cupcakes. At first I thought maybe the kids were just super tiny and normal cupcakes looked big relative to the tiny kids, but then I noticed that Zara's cake plates could only hold at most five of these outsized creations. Finally, I broke down and e-mailed Zara just days before she was about to give birth my very important question. Fortunately Zara graciously confirmed that in fact the cupcakes were GINORMOUS as was her belly. Now that I've seen these cupcakes, I'm slightly obsessed with the idea of eating giant cupcakes myself. I wonder if I can convince Zess to order them for Christmas when we're visiting so I can experience it for myself, they looked like they might be deliciously moist and full of potential.

GJDubya & plasticann Business Consulting

GJDubya recently made the excellent point that Kickass Cupcakes would probably do better with a less objectionable name. Afterall, kids love cupcakes and Kickass is hardly appropriate for the little ones. I think GJDubya's rebranding suggestion along with my suggestion of lowering the price point from $2.75 to $1.75 could be a potent pair of recommendations. We might even be able to charge real money for this advice if we were to start a consulting practice that simultaneously the addressed issues of branding and price elasticity. Hmmmm.

"Kiwis cause milk to curdle..."

was the title of an e-mail Adam sent me last week. He went on to say, "Unfortunately found this out with my breakfast cereal. :( " and referenced this "Note: Raw kiwi contains an enzyme that prevents gelatin from setting and causes milk to curdle." from this website. Curdled cereal milk sounds pretty nasty and I can also attest to the little fact about gelatin, I remember my fruit terrine failing to set years back because I'd added kiwi to the mix.

Kickass Cupcakes

I was really excited to check out Kickass Cupcakes in Davis Square a few weekends ago. I even tried to convince Adam to bail during a church meeting to go get cupcakes. Alas, we didn't bail, but we did go after dinner later that night. We tried the Lucky Cupcake and the Strawberry Shortcake the first night and Adam went back and bought a Mojito Cupcake and a Cinnamon Chai Pecan Sticky the next day. My favorite was the Mojito. However, at $2.75 a pop for a rather normal sized cupcake, the price is too high for Kickass cupcakes to be a regular treat. I honestly think that if they lowered their priced south of $2, they'd get a lot more people stopping in for cupcakes on a regular basis. That said, I do feel hipper and cooler living in a square that boasts a cupcake bakery. Soon, we'll be getting a Shino Express Sushi restaurant so there's more good stuff coming.

Classic Steve

Last Friday was my 29th birthday and I had a really fun time celebrating with dinner at the Rialto with Adam. Getting to the Rialto was quite the challenge. Park street station has a fire so the train was shut down so I had to walk from Downtown Crossing over to Kendall/MIT to catch the train to Harvard Square. Adam was coming from Davis and he got stuck in the train for 40 minutes just outside of Harvard Square. Fortunately, the folks at Rialto were extremely gracious and they held our table for over an hour and offered us complimentary glasses of prosecco because we looked so stressed out and harried when we finally arrived. That said, my friend Steve called and left me a message Friday and the following is a reconstructed conversation:

plasticann: Hey Steve.
Steve: Did you get my message?
plasticann: Yeah, I heard your bit of juicy gossip.
Steve: [elaborating on juicy gossip]
plasticann: Steve, did you know it's my birthday today?
Steve: Did you think I left you a message for your birthday?
plasticann: It crossed my mind.
Steve: Uhh...Happy Birthday!
plasticann: Thanks, but that's not particularly convincing. However, you can write yourself a note for the future.

Basically, it's classic Steve to call me on my birthday to tell me a bit of juicy gossip and not realize it's my birthday. It's pretty hilarious. Thanks for the birthday chuckle Steve.

Rappin' Down The Street

I should have been up at 7am on Thursday, but I was tired and procrastinating which is why I was so irritated to discover that our street is the shortcut a number of teenagers take from the Davis T over to their high school. At first, I thought it was neighborhood toddlers that were being vocal so I rolled out of bed to check things out. Instead of cute little kids, I saw packs of teenagers walking down the middle of our street, laughing and joking around. Just being normal teenagers, but they were being kinda loud especially since our windows were open. I flopped back into bed and tried to "rest" pulling my comforter over my head when I heard what sounded like someone rapping right in front of our house. I heard some "S" words and some "N" words and I don't mean shoot or nincompoop so I had to get up and see for myself. I saw one lone teenage boy with giant headphones shuffling down our street very slowly to the beat of his very loud rapping. He looked like a nice enough kid in his slacks and sweater vest, but at that moment...I wanted to tell him to "shhhh....be quiet." It was, after the fact, kind of an endearing sight and I don't think he was intending to be disruptive, but I sure hope he walk more briskly in the future so I don't have to wake up to his rapping... it's not my favorite.

Hippie Points

My friend Zlyssa was telling us the other day that Adam and I could claim "hippie points" for not having an air conditioner. Of course, part of the reason is I'm not big on air conditioning since I get cold easily and we're too lazy to install the window units that are in our basement. According to Zlyssa, sheer laziness does not void our "hippie points" We can also claim double points for not owning a car even though it's because we're a too lazy to care for one, we don't need one and because I feel a little cheap as well. I'm not really sure we deserve these points, but I've decided to defer to Zlyssa's judgement. After all, she legitimately deserves her hard earned points since she drives a hybrid, eats organic foods and composts and we could definitely use some of those "hippie points" to combat our yuppie tendencies.

