Happy [belated] birthday Zayne!

Last Saturday, we cohosted a birthday party for our friend the girl British Zayne. Please note that boy American Zayne was also present at this party. Junk food was the theme and we enjoyed the following:

• Giant Italian Sub from Bob's in Medford - three footer
• Mozzarella Basil Tomato Sub for the vegetarians
• Tator tot casserole
• Pigs in a blanket
• Veggies and Dip
• Big punch bowl of Sangria
• Strawberry cake from Eldo Cake House

The sub was huge and they told me it would feed 10-15 people. We had almost 20 people and we only ate half of the sub. Good thing I didn't order the six foot sub. The only reason I didn't was because my table is only five feet long and there was no way it would fit on my furniture.

Hot Dog on a Stick

The answer is YES, I did make it to Hot Dog on a Stick during my LA trip. I had to cram that snack in before lunch, but it was delicious. Icy cold fresh lemonade, perfectly fried corn dog...doesn't get any better.

P.S. I did not make it to Moffett's Chicken Pies this trip, but I can get a great chicken pot pie in Boston at Harrow's, so it's OK. Ever notice that chicken pie places are all named after people's last names? Kinda weird.

Whole Hog 2011

Adam and I recently pigged out at Craigie on Main's Whole Hog special dinner. Everything was incredibly delicious, even the pig themed non vegetarian desserts were amazing. We may have consumed several days worth of calories in one sitting, but it was worth it. Instead of a comprehensive and exhaustive account of every pig themed dish, I'm going to highlight my favorites.

Menu for the night!

The decor was all pig themed, pig balloons, servers wearing pig snouts and pig ears.

First course, an assortment of pig charcuterie. The little brown cute, breaded deep fried lard. Yum, but definitely not healthy.

We both got the chili rubbed ribs, meat was fork tender and fell right off the bone. Possibly my favorite dish of the night.

Pork Belly!!! Enough said.

Farro cassoulet

Pink grapefruit sorbet...wish I could buy this by the pint.

Cornbread pudding with buttermilk ice cream and a bacon caramel sauce

Chocolate peanut butter ice cream tart with bacon powder

The Fireplace - Brunch

As much as Wheezy and I love Cambridge, sometimes we just need to cross the river and get out so we recently took the Green Line C down to Washington Square for brunch at The Fireplace in Brookline. We were just there for brunch, but it also happened to be the "Super Hunger Brunch" benefiting the Greater Boston Food Bank. If you ordered off the special Super Hunger Brunch menu, 100% of proceeds went to the Food Bank. In the end, we ordered off the "0% proceeds to hunger" regular menu. I got the duck hash [YUM!] and Wheezy ordered the omelet [DELISH!].

Server: So are you here for the "Super Hunger Brunch?"

plasticann: Uhhh...not exactly!

Server: Oh!!!

Because really, I was at The Fireplace mostly for my own selfish personal hunger for tasty brunch and awkwardly, not really there for the food bank. It felt disingenuous to politely pretend that I was really there for the food bank. Wheezy pointed out that maybe we were being a bunch of jerks not pretending to care about hunger just to be polite. Maybe I should think about sending them a check to make amends.

PHOTOS: Fried Key Lime Pie - Marathon

Adam shared these photos with me of the aforementioned fried key lime pie from Porky's Check it out...it's beautiful.

Ribbon Hoarders

Someone was telling me about this show called "Animal Hoarders." I initially thought it sounded kinda cute since I thought it was a nature show about animals who hoard nuts and twigs in their animal shelters. In reality, it's really not cute at all, it's about people who hoard animals.

I admit, there's a little hoarder inside of me that I fight everyday to repress. Sometimes I err on the side of ruthlessly ditching stuff kinda like these moms who throw out their kid's "art." I was organizing my stuff last week with these new boxes I got on OneKingsLane and I rediscovered all this ribbon I bought last year that I forgot all about. I lined up all my spools of grosgrain, satin, etc. I rolled up all my loose ribbon and put them in little snack sized ziplocs. Rediscovered ribbon treasures include wide yellow rick rack and embroidered Danish style ribbon I bought in Solvang.

