Our New Apartment

Pin It now! ok, it's not "new". we were debating whether we should stay in the apartment for another year or not. pros: lots of space, convenient to everything, we both walk to work, in our price range, quiet neighbors. cons: older building and older apartment. obviously the pros outweighed the cons, but we both needed a change. so..."we" (meaning michael) vaccuumed all the corners and footboards which made it a thousand times cleaner. we moved around our furniture and made a lot more room. i put up new pictures on the walls. we ordered more artwork and lighting and changed our curtains. we also bought a new tv (!) and took advantage of cyber monday. whew! i tried taking pictures of the new space but it doesn't look very photogenic. here's a photo of the frames i put up with photos from the waterfalls they put under the bridges last year and a wall of bottles from the brooklyn brewery. (i heart ny!) to see everything else, you'll just have to visit!

Food Post!

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michael made turkey meatloaf topped with turkey bacon for dinner tonight. yes, that's cheese that is oozing down the sides. it was delicious!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pin It now! happy thanksgiving everyone!!

i love thanksgiving. it's a time for family and food. it marks the beginning of the holiday season. i'm IN LOVE with the holidays in new york. the feeling of holiday cheer and the warmth that all the decorated stores and lights create make me warm and fuzzy all over. i love hearing christmas songs on the radio. it's so bad that every year after NYE, i'm in holiday withdrawal. but the holidays are here again!!

thanksgiving was great! i went to get coffee in the morning while hubby was making his potato side dishes and stopped by to watch the parade. it's fabulous that the macy's thanksgiving parade is literally two blocks away from our apartment!

we then headed out to hubby's cousin's house in new jersey for our first thanksgiving meal - quiche, artichoke dip, proscuitto wrapped breadsticks, pepperoni and olives. i love hubby's family - they're fun, really family-oriented and make fabulous food. then we were off to my parents' for our full thanksgiving dinner. this year more people than usual celebrated at my parents' house. it's usually my parents, my brother and sister, and me and hubby. this year we hosted dinner with two family friends and their kids and my aunt, uncle and cousin from boston. my mom brined the turkey with a recipe she followed from martha stewart and brined for a full 24 hours this year. we had a rib roast, shrimp, stuffing, garlic bread, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and homemade cream of mushroom soup. the cream of mushroom soup is also a tradition. i can't remember when we started making it for thanksgiving but it's a must every year, and we only have it once a year since it's creamy and deadly.

my sister was singing "cinderella, cinderella..." while i was washing the dishes. thanks for helping!

Thanksgiving Eve

Pin It now! i've finally got the chance to use my kitchen aid mixer! i love it and i wish i had a cooking show just so i use it and show it off. until then, i'll show off my cheese cream tarts. i'm not sure where the receipe originated from but we've had it in our circle of family friends for forever. it's so easy and it's delicious!

(the below recipe makes 12 tarts so i doubled the recipe)

2 pkg 8oz. cream cheese

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

1 pkg vanilla wafers

1. Put the wafers in the bottom of each muffin/cupcake tray

2. Beat cream cheese and sugar

3. Add eggs, vanilla and lemon juice

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean)

hubby will be making the starches for thanksgiving dinner tomorrow morning. on the menu - sweet potatoes with glazed walnuts and mashed potatoes with bacon and chedder cheese. can't wait!

Eatting Better

Pin It now! ever since the wedding, i've been eating pretty badly at work. some days i'll skip breakfast, which we all know is a big no-no. lunch is usually soup and salad or a big platter of rice and a protein from the deli down the street. i've always just had coffee in the morning, but lately i've been having a second cup during tea time. i'm starting to feel tired and i really think it's because of my bad diet. i know it's the holidays, but i can't wait to revamp my eating habits for my new year's resolution. i'm going to start on monday (after all the turkey and yummy thanksgiving sides are all eaten!) to eat better. whole grains and a healthy breakfast. more veggies and a more nutritious lunch. no salt and vinegar chips for snacks! i started project coffee a few months ago and it was a total fail. crossing my fingers that project eat healthy is more successful.

Karaoke Party!

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i thought i took more pictures, but there were a lot of people, a lot of songs and a lot of drinking so i guess there was only one birthday party photo. it was really fun and i can't wait until our next one (nye baby!)

It's my birthday!

Pin It now! i don't feel 31. i don't look 31 (whatever 31 is supposed to look like). but i'm 31 today. it's a little strange to write since i feel like i'm still in my early 20's, and i don't think that will ever change. maybe when i have kids or when my kids have kids. we'll see...

last night, me, hubby, my parents and my brother and sister went out to dinner for an early birthday celebration. we ate at new big wang in chinatown. ok, that was the old name of the restaurant (it's now called yee li), but new big wang is so much more fun to say. tonight a bunch of us are going to have our big karaoke party at one of the japas restaurants. i love karaoke parties because we have a private room and we can get loud and sing as awful as we want without having anyone else hear. i'll report back with pictures tomorrow!

happy birthday to me!

Running With His Wallet

Pin It now! i just walked out of work and i hear a guy yelling and running towards my direction. i couldn't understand what he was saying, but he's an older guy shouting and running down the street. then i see another guy running past me. i realize the older guy is yelling "he took my wallet! he took my wallet!" then the cops are running by. i have no idea if they caught the guy. drama!

it makes me think what i would have done if realized earlier why the guy running past me was running past me. should i have tripped him or got in his way to stop him? what if he had a gun though? i hate to to think i would be scared to help someone in need, but this is new york city where you never know who's crazy.

