Benchmark

Andrew and I cleared a huge hurdle to becoming homeowners last Friday. I'm still afraid of jinxing things by writing too much too soon, but suffice it to say, we've turned our thoughts to furniture.

We've been researching all sorts of benches that would work well in a front entry way or a mudroom. Most of the stuff we looked at online was your typical particle board bench with faux leather. Some even came with a few baskets on the bottom as storage space.

Then upon a stroll thorugh Home Goods this weekend, we came across this bench. Swoon.

I love this mosiac pattern on top - the colors, the shapes, the flowers, all gorgeous and constrasting well against the stone (cement?) portion. I actually noticed the pattern on a patio table at first, which was way too expensive and impractical for our needs. And then Andrew found the bench, which was much sturdier than anything we had researched and so pretty to boot.

I love the fact that the first thing that guests would see when stepping in a house would be this cheerful and colorful pattern. Also, I can totally picture my parents sitting on the bench to put on their shoes. Beautiful and practical.

This is where we would put it - out with the old and in with us.

I think furniture shopping has officially replaced our house hunting obsession.

Restaurant 45

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Andrew, his parents and I have been on an eating tour of Ashland and the surrounding towns in search of a rehearsal dinner site.

First was Stone's Public House, followed by Fusion Cuisine and today, we ate at a strong contender, Restaurant 45 in Medway.

Now on to the fun part, the food! And it was very good.  Andrew and I thought it was a good sign that Restaurant 45 had two different types of calamari appetizers. Going out on a limb, we ignored the typical calamari offering with dipping sauces and went with the Calamari 45 signature dish (deep fried crispy calamari with sliced hot cherry peppers, black olives and tomatoes tossed in olive oil and garlic served with garlic crostini). And it was amazing. You didn't even need a dipping sauce for the calimari with the strong flavors of the olives and tomatoes:

Another appetizer that caught our eye was Gabe's Garlic Bread with Gorgonzola Fondue (toasted italian bread served with a delicious gorgonzola cheese cream sauce) - those two dishes may have had too much garlic bread for some, but not for us!

Since I knew I was going with a salad for my main meal, I decided to get a cup of the Lobster and Clam Chowder. Boy, was that a good decision! It was thick and creamy and tasted great. Another big plus was the huge chunks of lobster in it that you could actually tell came from a lobster - delicious!

My Mesclun salad was chock full of nice things -mixed field greens tossed with sun dried cranberries, roasted walnuts, pears, red seedless grapes, gorgonzola cheese, pita bread croutons and balsamic vinaigrette. I loved everything about it except for the balsamic vinaigrette. My guess was that it was a white wine vinaigrette and it tasted really salty to me but Andrew thought it tasted fine. I adored the pita bread croutons, and was suprised how well they worked considering how thin they are.

I had joked at the table that we all had to order different things so we could try possible menu items for a rehearsal dinner, and it worked out naturally that we all did.  Andrew went with the Chicken and Broccoli (sauteed chicken filets, broccoli, parmesan cheese, crushed red pepper, olive oil and garlic tossed with penne) which looked awesome. I fully intended on grabbing a bite but was honestly too full by the time our entrees arrived.

Charlotte chose the Chicken Parmesan and seemed pleased with her choice.

The only thing left of Tom's Seafood Saute was the angel hair pasta, he ate every scrap of the sauteed shrimp, sea scallops and salmon (with sun dried tomatoes, spinach, roasted red peppers, onions, roasted pinenuts and fresh basil in a white wine and garlic butter sauce):

A shot of Andrew and I, full and contented after our meal:

Overall, we were extremely pleased at the quality of the meal and the function rooms we toured. I wish Restaurant 45 was a little closer to Newton becaue I'd be eating there all the time!

Nothing Says I Love You...

...like homemade cinnamon rolls...

Hot out of the oven...

Slathered with a generous amount of cream cheese frosting dripping off the sides...

Andrew and I agreed early on in our relationship that we wouldn't exchange gifts for Valentine's Day or anniversaries. We do enough gift giving on birthdays and Christmas, plus, we need to save up all the money we can to buy a house and furnish it. So for Valentine's Day, I decided to put in the extra effort (as in two hours worth of prepping and baking time) to make Andrew cinnamon rolls for breakfast. It was well worth the effort, and much appreciated. Plus, we've feasted all weekend on them (they're still mighty tasty after being warmed up in the microwave). Just a natural (and as Amy would put it, obvi) way to show my love.

Just a reminder, please vote for me and Andrew in the Crate & Barrel Ultimate Wedding contest.

Happy [Work] Valentine's Day

In elementary schools everywhere, children will be exchanging cartoon valentines and eagerly opening their colorfully decorated  valentine mailboxes. I'm not going to lie, I miss those days!