Just "Smith"

A friend of ours got married last summer, let's call her "Jane Doe" and let's say her husband's last name is "Smith." The following is a reconstructed conversation:

plasticann: So Jane, are you going to change your name to Smith?
Jane: That was the plan, but I have some paperwork issues to sort out.
plasticann: What happened?
Jane: When the lady at the courthouse filled out the marriage license, she put down my new name as "Smith." Not "Jane Doe Smith" or "Jane Smith." Just "Smith!" I have no first name or middle name, just officially one name.

Folks, be careful when you fill out that paperwork. Adam just signed up to marry his first couple as a pastor and he's added this little tip to his list of advice.

Snow & Graham

I'm always flipping back and forth on my outlook calendar to figure out days of the week so I bought myself this accordion 2011 calendar as a cheerful alternative. It hangs on a hook next to my desk, ready to rock and roll. I really like all of the Snow & Graham designs and I like how they've partnered with Garnet Hill to design bedding and Tiny Prints for stationary. I love the address labels.

I [heart] Down Sweaters

I love the Patagonia down sweater so much that I pretty much live in mine for three seasons each year, indoors and outdoors. They're really light, warm and packable, all features equally functional and important for "Alpine" activities and, in my case, tooling around Boston. Thanks to my incessant sales pitch, plasticmom, Adam and Adam's dad have all been converted to the down sweater. I'm now working on Adam's mom next so we can all be matchy match at the next family gathering.

I bought my first one back in 2006, the first year they had them, with my "birthday cake" money. That first year, they only came in super bright shiny primary colors that were a little bold for the average person to pull off: bright red, bright green, bright blue and black. I went with the shiny black and I endured some teasing from Adam who said my jacket looked like it was made from a black garbage bag. Fortunately, Patagonia started making them in more accessible colors that weren't so shiny, but I grew to love my shiny black look so much that when I ripped a hole in it, I was pretty bummed. I took it down to the Patagonia store hoping they could patch it for me. When they generously offered to give me a brand new [not shiny] jacket, I was pretty torn. Fortunately, they let me upgrade for a few extra bucks to the "new" and improved special edition down sweater that's even lighter, if that's even possible. It's accented with awesome magenta zippers and most importantly, it's shiny like a black garbage bag.

Living Room Beautification Campaign Continues

Persistence is my middle name, well actually it's "Zung," but that's neither here nor there. I bought this two layered Japanese container from Tokai to, once again, corral all the stuff we have on our coffee table. Heeding Adam's feedback about the Red Round Tray's giant footprint, I went with an enclosed tiered box with a smaller footprint, less than one square foot. Unfortunately, Adam thinks it's too "tall" and interferes with his television watching. As Adam puts it, "we have differences in opinion about aesthetics." Our solution, Adam moves it to the bookshelf when he gets a chance and I keep moving it back to the coffee table. [Rinse and repeat.] I'm sticking with this storage solution I think it's adorable and super functional and I have high hopes that Adam will learn to ignore the box in his peripheral vision when he watches TV. I love the colors and the mod looking flowers. I keep the coasters, pens, scissors, and matches in the top layer and a stack of seersucker napkins in the bottom layer. As for the seersucker napkins, that's a another story for another day.

Scampo - Brunch

If you're looking for a place for brunch today [Sunday], check out Scampo. Wheezy and I went a few weeks ago and it was delicious. The dining room was pretty empty so we were a little too well attended to, but they were really nice about letting us hang out for a while and poured us lots of coffee. We shared the Truffled Egg Salad on Brioche and the Lemon Chiffon Pancakes. The pancakes were yummy, but oh my was the Egg Salad amazing. It's truffled egg salad on brioche...what more can I say. Absolutely nothing except go to Scampo and order it.

