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.

Yummy Oat Bran Muffins

Through chit-chatting with a friend at Zess's co-op preschool, the Zakins have discovered a new muffin recipe. They are only 12o calories each (less than a cookie!) and low in fat. My friend Zane says that she makes them once a week for her kids and they disappear almost instantly. I thought I should test this premise and try them out with my kiddies, as we're always looking for healthy new snacks that we can make together. 

So this week Zess and Zames fought over beating the eggs and stirring the dry ingredients for Oat Bran Muffins, courtesy of the red Quaker Oat Bran hot cereal box. Zhor true to form was enjoying his afternoon snooze at the time. We added 1/2 c chopped fresh cherries for some glamour. And abracadabra, six muffins went poof warm from the oven!

As I am writing this I have just enjoyed a muffin rewarmed for 10 seconds  in the microwave and eaten with honey and butter. Yum!

Minicards are IN

Got my minicards from Moo.com yesterday and they're pretty awesome. Now I just need to find someone to give them too. I have a feeling our 100 cards is going to last quite a while.

Giant Cookie

I baked a giant chocolate chip cookie for a coworker as a fun jokey birthday gift last weekend. It was ginormous, about 10 inches diameter or the equivalent of 10 normal giant cookies or about three dozen small cookies. I found a cake round and used it to support the cookie underneath so I could transport it. To mimic the look of a deli counter cookie, I saran wrapped my creation and even made a giant label reading "Chocolate Chip Cookie...$1.50...Serving Size=1." Basically, it was totally awesome. I kept bugging Adam all of Sunday night asking him to admire [repeatedly] my giant cookie which probably explains why Adam had giant cookies on his brain when we went to sleep that night. The following is a reconstructed conversation that happened in Adam's dream:

Scene: Adam is sitting in the office and his friend Zanny is hanging out in another part of the house.

Zanny: [walking into the office] Hey Adam, can I eat that giant saran wrapped cookie in the kitchen?
Adam: No!

a few minutes later

Zanny: [walks into the office holding the giant cookie with a big bite missing]
Adam: Wait, what's going on?
Zanny: Some woman in the other room said I could eat the cookie.
Adam: Noooooo! That's Ann's cookie.

I'm happy to hear that Adam is looking out for me even in his dreams.

Minicards

I found the really cool site, Moo.com, last week for personalized mini business cards, postcards, stickers, cards, etc. There's a high level of personalization and customization plus the products are really well thought out and cool. For example, they have these minicards which are smaller business cards that come in a pack of 100. You can customize 100 different cards or have 100 of the same card all for the same price. You can upload your own photos or you can choose from their design gallery filled with really awesome and cool designs. Adam and I ordered some minicards for ourselves and I'm looking forward to getting them. The site is highly addictive and potentially dangerous since I wanted to buy everything for myself and everyone around me.

Inanimate Objects

Adam tells me that it's not possible to "love" inanimate objects, but I disagree. It came up because I'm loving my new black patent leather peep toe shoes that are awesome because they look great, go with most of my wardrobe and they're super comfy since they have Nike Air technology. Ever time I wear them, I am tempted to tell someone how much I love my shoes. I find myself bouncing around on the heels of my shoes so I can feel the air cushioning. So if you're looking for some cute low heeled comfy peep toe shoes, I highly recommend the ones from Cole Haan. Did I mention that I love mine?

Corinna Got Hitched

We went down to NYC for Corinna's wedding to her new husband Zian last weekend. The wedding was super fun and everyone looked like they were having a great time. I got to sit with some friends from Zrown so it was fun to see everyone. I also got to be MOH for the first time when Corinna bumped me up two weeks ago from bridesmaid. I packed an emergancy kit which was actually handy and I got to make a toast mostly to Corinna. Adam and I ended up taking a late train home on Sunday so we spent the day walking around mid town and the upper east side. I got to check out American Girl, we ate hot dogs at Gray's Papaya, I ate a soft serve, checked out cool stores and had a grand old time.

Donut Kabobs

I had some friends over for brunch this morning and served a super simple menu of gourmet breakfast sandwiches, fruit salad, chai tea, OJ and donut kabobs. I dreamed the kabobs up last night while I was trying to fall asleep because I was trying to figure out how I could avoid waking up early to bake a sour cream coffee cake that I neither had the time nor the ingredients to make. I created my donut kabobs out of fresh donuts I purchased at the corner donut shop this morning and some skewers. I bought a honey dipped also known as a glazed donut, a buttercrunch and a cinnamon raisin cruller. I cut each donut into quarter and I used some wooden skewers to make donut kabobs. They were a hit since it's fun to try small portions of three different donuts and it was super easy and looked kinda cool and subversive all at the same time. Afterall, who needs a fruit or a beef kabob when you can eat donuts on a stick.

