Wii Would Like To Play

Happy Halloween from your friends Luigi and Toadstool:

You'll have to cut us some slack, we had absolutely no time to think of something creative for costumes this year so we went with convenient and fun.  My costume is actually a kid's costume that came with the hat and vest, which allowed me to buy regular sized clothing for the rest of the outfit. Andrew's mustache listed less than a minute before he abandoned it, since it was impossible to drink anything (or see his smile for that matter) with it on!

I told Andrew we'll have to make up for these storebought outfits with something super creative next year.  Some of the interesting homemade costumes we saw at my sister Amy's annual Halloween party were a cactus (it included marshmallows and toothpicks), a Chilean miner and a homemade Viking costume (complete with a beard expertly made from a spool of yarn), as well as my cousin Andrea's authentic appearance as - you guessed it:

Snooki!!

Foley's Backstreet Grille

October was a big month for birthdays - while we ended up celebrating Andrew's birthday on our cruise in Turkey, we missed our friend Phu's big 3-0 celebration while we were gone.  However, we did make it in time to celebrate Andrew's mom's birthday.  Through her selection, we were able to try a new restaurant - Foley's Backstreet Grille in Stoughton!

As I'm easing back into food blogging, you'll have to forgive me for my forgetfulness. For once, I was concentrating on eating food more than I was on taking pictures of it! I think it was all the meals on the cruise that made me lazy, since I got out of the practice of taking pictures of meals (you didn't think I would subject you to pictures of cruise food, did you?)  Anyway, I did take a few pictures, but this recap is going to be more on the overall impressions we got from the place.

Starters - I forgot to take a picture, but they serve these awesome homemade potato chips as a free starter at the table. Very salty but tasty.

For apps, we went with the calamari - nicely crisp without being too greasy, but missing some sort of dipping sauce:

And a gigando, I mean REALLY big, appetizer combo featuring boneless chicken wings, potato skins, onion things (that's what they call them) and ribs:

This was a great way to try four different menu items but I felt a little gross after eating it. As in way too much food, and the four of us couldn't even finish it.

For our entrees, we all went with choices of the specials menu.  Andrew and Tom went with the Seafood Angela (if I recall the name correctly) which was a seafood medley served over angel hair pasta.  They were both so stuffed at this point that they focused on eating the seafood, and pretty much left the pasta untouched on their plates:

Charlotte and I both enjoy a good slab of meat now and then, so we opted for the prime rib. I ended up having a small portion of this, and had enough left over for two more meals. That's right, two more!

Overall Impressions:

• Foley's is really on a back street - kind of tucked away on a side street and you would have to be looking for it to run across it. I think if you lived in Stoughton, you'd be going by it all the time but I have a feeling people aren't going out of their way to find this place
• The place was packed with families and old people. As in enough senior citizens that Andrew told me he thought that there was an assisted living facility nearby. To me, that suggested that Foley's was known as a family friendly place with reasonably priced meals.
• They had a cute theme going on with movie posters on the walls, which was echoed in the menu. Each section of the menu was named after a movie, so for example, Garden State listed their salads, Ocean's Eleven had seafood, etc.
• Homemade potato chips definitely a highlight
• Nice variety of menu options, all reasonably priced, but I didn't find any of the food to be stellar. It was definitely more homey, comfort food style
• They don't have a lot of choices in the way of beverages. Basically some wines, a few beers and a trio of malternative drinks (I think Mike's Hard Lemonade). Also, the birthday girl Charlotte who is a proud GRIT, didn't get to order her beloved Coke since it is a Pepsi establishment (full disclosure, I prefer Pepsi products, so this wasn't a bad thing in my eyes)
• They did take reservations (which probably saved us a 10 minute wait on a Friday evening) and I appreciated the fact that table had an actual "RESERVED" sign and was waiting for us when we arrived

Overall, I think it's not a bad place to stop by when you're in the area, especially if you're accompanied by kids and/or the grandparents, but I don't think Andrew and I will be going back on our own.

Sidenote: I should've taken a picture of Charlotte's birthday gift from us but it was a neat cartouche pendant that we picked up in Egypt with her name spelled out in heiroglyphics. It's going to be hard to top that for Christmas!

After Wedding Chop

One of the first things on my to-do list when we came back from the honeymoon? Getting a haircut.