Nested Suitcases

I impulsively bought a set of three nested luggage style storage containers from OneKingsLane in an effort to get organized. I used the two smaller ones to store our [unsightly] board games in our living room and used the large one to store my handbags in our bedroom. Fits perfectly under the bench which was unused space anyways. I think it looks cute, Adam thinks it's a little weird, but he's going along with it so I'll count that as a #win for plasticann.

Adam: Let's move these to the bottom shelf so no one can see them.

plasticann: It's supposed to be displayed. It's the style! It's retro! It's cute!

Adam: I just don't get why would we want to display "suitcases" in our living room? I guess it's OK, but I think it's kinda weird.

Potty Humor

We were hanging out with our niece and nephews last Thanksgiving. Zames, the middle one, was playing with the magna doodle and saying to himself, "P-O-O...Poo!" I was reminded of Zames the other night when I walked to this snow bank where someone had written "P-O-O...Poo!" I took a photo and pointed it out to Adam on the walk home. Adam, the witty man he is, immediately made the "P" into a "B" and now it says "B-O-O...Boo!" Both are amusing to this thirty something year old, I guess it never really gets old.

Heading to see plasticmom

I'm heading out to LA today for a long weekend to see my family. It's a quick trip with only nine meals to work with so I need to be strategic. This is what I'm thinking so far:

1. Din Tai Fung dumplings

2. Hot dog on a stick + a lemonade

3. Moffetts Chicken Pies

Plus I'm checking out the Newport Tan Cang Seafood restaurant with Laurel and CAD Cowboy on Saturday.

Red Round Tray

I bought this red lacquered tray a few years ago at Pier One for seven bucks intending to use it for corralling all our coffee table stuff: coasters pens, candles, napkins, etc. I was thwarted by Adam who deemed the tray "too big" for our coffee table, "takes up too much surface area." Harrumph, so much for my efforts to beautify and organize our house. Inspired by a photo shoot in House Beautiful where they used a big tray to organize a side table, I appropriated the red tray to organize my bedside table last weekend. My stuff stays in the tray and my glasses and iPhone don't accidentally spill onto the floor in the middle of the night. Looks pretty nice to boot!

Surprise!

Adam's been nonchalantly asking me for the last few days a bunch of questions in hopes I would go to the freezer and discover the surprise thin mint ice cream he got me from JP Licks. Very exciting and I was totally shocked to find it. It's been in the freezer since Thursday, but I finally discovered it on Sunday night. I commend Adam for not spilling the beans for three days as he waited for me to finally be surprised. I would have dragged him to the freezer to find it within 30 minutes of putting it in. Sample nonchalant questions included:

• Are you going to have dessert tonight?
• If you're going to have ice cream, you should do it soon before we go to bed.
• Can you get me my ice pack from the freezer?
• Can you put my ice pack back in the freezer?
• Is tonight an ice cream night?

It's a vase, it's a creamer, it's a sake bottle

In my fantasy world, I would never feel cold, I'd have supernatural metabolism and I could collect as many dishes as my heart desired. I should probably dream bigger, but I do have a genetic predisposition toward dish collecting. Adam rolled his eyes when I bought these two plain white sake bottles last year at H-Mart, but I got them anyways because they were only $3 each. I love the clean white look and their simple form, perfect for a bud vase. They're also perfect little creamers for milk. I can't, however, endorse them as sake bottles since I've never used them as them as they were originally intended for.

Sifting works...go figure!

My cranberry orange zest scones were ultra fluffy yesterday because I actually sifted my dry ingredients as directed by the recipe. I tend to ignore instructions to sift flour because I'm kinda lazy and those giant flour sifter contraptions look kinda annoying. Last fall, I bought myself a tiny little sieve for four bucks at LaRoux in Portland, Maine. I figured that it was small enough to store and inexpensive enough. It's pretty small, but it works great for my purposes since I'm usually only sifting small amounts and I can actually taste the difference. Go figure!

