#9 & #10 Shamelessly plugging food gifts on behalf of friends

Well, Christmas is upon us and I'm determined to make it to 10 gifts this year. I had greater aspirations, but I guess I'll have to give it a better try next year. To round off our list this year, I'm shamelessly plugging two food gifts from friends.

The first is Charles Chocolates, Adam's friend Adam invests in this company and their chocolates are delicious. I especially like the chocolates inside an edible chocolate box collection, very "green" and yummy.

The second is Providence Granola Project started by two friends of ours from back in the day. I must confess, I've never had their granola, but it does look pretty delicious. I figure I know Keith and Geoff personally so I know who to talk to. They just started this venture last month so want to support them and plus it's for a good cause, providing opportunities for refugees to learn work skills.

Office Clutter

Our home office is a perpetual work in progress and right now it's pretty cluttered. I guess most homes have some sort of junk room or table or area and our office serves that purpose. I'd created a pile of things for Adam to sort through on one of his days off a few weeks ago and the following reconstructed conversation is about that very pile:

plasticann: [pointing to the pile] Adam...what's this?
Adam: A pile of stuff.
plasticann: Isn't this the pile you said you'd go through two weeks ago?
Adam: No it's not the same pile...
plasticann: [confused]
Adam: ...it's a bigger pile now.
plasticann: [cracking up] Good one!
Adam: I thought you'd roll your eyes and be exasperated?
plasticann: I could have, but that's pretty funny.

8. Fake Felty Food

I love food, I love cookies, I love fake food and I sure do love fake cookies. These felty pretend cookies are super cute and make me hungry.

Third Annual Zakun Brunch

We successfully pulled off our third annual brunch this weekend. On Friday, we had 45 yeses and 11 maybes so we were wondering how we would be able to pull off feeding that many people. In the end, we had 33 which was still a full house, but we managed to make way too much food and there were no melt downs...yeah us! Our friend Zave provided a much needed ride for our giant things of coffee and Wheezy was kind enough to come early and help out. Wheezy executed and created this awesome Festive Donut Kabob centerpiece that was the talk of the party. I take some credit for the initial idea, but the flawless execution was all Wheezy. The donuts are from Verna's down the street, we had the Cinnamon Raisin, Buttercrunch and Chocolate cut into smaller pieces. Wheezy skewered a variety of donuts and stuck them into a pomelo to create the donut arrangement. It's kind of like the edible fruit arrangement, but somehow we've managed to subvert that idea of by making it super unhealthy and arranging donuts onto a piece of fruit.

Menu

French Toast Bread Pudding

Sour Cream Coffeecake

Donut Kabobs

Fruit Salad

Cheesy Tator Tot Casserole

Bagels and Lox

Scrambled Eggs with Avocado and Tomatoes

Sausages

Coffee & Orange Juice

"Four Sock Monkeys Snuggling"

8. My current obsession and Zames' too...Sock Monkey

Over the summer I got obsessed with these awesome sock monkeys I saw at a few local craft fairs. I first saw them at the Davis Square ArtBeat this summer so I decided to get all the kids sock monkeys for X-mas this year. After I bought them Zess, Zames and Zhor in August, I really wanted one of my own so I bought myself a very cool purple striped sock monkey in September. Over Thanksgiving, I made the mistake of bringing my sock monkey with me to CA. One day, Zames discovered the sock monkey when he went into our room potentially ruining his surprise X-mas gift. The following is several reconstructed conversations that occurred over the course of three days:

Day 1:

Zames: [Sitting on our bed and shaking my sock monkey] What's this?

plasticann: It's my sock monkey, it's made out of socks.

Zames: [tugging at the ears] Why does it have ears?

plasticann: Because it's a monkey and monkeys have ears.

Day 2:

Scene: Early in the morning, plasticann is still in bed when she hears...

Zames: Sock monkey, sock monkey, sock monkey in there, sock monkey in there.

Day 3: plasticann hides sock monkey each morning to thwart Zames

Zames: Where's sock monkey?

plasticann: [no reply]

The kid is very persistent and has a good memory. I was hoping he'd forget, but each day he asked about the sock monkey just once. I sure hope he likes his X-mas gift this year because guess what...it's gonna be a sock monkey. Fortunately he doesn' read my blog.