Hello Sigg

MGDub got me this adorable Hello Kitty Sigg water bottle for Valentine's Day in February and I've been getting so many nice compliments on my cool bottle. It's red with an old school Hello Kitty and hearts. I've been enjoying my Sigg water bottle especially after I keep reading up on how the Nalgene's are supposed to be bad for us. Come to think of it, didn't we all switch to the Nalgene a few years ago because the Nalgene's were supposed to be better for us? Have I been inadvertantly harming my loved ones with all the Nalgenes I've gifted to them over the years? Maybe we should all stop drinking water...that must be the solution. Anyhoo...the latest word on the street is go with the Sigg. I will incidentally be purchasing them for all my loved ones to replace their evil Nalgenes.

Sweet Treats

I had a sugar high after lunch because I consumed well way too much sugar thanks to some sweet treats. My coworker received a cookie gift basket from her boyfriend and we kind enough to share the bounty. I picked the mint brownie cookie sandwich and it was delicious. Then some other coworkers were going out for some McDonalds sweet tea. They're a bit obsessed with it and wanted to share the love so they generously picked one up for me to try. The sweet tea was really delicious, but a little sweet so I had to cut it with some water. Ironically, my friend Kristen who's my dentist had just filled a massive cavity this morning before I went gallivanting about washing down my sugary cookie with my sugary sweet tea.

Marathon

Monday was Patriot's Day also known as Boston Marathon day so I took the day off to hang out with Adam and check out the hoopla downtown. The whole Boston Marathon was pretty darned impressive. We had a pretty good view near the finish line, about a block from the end where we watched the Kenyans run effortlessly across the finish line. Then we watched all the other runner trickle and then stream in. Well, some people hobbled in. We saw a lady collapse a few hundred yards from the finish, a man go by on a gurney and there were apparently a couple of folks who had heart attacks. Two of my coworkers ran the marathon successfully and they mostly have sore muscles and some bad sunburns. We stood and watched at the finish line for about an hour or two which made us quite tired and hungry so we revived ourselves with ice cream, hot dogs and pizza.

Embarrassment

Adam and I were strolling through Coolidge Corner this weekend when we were reminded that parents can still embarrass children of all ages. Adam was wearing a "Wesleyan" t-shirt when the following reconstructed conversation occurred between Adam and a mom, dad, and their adult child.

Dad: Hey, Wesleyan, she [pointing to his daughter] went to Wesleyan too!
Adult Child: What class were you?
Adam: '98!
Adult Child: Oh, I was '95!
Mom: She has a PhD in psychology from Berkeley and she's doing her post doc at Harvard.
Adam: Oh, that's great. I'm from the Bay Area too.
Mom: Our son is still in San Francisco, but we're from New York so we're so happy she's moved back to the East Coast to do her post doc at Harvard.

We sensed that the Adult Child, who's really in her mid thirties, was mildly embarrassed by her mom who was obviously super proud of her daughter. It was all kind of endearing, but also pretty amusing to us at least. Ahh, parents...gotta love 'em!

Sweet Tofu Pudding

I was hankering for a sweet treat yesterday afternoon and ice cream would typically be my default option, but I ended up walking over to Chinatown in search for a fun afternoon snack. I picked up some sweet tofu pudding from the market and some freshly baked sweet buns from Eldo Cake House.

Sweet tofu pudding is delicious and satisfying. It's made locally by Chang Shing Tofu over in Kendall Square. Wheezy and I once walked over to the Chang Shing Tofu factory when we worked in Kendall Square, it was quite the experience. Vats of soy, giant fridges, Chinese folks and a handwritten price list taped to a wall for random retail customers off the street like us. I digress! Tofu pudding is really a nice treat especially in the summer. It's pretty healthy, low in fat, sweet and refreshing. It also has protein to boot since it's tofu. I like the Chang Shing pudding because they put some vanilla into their recipe which gives it a nice flavor. With spring finally arriving in Boston, you should definitely give sweet tofu pudding a try.

The Un-Facebook

Wheezy, Dave, Adam and I were joking around on Sunday [at Dave's b-day party...happy b-day Dave] about how we should form our own Un-Facebook social network and send each other letters by mail.

Well, I defected from our theoretical Un-Facebook social network by joining Facebook this week. I think our little pact failed mainly due to the fact that our theoretical social network was theoretical and was also a network rooted in being anti-social network. I now have like 6 friends, all of them actual friends. This morning my brother-in-law Zryce asked to be a friend and I accepted which is how I got from 5 to 6 friends. He's almost 4 times more popular than me with 23 friends, but I'm most impressed that Zryce found me so quickly since I'd just signed up for Facebook two days ago on Monday. I also have to extend props to Zryce for saying a friendly and appropriately casual "Hello!" in his email as opposed to the odd and overly formal Linked In invitation Adam sent to me a few months ago.

Lobstah!

I recently treated myself to this super cute lobster tote from LL Bean. I love how the lobstah is so big and red and stretches across the entire tote. They also have a crab and trout version, but I don't think they're quite as adorable.

Fatties

The following is a reconstructed side conversation between plasticann and Adam while their friends Wheezy and Dave were discussing lifting weights and working out. Note, Adam and plasticann are not currently big on exercise.

plasticann: [leans over and says quietly] Are we fatties?
Adam: It's OK.
plasticann: [unsure, but tentatively eating mac & cheese] It's OK?
Adam: Well, it's not OK, but don't worry about it now....just eat your mac & cheese.

