Formaggio Kitchen Saturday BBQ

Adam and I rode our bikes down to Huron Village yesterday to check out the Saturday summer BBQ at Formaggio Kitchen. Huron Village always seems psychologically far, but it really only took us about 10-15 minutes to bike there. Adam got the pulled chicken sandwich and some baked beans. I had to get the "Pearl in a Hole." For the Pearl in a Hole, they give you a hollowed out half baguette, you fill the "hole" with all your condiments, hand the bread back to the grillmaster who puts the bread on the grill to toast it and fills the "hole" with a giant 1/2 pound Pearl hot dot cooked to perfection with a nice snap. With quality ingredients like Pearl dogs and a fresh baguette, it couldn't help but be super yummy.

PA Adventures cont.

Our stint in the Lehigh Valley continued with trips to the Crayola Factory in Easton, I got to to check out a Wegmans, Longwood Gardens and the Asa Parker house in Jim Thorpe, PA. We continued on to the Poconos for a conference for Adam's work for a few days. Finally, it was on to Philly for our last stop. We'd gathered lots of culinary recommendations from friends and we ended checking out a few of them. Our big fancy meal was Alma de Cuba, a Cuban restauarant my friends Corinna and Ian raved about. It was very yummy. We also visited the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall where we discovered that the founding fathers all sat in Windsor Chairs, the very same chairs that Adam's dad handcrafts. We ate cheesesteaks twice and explored the Reading Terminal Market. On our final day in Philly, we went to a pirate exhibit at the Franklin Institute which was very piratey and awesome. All in all, our grand adventures through the Eastern portion of PA was super fun and relaxing. However, it's been good to be home.

PA and Back

It's been a while since I last posted, but Adam and I have had a number of fun adventures in July, namely visiting MGDub, GJDubya and family in Allentown, PA.

We took the train down to Philly July 3 and drove our rental out to Bethlhem, PA where we were staying. Bethlehem used to be a steel town and in fact, Wheezy and I once worked on a project involving Bethlehem Steel where we learned all about different types of steel products including cold rolled, hot rolled, H-Beams and I-Beams. Anyhow, Adam and I visited with MGDub's family for a few days where we got to go to not one, but two Iron Pigs baseball games and learned all the various chants and cheers. We also saw MGDub's childhood home and saw her wall of achievement which was quite impressive indeed. We always knew she was wicked smaaaht, but we had no idea just how many awards she'd received throughout her lifetime. We were excited to meet the whole family Babas, aunts, uncles and the boys.

To be continued...

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.

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.