It's been a busy baking week for me, I did another batch of the chocolate chip cookie dough brownies for a bake sale to benefit the American Cancer Society last night (I also have to add that they went quickly and people were asking if I'd make them again) and I knew I wanted to make something for my coworkers on Friday in honor of Valentine's Day.

So I kept it simple. Red velvet cupcakes, pink tinted cream cheese frosting and a red heart top it off.

I don't think anyone will be complaining about not getting a valentine. Especially since the cupcakes would be hard to squish into the slot cut into the top of a shoe box.

Just a reminder, please vote for me and Andrew in the Crate & Barrel Ultimate Wedding contest. And tell your friends! :)

Big Storm? Wamp Wamp

After the last big storm hit the mid-Atlantic, I was smugly laughing at all the comments from people living in that region complaining about the amount of snow. One former college roommate, who will remain unnamed, sent pictures of her snow covered yard from Maryland. I thought to myself, really? How many times have I seen the same thing out of my window in a normal winter? And for goodness sake, she went to college in Boston for four years, she should be used to snow.

Then came the weather forecast for today's storm with all the weather forecasters proclaiming it would start snowing by around 10 am and wreak havoc on the evening commute.  The news was filled impressive, colored charts that made it seem like were going to be buried by a ton of snow.

And then the morning came. And the afternoon. No snow. A few anemic flakes that were so wispy, that if you blinked, you could barely see them. Finally, around four, the flakes were coming down fast but not sticking a lot.

So basically, a lot of fuss over nothing. And now I'm ashamed of the way Massachusetts was over-reacting about the storm (I think due in part to what the mid-Atlantic had just gone through).  But in my own defense, I treated it as a normal day. I drove into work. I even went in early to ensure a good parking spot in the garage. I didn't leave early. Well, technically I never leave at 4 pm, so it was early in the day, but it was nine hour work day so it's not like I missed doing any work.

Anyway, I guess that's New England for you. We complain about the bad weather when we have it, we complain when we don't get it and we just enjoy talking about the weather period. At least there were a lot of happy kids enjoying their "snow" days today!

Wedding Countdown: Eight Months To Go!

It's amazing how much time has flown by. A part of me wistfully thinks about the fact that if Andrew and I had gotten a year after we got engaged, we'd be married as soon as this May. And then the rational part of me kicks in and says no way, it's GREAT to be engaged and that I should savor every moment of this special phase of my life. I've even had strangers on the street tell me this after seeing my ring, and it builds an odd sort of camraderie amongst strangers.

Anyway, I digress. It's crazy to think we're pass the half way mark! As I mentioned in my last countdown post, we were on the hunt for a DJ, and I'm happy to announce that we're going with C-Zone Music. We really liked their philosophy of no "cheese" or no props on the dance floor, and even more importantly, clicked with the personality of the DJ we met with and were assured of his professionalism (and his ability to rock a party!) By a coincidence, we met the owner Greg by chance at our wedding venue's food tasting, and were even more assured in our choice!

So what's next? One of the things I've been looking forward to the most as a baker - the wedding cake!

I've got a few places in mind to check out, especially with a lot of great bakeries located in the Newton and Brookline area. Last but not least, I want to schedule an appointment with the bakery that made my engagement cake, Truly Jorgs Patisserie.

Onto to the fun part, inspiration cakes!  All I know at this point is that I want a buttercream frosted cake since the taste of the cake is just as important as the look of the cake. And as beautiful as fondant is, let's face it, it's tasteless and a waste of calories. I know, strong feelings against fondant, but I really believe that nothing can beat the flavor or texture of a good buttercream frosting.

Anyway, these are some of the cakes that I think are gorgeous - I don't think I'd be able to replicate the look of this, especially without fondant, but it's still fun to figure out what I want the cake to look like. And to be truthful, I think I want a lot of color and a floral element.

Onto the cakes (all from Martha Stewart Weddings).

I love the diffent shades of pink, the topper and the fun design - very cute but probably wouldn't work with my wedding's theme and colors:

This is probably more like what my cake could realistically end up looking like (with slightly different colors) - I love the addition of fiddlehead ferns:

I just love the simple design of this cake - sticking with just one dominat color and a beautiful flower really makes a strong statement. Of course, I'd use a different color and a different flower.

Two of my all-time favorites actually come from the same issue of Martha Stewart Weddings where they profiled cake designs inspired by fabrics - I heart this cake, I love the pale grey color and the texture of the floral pattern - simply beautiful.

I also love this cake and the combination of colors, as well as a mix of very busy layers of decoration and a more simple layer. Again, this is clearly a fondant cake but I wonder if the effect could be replicated with a smooth buttercream layer and piped on flowers? I'd also have to tweak it suit a fall wedding more.