I couldn't find a good solo picture of myself with my hair down, a clear sign that it was getting too long and unruly and that my only way to cope was to wear it up in a bun. The picture above is from our honeymoon, showing how long my hair had grown in the past year as I grew it out for the wedding.

So maybe I should phrase it this way - one of my first acts as a married woman was to chop my hair off to a more manageable length.  This picture isn't the best but I swear both my hair and I were bouncing down the street after I walked out of the salon. It feels liberating.

Just Call Me Mrs.

I know it's been ages and ages since I've posted.

It's been a crazy month and half and it included a little thing called our wedding. And a blissfully relaxing two week honeymoon in the Mediterranean.

It's going to take some time to get up and running again, and I have to warn my readers that it will be heavily focused on wedding recap for the next months. But hopefully more baking will creep in as we enter the holidays.

I leave you with one of the wonderful professional pictures from our wedding - husband and wife, and delightfully so!

Guess Who's On The Road Now?

Amy in her stylin' new car!

*Apologies on the quality of the photo, I took a quick pic with Andrew's iPhone and clearly do not know how to get a good picture out of it! Or show most of the car in it. :)

Latest Etsy Find

During this whole wedding planning process, I've spent many an hour looking over all sorts of random stuff on Etsy. For those of you who have never heard of Etsy, it's a website (similar to Ebay but without the bidding) where people sell their handcrafted items and skills. You can find anything from graphic design service to jewelry to food to art, basically anything you can imagine.

My latest purchase was thank you cards for my bridal shower. I ended up going with simple white cards with a letterpressed "thank you" on top (I'm currently addicted to letterpressing):

This may seem a little boring for someone that loves color (lots of it and in bright shades!) but I literally searched two weeks for the right card before I settled on these.  The selling point? The envelopes!

The envelopes are recycled and made from pages of actual wedding magazines, which I thought was visually neat while being environmentally friendly. It was fun to see the assortment of ads (which appeared to come from an issue of Martha Stewart Weddings) that came in my order, and the envelopes themselves had been cut by a machine and formed into actual envelopes down to the glue on the flap.  A sign that this order was meant to be, one of the envelopes detailed a wedding with Korean bride (complete with pictures of hanboks, traditional Korean dresses) so that was the obviously the one I used for my sister's thank you note. 

I have a strong feeling this addiction to Etsy will continue after I'm married, although I hopefully won't be spending as much money on things (and not as frequently!)

Keeping My Fingers Crossed...

...that the fall foliage is going to change colors drastically within a month!

Andrew forwarded me an article from Boston.com that's predicting that the leaves will change a week sooner than they usually do due to the extremely hot summer.

What I'm hoping is that this area (picture taken Friday at our venue) will look less like summer and more like fall by the time our wedding takes place:

A glimmer of hope - while the trees look stubbornly green, there were signs of colored leaves on the ground:

Foliage and weather stalking have officially been added to my list of things to do for the month.

"Tri"-ing Your Hardest

Andrew's sister Amanda just completed her THIRD triathlon of the year this weekend at the Nation's Triathlon in Washington, D.C. (Picture swiped from Amanda's Facebook page):

While Andrew and I were unable to make it down to cheer her on, it did remind me that I had a long overdue post to get up regarding her second triathlon at the end of July. which we did have the pleasure of attending. I think it was one of the hottest weekends of the summer, and Andrew's parents, Andrew and I all traveled down to the Princeton, NJ area to watch Amanda compete in the New Jersey State Triathlon.

This is Amanda and Andrew posing before the start of the triathlon. Yes, Amanda looked that calm and collected while knowing that she was going to start an Olympic triathlon, which means swimming 1500 meters, biking 25.5 miles, and running 6.2 miles - YIKES!

This is the chaos that marks a triathlon, but I have to say that everything was well organized:

Amanda's group in the water, waiting for their start. Bonus points to anyone that can pick Amanda out in the picture (I have a rough sense for what area she's in, but all those gray caps look alike to me!):

I love this shot - I call this the "Brotherly Love" photo. Andrew proudly held that sign up high and was yelling his heart out, cheering Amanda on although I doubt she was able to see us or hear us while racing in the water:

And they're off! These ladies don't mess around in the water. In fact, Amanda's training groups all practiced swimming together in one lane so they would get used to the crowding/elbows everywhere/getting kicked sensation from a triathlon:

Out of the water and heading for the bikes, Amanda doesn't even look winded as she spots us on the sidelines:

In transition with her bike, she ready to start the almost 26 mile long cycling portion of the triathlon. This was the one part of the triathlon where we couldn't actually see her competing:

Final triathlon phase is the running portion. Let me tell you, it would be hard for me to run six miles on a normal day and yet Amanda is still smiling while running in extreme heat (we're talking mid-90's at least) and after swimming and biking. Triathletes are truly incredible!

