Happy Birthday To Me

Yesterday was my 28th birthday.  After lounging around all day and napping, to celebrate we just went out to dinner at our friend's restaurant Ten Tables near by.  The meal was delicious.  I started with French lentil soup and we split the steak tartare, both were excellent.  The lentil soup was really creamy and the steak tartare had a great flavor.  Our waiter brought out a "gift from the kitchen", it was pasta with pigs ears.  You heard me right: pigs ears.  The flavoring of the pasta was really nice, but the actual pigs ears themselves were something that I had to skip.  I tried one piece and they were a bit too strange for me to eat so I just ate around them.  My main entree was the Crispy Giannone Chicken with potato gratin (my favorite kind of potato), smoked chicken jus, broccoli rabe, and almond romesco.  The potatoes were perfect!  For dessert, I was so happy to see that there was a meyer lemon tart on the menu.  Behold, the most perfect lemon tart ever made:

This was the most delicious dessert, the merangue was really sweet.  I could have eaten 5 more of these, I want one right now just thinking about it.

For my birthday, Abe had my friend Natasha make me a pearl bracelet to match a necklace that I like to wear a lot and to our delight earrings showed up too!  Honestly, it might be time for me to get a bigger jewelry box.  I used to have only a few pieces but at this point I am completely over flowing with all my Sparkle & Metal additions!  Too much jewelry will never be a bad thing.

      

Need: 2 bed, 1 bath, 5 closets.

Today started our apartment search for April 1.  We've been really fortunate in that the last two places that we've lived have been really well kept and modern.  You could even say that we're completely and totally spoiled with our currently underground parking and 2 full bathrooms, but we paid for it man, living here is not cheap so it's time to move on so someday we can buy our dream house.  Also, we've found out that just because something looks nice on the outside does not mean it's well made!  This place is slowly falling apart.  We're currently missing part of the ceiling and there is a bucket catching water.  There are a lot of cons about this place: the sound of the bus stopping in front of our building, fire trucks and ambulances going by every 10 minutes, the front door being slammed at 2am on the weekends next to our bedroom window, and using our second bedroom solely for storage because there is 1 closet in this space.

After a little back and forth we chose a town to zero in on which was the easy part and we've been searching Craigslist for listings.  The good news is that there is a lot out there in our price range so hopefully we get to see a lot of properties.  The bad news is that the first place we saw sounded great, but we knew from the second we pulled up front At Night that it was going to be bad.  First of all we asked someone who lived in the house if the landlord was there, and he wasn't sure, and he wasn't sure how to get to the second floor.  The front doors didn't lock, we seriously just walked right into the entryway.  The unit we were looking at was on the 2nd floor and it was the largest one of the three.  There was certainly plenty of space but it was in really bad shape.  The washer was in the kitchen...and the dryer was in the pantry... wtf?  There were water stains all over the drop ceilings, and paint was peeling off all the high ceilings, and every window had that insulating plastic on them because the oil was so expensive to heat the place.  There were two balconies, which would have been my dream come true but it just wasn't worth it.  We got to see the basement, and the tenant was like: we have an elliptical down there!  I'm thinking it's going to be partially finished because who the F would work out in a stone cold dungeon next to the water heater and the oil tank?  She would.  The basement was sectioned off into 3 parts for the tenants to house their stuff and the areas locked.  It really reminded me of every show I've seen where people are kept in the basement unfound for years and then killed.  I would never Ever go down there if I lived there unless I was a prisoner.

The good news is that this was only the first one!  The bad news is that I think apartment hunting is for the birds.  It takes so much effort to find a decent place without having to pay a realtor fee, but we're going to find the one.  We have to.

 

Pomelo Fruit

Have you ever had a pomelo before?  It's a large citrus fruit, a even bigger than a grapefruit.  I saw this mother at the grocery store and I just wanted to try it.  I had no idea how to choose a good one, so I squeezed them all and shook them like I had any idea what I was doing and picked this one.

There is actually a lot less fruit inside than I thought, that fleshy white part took up most of the actual fruit.  It was soft and spongey and very easy to cut away.  I think the key is just to use a very sharp knife. 

I had no idea how to cut this thing open, so I just kind of cut it up like an orange.  After like 20 minutes of slicing and dicing, I took my first bite.  If the camera was able to catch that first reaction, I don't think anyone would eat this fruit.  I like most fruits and vegetables, I'd say about 95% of the ones that come across my path but this was far too tartly bitter for me and it had a really strange after taste.  I literally couldn't even eat more than one slice of this and I had to throw the rest away...it was a waste, but that's how much I really couldn't even stand it.  However, it was a good experience to try something new on a whim and it can't always work out for the best!

