15 Reasons My Christmas Break Was Awesome

January 5, 2013

It’s been over 2 weeks since I actually sat down to write something for the blog, and this just is unacceptable. To make up for my utter lack of motivation and drive to do anything over the holidays except eat, drink, and sleep, I present…

Highlights Of My Christmas Season

1. Rocked An Awesomely Ugly Sweater

Blue Ion Christmas Party was “Cheesy Sweater Themed.” Nailed it.

I feel no shame in admitting that I’d gladly and unabashedly wear that sweater year round.

2. Baked Up Storm With My Mother

What would Christmas be without Christmas cookies? Not nearly as exciting, that’s for sure. And my mother and I definitely did our part to make sure Christmas was chock full of sweet, sugary, chocolatey goodness. Snowballs, chocolate chip biscotti, Reese’s peanut butter cup cookies and a giant apple pie (not a cookie, I’m just saying, we went a little crazy).

Peanut buttery delight

3. Decided that I eventually want to move to Atlanta.

“Why?” you might ask. Well, Atlanta’s got everything: great ethnic food, awesome shopping, ridiculous traffic, and Sean and Christine, so really the better question is “why am I not already there?”

4. Received the COOLEST APRONS EVER

My mom hand-sewed these 4 awesome Harry Potter-themed aprons (one representing each house). Apparently they took her forever to make. When I suggested she make more and sell them online, she started laughing maniacally and rocking back and forth in the fetal position.

Reppin’ Ravenclaw, as per usual

5. Got Some Homemade Queen Of The Food Age Swag!

Ben commissioned his Mom to hand paint this awesome Pilsner glass for/from my blog, and totally blew me away.

Queendom becomes me.

6. Cried Like A Baby During The “Leverage” Finale

I know they’re not real people, and I know it’s super cheesy, but I still cried. It wasn’t pretty.

I’m really going to miss you guys. Especially you, Hardison.

7. Made My Mom Cry With My Awesome Gift Giving Skills

My brother and I collaborated to make these three pretty hilarious recreations of photos from our childhood.

Basically, I’m the best daughter ever.

8. Proved That Girls CAN Be Handy!

I made these two really awesome gifts for Christine (book worm book case) and my brother (beer pong/portable ping pong table). I’M AMAZING.

Can She Build It, YES SHE CAN!

9. Spun Around Under The Tree At Marion Square

Lauren came to visit, and we did our annual Christmas Extravaganza–presents, and drinking, and Christmas lights–and spun around under the big tree in Marion Square… I love Christmas!

This picture makes me dizzy.

10. Dipped A Bunch Of Stuff In Chocolate

When I went to visit Ben’s family after New Year’s Day, his mom had us do this really fun food craft project, which involved dipping pretzels sticks in chocolates while Ben’s brother serenaded us. Then we ran out of pretzels and went a little crazy, dipping potato chips and orange slices in chocolate, too.

Food crafts are my favorite kind of crafts.

11. Took My Nerdiness To A Whole New Level

Lauren bought me Star Trek Settler Of Catan for Christmas. Yes, you read that right. STAR TREK. I don’t even care that it’s the nerdiest thing ever, it’s freaking awesome. I played it probably ten times over break. We even got Christine to play (after we plied her with some delicious wine), and even she had to admit it was fun.

But, hey, at least it’s not Magic: The Gathering, right?

12. Became a Home Depot Expert

Helped my mom redesign our house after it flooded. Pretty sure I’ve looked at more paint samples in the past 2 weeks than most people see in their entire lives.

Turns out, there are WAY MORE than 50 shades of gray.

13. Refused To Kiss Jason Sudeikis

Ok, so this one TECHNICALLY only occurred in my imagination. I had a dream that Jason Sudeikis of SNL fame was super into me and was making some moves. Dream Me was super loyal to Ben, though, and refused to cave into Mr-Sudeikis-Of-My-Dreams’ advances. Dream Me is kind of dumb, because real life me would have totally gone for it.

Don’t worry, Ben would totally make out with JS too, so it’s all good.