7. plasticmom's favorite most perfect bowl

plasticmom LOVES her Emile Henry gratinee bowl. She bought her first one while visiting me in Seattle at the Sur la Table in Pike's Place two years ago. I remember she was all excited about this bowl she'd seen in the window and really wanted to get it, but it was "$3" and she didn't really "need" anymore bowls. After much debate and discussion, she returned the next day to claim her bowl. The bowl rang up at $13, turns out she missed the extra "1" in the price tag when she first peered through the window, must have been the glare. Nonetheless, she went for the bowl and has since purchased a second bowl.

She tells me the bowls are so perfectly functional, they're the only bowls she uses. She loves the little nubbin handles and she uses them for her soups, her noodles and even her coffee/tea. I have my doubts about the coffee/tea, but I appreciate her enthusiasm. I wanted in on these bowls so so I purchased some last week on my Sur la Table shopping spree. I got two yellow ones for home and a red one for work. Yesterday, we tried out the new bowls in the microwave and we were delighted to discover for ourselves how wonderful the little nubbin handles are, they don't get hot in the microwave and I can actually carry the hot bowl without potholders. Amazing! I think I might be in love with these bowls myself.

6. Felty

Corinna took me to one the coolest stores I've ever been to in Baltimore. It's called Blue House and it's a coffeeshop/home goods store. They had these wonderful felt products by Parkhaus Berlin that I feel in love with. I ended up buying myself some colorful felt coasters and Corinna was kind enough to remember my felt obsession and bought me some a small tote and bag as a maid of honor gift. That said, I recently discovered a local Boston company Etcetera Media that makes similarly luxuriously cozy felt products.

"All You Can Buy" at Sur La Table

Adam and I are out in the Bay Area for Thanksgiving and we've had many adventures already this week, but one big priority was spending some quality time at Sur La Table, an awesome kitchen/home goods store. I woke up yesterday and thought of fond childhood memories of "All You Can Buy" trips to Toys R Us on my birthday so I declared yesterday a Sur La Table shopping spree bonanza. Adam gave me some grief over the entire thing, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I bought this giant 18 inch diameter cake pan so I can bake really giant cookies, I hope it fits in my oven when I get home. I also bought a square removable tart pan to class up my lemon bars. I also got a couple of plasticmom's favorite bowls and some other treats like a cool new zester. Yipee yeah!

5. Rosie & Johnny

Trumpette socks are adorable...need I say more? Great baby gift since the socks are frivolously wonderful and unnecessary. I secretly wish they made them in my size, but I doubt it'd be as cute.

4. Fancy Schmancy Gloves

Wheezy got me these fancy dishwashing gloveables with a wide oilcloth cuff. Fortunately we have a dishwasher, but they're protect my hands and enable me to use super hot water for the pots and pans. plasticmom took a liking to my spiffy gloves and promptly purchased a half dozen as gifts for friends.

3. Affordable Letterpress

I absolutely love letterpress stationary, but it's wicked expensive so I was elated last year when I found affordable letterpress stationary from Paper Monkey Press. They use really cool old school wooden letter blocks to print and you can choose the ink color. They don't provide a lot of options, but the results are awesome and you can't beat the price at $25 for 25 cards and envelopes. I ordered an entire suite of stationary for myself and I was so pleased that I ordered it pretty much for everyone else last year.

One More Day

Little Zim is turning four tomorrow. He's very aware that it's his birthday and I hear he's been counting down to the big day. Today he held up one finger. The following is a reconstructed conversation from last week between Little Zim and his dad:

Zim: [looking at a big box from Fisher Price in the doorway] Dad, what's that box for?

Dad: I don't know, looks like it might be a present.

Zim: [pensively pausing] I think we should put it away and best not think about it.

I should remind you that Little Zim can read, but I figured he's probably not reading this blog so there's little risk of ruining is birthday surprise. So for the boy who loves words, we ironically got him a book filled with pictures which brings us back to our holiday gift list....