 

Back from a week in the sun

Instead of any major Christmas presents to each other this year, we decided to go on a vacation.  We thought about going on a cruise back and forth because the last cruise we went on was kind of a disaster.  This time we chose a different cruise line and a different direction to set sail.  Our 5-day cruise went to Key West and Grand Cayman.

Key West was a lot cuter than I had imagined.  Everything was really pretty and it all was just so cozy.  We were only there for one day but we both thought that we could go back again and spend a few more days another time.  We spent a couple hours walking around the downtown area before getting back on our boat to sit by the pool for the afternoon.  It was filled with ice cream shops, pie shops, shell shops, and museums.

Key lime pie was Everywhere!  I love pie just as much as the next glutton but it was 10am so we didn't get any.

We were really good about not going over board with drinking, but we did have 1 cocktail before or after dinner each night.  Since our dinners were with the same 4 strangers each night a cocktail helped the situation a great deal and was too valueable!

My tongue is apparently the longest tongue ever put into a photo before.  This was also the best martini I've had in a long time, it was perfectly mixed. 

Our next stop on the cruise was to Grand Cayman and we had really high hopes for this place.  You've probably seen all those commercials about visiting there.  Well, the water was crystal clear and aqua!  We landed and went straight to 7 mile beach for some sun bathing and ocean swimming.

We spent most of our time there snorkeling along the reefs.  We signed up for a really inexpensive tour, so I thought maybe it wasn't going to live up to other snorkeling that we'd done but it was quite good.  We started over a ship wreck with lots of colorful fish who were not afraid of you by any means, although I was a bit afraid of them when they got too close.  Towards the end of that stop we all noticed a barracuda had found a nice spot to relax under our boat...I quickly got out.  Our boat then took us about 200 yards away to Cheeseburger Reef... they called it Cheeseburger Reef because it's the reef closest to the Burger King and the burger flag, totally serious.  That was nice too, the same kinds of fish but a different environment.  The water was a little cold for me, I was all goosebumps by the time we got out, but it was really fun and I'm glad we went.

They have this rule there that you need to wear this vest to snorkle.  It's just a fabric vest that you can inflate if you want or if you feel like you might be in trouble.  This was really good for Abe, a real plus.  On the other hand for me, it was a bit annoying. 

This is my sexy face.  So the rest of Grand Cayman was kind of a big letdown, the downtown area was all just duty free shopping and nothing else.  I don't think that's a place I want to go back to because there are a lot of beautiful beaches out there, and I prefer a bit more mellow feel on an island.  It was good to experience once though.

So overall the cruise was great.  It was a quick, inexpensive vacation in the sun.  The downsides: the food wasn't that great although there was great variety but I would sometimes take a bite and be like "this is gross", the drinks weren't that great, we gambled in the casino and lost a little, the shows weren't that great, there wasn't much to do when we were at sea.  The upsides: the service was excellent, the ship was nice and updated, there was a smoke free casino, our cabin was actually a good size, the gym was nice enough for us to actually work out a couple times, their setup allowed for no lines at the buffet during breakfast and lunch (very unlike our last cruise), everyone was nice, people recognized us all the time (weird) and said Hi.

In the end we decided that we may not be cruise people, but we don't mind it either.  I think we would go on another one as long as there are more places to stop so there is enough to do and see.  Also eating dinner with 3 out of 4 people who have English as a second language can be challenging, and I'd kind of like to avoid that again!

One or Nothing

E-mail from me to M:
Why do I not remember this?  I guess it was after our time but you'd still think thay we'd hear about it right?

From boston magazine:
"October 2005- A northeastern fraternity is suspended after cops bust up an epic 24-keg party at a Brookline frat house"

E-mail reply from M to me:
what. you've been to the xxx homecoming parties before...and then they had one other really big party a year..i can't remember what they called it. there were over 20 kegs...i remember they had tshirts. hmm. ill have to email jed and ask. So not only is that ridiculous, you have probably partcipated in it.

I opened this email today at the Miami airport after spending the night with horrible tummy pain and again with my head in the toilet for a few hours in a bathroom the size of linen closet.  We sat down to our special dinner on our cruise and had a glass of champagne to start and then ate a fantastic dinner with 7 small courses and a glass of wine.  It was a good amount of food in the end, and then I went and played blackjack for the first time ever (I lost), and then it happens how it always happens.  My tummy starts to really hurt and I find it impossible to even think because I'm feeling so horrible.  The worst part about it was that the only thing I could think about was that I ate 2 snails, they were tasty, but I got pretty grossed out later.  It's like yeah I think they taste great and I know they're not bugs, but all I can think of is Abe calling them bugs.  After that experience, I've become a 1 drink person!  I thought I could be a 2 drink girl but now, I've gotten to be an even cheaper date.  It's actually good for me, alcohol just doesn't sit well with me and never has, and now on to activities that are a lot less bloating - like catching up on all of our dvr-ed tv shows!