14. Watched Way Too Many Movies

The Hobbit (twice), 5 Year Engagement, Star Trek, Pitch Perfect (three times), Love Actually, Ted, Looper, Men in Black 3, and The Muppet Movie. Not to mention 4 episodes of Dexter, and about 8 episodes of Duck Dynasty (aka my new favorite show). If you haven’t seen Pitch Perfect yet, go see it. It’s hilarious.

15. Kept That Drunken Promise I Made 2 Years Ago.

Two year’s ago at New Year’s Eve, I promised 2 of my best friends that we’d always spend New Year’s Eve together (followed by Sean’s delicious Hoppin’ John and Collards on New Year’s Day). We’ve successfully carried on that tradition for one year so far, so we’re pretty much set for life.

Chilled glass of champagne, baked brie, good friends, what more could you ask for?

Chilled glass of champagne, baked brie, good friends…what a way to start 2013!

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Restaurant Reviews

Mike’s Pastry, Boston, MA

September 16, 2012

Walking into Mike’s Pastry is like walking into some kind of Italian dessert wonderland. They have 19 different kinds of cannoli, in addition to marzipan, biscotti, cakes, cookies, pies, gelati, whoopee pies, eclairs, etc… pretty much any kind of delicious dessert item you can imagine.

Usually I don’t like cannoli, I feel like the cannoli cookie usually tastes stale, so I tend to avoid them. But I ended up trying their orange cream-filled cannoli (after Uncle Greg all but shoved it down my throat), and I have to say, it was actually quite delicious. I bought a chocolate chip cannoli to try, but I was so full I ended up just giving it to Naomi. I really regret that decision.

Mike’s Pastry
300 Hanover Street
Boston, MA 02113

Recipes

The World’s Best Lasagna

December 13, 2011

So for my official “Night Before My Last Day Dinner Party” I decided to make lasagna for the coworkers I invited over to share in the feast. I had all of these people to impress so I knew I had to do something more than just thaw out a Stouffer’s lasagna (although Stouffer’s is delicious). So I found this recipe online HERE and tweaked it a bit to fit with what I had and how much time I had to do it in. Here is my tweaked recipe:

Ingredients:

1 pound sweet Italian sausage (I used Johnsonville)
1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
2 tomatoes, sliced
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
6 tablespoons dried parsley
No-boil lasagna noodles (I used about 24)
32 ounces ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
12 slices provolone cheese
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

In a large saute pan (one with high sides, you’re going to be adding a bunch of liquid to it), cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 4 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Meat sauce done right.
In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with eggs, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
To assemble, spread 1 ladle full of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish. Arrange noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with ricotta cheese mixture, and layer with sliced tomatoes. Top with sauce, and sprinkle with mozzarella and parmesan. I eyeballed this, so just use what feels right. I topped it with a bit more meat sauce and then stacked the noodles on top. Repeat layers.
Noodle meat. (that’s what she said)
Top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Add 6 slices of provolone and cover with foil. I used non-stick foil with the non-stick side down toward the cheese to keep the cheese from sticking. You could do the same basic thing by spraying aluminum foil with some Pam or other non-stick spray.
I’ll have a side of cheese with my cheese, please. Also, noodle meat.
Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving. I noticed that the cheese was browning a bit too much around the 19 minute mark, so I took it out a bit early.
Right after I took the foil off.

19 minutes later. aka perfection.

Needless to say, the lasagna was pretty ballin’. Everyone ate pretty much all of it. I made two casseroles full and only one little slice was left over. I laid out hors d’oeurves to accompany the lasagna, including buttery crescent rolls, meat balls and tomato sauce, and mini caprese salad bites (grape tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil on a toothpick).

I seriously could eat ten thousand of these things. So. Good.

Les brought salad and we all drank wine to go with it. We laughed and talked for like 3 hours. Probably the most fun I’ve had in a really long time. Plus the lasagna was delicious. Then I made chocolate chip biscotti for dessert. It was pretty decadent.

Biscotti is italian for “Cookies from Heaven”

I’m pretty freaking awesome.