#2 In the Town, All Year Round

2008 plasticann holiday gift list...

Five years ago, I attempted to and succeeded at blogging about 100 gifts. It was a bit exhausting and I didn't have 100 good ideas the next year so I lost a bit of momentum. The blog has been pretty quiet these days and I've missed it so I'm attempting to bring back the gift list. This year, I can't commit to 100 gifts, but I'm aiming for at least 50 so I'm going to start the count at 1 and keep going until Dec 25.

1. Snuggly Hat

I spotted this hat at a local outdoor store, Chinook, and I became a little obsessed with it. plasticmom may or may not have realized, but she bought me this snuggly hat as a gift. I wore it tonight and it kept my head toasty and the earflaps are just wonderful. Thanks plasticmom!

Lemon Bar Grudge Resolved

Overall, Adam has been a wonderful husband/boyfriend for the last [eek] nine years so I really have nothing to complain about, but I must confess that I've been holding a lemon bar grudge against him for a good part of the last eight years where I vowed never to make him lemon bars. It all started back in 2001...the following is a reconstructed conversation on that fateful night:

plasticann: Adam, I made you some lemon bars as a treat, but I left them at the office. I'm so sorry.
Adam: That's OK? Were they from scratch?
plasticann: No, they were from a mix, but it's a really good Sunkist mix and it's my favorite.
Adam: I only like lemon bars from scratch, you should call Zara and get her recipe so you can make them from scratch.
plasticann: Harumph! I don't make lemon bars from scratch, the box is very good. I can't believe you'd refuse to eat my lemon bars because they're from a mix. I'm NEVER making you lemon bars even from a box.

Thus for many many years, I refused to make Adam lemon bars even from a mix because I deemed Adam to be a lemon bar snob. I also refused to make them from scratch...in retrospect a dumb sticking point since I do love lemon bars, but I am a little shall I say lazy. Well, the other day, I had lemons so I flipped through a cookbook looking for lemon recipes when I found a lemon bar recipe that looked easy so I decided to bury the hachet and give it a whirl. The lemon bars turned out great and they passed the Adam lemon bar test so we've now resolved our lemon bar conflict and can now move toward enjoying the buttery goodness of these treats whenever we have lemons. This is good news since we both love lemon bars.

Bury the Hachet Lemon Bars

Crust:
7 tablespoons butter (nearly 1 stick)
1 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Filling:
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
zest from 1 lemon
Juice from 1 lemon (2 Tbs)
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees
2. Place butter in an 8 inch square pan, put pan in oven until butter melts
3. Sprinkle 1 cup flour and 1/4 cup powdered sugar over melted butter, mix to form dough in the pan, press dough evenly over bottom of pan, return pan to oven and bake 15 minutes
4. Beat eggs with sugar until blended, beat in 2 tablespoons flour, lemon zest, juice, baking powder and salt until well combined
5. When crust is baked (15 min) spread lemon mixture over hot crust, return to oven and bake until pale brown 20-25 minutes
6. Let cool completely and dust with powdered sugar (optional)

SYTYCD

Adam got me tickets to the So You Think You Can Dance live show for my birthday. We went last last week and it was super fun. They did all the best dance numbers from the entire season and they did all my favorites. The crowd was a mix of young kids and older folks and everyone was really enthusiastic and clapping and hollering so we felt less geeky screaming for our favorite dancers. Can't wait for the next season to start.

Halloween

Last night was Halloween and we actually had trick-or-treaters. The neighborhood squirrels ate giant chuncks out of my little pumpkin so Adam lit some candles on our porch to make our place look more welcoming. My favorite costume was a kid dressed as a "Red Box" DVD vending machine. I wish I'd taken a picture, but it was very cool.

Curry Ginger Carrot Soup

It's amazing what I can accomplish in two hours if I don't watch TV. Anyhow, we had a ton of veggies in the fridge this weekend so I cooked up a storm to get through all of it. I made Adam some apple sauce and I made a delicious curry ginger carrot soup with a giant bag of carrots we had. The soup is bit on the hot side since I added a little too much spice so Adam wasn't a fan, but I've been loving the soup myself. I froze the soup in a bunch of sandwich bag servings which are perfect for lunch at work. I just ate a bowl as a "healthier" pre-dinner snack than a bag of sun chips.