Must be the twilight zone

Tomorrow, we are going on a well deserved vacation!  I would probably be more excited if I wasn't up all night with my head in the toilet.  My entire body is in pain, and I'd love to say this was a night of way too much drinking but it wasn't.  It was a night where I ate something bad at a restaurant coupled with one and a half Allagash white beers.  The food was oddly delicious and the beer was nice and cold...cold like the bathroom floor.  The nausea and stomach discomfort while laying on the couch was a page out of the hangover book, the uncool part is that I was sober.  Lately, my body seems to be really sensitive to everything in a bad way.  Over Christmas I had a stomach virus, right when I got better a cold came into my life, followed by an allergy attack, and now more tummy problems.  This never happens to me, I'm usually the person who takes 2 sick days a year and won't get a cold even if everyone in the room has one.  Body chemistry changes all the time right?  I am hoping that tomorrow when we are on a plane early in the morning that things will go back to how they should be!  Life in the perfectly healthy lane.

Ginger Park - South End

Tonight I tried out Ginger Park (formerly Banq) in the South End.  It's contemporary south Asian cuisine with small plates that are best for sharing.  The space itself is amazing, everything is very organic and has a nice flowing energy.  It's a really nice feel, but on a Wednesday night there was hardly anyone there.  I started to wonder if it was the food or the location... 

The first dish that arrived was the crispy shrimp and mushroom wontons with sweet chili sauce.  These wontons were really good, the outside was perfectly crispy and the inside was perfectly soft and tasty.  I really didn't like the sauce, there was a tang in it like an orange zest that I didn't think worked.  Without the sauce they were really good, although I'm not sure I'd order them again.

Next up the Thai green papaya and mango salad.  The serving size was hearty, and the colors were really vibrant.  The papaya and mango was nicely julienned, so it was easy to eat but also very pretty to look at.  This salad was nice and light but also really flavorful and slighly spicy.  There was a warning that it was spicy on the menu, but I really thought it was just barely spicy.  I kind of wish I had some of this to eat again tomorrow, that's how nice it is.

The star of the evening was the tea smoked duck, scallion pancake, kumquat and apple chutney, which was served with a plum dipping sauce.  Putting thinly sliced duck on a scallion pancake topped with a little plum sauce was genius.  Scallion pancakes should never be eaten without duck, they go hand and hand it seems.  It turns out that I don't like kumquats, but my foodie partner Natasha seemed to really enjoy them.  If you like duck, then this is a great dish for you.

I ordered us the shaking beef moo shu, leeks, mushrooms and basil.  There was nothing on the menu to indicate that it is in fact quite spicy.  Natasha almost chocked on the spice, and then what would I do?  Yell for help, "my friend is chocking because the moo shu is too spicy!  Actually she's not really chocking, but she's dying on the inside."  Ok, that is an exaggeration, but she coughed for like 5 minutes when she inhaled the hot fumes.  I thought the moo shu was actually very good, spicy yes, but I liked how they pre-wrapped them to individual sizes and made them easily edible.

The final course of our dinner was the duck confit and sausage fried rice, sunny side-up egg.  This dish reminded me of Abe, he loves to put eggs into everything.  The fried rice was great, there were little veggies like peas and onions throughout the lightly fried rice.  The sausage was fantastic, it reminded me of Chinese boneless spareribs!  Little bits of the sparerib tasting sausage were spread throughout along with the duck confit.  The sunny side-up egg just sat right on top of the hill of rice.  What this wasn't was oily, when we order fried rice at other places or make it at home it tends to be overly oily and heavy feeling.  This was a really great dish, I think all fried rice should be made like this one.   

I don't understand why there were so few people at the restaurant because this place is really good.  The food is good, the atmosphere is good, the people are nice, and they have valet parking (in front of Union next door).  My only suggestion...I think they should add a couple of soups, when I eat Asian meals I really like to have a cup of soup as a starter, and I think a few desserts might be nice.  They served tiny shots of hot chocolate when the bill arrived and it was really good, but I could have gone for a pastry or something.  Those are two very minor details, I plan on going back and I hope more people try it out so it can flourish.

Ginger Park   A 

Stop Shaking The Building!

