Bouchee

Guys, do you love french onion soup the way that I love it?? It is my favorite soup in the world and I think soup is the bees knees. If you do, then I think you should try this onion soup at Bouchee on Newbury Street. It's the real deal. I mean, it's the first onion soup that I've had in many months but I thought it was everything a classic French onion should be: warm, inviting, filling, and satisfying. The flat bread pizza is also worth mentioning. It's very light with sweet and savory flavors.

I really liked this restaurant from the warm atmosphere to how they serve Coca Cola in a retro glass bottle. It looked very much like the restaurant in Ratatouille minus all the crazy people. A lot of places on Newbury Street look and feel the same, but this restaurant is much different. It's upscale without being snobby, and it feels very authentically French. They have an outdoor patio that has heat lamps so people can sit there well into the fall, I've never seen this before. I didn't think that I'd be warm enough, but actually they are quite toasty so maybe next time I'll try that. Bouchee is a Newbury gem, a lot of places in that area are touristy or just basic America food, but I highly recommend this one.

Food A
Atmosphere A

ps. Happy Birthday little benita!!

Mushroom Apple Dog

There is something in the air. Things around me are getting stranger and stranger by the minute. Is it me? Or is it the universe? It's probably me. I tend to attract the bizarre.

Look at the two-legg-ed mushroom that came in our package of white mushrooms today. I mean first of all, what a fantastic photo right? I used my Nikon D60 and I have proven why I need to start using that much more often. Abe was like: I found this in the mushrooms and I thought of you. I wonder why he thought of me... Do I look like a deformed mushroom? Or maybe because I like quirky things.

At the grocery store yesterday I was in the natural foods aisle looking at the almond butters, when I came across this. It's applesauce that you squeeze into your mouth. I think the concept is nice...applesauce on the go for a healthy snack. However, I'm so grossed out by it!! I never ever want to squeeze applesauce into my mouth through a juice box. There's just something about the texture that I don't enjoy at all.

And now finally, meet Mr. Max, he just got groomed today. Can't you tell by his magical 'stache? You'd think he was taken to a pet groomer's, but what actually happened was that a pet groomer came to him. Yes, he was groomed in a van. In my mind, I can clearly see the doggie van from Dumb and Dumber, but that's not actually what he visited...I don't think. I'm not really sure how they work their water in that doggie van, I'm going to ask Mr. Max the next time I see him.

Well that sucked

Today's goal was to hit 11 miles and make it home before it started pouring out.

It was 62 degrees but humid, so I started out with a light jacket in case it rained. 0.5 miles into it, I had to take it off because I was just dying. Then I had no idea where to put it. So I wrapped it around my waist, but under my water belt. Immediately this was a mistake. I should have gone home and dropped off my jacket, but I felt that I had gone too far. The weight of the jacket, plus my full water belt was hard to manage! I figured that I would get used to it.

Mile 1: I stepped into an ankle deep hole that swallowed up my entire foot soaking me completely. The hole was the actual size of my foot.

Mile 2: I am usually just warming up by now, but instead I was barely moving. Also I was sweating to death, but my ears were freezing.

Mile 3: In super all over pain. My legs just wouldn't cooperate.

Mile 4: Was walking more than running, so I started to head home and my legs were really stiff and aching.

I'm not sure what happened today. Normally I am a bit tired the first 3 miles, but then I fall into a nice pace and feel good for the majority of the run till the last few miles. Today was just not my day at all.

During my walk home, I saw a girl in a bit of a frantic state. She was obviously lost or unfamiliar with the area and she was desperately looking for a cab. I finally caught up with her and told her where to find one, and she looked at me like: omg, I just got caught doing the walk of shame! I was really just trying to help her out though and not embarrass her. Just after this event I saw a fire truck, ambulance and 2 police cars speed by. When I make it back to my place they were all parked right out front and I was wondering what kind of trouble my husband got himself into. What actually happened was an SUV turned the wrong way onto a two lane main road and into oncoming traffic ruining a little car. Abe took pictures to show me. It's been a relatively exciting morning, but not much good has come of it. It's one of those days where I want to crawl into a hole and not come out for atleast 12 hours.