Trust me, once we start going on cake tasting appointments, I will be sharing every bite with you!

Also, in case you haven't been approached by me yet, please vote for me and Andrew in the Crate & Barrel Ultimate Wedding contest. And tell your friends! :)

Spike's Junkyard Dogs

Sometimes when you're hungry and you're just craving a satisfying meal (especially when one of your favorite places is closed due to renovations), you head to Spike's to chomp down on a loaded hotdog and curly fries. At least, that's what Andrew and I like to do!

We first got hooked on Spike's at their Brighton location, which was dangerously close to my sister's old apartment (as in, directly across the street). Lately, it's been their Boston location, right by the intersection of Mass Ave. and Boylston St. that we've been visiting, since it's easier to find parking in Boston then it is in Brighton.

It's the type of place that has all sorts of funky "Americana" decorations on the wall and comfy booths to sit in, casual and right up our alley.

It's also the type of place that has posts a polaroid of people who have  managed to eat six or more hot dogs, a pretty impressive feat considering how thick their rolls are!

Andrew went with the Chili and Cheddar dog (three guesses on what it came topped with) and a side of curly fries - $6.65 gets you a specialty dog, fries and a soda, not too shabby:

I went with the Junkyard dog, loaded with mustard (I adore mustard and hate ketchup), tomatoes, scallions and banana peppers - I also added a ton of relish, because a hotdog just isn't right without some relish to balance out the mustard:

I know it may seem weird to be raving about hot dogs but Spike's is just that good. And I've always been the type of gal to prefer a hotdog over a hamburger. My mouth is watering simply from looking at the pictures!

Raspberry Chocolate Chunk Muffins

An unexpected coworker birthday at work (she withheld the information from us and accidently let it slip around 5 pm on her actual birthday) had me scrambling to find something quick to make the next day.  The recipe for the muffins had just popped up on the We Are Not Martha blog and I liked the fact that the muffins seemed simple but were also far from ordinary with the raspberry/chocolate combo.

I doubled the recipe so there was enough for Andrew to bring into work as well, so I ended up with around 40 muffins. This surprised me, since the recipes was supposed to make around 12 muffins, so doubling should have left me with around 24 muffins.

Ingredients

•2 C flour
•1 1/2 t baking powder
•1 C sugar (granulated)
•1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter (14 tablespoons)
•3/4 C plain yogurt (I used cherry flavored yogurt I had on hand)
•1/2 C water
•2 eggs
•3.5 oz. dark chocolate, roughly chopped (I simply used a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chunks)
•5 oz. raspberries (fresh or frozen) (I used a 12 oz bag of frozen raspberries)
•2 T granulated sugar
•Powdered sugar for dusting
•Mini chocolate chips for topping

Directions

1. Combine flour, baking powder, and sugar in a large bowl and make a well in the center.
2. Melt butter and remove from heat. Stir in yogurt and water. Then add the eggs, stirring well afterwards.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the well in dry ingredients and stir to combine. 
4. Fold the chocolate chunks and raspberries into the batter. 

5. Stir together and scoop into prepared muffin tin.  In my case, I had lovely new pink cupcake liners  that I had picked up at Shaws (yay for cute liners!)

These were ready to go into the oven after I sprinkled each with mini chocolate chips and some granulated sugar:

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 - 40 minutes (close to 30 in my case):

Tada! I have to admit, they came out looking pretty good.

The texture of the muffins were very nice and I liked the contrast of the gooey chocolate juxtaposed with the slight sour/sweetness of the raspberries. But to be honest, I was kind of horrified by how much butter went into these. I don't think the muffin part had any flavor at all and I don't know if that was done deliberately in order to let the chocolate and raspberries shine, but it didn't work for me. My coworkers seemed to like them and kept telling me that they seemed more like cupcakes than muffins (so maybe chocolate frosting would've helped?) But honestly, I don't think this is a recipe I'm going to make again.

Brrr!

As I type this, my fingers are quickly getting cold and stiff because we've lost heat in all levels of the house. 

We spent the night comfortably sleeping under layers of blankets (including a Korean "minx" blanket, for those who know what these are like, they are not actually fur but replicate the weight and warmth of fur through some magical polyester blend).  I have to admit that this morning, I'm definitely feeling a little chilly.  I took a nice, long, HOT shower, and dressed in multiple layers while I wait for our heating system to get fixed. We're lucky enough that my former neighbor, who still lives in the same town, runs his own plumbing and heating business and he promised to be over as soon as possible in the morning. Of course, it doesn't help that this morning of all mornings, I was suppposed to be in Boston for a company PR event.