Then we all laughed, because it was funny.

Planet B-Boy

We saw Planet B-Boy at the Kendall last night, it's a documentary about a break dancing around the world and is themed around this annual break dancing competition Battle of the Year. We really enjoyed it and it reminded me a lot of Dogtown Z-boys and Riding Giants. I'm not a big skateboarding, surfing or break dancing fan, but they're still super fun documentaries to watch. My favorite team was the Japanese team from Osaka, Ichigeki while Adam liked the underdog South Koreans from the country Last for One. The two teams went to the final battle and the South Koreans took the prize. I would highly recommend seeing it, really energetic, fun and heart warming.

Bike

We went and got Adam a bike Wednesday night. The following are reconstructed conversations with Adam's bike enthusiast coworkers (BEC):

Adam: I'm getting a bike tonight.
BEC: How exciting. What kind of bike are you getting? We may have some recommendations.
Adam: plasticann said something about a hybrid. I don't know, a bike bike!
BEC: A bike bike?
Adam: You know, something with two wheels mostly so I can ride [to the cheese shop] with plasticann.
BEC: [clearly disappointed] Oh! we don't really have any advice for that.

later that evening at the bike shop

plasticann: Adam, do you want to put your [newly purchased] helmet in my bag?
Adam: No. I'm going to wear it?
plasticann: Why?
Adam: So we can bike home.
plasticann: What am I going to ride?
Adam: Oh, that's right, you don't have a bike. You mean I have to walk the bike home?
plasticann: Well, you can ride it, but I'll have to meet you back at home.
Adam: It's OK, I'll walk it home.

plasticmom=plasticann

plasticmom is in town for a visit and the similarities in taste are eerie, all purchases from REI:

p.ann: p.mom, I got you this [yellow] spork, I have one at work that I use all the time.
p.mom: [ha ha ha] I have one already.
p.ann: What do you mean you have one already. You asked me to buy you one last fall.
p.mom: I didn't know we were talking about the same thing. I bought it at the camping store.
p.ann: Well, you can have this one too if you want a different color
p.mom: I already have a yellow one.
p.ann: Geez!

p.mom: I wear my sandals everyday, they're very comfortable.
p.ann: Oh, your CROCs?
p.mom: No, the ones with the rubber front and the holes in it. I tried them on in Seattle.
p.ann: Oh, my Keen sport sandals.
p.mom: I wear them everyday.
p.ann: [confused] Did I give you my shoes?
p.mom: No, I went home and bought myself the same shoes
p.ann: Blue?
p.mom: How did you know?
p.ann: Because mine are blue.

So this week, p.mom bought a pair of the Keen trail shoes exactly like mine, but half a size smaller which is funny because I bought my Keen trail shoes because MGDub was wearing them when she came to visit last winter. All in all, MGDub, p.mom and p.ann all have the exact same pair of shoes in three different sizes.

Silvertones

Adam had the morning off from work on Monday so he met me for lunch downtown and we checked out Silvertones on near Park Street. I'd been once before with some coworkers and greatly enjoyed my grilled ham/cheese sandwich so I was looking forward to going with Adam. We ordered the Mac & Cheese and the Steak Tips and both were really delicious. We actually ordered the Steak Sandwich, but they brought us the Steak Tips by mistake, but we ended up keeping it because it looked good. Mac & Cheese was really cheese and gooey and the Steak Tips were nicely marinated and grilled. I even had leftovers for lunch during the week. It reminds me a little of Paramount on Charles Street. Comfort food, nice and consistent and reasonably priced. (Steak Tips were $12, Mac & Cheese was $8 and the Grilled Cheese w/ Fries is $6.)

Happenings

It's been a busy few weeks here, we were in Baltimore early February where we visited our friends Adam, Meredith and they baby Zmma. I hadn't been in a long while so it was fun hanging out. Highlights include delicious gelato at Pitango in Fells Point. We tried the vanilla, hazelnut and coffee...all amazing. We even checked out this tortilla factory store where we bought a big stack of fresh tortillas for less than $2. Then there were the delicious cupcakes at I think the Baltimore Cupcake Company. The blueberry cupcake was delcious as was the chocolate peanut butter. Then we mostly hung out around home the rest of February. I'm a little obsessed with BerryLine frozen yogurt in Harvard Square. It just tastes so refreshing. I've tried their original, orange and peach, orange is my favorite. I can't seem to get enough of this stuff and I've caught myself scheming to find opportunities ot go, I particularly enjoy it with cocoa puffs. Last week I went to Detroit for the day, real exciting. Looking ahead to next month, plasticmom is coming to visit which I'm very excited about. Then we're going to CA for our godson baby Zhor's baptism on Easter. After that, it's back to Baltimore for Corinna's bridal shower. I'm honestly looking forward to April when all the activity will hopefully die down. Time sure is flying, I guess that's a good thing, means we're having fun.