Eggplant Patrice

I got this recipe from a very sweet coworker. She knows how much I love eggplant! It was very easy to make, but the cook time is a little longer than desirable. I prepped everything and then I left a note for my husband to put it in the oven when he got home while I was out on my run. This worked out really well!
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Eggplant Patrice
1 small eggplant sliced into 1/4" circles (I used 2 small)
2 green peppers sliced into 1 inch cubes (I used 2 green and 1 red)
2 onions sliced any way that pleases you(I only used 1)
4 plum tomatoes quartered
cheddar cheese
garlic salt
dried parsley
bread crumbs
salt and pepper

Spray the casserole dish, and then layer all the ingredients like a lasagna: eggplant, peppers and onions, tomatoes, bread crumbs with garlic salt, and cheese. sprinkle some parsley on the top at the very end with salt and pepper if you like.

Cover with tin foil and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, then remove foil and reduce heat to 350 and bake for 30 minutes.

Serve with angel hair pasta. Warning, this is a great deal of food! This would feed 4-5 people.
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I really enjoyed this meal. The veggies get nice and tender without getting mushy and you can really taste each individual flavor: the ripeness of the tomatoes, the sweetness of the peppers, and that homey taste of the eggplant. I loved it! In fact, I loved it so much I forgot to take a photo of it.

Not in the zone

This morning I set up my coffee maker. I put water in the carafe, put the coffee in the filter, and pressed on. I started to pack my lunch, and then realized that the coffee maker wasn't making any noise. I then stared it it blankly for 30 seconds only to realize that I put the carafe back into the base but never poured the water in. I've Never done that before, although I have run the coffee maker without the ground coffee before resulting in just really hot water...I'm a woman who needs her caffeine before things function properly.

I got out of work, thinking: Man, that was one really long and unproductive day. I walked to our door, pulled out my keys, and realized that I forgot to put the key back on my key ring after my run last night. This morning I got a ride to work with Abe so I didn't have to lock the door behind me, which normally would have set me off to forgetting it. Yet another thing that I've Never done before... well in recent time.

Today was a day for firsts.

I'm about to eat my first lasagna with sherry in the sauce. Good idea or bad idea? We'll see soon enough. Abe loves to add sherry into things.

Pickled Green Beans

I became obsessed with canning things. First my strawberry jam, then my lower sugar strawberry jam and now pickled green beans! These green beans were much easier than the jam, and much faster. This is a great little project especially with all the farmers markets around right now.
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Green Pickled Dilled Beans
(From Cooks.com)

2 lbs. tiny stemmed green beans (I used regular ones)
pack into jars with 1/4 tsp. of cayenne pepper, 1 clove of garlic each and 1 head of fresh dill

bring 2 1/2 cups of water, 2 1/2 cups of vinegar, and 1/4 cup of salt to a boil and then pour into the jars of beans leaving 1/4" at the top.

Seal the jars and process in boiling water for 15 minutes.
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These are really good. I used a little extra cayenne pepper because I love spice, however, if you do that I have some advice for you. Do not eat them and then immediately go for a 4 mile run. I should have thought that one through more!

Saturday on the Farm

Today, we went to our favorite farm... where we hold chickens and sometimes we shoot things. Nothing got shot today! We were given a job today to help feed all the cows. They're all spread out over certain areas of the farm, so there were actually a lot more than I thought. Three separate groups needed hay and corn feed. Abe was brave enough to drive the tractor, but I just stood on the side and rode along with him. It wasn't complicated, but I've never driven a standard car before so I would have had a harder time I'm sure.
We really enjoy the time that we get to spend on this little farm. Being out in the country is really relaxing, maybe except for the smell of the cows. We could probably live without that, not that they aren't really cute but we can't get too attached to them. This is a cattle farm after all before anything else. There are chickens and a vegetable garden, but really those are just side gigs. We did get free range farm fresh eggs to take home, fresh picked eggplant and a ridiculous amount of basil to make pesto with!

We took their dog Bodie for a walk along this really old trail which used to be some kind of old rail way of sorts. It was really nice and just this big pathway in the middle of a forest. At first I was thinking: wow this place is fantastic, I love everything about it...until Abe spotted a memorial out in the corner. It was a memorial for a little girl who went missing in 1993. Um, Ok, not really a peaceful nature walk anymore!! Bodie didn't seem to mind though, he really enjoyed himself.
Later, we went to this amazing little BBQ shack called B.T.'s Smokehouse. It doesn't look like anything more than a little red shack on the side of the road, but this place is amazing. I got pork ribs, beef short ribs, potato salad, and a piece of corn bread....and also some spicy beef jerky. I wasn't fond of the potato salad, but those pork ribs were the best that I've ever had. We usually get our BBQ from Redbones in Davis Square but B.T.'s blows Redbones out of the water. The ribs are so much better. There isn't a very large menu, but everything on it is very good. My only complaint is that the sides are really blah, there are very few choices and really none of them are very good, but you don't have much room after you stuff yourself full of ribs anyways. If you're ever out in Brimfield, MA, you should take a quick detour and pick this stuff up! Your taste buds will thank you!