P.S. Check out the my super adorable red heart themed cake platter from Adam's parents.

Zeff's Absurdist Jingles - Courtesy of MGDub

"It's a pillow, it's a pet, it's a bag of nails!"

"Teen Mom...it's not just for breakfast!"

All the soda water I want

Adam got me a Sodastream for Christmas and it took me a month to finally set it up. I was intimidated by the CO2 tank and was irrationally scared of blowing something up. It was totally easy to put together and I was carbonating water like a pro in no time. All the flavors they make have artificial sweeteners that taste disgusting to me so I used the flavor essences to make lemon/lime soda water. Tastes great and I feel like I'm not completely killing the environment with my cans of carbonated water.

Snow, snow and more snow

The snow has been relentless in Boston the last few weeks for those of you who haven't experienced it personally. Snowstorm, blizzard after another, the snow keeps coming down and we have nowhere to put it and we were just hit with another one this week. My office actually closed for two days this month because the commute was treacherous so we all worked from home and called into our meetings. Here's a photo of my street from one of the snow days. It was completely insane, a bunch of tree branches broke off from the weight of the snow and fell on the bike path and my bushes were completely transformed into weird snow sculptures. We went out for a walk afterwards and it looked like like the end of the world had come. Beautiful, but kinda creepy.

[Popcorn] Latte Bowls

With all my recent Whirley popcorn popping, eating and sharing, I thought it'd be nice to have some popcorn bowls for guests. I bought these colorful latte bowls at Anthropologie on sale for $2 a piece that work perfectly as individual popcorn bowls. Can't wait to pop some more corn!

P.S. They're one of Anthopologie's classic items so they always have them and they're often on sale too at the end of a season. I have a mini latte bowl I use for my hair elastics that I got for a buck.

The King's Speech

I was all set to see The King's Speech last weekend, but it was totally sold out when I got to the theater. I was pretty upset because I had all this awesome movie theater contraband (Vietnamese sandwiches, cupcakes, soybean milk) from Chinatown I was planning to sneak in. Instead, I went and saw Country Strong which was enjoyable, but not blogworthy.

Fortunately, I did get to see it last week with a friend. My contraband was less exciting, but the movie was much better. I had high expectations going in and my expectations were exceeded. If you haven't heard about it, it's received a huge number of Oscar nominations. Colin Firth plays King George VI and it's about his journey to overcome his stammer and his reluctant ascension to the throne when his brother abdicates. I loved the film and I would highly recommend it.

Quest for [Affordable] Steak

I really like steak and it's something that I crave so I've been on a quest to find a good affordable steak that I can enjoy regularly. There are plenty of wonderful high end steakhouses that have great steak, but it's just too expensive for everyday. This quest has been harder than one would expect. For many years, I really loved the John Harvard's Brewhouse Ranch Spiced Steak served with mashed potatoes, but then the quality went downhill. Dante had a wonderful mini Steak Frites on their bar menu that they no longer offer. We live right by Frank's Steakhouse and I really really want to like Frank's desperately, but it really isn't that good if I'm honest with myself. The quest may have ended this weekend when Adam made reservations at Joe's American Bar and Grill on Newbury and where we ordered the double cut 24 oz prime rib, French onion soup and Caesar salad. The warm bread was crusty, the food was delicious, the ambiance was nice and casual and the price was right. I think the quest might be over...for now at least.

Peanuts Moleskine Notebooks

MGDub is a huge Peanuts fan so I had to get her one of these limited edition Moleskine notebooks. Then, of course, I had to get a Snoopy one for myself. I always carry a plain black Moleskine, but I'm mixing it up with Snoopy these days. I especially enjoy the Peanut's family tree inside the notebook. "Snoopy is the faithful dog of Charlie Brown who is the older brother of Sally who has a crush on Linus...."