It was incredibly exciting to watch Amanda cross the finish line and we were all cheering her on as she received her medal for completing the triathlon:

After a quick walk through the water tent (I don't know what these are really called but what a neat concept):

We posed for own shot with Amanda. It is one thing to see all the things that triathletes do in competition, and marvel over the distances but quite another to see a triathlon in action. Needless to say, we were incredibly proud of Amanda:

So while we didn't get to see her this weekend, and I heard that the triathletes competed in the rain, I have no doubts that Amanda did well. In fact, I've heard rumblings about Amanda beating her best personal time so major kudos to her!

One Step Closer

Andrew and I both took Friday afternoon off from work so we could go here:

And apply for our marriage license! The process was surprisingly simple and humorous at times, since we were required to raise our right hands and recite an oath together.

To commemorate the occasion, we were able to get a volunteer that was staffing the information desk to take a picture in the main lobby:

Hard to believe that in under a month, we'll be husband and wife!

Saying Goodbye to Summer

Free tickets to the Red Sox game on Labor Day? Yes, please!

It's the perfect way to end Labor Day weekend, say goobye to summer, hello to fall-like temperatures and most importantly, relax!  And hang out with two members of our wedding party, groomsman Matt (on the far left):

And my sister and maid of honor Amy:

Note to self: Must get more sleep since I don't know when those bags under my eyes became a permanent fixture!

Neponset River Walk

The best way for Andrew and I to burn off the extra calories from ingesting leftover bridal shower cake was to take a nice, long walk.

We selected the Neponset River Walk to explore in our new neighborhood.

The best thing about it is that many stretches are decorated with detailed and informative murals featuring the flora and fauna that can be found along the trail:

For some stetches of the walk, you can see the historic Mattapan trolley rolling by:

A shot of the historic Baker chocolate factory we walked by. Alas, no lovely smells of chocolate wafted our way since it's actually in the process of being converted into - you guessed it - luxury condos:

Finally, we hit a stretch of the trail that brought us out to open marsh and water! It was beautiful and you could easily forget how close you were to the city on the other side of the walkway:

Finally, a little sign on the trail I found amusing - a healthy trail indeed to walk on with the one you love!

The Neponset River Walk allowed us to walk at a brisk, uninterrupted pace for an hour and half while enjoying varied scenery and it seems to stretch on forever. I'm looking forward to exploring it further one day with a bike.

More Bridal Shower Highlights

I have a gazillion pictures from the shower, and most of them show me looking awkward and sweaty (gift-opening was harder work than I realized!) But here are a few favorites elements I wanted to share from the shower:

First, the opportunity to wear one of the flower hairpieces I ordered to wear during the reception - readers may recognize it from a May post. I'm only wearing one of them, but I loved how they turned out with the gray pearls in the middle. What i'm not digging completely is my hairstyle, it ended up being a little too big and messy for me so I think I'm going to aim for a more structured bun for the wedding:

The two things I asked for my bridal shower (leaving everything else in the hands of my sister and my lovely bridal party) were recipe submissions from the guests and a cookie buffet as the favor (using some of the glassware I've purchased for use at the wedding).  While I don't have a good picture of the beautiful recipe box Amy ordered from Etsy, I do have pictures of the cookie buffet. My bridesmaids pitched in and baked for it, and despite their protests, I did bake Magic Bars and Cranberry, Pistachio and White Chocolate cookies. My wonderful sister ordered the gingham favor bags and decorated them with custom labels that echoed the some of the design of our wedding invitations. Based on the crumbs that were left, these favors were a hit!