The Greek Corner

You know when you really want to try something new, something you've never had, and it turns out there are about 10 restaurants within walking distance of your place that you've just never been to? That's what it was like tonight when we decided to go to The Greek Corner just 2 blocks away. I have a really horrible memory from my teenage years of one of my Greek neighbors who thought it was Ok to rotisserie a full lamb in their front yard. It was Ok, there's nothing wrong with that at all, except for the fact that it was scary. I've never really been able to enjoy lamb because of that very moment, and when I think of lamb I think of Greek food. However, tonight I got over that little nightmare and we decided to try this place out. I have no idea why we never went sooner, this restaurant was fantastic. The servers were very sweet, and helpful. We started off with a sampler plate appetizer for two, which was basically a Greek antipasto. There was a scoop of everything: dolmathakia, tsatziki, taramosalata, spinach pie, hommus, tabouleh, feta cheese, eggplant salad and olives. I'm not sure which one of those was the grape leaves, but that was my favorite. They were in fact the most perfect grape leaves that I've encountered. The hommus was the most garlicy hommus that I've consumed in recent time, and the tabouleh so fresh and light. I wouldn't have changed one thing about either of them. For my entree I had the chicken kebab, which was marinated and grilled chicken with peppers and onions sitting on top of a bed of yellow rice and a side of greek salad. This was an enormous amount of food for one person, Abe couldn't even finish his meal. He got the same thing but lamb kebab, and I actually thought it was very good. The lamb didn't even freak me out one bit. The best part about this place was the price. Our meal with 2 beers and tip was only $54, and it was more food than the average person would need. They also offer takeout, and have lovely looking gyros and such. Lots of people were coming in and out to get their pickups. Go early on a weekend night, the place was really busy when we were leaving!

The Greek Corner A-
It's a must visit.

Warning: Rant!!

This comes from my friend Flaura again. Man, she has a lot of crap to deal with.

Today, someone actually said to me, "we need to go to remedial proof reading class" meaning like me and him, but mostly me. Of course he was joking around, but of course it was still totally unnecessary to phrase it that way. He could have just said, "our old address is still on this document"...isn't that a tad nicer? Or like, "oh I didn't notice that the old address was still here either but would you mind changing it?" Again, nicer.

Yesterday, I was printing out important things at the Only color printer. As I was waiting for them and organizing and stapling, some guy actually says "Come on now, is this all one person's stuff, is this yours still going?" It had been a total of 4 minutes, you know how I know? It says it on the freaking machine. You know why this really sucked, 2 other people were standing there also not knowing if he was teasing and kidding around or being serious. We all stood there uncomfortably, and then I met the eyes of someone I'm friendly with and I gave him the "WHAT THE MOTHER F" face. He died laughing, and then I grabbed all the papers that had taken a whole 4 minutes to print and left that black hole of: What the Flying F.

My advice to my friend would be to get a new job, OMG. But I would also say that Flaura, you're lucky to have a nice job right now. So hang in there kiddo! Go get yourself a Starbucks tomorrow to make the morning a bit more bearable.

Running Shoe Dilemma

You know how I know I'm ready for my half marathon in October? I ran 9.31 miles on Sunday for my long run in new sneakers that I found to be sub-par and I didn't think it was too bad, and I had a tummy ache. Today, I ran 4.0 miles and I still didn't like them. The perfect sneaker search continues...I have low arches, I overpronate, and I like padding in the feet. I have no injuries, but my feet are really sensitive and always seem to be in a little pain. Any suggestions? My old sneakers are the Nike Equalon+3 (loved) and my new sneakers are the Nike Pegasus (not a fan)...I think I'm going back to the over priced Equalon... or maybe the new Lunarglide. Check out the new Nike shoefinder, It's enlightening. According to them, the Equalon is exactly what I should have had the whole time. Now if they could just bring the price down a little bit and the color pink back. The other day a guy asked me if I had my outfit picked out for the race. I was like: What? oh no, it's just too far away. I mean I'm still working on my shoe choice right now. I do know I'd like to wear a pink top of performance material, and I always wear Lulu Lemon spandex capri pants to run in (yeah they look fantastic). That's as far as I've gotten on that! I guess it is a bit more planned than previously thought.