Curried Carrot Soup

Ingredients
Serves 4 big bowls or 8 small cups
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon ginger (optional)
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) reduced-sodium chicken broth (about 3 1/2 cups)
2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish (optional)

Directions
Heat butter in a Dutch oven or large (4- to 5-quart) saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, curry powder, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft, about 5 minutes.

Add broth, carrots, and 3 cups water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover, and simmer until carrots are tender, about 20 minutes.

(Note: I used an immersion blender right in the pot of soup which was super easy.)
In a blender, puree soup in batches until smooth; transfer to a clean saucepan. Add more water to thin to desired consistency. Reheat, if necessary. Stir in lemon juice. Serve garnished with cilantro, if desired.Note: Hot liquids will expand when blended, so be careful not to fill the jar of the blender more than halfway. To prevent the liquid from spattering, allow the heat to escape:
Remove the cap from hole in lid, and cover lid with a dish towel when blending.

Happy Birthday To Me

Last Sunday was my 30th and plasticmom was out for a birthday visit to help celebrate. Adam, plasticmom and I went out for a fantastic meal at Oya and enjoyed the chef's tasting menu. I also had a birthday pie party which was super fun. Twenty-five guests, 14 pies from Petsi's and lots of candy favor bags filled with Zagnut bars and huge gummy alphabets. We had waaay too much pie and we're still working our way through it. My friend Dave took home an entire key lime and proceeded to eat his way through. He finished up Wednesday morning 7:45am. I received lots of thoughtful cards and gifts. The following is a reconstructed conversation at my party about one of my favorites.

Wheezy: [looking at the birthday cards displayed on the shelf] Oh no...someone got you the same card as me.
plasticann: Which one?
Wheezy: The one with the "30."
plasticann: [laughing] You know how got me that card?
Wheezy: No, who!
plasticann: Wheezymom, she mailed it to me.
Wheezy: [slightly flabbergasted] I know someone would buy the same card, it's the only "30" birthday card at the store.
plasticann: Where did you get it?
Wheezy: CVS!
plasticann: I wonder if Wheezymom also got hers at CVS.
Wheezy: She probably did.

Hilarious! I displayed the two twin cards together and they look awesome. I still laugh when I think about it. Great minds think alike.

Night Out on the [relative] Cheap

Adam and I had half priced tickets from Bostix for Chorus Line last night so we needed to grab dinner before the show downtown. We decided on Kingston Station for their Gruyere cheese frites with truffled mayo so we were pleasantly surprised to find out when we arrived that they have a happy hour with awesomely cheaper full sized appetizers at their bar Monday-Wednesday 5-7pm. Appetizer that are normally $8-13 go for $5-6 during this happy hour special. We tried the frites, chili rubbed chicken wings, mussels, hummus and pita. All were delicious and we also shared a beer.

Getting back to our half priced night on the town, I was able to buy our tickets from Bostix last week through their advance purchase website. You don't get to pick your seats, but the tickets are half off and you don't have to wait in line the day of. You know which section you'll be in, but not the exact seat until you show up. The musical had no intermission so the doors stayed close throughout the show. Since the show wasn't sold out, there were tons of empty seats in front of us so everyone started moving down and toward the center. We picked up and moved on down like everyone else and ended up with great seats in the center much closer to the stage. It's a great little perk for a weeknight show and now that I know about Kingston Station's Monday through Wednesday happy hour, weeknight theater tickets are even more enticing.

My Neighbor

Adam was enthusiastically greeted by our little neighbor last week when he was coming home one evening. Our two porches and front doors face each other and she likes to hang out right inside the screen door. The following is a reconstructed conversation between Adam and our little neighbor Zay (age 3), I was not present:

Zay: [standing inside of the screen door] Hi!
Adam: Hi Zay!
Zay: Hi Ann!
Adam: [not sure how to respond]
Zay: [turning around to someone inside the house] I said hi to my neighbor...I said hi to Ann.
Adam: [Still not sure how to respond, but waves hi]
Zay: [not getting the response or reaction she was hoping, so she yells] I SAID HI TO MY NEIGHBOR...I SAID HI TO ANN!