A shot of me and the bridesmaids hamming it up for the camera - I have to thank them again for all the time and effort they put into planning the shower:

A shot of all the BC girls in attendance (minus poor Amanda, since she was running around helping with the clean-up) - in fact, the first three on the left (Liz, Jen and Kelly) were my roommates for three out of four years in school:

Special thanks to Camie (a friend since high school in Japan) and my future SIL Amanda, who both traveled up from NY early to take part in the festivities:

And even bigger thanks to my sister and maid of honor for being the mastermind of the event, I love you enough to post a picture where you look fabulous and I look sweaty (although I'm still adoring my dress):

PS, as a sidenote, in case you were wondering where the bridal shower took place - a function room at Plimoth Plantation, appropriate considering Andrew's roots!

Feeling More Like A Bride...

Just a little snippet of an extremely busy and fun-packed weekend - my bridal shower!

It was a little mortifying to walk into a room and have everyone stare at you and burst into applause! But the best part was that Andrew got his own round of applause after dropping off my purse and trying to slink away unnoticed.

August Workplace Potluck - Thai Meatballs

I kind of shot myself in the foot with this month's potluck. I'm in charge of scheduling them at work, and Tuesday, August 24 seemed like a good day way back in July.  That was before a one-day business trip got scheduled on the Monday before. As in, I was up at 4:30 am, spent 8 hours driving (round trip) and got back home at 11:30 pm. Ugh

I set my alarm a half hour early on Tuesday and ended up sleeping through my snooze alarm. Of course. Lucky for me, I had picked the easiest recipe in the world to make and still managed to have something made for my office potluck AND make it into work at my usual time.

I've rechristened these Thai meatballs, although the original recipe is called Slow Cooker Meatballs in Peanut Chile Sauce from A Year of Slowcooking. I hade made this recipe once before and it was very well received, so I didn't feel too guilty making it twice in the same year since it fit with our Asian theme for this month's potluck.

All I did was dump a lot of peanut butter (around 4 tablespoons), a can of coconut milk with cream, some fish sauce, some white sugar and sriracha sauce in a crockpot:

I topped it with a full bag of frozen turkey meatballs and lugged my slow cooker to work. After cooking for 2.5 hours on high, they smelt wonderful and were cooked to perfection:

Because I dumped extra amounts of the ingredients in (and apparently, didn't grab a big enough bag of meatballs), there was a lot of extra sauce. Which wasn't a bad thing, since it tasted almost like a curry and worked well spooned over the white rice I made (I also lugged my trusty rice cooker to work).  Five minutes of prep for one fantastic dish, I couldn't ask for more.

Here's a shot of our loaded potluck table - we had sushi (ordered from a takeout place), an Asian slaw (with a lovely vinegary tang), an Asian noodle salad (sweeter with lots of almonds for crunch) and a coworker's version of spicy beef with peppers. Delicious!

Since I have one of our team's August birthdays, a coworker asked me what I wanted for dessert, which is a chance since I'm the one usually making the desserts.  I told her simply "nothing chocolate" and "something fruit-based" and she produced a homemade blueberry pie that was to die-for.  As I say every time we have one of these things, I was just so incredibly proud of my coworkers for producing such a great spread.

Visited!

Following up on one of my previous posts, I decided to stop by Hingham to check out a newly opened store as a reward after a weekend full of driving and errands  - Pinkberry!

They were fully staffed (almost too many people since space was obviously tight behind the counter):

I got two orders of froyo to go (as a surprise to bring home to Andrew) and was surprised when the girl who was serving me asked if I wanted an "ice bag". Of all the frozen yogurts places, I've never had anyone offer us anything other than a paper bag.  This is what I got:

I have to admit, I had visions of some space-agey looking bag, perhaps in silver. What I got was ice in a bag. Literally. 

I guess I shouldn't complain, the froyo seemed to stay pretty cold and more importantly, tasted great. That could also be due to the fact that the first Pinkberry store is dangerously close to our house (approximately 13 miles according to GPS or 15 minutes without traffic).

Birthday Dinner at Burtons

Happy Birthday to a dear friend - it feels like only yesterday that we were celebrating our 20th birthdays in school and now, let's just say we're celebrating all the milestones together.

Birthday girl Jen mugs with her brother Bryan at her birthday dinner at Burtons (talk about alliteration):

I also have to give out to the birthday girl's shoes - the flash obscures all the fun details (it looked like news print with a pin-up girl - Jen, I'm counting on you to fill in the details):

This just shows that nothing changes in a decade, since Jen was the fashionista in our group of friends way back when.

Happy Birthday to a "classy broad"!

*Since this is a birthday post, I chose to focus on the friend rather than the food. But the food (and desserts) were pretty good!