And on an unrelated note. I decided that I should look at the crime log for my area of Cambridge. This was a bad idea. After that I decided that I should get pepper spray, but getting it is a bit too time consuming for me. What is my best defense from someone trying to attack me? I'm going to guess it's my running, so I should probably have sneakers on at all times when alone. So this is actually more important than previously discussed...unless you know of defense that doesn't require a license...

Oh you look so good!

A bunch of great things happened today. I wore my new earrings from Sparkle & Metal to work. A self portrait with my Blackberry is probably not the best way to showcase them, but I still think they look pretty great. I love the size, it's perfect for me and I got a lot of compliments on them. A nice way to start off the week is dressing with purpose. Today's purpose was to get many compliments and very little bad attitude. It partially worked!

A cookbook that I won at Dine & Dish came in the mail today! Yes, I won a cookbook! I hardly ever win things, and I am in my nesting mode so I can't wait to try out some new recipes. I found some especially exciting muffin recipes in there.

And if you wanted to see a grown man playing a motorcycle racing game at Dave & Busters then behold the intensity.

Suburban Fun

We had a friend in town last night from North Carolina and we went out to the suburbs to hang out with him and his super cool brother who happens to have a really interesting job in a really nice town. We had like hundreds of questions for this guy, it was an embarrassing amount of admiration and curiosity. Also, I learned horrible things about a very local news anchor. If you want to know who called 911 from her home because she had diarrhea, just ask me! And of course I'm totally ashamed at all the crappy pub food we ate for dinner and heavy beers. Needless to say things got pretty strange from there.


Don't worry, we didn't take that home with us. It was one of those nights that takes you back to times when things were way more stupid and idiotic.

I'm not really a big drinker so when they took some mystery shots at an ungodly hour, I didn't participate so I could drive us home. That was a very smart decision! The boys were not pleased with it at all, it looked like rat poison. This photo is just ridiculous. Abe is eating a piece of cheese that's squirreled away in his mouth and our friend looks like he's wearing a fat suit or something. It should probably be one of those anti-drinking ads like: don't let this happen to you.

Disaster Averted and then not so much

In other news. Have you ever tried to use Oxyclean? Well you should because it really does work. My husband accidentally turned an entire load of wash pink. We're talking Brooks Brothers work shirts, white undershirts, expensive polo style shirts, etc. He put 3 pairs of new brown socks from the Gap (made with bamboo) in the washer with these items for reasons unknown to him, and everything came out bubblegum pink. It was pretty shocking, I've never actually seen that happen. I thought it was one of those old-wives tales so that people would feel forced to separate their laundry. Our apartment has become an Oxyclean factory with buckets of clothes soaking in various stages of pink, but in the end it seems only 1 shirt is permanently ruined. I thank you Oxyclean for saving us from a meltdown.

While I was sitting here writing this post, Abe found my super secret candy jar. Not only is it super secret to him, but it's super secret to me because I'm constantly forgetting about it. He was so disgusted with everything inside (chocolate from valentines day, etc etc), it's now empty and it's become the new sugar jar because some idiot (me) broke the sugar canister today. Oh, how did I break the jar? I made tofu for dinner and you need to squeeze out all the water so that it will be ready to absorb the marinade. At a certain point you should wrap it in paper towels and then put something slightly heavy on it for a few minutes... what did I choose? The heavy Martha Stewart blue sugar canister of course. Why? I have no idea, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Last time I used the August issue of Vogue, which was also pretty darn heavy. While my back was turned mixing the marinade the sugar canister fell off all the way to the ground and shattered. To make things even worse, I can't find a replacement, I LOVED that perfect color. It's not sold at Macy's anymore, this is pretty devastating, although totally my own fault.