Oh well, what can you do? After fiddling aroud with the heating unit last night and some Internet research, Andrew thinks the thermocouple (the part that detects the pilot light and cuts off the flow of gas) is simply worn out, and the neighbor confirmed over the phone that it was a likely possibility. So hopefully, this will be a relatively easy and quick fix. 

Send your warmest thoughts our way, we need them! I'm actually looking forward to going into the office to warm up!

UPDATE: The heat is fixed and the temp is slowly creeping up! Time for me to head into work.

Introducing A.J. the Kitteh

Good news! The vet has confirmed that Andrew's parents' kitteh is indeed a boy.

And if you couldn't tell from the title of the post, he now has a name - A.J.!

His name was inspired by a famous race driver (according to Tom) but as Charlotte put it " 'A' for Adam, Amanda, Andrew, 'J' for Joyce, 'A.J.' for Amy Junior)!

We stopped by Plymouth for a visit so I could finally meet A.J. and boy, did he live up to expectations!

He is TINY!













But don't try telling him that - he was also very spirited and spastic, chasing anything and everything, including bubblewrap:

And balloons with green string:

He enjoyed getting tangled up in the kitchen chair in an attempt to get at my camera case's strap:

Got it!

His little tongue is out while he concentrates on stalking the strap:

Finally, we wore him out enough that he settled down for nap:

That's when I scooped him up, settled him in my lap and satisfied my need to pet him (he looks unhappy but I swear he was purring the whole time):

A.J. conked out on my lap:

While he slept, Andrew and I feasted on delicious leftovers from Andrew's parents' Gourmet club dinner the night before - homemade cheese crackers, pizza dip, spiced nuts, meatballs and mashed potatoes:

A.J. even got up for a bite of his own - look how small and cute his bowls are!

He was in a good enough mood to let Andrew hold him:

I think it's pretty obvious that Andrew and I were smitten (with the kitten, haha) at this point. I was trying to convince Tom and Charlotte that it would be best to take A.J. with us since I didn't want to disburb him from his napping place upon my lap. Andrew tried to assure me that A.J. would fit well in my shoulder bag. We had to tear ourselves away to make it to an open house but I'm still thinking about how soft his fur was and how pitiful his little mews (not even full meows) were.

Save the Dates are D-O-N-E, DONE!

This simple stack of envelopes represents around 8 hours of work and even more hours of stress!

In addition to the work that went into tracking down addresses (special shout out to Charlotte for tracking down all of Andrew's relatives, and Tom for being persistent in tracking down the last few), I literally spent a couple of weeks debating whether I could polish off my calligraphy skills to hand write all the addresses.

In the end, I went with a printed calligraphy font that sort of resembles my handwriting (other than being much neater), after being reassured by my bridesmaids and by fellow Knotties that it was OK to do so according to wedding etiquette:

I think the font ended up looking nice, especially since I went through the painstaking process of printing the addresses on the envelopes, which took HOURS!

While in the beginning, I was uber concerned about following etiquette for every single thing but somewhere in the middle, I decided to follow my instincts and be practical. In addition to printing out the addresses, I used a stamp that my dear friend Camie had gifted me with a few years back. Traditionally, return addresses are embossed on the back. After some debate, Andrew and I decided to stamp the front since our envelopes would look odd with too much white space on the front. Another rule I broke - for the most part, while I did follow the formal approach of addressing married couples as "Mr. and Mrs. Husband's Full Name", there were a few that we left addressed to a person's nickname, such as Ted instead of Theodore. In addition, I added "and Guest" to people who were invited with guests. Technically, you're only supposed to put that on the inner envelope of wedding invitations. But you know what, I felt like it was only fair to let people know whether they were invited with a plus one!

What I came to realize was that while I wanted to make a great impression with the Save the Dates, there was no way that everyone would be noticing the same details that I worrying about, and worse yet, judge me for not doing things a certain way. It sounds obvious, but sometimes you get too lost in the wedding planning process to think practically!

Wedding invites will be interesting as they will involve more pieces to put together and will require true calligraphy. I've got a few months before I have to worry about those.

Finally, a special thanks for my patient fiance Andrew. We formed an assembly line to package the save the dates and get them ready for mailing. We both mounted the magnets and while I checked the addresses against my master list, he carefully applied the stamp to each corner. He also took care of stamping the return address while I sealed each envelope with a damp paper towel. It took us an hour and a half but we were pretty proud of work when we were done.

They're hitting the mail today so that's one more thing crossed off my list. My blogging should resume a more regular posting schedule now that my evenings are free from printing. I'll post a picture of the Save the Date once people have gotten a chance to see them in person, as I want it to be a bit of a surprise.