In other news, Zay also woke up in the middle of the night crying really hard and yelling "Mommy, mommy." We all had our windows open since it was a warm evening so I'm sure MGDub, who was staying with us, probably heard her as well.

As Far As I'm Concerned...

Our friends Marj and Jon got married this afternoon so MGDub came up for the weekend to celebrate with everyone including our friend Zayne, the British girl Zayne not the American boy Zayne. MGDub and Zayne had never met, but had heard a lot about each other for years since they were both at one point in the same small group, but not at the same time. Let me explain, Adam and MGDub once led a small group together and it was called appropriated the Adam and MGDub small group. Then MGDub left for the Big Apple so Adam kept leading the group which was when Zayne joined. Long story short, Zayne hilariously sassed MGDub at some point in the evening when she said, "Well, as far as I'm concerned, you were never a part of that small group." To which MGDub replied, "Hey! That small group used to meet in my apartment." Wow, I think sarcastic Zayne may have won that round, the fact that she has a British accent only makes it more hilarious.

Zimo & Zegan

Adam and I hosted an impromptu BBQ over Labor Day and among our guests were Zrica and her kids Zimo and Zegan. Zimo is a prococious almost four year old who reads and once agreed that he was a Communist. Zegan is his little sister who's almost two and looks up to her big bro and wants to do everything he does including reading. They were both really into playing with our Lego magnets on our fridge. I also let them play with a landline phone we had around. Zimo even "called" me on my cell phone and we had a lovely conversation. The following reconstructed conversation about the phone:

Zimo: Mommy, if they're not using their phone, maybe we can...borrow it.
Mom: We already have a phone at home.
Zimo: But, that phone is for Mommy and Daddy and we should have one for...the kids.
Mom: You already have a phone that you kids play with and drag around.
Zimo: But...it's always good to have an extra.

Good try Zimo! I could see him visibly straining to come up with more logical reasons for why they should take the phone home. Zimo may be pretty smart for a little kid, but Mom is afterall still much smarter.

How much does a batch of cookies cost...some plasticann stats

Adam asked that question on our way home from the store tonight. I had stocked up on six pounds of butter since Cabot's was on sale for $2.50 a pound. Six pounds may sound like alot, but I go through butter like nobody's business which motivated Adam to ask, how much does a batch of cookies cost? I estimated around $4.50 a batch for the chocolate chip and around $7 for Adam's favorite. (Adam's favorite is a premium cookie.)

Assuming I bake around twice a week, I probably spend $50 a month on baking which translates to $600 a year which is really quite an expense when I look at it annually. Two batches is pound of butter each week which translates into a mind boggling 52 pounds a year. Frankly, the six pounds I bought tonight will really only last me until mid October. The batches I make are big, they bake up around 75 small cookies or 40 medium cookies or 20 large cookies. So each time I hand out a large cookie to a coworker, it costs around 22.5 cents in ingredients. Granted I would probably have to pay $1.50 for that same cookie at a bakery which is over six times more expensive so therefore it still makes sense financially to bake my own cookies.

One Million Rows

I'm a geek, I work with geeks, I find them all hilarious and endearing.

Joe: I'm getting a new laptop from IT.
plasticann: That's great. If you need Office 2007, you can join the beta test group. You can get Excel 2007 installed.
Bob: What's different about Excel 2007?
Joe: More rows, a million rows.
Bob: [shouts] GET OUT!!!
plasticann: [laughing] Yeah, that's a lot more than the 63000 we currently have.
Joe: Well, it's 65536 rows to be exact!

A Sign

I was walking by my neighbors lovely flower garden when I noticed a lovely sign in calligraphy that read, "STOP, don't take my flowers...DAMIT!" I had to laugh, the sign was simultaneously genteel and aggressive all at the same time.