We are ever true to Zrown...

We were hanging out with some friends last night for the last of a series of summer happy hour hangouts which was why it was called "Last of the Mojitos." It cracks me up to no end. We sat out in the yard, drank homemade Mojitos made from a Hemingway recipe and snacked on a variety of fun things like Adam's pesto/mozzarella cheese melty baguette concoction. We chatted about this and that as night fell when the conversation turned to college. "Would you send your child to your alma mater" basically. Now, I don't think of myself as the most rabid alum, but turns out, I was the most enthusiastic about my alma mater out of the entire crowd. I felt a little dopey and goofy being so rah rah about college since most people were kinda lukewarm or cold about it, but I really did love Zrown. When someone made a rather astute point, "Does it really matter where you went to college," I wanted to leap up and shout, "Yeah, I loved Zrown," but I restrained myself since they were probably right to some extent. Rather, I rattled off all the things I loved about Zrown which was probably a little annoying and then when I woke up this morning, I thought of a whole bunch of other reasons why I loved it. I decided not to rattle those new thoughts off to Adam since he was trying to sleep and I was being rather noisy. I was a little embarrassed to admit it last night, but I've even recently acquired a Zrown diploma frame seven years after the fact and I also purchased a decorative Wedgwood plate of the Zan Zickle gates that makes me so happy just to look at. I even considered one of those wooden chairs with the seal, but I didn't think Adam would go for totally Zrownifying our home since he's not as personally invested in Zrown. So yeah, if I knew my kids would enjoy Zrown as much as I did, I would totally encourage them to go.

First Love Springs Eternal

Last fall, when three year old Zess started her preschool, a cute little blond boy named Zvan instantly developed a major crush on her. He loved her pigtails and braids, her brown hair and eyes, everything about her. He wanted to sit next to her at lunch and at circle time. Zvan even told his grandpa on the phone about how much he loved Zess and how beautiful she was. After school, when the mommies pick up their kids, little Zvan would try to hug Zess and shout, "I love you!" Poor Zvan's mom was a bit embarassed at her three year old son's strong sentiments. He was quite young to be such a Casanova. Zess, however, was totally oblivious and hardly noticed Zvan's attentions or his presence all year.

At the end of the year, his passion unabated, Zvan managed to get Zess to agree to give him a kiss goodbye. Imagine this mommy's shock when Zess and Zvan fully embraced and smacked lips! This was followed by this mama in the car ride home explaining that Zess never had to kiss or touch anyone else unless she wanted to. In retort, Zess declared, "I wanted to kiss Zvan."

Cut to this fall, at the beginning of the four year old year at preschool. This mama was sure that Zvan would have forgotten his passion over the summer and moved on to other boyish things, say riding bikes and marble runs. But immediately at the circle time on the first day, Zvan tried to sit next to Zess by wedging himself between Zess and her best little girl friend, Zofia. Bad move. Zofia and Zvan had a bit of a scuffle over the coveted spot next to Zess, but Zofia won out. Zvan went and sat on his mommy's lap and cried.

We'll see how this unrequited crush plays out over the course of the year. . .

Not About Me

A friend of ours is temping as a receptionist. Part of the job is to answer the phones by saying either, "Yada Yada Office, may I help you, " or "Yada Yada Office, will you please hold." During a particularly crazy phone answering session last week, he mistakenly answered, "Yada Yada Office, may I hold you?" Understandably there was awkward silence on the other end.

Product Raves

I'm really loving the Trader Joe's 100% Desert Mesquite Honey. The honey is tasty, but boy oh boy let me tell you about the packaging. It's totally awesome. The spout features this rubber nubbin with a slit that only opens when you squeeze the bottle. This means, there's not honey drippage after the fact and thus no sticky cap issues either. I'm never going back to Shaw's generic honey in a bear shaped bottle or honey jars. 3X concentrated laundry detergent is another product that I'm becoming almost fanatical about. Short of 3X possibly being more expensive, I don't know what the point of buying or even making 2X detergent is. 3X is less packaging, a smaller bottle and so much lighter. Once again, I could care less what brand it is and I haven't noticed a difference in how well the detergent performs, but I do love the smaller more compact packaging.

The Longest Short Week

I'm not big on change and new situations so starting a new job is inherently exhausting for me. That's probably why I stayed five years in my first job. I didn't want to have to experience the longest two days of my life which was when I started working right out of college. Who would have thunk that a Thursday/Friday work week would leave me utterly drained. I'm not feeling so wussy since I worked four whole days this time around. That said, here are some of my highlights from my first week back in the labor force:

1. Sam LaGrassa bills itself as the "World's #1 Sandwich." I was famished on Thursday so I tried the pastrami since everyone else was getting it. I'm not a huge fan of pastrami since it's typically very salty, but Sam LaGrassa's Pastrami Sandwich is a keeper. The meat is tender, delicious, not really salty and the fresh baked french roll is awesome. It's only a block from my office which is a little dangerous, but I do have someplace great to go whenever those meat cravings hit.