For a little over a week we've been trying to lose some weight together, you know like Biggest Loser Couple - style.  We're doing the P90X everyday, and eating healthy every single day and night.  So far the chest and back is by far the hardest day for me with the plyometrics second, and honest to God, I hate the yoga.  I don't know why, I don't hate yoga in a studio but at home with Abe, I really hate every second of it.  There's something about both of us being so unflexible that makes it so frustrating and the second he starts to laugh or make a noise then I laugh and can't continue that pose.  I'm keeping with it though, we're determined to make it through all 90 days.  I've always been really healthy, but I was flexible with my diet, I allowed myself to eat things if I really wanted them and I had things like chips in the house sometimes.  Right now, we have 4 skinny cow ice cream cones in the freezer and not another ounce of a snack or a sweet in here.  On the way home there was a little 12 year old kid eating a Happy Meal in front of me and I actually thought mugging him sounded like a great idea.  Like: Hey Kid, GIVE ME YOUR EFFING HAPPY MEAL RIGHT NOW!  And then I would shove the fries into my mouth and ran as fast as I could into the darkness with my bright red fluffy coat waving in the wind.  I would be almost unidentifieable I'm sure!  It's really coming to that though, I've been working towards a weight loss goal for 9 days now and it's hard.  I might be losing my mind just a little bit...  

Snapshots

It's been pretty hard getting back into a routine this week after a nice little vacation.  We're doing the P90X every night and packing our lunches everyday so I think we're on the right track!  Luckily for us some pre-matted frames went on sale at Pottery Barn and now we have framed wedding photos.  I could only find 2 that I loved, and I'm still debating on the last one.  Now that I've had time to reflect and review, our wedding was a very big day but it really doesn't bother me that we don't have any wedding pictures on display to show it.  We're going to have a life together, the photos are so insignificant.  At first I thought it was because I wasn't really thrilled with my photos, but even so, there's just more to it.  My parents don't have a photo of their wedding in their house either now that I think about it... maybe it's more common than I thought.  So anyways, this week is sucking the life out of me but I have some fun adventures coming up with new cooking challenges and home organization.  There is sure to be at least one mishap! 




 

Moving is pain

During our Christmas vacation, I experienced more pain and discomfort than I would have liked.  It started off with a stomach virus, and when that got better I instantly came down with a cold.  I've been coughing so much that sleep has been impossible.  Both of those little illnesses combined do not compare to the pain that Abe and I both feel from the P90X!  I got him this for Christmas, you may know it from infomercials or those really ripped people in your office.  There's a schedule of 90 days of workouts and 12 different dvds that alternate and vary in intensity.  Yesterday we did the shoulder and back workout (60 minutes) and the ab ripper (15 minutes).  This morning I was sore - it hurt to get my coffee creamer from the top shelf in the refrigerator... This afternoon, it hurt to try a dress on at the mall...and I've had to assist Abe with putting his coat on.  Now many many hours later I feel as though moving is a deep punishment.  If you want results fast and at home, then this is probably for you - if you really like pain.

On the other end of the workout spectrum, Abe got me the WiiFit for Christmas and I've been doing it almost every day.  I think it's really fun, and it really doesn't feel like working out at all...mainly because it's not really working out much.  Yesterday I played for like 20 minutes and at the end my calorie burning piggy bank told me that I had burned like 15 calories!  Hilarious.  The best feature about it is just the characters though, they're so cute and you get to workout as your own Mii.  This is what Abe's Mii looks like as a penguin:

Super Cuteness!  I can't believe tomorrow is Monday and we have to go to work.  Where did our vacation go?  I also can't believe that we need to do another P90X workout...     

NYE Panda Style

We had a lot of fun this NYE even with me coming down with a nasty cold and Abe eating himself into a slight sub-coma.  The dress was casual, the booze was super flowing, and the food consisted of 2 three foot subs from Bob's in Medford.  Sure we could have done something a little bit more classy, but sometimes convenience wins out.  The subs were awesome, we're talking like not just really easy, they were also really delicious.  

One sub was turkey, Italian and roast beef.  The second sub was meatball and steak and cheese.  They were fantastic and worked really well to feed our crowd of 15 people, there is in fact hardly any left today to speak of.  We threw together a party at the last minute and it was shocking to see how many people showed up.  We figured that everyone would have plans, but it turns out that almost all of our friends showed up.   

There is probaby something wrong with this picture.  I'm not sure what it is though...

The party hats and glasses were Abe's idea of course!  Everyone had a really good time, and my super sober self drove us home a little after midnight.  We did see at least 8 Cambridge police arresting people/in traffic stops on the way home, I'm happy to say that we were never at any risk because I drive like a grandma!  The party was also conveniently located 4 miles away, those are my favorite parties.  

Today we slept in late and I have a full-blown cold, and Abe is couch surfing.  We found plenty of lazy tv to keep us occupied while we just rest and take the day as it comes.  We're researching treadmills and watching Ghostbusters, just a regular lazy day for us!

We wish you all a Happy New Year!