2012

Pin It now! tonight hubby and i went to watch 2012. he didn't particularly like it, but i thought it was really good. it had it's share of action, but it also had lots of commentary on human nature.

i want to really believe that something will happen in december 2012. the mayans predicted the end of the world, but others have also talked about an enlightenment or shift in humanity. whatever it is, i want to believe that something will happen in 3 years. why? it's the sci-fi geek in me or maybe the belief that we all need a change. i told hubby i thought we would do really well in surviving if we had to. he thought HE would do really well, but stopped there. you watch out...i'm one tough cookie! i'm curious how it's all going to turn out.

Sake Tasting at Sakegura

Pin It now! last night, the girls and i went for sake tasting at sakagura in midtown. the restaurant is hard to find and in the basement of an office building, but once inside, it's a great place. em and i have been trying to do sake tasting for a long time and we finally started finding places (and going there!) to try different kinds of sake. our first one was my favorite - m-something - and it was deliciously smooth. the second one was a little dryer and according to the waiter, fruity, but we couldn't tell the difference. the food was really good too: chicken meatballs, cod, shrimp sticks, eggplant three ways. and of course we had dessert: chocolate souffle, black sesame creme brulee, and black sesame and green tea truffles. i would definitely go back for more!

 

Getting Together at Crispo's

Pin It now! tonight hubby and i met up with some friends we haven't seen since the wedding for drinks at mckenna's and dinner at cripo's. it was a mini-celebration for our friend who is getting married tomorrow at city hall. her soon-to-be husband wasn't there since his parents were in town and he had to entertain them so we half-celebrated without him. if you go to crispo, get the pork shank! it's to die for. also delicious and definitely worth getting...eggplant carbonara and brussel sprouts.

M&M's Made Just For Us

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my sister order personalized M&Ms for the candy buffet for our wedding. of course she only ordered them a few days before the wedding so they never came in time. i have pounds and pounds of pink and red M&Ms personalized just for us. i have to figure out what to do with them! don't say eat them. i rather not gain 10 lbs right after our wedding just because i didn't want to waste chocolate!

Summer and Presents in November

Pin It now! it was a gorgeous fall day...t-shirt weather in november! my parents were driving into the city so of course i took the advantage of the ride back. we had lunch and while my mom went to the salon, my dad and i walked around. i love the little things...talking and walking with dad on a gorgeous day and buying groceries in chinatown.

to make the day even better, i (finally) went to bed bath and beyond to exchange the silver kitchen aid stand mixer we got as a wedding gift to a RED kitchen aid stand mixer. i was overjoyed when i saw one of our friends had given it to us, but now that it's red, i can't stop looking at it and adoring it. look out hubby, your new competition is in the apartment ;)

Home in the Garden State

Pin It now! i'm back in my parents' house in nj for the weekend. they needed help doing a major fall house cleaning so i "volunteered" to come home. actually the converation with my mom went like this:
me: "oh, i wanted to come home to visit this weekend."
mom: "great, come for the whole weekend. i need you to clean the windows."

being the guilt-ridden oldest child, i came home. and cleaned the windows. including the screens. i'm glad i don't own a house. or maybe i should have kids soon so when it's time to clean the windows, they'll be old enough for child labor.

i love being home though. they're something about being in the house you grew up in after you've moved away that makes you feel like a kid again. i also like how quiet it is in the suburbs. the only sound at night are the occassional cars that drive by. no honking, no firetrucks, no people shouting outside your window. i slept like a baby last night.

Tufts Entrepreneurial Network Inaugural Event

Pin It now! i love my alma mater tufts. love it!. i had a fabulous college experience so i try to stay involved with the school as much as possible. last night clara and i went to tufts entrepreneurial network's inaugural event where sara kugelman (class of '85) talked about the two businesses she started. her first one was gloss.com, an internet start-up back in 1999. i've never heard of it, but it was pretty big with the celebs. her second start-up a few years ago is skyn iceland, a line of natural skincare products that are "specially formulated to treat the effects of stress on skin." check out her company! (i'll shamelessly plug people's products after meeting them for five minutes.) i've used the arctic face mist sample that she gave out yesterday. i'll let you know how it feels after using it for a few days.


it was pretty amazing and inspiring listening to her and sitting in a room with entrepreneurs from all different industries. i networked a bit and asked sara for advice on my small little wedding start-up. her advice: get sufficient funding and try to distinguish yourself, preferably land a celebrity wedding. (i knew i shouldn't have rejected ivanka trump's wedding planner request for her wedding this past weekend.)

Seasame Street's 40th Birthday

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have you noticed that google is having a different seseame street character on their main page every day? it's to celebrate SS's 40th birthday. happy birthday!! growing up, i LOVED seasame street. if i knew what time it was on and i didn't work during the day, i would probably still watch it. the skits were catchy and i wished i were real friends with the characters. who wasn't there when mr. snuffleupagus was revealed to the adults as being real?! who didn't cry when mr. hopper actually passed away?! i don't think i had only favorite character, but if i had to pick i would say that i loved big bird and snuffy. i can't wait until i have kids so they can experience the show like i did. of course that will give me an excuse to watch it all over again

~ this post was brought to you by the letters E, A, C ~