2. Badge drama: I managed to lose my badge on Thursday. Yup, that would be two days in. Adam even walked over to Davis along my route to look for it and when he couldn't find it, I reported it missing and sheepishly begged the facilities guy for a new one. This morning, I get a surprise call on my office phone. Another person at my company that works on another floor also lives nearby and found my badge on the bike path near Davis. She thought it looked like her own and picked it up wondering if it was for someone at the same company. Lo and behold, now I theoretically have a commuting buddy in spirit. We've never met, but we've seen each other's photos thanks to the nifty online company directory.

The End

My nonstop fun during work hours has come to an end. I start my new job tomorrow. I did go to the North End on Friday, shop like crazy for work clothes on Saturday, check out the new Whole Foods at Alewife and play a super long game of Catan on Sunday and enjoyed a lovely day downtown today on Labor Day. As for what I'll wear on my first day, a rather boring, but appropriate combination of a black v-neck cashmere sweater, black pinstripe suit pants and some black flats. I've acquired many fun outfits that I'm excited about, but I've decided to dress with my badge photo in mind on my first day. Why do I think I photograph well in that black sweater, it's the sweater I'm wearing in all my IDs: Student and Driver's.

Bomba No More

The following is a reconstructed conversation regarding the remains of our Bomba cake:

plasticann: Did you take the Bomba to work today?
Adam: No, I threw it out, but I had one last piece.
plasticann: Why did you eat something you were intending to throw out?
Adam: It was fine! But before I threw out the rest, I smashed my hands into the cake.
plasticann: [slightly perplexed] Smashed your hands in the cake? Why?
Adam: I smushed the cake in between my knuckles and then I smashed my hands full of cake together and then I molded it.
plasticann: [laughing] I guess you were throwing it out anyways, might as well play with it. Was it fun?
Adam: [nodding] Yes! It was fun, but the cake was cold. I was surprised how cold it was.
plasticann: I wonder what your mom would say if she saw you smushing the cake?
Adam: ...she'd probably laugh...
plasticann: You think so?
Adam:...and she'd probably roll her eyes.

More Nonstop Fun

Adam got me the High School Musical CD which was fun to listen too..."Bop bop bop bop to the top..." My week of fun continued today with a trip to Providence. I hopped on the bus and got in around 11 this morning. I went to the mall and did some shopping at Nordstroms (only my favorite department store). I had a perfect little snack at Popeye's when I got hungry, one fried chicken leg with one biscuit with some tap water. Total: $1.65. Sure hit the spot. I continued my fun Wednesday with a tour of Thayer Street and Brown's campus. I even stopped by my old fraternity and said hi, how very un-plasticann of me and I felt kinda old realizing that I was probably 8-10 years older than the kids there. I enjoyed a chicken pocket at East Side Pockets, shopped at Brown Bookstore where I bought a diploma frame for my seven year old diploma. I capped off my tour of Thayer Street with an awesome chocolate chunk cookie with some milk at Meeting Street Cafe. I was intending to catch the 4:15pm bus back, but realized that it didn't exist so I had an extra hour to kill before the 5:15pm. I walked down Waterman, turned right on Hope, admired all the gracious old houses, walked by my dorm senior year (Young O) and turned right on Wickendon Street where I found this really cool store called Curatorium. They had a ton of neat stuff, some of which might fall into the category of useless crap. Finally, I walked over to Benefit Street and South Main Street back downtown stopping by the RISD gift shop where I impulsively purchased a pin made of shellaced citris fruit. All in all, a pretty darned awesome day and I still have plenty of leftover cookie to enjoy tonight.

NOTE: I should mention that MGDub coined the phase and idea of nonstop fun her senior year at Brown coincidentally. She'd just handed in her thesis and had about a month until graduation. She often wore a cool Hawaian shirt and was determined to have nonstop fun until graduation.

And the Fun Continues

I'm heading back to work next week so I'm determined to have lots of nonstop fun this week. I kicked off my week of fun yesterday with lunch in the South End with a friend from school We went to Gaslight and enjoyed some very yummy sandwiches with frites. To top it off, I got a carrot cake cupcake from the South End Buttery. The cupcake was pretty good, but not my favorite cupcake. I did promise to bring Adam one so I got him a vanilla with vanilla buttercream. Unfortunately, I had to ditch it at Park Street since it was melting and it wasn't going to make it back to Cambridge. After dinner, we went and saw Nanny Diaries at the Somerville Theatre and we even got some ice cream to boot. Today, I rode my bike on the Minuteman bike path all the way to Lexington. I walked around, checked out the little shops, ate lunch, read magazines at the Border's and had a delicious cherry vanilla ice cream cone at Rancatore's. It was quite the adventure and I felt very brave and proud of myself for venturing so far on my own and making it back home intact. For my third day of fun, I'm thinking maybe Providence, but I haven't decided.