Jam that squirrel

Fall is here. Do you know how I know this? People were wearing jackets to work today. I was cold in flip flops and it was entirely too hard to get out of bed. I have circles under my eyes just because my body hates the fall and winter seasons. I've made two batches of strawberry jam and my next project is to pickle some green beans. Thank God I bought so many mason jars back in August. I have more than I'd ever need, but I do still need to pick up a can gripper. You know, I'm just stocking up for the winter or something with all this canning. My instincts keep telling me to pickle or freeze food. I've never had this feeling before but I'm sure its related to me becoming a hermit the second snow hits the ground. I'm just prepping for 5 long months of stored foods and no human contact. Which reminds me of squirrels. I think they're the cutest little things but lately I've developed a fear of them. When I walk to work, I go through a nice bike path and there are lots of high trees overhead. I don't know why but they really enjoy jumping from tree to tree right over my head. Most of the time they don't sound like they're going to make it. These are the fat city squirrels that eat way too much human food. If one lands on me that will be the end of it. I will totally lose my well groomed shit: squirrels beware!

Happy Lobster Day

We didn't do all that much this weekend, but we did eat 4 lobsters each! It was all very unexpected and I think that I'm all set with eating lobster for awhile. We picked some up on Saturday because they were on sale at our local grocery store, and then my parents called and wanted us to come over for lobster on labor day. How could we really refuse that kind of offer? Lobsters, locally grown corn, marinated tomatoes, baked potatoes, I mean really it was a feast. We made some minor home improvements (my first trip to Lowes!), went to a nice little cookout, and got ourselves a good dose of vitamin D. We had some big plans to getaway in Maine but it didn't happen for us this year, and this was actually a nice alternative. I love Maine, but eating a reasonably priced lobster outdoors in perfect weather here in Mass isn't so bad either. I feel very relaxed, and maybe even a little bit recharged. We should have three day weekends once a month!

Cute Joke

Did you want to hear a joke? Because I only have about 3 so I should spread them around real good:

Two strawberries are stuck in a jar of jelly. One says to the other: if you weren't so fresh, we wouldn't be in this jam!

Increasing my worth

This post by Heather Armstrong at Dooce just cracked me up:

http://www.dooce.com/2009/09/03/house-adorable

Not the baby part, because sure all that is impressive but I don't have babies. The part about her saying "Hello" in Korean at a nail salon and scaring the crap out of all the ladies working there. I'm trying to learn Korean just for this kind of reaction. Hopefully by Christmas I can pull this on Abe's parents. I'm sure they're saying things like, "doesn't Abe's wife look gorgeous today, her hair is stunning and she smells like lilies." However, there are so many syllables going on that they could be saying Anything, and this is what I need to find out.

500 Days...

500 Days of Summer with Zooey Daschanel (I love her name, and oh for the love of God she has the best bangs Ever) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I had really high hopes for this cute summer romance/comedy and I felt that I was let down. Sure it was a comedy, but was it a funny as Juno? No. Was it as funny as I Love You Man? Nope. Was Zooey as cute and quirky as everyone knows her to be? Yes, she did her job and looked great doing it. Joseph - guy with too many last names, he did a great job too. He played the love-struck fool more perfectly than anyone could have. The acting on both sides was great. I really enjoyed the way they put the movie together, it was very unique. There was even a little song and dance and really bad and really good karaoke. There was romance, there was chemistry, there were likable characters. What was missing? My main problem with this movie was the movie itself. I just wanted to scream, "She said she didn't want a boyfriend, what is your Effing problem!!" Watching a man break down the entire movie and lose his absolute being was quite annoying. I don't really want to give away the end or anything, but watching a couple disintegrate on the big screen - a la The Breakup, is kind of a big waste of my time. I also didn't like The Breakup, I also hated the book Revolution Road, this storyline never pleases me. So everyone else seems to love this movie, but I give it a solid B: rent it. It's not as funny or cool as say...Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

Sumo

This is normal stuff to have in your house right?

Crazy Flying Organs!

Today was a day like any other, although my outfit was greatly improved...
But a nice outfit did not save me from uncomfortable conversation:

Very important person = VIP
Me = your's truly
________

VIP: did you hear michelle duggar is having a 19th baby?
(she was totally unaware that I love that show)
Me: I did hear that this morning, I couldn't believe it.
VIP: Things are going to start falling out of her soon!
Me: What...like what?
Other Person: Like her bladder!
Me: Oh My God! No way.
VIP: Yes, it happens! If I were her, I would just tell Billy Bob or Jim Whatever to stay away from me.

I couldn't believe that this VIP was having a conversation with me about bladders and things falling out of women after having too many babies. She is so down to Earth and nice, but I wish that I hadn't heard that bladders need to be pushed back in some women. Is that even true? It's horrifying.